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wynnyfryd · 3 months

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Trailer park Steve AU part 48

part 1 | part 47 | ao3

cw: mentions of smoking/sexual activity

Chapter 11

February

For two and a half months, Steve’s life goes perfectly. He didn’t realize how far into a pit he’d fallen until Eddie showed up to help Robin and the kids lift him out, but the difference is jarring. Golden hour sunlight after catching a matinée.

Steve spends two months blinking.

He sloughs off his sadness like a snake shedding skin; spends the winter getting back to being Steve, restocks his favorite hair products and restarts his fitness routines — morning runs through the woods, afternoon pick-up games with Lucas and some of his teammates when the weather doesn’t suck. Weightlifting in the evenings because Eddie says he likes how Steve’s arms look when they get a little big, says it’s more fun to pin him down when he knows it’s just for show.

And he tries new things, too, just because Eddie likes them or because the kids think they're cool. He reads a Vonnegut novel. He eats Indian curry. He even learns a song on guitar.

...Sort of.

Eventually.

(Actually, that whole thing goes pretty horribly and takes for-fucking-ever. Eddie spends an afternoon patiently encouraging him and doing his best not to tease while Steve clumsily moves through a beginner chord progression, and then breaks down wheezing when, after the sixth attempt with no improvement, Steve puts the guitar down in a huff and threatens to demote his pinky finger from his hand if it doesn't start cooperating. Eddie laughs so hard he tips face-first into Steve's crotch, and it takes them a sticky-spitty-sweaty half hour to get back to the lesson.)

Anyway, he likes the way their lives entangle. As easy as weaving his hands through Eddie’s hair.

He gets invited to band practice; he sits in on D&D. Sometimes he watches sports with Wayne when he's got a day off, then he heads out with Eddie for long joyrides through the countryside.

Eddie blasts his metal music when they get out to the backroads, and he talks too loudly over the bass and laughs even louder and rants about nothing and smokes cigarettes while he headbangs to his favorite guitar solos — almost lights his hair on fire on more than one occasion, fucking dumbass — and he does this silly, lewd shit that makes Steve's chest just ache. Makes it clench around the word that's been burning a hole in his tongue since New Year's Eve. Eddie wags his brows and palms himself through his jeans and asks if Steve wants to take another joyride when they get home, and Steve thinks:

God, I love you.

I love you.

How could I not love you?

And really, how could he not? And how much longer can he keep not telling him so? When it feels like the word is going to burst out of his chest Alien-style any second.

When it feels like Eddie's the reason he even has a home to get to.

Slowly — so slowly, hours spent thrifting and bartering and keeping an eye out for free stuff left out on the curb, even more hours sanding and painting and caulking and sweating to death between trips to the hardware store — they redo Steve's whole trailer. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, they exorcise the haunted tin can. They make it his; they make it theirs.

Eddie injects life into every inch of the space, fills it with weird art and funky lamps and a big, comfy leather couch that he likes to bend Steve over. Comes inside him in every room when they get done working on it as a reward; gasps in Steve's ear about how he always wants to be inside him: in his home, in his body, nestled deep inside his heart. "Keep me right here, baby," he breathes as he fucks Steve against a wall, his left hand gripping Steve's chest while he fills him from behind.

It’s perfect.

It's perfect.

Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts unless Steve asks.

And then, because this godforsaken town and everyone in it are fucking cursed, one day it isn’t anymore.

—

part 49

tag list in separate reblogs under '#trailer park steve au taglist' if you'd like to filter that content. if you want to be added please comment and let me know (must be over 21; please either verify in the comment or have your age visible on your blog)

#trailer park steve au #steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #my writing #my fic #oh giant joseph head we're really in it now

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sesamestreep · 1 year

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Nick/Jess, 15!

15. i’ll save you a seat (from this prompt list)

IT’S MILLER’S TIME

The bestselling author of the hit YA series ‘The Pepperwood Chronicles’ opens up about seeing his work adapted for television, his new novel, and becoming a father.

LOS ANGELES - The lunchtime crowd at Gogo’s Tacos in Silver Lake is more plentiful and aggressive than the colleague who recommended the spot for my interview with Nick Miller led me to believe it would be on a weekday, which means I spend the twenty minutes between when I show up (ten minutes early) and when he arrives (ten minutes late and convincingly apologetic about it) fighting off other patrons who are convinced I’m lying about expecting someone and want to steal his seat. His appearance in the busy restaurant is welcome for more reasons than one.

We’re here to discuss the new Netflix adaptation of his bestselling book series, The Pepperwood Chronicles, into a television series. The first season, which drops this Friday on the streaming platform, takes on the Herculean task of adapting the first book in the series (clocking in at 628 pages) into just eight episodes of television. It’s a highly anticipated project for the army of Pepperheads out there, who want to see if Sebastian Stan truly has what it takes to embody the titular grizzled New Orleans detective from Miller’s beloved novels, but it’s not the only project that’s been occupying Miller’s time lately. He’s also got his debut novel for the adult market, the stylishly-titled HoBo, which draws heavily on his childhood in Chicago, coming out in November. But the project he’s most anxious to brag about is one he had—by his own admission—very little to do with, aside from the original idea. The lion’s share of the credit belongs to his wife.

“This is Reggie,” he says, stretching his phone across the table proudly, swiping through dozens of photos of a pleasantly chunky infant in a Chicago Bears onesie. “Oh, and that’s Mario,” he says, when we get to a photo of a dog sniffing the same baby, asleep in a car seat and wearing a hooded jacket with bear ears.

“I know he looks like a funky little alien right now, but my wife says that most babies get really cute around the six month mark,” Miller says, after suddenly remembering that he has tacos he could be eating. He takes an enormous bite of one before making a face. “God, don’t print that. My son is already adorable. I love him.”

We debate whether or not I can actually print that comment (guess who won) for a few minutes before Miller finally allows us to move on. I ask, given his penchant for drawing details from his own life to use in his novels, if this recent development for him means we can expect the next Pepperwood installment to find Julius Pepperwood and his leading lady, Jessica Knight, contemplating parenthood.

“I don’t know about that,” Miller says, with his mouth full. “It’s not that one-to-one for me. Yes, Pepperwood is based on me in some ways, but in many other ways he isn’t, you know? Same goes for Jessica Knight. She’s based on my wife, definitely, but I’ve never felt constricted by that. I’ve always felt like the characters follow their own path, though they take inspiration from my real life.”

In this answer, Miller has given me both an articulate response and neatly sidestepped giving any confirmation of further Pepperwood installments, which forces me to ask the question directly. His face goes blank for a moment afterwards, and he spends a while chewing before he attempts to answer.

