professorspork

[professorspork]

[professorspork]

[professorspork]

writing historical fic set in real places is so scary. what if someone who knows more about Philadelphia's timeline to move from gas to electric streetlamps reads my fanfiction and laughs at me

[professorspork]

lesbian sex that looks like a big cartoon ball of dust with the occasional leg sticking out and i crawl out of it covered in lipstick kisses and get swiftly dragged back in

[professorspork]

what if she was called chappell bone and instead of a singer she was a necromancer who raised strong as fuck skeleton warriors

[professorspork]

[professorspork]

final update on the nap situation at work is that i brought it up again today and was told "go live in the bushes for five years"

[professorspork]

i told one of the preschoolers i was going to take a nap when i got home and she asked me three times if i was joking and then afterwards just flat out refused to believe me

[professorspork]

the thought process of one Elphaba Thropp, after her best friend has done a very impulsive thing to impress the boy she loves(???)

okay dude i'm taking the wheel since you clearly don't know what you're doing

smile

SMILE. she's trying? she is clearly trying

aren't you supposed to be charming. CHARM HER

okay good. positivity and praise. respect her new name

yay Glinda!!!! what an awesome and impactful political choice you have made. we're both so--

what are you doing now

what--no

STOP. STOP

YOU ARE RUINING THIS FOR US. I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT YOU'RE--

...

:)

[professorspork]

truly historic levels of Thropple is when they are not only wrong about each other but are ALSO wrong about how they feel about each other

by I'm Not That Girl Elphaba's well aware she's in love with both Galinda and Fiyero and doesn't think there's anything wrong with that, mostly because neither of them could ever possibly reciprocate her feelings

meanwhile Fiyero is also coming to terms with being in love with Galinda and Elphaba but believes himself to be truly the lowest of scum for not being able to choose. but he HAS to choose, because in his head Galinda and Elphaba represent opposing worldviews he's decided he must live by and--wow, is the brainless guy thinking too hard? someone call Alanis Morissette

and Galinda is obviously in love with Fiyero, she has planned on falling in love with and marrying a prince since she was five. she loves Elphie too, with the same intensity, but the two of them are sooooo different from each other and have nothing in common so the love she has for Elphaba cannot be the same as what she feels for Fiyero, what a ludicrous notion

[professorspork]

i really hoped revisiting this Popular would give me a clue on what specifically happened here that makes it so special and give me so many Gelphie feelings but there aren't any individual things that made me go "they have now fallen in love" the first time i watched it

it's just what happened

Leah talked about it along the terms of invention and there's definitely an element of that, but what comes across most strongly here is discovery (discover...ation?)--just the sublime ecstasy of finding something you never even dreamed existed in each other. and this particular Gelphie being SO certain about their wrong judgments at the beginning makes the reversal much more powerful.

the previous scene at the Ozdust sets the stage: it's where Elphaba having real recognizable feelings--hurt feelings she's trying desperately to hide--hits home for Galinda for the first time. before this Galinda had justified her cruelty as simply how one should behave when one encounters something rude and shameless and utterly foreign. then Elphaba did her a kindness; then she wounded Elphaba grievously enough to discover Elphaba can be wounded. and so Galinda thinks, with the guilelessness that comes to her when something is truly important, i can help her. if Elphaba can be hurt, then Galinda can try to shield her. better yet, Galinda can help her self-improve so that others won't be as tempted to hurt her. people hardly ever hurt Galinda, after all, which means all Elphaba needs is to become more like Galinda.

only it doesn't work, no matter how hard they both try. all the techniques and products just end up highlighting the artifice, the pretense; Galinda can't transform Elphaba any more than she can transform her frock. and yet: why, Miss Elphaba, look at you. you are beautiful. it's Katie's favorite line in the show, and she says it with such helpless wonder here. there's nothing she can do. there's nothing she needs to do. Elphaba genuinely is, in a way Galinda cannot be and can't fully understand. isn't that amazing? isn't that the most marvelous thing in the world?

for Elphaba it goes like this: she dances with Galinda at the Ozdust. she tries to pretend to lead, to pretend she hadn't been floundering alone. she watches Galinda accept this with immaculate grace, she watches Galinda turn their little dance into a sensation, and she thinks: it's all so easy for her. it's impossible to resent. not when Galinda is being so genuine--genuinely contrite, genuinely thoughtful, genuinely enthusiastic--for her sake, of all causes. Galinda's face had shined with transparent delight when they'd danced together, and the whole world had brightened with it. it's impossible not to resent. at least when she'd thought Galinda was a desperate fake she could relish in knowing that she was the actual kind one, even if she sometimes lashed out. it's clear now, though, that goodness is simply another thing Galinda can be effortlessly.

look at how easily she keeps the conversation going between them even now that they're alone. look at how quickly she moves past Elphaba losing her temper. look at how certain she is, about their new friendship, about the...whatever is going on with Fiyero, about absolving Elphaba of the grief she'd visited on her own family. nothing has ever been that easy for Elphaba, save for perhaps the volatile magic she still can't control. Elphaba is difficult; everyone who has ever known her has said so. Galinda should already know--look at how hard Elphaba had made things for both of them before all this--but Galinda seems determined to overcome this. other people, like Nessa, have tried to accomplish such a thing, but they've always had to give up in the end. the same will happen here, but Elphaba sees nothing wrong with humoring Galinda (within reason). it's even a little fun, and the truth will become obvious eventually: Galinda might naturally excel at everything, but Elphaba is unnatural.

except Galinda doesn't seem to care.

it's not like she doesn't notice Elphaba's clear shortcomings--Elphaba would prefer if she noticed them less loudly and frequently, in fact--it's that they only seem to make Galinda try even harder. even Elphaba telling her in no uncertain terms this is never going to work doesn't get Galinda down. (metaphorically.) it makes Elphaba want to try harder, too, and offer to do her part: do you want me to try? anything, really, for this marvel of a girl who would want and do so much, for her. for that single-minded tenacity Elphaba never expected her to possess, but which seems to be Galinda's most natural talent of all.

don't give up on me, she thinks as Galinda stares at her while holding the mirror. not ever. not yet. a little longer--

why, Miss Elphaba, look at you, Galinda says, her voice hushed; marvelous and marveling. you are beautiful.

[professorspork]

Jurassic Threads on Etsy

[professorspork]

When the sun hits the living room just right, Holly Mop will come find me and herd me onto the couch, grumbling and barking at me if I don’t move fast enough for her liking, so we can sit in the sunbeam together. Like, Mama, what are you doing laundry for? There are sunbeams to enjoy.

You know what? She’s right.

[professorspork]

oh before it's over i want to wish a Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite doomed yuri couple, Glinda Upland and Fiyero Tigelaar

[professorspork]

dichotomy of “nothing in the digital age is permanent, we are losing physicality and thus part of ourselves” vs. “everything in the digital age is permanent, everything you do is recorded and stored for later use against you or to exploit you”

[professorspork]

[professorspork]

Actually fanart and fanfic are often compared but the funniest point of comparison is how you express that you like it. Like it's pretty common and welcome praise to tell a writer they get the voice of a character perfectly or whatever but if you told a fanartist "this is great I can really tell this is that character" you would sound insane