#crosstalk was so fun to write

[hp-hcs]

not requested, but i've been working on this for a while, and i'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. i've never written in this style before, but it was actually really fun. hopefully its comprehensible, to some degree 🤷‍♂️

June — riddle brothers & gn! flint! reader

“Collected documents” style of writing.

Basically the boyos are just having a hell of a month

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[Meeting of the "Junior Death Eaters", June 12th, 1997, 18:23, Malfoy Manor, as transcribed in verbatim by CARROW, Alecto.]

PARTIES IN ATTENDANCE:

BERKSHIRE, Lorenzo

CARROW, Alecto

CRABBE, Vincent

FLINT, Y/N

GOYLE, Gregory Jr.

MALFOY, Draco

MALFOY, Narcissa

NOTT, Theodore Jr.

PARKINSON, Pansy

RIDDLE, Mattheo

RIDDLE, Thomas III

VOLDEMORT, Lord

ZABINI, Blaise

ABSENT:

BULSTRODE, Millicent [Deserter]

FLINT, Marcus [PKIA]

WARRINGTON, Cassius [On Assignment]

[Audio recording begins.]

[Silence, approx. 0:07]

VOLDEMORT: I apologize for the… unanticipated loss of your father, Crabbe.

CRABBE: Tha- thank you, uh, my Lord.

VOLDEMORT: Accidents do happen, of course. Losses are an ineluctable part of war. Now then, moving on.

[CRABBE slouches]

VOLDEMORT: You all must be… curious as to why I’ve called this… unscheduled meeting. I received a… rather rude letter from Mr. Harry Potter himself.

[Crosstalk, unintelligible for approx. 0:12]

MALFOY, N.: Silence, children. My- my Lord, please. Go ahead.

VOLDEMORT: Thank you, Narcissa. As I was saying… [paper crinkling] this letter is clearly encoded. Who believes themselves capable of decoding this? Do so, and I may… reward you with a chance to move up in my ranks.

[Crosstalk, clamor for approx. 0:21]

VOLDEMORT: Silence! Y/N, do you believe yourself capable?

[NOTT and RIDDLE, M. whisper, indistinct for approx. 0:02]

FLINT: Yes, my Lord.

VOLDEMORT: Very well. Next order of busin- [interrupted by the arrival of PETTIGREW, Peter]

PETTIGREW: M-my Lord- Severus wishes to s-speak with you.

[VOLDEMORT stands]

VOLDEMORT: Meeting adjourned. Narcissa, with me. Pettigrew, report.

[Unintelligible for approx. 0:06 as VOLDEMORT, MALFOY, N., and PETTIGREW leave]

[Silence for approx. 0:38]

CARROW: Are there any questions?

[All parties shake their heads]

CARROW: Alrighty then. You all know your assignments… Power to those who aid the Dark Lord and stand in his good stead.

ALL “Junior Death Eaters”: So mote it be.

[Transcript ends.]

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

𝐿𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝑅𝒾𝒹𝒹𝓁𝑒

𝑀𝒶𝓁𝒻𝑜𝓎 𝑀𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓇

𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓉𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓇𝑒, 𝐸𝓃𝑔𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹

𝟣𝟣 𝒥𝓊𝓃𝑒, 𝟣𝟫𝟫𝟩

– 𝒽𝑒𝓎, 𝒪𝓁𝒹 𝐹𝑅𝐼𝐸𝒩𝒟!

𝓂𝓇. 𝒟𝒜𝓇𝓀 𝓁𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒮𝒾𝓇, 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀, 𝒾’𝓋𝑒 𝓌𝑅𝐼𝓉𝓉𝐸𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝐿𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝒜𝓈𝓀 𝐼𝒻 𝒴𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝒸𝓀𝒾𝒩𝑔 𝓊𝓅 𝒜𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓁𝒻𝑜𝓎 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓇. 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒, 𝒟𝑜𝓃’𝒯 𝓎𝑜𝒰 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝑅𝒾𝒹𝒹𝓁𝑒 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒? 𝒾 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃, 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃. 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓁𝒻𝑜𝓎𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒢𝒾𝓉𝓈, 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝐿𝓁𝓎. 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒦𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒷𝓃𝑜𝓍𝒾𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝓇𝒾𝒸𝒽-𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓊𝓂𝓃𝒮 𝑜𝒩 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝑅𝑜𝒩𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝓇𝒾𝒹𝒾𝒸𝓊𝐿𝒪𝓊𝓈 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒮𝒾𝑜𝒩. 𝒾 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒, 𝒶𝓁𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒷𝒶𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝓂𝒶𝓃.

𝓍𝑜𝓍𝑜,

𝒽𝒫

𝒪𝒽, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎: 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒶𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒 ‘𝓋𝑜𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓉’ 𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓊𝓅𝒾𝒹. 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝓊𝒸𝓀 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒, 𝒾 𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

𝐿𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝑅𝒾𝒹𝒹𝓁𝑒

𝑀𝒶𝓁𝒻𝑜𝓎 𝑀𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓇

𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓉𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓇𝑒, 𝐸𝓃𝑔𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹

𝟣𝟣 𝒥𝓊𝓃𝑒, 𝟣𝟫𝟫𝟩

– 𝒽𝑒𝓎, 𝒪𝓁𝒹 𝐹𝑅𝐼𝐸𝒩𝒟!

𝓂𝓇. 𝒟𝒜𝓇𝓀 𝓁𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒮𝒾𝓇, 𝐿𝑜𝑜𝓀, 𝒾’𝓋𝑒 𝓌𝑅𝐼𝓉𝓉𝐸𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝒜𝓈𝓀 𝐼𝒻 𝒴𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝒸𝓀𝒾𝒩𝑔 𝓊𝓅 𝒜𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓁𝒻𝑜𝓎 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓇. 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒, 𝒟𝑜𝓃’𝒯 𝓎𝑜𝒰 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝑅𝒾𝒹𝒹𝓁𝑒 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒? 𝒾 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃, 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃. 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓁𝒻𝑜𝓎𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒢𝒾𝓉𝓈, 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝐿𝓁𝓎. 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒦𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒷𝓃𝑜𝓍𝒾𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝓇𝒾𝒸𝒽-𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓊𝓂𝓃𝒮 𝑜𝒩 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝑅𝑜𝒩𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝓇𝒾𝒹𝒾𝒸𝓊𝐿𝒪𝓊𝓈 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒮𝒾𝑜𝒩. 𝒾 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒, 𝒶𝓁𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒷𝒶𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝓂𝒶𝓃.

𝓍𝑜𝓍𝑜,

𝒽𝒫

𝒪𝒽, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎: 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒶𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒 ‘𝓋𝑜𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓉’ 𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓊𝓅𝒾𝒹. 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝓊𝒸𝓀 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒, 𝒾 𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈.

o, friend, da, s, l, ri, e, a, i, y, n, a, d, t, u, r, g, l, k, column, s, n, r, n, lo, s, n, p, o

columnar code maybe?

3 6 4 2 5 1

f r i e n d

y o u r s o

n s r i n d

a n g e r a

d p l a n s

t o k i l l

your sons r in danger a d plans to kill

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

My Lord,

Enclosed is the letter we discussed earlier. I would recommend you take action immediately.

Regards,

Y/N Flint

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

American Airlines BOARDING PASS

PASSENGER NAME:

FLINT / Y/N

FROM:

LONDON

TO: DATE: DEPARTS:

NEW YORK 13JUN 0415 AM

GATE BOARDING TIME SEAT

𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏 𝟑 B12 0345 AM 27E

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

American Airlines BOARDING PASS

PASSENGER NAME:

RIDDLE / THOMAS

FROM:

LONDON

TO: DATE: DEPARTS:

NEW YORK 13JUN 0415 AM

GATE BOARDING TIME SEAT

𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏 𝟑 B12 0345 AM 27D

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

American Airlines BOARDING PASS

PASSENGER NAME:

RIDDLE / MATTHEO

FROM:

LONDON

TO: DATE: DEPARTS:

NEW YORK 13JUN 0415 AM

GATE BOARDING TIME SEAT

𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏 𝟑 B12 0345 AM 27F

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Passport 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵

Surname/Nom (1)

FLINT

Given names/Prénoms (2)

Y/N

Nationality/Nationalité (3)

BRITISH CITIZEN

Date of birth/Date de naissance (4) Children/Enfants (5)

11 MAR /MARS 80 0

Sex/Sexe (6) Place of birth/Lieu de naissance (7)

X EXETER

Date of issue/Date de délivrance (8) Authority/Autorité (9)

06 APR /AVR 95 UNITED KINGDOM

Date of expiry/Date d’expiration (10)

05 APR /AVR 05

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Passport 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵

Surname/Nom (1)

RIDDLE III

Given names/Prénoms (2)

THOMAS

Nationality/Nationalité (3)

BRITISH CITIZEN

Date of birth/Date de naissance (4) Children/Enfants (5)

31 DEC /DEC 78 0

Sex/Sexe (6) Place of birth/Lieu de naissance (7)

M LITTLE HANGLETON

Date of issue/Date de délivrance (8) Authority/Autorité (9)

31 JUL /JUIL 91 UNITED KINGDOM

Date of expiry/Date d’expiration (10)

30 JUL /JUIL 01

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Passport 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵

Surname/Nom (1)

RIDDLE

Given names/Prénoms (2)

MATTHEO

Nationality/Nationalité (3)

BRITISH CITIZEN

Date of birth/Date de naissance (4) Children/Enfants (5)

29 DEC /DEC 79 0

Sex/Sexe (6) Place of birth/Lieu de naissance (7)

M LEEDS

Date of issue/Date de délivrance (8) Authority/Autorité (9)

01 AUG /AOUT 91 UNITED KINGDOM

Date of expiry/Date d’expiration (10)

31 JUL /JUIL 01

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

PERIODIC TENANCY AGREEMENT

THIS LEASE AGREEMENT made effective the 14th day of 𝒥𝓊𝓃𝑒, 1997

between

𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒾𝒶𝓂𝓈

(the “Landlord”)

and

𝒯𝒽𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓈 𝑅𝒾𝒹𝒹𝓁𝑒

(the “Tenant”)

WHEREAS the Landlord owns the property located at 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌 𝒜𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈, 𝟣𝟣𝟤𝟩 𝒲. 𝐿𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓃 𝒮𝓉., 𝒜𝓅𝓉. 𝟤𝟢𝟥𝐻 (“the Premises”), and the Tenant wishes to rent the Premises from the Landlord for a periodic term. The Landlord does hereby lease to the Tenant the Premises “as is” for a primary term of one month commencing on the 16th day of 𝒥𝓊𝓃𝑒.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

7-ELEVEᑎ

131 20TH AVE

NEW YORK NY 20851

STORE #: 518

2 MARLBORO RED ‘25 13.40T

1 CHERRY DR PEPPER 2.75T

2 HARIBO GOLDBEARS 3.98T

1 FOLDING POCKET KNIFE 7.99T

SUBTOTAL 28.12

TAX 1.68

TOTAL DUE 29.80

VISA 29.80

*** TRANSACTION APPROVED ***

THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING WITH US!

T#58 0P18 TRN4617 06/14/1997 22:56:51

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

𝐹𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈,

𝒲𝑒𝓁𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌! 𝑀𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝓊𝓈𝒷𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓃𝑒𝒾𝑔𝒽𝒷𝑜𝓇𝓈 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁 (𝟤𝟢𝟦𝐻) 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝐿𝒪𝒱𝐸 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒹𝒾𝓃𝓃𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓉 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓅𝑜𝒾𝓃𝓉. 𝐼 𝓇𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒴/𝒩 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑔𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝓊𝒷𝒷𝓎, 𝒟𝒶𝓋𝒾𝒹, 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒. 𝐻𝑜𝓅𝑒𝒻𝓊𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎’𝓇𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝒹!

– 𝒥𝑜𝒽𝓃 & 𝒟𝒶𝓋𝒾𝒹 𝒮𝒸𝑜𝓉𝓉

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Cousins –

I regret to inform you both that Grandfather Al has sadly passed as of yesterday. If at all possible, we’d much appreciate your presence back home in London for the funerary services. Sending you my condolences.

Regards,

D.M.

#harry potter #fuck jkr #hp #x reader #hp x gn reader #hp x male reader #x male reader #mattheo riddle #mattheo riddle x reader #mattheo riddle x male reader #mattheoxreader #tom riddle x reader #tom riddle #tom riddle x male reader #x gender neutral reader #gender neutral reader #x gn reader #gn reader

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Hi Rebecca! I'm a recent(ish) graduated student interested in pursuing a career (or any other form of involvement) in environmental education. I was curious how you built your writing portfolio, especially writing for other sites/organizations? What first steps would recommend someone take (particularly if they're already graduated) to get into environmental education and scicomm? Thanks so much, love all your writing!!

Hi there, @misopossum! So I am a pretty atypical case. I have a BA in English, but I mainly used it for technical writing/editing (and personal journaling) for a number of years.

Most of the scicomm folks I know are either A) scientists who also have good writing and interpretation chops, or B) are science journalists who went through a formal journalism program in college/grad school. You haven't mentioned what your area of study was, but your department may have some resources to draw on if you haven't already spoken with them. Check with related departments as well, as they may have ideas too. You're a recent grad, but that doesn't mean that you can't still make use of those connections if they exist.

If you want to go a more traditional scicomm route, good places to start are The Open Notebook and the National Association of Science Writers. ScienceBites may be a good spot for you to start pitching a short article here and there to build up your portfolio, too. And this article from CrossTalk is a pretty good summary on how to get started with science writing.

Other people get involved with environmental education programs like forest schools, summer camps, and the like; some conservation nonprofits also may run these, and you can even check with state and federal parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and other governmental entities who may be in need of volunteers (or occasionally seasonal staff) for environmental ed programs.

You didn't mention where you are, but here in the PNW US there are a lot of these, especially in the Portland and Seattle areas. Depending on what your education level is you may not find the pay to be what you expected, and a lot of these programs are primarily in summertime. But if you can at least get in as a side gig, that will get some experience started.

A lot of what I do is meant for a general audience and not just specific to one locality. I do a lot of blogging online, to include articles on my website, plus some shorter form commentary on various news articles I find online that I think are worth exploring, and I have my quarterly chapbooks that let me dive deeper into various topics. These get me a pretty broad audience, beyond just my local area.

But I really got my start as a nature writer several years ago by writing pieces for the nonprofit Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, from Facebook posts to 2-3 minute radio segments for their Willapa Nature Notes segment on our local public radio station. I've also helped with other scicomm efforts they've run, from our 4th grade environmental education program in local schools, to giving talks and tours at our annual Wings Over Willapa birding and nature festival. And later this track record helped me get in as a regular columnist with the Coast Weekend paper (and occasionally a longer piece for related publications.) These are all incredibly local to where I am in the Columbia-Pacific region, but they've been good experience and they've helped me get my footing in my local community, which has helped me to facilitate other regional efforts like my independent guided tours.

I think the best choice I made overall was teaching non-credit community education classes through various community colleges, as well as municipal parks and recreation departments and libraries. It's a great way to connect with people who aren't pursuing a degree, but just learning for the fun of it. You do need some credentials of some sort, but expertise counts if you can show that you know your stuff--for example, the people teaching art classes don't all have art degrees, but they may have X number of decades' experience in their art medium. I don't have a degree in the natural sciences because my math skills are terrible, but I am a certified Oregon Master Naturalist and I also have a lifetime of experience of exploring nature and learning how to identify the living beings around me. It doesn't pay a lot, but it's a lot of fun and I get to meet a lot of new students every semester.

Be aware that people like me who take a more unorthodox route usually end up doing like eight different things for a living, rather than having one (1) career path. If you are going to do more of a "professional potpourri" like I am, you're going to need to seek out multiple niches, and perhaps create a few yourself. You're likely going to be very busy, and there's not going to be a lot of payoff immediately (as opposed to a regular job, where you start at a particular rate immediately and hopefully gets raises as things go along.)

On the bright side, having multiple professional directions means that if one of them isn't really active, I can often put more time toward another to make up for it. For example, I'd like to expand to writing for more varied venues that aren't just based in the PNW; it's just a matter of making the time to prep some cold pitches to publications and websites. This time of year I'm really busy with the tours business, so writing tends to be emphasized more in the off season. And either way you slice it, I'm still very much in the "building" process.

Aaaaanyway. That is my very long, rambling answer to your question. Please feel free to let me know if I can clarify anything for you, or if you have further questions.

#misopossum #science #science communication #SciComm #science writing #writing #writer #nonfiction #writers on Tumblr

[a-wolf-at-the-door]

Hey, it just occurred to me that in a recent authors note you said you're writing an original novel. (Sorry if you completely forgot about that, My brain is a sieve) Any Basic summary on the plot so far, or subject if it's non-fiction? Or is it more of a wait and see situation? I would love to hear more about it!

Hi hello yes I am working on an original novel! 💜 I can’t talk about it too much bc if I tell the story I lose motivation to Tell The Story, but I can tease a little!

First off, writing update: I just hit that classic point about 40k words in where you realize you started in the wrong spot and made a few sideways turns and you have to start from scratch again so that’s fun.

Genrewise it’s a bit of a hodgepodge of speculative fiction, psychological thriller, murder mystery, and coming-of-age novel.

And a brief excerpt from the 40k discard pile that I vibed with and might try to preserve in some way:

The exit was miles away, leagues, lightyears. The exit was a memory more than a reality. People pressed in on all sides, eager to get a look at her, to touch her, to confirm her identity.

She couldn’t hear much of anything in the din of crosstalk, scraping chairs and stomping feet. The air was warm and redolent of maple syrup and cinnamon, book glue and aftershave, coffee and general human musk. She didn’t recognize the people peering at her, the hands extending towards her. Faces became carnival masks, fingertips grew talons. REDACTED was the best prize in a backwards sort of claw machine, one with only a single plush target sought by dozens and dozens of swooping pincers.