“I’m not saying no,” he finally replies, wiping his hands on a napkin, while looking thoughtfully into the distance. “But I’m also not saying yes. There have been people—and my wife tells me not to read the reviews or the comments, but sometimes, you know, shit happens and you see some stuff—there’s people who think Pepperwood is too happy now. They liked him when he was tortured. Now, he’s got the love of his life by his side, he solved his brother’s murder, he made peace with his father. It’s like, where’s the tension anymore? But at the same time, I don’t want to make him miserable again just to sell more books.”

Miller talks about Pepperwood (and Knight and all of his characters) like they’re real people, a fact he shrugs off when I point it out.

“Of course,” he says. “Of course they’re real to me. It’s important to remember that they’ve been with the readers for six books now, but they’ve been with me for longer than that. And they don’t leave me alone when the book is done, either, like they do for my readers.”

They don’t seem to leave his readers alone after the last page, actually, if the healthy fandom producing fanart and fanfiction online are any indication. Miller, of course, has thoughts.

“I’m pleased about it,” he says, with his usual Chicago-born nonchalance. “It’s always made me happy that my work resonates with people, especially young people. I didn’t see that coming, in the beginning. It wasn’t supposed to be a YA series.”

The origins of The Pepperwood Chronicles are the publishing world’s version of a Cinderella story. Miller initially published the first book in the series himself at the encouragement of his friends, hawking the hand bound (!) copies at local bookstores with the encouragement of his then-girlfriend, as well as his future wife (“Two different women,” he clarifies. “It’s a long story.”) The hefty novel all about the seedy underbelly of New Orleans very quickly found a devoted fan base amongst a surprising audience: teenage girls. Where other authors might have bristled, Miller instead took his unexpected champions in stride.

“Like, there was definitely some initial shock to get over,” he explains. “If I’d known I was writing to teenagers specifically, I would have cut, well, a few things from that manuscript.” He’s referring delicately to some pretty explicit sex scenes and graphic violence, which definitely get toned down in later installments of the series. Confronted with this, Miller shrugs and says only, “That’s show biz!”

Speaking of show biz, how does he feel about the Netflix adaptation of his work?

“It was really interesting,” he offers, thoughtfully. “I’m grateful they didn’t ask me to write it, because it turns out I’m a terrible screenwriter.” Before I can ask him to elaborate on that, he continues, “But the team really did check in with me a lot and they made sure the tone felt right, and the changes they had to make worked with my understanding of the world and the characters. I felt like they really respected Pepperwood, which obviously means a lot to me.”

Miller is being generous, of course, considering he and his wife are both executive producers on the series. When I mention this, however, he waves it off. “They still could have told me to fuck off with my opinions,” he says.

As for working with his wife in that capacity, he’s more than happy to sing her praises. “She’s great. Aside from myself, she’s the person I trust most to get Pepperwood, you know? Like my editors and my agent and everybody, they’re amazing, but if I’m really stuck, Jess is the one I can turn to and be like ‘does this work? Or does it suck?’ And she’ll tell me. She’s always been that person for me. She’s the first person I shared the first draft of the first book with, so her input is invaluable. Or is it valuable?”

“They mean the same thing,” I tell him.

“That’s stupid,” he replies. “I mean, I’m not calling you stupid. The English language is stupid sometimes. My wife’s input is very important to me, is what I’m saying. Her instincts are spot on.”

And they should be, after all. When she’s not producing the Pepperwood TV series with her husband, Jessica Day (yes, you’re reading that right. Miller’s wife and the inspiration for his character Jessica Knight is named Jessica Day. Check the dedication on the first Pepperwood novel if you don’t believe me) works for Scholastic, as a part of their team that handles community outreach to K-12 schools across the country. (Miller’s publishing deal is with an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in case anyone is worried about favoritism.) Before that, she worked briefly in the nonprofit industry and as a middle school teacher and later vice principal.

“She understands the demographic perfectly,” Miller summarizes, fifteen minutes into an endearing monologue about how great his wife is. “I think the writers for the TV show liked having her around even more than having me. She really knows her stuff.”

When I follow up a few days later with Ms. Day for comment, her husband’s remarks amuse but don’t surprise her. “He’s always giving me too much credit,” she says, humbly.

Does it weird her out at all, to have so many people so intensely invested in the fictionalized version of her love life?

“It’s funny. I know the names are really similar and obviously Nick borrows things here and there from our real life,” she says, “but I really don’t feel like Jessica Knight is me. So I don’t take it personally at all.”

This isn’t the first time this attitude has come up in interviews. Last year, when casting was announced for the Netflix series, Day made headlines for defending the production’s decision to cast British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Jessica Knight after many fans claimed she didn’t match Knight’s description in the books.

“Gugu’s a very talented actress. I’ve seen her screen tests and she will blow you away when you see the show, I promise!” Day took to Twitter to say at the time.

“She capture [sic] JK’s energy perfectly,” she added in a further tweet. “Please welcome her to the Pepperwood family as we have!”

Now, Day is less diplomatic in her response. “It was a small portion of fans who were upset,” she says, “but they were the loudest contingency. It was very upsetting, and honestly tacky. So what if she doesn’t look like me? The character isn’t me, first of all. And the books are set in New Orleans, for God’s sake! It would be stupid if the entire main cast was white people.”

When I accuse her of saying the quiet part loud, as the kids say, Day seems nonplussed. “It’s those new mom hormones, I guess,” she replies, as a baby cries in the background of the phone call as if on cue. “I just don’t give a fu…dge.”

Miller, during our interview, feels similarly. “The team went with the best people for the parts, and we made it clear, my wife and I, that they absolutely weren’t trying to cast our doppelgängers. That wasn’t the point. Honestly, it would have freaked me out if they had.”

So he doesn’t think he and Stan look alike?

“No, not at all,” he says, automatically. “Do you?”

“He kind of seems like a more Hollywood version of you, yeah.”

Miller takes a long time thinking this over. “That’s…huh…”

In order to distract him from the existential spiral I’ve inadvertently led him down, I switch us over to the topic of his new book, HoBo. It’s made several lists of most anticipated books for this fall (including this publication’s) but there was a while there where Miller feared the manuscript would never see the light of day.

“The publisher thought it was too dark for the teen market,” he says, without any of the smarmy pride one would expect from the average male author accused of being ‘too dark’ by The Man. “I had no idea! I thought Pepperwood was too dark for teens and they loved it! So, there was a bit there when I was like, ‘okay, so this is the end, I guess.’”

Miller isn’t being melodramatic either. There was a moment, according to him and confirmed by his editor, Merle Streep, where they considered parting ways. Luckily, they came to an understanding once the dust settled and Miller pitched the novel, then titled “Chicago Hobo”, for the adult market. The source of this brilliant solution? You guessed it: Jessica Day.

“My wife’s a genius,” Miller states. “It was so simple and yet none of us could see it. Of course they should market the book to adults, if they thought it was too gritty for teens. Obviously.”

