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youfreakinturltle · 2 years ago

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Protect You

(A/N): Hello friends! So this is my first fanfic in a verryyyy long time lol! I’ve had this idea in my head for weeks now and finally decided to write it down (literally the first thing I’ve attempted to write since high school lol). This is currently planned to be 3 parts but if we reach part 3 and y’all would like for me to continue just let me know! I am going to go ahead and mention that there are a few Black Sails themes here to help her backstory, but that’s about it!

Pairing: Colby Brock x ghost!fem!reader

Warnings: mentions of death, superstition, and some language (I believe that’s all, if I missed anything please let me know!)

You’ve been stuck in this hoity-toity mansion for over 300 years now and it’s been your own personal hell. In life you were a pirate who had just been appointed the position of Quartermaster of The Walrus, one step closer to your dream of captaining your own ship after spending a life in piracy. The last thing you remember from your life was trying to protect Abigail Ashe during the sacking of Charlestown. Why you were ordered to protect the governor’s daughter when you and your crew had already found Captains Flint and Vane made no sense to you at the time, but seeing them completely disregard you and leave you behind in the escape, everything started to fall into place. You were a woman, the daughter of one of the prostitutes on Nassau, and one of the few who tried desperately to deter Captain Flint from his mission of hunting the Urca de Lima. Honestly, you should’ve seen this coming. After successfully protecting Abigail, the people of Charlestown still only saw you as a “dirty pirate” and went forth with your execution regardless, inside the very mansion that you fought so hard to protect.

It’s been 300 years since that fateful day and you’re still here in the Ashe Mansion. You quickly realized that even if you did try to move on, given your piracy, you likely wouldn’t go anywhere all that great so you opted for staying here and carrying on your dying mission - protecting people that enter this home from the malevolent entities that ended up here over time. You tend to only protect kind or good people, just like in life, seeing the bad as people that aren’t worth your protection.

Over time you’ve seen people of all kinds, good people who either didn’t know or didn’t care about the place being haunted, awful people who used the house to do awful things, and once it had no longer been sold as a home, but deemed a historical monument, you’ve seen many people who you came to understand as “ghost hunters”. You didn’t particularly like most of these given the disrespectful manner they seemed to treat you and the other spirits in the home. They always asked inappropriate or far too personal questions so most of the time you kept your distance and stayed quiet. Because of this many only heard stories of you from the tour guides, but had never encountered you so they questioned your existence entirely.

But one day a group of four men entered the home, giving an energy you hadn’t felt in decades: kindness. They spoke respectfully to the spirits and harshly to the malevolent ones. You had become used to dumb people trying to speak and connect to the dark energies so this slightly caught you off guard. You observed them as they wandered through the mansion, eventually ending up in the parlor where you stay, where you had died.

“And here we have the parlor! Legend has it that back in the 1700’s, during the Sack of Charlestown, there was a female pirate who stayed behind to protect Abigail Ashe, daughter of governor Ashe.” You perked up from your chair in the corner, hearing the tour guide, Leo, tell your story.

“She isn’t very active so you may not get much from her. Given that she was a pirate, her name was cut from all records we have of the event that took place. None really know what happened in here once the attack was over, so we have no record of how she died, why she was even ordered to be here, or why she was left behind by her crew. The only thing we know was that she was a ship’s quartermaster. Lots of people have tried talking to her to try and get some answers, but unfortunately as soon as the questions start, she usually disappears.”

“Do you have an idea of what questions we should avoid in order to try and avoid disrespecting her in any way?” a man with blonde hair, holding what you’ve come to learn is a camera, asks.

“Honestly we don’t, we’ve seen her leave from a question as simple as asking her name. We believe she likes to observe what’s going on but isn’t too keen on getting involved.”

“We completely understand, we’ll be as respectful as possible,” said the man with darker hair and a nose ring. Turning to the room in general he continued, “I’m honestly not too sure how to address you, Lady Quartermaster, but we just want you to know that we mean no harm or disrespect at all. We just want to learn a little more about you if that’s okay. If being filmed is what makes you uncomfortable, can you give us a sign so we don’t unintentionally upset you later?”

You think on it for a second, weighing if these men are worth the effort. After a moment of looking into the eyes of the man who just spoke you decide they’re being truthful. Getting up from your chair you walk over to a lamp that had been off the entire time, tapping it once to turn it on. Gasps emit through the room and the man who spoke seems the most excited.