The buzz of the noise started to shift in tone. Where initially it was curious, disbelieving, possibly even a little joyous, it turned sharply like the whine of cicadas in summertime. The questions around her took on an increasingly severe tone, veering from open vowels and soft consonants to nasal diphthongs. She couldn’t pick apart and process each separate sentence in time, not as they wove in and out of one another, but the sounds started to coalesce on two words, soft as a sigh and sharp as a knife: REDACTED and why?

Note my MC’s name isn’t actually REDACTED nor is it particularly rare or unique or special, I just don’t feel quite ready enough to share her with people beyond that excerpt.

Anyway hope this sufficiently answers your questions! I’m feeling optimistic despite the setback, drafting is discovering!

#ask Lia #nice people are nice #my fiction

[corneroffandom]

Weekly Writing Update #55 (July 23rd, 2023)

Been kind of a hit and miss week of writing, but I'm definitely in the home stretch of some stuff! Hopefully I can finish it off this week. i'm so close, I can taste it, especially for the original story. This week was Barbenheimer week, so that was a distraction, but fun too, and I finished reading a book that's been eating my brain. if you like scifi romances, definitely check out Crosstalk by Connie Willis. She quoted Alice in Wonderland and Syfy's Alice adaption a lot and it was making me giddier the further I went into it, haha. Thankfully AO3 has a fic section for it so if I ever write fic for CB and Briddy, it'll have a place to go!

Back to Basics: 596 World Wrestling Digidestined: 426 Encontrar una Manera: 345 Encontrar una Manera bonus story: 114 Original story: 180 raffle story 2: 186 raffle story 3: 85 New Years drabbles: 136 Sixteen: 75 Renatus: 139 Passenger: 131 Evidence: 87 In total: 2500 Annual Word Count: 83455 New fic plot notes: 7 Team Work chapters booked: 0 Old fics uploaded to AO3: 0

Find me on Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/corneroffandom Any questions or comments, please let me know!

[alexandra-j-king]

In Which I Share Some Bad Opinions

"You must read X books to be an author" discourse has turned up on Twitter again. And I don't want to do Twitter Discourse (frankly I don't want to do Twitter), but also I am weak, so I am putting my opinions here.

Firstly, there's a big difference between "you can't possibly write if you don't read" and "its very useful and important to read, if you want to write".

The writing police are not real. You can write whatever. No one is going to stop you. Of course, that's a very facile answer, because when people say "you can't write without reading" what they really mean is "you probably can't write well enough to be published if you aren't also reading"... and that's a lot more complex.

I don't take this hard line. You can do it... but its a lot harder.

Reading is how you learn how writing works. I don't mean the basics of putting words in order, I mean using words in sequence to tell certain types of stories or give certain types of experiences. Even if you're taking in a lot of media in other ways, those aren't books. So you aren't taking in new ways of writing stories, even if you're being exposed to new stories. There is of course, a community aspect too. There is value to knowing what is going on in your genre.

I'm willing to push pretty hard on the idea that if you're struggling to write, reading is probably the best and easiest place to look for the solution.

But that's the problem. No one has infinite time. No one can read everything. I'm a freak of nature who reads hundreds of books a year (split between print and audio), and I can't keep up with everything I want to read, let alone everything I would benefit from reading.

This is a list of just the reading advice I have personally benefited from as a writer, to give you a sense of the scope of the problem:

Read new books in your genre: Its actually pretty important to know what's going on. Its partly a marketing thing, but also, a big number of smart authors is more than a single smart author, and crosstalk between genres is how writing evolves. Rememer, fanfic is more like a genre than anything else.

Read old books in your genre: Its keeps ideas in circulation and it explains where tropes that you might otherwise only see ground into paste came from in the first place.

Read books outside your genre: This, firstly, keeps your genre from disappearing up its own ass, but it also exposes you to the structures, tropes and sentence level writing styles of other genres.

Read books from outside your country: Same genre or not, just read some imported and translated books.

Read non-fiction books: This is where actual information is stored so you aren't getting all your information filtered through fiction, and reading books not articles gives you depth in a topic, not a deluge of factoids.

Read shorter works (articles and short stories) too: They use different structures. They'll give you a wider exposure to ideas than novels will get you.

Read poetry: Its the best way to learn word and sentence level skills. Also if you ever want to write something highly structured (ex. a commerical romance or a research grant) you will be grateful you did it.

Read books you wouldn't necessarily think to read: Either at random, or by recommendation. You don't even need to finish them if you don't like them. Just get exposure to new ideas.

Read for fun: if you fall out of love with reading its hard to stay in love with writing. Stop obeying this insane list and read things you like.

But obviously, this is insane. I can't keep up with this. I aim to do a tiny bit of all these things every year, but the trade off is I'm constantly behind, there are novels I desperately want to read sitting waiting, I'm not up to date in my genre, and I don't consider myself well-read outside of it really. Or I could pick a couple of these things and leave the rest to hang. Its impossible to keep up, as someone with a day job, and I'm pretty sure it would still be impossible if I didn't have one.

So just figure out a compromise you can live with.

TL;DR There are a lot of benefits to reading, as a writer, and if you don't, you're life will almost certainly be more difficult. But there's no point in purity testing access to writing. It doesn't help and it doesn't work.

#writing #twitter discourse

[doublearmbars]

fic: contact sport

Summary: a patchwork of media documenting the first couple months of MJF's tenure after being traded to the Red Wings in the middle of the night for nothing.

Notes: I’m a certified hockey enjoyer and this is drawn from a lot of stuff I enjoy but in particular: the You Can’t Do That podcast, the work of Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein on the Youtube channel Secret Base, and the stupid postgame rituals that NHL teams have established to give a fun item to a new special man every game. I might write more in this AU if i ever get a handle on writing the POV of either of these snippy bitches but I do have a Blackpool Combat Club hockey thing i'm plugging away at.

On ao3 here

From a Youtube video by Secret Base- "Best in the world and you know it" A Dorktown Short Film

[narration]

So he got traded to the Red Wings in the middle of the night, knowing he’ll never be back to the hometown golden boy, that he’ll die up there on that godforsaken lake, his words not mine.

You might expect his story to end there, in despair. After all these Red Wings are not a Stanley Cup team, hell they’re not even a playoff team.

Except, it doesn’t end there. Not by a long shot. But to tell you that story, I have to take a sidebar to talk about a different hometown golden boy.

The screen zooms out from the announcement of the trade to show a large chart with multiple boxes, and next to the labeled vertical headshot of Maxwell Jacob Friedman another is revealed, this one of a tired eyed young man with mid-length bleached hair, his dark roots showing. He’s sneering at the camera, and wearing a jersey for the Chicago hockey team.

[narration]

You might know him.

____________________

From the Be Gay Take Penalites Podcast Ep 145 Little Caesar’s Gay Fight Club

Can you have shit in Detroit? Can love bloom on the battlefield? Your intrepid hosts Kelsey and PJ journey to find these answers and more as we recap the week in hockey. Also: we take a hard stance on goalie crime (it’s good) and return for another round of 80’s news chyrons.

PJ: Okay on to elsewhere in the NHL, I wanna talk about Detroit and MJF and my favorite old bitch. They’re so- they’re like unlikely animal friends

[Kelsey laughs]

PJ: it’s like an old dog and a shithead cat became friends. Am I wrong? Am I wrong.

Kelsey: No- no you’re- [wheezing laughter] they’re besties but they also hate each other is the vibe.

PJ: Truly like when Max got traded I was like-

Kelsey (crosstalk): You went on Twitter immediately like-

PJ: Yeah I tweeted-let me find it- I tweeted “Brooks looking at MJF like he’s himself from 12 years ago and hating it” and then that one picture from a postgame interview where he looks just completely hollowed out inside like he can’t even summon his Scorpio urge to complain.

[both laugh]

Kelsey: Like not even the intense energies of notorious old married couple Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin can fix this situation.

PJ: And! And they were a defense pair in the win last night.

Kelsey: Max plays defense?

PJ: Did you not- I forget you hate the Isles. Yeah coaching moved him to defense to- I think to punish him it’s unclear and stupid but he appears to be thriving? Which I love for him. He did play defense in juniors to be fair.

Kelsey: No, being fueled by spite we love that. Keep me posted on those two. I wanna bring up the goalie crimes from this week...

PJ: Oh god we have to talk about Bryan.

___________________________________

Video posted by the Red Wings official twitter.

The locker room of the Red Wings after a home win, with most players having taken off their jerseys and sitting around either shirtless or in compression shirts. There is background chatter that quiets when Maxwell Jacob Friedman stands up, hair a mess with sweat from the game. He's holding a fireman's helmet, this season's relic to pass between the player whose performance was best. He gestures across the room,

"Punk"

and the camera swings to show the man he's called out, still in his skates, who rises, crosses the room and takes the helmet from him a little snappily, then raises his other hand to acknowledge the rest of the locker room

The rest of the locker room claps heartily and lets out a rising communal "ooh" like children when someone in their class is called to the principal's office.

They shake hands. We see him say something in MJF's ear, but the audio doesn't pick it up. Lip readers on Twitter claim he says "nobody calls me that anymore"

The response comes through clearly though: "Well I am."

#aew fic #my fic

[cactibarber]

Monster Factory

So I may have decided to write my first fanfic and it may be an awful crackfic between My Brother, My Brother, and Me and The Magnus Archives- two podcasts with completely complimentary humor, tone, and storylines. 

Since it’s my first fanfic- please give me advice/critique! It’s been forever since I’ve written anything non-scientific so I need the practice lol

I’m planning on this only being the first chapter so stay tuned I guess! I don’t have an AO3 account yet, but I’m planning on putting it up there too. 

anyways enjoy the mcelroys annoying the shit out of jon sims or whatever (and also some jonmartin)

Jon tapped his fingers on his desk slowly, while he listened to the clock behind him tick on. Slowly. So, so slowly. He sighed, trying to relax his shoulders past their usual home of “right near his ears”. His boredom started to reach and stretch into that little part of his mind that could See™, but he quickly sucked those boredom tendrils back in.

After his “encounter” with Peter Lukas, nothing much had happened in the institute. Elias had disappeared after his brief meeting with him in the Panopticon, Basira had returned with a slightly more aggravated than usual Daisy in tow, and life at the Magnus Institute had gone back to whatever semblance of normal it had had beforehand. And it was driving Jon insane. He was constantly worrying about where Elias was, if Julia and Trevor were still staking out the institute, and what if Peter Lukas hadn’t been lying about the Extinction, and he was just about to miss the ritual- 

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts, and Jon looked up quickly. Martin’s round, perpetually slightly worried face peeked through the crack in the door. Jon looked up and smiled, shoulders dropping at least halfway back to their anatomically correct position. “Martin,” he said excitedly. “How are you feeling today?”

“Fine, Jon,” Martin replied. He nervously tapped his fingers against the doorframe, looking as if he had marbles in his mouth, and he was rolling them around trying to find the right one.

“We’re still on for tonight, if that’s what you were wondering,” Jon said hurriedly. “Unless-”

“Oh, no- that’s not what I was here to talk to you about,” Martin interrupted. “I mean that’s good-”

“Great, then-”

“Well, there’s another- thing- that’s come up,” he finished. 

“Oh lord,” Jon groaned. “Is it those two again? We should make sure Daisy and Basira know, and get ready to pull the fire alarm-”

“No, no,” Martin interrupted again. “It’s not them, but Rosie said we might have to watch out for anyone taking the east route since it’s full of alleys that they could be hiding in, but that’s not the point.” Martin drummed the doorframe again, taking a second before he said, “Someone wants to give a statement.”

Jon’s reaction was immediate- his shoulders shot up and he slumped in his chair, trying to make himself smaller than he already was. But his eyes seemed to light up, with a ferocity only seen in wild animals and slighted moms at soccer games. “Martin, you know I can’t- I said I wouldn’t- not to another person. Especially after-”

“Yes, I know, and I told them that I could take the statement for them, but the older one started talking about “taking it to the top”, and, well, I feel that, well, I think that we might need a little help from the Eye.”

“What does that even mean- wait. The older one, as in, there are multiple people trying to give a statement?”

“tmfhree.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said, three. Three people are outside waiting to get their collective statement taken.” 

Martin quickly slipped into Jon’s office and shut the door to keep the very loud curse Jon let out inside. 

“Come on, Jon. It won’t be so bad. You might not even have to compel them or anything-”

“Oh, I won’t have to compel them? That makes it so much better, Martin, that I don’t have to compel them. It’s not like you’re basically showing me, no, giving me, a five-course meal when I’m on a diet-”

“Jon-”

“And I know that when- if- I give in, everything will be ruined again. And- and I’ve been making progress, I swear, and-”

“Jon.” Martin brought his hands down on Jon’s shoulders heavily. Jon shakily breathed in, grounding himself through the added weight, and the warmth of Martin’s hands. “Look at me.” When Jon refused to look up from the hole he was drilling into the table with his eyes, Martin gently cupped his chin and raised his head to meet his eyes. “If you really don’t want to take their statement, you don’t have to. I’ll do my best, or get Rosie to send them along. But, their situation is a bit immediate, and they need help. And I know, that you’re worried about what happened before, but I trust you to, you know, rein yourself in.” 

Martin suddenly realized the position he was in, and flushed red, quickly trying to extract his hand from its position on Jon’s face, but Jon moved quicker, pressing his own hand into Martin’s. “Okay,” he muttered quietly. “I’ll do it.”

A slight smile spread across Martin’s face, and he rubbed his thumb in circles on Jon’s scarred skin. “Okay,” he said softly. Martin reluctantly pulled his hand away and moved toward the door. “By the way, if you do scar or retraumatize them awfully, you shouldn’t worry about them too much.” Martin opened the door and stepped into the hallway. “They’re Americans.”

Jon shifted in his chair, waiting for his customers? Patients? To step in. He caught a tape recorder in the corner of his eye, and moved to grab it and place it in the center of his desk. It wouldn’t hurt to seem a bit more professional, he thought, as he willfully ignored the state that his office was in. He heard multiple voices and what sounded like the footsteps of a monster with thirty feet coming down the hallway. “Come in,” he said sharply, before Martin could knock on the door. 

Martin opened the door and let in three men in their early 30’s. The contrast between them startled Jon, and it took a while to let the wild picture in front of him sink in.

The tallest man had bright purple hair and a beard, and what looked like eyeliner behind his glasses. He was wearing what could only be described as a cowboy shirt, and the look was completed with his dark brown cowboy boots. The oldest looking of the three was wearing a garishly neon Hawaiian shirt with a bright green fanny pack, with some weird designs on it. The shortest and youngest-looking looked like he could work in the financial department of the institute. He looked absolutely normal. No, not normal- boring. 

  But that wasn’t the whole deal. Because each one of these men was talking. Whether they were talking to each other or to Martin or Jon or just to thin air was incomprehensible, and Jon felt a migraine coming on. 

“So you’re the big boss, right? The big dog of this little establishment,” the purple-haired man said.

“Well-” Jon started.

“C’mon Trav, the big boss boy wouldn’t have this small of an office,” the Hawaiian shirt man interrupted. “Not that there’s anything wrong with your office,” he said quickly. “It’s homey and cozy in here but I would expect-”

“A penthouse office in the middle of Central London?” the youngest one interjected. “Are you kidding me? How many stories did you see on the building when we walked in, Justin?”

“How many stories a building has has nothing to do with it, Griffin! I”m just saying that-”

“That you’d expect a weird cryptid magic institution to have nice offices? This is probably one of their front offices, and they have the nice ones, you know with the haunted stuff and ghost circles and-” The purple-haired man broke off and turned to Jon. “Not that we have anything against haunted stuff or ghost circles, but-”

“But that’s not what we’re here about, we discussed this, that we weren’t gonna get sidetracked and now look at you trying to get a job here-”

“I’m not trying to get a job here, I’m just saying-”

Jon desperately looked up at Martin, pleading with his eyes for him to stay. Martin smiled, a little too cruelly for his liking, and waved to Jon as he left, shutting the door quietly behind him. 

“Gentlemen,” Jon began, raising his voice over the din. “Please- can we start with names?”

“Oh, of course,” the oldest one said, pushing the other two over to the chairs in front of Jon’s desk. “We’re the McElroy brothers-”

“You might have heard of us from our great bits in Trolls 2,” the youngest one said brightly.

“Trolls World Tour, Griffin, I told you. And I don’t think he’s even watched Trolls 1 so-”

“How would you know that? You don’t know him, he might be the biggest Trolls fan in England-”

Jon cleared his throat, and when it didn’t stop the deluge of conversation, cleared it again. By the time the three men heard him, it sounded like he was trying to hack out a hairball. “Gentlemen-”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” the older man said, shooting the other two a dirty glare. “Like I was saying, we’re the McElroys- I’m Justin McElroy, and these are my two dipshit brothers Travis,” he said, pointing at the purple-haired man, “and Griffin.”

“You didn’t let us introduce ourselves,” Travis pouted. He turned to Jon. “We have this thing we like to do, and I get to say that I’m the middlest-”

“That doesn’t matter Travis, we’re not recording an episode of the fucking podcast,” Griffin said exasperatedly. “Sorry for being blue, but we’re here to talk about some real nasty shit,” he said, whispering the last word. 

Jon took the opportunity to jump into the conversation. “Yes, what are you here to talk about? Martin said it was rather urgent.” 

For once, there was silence in the room, as the three brothers shared glances. The silence went on for a bit too long, until Griffin elbowed Justin in the side. “Ow- I guess since my brothers have decided that they have lost all use of their vocal cords, which is great for our careers, by the way, that I’ll explain.” Griffin rolled his eyes and Travis stifled a giggle. 

Jon, out of habit, reached to turn on the tape recorder, and was only mildly surprised to see that it was already running. Maybe there was a statement here after all. “What is this regarding?” he asked seriously, willfully ignoring the glances at the outdated technology.