Day, however, downplays her contribution. “The issue with the manuscript came to a head on our wedding day, if you can believe it. On our honeymoon, it was all Nick could talk about. He was worried he’d never publish another book again. I suggested he send the manuscript around to other publishers to see if there was interest, but pitch it as, you know, a book for grownups. I thought it would make him feel better. I had no idea that the minute he did that, his original publisher would come back to him with a deal.”

But that’s exactly what they did. He’s also on the hook for three more books after that, though he’s cagey with details about if those will be HoBo sequels, further Pepperwood adventures, or something else entirely.

“We’re in a really pivotal moment,” Miller says, looking a little bit sweaty as he admits it. “We’ll see how Pepperwood does as a TV show, we’ll see how people feel about HoBo when it comes out.” He pauses to laugh. “We’ll see if being a father completely fries my brain and I never write another coherent sentence ever again.”

Early reviews and chatter are saying that the new novel is every bit as cinematic as The Pepperwood Chronicles, which suggests a screen adaptation is more a matter of “when” than “if.” It is, by Miller’s own admission, even more autobiographical than Pepperwood (the preteen narrator is Travis Tiller, called “Trick” by his friends, so do with that what you will). It’s based, in many ways, on his childhood in Chicago, but it’s also equal parts dystopian speculative fiction and superhero origin story, with a heavy pour of magical realism to wash it down. The cinematic universe practically writes itself.

“We just don’t know,” Miller replies vaguely. No matter what I do, I can’t get him to speculate on bringing this book to the small or big screen. “I don’t want to jinx anything,” he adds, frantically, after many such questions.

Fine. But, as pure speculation, what actor does he think, potentially, has what it takes to bring the eponymous hobo to life on screen?

“Rock Hudson,” he says, after much bullying.

When I inform him that Rock Hudson is dead and has been for more than 30 years, Miller looks crestfallen. What about preteen Trick Tiller, then? Is there anyone Miller would entrust to play his younger self?

“Cate Blanchett,” he replies.

When I point out that she’s both older than him and a different gender, he frowns. “She played Bob Dylan, though,” he counters, confused. I concede that he’s got me there.

We return to the much safer topic of conversation that is the current adaptation of one of his novels. What’s he most looking forward to now that the show is finally premiering?

“Getting to go on a date with my wife,” he says, sincerely, with the dead-eyed stare of a sleep-deprived new parent. “Seriously. We’re getting a sitter to watch the baby, we’re bringing a few of our close friends, who are all getting sitters for their babies. It’s going to be really fun. It’s going to be a classic mess around.”

A what?

“Don’t worry about it,” Miller says.

Is there anyone whose opinion he’s particularly anxious about, when it comes to the TV show? Or even his new novel?

“I’m always worried about what the fans think. I want the Pepperwood fans to like the show. I want them to like the new book, even though it’s not about Pepperwood, you know?”

Does he think there will be crossover?

“Absolutely I do, yes,” he says, emphatically. “The kids who read Pepperwood when it first came out—this is terrifying to say, but—they’re grown up now. They’re in college or they’re young professionals. HoBo is written for their age group now. It will be marketed to them.”

It’s kind of like they’ve grown up with him.

“Don’t say that,” Miller replies, putting his head in his hands dramatically. “I’m gonna have a panic attack. Having an actual biological child is scary enough.”

Speaking of scary, to distract him from another existential crisis, I ask if he’s been starstruck at any part of the process of turning his beloved novels into a TV show, and his answer is surprising to say the least.

“I mean, I was a little bit starstruck meeting Alfred Molina the first time. He was already in costume as Schmith, too, which was an extra level of weird,” he says, referring to the iconic love-to-hate-him villain of the first Pepperwood book and a supporting player in many of the series’s other installments. Still, Miller eventually got used to the idea of Doc Ock himself being in the show.

“Oh, I know my big starstruck moment,” he adds. “When Taylor Swift tweeted about the trailer. That was like…Woah! Is this really happening?”

That’s right. When the show’s first trailer debuted in March, the Grammy-winning singer took to Twitter to express her excitement.

“I can’t believe how good this looks,” she tweeted with the emoji of the cat making the Home Alone face. “Is it September yet?!?”

Can we take his excitement over this interaction the confirmation we’ve all been waiting for that Nick Miller is a Swiftie?

“I don’t know what that is, but I like her. She’s really talented. When my wife’s upset, she likes to listen to Taylor Swift and cry while she drinks pink wine,” he says, before taking a troubled pause. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that.”

Day laughs when I tell her this anecdote during our phone call and gives me the go-ahead to print it. “It’s true,” she says. “Who cares?”

So, if they had to pick a Swift song to represent Julius Pepperwood and Jessica Knight’s relationship, what would it be?

Miller’s answer is simple: “You should ask my wife.”

Day’s response, on the other hand, is more complex. “I think it evolves over time, you know, from book to book. Probably in the early books, before they get together for real, it’s ‘Out of the Woods’ or ‘Wildest Dreams.’ Maybe even ‘White Horse,’ if you want to go back into her catalog.”

What about for her and Miller?

“That’s easy,” Day says, and the smile is obvious in her voice. “I’ve always thought of ‘Mine’ as our song of hers.”

This conversation mostly just confirms Miller’s assertion that his wife knows his characters just as well as he does. It also begs the important question of whether he’ll use this big moment in his career as leverage to arrange a meeting between Swift and his wife.

“I don’t know,” he says, honestly. “Maybe? I should ask Jess. She might kill me if I pulled that on her with no warning.”

As our meal and interview come to an end, I can’t help asking Miller a question that has been on my mind the whole time: with all this talk of how great and inspiring his wife is, and how integral to his creative process she’s become, does he happen to identify as a Wife Guy?

“I don’t know what that is either. You keep saying these things—I’ve never heard of them before,” he admits. “But I like the sound of it. So, yeah. I guess so. Unless it’s a bad thing. In which case, no. Was that—did I answer your question?”

In this case, just like so many of Nick Miller’s characters before us, we might have to make peace with an ambiguous ending.

•

The Pepperwood Chronicles premieres exclusively on Netflix this Friday.

#forgive any stupid mistakes it should go without saying that I’m not an actual journalist #also I genuinely don’t even know what year to pretend this is set in…who knows tbh??#I have a lot of feelings about the Pepperwood chronicles it turns out phew #new girl #nick miller #jessica day #nick x jess #god this was so fun to write #taylor swift song prompts #firstelevens #homelywenchsociety #<just my writing tag don’t worry about it #IDK IT IS WHAT IT IS!!#there’s so many Easter eggs in this….a whole basket’s worth #barely relates to the prompt I tried

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sentienttoastah · 7 days

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Someone mentioned in the reblogs of the last post about their preferred interpretation of Moby Dick and after seeing that I had a little personal thought discussion of my own in my brain and like ahahsjsjs it made me so happy

I just love looking at this book in a more serious way than I usually do so thank you to whoever that was :)

And speaking of, I think from now on I’ll give actual (only occasional!) literary commentary on Moby Dick for these Daily Dick posts because I cannot discuss this book with anyone else except the internet so yes. But for the sake of those who only want to see funky whale drawings I will keep them under the post’s cuts!!