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much! We really appreciate you doing that for us! When we come back later, I promise the camera will be off. Would you be okay with us sharing your story after? If so can you turn that light off? If not, can you turn on the lamp on the desk?”

You contemplate for a second whether you’re ready to have your story known and decide that it’s been long enough. Reaching over to the lamp you had turned on, you tap it again turning it off. Queue another round of cheers from the group.

“Okay, we understand, thank you so much again for your time!” This time it was the blonde man that spoke.

“Bro this is insane, I guess she likes you, Colby!” Says a man with shoulder length brown hair.

“Shut up dude,” Colby said before turning back to the room in general, “Thank you so much again, we’ll be back in a little while to talk to you some more!”

A couple of hours passed before the men returned to the parlor. You had since learned that along with Colby, their names were Sam, Seth, and Nate. They seemed slightly shaken up which did not sit well with you after having taken a slight liking to them. For the first time in decades you felt your protective nature seeping back into you. Before they even had the chance to begin speaking to you, you walked over to a mirror and made it fog up.

“What happened?”

“Oh my god. Oh my god, DUDE LOOK!! The mirror!!!” Seth said slightly freaking out. You understood their fear, having been around many superstitious pirates in your life.

“Lady Quartermaster, is that you…?” Asked Colby.

You fog up the mirror again and write. “Yes. You scared. Why?”

All the men seemed absolutely speechless, likely never having had such an interaction, with their jaws all but hanging on the floor. Colby spoke up again, “Um… It’s okay, we’re okay”

“Liar. What. Happened.”

They begin to nervously look at each other before Sam said, “we just thought we saw something in the hallway. Honestly, we’ll be okay.”

“Shadow?”

“Yeah, that’s what it looked like. Why, do you know what it was?”

“Bad. I protect.”

Nate has since seemed to get over his shock and spoke to you for the first time, “Wait, you want to protect us from it? Why??”

“You good. My duty.”

“Wait, was that your mission?? Is that why you were here?” Colby asked very excitedly.

“Sort of.”

Your writing was very slow given that you had only recently learned how to do this, and Colby seemed to catch on that it was a little difficult for you. He and Sam quickly got to work setting up different equipment you recognized from other “hunters”.

“Okay, feel free to use any of these devices to communicate with us if you would like,” said Colby. “Is it okay if we ask you a few questions now? I promise our camera is turned off.” To prove that it was indeed not recording, he held it up for you to see before putting it in his bag.

You walk over to the “spirit box” and say, “yes.”

“Okay, awesome! Can we ask what your name was? Just something simple to start out with.”

“(Y/N)”

After several more questions and choruses of cheers, they get to the part that made you the most upset - your death.

“If it’s alright, can we ask how you died?”

Silence.

“Are you not comfortable with that question?”

“….would you be?”

They look sadly at one another, and for once it’s not a disappointed sadness, but one of sympathy. Like they know it was so awful you just can’t speak of it. Deciding that these men have been more than respectful enough, you hesitantly tell them, “…firing squad.”

You hear a murmured “oh my god” as they sit with their hands over their mouths. Colby hesitantly asks, “Why? I thought you were protecting the governor’s daughter…”

“Dirty pirate”

They look at each other horrified for a moment before Seth says, “that’s so fucked. You were protecting one of their people and they killed you anyways? I’m so sorry, (Y/N).”

“Blame captain. Left me.”

Colby seems to get angry at this saying, “your captain left you behind?? What the shit?!”

“Defied plans. Treasure. Dirty money. He wanted. Tried to stop him. Tried to protect.”

They seem to be putting the pieces together, so when they ask for confirmation on whether you were trying to protect your captain by stopping him from getting this treasure, you walk to the music box to indicate that they are right.

“I’m so sorry, (Y/N). Truly, that’s horrible. If you’d like we can leave for a little bit and let you rest.”

You immediately remember the Shadow Man and the Crawler that are lurking in this house and begin to panic. Someone as kind as these men would be highly susceptible to their torment. You run back to the spirit box, “NO. PROTECT.”

They all jump about a foot in the air and Colby asks, while trying to catch his breath, “you want us to stay in the parlor so we’re safe?”

“Can wander. I go with. Protect.”