“Well,” Justin started, “it’s about, I mean it’s a bit hard to explain.” He stopped abruptly and ran his fingers through his hair. “We-”

“We saw our video game monsters last night,” Griffin interrupted.

Jon sighed, deeper and fuller than he had ever sighed before. “Statement of the...McElroy brothers, regarding,” another deep, deep sign, “video game monsters come to life. Statement recorded direct from subjects, 1st October, 2018. Statement begins.”

#tma #the magnus archives #mbmbam #sabs stuff #monster factory #mcelroys #i can't believe i wrote this #crosstalk was so fun to write #i felt like neon from hxh #just letting the spirits of the mcelroys flow through me #griffin mcelroy #justin mcelroy #travis mcelroy #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin

[thecindercrow]

I keep thinking about these three minutes of thoughts on character and story writing, particularly for putting your character through bad stuff for the sake of the story, but finding the appropriate scale and connection for emotional reactions

Transcript under the cut

Matt: Not to get into the whole ‘what I think is wrong with movies nowadays’, but like honestly one of my favorite things about VGHS season one is we had people like seven episodes in be like “This show’s too mean to Brian D”. And to me that was always the best storytelling. To me the author is -- that was the Cameron Crowe problem. Cameron Crowe loves his characters too much, so nothing fucking happens to them and it’s boring as shit! And frankly, that’s why Marvel movies suck to me, is like nothing bad is ever going to happen to them! I think an author has to love their characters, but also needs to be the devil that fucking hates their characters more than anything and throws everything at them because that’s what a story is... Anthony: (crosstalk) That’s why Spider-Man 2′s so good. Matt: Yeah, Spider-Man 2 is just shitting on the characters nonstop, and then the characters still beat the author. And the author [unclear], but anyways -- Anthony: [crosstalk] Or even like -- Matt: I think you have to be mean to your characters, like that’s what storytelling is. Anthony: I think, uh, it’s not really a spoiler, but Ted Lasso and things like that, my favorite kind of storytelling is: horrible things happen to somebody and it’s about them trying to - not necessarily spin it in a positive way, ‘cause that sounds dishonest in some way, but like - can you maintain the things that make you you in the face of horrible shit happening? Freddie: [crosstalk] In the face of this, yeah. [A round of “yeah”s] Freddie: That Paddington energy, dog. Anthony: Paddington, yeah! Paddington’s a great example of that. Will: Oh, Paddington, oh my god... Matt: Yeah, the tone doesn’t have to be viscious, ‘cause like the worst thing can be, depending on the thing -- Will: [crosstalk] You don’t want it to be misery porn. Matt: Paddington is fun, still. Oh, he’s in prison with a bunch of nice people. Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. Matt: But it’s still the worst thing to happen to Paddington. Freddie: Because Paddington got separated! [some crosstalk agreement] Matt: Exactly, that’s my point. Will: Well that’s, again, it also is about the right heat. Scale matters so much less than connection, right? Where the -- Beth: (referencing a moment earlier in the episode) You wouldn’t slit Paddington’s throat. [laughter] Will: Exactly! Matt: You wouldn’t kill his family. Will: That - Kiki fucking, like, the girl slamming the door in Kiki’s face - which is, objectively, nothing bad happens - that is sadder than characters dying in other movies. Freddie: No, it’s true. Will: That’s another thing that I think is so key to storytelling, is understanding what story you’re telling and how to make something devastating and small, or you know, triumphant and small. It doesn’t all have to be... Scale does not buy you what you think it does. Matt: Well it’s just... For example, slitting Paddington’s family’s throat in front of him would be the worst thing that happens but it wouldn’t be emotionally - it would just be trauma! [laughter] Matt: Whereas that’s not a story about Paddington. Him getting separated from his family is literally the worst thing that could happen to the character Paddington in the story. Will: Yes. Like them not showing up for his birthday, and you’re like ‘oh my god!’ Freddie: Augh, it hurts even thinking about it. Will: Oh no! Freddie: That hurts even thinking about it, dog! Will: And he thinks that they forgot about him! You’re like ‘oh my god!’ Matt: Like when the worst thing that happens in John Wick is when that new actor that shows up halfway through the movie who is also his friend or something and then he gets shot instead, what is his name? Daniel Day whatever... Will: Daniel Day Lewis? Anthony: Willem Dafoe. Matt: Willem Dafoe, yeah. Those movies... I hate those movies. Beth: Oh man, or like in A Goofy Movie, very kind of low stakes, right? But when Max throws that fucking hat out the window, and you know that they can’t turn around and go get - oh! It fucking kills me. Anthony: Or when he says “Left” and you see that shot of Goofy just looking fucking depressed ‘cause he knows his son just betrayed him to take him to the Powerline concert. Beth: Yeah, oh god. Matt: I don’t think the whole movie works, but - I liked it a lot, but to me the reason Wreck-It Ralph -- Will: Yes, I was about to say Wreck-It Ralph! Matt: That second act is one of the best second act turns of any of those movies - Will: When he breaks the - Matt: Because it’s the cruelest - Will: When he breaks her car that they just built! Matt: He literally destroys her car! And then he’s lost the only friend - Anyways, just - Anthony: But he’s doing it for the right reason, and... Matt: Yeah, it’s just. Throw shit at your characters. Beth: Slit your character’s throat. Matt: Emotional throat! Anthony: Slit. Their. Throat. Freddie: Emotional. Anthony: Drink. The. Blood.

#this is from a commentary bonus episode of a dnd podcast called #dungeons and daddies #which you've probably seen me post about before #but in case you don't know all the players are professional writers for different media #so it's always neat to hear them get going with their thoughts on this stuff #not sure how else to tag this but it puts a finger on why some things in media work really well and some things fall flat for me #and I want to try to be more aware of it when I'm engaging with a story and its characters #like some of it sounds obvious maybe but some of it is also nice to hear in definitive words and it clicks #also yes this is from patreon content. let this be a teaser for you. signing up was so worth it

[nat-20s]

Part 2 of post-canon Wonderful! Au because it is extremely fun for me to write!

~*~

Martin: Hello again, and welcome back to, uh-

Jon: -the shitshow?

Martin: No! At worst this podcast is like, the audio equivalent a messy living room. If there’s no worms or clowns or, or evil bosses that are actively trying to kill you, it’s not a shitshow.

Jon: You are aware that comments like that are the reason that we have conspiracy theorists, right?

Martin: Hey, I’ve read a fair amount of those conspiracy theories, and a couple of them have been weirdly bang on.

Jon: Martin, love, no, please do not feed into their suspicions. Once again, as general disclaimer, this show has no larger narrative. It really is just us having a nice time.

Martin: Seriously, though, what about our discussions of beekeeping or the feeling of discovering a new favorite album has got people believing we’re secretly vampires? Or from a parallel universe slightly to the left of this one? Could you imagine?

Jon, dry enough to chap lips: Hardly.

Jon: Though I will say, any of the theories that involve one or both of us being supernatural creatures are my personal favorites.  I’m fascinated by what people are picking up on there, considering we are two perfectly normal human people.

Martin: Well, you are preternaturally handsome.

Jon: Oh god, shut up! That was terrible! First of all, even if that were true-

Martin:-it is. To everyone listening, my husband is very very good looking. I’d say he’s a trophy husband, but it turns out he’s also smart and loving and funny and strong and kind-

Jon, somehow blushing out loud: Will you stop it! As I was saying, first off, this is audio only, they have no idea how I look-

Martin: -you sound handsome-

Jon:-secondly, my husband outshines the sun, so if anyone should be accused of being preternaturally handsome, it’s certainly him-

Martin crosstalking, pleased:- christ, being on the receiving end of that is awful-

Jon: and finally, weren’t you last week saying something about an embarrassing old men in love quota? It’s wildly unfair of you to deplete our entire allowed supply in one comment at the top of the episode.

Martin: We actually got some feedback on that. Some of it was like, “no quota, we love love”, which is very nice, but trust me, it would result in an unlistenable show, and I’m the one that has to edit it. Most of it was closer to “old men? Aren’t you both in your mid-thirties lol?”. We are, but you know how people have the sentiment of “age is an attitude” when trying to encourage 60 year olds to go ziplining or whatever? Turns out, they’re right, and we’re in our 70s yelling at kids to get off our lawn.

Jon: Speak for yourself. My all white hair and deeply limited ability to care about popular culture makes me an absolute paragon of youth.

Martin, laughing: Of course. Especially by calling it “popular culture”.

Jon: Check the tik tok, it’s the preferred vernacular of The Youths, of which I am one.

Martin, still laughing: Yes, dear. Anyway, now that we’ve said nothing of import for a good three minutes, we should get on with the actual content, huh? Got any small wonders?

Jon: Yes?

Martin: Want to elaborate on that a little?

Jon: I do. There’s. Um. I swear there was something.

Martin: Want me to go first and come back to you?

Jon: Please.

Martin: My small wonder is the third area of feedback we got about last week. Specifically, it’s a five star review from Caitlyn S. that simply says, “I Can Not Stand Them” followed by a heart emoji.

Jon: Thank you Caitlyn. We also cannot stand each other, heart emoji.

Martin: Now it’s your turn to speak for yourself, I can stand you plenty. Actually, I would say I more than stand you, I rather like you a lot, heart emoji.

Jon, fond: Someone’s in a mood today, huh?

Martin: What can I say, it’s the first day of sun we’ve had in two? Two and half? Weeks. Forgive me if I feel like everything is a bit lighter.

Jon: No forgiveness necessary. Actually, that’s my small wonder, the first day of sunshine after weeks of grey, and, more specifically, how it makes my husband obnoxiously effusive with affection.

Martin, not genuinely wounded: Obnoxious?!

Jon: Only for others to witness, darling. If we weren’t recording right now, I would be personally responding to it with some very enthusiastic kissing.

Martin:…

Martin: So that will take us to our ad break.

Jon, laughing: We don’t have ads. Even if we did, this isn’t live.

Martin: What I’m hearing is that you think we should sacrifice artistic integrity-

(Jon snorts)

-and the genuine flow of conversation, before, might I add, we’ve even done our first things, in order to participate in some, ah, distinctly non-sexual but still amorous activity?

Jon: I didn’t say that, but I’m not opposed to it either.

Martin. In that case, listeners, if you hear any sort of audio differences as I talk about my first thing, no you didn’t, why would you, because we’re definitely not going to take a 5 to 15 minute break right now.

[THERE IS A DISTINCT OUT OF BREATH QUALITY TO THEIR SPEECH AS THEY BEGIN DISCUSSING MARTIN’S FIRST THING]

#tma #jonmartin #post canon #jon sims #martin blackwood #this part inspired by someone saying imagine the red string brigade for this podcast #and the thought tickled me SO MUCH #wonderful! au

[finitevariety]

sup this is me off anon (pirouettes) thank you so much for the reply!! and the snippets slash drafts especially were very yummy. its cool how seeing how like, rigorous the process is because it definitely feels super controlled while writing. and you want to talk more about your specific writing style that would be cool as fuck!! the two things that jump most at me when I read your fics were 1) dialogue and 2) the metaphors. how does all of that get formed?

hiiii

thank you! I feel like my writing process is less rigorous than the only way that I can get to a finished product. I have to sit and think for ages before things even begin to come together.

re: writing style, here are some rambling thoughts (and more screenshots lol):

It's so interesting to hear you pick out dialogue because I think particularly for fic I've been lucky--for example, I once got a comment that complimented me on using particularly Minnesotan phrasing for a Tom thing, when in fact it was a stray turn of phrase from my home country/area which happened to overlap with Minnesotan speech patterns.

Like I said earlier, dialogue is something that tends to come pretty quickly in the drafting process! Like, I just got through the first section of a chapter that was killing me because I wanted to show Tom thinking about shit without him really knowing what he was thinking about, so I had to meander around what he's doing, seeing, remembering, etc. instead of actually talking to anyone in the present. With dialogue scenes (including sex scenes, which for me are fairly dialogue-rich) it's so much easier to communicate someone's thoughts because they are also communicating.

For example, this is from a doc that is probably the next thing I want to write after bold and forth on (after a break for writing some original stuff for fun). I haven't touched it since I did my original 'stream of consciousness' plotting, but I bet when I write this in full the finished speech will be very similar to this:

Looking at it now, I can see some parts which are lazy--the 'paid a damn sight better' part is maybe something Tom would say, but there are things Tom could say here which feel more Tom--'you wouldn't be earning fucking Buffalo bucks, there'--and also reveal more about him and Greg--'maybe you could pay for your own fucking meal once in a while, you know? Stop gagging on gazpacho on my dime' (Greg: 'I thought it was a shot!').

I also, like I mentioned before, frequently read bits aloud. This is probably The Autism, but I like hearing words aloud and in a nice combination/rhythm, and creating something I enjoy is always the priority.

Sorry for the sidebar here, but it feels related: there's a lot in my writing that I'm surprised isn't offputting to more people, and as gratified as I am, I would keep writing it even if that weren't the case. Don't get me wrong, I'm a slut for external validation, but this is my sandbox and I'll piss in it if I want to.

Anyway, back to dialogue: I think for Succession I try to remember that whilst these people don't talk like real people there are a lot of hallmarks of real speech--lots of crosstalk and interruption, uhs and ums and uh-huhs, and certain specific fillers such as, for Tom, 'you know'. So, no matter what insane shit they're saying, I try to ground it in a little of that.

On insane shit, though: I have to chalk the imagery up to the way my brain works, which feels like a copout. I guess though the main questions I ask when writing/refining images are:

What would this scene look like if it were storyboarded? What do I want people to catch in the background? What do I want tight focus on? If the audience blurs their focus, what might the scene remind them of?

What would this character know about? What are they preoccupied with? It's important imo to make an image something that a character would conceivably think. So Tom is very fun to write because I feel like his brain follows the same grain as mine. This is not a compliment. Many of the images I use for him, especially for feelings shit, are rooted in flesh and violence because he is a character for whom self-knowledge is torture.

Can I push this further? Hey, what if I google around this to see if there's anything else I can fold in? For example, if I'm comparing something to a bug, I'm gonna find out about bugs first to see if there's a gross little detail I can shove in there. This connects back to the part above where I pointed out the 'damn sight better' opportunity. If I'm using an image, I want to avoid it feeling like boilerplate, you know?

Then, finally:

What can I get rid of? What does this image add? Are there explanatory phrases around the image that I can delete? If I'm asking you to come with me for 100k of nonsense, the least I can do is try to cut down on unnecessary bullshit.

Thank you so much for the ask and for the compliments. <3

#drtechmaturgics #long post #ask box #haarping on #bfo deez nuts #also i'd hope this goes w/o saying but i am wholly unqualified to give advice and this is just...how i write

[ginmayo]

Hi Gin!!! Have you seen the new illustration of Bro Qiu??? What do you think is He Cheng's reaction the first time he sees Bro Qiu like that? >U

Hey dear anon! How could I not have seen that gem ;-D 

“What do you think is He Cheng's reaction the first time he sees Bro Qiu like that? ”

Depends on what you mean with “like that” - all buff or simply half n_aked? If taking up on the indication in the manwah that they have known eachother for a long(er) time, I’d say - if it’s concerning all buff: they would probably be so accustomed to seeing eachothers bodies during training and missions that He Cheng wouldn’t be all that surprised or would notice Qiu’s fitness in a big shock - he’s witnessed the progress of shaping up. If you’re talking about when he’s seen him half n_aked for the first time, many factors play into that - depending on what the whole circumstances of their meeting were (but either way, I can imagine they’d be eyeing eachother like two professional fighters taking measure of their opponent first). 

BUT to make up for that vague/boring answer, have one of my fun takes on their first meeting: a headcanon where Qiu and He Cheng meet in last year of high school in the school’s bathroom during classes bc HC needs to dress his “family work” induced stab_wound anew and Q fell asleep trying to smoke in a toilet stall while skipping classes and forgot a lighter - long story short: hc thinks he’s alone in the stalls, trying to dress the w_ound that almost had his school uniform soaked when it started bIeedin_g through again, gasping in pain - and  waking up Q who had dozed off in the stall next to him. After a short crosstalk, Q climbs up, peeking over the stall wall to ask for a lighter - and finds HC with a mess of bandage, bI_ood, and antiseptic fluid covering his abdomen. HC, having no interest in getting his model student rep disparaged, makes up an outrageous lie about a fresh tattoo - on which cue Q proceeds to show him his tattoo:

This is not entirely how I imagined it (actually did some creative writing on that a longer time ago) But for the joke of it, here~

#he cheng #brother qiu #19 days #Qiu #Qiucheng #ask #anon #gin comic #head canon time

[davidfarland]

Rules For Writing Groups

What Makes A Writing Group Successful?

In our Apex writing group, Apex is an umbrella organization that provides services for a large number of writers, but we also encourage writers to do things in smaller groups. For example, some writers are having great success by meeting together for daily writing sprints, or weekly brainstorming sessions or critique groups.

I’ve belonged to several writing groups, and many of them were excellent, while a couple were actually dysfunctional. I’d like to suggest a few things that you can do to keep your writing group on track.

First, have a leader for your group—a president, and a sergeant-at-arms. The president’s job might be to lead discussions and to submit ideas for rule changes. The sergeant-at-arms is a person who talks quietly to someone who breaks the rules and let’s them know that the group has a problem. He or she may even need to evict others. Usually, both positions are voted upon.

Second, manage the size of your group. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by piles of manuscripts to critique each week, so don’t let the group get too big. I’ve seen writing groups with 150 people in them, and at that size, you can’t really have a meaningful critique of a novel. Even ten people is too large.

I’ve been in some groups where each writer was expected to submit, say, twelve pages a week. That worked very well. It meant that each writer progressed each week, but no writer came in with two hundred pages, week after week.