Plus if I didn’t the post would be ungodly long.

Today, I tried to draw a bit of the crew but then I remembered I suck at drawing humans so even more extremely and unnecessarily green shaded Moby instead. Didn’t have much time so I just gave that fella the Outlast camcorder filter treatment. Dw, the cameraman is fine. Don’t like how this turned out though :(

I want to draw whale skeletons tomorrow :D

Anyways, delusional whale ranting time. Be warned this is way longer than my last one and will contain spoilers for those who haven’t finished the book!

So the reblog tag I saw went along the lines of interpreting Moby Dick as not a god but to have the reader doubt that fact throughout the book until the end because of the descriptions we get of him and honestly, yes. I absolutely agree on that for the original novel. It gives us dread while reading!!

Although I will say that if we were to add/accept some kind of mysticism to Moby Dick and see him as not only a whale and as something else, he still wouldn’t be a “god”. Yet at the same time he isn’t exactly a whale either. Or at least not a normal one (that much is clearly obvious I suppose). Like if that’s not a god then what is a god? And if that’s not a whale what is it? It’s all vague!!

One of the many messages or themes in Moby Dick is humanity’s constant struggle against the unknown and the uncertain. We all fear the unknown in one way or another whether we realise it or not. Why else do we dread our future? Or what will happen tomorrow? Or what will happen after death? Because we don’t know.

With Moby Dick we understand that he’s described as a massive white whale who is known to wreak havoc among sailors. But aside from that what else do we actually know about Moby? The only information we get about him all come from 3rd party sources (such as that other whaling crew they met at chapter 54) and then through Ishmael as our narrator. Like Ishmael himself has only encountered Moby Dick once. How do we know if the information he got from others is true?

And even if it was true it still doesn’t tell us a lot about Moby Dick. We don’t understand why he attacks ships, was he angry? Was he in pain? Was it his own form of revenge? Or was he genuinely just trying to mind his own business? We don’t understand how he became so intelligent, or whether it really was Moby Dick that they saw in the apparitions of chapter 51 or was it just a squid like we see in a later chapter? If it was Moby why was he following them?

The vagueness of Moby Dick’s position in being either whale or something else makes him haunting. So in my own interpretation I’d say to keep the final verdict completely undecided. He appears, then disappears. As only one of the many horrors of the deep. Moby Dick isn’t a horror book by any means but it is about the ocean, the ocean just so happens to be scary because we haven’t truly discovered everything it has to offer. Who knows what’s down there?

Also, not only the fear or mystery he gives to us as the readers but to the crew in the story as well. Moby Dick took victory from doing what other whales the crew have hunted never do. He was “unpredictable” as described. That wraps back to the beginning where I mentioned humanity’s struggles against the unknown and uncertain. But yet, even when we fear what we don’t know we are constantly challenging it still. We’re intrigued by it. Ishmael does so by wanting to learn more about whales and go off on more voyages despite his experience the first time around, and the pequod crew or most notably Ahab does so by challenging Moby Dick.

Speaking of Ahab, he himself can also be compared to Moby Dick’s unpredictability. He might not be vaguely god-like as Moby is, but there’s definitely something about him. Ishmael even quotes something about a mad man, a man who has let go of all rationality and morality, to be more dangerous than any beast. Why? Because he will become an unpredictable man. A man who will do anything to get what he desires even at the cost of others. Which is exactly what Ahab does. Humans are already dangerous enough when we understand them but when we don’t understand them? Even more dangerous no doubt.

That’s why his crew feared him after all. They didn’t know and nor did they want to know what would happen if they disobeyed him. Even Ahab doesn’t understand himself as he mentioned in the chapter with Starbuck. Why does he do the things he do? For revenge? For glory? For gold? He doesn’t understand except the fact he knows (or feels?) he has to. And it’s tragic.

In conclusion; aside from accepting differences, democracy, and the dangers of unhealthy obsession or copious amounts of whale anatomy, Moby Dick is also about the unknown and the uncertain. There’s a lot of other instances like Starbuck’s hesitation and Fedallah’s entire existence but I don’t want to drag out the rant for too long and obviously I’m not the first person to come up with this.

But what do you think? And thank you to anyone who actually read all my crap frfr 🙏🐟

#moby dick #art #DAILY DICK!!#literature #discussion #I love the fictional sailors they’re so goofy

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lollytea · 2 years

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PLEASE talk about their silly little relationship for hours!

They LIKE eachother and thats the thing. Everything about their respective moral alignments and their strongly held beliefs of the opposite side perfectly sets up for their relationship to be this mutual understanding but wrought with so much tension and antagonism. Like it has this tragic potential of "they could have been best friends in another life" and like. LIKE LIKE. These shots in Hunting Palismen really seems like this is the direction their dynamic is going in. Look at them!!!

So you'd think I'd be disappointed that this is not remotely the direction their relationship wound up in but I can't even be mad. Because whatever the FUCK they got going on now is just way funnier and way sweeter and says so much about them as people that I just love it too much.

They hang out for one night and that's literally all it took. They like and respect each other now and it doesn't MATTER if they're on opposite sides. Deep down, they really don't care.

They're too kind to be each others' enemies. They're too goofy for it. They're too comfortable with each other to even hold serious grudges about all the threats and murder attempts. They TRUST each other, which they shouldn't but they do.

Like Hunter TRIES to create some distance between them. He calls her "Human (derogatory)" to reinforce that she's below him and he doesn't see her as a friend. But then he calls her Luz the one time he's not thinking about it. Its a deliberate effort on his part to refer to her as Human, but apparently all this time he's been calling her Luz in his head. He sees her as an equal and he has ever since they officially met.

But like literally he's so fucking bad at not being friendly with her. He tries to be cold with her over text but then sends her a pic by mistake and apologizes for it. Tried to be angry with her about getting them stuck in Belos's mind but then she said something funny that gave him a good giggle so he was like "aight it's cool." And then proceeded to excitedly infodump on her when he saw stuff he thought was cool. Like he's never been to an art gallery with a buddy before and by god if he's gonna be stuck in this situation, he's not milk what he can out of it.

Meanwhile Luz trusts him wholeheartedly, even before Hunter's "redemption." She's like "I've read enough YA novels to know where this little bitch's character arc is going" so she doesn't bother waiting until they get to that point and treats him like a friend early on. But the funniest part is she doesn't bother to COMMUNICATE that they're friends now. She just expects him to get with the program.

She very confidently decides that Hunter is her man on the inside, without bothering to tell him. So when she tries to get info from him, he's just like "fuck off???"