“(Y/N), you know you don’t have to do that right? You’ve fulfilled your duty, it’s okay, I promise,” Colby says gently.

“NO! THEY’RE BAD! THEY WILL NOT TOUCH YOU!”

They look around at each other in shock, not only at your outburst, but the fact that this was the first full sentence you could get across.

“Okay, you can come with us through the house. We’ll be careful so you don’t have to work so hard, alright?”

You touch the rempod to show you understand and follow as they leave the room.

#colby brock #colby brock x y/n #colby brock x reader #Colby Brock x ghost!reader #fanfic #Sam and Colby #pirate!reader #ghost!reader #protect you series

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adventures-in-a-world-of-fiction · 7 months ago

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I’ve had a YouTube channel for nearly two decades. The first video I ever posted was in 2006. It was a Power Rangers fanvid and while it’s not the worst video ever created, it’s definitely not the best. It was a weird choice of song (Spirit of Man from War of the Worlds) and some of the clips are badly trimmed so there’s a frame or two of the next scene/shot at the start or end in a few places.

Since then, I’ve made a bunch of other videos, music videos for shows or fake trailers for some of my fanfics (many of those fics were posted on sites that no longer exist). I don’t post often these days, but every once in a while I’ll get struck with the urge to make a fanvid for a film or TV show that I like. Recently, it’s been The Sandman and the Dreamling ship in particular.

In all this time, my YouTube channel has never been monetised. When I first started the channel, that wasn’t even an option, as YouTube monetisation wasn’t a thing on the platform until December 2007, the year after I posted my first video, and even then, I don’t think it was available for anyone to apply to once they hit certain thresholds the way it is today.

So yeah, when I started, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to monetise my channel. Then I had a real world job and my video creation dropped off and in recent years, I haven’t met the monetisation thresholds, so it hasn’t been an option and I haven’t given it much thought. After all, I didn’t start making silly little fanvids expecting to make money from them, and most of them would be demonetised anyway because of the use of copyrighted material.

But recently I checked my analytics out of curiosity and I’m within reach of those monetisation thresholds. I got a load more views than usual around October and November last year for no reason I can see. There’s an obvious bump in the watch time analytics for a couple of months before it drops down to my usual trickle of views. I’ve no idea why it happened or why it stopped, but it was enough of a bump that I’m now at 3997 hours of watch time for the past year, with the monetisation threshold being 4000 hours.

Given how close I am, it feels like I should try to push to meet the eligibility criteria and apply for the YouTube partner programme, just so that it’s an option for me if I want it. And I clearly need to do it in the next few months, because I don’t expect to replicate that spike in views from October. But over the next month or two, getting 3 more hours of watch time than I got in the same time period last year feels like a realistic thing to achieve, even if almost all of my videos are under 5 minutes long.

Especially if I actually tell people that I have YouTube videos. So here I am, telling people. If you enjoy fan made music videos, please consider giving some of mine a watch.

Here are a few of them:

Ranger Spirit, the first ever video I ever posted on my YouTube channel, made in Windows Movie Maker, with all of the mistakes and badly trimmed shots:

youtube

One of my recent videos, Meet Me On The Battlefield, for The Sandman fandom:

youtube

Sticking with Neil Gaiman for the time being, an ineffable husbands video for Good Omens season 2, What Hurts the Most:

youtube

The video that got the most views during that weird spike in my analytics, I Don’t Deserve You for the show White Collar, focusing on the relationship between Peter, Neal and Elizabeth:

youtube

And for a silly challenge I gave myself, I tried to use footage from Dirk Gently’s season two to create a trailer that looked like a serious fantasy film. That was not easy, given how ridiculous the armies looked:

youtube

My channel has absolutely no consistency in terms of what I post. I will make videos for whatever happens to grab my attention at the time, so across the lifespan of my channel I have fanvids for Yuri on Ice, the MCU, Teen Wolf, Charmed, Voltron, The Chronicles of Narnia (both the old BBC TV show and the films), Doctor Who (and spin offs), X-Men, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, The Sentinel, The Tribe, and more Power Rangers than feels comfortable now given my age. If any of those grab your attention, please take a watch and help me hit that 4000 hours threshold.

#youtube #fanvids #fanvid creation

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heyimdove · 1 year ago

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*CW: SA!!*

A quick love letter: I created a whole new account to say this anonymously. I needed to say this to the void.