Generally speaking, by the time you’ve had eight people comment on a single manuscript, you’re probably critiqued it enough, so decide how big you want your group to be—three people, six? Once you hit your limit, close the group. In the same way, you don’t want the group to be too small. Search for members who compliment the group, people who have their own skillsets. Some authors, for example, might be full of passion and excitement. Another may have a vast understanding of a given genre. Those two writers are stronger together than they would be apart.

Meet together often. Most groups seem to work well when they meet weekly. If you try once a month, it can work, but groups that don’t meet together regularly will fizzle out.

Critiques should be written on the manuscript (either in pen or in a file) so that the author can compile the ideas when finished. Talking about the critique verbally, though, helps stimulate ideas in others and gets members of the group focused on a story, so you want to have both written and verbal comments. Always start a critique with something positive. Knowing what works is as important for a writer as knowing what to fix. More importantly, it helps authors remember to accentuate the positive, give praise when it might be needed the most. Give substantive criticism in oral critiques: talk about plot, characterization, scene building, pacing and other “big-ticket items.” Don’t waste a group’s time by talking about punctuation, spelling, dropped words or typos in an oral critique. Sure, you can fix commas in a written critique, but don’t belabor the point.

Agree on some rules for what you will critique. I think it is helpful for people to brainstorm a plot for a novel, for example, so you might have special brainstorming sessions. But you might not want to waste time critiquing something like nonfiction articles.

Assign roles to your group members. In one group I belonged to, we had an author who watched markets, for example, so that each week we would discuss contests or magazines that were opening. That author always searched for news, but we soon found that everyone was helping out. Suddenly we had more than a dozen people gathering important data, and it taught all of us to keep our eyes open.

      1. Divide your meetings into parts.

At the appointed time, let your sergeant-at-arms call your meeting to order. (That means, you stop gabbing.) Remember, this is a writing group, not a social group. If your start time is 8:00 PM, don’t start it late. Just as you officially open a meeting, you also want to officially close it at the appropriate time. Many groups like to go out afterward and socialize, but don’t let your group turn into one where people only talk about writing.

Start your meeting with news of personal accomplishments. How much did each person write? (For a writing group, people should know that they must write in order to remain a member.) Find out what milestones each member reached (“I finished my novel!”)? Have them report on acceptances or awards they won, or on sales records? (This helps build excitement in the group.)

I’ve seen groups do fun things. In one group, a person passed out “gold stars” that people could wear on their forehead. In another, a person passed out brownies. IN a third, if someone finished a novel or won an award, the rest of the group paid for their dinner that night.

Next go to market news. Are there any contests that opened or new magazines or publications your group should be aware of? Have you heard of interesting local visits by celebrities or listened to any fascinating podcasts? What about news from major publishers that people should be aware of. Be brief, but share.

Once that is out of the way, get to the work of brainstorming or critiquing!

With brainstorming, you want a free flow of ideas. Let an author present an idea—say a novel summary—and then go around the room and suggest ideas about how to make it better, but set a time limit. “We’re going to talk about Sarah’s upcoming novel for 20 minutes.”

      2. Now begin the critique session. This has a few rules.

It is the author’s job to listen to critiques and take notes—never to defend his or her work or to apologize. There should be a “no cross-talk policy.” This should be a strict rule, and those who violate it should be ejected from the meeting.

The critic has the floor. When a critic is speaking, no one should interrupt to give their opinion, except for the sergeant-at-arms, who can cut them off if the critique goes on too long or becomes abusive. (Remember, some critics will campaign for changes to a story, but that isn’t their job. Their job is to point out ways to improve the story.)

The critic should always address the story, not the author. In other words, if a character, let’s call her Terry, is a horse thief, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the author is a horse thief. Good people have to address imaginary evils in their fiction.

Set reasonable time limits for a critique. Five minutes for ten pages if probably more than enough. At exactly five minutes, the critic needs to shut up. This means that you might need an official timekeeper.

If you love a story, tell the author how you feel. Something like, “This is an excellent story, and if I were an editor, I would buy it as is,” can be very helpful. I recall being in on one session where half the room said this—and they were right.

Some groups like to allow the author to respond at the end of a critique, perhaps to explain why they did this or that. It’s healthy, but the response needs to be concise, too. In other words, keep the time on! I usually like to thank people for their critiques.

Some groups also like to allow crosstalk after the critiques finish. This often leads to important brainstorming ideas, so I encourage it.

Remember, a writing group is a living, growing thing. It may change over time, and your rules need to evolve with it.

Happy writing!

Want to meet with writers from around the world to help boost your group: join us at Apex-writers.com. You can take classes and workshops together, listen to bestselling authors, and learn from editors and agents on a weekly basis. More importantly, this is a place to network with other authors in order to help boost your career.

Announcement: The forum for the Writers of the Future discussion board just one the “Critters Award” for best forum on writing. Congratulations to Wulf Moon, Kary English, and so many others who have made this a great destination for new writers! https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-discussion-forum-wins-critters-award/?fbclid=IwAR3l4TScvrdIZWyQBlEl0a1XSPBsEgKJGYnTZ_Jkr2k6za5NZsPDBlC5jeg

#writing tips #wrirblr

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 5, The Three Days of the Hunter Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Mark: Hello, I’m Mark Roskin, Director of this episode.

Melissa: Melissa Glenn, one of the writers of the episode.

Jessica: Jessica Rieder, the other one of the writers of this episode.

John: [Laughs] John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Chris: Chris Downey, Executive Producer, and this is The Three Days of the Hunter Job.

John: Uh, Glenn and Rieder, why don’t you tell us a little bit about this episode - how, uh, how we came up with this? I’m opening my beer, you guys talk.

[Beer Can Opening]

Melissa: [Laughs] Okay, enjoy. Um, I think the episode actually, Albert had the first idea, of doing something with a tabloid- or media-type person.

John: Right.

Melissa: -that’s Albert Kim.

John: That’s right. It started as like a Page Six person, right?

Melissa: Yeah, and then we just took it to the room and explored it, and we just thought it would be a lot of fun to go after someone in this… arena.

Jessica: Originally, I think we were thinking, yeah, more like tabloid, but then we thought that more often people who are really, like, injured today by the media, it tends to be more like, y’know, more on-screen news kinda stuff. So we took it in that direction.

John: Yeah, with- with newspaper circulation dropping by 20% every year, they’re really kinda losing their power as a threat. And, uh, you know, there have been cases of people appearing on these sort of shows that have been driven to, uh, suicide, or been wrongly accused and [unintelligble] in the press. And with the 24-hour news cycle, you know, that’s a big deal. Uh, we would like to mention that this was based on no one individual.

Chris: No, absolutely not.

John: Absolutely not. 

Chris: And if we were to mention who it might be based on, we’re gonna say Wayne Gretzky.

John: That’s good, Wayne Gretzky will be the code word. Because Wayne does not do slanders.

Chris: Absolutely not, Wayne will not sue us in any way.

[Laughter]

John: Now, that’s one of the creepier and better victim intros that we’ve done, the failed suicide. We’ve had a lot of talk about like, did he die, did he not die?

Jessica: That’s true.

John: And uh, I believe it was actually a reference on The Sweet Hereafter. The bus accident.

Jessica: It was! That movie wrecked me!

[Laughter]

Jessica: Oh my gosh, I literally watched that movie on a plane and people were looking at me.

John: As you sobbed in the aisles?

Jessica: Yes, I was openly sobbing. I’d forgotten about that.

John: So we thought the most tragic thing we could would be a bus accident. And of course, y’know. And we used a technique, so slandering people.

Chris: Now, Marc, was there any movies or any things you looked at when you, uh, were prepping this? That you wanted to, uh-? How- how did you prepare for this one?

Marc: Uh, you know, I watched- I watched Network again. It was something I wanted to see, and just watching a lot of the local newscasts. And actually, watching their newscast, where we shot the show, uh, was helpful as well.

John: That’s worth mentioning, actually. We’ll get to this stuff, and we’ll point it out, but Portland, yet again, came through for us. And instead of having to build a newsroom, we got a newsroom.

Marc: Yes.

John: Which channel was it?

Marc: They’re Channel 8 News. And they gave us the room, they gave us all the technical support we needed, all the cameramen that you’ll see on the floor there are theirs. They really rolled out the red carpet to us.

Chris: And I think there’s- is there a newscaster on this, too, from there?

Marc: Yeah, yes. The guy who bookends the show, at the end, Joe. He’s one of their local, uh, local newscasters.

John: This is also where we’re advancing Sophie’s arc. And why don’t you talk about how we wound up doing this?

Jessica: Um, I think that we wanted Sophie to be getting uncomfortable. Sort of, like, wanting to spread her wings a little bit. So right before this, she had broken up with her boyfriend and was just, sort of, feeling a lack of control over her life. And so usually, she’s taking orders from Nate and he’s crafting the vision, but as sort of a struggle to find her new identity and maybe get a little bit more control over her life, we had her take over and be the one sort of calling the shots on this one. Which is really fun. I think that everybody in the cast had a little fun, like, changing the roles around.

John: Well they had a lot of fun both teasing- kind of also teasing Tim, a little. It was-

Jessica: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: More than teasing Nate, it was also teasing Tim on some of his acting stuff.

Chris: It was actually one of the unintended benefits of Gina’s pregnancy, which was, as we did this arc of her going to find herself, everyone had to take on different roles. And I think it was probably the first episode of the season where we got to really explore that, and we get to see all the different dynamics that it caused.

John: There’s also a callback here, is Sophie talking Parker through the con; that’s something we actually reference in the season finale. And again, that’s one of the things where we really wanted to hammer, which is, they all seem very competent, but they’re all very good at one specific thing. And we really wanted to set up for when we knew Sophie would be gone for an episode or two, the chaos that would ensue when that occurred. This is also kind of a cue to Nate’s control issues, where he can’t even let her talk. You know, it has to be done his way. Um, and Beth Broderick!

Chris: Beth Broderick. Uh, Marc, how did we- how did we end up with Beth Broderick?

Marc: Beth was a friend of Dean’s, who, they were politically active together. They campaigned for Howard Dean together-

John: They were with Bill Ayers, right? They were Weathermen?

[Laughter, Crosstalk]

John: I remember, because Beth and Dean were there when Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s book. They were there but- Wait, are we recording?

[Laughter]

Jessica: Yeah, yeah.

John: Dammit, alright.

Marc: And Dean just- Dean read the script and said, ‘This is gonna be perfect for her’. And she hit it out of the park.

Chris: Boy, did she ever. And I mean, it was just amazing vision on his part, and boy she’s great.

Marc: And also- and also, for a guest star, she’s in almost every scene of the show.

John: This is one of the biggest villains of the- of the two years.

Marc: Yeah, every scene. And the stuff that we made her do, you’ll see later on- big monologues, climbing fences, and she did everything.

John: Yeah, she’s a trooper, man. She went over that fence in shoes. Well that’s- it’s- because again, we were playing around with the format. This is an open mystery, so we know what the con is, but it’s one of the times where really, the victim’s POV is the effect that we’re creating. It’s a lot like Order 23, your hospital episode, where the intent is to see the emotional state you’re bringing up in the person. And so you just live with the villain more that way. And for those episodes, you really need a heavy hitter for an actor.

Chris: And it was also interesting, too, because, you know, we were always looking for cons that didn’t involve delivering a sack of money. We wanted a con where we wanna evoke some kind of a reaction in the bad guy that brings them down, and this one was tailor-made for that.

John: Yeah. And if, uh- this was actually based on, you know, us talking about people who sell fear, and sort of the fear industry in America. And we always say we’re bringing the villain down with their original sin. And so, she sells fear, we’ll bring her down with fear. And this was the big speech- I think I’m the one who came up with the sandworm, it was- it was originally, uh, “the creature that she once bestrode like the [mumbled] on the sandworm of doom.” And I believe you wisely cut out the sandworm of doom reference at the end of this speech.

[Laughter]

Chris: Wow, somebody- somebody mercifully did that?

Jessica: I guess we figured the four people who would understand that weren’t going to miss it that much.

[Laughter]

John: And now we’re in Washington! For the miracle of stock footage.

Marc: Yes.

Jessica: It really does add scope. Every time I watch this show, I’m like, “we like- went there!!” But we didn’t. 

John: Again, that’s Portland coming through for us.

Jessica: We just went to Portland, yeah. [Laughs]

John: Well, and Portland doubles as a lot of great cities, east coast cities, and uh, we got a lot of great stuff off of Portland. And this is the newsroom we were talking about.

Marc: Yes, this is the newsroom, and we had to be out of there by four o’clock every day, because they actually had to have their news broadcast.

[Laughter]

John: I love the hair and bow choice on Beth here.

Jessica: Oh my gosh.

Marc: Oh, that’s fabulous.

John: Wardrobe and hair here, now they were kind of intentionally mirroring Beth there.

Marc: Yes, and you’ll notice that every outfit that our Beth Riesgraf is wearing, does match Monica a bit, whether it’s a little color, a little highlight.

Chris: Yeah, it’s great. It’s terrific. And she really just, she looks like a local newscaster.

Jessica: She totally does.

Chris: She just does.

Jessica: I have to say, this was one of the most fun scenes to write. Like, Beth- or Parker being so out of her comfort zone? Because she is so competent, y’know. 

John: Yes.

Jessica: And so to be able to write her being a little insecure and fumbling around a little bit was just, it was really fun. And that was actually fun throughout the episode, to be able to write all these people. And just, y’know, being out of their comfort zone, and the comedy that, y’know, lies in that.

John: Yeah, and also Hardison- Hardison being effective, but going over the top as he always does, which- which, y’know, brings us down. Which we actually wound up hitting in the Ice Man later on in the season, yeah.

Jessica: Yeah. A lot of the stuff that we set up here- like, inadvertently, I think, paid off in the Ice Man.

John: Not inadvertently at all, we planned this-

[Laughter, talking over each other]

Jessica: Not inadvertently- did I say inadvertently? I meant deliberately.

Chris: No it was meticulous, we certainly didn't write these things by the seat of our pants.

Melissa: Don’t mind her.

John: We weren't banging these out in four days at a time.

Chris: This was not written in four days.

Jessica: This was certainly not written the day before it was shooting, no.

[Laughter]

Melissa: I love this scene. Her lean in here is-

Chris: Oh this is so ‘Happy Birthday, Mister President’.

[Laughter]

Chris: It is. That's what I heard when I heard that.

John: And now we go to- now we go to conspiracy land. And it was a lot of fun designing Hardison’s- Hardison’s den of crazy. Marc how did you wind up- where'd you go for that?

Marc: We- our art department just came up with a lot of concepts, and our set designer, Adam, just was- he basically put this together himself- 

Chris: It's fantastic.

Marc: -with Becca, but it was just great, it really-

John: And that hair is CG, let's add that, that hair is actually a CG effect.

[Laughter]

Marc: We were wondering if we should just have Hardison just laying on the floor and, you know, revealing him, but then we thought why not- let’s give him a proper reveal. 

Jessica: And those eyes, how they are slightly crossed the whole time, that's actually Hardison- that's actually Aldis doing that right? Those aren't contacts?

Marc: Yes, that's actually Aldis doing that.

Jessica: He must've had-

John: Yeah, massive headaches by the end of the-, yeah.

Jessica: That's what I was gonna say. I look at that and get a headache.

Marc: It was on a special skills on his- 

John: On his actors- on his headshot.

[Laughter]

Marc: Right next to rollerblading.

Melissa: And it was actually true, right?

Jessica: Be careful what you list there, they will make you do it.

John: No the paranoid- the paranoid stuff here was an awful lot of fun to write. We had cooked up an awful lot of- we had found an awful lot of crazy crap on the web. This is- yes this is the one they're building the bunkers to put the Guantanamo people in, when they were talking about closing Guantanamo.

Jessica: Oh yeah, we went through so many possible conspiracy theories. We all tapped into our inner like freak to like, ‘what do you think the government is doing’. It was really- it was kind of an insight-

John: And then when you do the research and find out what they've done, it kind of takes the-

Jessica: Yeah, it's like oh, my stuff’s kinda boring.

John: ‘I think the government lets do one where the government's testing bio weapons in the New York subway. Oh they did that…’ 

Jessica: Oh shoot.

John: That's not- wow.

Jessica: Guess that can't be funny anymore.

John: No, that's not funny at all.

Marc: Oh Aldis did a great job in this role.

Chris: He just so inhabits this role, you know. I can't say enough about him.

John: I don't know what is Beth doing behind there, where she's kind of, like, scratching at the neck, like she just hates being in this outfit

Marc: Yes.

Jessica: It's true, she does.

John: No, this is- this is a great crazy. And it's interesting to see how it's really a tonal shift from like conspiracy theory to Three of the Condor like at the halfway point of the episode.

Marc: ‘What’d you find? What’d you find?’

[Laughter]

John: ‘Hey, little Timmy.’

[Laughter]

Marc: My favorite line.

Jessica: It’s true.

Marc: ‘Terrorists!’

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh, coming out of the sandbox.

John: Coming out of the sandbox, yeah.

Chris: I love that.

John: We eventually- I think we wound up in the writers room just doing long rants and then taking the best sections of them. 

Melissa: Yeah it was a lot of [unintelligible].

Jessica: Our poor writer's assistant, I think, basically just had to cut and paste into the script. Like remember that section three pages ago?

John: When we were really drunk, right. And this is also- like, we have to reestablish her villainy and make sure we understand that she is deserving of the horrible fate we’re about to bestow upon her by the fact we know that we’re gonna- this is also where the nicknames for Parker came up which was a lot of fun. You guys came up with a lovely bit where she just kept giving her horrible nicknames.

Jessica: That's right.

John: This office is like- this set is like the tardis; people are always coming out of doorways.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, no.

John: There's just way too much space in here.

Marc: Keep moving.

Jessica: I just have to interject that this is my favorite Christian costume of the year. Suit. I would put Christian in a suit every episode.