And she's not even upset when he laughs in her face at the notion that she actually believed he was ever on her side. She just kinda rolls her eyes and gets snippy because he's being obnoxious. Like I feel like this kind of reaction would hurt her feelings??? But since it's Hunter she just shrugs it off. It's cool, Hunter's just annoying like that.

I'm mostly just talking about what makes their relationship funny so I'm not even gonna delve into how much they take care of each other, both physically and emotionally but it is worth mentioning that I love that too. They're out here saving each others lives like constantly. But anyway.

The way Gus and Willow were people Hunter needed a spend a little time with to get comfortable with touching them. But with Luz he's just ALWAYS been chill with it. For some reason. They just have this dynamic where everything clicked together perfectly when they first met, something that is rare but does exist. It's like "Yes we have only spent two days in eachothers company. Yes we have known each other our whole lives. These sorts of relationships exist. Open your mind."

Whatever they got is so funky. My favourite pair of freaks

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mygeekcorner · 8 months

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For the book ask

8 13 16 23 25 38 52 53 90 and 135 :)

8 a book you finished in one sitting

It wasn't the first time I read it so if that's how we're counting this isn't the right answer but:

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. Growing up my mum would read us Narnia and when I was old enough to read myself it was the first series I devoured so I have a very nostalgic glow about the whole thing. When I was somewhere in my mid-20s my parents asked me to house- and dog-sit for them when they went abroad for a week. Which was all well and good until I got the flu halfway through. I remember going into their library and finding The Horse and His Boy, mums favourite from all seven books, and then just laying in their bed reading it as I waited for my fever to go down, and with a blizzard howling outside the windows. I finished the book before I finished my coughing fits, but it was a very comforting night thanks to all the memories attached to the book.

13 your favorite romance novel

Oh god. So here's the thing, right? Here is The. Thing. I read a lot of books that Have romance in them - are they very good books? Yes. Are they romance novels? No. Do I read romance novels too? Yes. Do I like them as much as Stories? No.

But I guess if I had to pick one I like that has romance as the focus I enjoyed Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen when I read it in school. Even if I was more interested in the family dynamics than the romance. Sorry.

16 a book you’d recommend to your younger self

There are quite a few I think baby Geeky would have liked, but also many of them weren't out when I was the perfectly intended age so I don't know if it disqualifies them?

Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist was a very good book I got in a gift-exchange with an online friend and I think I would have liked it just as much if I had read it in school as I did in my 20s. And back then I might have had the energy to get my hands on the whole rest of the series and not just one more book rip.

23 a book that is currently on your TBR

We do not speak of my to-be-read pile.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone is the most recent buy to be added to it after I happened upon it earlier this summer. Trigun twitter tells me to go in blind though so I still have no idea what awaits me.

25 a book by your favourite author

Ok so I haven't actually had a favourite author since I was a preteen. Not because there aren't good authors out there, I just haven't been like Dedicated(TM) to reading all of their books like that. But the last time I had a favourite it was Eva Ibbotson because she had so many .. I want to use Finurlig but there's no proper translation for it .. clever in the tingly exciting way that makes you want to poke it? delightfully innocent yet clever stories and I just reveled in them as a child. Especially Not Just a Witch, the one where the two witch besties broke up because they both wore the same hat made of snakes to graduation, but then they came together to defeat the man who was two-timing them for capitalistic reasons.

38 your favourite series

I don't have favourites as such. Anymore. But I always have a blast reading The Parasol Protectorate Series by Gail Carriger, there is just something about a supernatural Victorian London with romance and queer rep that just tickles me. I love watching Alexia have tea with the most flamboyant vampire ever, admiring her werewolf husband´s behind, and hitting evil scientists with her umbrella. All while her ditzy bestie is trying to tell her all about the latest fashion in hats. Who wouldn't love to read about chaos like that?

52 a popular book/series that you love

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a brilliant trilogy and we are all correct for saying it.

The themes! The brutality! The way I was bawling on the bus and couldn't stop for hours after finishing Mockingjay? Fucking superb you funky little YA-book.

53 a popular book/series that you hate

Is it cheating to say Twilight here? ^^;

It really wasn't for me, sorry to anyone who hoped differently. I did finish it for research (fanwar) purposes though. That's a week I'll never get back.

90 the longest book you’ve read

So I said when I got this ask before that it was probably Gone with the Wind (418,053 words) or one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books and apparently A Storm of Swords (424,000 words) and A Dance with Dragons (422,000 words) would all look very promising for longest novel I've read. And they were all worth the pages they took.

135 recommend any book you like!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, listen I know none of us tumblrinas actually miss anything that Neil puts out, and this was a big one at that. But it really was so good and scary and inventive and I had a really good time being creeped out by the coins showing up in peoples mouths over night.

#ask me stuff #books #disturbnottheharmony #narnia #chronicles of narnia #silverthorn #this is how you lose the time war #eva ibbotson #not just a witch #The Parasol Protectorate #soulless #hunger games #ocean at the end of the lane #game of thrones #gone with the wind #sense and sensibility #jane austen

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missyourflight · 10 months

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some stuff i read and watched in june:

taskmaster (s1-5): haven't done an early seasons rewatch in so long, s4 and 5 are basically perfect 2 me. incredible that mark watson manages to be both my favourite type of taskmaster guy (hopelessly despairing) and also nearly won the thing lol. nish forever obviously

silo: got well into this! probably at some point apple will stop throwing millions at sci-fi shows but i'm going to enjoy their folly in the meantime

mission: impossible ii: hadn't seen this one! the weakest of the lot but the john woo of it all is undeniable

mission: impossible iii: PSH outrageously good as the villain, hi keri russell

mission: impossible - ghost protocol: so much fun, especially the sequences where you can see brad bird's animation brain going

mission: impossible - rogue nation: ILSA my beloved, the opera sequence is so gorgeous, no notes!

mission: impossible - fallout: it's good when henry cavill reloads his arms, it's better when tom cruise is sprinting around london rooftops and breaking his ankle etc, my most basic trait is that i Love when they're in london like oooh tate modern. anyway i'm very ready for dead reckoning

asteroid city: the bits about making art really got to me! the vending machines were cool!

joint security area: crash landing on you prepared me for this, blank check weren't lying when they said it was homoerotic, song kang-ho forever etc

dodie smith, the town in bloom: the most delightful narrative voice i've read in Ages and v funny. easy to sell me on 1920s theatrical shenanigans

k patrick, mrs s: So hot and butch, i liked the butch friendship stuff almost more than the sex stuff. more sexy lesbian novels Please

kj charles, the secret lives of country gentlemen: another winner from KJC, my most reliable romantic comfort reads. this time it's smugglers!

alice slater, death of a bookseller: sticky little thriller about being poisoned by true crime, great sense of place, So many pints of dark fruits

laura kay, wild things: bisexual disaster in love with her best friend, tragically very me- and also george russell-coded, god i want to swim in a pond again