A few years ago, I endured a violent SA at the hands of someone I thought was a friend. I’ll spare us all the imagery, but it was bad, and I broke. Truly. I’m an actual recluse now, and not in the cool, sexy, eccentric kind of way. I’m the recluse in the scared-to-grocery-shopping-alone way. I haven’t slept on my bed in two years because, when I sleep on the couch, I’m able to feel the warm pressure of something soft against my back with none of the risk of involving another person. I tell my friends “I can’t” so often that it’s a 25 Lazari miracle I still have any. Sometimes I’m scared that I don’t.

Maybe I’ve just had enough time to scab over and move on, but on second thought, I really don’t think I have. And maybe this sounds stupid, but I’m saying it earnestly: Good Omens is the first thing in years that has made me not only reconnect with _but lean into_ the parts of me I like the most. The ones that hurt the most to lose.

When S2 was announced, I was _so_ excited. It felt too big to keep in the small place I’ve been living in, so I had to make accommodations. I started doing all the things. The Comic Con event (and talked to strangers in line!), the advanced screening (and talked to strangers in line!), even joined the Discord (and talked to strangers online!).

And even all that wasn’t enough room for energy I felt, so I started writing again. Fanfics. And people liked them. Like, thousands of people liked them. And suddenly, after literal years of being scared of people, sweet folks with no ulterior agenda were being nice to me. And writing already felt so good, but writing in the open and letting people see it? Wow.

Before I was raped, I was working on a story that has been in my head for probably a decade. I worked on it that day, before it happened. And after, I dropped it. The only things I wrote for a long time were sad and bitter, and they were just for me. The idea of sharing any part of me, especially the inside of my head, with anyone was a non-starter. Until my favorite book became my favorite show and then decided to do it all again with another season.

This is a lot of words to say something that only really matters to me, but, I’m writing again, and more than fanfics, but my own story. All because two men wrote a story that kind people care about, and by being _just barely_ exposed to a sliver of that love, some very missed parts of me were fixed.

So leave comments on the fanfics you love. Leave all the comments and the kudos you want. Go wild with it. Say which part was your favorite. If you want more, say so.

It makes people feel really nice. Nicer than maybe they’ve felt for years. Nice enough to dust off the drafts of a story they once believed in. Nice enough to dare themselves to go to the grocery store and buy an orange, in person, and then keep going, just to prove they could.

#good omens #tw sa

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dontcallmecarrie · 2 years ago

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For anyone wondering what’s going on with BDEL, Darth Calamity and...basically 99% of my AUs: every time I write, stuff going on in my life keeps coming out. Which normally isn’t bad, but we’re talking soap opera levels here. Like, ‘any more and I might as well write a biography’, and that’s Not Fun on a number of levels.

So, status update/ my internal narration on what keeps running through my head on the AUs you guys may or may not be wanting to hear about. Heads up for some minor spoilers, but way less than the outlines linked on my pinned post.

By Dawn’s Early Light:

...I have all of one (1) scene I’m eager to see, and that’s Howard Stark getting punched by Bucky in front of Steve Rogers. And maybe reassess how realistic this AU is, but tbh that feels more like something to tackle in the Coding Nightmare Fic I Have Yet To Finish because like hell I’m rewriting this fic.

By Myself But Not Alone:

look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! Sing, oh muse, of the hubris of the fool who thought they could make their overly-complicated vision into a reality while only knowing the bare-bones basics of HTML.

...okay, but really, my main problem is that I’ve got several dozen pages of handwritten notes and outlines of potential Bad Endings to spice things up, but. Completely and utterly blocked on actually writing it out. Kinda debating on just posting what I’ve got and calling it a day because my brain refuses to expand on anything right now.

Live Through The Rain AU:

First off, I really want to brush up on Welcome to Night Vale to make sure I’ve got the tone right. Secondly, this one’s slated for Howard Stark redemption/character development boot camp via ‘yeah your world was just completely upended by one of the people you trusted most, no, that was just the first of many curveballs coming your way’, which I write when I’m trying to tackle a sympathetic and nuanced perspective of a very, very complicated man with a lot of issues.

...which means I have to be in the frame of mind to be sympathetic. Which, right now, I am not.