Marc: I would love to as well.

Chris: The Men in Black.

John: Yeah, the sort of Men in Black.

Jessica: I like it! Hair pulled back. Yup. It's good. That’s my secret agenda; I'm just putting it out there.

Marc: He's not a big fan of suits.

Jessica: No, he doesn't like them.

Chris: I have to say, I thought the interplay between all the characters in this one was probably my favorite of the season.

John: Really?

Chris: I mean everyone really- I really did- I thought all these little scenes of them just played great.

Marc: Well I love this, because this was a note where I think I called John and said, ‘You know, with Eliot and Parker when she's asking all these questions about conspiracy theories, how is Eliot’s tone?’ And all John said was, ‘big brother effing with little sister.’

Chris: Yes, that was it.

Marc: I was like, ‘Got it.’

John: That's it.

Chris: That's the model of this episode.

John: Because Parker’s grip on reality is- anything- there's a great description of Sherlock Holmes in the- I think in A Study in Scarlet where Watson writes down everything he knows. And it’s a- he knows he has no idea of the- Sherlock Holmes has no idea the earth goes around the sun, because it's not important to solving crime. And it amuses me that Parker, outside of crime, could be talked into believing pretty much anything.

Jessica: It's true. She's so savvy in some ways, and totally clueless and childish.

John: And particularly with these guys who she trusts. This lift, did we take this lift from the tango that eventually died?

Jessica: Yes!

Chris: I think it was.

Jessica: Oh the tango.

John: Use all the parts of the buffalo.

Chris: Which may live again folks.

John: Which may live again.

Melissa: Then we won't tell you what it was.

Jessica: Right.

Melissa: It's great trick that Apollo showed us, where using just a really strong magnet and lifting somebody's IT tag off-

John: Now was it- was a lot of fun, was finding the neodymium magnets and which- you know what you can do? They can tear off the hand of a young child. When I saw that on the web, I must've- I must've said that phrase at least twice a day for the rest of the year.

Melissa: They are very strong magnets.

Jessica: I think that's true.

John: I’m delighted by the fact that you can buy something on the web that can tear off the hand of a small child. The magnet that he's using is a neodymium magnet it's a very powerful- and that's something Apollo actually showed us in order to lift metal objects off people, it's incredibly strong.

Chris: And what's this location that we have as the Pentagon? This is an active building in Portland? 

Marc: This is the active local political building in downtown Portland.

Chris: And they basically just emptied the local city government for us?

Marc: Yes.

Chris: They just sent everybody home for the day. ‘Go drink.’

Marc: And this was also used in the two-part season finale as well. 

John: The finale, that's right.

Marc: The room that Eliot stole the badge is their assembly room. This is a fun scene. I think the two of them together was great.

John: And the camera man actually found a nice little beat here. He's just like, ‘I like to get punched.’

Jessica: I like it.

[Laughter]

John: There you go. And Eliot is always, like, this little beat of suspicion, this little-

Marc: I figured I'd go slow motion here just to try and sell it a little bit more.

Melissa: Well done.

Marc: But I love Beth Riesgraf’s performance in here, as soon as the video camera’s on her.

Melissa: Yes.

Marc: Wanting to take the spotlight a little.

Melissa: It was perfect.

Marc: And Beth Broderick just shoves her away. It was perfect. This was all ad-libbed.

Jessica: This is so local news, too.

[Laughter]

John: It's really cheesy.

Jessica: It’s very local news; just great.

John: And now there was a big thing- it was a big thing with the uniform, getting a uniform that would work on Tim. Because Tim’s hair is not a buzzcut, and the problem with television, if you buzzcut someone, you live with that look for the rest of the season.

Marc: Yes.

John: So we were actually gonna abandon the idea and then our consultant told us that the special ops guys who come back from Afghanistan keep both beard and longer hair and wear it with the uniform, so we gave him that particular uniform and it worked out just fine with the beret.

Chris: Fans of Taps may enjoy watching this little sequence.

John: Fans of Taps. Does he die in Taps?

Chris: I don't remember.

John: Does he die in Taps- or is this- could we say like we’ll do it in a way where this is like a continuity of Taps.

Jessica: This might be him.

John: This is a pseudo sequence-

Chris: Could this be his character from many years later?

John: You know, we never said where Nate went to school. We-

Jessica: That's true; there's a lot of material.

John: I like the implication that Nate Ford was actually the kid in Taps; that's kind of screwed up. Yeah, and then this was a tough one because we did not have the bag of money, right?

Chris: No.

Jessica: That's true.

John: So we had to establish- we were like, ‘Great, it’s information.’ And then we’re like, information is a great concept, it doesn't really work on television. And that's where we came up with a red file.

Melissa: Yes, put it in a red folder.

John: We spent a long time figuring out what the visual cue would be that the audience could track, that Marc did an excellent job of establishing to the audience, so the audience would understand: that's the MacGuffin, that's the axe, you know.

Marc: And ‘red file’ is said a couple times; they just keep hammering it.

John: Well what was Dean's rule? You never- the audience doesn't really hear it until the third time.

Jessica: Oh that's interesting; it's true.

Chris: And you get a nice little swagger, here, where it’s just all she cares about is the status in the Washington press core.

John: Yeah and- it's not all based on Wayne Gretzky's resentment of not being picked in [mumbled].

Chris: No, not at all.

[Laughter]

Chris: Not Wayne Gretzky's resentment at all.

John: You know Stanley Cup won't get you respect in the Washington press core. There's actually a great photo of him sitting there right in front of that wall, one of my favorite shots, just mad.

Marc: He was just in an armchair. ‘Let her run it.’

John: Oh, there was the other thing. We spent like a day, where I may have been drunk. We spent like, a day coming up with the sleazy stories that she would promo.

Jessica: That was fun.

Melissa: What’s going on at naptime?

Chris: Secret call girl ring.

John: What's killing you?

Jessica: Which of your appliances are trying to kill you? I have to say, at home it's currently my microwave. That's a different story. But they are actually trying to kill you sometimes.

[Laughter]

John: How’s hiatus treating you there?

Jessica: You know what? It's been rough and I'd rather not talk about it. It’s good if we go back to work.

Chris: For those keeping score, here's the evil speech of evil.

John: Evil speech of evil.

Melissa: This is a great evil speech of evil.

John: That's right.

Melissa: I love this speech.

Jessica: Yeah.

John: Yeah this- and this was kind of the- this was kind of an honest thing where we realized that this con wouldn't work. Where just because the people that are Wayne Gretzky's audience members believe that only bad people go to jail, and therefore would not be scared by this story.

Chris: Well, and also again, it’s like the idea of what- what kind of scandal is- would appeal to her? It’s sex; it’s salacious details. It would have to go to some different level than the violation of civil rights.

Marc: And will you tell the listeners what the significance is of Ren Field and Betsy Wetsy?

[Laughter]

John: Yeah well, Betsy Wetsy is just a doll name for her, and that's one of the nicknames. Renfield is Dracula’s insane human assistant who was- we meet, I believe, locked up in a mental institution.

Chris: Oh that's right, that's true.

John: That's where the nicknames come from.

Jessica: Obviously Marc, it is Dracula's evil assistant.

[Laughter]

Jessica: I'm sorry.

John: You know what? It's just-

Chris: I mean, everybody knew that.

John: It's just supposed to make sense to Beth Broderick's character; it's a little bonus point for the people paying attention.

Chris: He cut the Dune reference in to keep Renfield.

John: If you cut Dune, you keep Renfield.

Jessica: We decided to let that one go, yeah.

[Laughter]

John: And Gina really tees off nicely in here. And this is also an interesting idea that Nate’s not unaware of this role in the group is destructive. But he doesn't care when he does it.

Jessica: That's true.

Chris: Right.

John: And it's interesting this leads right into Top Hat where we see he's back in that position and it’s consuming him at the end of that episode. You know, where she- there's actually an interesting arc in the second season where Sophie's smarter than Nate, and is more personally developed. She understands she has to get her head together or she's gonna wind up dead. Where Nate just really spirals out in a more addictive style. Nice- nice zoom.

Chris: Nice bullet.

Marc: The ninja zoom!

Chris: And this, what a-

John: What a hit, oh man.

Jessica: That stunt was amazing.

Chris: This is- to talk about- talk about this stunt, Marc.

Melissa: This is amazing.

Chris: What happened?

John: Because when we saw this on dailies, we thought you killed her.

Jessica: We thought you killed the stunt woman.

Marc: I did too, and um, basically she took a hit really hard.

Chris: I mean, so the car actually hit the stunt woman.

Marc: Yeah, she jumped up a bit. Normally-

Chris: How fast was the car going?

Marc: Normally you wouldn't take that much impact, but she took a lot, she took a lot.

Chris: And was that her regular stunt double who does the flips?

Marc: No this was a different stunt girl that we had, someone who can-

John: Who then left the set right after and went on to live a perfectly healthy life in another state.

[Laughter]

Marc: No, she was fine. She got up; she was great.

John: Yeah.

Marc: The other problem is when we had Beth Riesgraf there, there was a pile of red ants that kept coming-

Jessica: Oh, that was-

Melissa: Climbing up on her, that was-

Marc: She was always like ‘Come on, shoot! The ants are getting me!’

Melissa: I remember she was trying to blow them away.

John: Now does anyone remember why he's a postman?

Jessica: Because postmen don't get noticed.

Melissa: Nobody notices them.

John: That's right, and what’s the classic G. K. Chesterton story that we were referencing? 

Chris: The job depends on this.

Jessica: The postman?

John: The job- no 

Chris: We've got five new writers out there who know the answer.

[Laughter]

John: They all know that we’re referencing G. K. Chesterton, The Invisible Man.

Chris: They're out there thumbing through Dune right now waiting for us.

[Laughter]

Melissa: Rieder and Glenn are going down.

John: No, one of the first mystery stories I ever read was a G. K. Chesterton mystery story where he figured out the killer was the postman because nobody pays attention to the postman. It's the only person who goes in and out of buildings without ever being noticed.

Jessica: Wow.

John: I’m fairly sure that's where- and this of course is Deep Throat. This is where we spiral off into Three of the Hunter,

Chris: This is Deep Throat folks.

Jessica: I know that one.

Chris: Our only note for this scene was: he must step out of shadows.

Jessica: It’s true.

John: We didn't care where the shadows were.

Jessica: I don't think we wrote the rest.

Chris: We wanted it to be a parking garage, I'll say that right now. But if it couldn't be a parking garage, it was like: he must step out of shadows.

Marc: I looked, I tried to find a parking garage, I swear.

[Laughter]

Marc: It was gonna be a company move; I couldn't do it.

John: No, I understand.

Marc: This is actually in the basement of the-

Chris: No, it works great.

John: It does work great.

Marc: -assembly building.

John: Especially with the elevator, with the cage door. I always love those.

Chris: You couldn't oversmoke this, right, there's smoke, right?

John: I think Tim’s actually on fire right now.

[Laughter]

John: Generating so much smoke in this scene. This is where we spiral- I remember- I think we spun up the virally evolving toxin, and there was that guy I went into that long bit and you looked at me like, ‘Wait, is that real?’ ‘No no, it's not real at all, don't worry about it.’

Marc: I think we did this- we did this scene, we did her scene outside of the assembly room, we did the scene of her breaking into the office; I think that was all one day in the same building.

John: Wow.

Chris: Wow. Boy that's a lot.

Jessica: And how many days did you guys have to shoot this? Was it seven?

Marc: Seven days.

John: It’s seven days. Most network shows are 8-12.

Chris: Yes.

John: Most 8; some 12; us 7, occasionally 6½. 

Melissa: We don't mess around.

Marc: And the guy who shoots second-unit was busy.

Melissa: It was rather busy, shooting first-unit.

John: Right, yeah.

Jessica: Oh right, yeah.

Chris: By the way, I think the- you filled in on this one also. We should note that, I think- 

John: You had like a week prep on this; there was cancellation-

Marc: Yes. Yes.

Melissa: This one we jumped on.

John: And did a great job because this is visually very- this is very layered and it's very complex. And- I'm sorry, that outfit kills me every time.

Marc: It's funny, because everybody got to play a part in this except our grifter, Sophie, who usually gets to play characters.

Jessica: That's true, yeah.

John: Yeah, that's the idea. And also the idea was to, you know, also start easing her out of that, you know, she's only around really for two more episodes of this season.

Marc: And here again is another mention of the red file.

John: There you go, flashback. And the murderous, besuited Eliot. Tim really dug in on the paranoia here. He really-

Marc: Yeah.

John: That's a menacing, scary look.

Marc: Yes, it was a lot of lighting. 

[Laughter]

John: The shadow’s on the wall; that's very nice.

Marc: God bless Dave Connell.

John: And then back to the apartment of crazy.

Marc: Yes, and more teasing the little sister.

Jessica: That was so fun.

Chris: It's great her leaning up against him, too.

John: It was interesting to watch. Like I said, the pairings that wound up happening this year evolved. And not just because we wound up losing Gina for the back half of the season, but the Parker/Eliot thing got really interesting. And then the Eliot/Sophie thing got really interesting early in the season, that sort of, you know, now that he's forgiven her he's actually a confidant because he's the only one whose overawed by Nate, you know?

Jessica: That's true. I think it's funny, because last season I think-

John: Is that a good look, too, by the way, Reider?

Jessica: No, I actually didn't hear the last thing you said because I was kind of focusing on that, but the suit it- just kidding, I always listen to John when he talks. Otherwise he threatens to fire me. But I think-

John: Rat.

[Laughter]

Jessica: Or sometimes he actually does it; I just ignore it. But the first season it was a lot of, like, building Parker and Hardison’s relationship and like, we really love that and really enjoyed writing it. But this here was really fun to do more of the brother/sister stuff between Parker and Eliot and even like Eliot and Hardison. And that was, like, the most fun thing in my opinion to write, cause that was just so family-like, you know, a dysfunctional, funny, loving family.

John: And also Chris and Aldis are kind of like brothers in Portland. Like, hanging out with them, that relationship is very real.

Chris: And Beth, too.

Marc: I love this little beat of - just jumping in - of just, Hardison explains everything he's doing and just saying ‘you doubt me? Look at this.’ And it's happening in real time.

Chris: I like- this was a very numbers thing. You came up with this. 

John: I came up with this because I have friends who are journalists and, you know, one of the things they talk about, is the fact that every journalist cultivates like 3 or 4 good sources on the hill, but the overreliance on those sources means they can never call them on their bullshit. And that turned into this kind of-

Chris: But it's nice; the math part I like, too.

John: The math part is nice, too. It's a nice bit of physics bullshit.

Chris: Math porn.

John: Math porn.

[Laughter]

Chris: We don't do a lot of that.

John: Project Destiny, by the way, is a lovely callback to The Core, the movie I did in 2003. 

Jessica: More quizzing.

Chris: Available on Amazon.

John: Available on Amazon. I just wanna say, a lot of science fiction writers like John Scalzi and Joss Whedon, they really like it.

[Laughter]

John: And, you know, it comes highly recommended. No. This is- the stripper scene is ridiculously funny and is really one of the better flashbacks. Just- those flashes are tough, because they have to be one shot, really, and they have to convey an enormous amount of information as fast as possible. 

Chris: Now here, this is- we’re getting into the paranoia sequence. This is great, I love this.

Melissa: Just the water everywhere.

Marc: This was, yeah, we did everything; every time she sees water, we just went to slow motion. 

Chris: It’s so well done. It’s- it's all- just you saw that the choice of water really plays out here. Because it's everywhere.

John: Where did you get that fish tank? Who has that fish tank?

[Laughter]

Marc: No, I requested the fish tank.

John: Who has that fishtank in their office? Nobody has that fish tank in their office.

Marc: That was the one request I had from the art department.

John: And the whole idea is they're basically breaking this woman's sanity, which is- 

Jessica: That’s fun.

John: But she made a nice older man try to commit suicide, and she’s deserving of it. 

Melissa: She deserves it.

Jessica: That was one of the challenges, I think, of spending so much time with her, is that we had to keep reestablishing her villainy so that we didn't feel bad for her. Cause like, when you spend so much time with her, we didn't want to make her into the victim.

John: Particularly Beth Broderick, who is a particularly sympathetic charming actor, we didn't want to-

Chris: Well it's a testament to her, because it's true, a lot of these ones you want, sort of, physically imposing bad guy when you're putting them in in this kind of Saw-like trap.

[Laughter]

Jessica: Yeah, totally.

Chris: Seriously.

John: ‘This is Jigsaw. In front of you is a briefcase full of money orders.’ What no- not saw what are you doing?

Chris: A kind of psychological Saw.

John: Yeah, but it's interesting, this is the one of the rules we have, which is things can't just go randomly wrong, they have to go wrong because of either something we've set up that is an unintended consequence, or they've succeeded too well. And Marc where did you get all these amazing vehicles?

Marc: This was the local national guard. 

[Laughter]

Marc: Again, Portland opening up its doors to us.

Chris: This is a product of our- of that trip we took to scout locations, which if our wives were listening right now, was to see things like this and not to drink.

[Laughter]

Marc: Yes it was.

Chris: Not to go to strip clubs.

John: Exactly.

Marc: And they gave us everything.

Chris: So you see-

John: So cut the silent treatment, ok? It's right there!

Chris: So this is why we went, so we can have this sequence, so now you know.

Jessica: Chris how's your hiatus going?

[Laughter]

John: So yes, this was the local national guard; all their vehicles, all their guys in uniform.

Marc: Personnel, guys in uniform, all their vehicles. They basically do all the repairs on vehicles that are used to also be a big firing range where they test weapons as well. That's why they kept saying ‘Don't go up the hill.’

John: Really?

Marc: ‘Don't go up the hill, there's a couple things that haven't gone off yet.’

Chris: This is a great shot right here.

John: Yeah this we couldn't have built this, probably.