SOME STUFF I SAW AT ROCK WERCHTER

the dj on the first nigt who played a mash up of i'm gonna be (500 miles) into temperature and then the 1d cover of one way or another into little lion man (deeply cursed fandom flashbacks etc)

weyes blood with candelabras and glowing hearts and amazing adam curtis projections on the big screen behind her

king princess sending the gay girls of belgium absolutely wild - "you wanna hear a sad lesbian song?"

matty healy is a dickhead but he's very good at being the frontman of the 1975. like if ben whishaw was straight and kind of disgusting

stormzy!!! literally the rain was pouring during blinded by your grace pt 2

mumford and sons - this whole festival was like being borne back ceaseless into the past but the cave still fucks me up, marcus really in his ken marino era, face-wise

PUP - i do believe if this tour doesn't kill you, i will to be a wholly perfect song, they had a trans flag on stage, best vibes of the festival

sigur ros - sometimes you just want to be in a massive barn with thousands of people with your faces turned up in the dark feeling like you're inside the sound somehow

muse - fucking incredible live band still!! every time i'm see them i'm floored by how hot chris the bassist is and then i forget about it and then i see them again and i'm poleaxed etc. they had a tech meltdown during knights of cydonia at the encore so we got showbiz instead!!

christine and the queens - beautiful and terrible as the dawn

jacob collier - asked if we wanted to get funky then put on a special hat, bit george russell-coded in the face

arctic monkeys - sometimes you just want to be in a field with one of your oldest friends singing the songs of your youth!! i love the 70s act actually! there are so many sexy songs on AM!! the skies finally cleared for the beautiful full moon, thank you belgium, good night

#monthly media #sophposting

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cringefaillosersummit · 1 year

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who are some characters from the submissions you wish got in?

INFINITE THE JACKAL mf is beefing with a 15 year old bc he said hes ugly and pathetic and had a mental breakdown immediately after and that made him go through a villain arc

sqh bc i like hamter and his writer handle is literally an innuendo. he also died in a cringe way its actually embarrassing. oh and not to mention he writes a god damn stallion novel

NICK FROM ALL SAINTS STREET GOD HES ABSOLUTELY SO FUCKING CRINGEFAIL ITS INSANE

asougi. tongue twisters. he deserved to be here. hes literally my picture. get his ass in here

2003 casey jones he is such A Guy and he definitely loves his funky little turtle friends

#not cringefail loser poll

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wetcatspellcaster · 6 months

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I am eagerly Consuming An Honest Lie, which has bumped Pieces Still Stuck in Your Teeth to a beloved second place for the fic I'm most excited to read. Your dedication to that pale man's little funky brain, and his plotting and falling and confusion is blissfully stressful to me. I get it, and I do not get it at all times. I've never experienced that when reading before. The "EW, no don't say you love me" "but wait I kind of wanted you to" energy. Halsin's massive fucking tits. The whiplash of emotion between that line and where we ended. My dream of this is you release an annotated copy with little notes of either 1) what these blorbos are actually thinking/feeling or 2) what you were thinking when you wrote it. Also kudos on handling the anons flirting with you over your fic. Parasocial blah blah blah, but I feel like they're being utterly charmed and seduced by your creativity, vibes, and brain waves and that's kind of a bop.

Hi anon!!

Thank you for being so nice about An Honest Lie! I had a lot of apprehension/uncertainty about continuing A Bleeding Heart beyond early access even though people did request it in comments. Partly bc it's a fic that's quite close to my heart, but also early access is a much tighter narrative arc than full access lol. Full access is a lot of rambles, as you can already tell by the change in the chapter wordcounts. With all that to be anxious about behind the scenes, it's nice and heartwarming to know someone appreciates it. All in all, I like writing Astarion POV so it's nice to have that excuse again, even if he's 10 times more complicated than he used to be!

(Also Halsin has massive fucking tits. This is just facts. Even an asexual Astarion would recognise basic anatomy.) <- I'm afraid this is the kind of annotation you would receive, I do not know if this truly elaborates or improves upon the fanfic experience, my brain is not a very complicated place. A lot of the blorbos' thoughts are either 'anxiety4anxiety' or 'Insight roll: 2'. A lot of my thoughts are along the lines of 'have you spent three sentences describing someone's anxiety spiral AGAIN, *Miranda Priestly voice* Groundbreaking' or 'fuck, what bodyparts touch in this kiss to make it different from the last kiss???'

As to the final part of your message, 1. I'm fascinated by the concept that anyone could have a parasocial relationship with me, I'm literally Just Some Guy. 2. Listen, I don't get flirted with very often, so if writing emotionally stunted vampire twinks is what finally gets me bitches, then thank god, for I have few other skills. 3. My charisma modifier is negative IRL, so a little spice that I can take 3-5 business days to process is actually an ideal format for me. Like a letter in an Austen novel.

(unfortunately for you, I'm replying today bc I'm trying to clear my inbox before I travel 😊)

#asks #anons #lovely words from lovely people #wip: an honest lie #(this is the ask that finally gives an honest lie a tag!! how lovely <3 )

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hellboundhimbo · 2 years

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okok im having Thoughts tonight and i usually save these for my notes app but ill post this one i think

i know the whole schtick with giorno is like oh hes dio but good (i am aware of the fact that is a very bare bones explanation of his character but bear with me its late,) but honestly he has the potential to be fucking terrifying.

i both love and dislike fanon portrayals of him leaning more toward morally grey, cuz on one hand that is so cool but also hes not fully, like that i guess? at least i think so personally.

in golden wind he reads more as an aloof, kind of weird kid with a big heart and deadly ambition, and doesnt really start shedding that persona a bit until the end, when hes faced with the death of his comrades and the weight of surviving. then we get into phf, and hes acting like dio suddenly?

not fully, but like the library thing felt like a pretty clear callback to dio's personal library yknow? like some parallels were being put in place. then at the end of the novel, the kinder parts of his personality start to shine through. this might sound weird, but while i was like "fugio rights slay" i was also kind of unsettled by giorno in a way?

like he seemed so ethereal, almost like a fucking god with his presentation (which may be a symptom of fugo being a bit of an unreliable narrator.) it made me go back and forth of whether or not giorno was really a good of a person as VA made him out to be.

honestly, i think it may be a trauma response on giornos end. he always seemed to float above it all, even in late golden wind, but i think we as a fandom forget that hes still a kid, sometimes (especially. some groups.)

from how he spoke and acted at the end of VA, you can tell hes a different person than he was at the beginning, and while I do really have my gripes as to giornos role as a protagonist that is a post for another day.