[Laughter]

Chris: No.

Jessica: Probably not.

John: I'm thinking on seven days we couldn't have put that together. That's a good looking bunker. And there's Beth Broderick charging the fence like a trooper.

Marc: Charging the fence. We do have a stunt person in this shot, but we used her just in the one little brief shot. Beth wanted to go all the way over. I'm like ‘No no, I've got a lot more work to do with you.’

Melissa: I remember writing this and we thought once she throws the purse over, that's commitment. If a woman throws a purse over a fence.

Chris: Oh wow, that's her folks!

Marc: Yeah, cause it was written, I think, just tossing the purse and then she's over. I'm like, ‘No, we gotta carry this over.’

John: Yeah no, that's Beth Broderick on the barbed wire, yeah.

Jessica: In those heels, that's moxie. That's not hubris, that's moxie.

John: ‘That's not hubris, that's moxie.’ Nicely done. And now yes, cause that's just a poorly thought out idea.

[Laughter]

John: But she's driven by paranoia and madness and so-. And Sophie has seen the wages of her obsession.

[Laughter]

John: This is a- this is also a pattern that we wind up, which is Hardison in trouble and everyone kind of enjoying yanking him around a little. Because he's usually on the other- and I think we say this actually in this one. It’s like, ‘Not so funny being on the other side.’

Jessica: Yup.

John: Yup and the parallel interrogations. This was a ton of fun.

Jessica: This was my- I think these were my favorite scenes of the whole episode. Just Hardison playing around with this guy. I don’t- I just love this whole part; writing it was fun, watching it was fun.

Chris: Oh, I love this line here about ‘This is not a planned community’? That was perfect.

[Laughter]

Marc: ‘She's a freak, man.’

John: No. And these- and this is interesting. This should be taken from The Closer. This is like- this shooting style is dead serious. No- and these are- and these are actual soldiers right? One of them was.

Marc: No no, these guys are both actors.

John: The gate guys are-

Marc: The gate guys are, yeah.

John: Actual soldiers, right.

Marc: And the guys in the hallways.

John: Yeah. And she's gone and the problem is, and this is another thing, again, when you've got a five hander, it’s like who’s in the game, who’s out of the game at any given point. Who’s dead and who's been blown. Yeah, it's not fun. You know, there's a lot of shows with one lead and four sidekicks, and having like really five-hander is-

Jessica: Those lucky bastards

John: Like yeah, those lucky bastards.

Chris: And another one of our almost real time endings. I’d say this-

John: I’d say this is the pattern of the second season, that we really got into about episode three or four. Acts four and five are almost real time.

Chris: Almost always really time.

John: Act four in particular.

Chris: Sometimes 3, 4, and 5.

John: Yeah, act 4 in particular.

Marc: Here's where Eliot gets to toy with Hardison.

Melissa: Yes, just so much fun.

John: Yeah, just so much frustration and rage. Just the little shit eating grin there, yeah, because it's usually the other side. Cause there's nothing funnier than Chris Kane annoyed. Chris Kane annoyed is money.

Chris: And that was- she just did that, right?

Jessica: Yeah, that was not scripted.

Chris: A little found moment.

John: She just found a gas mask. And I like she's completely oblivious to the things that might go horribly wrong. For Parker this is actually amusing.

Melissa: It’s fun.

Jessica: It's all a game, yeah.

John: I also love, again, both establishing her mania and her villainy here, that she will sell out humanity for a chance to be in the bunkers.

Marc: Right.

John: Even in this moment, she's a weasel. Yeah, we’ll have no mercy for her. 

Jessica: Yup, it’s true.

John: And I also like- it was a great job by makeup and wardrobe. But particularly make-up and hair on this one, to slowly spool out her look-

Jessica: Yeah.

John: -over the course of the act.

Marc: And keeping the continuity. This is where I said to Aldis, I said ‘This is your moment where you get to be Samuel L. Jackson for a moment.’

John: Oh when he flips, when he's got the information. Yeah we saw these in dailies actually- that look up right there-

Jessica: Yeah, that was-

John: That was like, ‘woah, what the hell is that?’

Jessica: ‘What’d you do to Aldis?!’

Marc: Yeah, I said ‘You've gone from crazy weird scared paranoid, give us a good-’

John: ‘I want you to reach into the bag and take out a wallet.’ No, he's really- and the slam, the hand slam was great. This- and this guy did a really good job. Now these- this whole act- and this was- But again, we’re talking about sort of the things you find in second season, is you go from making 13 little perfect ones, to learning how to make 100. Is you really start finding out it’s ok to just live in one scene for an act, if it's a really entertaining scene.

Chris: In one set. Yeah, like when we broke it, it was like act 4 is the army. That’s where we’re living.

John: And really only one sequence - interrogation and rescue. That’s it; there's nothing else really going on. In the first season we found this very static, and just being able to trust the actors and the characters now, this is a ridiculously entertaining act.

Jessica: Yeah.

Marc: I mean, look at all the vehicles they gave us, it's unbelievable.

John: That's your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentleman. Helping out making Leverage.

Jessica: Thank you for that.

John: Also, there's a little throw away there where Sophie explains that, you know, people don't look at generals in the eyes, they just look at the ranks. It's a little-

Marc: Yeah, the stars and bars.

John: There's a little hint to Sophie's background there, sorta background that- Gina had come up with that, we’re kind of seeding through. And these guys trying to decide which ones, who’s crazy. Oh, and the whole bit about them signing the nukes, what had been the news right before was the fact that they had accidentally flown those nukes. Remember that story? The Air Force had lost track of four nukes for a couple days. And we were like, well we could make up something ridiculous or just take the incredibly terrifying thing that's on CNN.

Jessica: Right, yup. Used what they actually did.

John: We wind up making- we have we wound up making up not a lot on this show.

Chris: No yeah, we try- We find ridiculous things, we try to work it in.

Jessica: It’s true.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Whenever possible.

Melissa: At times we have to scale back reality and say people aren't gonna buy this, it's too crazy.

Jessica: Totally true.

John: Absolutely. No, there's a lot of- there’s a couple- couple times where people go ‘Eh, it’s a little much’ is always the real thing.

Jessica: Yeah, it's never something we've made up.

John: The stuff we've just bullshitted, they always buy.

Jessica: Totally true.

Chris: And this is a good example of sometimes people say, ‘Well how would they get away with this or, you know, get past levels of security?’ Well in this one, they get just enough out of the perimeter, and then their cover is blown pretty quickly. So, you know, we’re not saying that the entire US Army is duped by our guys on the fly.

John: But a lot of that's- A lot of it is, in this season, is establishing all they really ever buy themselves is 15 seconds. But the stuff they can pull off in that 15 seconds is why they are who they are, you know. And that's the thing, is at this point, you know, he knows they gotta get the hell out of dodge, and that's why they split up, and that’s why they’re getting ready to do the blow off. The cackle bladder. 

Marc: And they have a great escape vehicle.

John: They have a fantastic Hyundai, which really delivers for us here.

Melissa: Which Tim always really drives hard.

Chris: Do they give us product integration in the commentaries?

John: They did actually, we get an extra 20 grand for saying how bad ass this car is.

Jessica: Every time we say it, they give us money.

John: Yeah I like it. Actually it's a pretty- and boom!

Chris: And Marc, I think I remember you called saying, ‘I was just checking to see if we blast through the gate?’

Jessica: Yeah that was yours, was it?

John: Who were you talking to?

[Laughter]

Marc: Yeah exactly I was like, ‘Ok, sorry.’

John: We’re usually calling every week insisting on something exploding, I don't know why you're calling us to ask if they can go through a gate.

Jessica: Can the gate then explode after they drive through? Because that’d be even better. 

John: And basically that's the whole idea, is they've only bought 15 seconds, the con is unraveling, and how fast can they play it out?

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: I like the delivery that these- they give in these little beats, little banter back and forth, and Tim’s just, ‘Mhm, yeah, mm.’

John: Yeah, he's really digging in. And she's even more unraveled. No, it’s lovely.

Jessica: I like this part how, like, usually with our villains; we sort of lead them through to the end. But this one, like, we just spun her up so tight that, like, the fifth act is almost just her spinning out on her own, you know?

John: It's really just getting out of her way at this point.

Chris: And was this-? Just for the tech geeks. Is this a steadi-?

Marc: There's that red file reference.

Chris: Was this a steadicam or-?

Marc: Yeah that was steadicam. Steadicam and 360.

John: Oh the- him and- [laughs] this is actually a prelude to something else in the season finale, but Eliot- Eliot in various iterations; the writers were playing around with how menacing he needed to be when he came out of the bathroom. And then we realized you know what? No matter who you are, coming out of a bathroom with rubber gloves is just never a good thing.

Jessica: That's true.

John: Nobody ever comes out of a bathroom with rubber gloves to help you.

Marc: And you can barely see it but we also line the walls with plastic as well.

John: Yeah, you just know that's a bad thing. And the fact that he actually- they sold that, too. That was a big comedy beat.

Chris: He got maced.

Jessica: That was fun.

John: Now this is great, and this is what's amazing, is that this is what's a big chunk of stuff with none of our actors.

Marc: Yes.

John: And all the local Portland actors were great cause that guy’s local. Is the newscaster that she replaces, is she a newscaster or is she a local actress?

Marc: No, she's a local actress.

John: Yeah, and she's got a great look, she looks exactly like that sort of financial, you know, on Wayne Gretzky's network that kind of financial, you know-

Chris: Yes, Versus I think is the network. The hockey channel?

[Laughter]

Jessica: Yeah, the financial girl on Versus.

John: The financial girl on Versus. Exactly. I love- we're gonna get sued by Wayne Gretzky and have no way to explain this. Like why? Got no idea. How do we-

Chris: And another thing to track here that is great, was the pill bottle, because the whole slander of our victim in the beginning was that he had taken antidepressants and was totally out of context and getting her to hold this pill bottle was a great part of the con.

John: Though I'll tell you, that was one of those moments where I realize you're 40, when we originally had the dad be a Vietnam vet. And then we did the math on driving the bus and we realized ‘oh shit, it’s Desert Storm. Oh man.’

Jessica: Right, yup that’s true.

John: And now, yes, just to taking the water with her coat. And by the way, I'd like to say uncle tenuse is coming to town. There we go! Just for the 60 year old comedy fans, that reference.

Jessica: Spit take.

John: Nice spit tak;, classic spit take.

Marc: She was great. She had another bit in the office, but it got cut for time.

John: It got cut. Oh, she was Beth's assistant. She was Beth Broderick's assistant, right?

Jessica: Right.

John: Yes, and then the crazy footage. And it was interesting again, that- Look, her eyes are tearing up; that's great. 

Marc: And she did this over and over and over again.

John: But that was- it’s like Knights Tale with jousting. We had to establish what the rules were. I always admire the fact that Knights Tale explains what joint is very effectively and very efficiently.

Melissa: Right.

John: And we had to explain what the rules of her expose style are early, so that we can then have a framework for the audience to see how each beat is falling into place.

Chris: This is how she's brought down.

John: And that's just crazy and screwed up.

[Laughter]

John: I like the fauxhawk on the second cop; I didn't notice that the first time around. And then Beth Broderick taking the hit, I believe.

Marc: We did get a stunt person just for the fall to the ground.

[Laughter]

Marc: There.

Chris: Wow.

John: Oh she's spun out- and now this is a great improv by the guy. Or you came up with this on the set, right? The- the chair push?

Marc: Yeah, I wanted to keep the whole idea that they are on live, he sees the light and he just pushes the girl in front of the camera, like, ‘go, go, go!’

Jessica: Nice.

John: And also, nice choice here, where this little gloat that she puts on right here about the destruction of probably someone she hates is nice. ‘I’m Monica freaking Hunter!’

[Laughter]

John: It is. It’s Network Spock welded onto Three Days of the Condor.

Chris: Yeah it’s the whatever your local 70’s paranoia.

Marc: And that's our local Portland newscaster, Joe.

John: Parallax view too. And that's our local anchor, that's right. There you go, redemption. The end, and the bad guy has suffered, brought down by their own sin. And America can go to bed secure that bad people are punished and good people triumph. And that's the way the world is; they should sleep better.

Jessica: Obviously.

Chris: There's a nice little ending. Who’s idea is it that Eliot‘s cooking here? To carry that forward from season one? Was that- I don't think that was in the script, was it?

Jessica: I don't know.

Melissa: It was in the script, and we followed it through a little with the pitch in the- I think one of the ones where he's like ‘I cook all my own food.’ We were trying to follow this through.

Chris: Grow my own food, that's true.

Melissa: We’re trying to make this very- that’s who Eliot is.

John: And you know, it's interesting, this- We wound up shooting up here in the apartment more than down by where we installed all those expensive monitors. Cause this was just a really kind of fun, intimate space.

Chris: Well this is also sort of the family area, when you're around the table on the bar.

John: Yeah, Eliot’s actually cooking a lot this season. He's kinda going back and forth; he's behind that counter a lot. The fact that they’re- it was kind of a running gag, we never really landed on it, but it goes through the season Nate never has control of his refrigerator again once the season begins.

Jessica: It’s true.

John: They're always stealing his food. Nate- there's a running gag where Eliot’s always icing up from the ice in his fridge.

Melissa: Right. 

Jessica: Yeah.

John: This is a nice beat.

Chris: A nice moment between- 

John: Where he admits he was a screw up, and she kind of admits that he was a screw up also. Yeah, it was hard. I mean, you really need to establish they can’t have a romantic relationship yet. They're not-

Jessica: Not there.

John: Not there, yeah. And that was the hard won wisdom of first season. They really land the sort of friends and something more beat at the end of this.

Jessica: I loved that throughout the season. I think, you know, that gets sprinkled in a lot and I’ve- you know, them as friends is just- I don't know; it seems so comfortable and there's so much there.

John: Two lonely people who wandered the earth, you know. There's very few people they've actually connected with over the course of their lives, so.

Jessica: I love these final moments with them.

John: There was a lot of these this season, with the, like, little character beat codas.

Chris: There's one between her and Eliot in Top Hat-

John: The next episode.

Chris: -with the same vantage point.

John: 207 there's- yeah.

John: Yeah and again it's- a lot of it is - it’s ok to just hang out with the characters. That was a lot of fun. Anything you wanna say before we take off?

Marc: No, I just- it's great to be able to direct a great script, so thank you girls.

Jessica: Thank you; it was fun.

Melissa: Our pleasure.

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Eliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Deveraux #Season 2 #Episode 5 #Season 2 Episode 5 #The Three Days of the Hunter Job

[iohourtime]

Yamada Ryosuke x Nakajima Yuto: The two who melted together (anan part 1)

anan 2184 (2020.01.22)

(There are more photos and a crosstalk. I'll post part 2 when I'm done translating.)

Hey!Say!JUMP’s Yamada Ryosuke san and Nakajima Yuto san graced our magazine [on this issue]. It is the first time we had this pair on the cover of anan. As sweet as chocolate, we captured the moment when they melted together for the cover gravure. It will bring out your memories of chocolate.

Yamada Ryosuke

When he heard that this issue’s theme is chocolate, “I love it” Yamada Ryosuke san replied immediately. “There’s one type I especially like. It is a penguin shaped milk chocolate that has a bitter caramel centre; it’s a luxury item that costs 300 yen each. Since the filming of “Moeyo Ken” was really tough, when I returned to the hotel after filming, I would treat myself to 1 piece to encourage myself. On the days where I had really difficult sword fighting scenes, I ate 2 (laughs). I like it that much. If I have to give a reverse Valentine gift to hardworking women? I will use good whiskey to make a highball and spend the time together with her. Since that is someone I like, I can send my thoughts straightly. I am not very good with the type that plays games. I don’t understand people who will not confess their love because they are afraid of being turned down, when they cannot suppress their feelings in the first place.

I played Yoshimori Ryoichi in “Kiokuya: Anata wo Wasurenai”. There were scenes where I cannot hold back my feelings. “The script for that scene said ‘1 tear roll down the face’, but I cried too much. Although it was NG at one point, in the end, that was the cut that was used. Ryoichi is a blend of Yuto and I. [Ryoich’s] ridiculously earnest part is Yuto’s and the taking action once he decided part is mine. His reaction to each thing that happened in front of him was interesting to play. I don’t need Kiokuya, who can erase people’s memories. There are no memories I want to erase; it’s just too painful if I lost [the memory] of the time I spent with the group. It spanned more than half of my life and there is nothing more fun than this.”

Nakajima Yuto

In the drama “Boku ha Doko Kara”, Takeuchi Kaoru, who has the ability to copy other people’s thoughts when he writes their texts, is played by Nakajima Yuto san. “Kaoru wanted to be a novelist, but thanks to his ability, he could not write his own work. ‘What am I’ was something that confused him. In order to show that side, I asked myself the same question; didn’t I become someone who wanted to find himself? I was grateful that I could make my own choices and enjoyed my own growth process. Although having the special power was troublesome to Kaoru, I would like to have a special power. Teleportation, shapeshifting, etc will be cool. I think I will transform into someone nobody knows and walk around the city a lot.

I often received Valentine’s chocolates from the staff on the film set. “They could be expensive and the person might have lined up at the shop for a long time to get them. When I think about that, I am really thankful for [the gift]. If I were to give someone [chocolates], I will give them classy and delicate chocolates. The type where there are many flavours and are lined up one-by-one [in the box]. That way, you can eat without getting bored, and that’s how I like it too. You can hold that and take a plunge to confess in a place where there are lots of people. Since you can use the power from the people around you who would say, “do your best!” (laughs) Right now, is there someone who would buy nice chocolates for me? I think it is important to set rewards. Especially when I am so busy with work and I start to lose track of myself, spoiling me a little will bring a lot of help to me. I think giving chocolates to someone who worked really hard as a reward is great.”