giorno learns what leadership truly entails and is subsequently scarred by the expirence, and i think thats most notable in his infamous monologues. in early VA, theyre usually charged by some kind of ambition, or hope for a noble change, but in PHF its moreof musings on humanity itself (if that makes any sense.) it's definitely different to dio's, giorno providing mostly words of wisdom and affirmation along with his funky little psychoanalysis

hes also scarily perceptive, which like he always has been, but when paired with his more serene presentation in phf, it gives the illusion that hes somehow omnipotent or something, like he knows everything about you (or like. fugo in this scenario.) i think it may show how his idea of what it means to lead has changed since the beginning, that while he does want to do the right thing he also has it in his head that tragedy along the way is not only inevitable, but expected.

this is what I mean, like hes definitely a bit morally grey but hes not like "ooh fugo im so fucked up the ends justify the means ooh imma kill people to stop drugs ooooooh" but hes also not a saint by any means. hes deeply traumatized and has effectively numbed himself to the concept of death his entire life, and i dont think his evolved stand and chosen career path much helped with that.

like. i guess the conclusion of his absolutely incomprehensible rant is that while giorno is still the person he was before VA in terms of his kindness and compassion, but his experiences in canon changed his world view immensely. he can be scary naturally, yes, but the way i see it? giorno is 100% dealing with some kind of trauma, and while the expirence of VA did help him grow, it also Fucked Him Up. consequences of skipling algebra 1 and joining the mob ig. or maybe it doesnt mean anything at all and I'm just dumb and tired.

ig this sounds kind of weird from the guy who will die on the hill that giorno as a character was kinda wasted on VA, but hes rlly interesting to think about i think.

#giorno giovanna #i am so tired #jjba #this is incomprehensible

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gloriousmonsters · 2 years

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hi sorry to lose my entire shit for a moment but

Carter, as a character, is tough. He’s a widower whose wife and child were killed, and he’s a veteran of the Civil War – as a Confederate (...) “I wanted to not absolve him of that, but also not make him pro the side he was on. The best I could do was neutralize him,” Stanton said. “And just make him disillusioned by everything he had chosen to do, war in general, let alone the wrong side. And so that was conscious at the time.” Chabon said the lack of properly grappling with Carter’s confederate ties was ultimately a “compromise.” In the final film, Carter comes across like Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton in “Big Trouble in Little China,” a gruff everyman annoyed by the overtly fantastical situation he’s in.

reading an article about how the John Carter movie failed and i may have just said ‘you FUCKING IDIOT’ out loud at the screen

what is it about dudes who say they’re the hugest fans of something and then when they get their hands on it completely miss the point of it? (ok the only other example i’m thinking of is brandon ‘oh i loved WOT’ *completely fucks up every character* sanderson, but two is still two examples!!) i just. listen it’s unlikely a lot of people here have read the John Carter/Barsoom novels, but I’d like to tell y’all about a teeny weeny minorly important detail the entire series rests on. John Carter likes to fight! Loves it! The entire reason he goes to Mars (which they change in this movie, of-fucking-course) is that it’s implied MARS HIMSELF, as in The God Of War, saw him and was like ‘that’s a funky little fighting guy I want on my extremely fight-happy planet’. even beyond that, JC fits in with the locals and gets pretty much every gain he gets in the books because he’s a happy, positive guy who LOVES to throw down, and therefore LOVES the fight-filled, strange planet he suddenly finds himself on. You know, the opposite of a wishy-washy, ‘ehhhhh i’m here but i’m like gruff and sad and don’t really caaaaare’ type character

make it a different war!! make him a union soldier! fuck i don’t like the military irl either make him not a soldier at all and just rlly into brawling if you must! homeboy was really like ‘the only path open to me is the lamest character assassination possible 😔 time to fuck up the whole story’ like you were already bitching about how you didn’t like the aesthetic and now you don’t like one of the mainstays of the plot, why don’t you just Not Adapt The Story????? hello???

#'oooh the original art is seeeeeexist' (a) a little but look the men are naked and lovingly depicted as well #it's really not as bad as some examples #(b) you made dejah thoris a random scientist just so men could ignore and disrespect her your argument is automatically invalid

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anotherdaveyjacobs · 1 year

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sorry for the late reply on this but, romeo time!

- First off big headcannon is that my boy is Aro/Ace! i can just. see it so well

- Romeo is still a scruffy dirt poor newsboy but he does have some looks and has seinfeld he’s been a kid; picture getting all those weird “oh you’re gonna be a heartbreaker” one day comments comming to him a lot

- He’s always been very insecure about this and has been nervous about looking too badly or eating too much despite it tiny source of food income

- Back to the aro ace headcannon bit him being in a world where being gay or not straight is illegal and there is zero lgbtq community, figuring out that he doesn’t like women, but also dosent like men is horribly confusing.

- He’s a flirt, a complete egomaniac. But the fact is this is because he sees it more as a defense mechanism, something that gives him control and makes him feel somewhat normal. It can make nobody end up turing around and questioning him on his utter lack of Actual game.

- As mentioned Flirting is something he’s mastered to give him control. Even as a little kid when he was still with his single mother she controlled so much of his life out of fear, and when she either abandoned him or died being put in an orphanage and then later the lodging house made him feel as if he had no control over himself or his life. but being able to play with someone’s emotions where he’s in control is a near soothing power trip that lets him know he still has something going for him, at least. If all he had in a touch world is a nice face and smooth voice, may aswel let it be your weapon

- this man is an idiot but he’s a persuasive idiot. He can butter you up into jumping into a pool with all your clothes on but can’t lie for shit. He’s always been found out on anything he hides or lies about but usually the poor shmuck who finds out ends up getting roped in somehow.

- Modern au headcannons; Loves shitty romance Tv finds it the height of comedy

- also really loves horror

- Deapite his difficulties in the past with food he loves to bake goods when he’s stressed out and packages them all cute too.

- Has two cats named Juliet and Michealangelo (His favorite TMNT charater)

- He loves art but can’t paint for the life of him. not an artist. Jack has tried; Botth have ended up crying hysterically at 3 am over wine glasses because Ro, What The Actual Fuck Is That Dude. What the Fuck.

- Adores animated shows too, especially older ones

- Constantly steals specs glasses. Says them make him look cute but actually just enjoys watching specs stumble around yelling at him to give them back

- Despite only having cats romeo is an huge dog person.

- He enjoys reading thriller novels or fantasy no in between

- Was either a PJO or Warrior cats kid sue me

- Loved maximum Ride too

- Any and every time someone flirts back at him he’s a blubbering uncomfortable mess if it’s not one of the fellow newsies. If it is, they’ll banter for all time but otherwise, he shuts down faster than a mac PC

- Listens to taylor swift. i said it.

okay thanks for letting me talk about my guy my funky dude my good time boy my-

im so sorry i didn't reply to this before now it has been a Time

I LOVE these oh my god. romeo, nicknamed for being a flirt, is 1000000% aroace i love him. and cannot flirt back so real

you know what listen i just love this whole everything

everything you've said is so true

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2n2n · 2 years

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everytime you make a post dunking on kou… I feel like I get 20 years of life back… I don’t hate kou!! I like him!! I like every single weird funky character in this weird funky manga… but it’s so refreshing, so cathartic!!! to get a kou post that ISN’T “precious sunshine best boy who’s better than X male character uwu” (UUUUGH). in other words: THANK YOU!! being a kinda shitty love interest to Mitsuba with his milquetoast bullying… kou’s annoying battle shounen protagonist traits… should be called out more… bc the fandom’s obnoxious about him and I’m too petty these days to care lol

HAHA ah how funny, I mean, yeah. I'm also always just thirsty for an original take, even if it isn't one I agree with or feel super hard. I'm glad someone's amused by it.