The Yama who wants to be spoiled belongs to me exclusively (smiles). - Yuto

The time the two of us spent together is important. - Yama

Click here for Cross talk and more pictures.

#anan 2184 #yamada ryosuke #nakajima yuto #translations #BL vibes are strong #hey say jump #hey! say! jump #kiokuya #boku ha doko kara #記憶屋 #僕はどこから #yutoyama #やまゆと

[untitledtallgeesepodcast]

[TRANSCRIPT] Episode 0: The Anime They Once Saw (Or Didn’t See)

Kat  0:00  

Hello and welcome to the Untitled Tallgeese Podcast, a podcast where four of us will watch Gundam Wing and then tell you all about Gundam Wing. My name is Kat, I write about comics on the internet, and I will be your episode moderator for today.

Mallory  0:17  

And I'm Mallory, and I also write about comics. 

Cathy  0:20  

I'm Cathy, I don't write about comics. I am actually a lawyer, which sucks.

All  0:26  

[laughter]

Caitlin  0:28  

I am Caitlin. I'm a PhD researcher in Tokyo right now working on Japanese film. Yeah. 

Kat  0:33  

Extremely legit. 

Caitlin  0:35  

Are we? 

Cathy  0:36  

and we're all here to talk about the Gundam Wing.

Kat  0:38  

[crosstalk] I mean we might be.

Kat  0:41  

We are here to talk about Gundam Wing, the maybe not critically acclaimed, but fandom, okay, audience favorite anime  that was released in 1995 in Japan and then made its way to the US in March 2000 on Toonami. So, we're going to talk about our fandom history and our history with the show Gundam Wing and I guess I will kick that off. So I-- I grew up watching anime because my dad is a huge nerd. So we were obviously watching Toonami. And the promos blew my mind. My friends and I all got really into it in middle school. Then we discovered fanfiction and we started with Heero/Relena fan fiction. [Caitlin: Ugh.] And then then we realized people could be gay. 

Caitlin  1:29  

Uugh, thank god.

Kat  1:30  

That opened up like, I know it was like the clouds parted. rainbows fell from the sky. We were like, Oh, wow.

Mallory  1:39  

[singing] "A whole new world"

Kat  1:40  

[laughter] And then I don't know. I wrote a lot of fanfiction posted it on FF dotnet, got into fandom and then stayed in fandom. So, Mallory?

Mallory  1:53  

I didn't have cable growing up. So whatever anime exposure I got was like, whatever was on Saturday morning cartoons. So Digimon was my first fandom and I was really into that. 

Kat  2:08  

Hell yeah 

Mallory  2:09  

And that sort of like bled into Gundam Wing somehow, I don't really remember how. But I found my way to Gundam Wing, read a lot of fanfic, hadn't ever really watched the show. And then in high school, my friend had some like random episodes from the first season question mark. I have no idea. So I watched those, and really enjoyed that? But I have no idea what their context was, so I'm coming at this pretty, pretty new.

Cathy  2:44  

So you have never watched it from beginning to end?

Mallory  2:47  

No. 

Cathy  2:47  

Got it. This will be fun. 

Mallory  2:50  

I'm expecting to be really disapproving of all the adults in the room. I find that like, now that I'm watching anime about kids, I'm really protective of these kids like, "Hey, this is really unethical!"

Cathy  3:02  

So I'm like Kat, I started watching anime when I was I think around Middle School. I had a friend who got me into Sailor Moon, then I think it was Dragon Ball that was on Toonami at the time? I can't really remember the chronology. 

Kat  3:16  

Yeah. 

Cathy  3:17  

But then they did the promos for Gundam Wing, so then I started watching that on Toonami. And it was my first mecha series. And my first Gundam series, I think it's a lot of people's first Gundam series in the United States. 

Cathy  3:31  

I have attempted to do similar projects to this multiple times where I go back and I rewatch, and I haven't really had the opportunity to actually finish those rewatches. But my memory of it is still kind of stuck of when I was in middle school slash high school. I did get into fandom, so I expect to remember a lot of inaccuracies about what happened. [laughter] Because a lot of what my facts have with this series are have now mutated and changed. But I was a huge Gundam Wing fan, I think it still remains my favorite of the Gundam series just because I have so many memories of it? But I really excited to talk to Mallory, about what you feel and your experiences because it's been so long since I've talked to somebody who actually has never seen the series and doesn't know the story. So I'm super excited about this.

Caitlin  4:24  

Yeah!

Cathy  4:25  

All right, Cait, tell us about your family history.

Caitlin  4:27  

Yeah, so similar to all of us, I guess, I watched anime growing up. I got into Sailor Moon sort of through an accident of just happening to see a very specific episode on Toonami in like 1999, 1998 maybe. So after that, I got really into anime and really into the internet. I think I was very depressed as a child. [laughter] So I spend a lot of time online. I believe that like my my first memories of Gundam Wing are when it was on Toonami: Sailor Moon was on first and then Dragon Ball Dragon Ball Z, and then Gundam Wing. And then they also were showing like the quote unquote unedited versions late 

Cathy  5:09  

Yes!

Kat  5:09  

Yes, the midnight run 

Cathy  5:11  

The midnight run Right. 

Cathy  5:12  

Yeah. So very specific memories of like, I think I was mainly attracted to the, like, team format of Gundam if that makes sense? [Cathy: Yeah yeah yeah!] where it was used to sailor Sailor Moon where you have a team of color coded characters. And I'd, at a younger age been really into Power Rangers, where you had a team of color coded characters. So the marketing of Gundam Wing really appealed. You know, cuz I was just a kid watching on TV, I never really, I don't know if I watched the whole thing as a kid, but I got really into the fandom. And by 2000, 2001, I already knew about gay stuff online.

Kat  5:48  

Wow. Look at you early bloomer.

Caitlin  5:50  

Yeah. So So I got really into the various Gundam Wing pairings, I think it was mainly, I was mainly a 3x4, I think as a child. I went through some, 1x2, and then 2x5 phases. [laughter]

Caitlin  6:09  

I still am a big advocate for 2x5, I think it's underrated.

Kat  6:12  

I'm a big 2x5. 

Cathy  6:13  

2x5 is a good pairing, it definitely is. 

Kat  6:16  

Yeah.

Cathy  6:16  

It's a better pairing as an adult. 

Kat  6:17  

So okay, I think that's actually a pretty good bounce off. So these are the things we remember about Gundam Wing. It was marketed, like, I remember the Toonami marketing 'cause I was really hype for this show. They had like these really extreme commercials. 

Caitlin  6:34  

Yeah. 

Kat  6:35  

Um, and I thought the voice acting was good. I don't know, maybe we'll revisit that during this watch, to see if it still is, 

Caitlin  6:43  

[crosstalk] Was it dubbed?, 

Cathy  6:44  

[crosstalk] It was dubbed, yes.

Kat  6:44  

But I was ready for it. It was dubbed. 

Caitlin  6:46  

It was dubbed. One thing with the with the Japanese voice acting though, is that it's every single famous voice actor from the 90s. And so you can, you can use Gundam Wing is like a six degrees of every single voice actor from the 1990s. 

Caitlin  6:59  

Oh, that's cool.

Mallory  7:00  

I mean, there are a lot of big American or like, dub dub names on the dub side, too.

Cathy  7:06  

One of the things that I remember very strongly about Toonami is that they had what I think we would now call anime music videos, AMVs. 

Kat  7:16  

Yeah 

Cathy  7:17  

But they would play

Caitlin  7:18  

Yeah, 

Cathy  7:18  

These montage trailers, where they'd stich together all their different series. And as they accumulated more anime series, these became really, I think, cinematic and gripping tales, where they would kind of try to tell a story to be about, like bravery or honor or like, 

Kat  7:36  

It's like, plugged directly into my little 11 year old brain like, Whoa,

Cathy  7:40  

Yes. And one of them was, I remember was called, like, "technological development" or something like that, that featured a lot of the Gundam Wing clips. 

Kat  7:47  

Oh, yeah, cuz you only download them from like, KaZaa,  or whatever horrible thing I was putting into my computer. 

Caitlin  7:52  

Yeah. We gotta see if we can find those. [crosstalk] They must be online somewhere.

Cathy  7:56  

They are online. And I think they actually came out with like, I think somebody had either like hand by hand remastered them.

Kat  8:03  

[crosstalk] Oh sick.

Cathy  8:02  

Or they created a remastered version of it. They're wonderful. But that's I think one of the things about Toonami that I remember really strongly was Gundam Wing kind of is one of their, like epitome of like, Cool Anime that I feel like Toonami did and what it did was like they stiched together all these different things Outlaw Star and Tenchi Muyo and all these other stories to create a story about teenage growth, which is kind of strange and also weirdly fitting at the end of the day about like where Gundam is in the whole universe. 

Kat  8:07  

I think that's one of the reasons it blew up so much here because the marketing was really intense. Like Toonami, like it sort of right at the beginning, like people were into Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z was getting big. And like the manga boom was sort of happening in bookstores. So contextually, I think, Cartoon Network knew what the hell they were doing. They were like, "We can market the hell out of this."

Caitlin  8:55  

And also objectively speaking, Gundam Wing was one of their cooler series. Like, Sailor Moon is cool. Tenchi Muyo is not cool. 

All  9:04  

[laughter]

Kat  9:06  

Yeah. 

Caitlin  9:07  

Even even if you love it, it's not really cool. Dragon Ball. Love it. I don't know if it's really cool. Gundam Wing had like a very strong -

Kat  9:14  

[crosstalk] like the chad of animes

Caitlin  9:16  

- adult aesthetic to it, even though it was like, relatively, well, relatively appropriate for like 12 year olds. 

Kat  9:23  

And they swore during the midnight show.

Caitlin  9:25  

Oh yeah, 

Kat  9:26  

They swore and there was blood. 

Caitlin  9:27  

So it was very cool. And so I felt very adult watching it even though I didn't really understand what was going on because it's all this fake politics crap.

Kat  9:35  

Yeah, I was gonna say I did do a rewatch in like, like, right after college, so it was probably around 2010 ish, maybe? And I don't think we finished the series, but it was like, wow, I used to think this was very deep. [laughter] And I thought all the people in it who are the adults like Mallory, you were mentioning earlier, like they're actually like 17 and 19 

Cathy  10:01  

Yes! 

Kat  10:01  

in this show. So watching it at the age of 21, I was like, "Ooh no, don't give these people anything."

Cathy  10:09  

I was actually thinking about that. Because when you said Mallory, "oh, well, I become very protective of the children. I disapprove the adults," in my head of thinking "what adults?" [crosstalk, Caitlin: yeah what adults?] because actually, in Gundam Wing, there's a funny thing where people are either 15, 25 or like 70. And there's no in between and nobody really makes adult decisions. So it, That was one thing that really shocked me because as I go back to revisit it, I think, "Oh my god, I'm actually older than almost everybody in this series."

Caitlin  10:39  

How old, how old is Treize supposed to be? 

Cathy  10:41  

He's like 23, or 24. 

Kat  10:42  

He's 19.

Cathy  10:43  

No, Zechs is 19.

Kat  10:44  

Oh, Zechs is 19. Right. 

Cathy  10:47  

I just the idea of giving people who, you know, would have either been in college or just graduate college in my worldview, huge robots. 

Kat  10:58  

I think the ages of all the characters gets obscured by the anime art style, you know?

Cathy  11:03  

Yeah. 

Kat  11:03  

In a lot of anime fandoms.

Mallory  11:04  

And when you're watching this, when you're a kid, you want to see yourself as the protagonist. So it makes sense that, you know, a 17 year old seems like old and cool, and I want to be that person. And then when you're 30, you're like, the 17 year old should not be at war. 

Kat  11:23  

Relevant is that we definitely watched Evangelion. That was our last series.

Caitlin  11:29  

I don't know, I think, I think Heero Yuy is doing fine in war. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be honest, as a 30 year old, I think these kids are much better at war than I would be. 

Cathy  11:39  

Well, so that's what I find kind of interesting, is that I think this series actually... I don't, I know this wasn't the point but when I rewatched it recently, or just like the first couple of episodes, it seemed, it made a lot of sense, because they were like 15 or 24. Like the series, actually stitches together... 

Caitlin  11:58  

Yeah. 

Cathy  11:58  

...really well, because of how young they are, and kind of like the purity of feeling that they have, which I think is 

Kat  12:05  

Yeah, it is, like 

Cathy  12:06  

only maybe 

Kat  12:07  

like that [indistinguishable?] 

Cathy  12:07  

which I think is like only really, truly possible because I have to think of them as like 15 or 21 or 19 year olds. that is not at all when I took away when I was watching in high school. Right? 

Mallory  12:21  

Well, I mean, right.

Caitlin  12:22  

Part of the ideology of Gundam in general is like trying to restore a form of hope, and youth to, like, young people growing up in Japan, who are the target audience for this, and this idea that, like, you still have the power to change the world, you still have the power to bring about peace in a way that you want, even though you're being manipulated and oppressed by all these crazy adults who make you pilot giant robots. So I think there's a significant, like part of the series is the fact that they are kids who have been recruited into child warfare, and now have to find some way out of that. And like my memory of the series is that even though most of, most of the decisions made are very bad, the kids in general are not making terrible decisions. They're making pretty good decisions.

Kat  13:12  

Yeah, the pilots themselves... 

Mallory  13:14  

[crosstalk] Yeah 

Kat  13:14  

...are like doing the best they can be doing in that circumstance. 

Cathy  13:17  

[crosstalk] Exactly, exactly

Kat  13:19  

But I think it's sort of interesting, 'cause it's like, to me Gundam Wing is definitely like a fandom era, because I think a lot of stuff exemplifies like...there's like a lot of tropes cycling through it. But also like, the series itself, is so perfectly...like, I think of it as a series that are so perfectly set up for fandom because there's a lot of like, here's my one episode mission, and we have to be at a safe house, I guess. And it's just like, a long interminable war. So there's like, a big, a lot of world building. Yeah, that creates all these spaces that sort of separate from all the political machinations of the series.

Caitlin  13:58  

And that's also I think, a lot of what it was meant to be when it was created within the Gundam franchise like it was it was designed to have sort of a BL appeal to girls writing for comic market and that sort of thing. So it had like the setup of five hot guys who you could combine in various forms. And then also like Gundam itself, in general, it's designed to be and a sort of open universe that you can step into at various points, which also facilitates fandom engagement 

Mallory  14:28  

[crosstalk] literal fandom bait. 

Caitlin  14:29  

usually in the form, yeah, usually in the form of model collecting, which is like one of the main Gundam forms of fandom which we probably won't talk about too much on the show. But you, you kind of

Kat  14:41  

Uh I've definitely built some Gundam models. 

Caitlin  14:43  

Yeah. Well, you will be the expert on that because I've never touched a Gundam model in my life. But that is like the big thing where you can you can get the model you can construct it, you can learn a little bit more about the, like, the technology and the different like details of the models and stuff like that. And it just gives you like a slight, like Little bit more of these like tiny narratives and that sort of what the fans are consuming rather than an overall plot that makes sense, which is not what Gundam has really.

Kat  15:11  

So Gundam [Wing] has like the cool robots but also these hot boys in them.

Caitlin  15:15  

That's what I want. 

Mallory  15:16  

I mean Well, that's exactly what I want to show right now. So it sounds perfect?

Kat  15:21  

Honestly, yeah.

Mallory  15:23  

I think Evangelion, sort of, because, Kat, you and I just finished -- or are almost finished with -- Neon Genesis Evangelion [Kat, crosstalk: we haven't done all the movies yet] which was also it was my first time [Cathy, crosstalk: Congratulations, laugh] watching the whole series...wow, grim 

Kat  15:40  

I also only consumed 

Mallory  15:42  

[crosstalk] grim 

Kat  15:42  

[crosstalk] I consumed it like piecemeal too 

Mallory  15:44  

And depressing

Kat  15:45  

It was great. 

Mallory  15:46  

Very good but um grim.

Kat  15:50  

Yeah it's pretty grim.

Cathy  15:52  

Yeah, it's interesting to me because I feel like Evangelion doesn't make a lot of sense as a cultural product unless you've consumed a series like Gundam or its ancestors before watching it and yet Evangelion is a lot of people's introduction to giant robot series. So I always find that kind of interesting...

Caitlin  16:13  

[crosstalk] It's very weird.

Cathy  16:14  

because it, it is subversive, and I think it's subversive even if you don't know the tropes of the giant robot series, of which Gundam is perhaps a prime example. Gundam Wing...

Kat  16:27  

So I was gonna ask that and like, would you say, since Evangelion is definitely a like the subversion of this genre, would you say Gundam Wing is like the type of series that it is subverting? Or do you think it's in a different place?

Caitlin  16:41  

Gundam Wing and Evangelion came out the same year? Gundam Wing is in some ways a, it's already like a parody form of the original iteration of Gundam. 

Kat  16:55  

Okay, so it's--is it like, um, like the pure essence of teens-robots.

Caitlin  17:02  

It's, it's more like, I feel like by the time of Gundam Wing, the tropes of the original Gundam series are so well set that a lot of things in Gundam Wing to, like the fans who watched the original Gundam or like later Gundams, seemed like a rehash but it was designed to bring in new fans. So something like Zechs Merquis is very clearly like a Char Aznable character. It's just sort of a reiteration of that.

Kat  17:29  

So is it like a Star Wars, like a Star Wars sequel?

Caitlin  17:33  

Like how the Force Awakens is kind of a rehash of yeah, of A New Hope. And then, but it still brings in a lot of fans and has appealing characters and good aesthetics

Kat  17:43  

Right, yeah, I guess I think of them, the two shows, as sort of like, splitting the take on... like, what would you say is like the ur-mecha show? 

Cathy  17:52  

The original Gundam 

Caitlin  17:54  

Original Gundam? 