With Mitsuba I'm like, "omg Mitsuba doesn't need this CAVEMAN RIGHT NOW, help".... Mitsuba responds best to Yashiro, who is peaceful & passive.... and despite everything, Tsukasa does coddle/baby Mitsuba, which is what he legitimately asks people to do ("Take care of me, PYON!").... I have no idea what Kou's shitty screaming really does.... and then he says such horrible things in Picture Perfect, and then he's legit terrible at listening/paying attention....... Mitsuba will be emotional and. Kou is going to throw a fucking rock at his head, PLEASE, YOU NEANDERTHAL, ARE YOU NOT CAPABLE OF JUST HUGGING HIM ..... ??? He's really more of a 'pure goodboy' with Yashiro..... but that's boring and she's not into him, so eat it, Kou. She likes the bad boy tragic murderer. Why does he love to yell insults at Mitsuba. Why must we call the guy who had no friends and died alone girly and annoying. I know Mitsuba kinda sucks but I don't get it. I should hope if I died as a lonely ghost someone wouldn't come around me to be like, "you're a bitch and dress weird". Well I did die alone so I do know that. What the hell Kou................................................................. the Minamoto clan are beasts.......................................................... we must end them now, before they traumatize more souls for eternity

.......................nonetheless their (Mitsuba/Kou) fates/arcs are obviously tied, so there must be a plan. A novel endgame. It's one of the few things in this manga I have 0 predictions for. Like, I have more predictions about Teru, Tiara, and Aoi. I just have no clue where thisssss dynamic crests at. Kou has been AT A SNAILS PACE gradually wrestling with the bogus belief system he so proudly touted in Picture Perfect (God am I waiting for him to regret saying all that he did there-- HE SLOWLY HAS BEEN)....but like, we must be 'saving' whatever his eventual epiphany about personhood and identity will be, for later........... probably whatever conclusion he's CRAWLING to, about Mitsuba's authenticity, is going to tie into whatever epiphany he and Yashiro have to reach about Tsukasa's identity & authenticity. Them both contesting with the little Tsukasa's contradictory existence, surely will fold into how they have to process if Tsukasa 'is' Tsukasa, and how they should regard Mitsuba.... so odd that in PP, in the very moments Kou is rejecting Mitsuba as 'the real Mitsuba', doubling down on declaring his fakeness, Yashiro is naturally folding 'Amane' and 'Hanako' into one person. the chad Yashiro!!!

*shakes my head, snapping out of a haze* where was I? Oh right....

YOU KNOW, I don't even hate Kou. There are characters in other media I actively could say I hate, but, baseline everyone's interesting in JSHK, and I don't feel I disagree with the entire world's function and shape. We need someone like him to embellish the story-- that is-- someone so fucking dense and slow at grasping the world's shapes. But I am naturally exhausted by Kou and watching him crawl his way up to speed is sometimes tedious. I would like to take him to task and see him knocked down a peg-- in manga and out-- and I mean-- of all characters, he can take it, he doesn't have many problems, lol. He feels like the perfect guy to be frustrated with. Guy's got a beautiful family who loves him emphatically, spends every Tanabata or w/e in bliss with brudder and sisser, he can deal with me pushing him into a gutter.

I feel you on just being a bit tired of hearing the same things over and over... I feel like ah, groupthink in general is a real modern fandom problem, actually. If I'm being honest.... it often is something where all sides are doing something like...... hmm... "I am a nasty gross person, and I love this nasty gross character who is nasty and gross!" and then the other side is like, "I'm a good and honorable person, and I love good and honorable characters." Haha. But it's all sortof equally reductive, isn't it? You'll have one side stanning Tsukasa and believing he's an irredeemable rapist... and another side stanning Kou and believing he's composed of pure virtue...... or something like that. Isn't it boring....? Soooo boring... I don't like any of it....

Neither winds up feeling very genuine, or very interested in the actual written narratives, or the fiber of the characters in a meaningful way. It all comes across kinda phony, don't it? Or put-on? For-show? Whether its to show off how Bad you be, or how Good you be. It's odd when everyone all converges on one perspective. Loving Kou, Mitsuba, Aoi, hating Hakubo, Tsukasa, whatever.... weird, right? I never knew it to be like this, when I was younger.... I felt like me and all my friends would walk into a manga, and come out of it all liking wildly different things. Sometimes it feels like, maybe people are more 'fans' of the 'fandom', than 'fans' of the media itself, you know? Spending more time in servers of 200 people all chatting, reblogging each other's posts, and... less time rereading the thing itself.

It's not all of fandom, at least. Frankly spanish-speaking fandom seems completely unchanged from how it used to be and seems much chiller, more individual and sentimental ... well, so is JP, KR, CH fandom haha, who are making the MMD/AMV/etc I adore. Lots of original concepts and fanwork to parooze on pixiv and bilibili, thank god. But walking into eng spaces for 1 second, I see a lot of Kou suddenly. And I'm like.... this lame ass? Why??? Because he occasionally says pure things and is sad he's not strong like his cop brother??? Because he swings a sword?? Because he punches Mitsuba?? lol. I do have a little more taking him to task to do about a few things, but I keep having to try again at rewording a post to sound more neutral, 'cuz I get too annoyed with him hahahaha. Maybe I'll give up soon and just let it be what it is. I WANT TO BE NEUTRAL *SHAKES FIST* IMPARTIAL...

I had never 'observed' any of the fandom at all, I read it blind. I kinda live in a bubble with my husband..... I didn't catch sight of much of it actually until the Sumire/Hakubo arc. It felt like out of the woodwork came 200 Kou stans, I was like, whaaaaat??? it felt soooo out of left field, unpredictable, bizarre!?!? Like a wild coincidence. Like I lifted up a log and there was a new sort of bug in the THOUSANDS congregating. Weird! I didn't expect everyone to sound like clones of one another.... so weird.... eerie.... freaky....

Totally sounding like a codger though, so forget me.

I always want me disliking anything to just be funny.

He's most interesting for me in the Ghost Hotel AU, where for some reason he's completely insane and ripping off Mitsuba's limbs to add to soups. I also want whatever the hell this is to come back around:

but maybe I just want to make things more difficult for people who love him, haha. They should have to put up with something......

#avvy's JSHK

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