Cathy  17:54  

Yeah, Mobile Suit Gundam. 

Caitlin  17:56  

I mean, they're, they're older iterations, there's other robot shows. But I feel like when people think of mecha, the first thing they think of is Mobile Suit Gundam. 

Cathy  18:06  

So the way like I now think of Gundam Wing after the fact of experiences I have now is that like Gundam Wing is actually a perfect like K-Pop boy band way that they built it and so if you can kind of think of it like that, like it's, you need enough of the tropes and symbols, so that everybody watches it and immediately knows it's a Gundam series.

Cathy  18:30  

Like the colors of Wing Gundam are so obviously 

Kat  18:34  

Yeah.

Cathy  18:34  

a Gundam Mecca and you need that you can't get away from it. And same thing with like Zech's having a mask it the reason I think of it as being in in the Kpop industry is like there's a derivative sense. And that's animated by both like Merchandising, and advertising and what audiences want but at the same time, it's like this incredibly pure understanding of what makes us like things? And like when you get that when you really get it, like, it doesn't matter how like, quote, unquote manipulative or exploitative it can seem like you love it. And that's enough, right to make it like a thing that we all want to keep coming back to.

Mallory  19:12  

And there's basically like, an archetype right? In  all of the different characters like you have the more

Kat  19:18  

Yeah, you have the serious one. 

Mallory  19:20  

That's what I was thinking.

Kat  19:21  

Like, the goofy one.

Mallory  19:23  

Yeah, the goofy one, the sort of mess 

Kat  19:25  

the ugly one, 

Mallory  19:26  

like really cute one.

Kat  19:29  

Yeah, that's why I was thinking American boy bands cuz they all have to have like a type of heartthrob. Yeah, I'm a bad boy. I love death.

Caitlin  19:38  

One of them's, one of them's a rapper.

Kat  19:40  

Okay, so we talked a little bit about how we got into it. We talked a little bit about fandoms. And we touched on pairings, do we want to go into pairings at all? Or like our fave characters, or who we think our fave characters will be Before this rewatch?

Cathy  19:54  

You know before we do that--Mallory, can you try to tell us what you think this series is about? I'm actually really curious, like before you do a complete viewing, like what? what is what is your understanding of what happens in Gundam Wing?

Mallory  20:08  

Um, there's a long interminable war. These boys are recruited by some shadowy government whatever. And they're piloting these mecha. Uugh, I just remember Duo being really annoying.

Caitlin  20:28  

[loud gasp] [laughter] [crosstalk] Oh my god.

Mallory  20:29  

I mean, not annoying, like, being sort of... 

Kat  20:32  

Wow. 

Mallory  20:33  

...the one the pushy one like, he's the challenging one to Heero's "I'm serious and dour." Literally, I have the most broad strokes impressions of what this show is. I just know it looked really fucking cool every time I saw it in, like, a commercial and couldn't watch it.

Cathy  20:55  

Fascinating.

Caitlin  20:57  

Honestly, even having seen Gundam Wing, I'm not sure I could explain it much better. I don't remember who recruited them.

Mallory  21:03  

Okay. Okay, that does make me feel better. Because I was like, Oh, I don't? Do I actually know what the show is? What am I getting myself into? 

Caitlin  21:14  

There's there's a lot of weird politics. 

Mallory  21:17  

Well, I'm really excited for that. And I don't mean that sarcastically. Like, I'm really excited to, to see what this world is like, because I remember, like images or impressions. But everything is like out of context. So it'll be cool to see what that context is. Like deja vu? Oh, I remember that. I've seen that in AMV.

Kat  21:48  

I remember this from fics that just rewrite scenes from this show.

Mallory  21:55  

Yeah, like, what do I know? What do I know of Gundam that is from fanfic only, or is actual canon? I'm curious to figure out.

Kat  22:10  

I think everyone's a lot less obnoxious in canon.

Caitlin  22:14  

That's true. 

Mallory  22:15  

Okay, okay. 

Caitlin  22:16  

This was a this was a really good fandom for the the fandom phenomenon of, you take a character's most, like, annoying trait, and you emphasize it like times 10 in your fanfic.

Cathy  22:28  

Yes.

Kat  22:28  

Yeah 

Caitlin  22:28  

Just so everybody knows you know what that character is like.

Kat  22:31  

Heero's gonna threaten to kill everybody all the time, constantly.

Caitlin  22:34  

"Omae o korosu."

Cathy  22:36  

[laughing crosstalk] And so, it's funny that you guys mentioned safe houses, because actually, there are very few safe houses in the original series. In fact, I think there's like maybe one or two scenes ever, where they are all in a safe house provided by one of their allies. And it's a really fascinating trope, because it like pervades the fanfic? But I remember, that I remember was like a big deal, like, I went back and I was like, actually, these people spend very little downtime with each other in the actual series and I find that fascinating.

Kat  23:12  

Right? So you have to fill it all in. 

Mallory  23:13  

Oh, wait, what?

Caitlin  23:14  

They actually barely know each other.

Cathy  23:16  

Yeah, they truly barely know each other. [crosstalk]

Mallory  23:18  

Wait. Oh no, I thought, I thought this was going to be like..

Kat  23:23  

[crosstalk] They actually never interact. 

Mallory  23:24  

we're going to get together and become like a team 

Caitlin  23:26  

No, no.

Cathy  23:26  

Absolutely not, 

Caitlin  23:27  

They don't fight together; It's 50 episodes of them not interacting. 

Cathy  23:31  

They, they literally have like, they like, there's probably one or two scenes in which all five of them are on the same battlefield at the same time. And almost every single one of those scenes involves them fighting with each other because like, 

Kat  23:44  

[crosstalk]Oh, yeah, they fight each other alone. 

Cathy  23:45  

What's going on? And this was the thing that I'm sure we'll come back to when I came back to this is when I was rewatching. It in college, I realized that of the two people who spend the most time with each other, it's like Trowa and Heero. Because, yes, it is what arc where they actually go on a road trip, which like, 

Kat  24:03  

it's great. I wrote a thing 

Cathy  24:04  

like wiped it from my memory when I was thinking about the series, but it really drives home. You know, again, to your point like what of this series do I did I remember that was just from fanfic, and was just what like the fanfic I read very specifically. And so that was one of the things is like, when you come back as an adult, I was like, all of this stuff is so much more interesting to me because like, I actually, like, I don't get me wrong, I still have shipping opinions. But like, I'm older and I have I I'm famous for this. And Kat knows this. I like don't have OTPs. And I'm like not very good about actually being very loyal to pairings. And so as an adult coming back to this, I was like, Oh, this is actually really interesting because the permutations that fandom came up with also came from, like,  non-canon material, because there's a lot of non-canon material, like promotional images that bear no resemblance whatsoever to canon. 

Kat  24:54  

Okay, I would,  I would call those extra canonical, right?

Caitlin  24:58  

No, they're, they're extra canonical, they count in some form. 

Kat  25:02  

Right? 'Cause they're official.

Cathy  25:04  

I guess so. I mean, sure, we'll talk about that as time comes but like.

Caitlin  25:08  

Listen, a canon is not just the story. It's the entire media mix around it. It's those, it's those things that you can collect. It's the extra manga. It's Frozen Teardrop, 

Cathy  25:18  

Like, Gundam Wing actually, I think is one of the few franchises I know where like "pair the spares" was a real merchandising tactic. 

Kat  25:26  

Yes, it was. 

Cathy  25:27  

And so, so everybody had somebody... gay, I mean, like, not like, 

Kat  25:34  

Wufei had two! 

Cathy  25:35  

They had a gay and a straight interest that they were paired up with. And so, um, so it's like, fascinating to me to come back and be like, actually, the canon is a lot more flexible and interesting than I remembered it.

Caitlin  25:49  

The canon for me is like, remarkable in its commitment to not officially putting anyone together. Like it was, it's very good at balancing out all of the different pairings that it wants to support. 

Mallory  26:01  

Mm hmm. 

Caitlin  26:02  

Um, it's interesting to see which ones got picked up as the main two in fandom, which for me, were always 1x2 and 3x4 dominated the fandom, because they're both like, friendly, maybe talkative, personable guy and like silent, brooding, weirdo, 

Kat  26:22  

Warrior. 

Caitlin  26:22  

What fandom loves! Fandom loves that exact dynamic in every form. And so like, what 1, 1 and 3, were never going to work together because they're both silent and brooding. Fandom was never gonna pick that up. It's too It's too boring. It's not dynamic enough, right?

Mallory  26:37  

Like, you can't fight. There's no banter,

Cathy  26:39  

Which is actually weird, because if you go back and watch the episodes, you'll see it. Heero actually is not that quiet. And Trowa is like a nutcase. And so 

Kat  26:48  

they're really funny together, 

Cathy  26:49  

when they are together, they're actually incredibly dynamic in ways that in fact, the canon doesn't establish 1x2, or 3x4 to be. And so it is really fascinating, because I do agree with Caitlin. What came out of this canon is very different from what I think the show gives. And I don't know the show was like, open minded because it wanted to sell as much merch as possible or

Caitlin  27:13  

It's that.

Cathy  27:13  

Yeah, so I don't know.

Mallory  27:14  

Capitalism.

Kat  27:16  

I am gonna say I think the show is a 3x4 shipper. Like I think if the show had a pairing, it would be a three, it would be 3x4, like from my recollections of the show

Mallory  27:26  

Yeah

Caitlin  27:26  

I always thought that was true. But now 

Cathy  27:28  

I disagree. 

Caitlin  27:29  

I feel like I'm gonna go into this and and be like, they never

Kat  27:32  

Nobody else has a musical interlude.

Cathy  27:34  

But the but the thing is, here's Okay, so not to, like, make this too much about the pairing... But I also think 1x2 and 3x4 become established. I put that in quotes early in the series. And so it becomes entrenched and people assume that that's the pairing. But actually, I just remember so strongly when I went back and rewatched that I was like, there really is not that much evidence for Trowa and Quatre's like instantaneous connection because Quatre has that with almost every other pilot, and Trowa's relationship with Heero is like so much more interesting when I come back to it, even though I definitely think they would never work. They would like killing each other and instead as an adult.

Kat  28:12  

And I mean, I love that pairing. And like the one thing that came out of my rewatch a million years ago was I wrote a 1x3 fic cuz I really love those episodes, and fandom didn't do anything with it. But I feel like, I feel like Quatre and Trowa are framed slightly differently than all the other potential pairings so that they could be together.

Cathy  28:33  

Even up until Endless Waltz like, I really just feel like that that was an early series thing. And then as you go on into the series, that relationship while still important, was not really emphasized any more or less.

Kat  28:47  

But I mean, if it, if it comes out of the gate strong, [laughter] like

Caitlin  28:51  

That's all that matters

Kat  28:52  

I still think that the show was pushing that one if it pitched. Like if it was giving the most evidence to any one of them, I think the early stuff was really like, ~look at this beautiful pairing.~

Caitlin  29:04  

So wait do we all want to, maybe to end this episode, we should all go through and predict what are OTP or pseudo OTP for Cathy will be by the end of this rewatch. 

Kat  29:16  

But also tell me your fave character because that's what I asked like, 15 minutes ago.

Cathy  29:21  

Okay, Kat you first.

Kat  29:23  

Oh, well, my favorite character has always been Duo Maxwell. And I'm predicting that he's still going to be my fave character. And I am going to stake my flag on Duo/Wufei, 2x5.

Cathy  29:36  

Mallory?

Mallory  29:37  

I think from what I remember, I really liked Trowa, I thought Heero was too dour, but I also think that I might relate to him a lot more this time around. So I'm going to say that Heero is going to be my favorite character. And I've always liked...see, I don't know about fandom pairings. I want to say it'll be...well it was Duo/Heero before? No, but I've-- I really like Duo/Wufei so, like, I think that's just always gonna be my Gundam Wing ship.

Cathy  30:20  

So when I was a kid watching it my favorite was Duo Maxwell, but I know from my prior rewatching, or attempts to rewatch the series, that as an older person coming into the series, I actually like the girls a lot more, like Relena and Dorothy and Noin became my favorite characters and I did not give them the credit they deserved when I was watching it as a younger person. 

Cathy  30:41  

I also was 1x2 shipper but again, I know that what I came out of the series really shipping was disastrous Heero/Trowa, and then Duo/Wufei.

Caitlin  30:56  

Okay, I see we are all Duo/Wufei fans now.

Kat  30:59  

[crosstalk] That's why this is going to be the superior Gundam Wing podcast.

Caitlin  31:02  

Yeah. I feel like so, my favorite character when I was originally watching as a kid was Quatre. I think probably because like I always liked like, the friendly blondes in boy bands? 

Kat  31:13  

That go apeshit? 

Caitlin  31:15  

When I got older, I was more into Duo and Duo is was probably still my favorite character. I was into Duo/Wufei for a long time. I just think that they are funny together and terrible. And I actually really like Wufei a lot. I sort of admire that fake honor sort of thing. But I, since everybody said Duo/Wufei, I feel like I should say something else, which is that I think that I will get more into 3x4 again after this rewatch, because it's a comforting pairing, in some ways. It's a return. And we're all very full of anxiety right now. [laughter] And so we just need Quatre and stupid, crazy Trowa, you know, having their pure love connection that fandom imagined for them from the beginning.

Kat  32:02  

It's real.

Mallory  32:03  

I look forward to it. 

Cathy  32:04  

I do too. I also look forward to hating Treize because that's what happened the last time I rewatched this. He's such a fuck boy.

Kat  32:12  

I'm excited to love Dorothy and Relena.

Cathy  32:14  

My god, they're so good. Yeah, they're so good. That's what I should have said is my favorite pairing.

Kat  32:20  

Fandom definitely ruined me for a little bit, like, "urgh, Relena!"

Caitlin  32:24  

When I was a kid, part of the appeal of Gundam Wing fandom was in some ways that it was so sexist, and so I could like act out my own internalized misogyny at the time. And so like, I like I was definitely participating in that of like a group breaking up the boys, whatever. And then in later iterations, I like love Relena. So.

Kat  32:45  

Yeah, she was just such an easy reason for them to get together, right? For 1x2, but in the show, she's way more than a plot device. So that was kind of frustrating.

Caitlin  32:56  

In the show, she's easily the most one of the most interesting and active characters for sure.

Kat  33:02  

As podcast Daddy, I declare Episode Zero officially over. Thank you everyone for your time and catch us in two weeks with Episode One: The boy whose wings killed adolescence.

Caitlin  33:16  

Byeeee [laughter]

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

#gundam wing #untitled tallgeese podcast #transcripts #mobile suit gundam wing #gundam #episode 00

[lavellenchanted]

Hey Sarah, any book recommendations? I’ve read just about everything on my shelf and I’m in need of some new ones! Thanks!

Absolutely, I love talking book recs! 

I just finished Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - that and her book Uprooted are really beautiful fantasy romances inspired by fairy tales and Eastern European folklore in particular and are just fantastic with brilliant heroines and just gorgeous worldbuilding. And her Temeraire series, which can be summed up as, “What if there were dragons during the Napoleonic Wars?”, is also great.

And also in the real of Eastern European/fairytale inspired fantasy, Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale is excellent. I’ve got the sequel in my to-read pile.

A writer I discovered thanks to a friend last year is Connie Willis - she leans more to sci-fi than fantasy but is such a good writer. I read Crosstalk, which is kind of a sci-fi rom-com where the heroine gets an implant that is supposed to let her psychically communicate with her boyfriend but she ends up connected to the wrong guy. And I’d highly recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog which won a Hugo Award, and follows Ned, a time-travelling historian, who is sent back to the 19th Century to correct a mistake that might unravel time itself - but he’s suffering from a bad case of time-lag and can’t remember what he’s supposed to be doing.

On the straight up sci-fi side, Becky Chambers The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a fab read, very Firefly-esque in some ways in following a small, rag-tag crew across space but with very unique worldbuilding and a lot of fascinating alien characters (and LBTQ rep!). 

I loved Shades of Milk and Honey by Marie Robinette Kowal - a regency set romance, lots of Jane Austen vibes, but with some magical and fantasy aspects.

Wicked Like a Wildfire by Lana Popović is a YA contemporary fantasy that has really interesting premise, and is really well written with some great characters and excellent twists.

Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin is the first in a contemporary fantasy series - Kate Griffin a pseudonym of Catherine Webb, who’s also written YA aimed fantasy and who I’ve been reading for years. Her writing always surprises me, and I loved Madness, which is an urban set and follows Matthew Swift, a sorcerer who is brought back from the dead and sets out to find out who resurrected him and who killed him. I’m on to the third in the series. 

If you’ve never read Eva Ibbotson’s romances, all set in the first half of the 20th Century, go and get them all now because they are amazing and I cannot recommend them enough.

The Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve is one of my all time favourites and is so good with one of the most complex and memorable female characters I’ve ever read, and its prequel trilogy is just as good.

The Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson is gorgeously written and so so good. It deserves far more recognition.

Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library series is really fun, with fairies, dragons and lots of different fantastical worlds that sit on a scale of high magic vs high tech - it’s written very much for book lovers, as well, which is a delight.

All of Laini Taylor’s books. I absolutely love her writing and her characters and I could sit and read them for hours on end, and I need her to write several hundred more books.

Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho is fantastic - I was ready to be disappointed because I’d read so many rave reviews but I wasn’t, it was spectacular. It’s set in 19th Century England, with two PoC lead characters. It follows Zacharias, the first black Sorceror Royal who is trying to figure out why England’s magic supply is drying up, when he suddenly finds himself responsible for Prunella, a half-Indian young woman who is unusually magically gifted. The sequel comes out this year and I can’t wait.

And special mentions to The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle and Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery which are classics that if you haven’t read, you absolutely should. And Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

#I feel like that is .... a lot to start off with? #but I could go on lol #books #book recs #thevoicelessromantic