Incidentally, if you’ve noticed a sharp uptick in the levels of family drama in NHDD, this is why. Justin’s father is what happens when I am not inclined towards trying to be sympathetic towards parents who don’t have their shit together and insist on dragging everyone else down with them, Howard Stark is what happens when I’m not venting my issues onto fictional characters. [...apologies, btw, for anyone reading this. I try to keep personal stuff personal, but. This stuff keeps leaking into everything I touch, no matter how hard I try.]

Blurred Lines:

...this was my first fanfic, really. I’m kinda torn on how to approach it, really, because I started it out as an exhausted aspiring pre-med student who was not in a great place.

It’s been years since then; I am not where I’d once expected to be. It’s been over a decade since I’ve been up to date on what’s going on in Doctor Who, and noped out of Sherlock after the hot mess that happened after Season 2. On top of that, my writing’s all over the place because my teenage self had a long way to go when it came to storytelling, and part of me wants to go back and edit but the rest of me can’t help but think, ‘no, this fic has literally grown with you,’ even if it sounds cheesy as all get out.

All I know is, I want to finish this fic. I have a bullet point outline, next to no knowledge of Doctor Who lore and probably need to do a lot of research to do it, but it is going to happen. Eventually.

Ere The World Falls/The Lullaby of Obliteration:

Writer’s block hit me like a battering ram because ETWF was supposed to be finished in a week.

Look, this is what happens when all you have is a single scene you desperately want in the next chapter, but absolutely nothing else. Specifically, this snippet:

“Oh, I like you,” Hela laughed, something as cold and sharp as the rest of her and Tony didn’t know if he was imagining the goosebumps he felt right now.

Also, ETWF’s meant to be chaos incarnate and found family and end with hope for a better future for everyone, but... I kinda wrote myself into a corner on some things, and found a great way to tie Norse mythology and Marvel comics lore that would require either a lot of heavy editing, or a grimdark remix that I don’t actually have the energy to tackle, because I really kinda need happy endings right now.

Darth Calamity/The Man Who Sold The World:

you know what? I’ve been up to my ears in rl family drama, I am not up to writing fictional angst right now. The remix with more identity shenanigans? Maybe, but first I have to wade through Skywalker family drama to get there. Hmm. Where’s inspiration when you need it?

No Hero [Downward Descending]:

yes, I know Justin Hammer doesn’t come across as being good at this supervillain thing. No, I don’t know how we got here either, this was supposed to be my stab at writing a SI-OC [emphasis on the OC] that got a tad bit out of hand. Especially when it came to the family drama, because I originally had zero intention of expanding on it beyond ‘Justin’s life went on Hard Mode from an early age, and it’s part of why they are Like That now’, but turns out Hammer Senior is a great heat sink for some things. Apologies for that, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ turns out I really needed to vent.

...in retrospect, I missed a golden opportunity for said OC to make a comment about vaguely expecting to see everyone running around in spandex, and that is one of the few regrets I have. Just as a metacommentary on how desaturated the movies got later on, compared to what little I know of the comics.

Beyond that, though, I’m having a lot of fun with a protagonist who accidentally weaponized the power of friendship.

The War is Far From Over Now AU:

Main fic’s finished, still too burned out to consider tackling the sidefic.

The plan currently is to take all the ‘Stuff I Couldn’t Quite Fit In’ posts I made- aka all the plot points that ended up getting cut for my sanity, because my heart had been set on finishing TWiFFON before graduating undergrad and even that ended up going sideways- and playing by ear from there.

Specific plot points I’d once been eager to tackle had included stuff like ‘The Curious Case of James ‘Bucky’ Barnes’ [aka SI Legal’s freakout over the files they end up having to sort through in the aftermath of the Civil War arc], and ‘Vision’s Adventures In Trying To Become a Psychiatrist’ because multiple commenters basically went ‘wow JARVIS really needs therapy, and no one on Earth really is equipped to help Skynet here’ and I remember thinking, “lol yeah, that’s kinda the point, but also that’s a great idea!!!” and had been planning to write something to that effect. Only, things hit the fan in my life not long after, and then burnout on top of that, and next thing I know it’s been years since I last touched this AU but still feel no inclination to do so.

#Naught rambles #thinking aloud #by myself but not alone #By Dawn's Early Light #Live Through The Rain #blurred lines #Ere the world falls #The Rise of Darth Calamity #The Man Who Sold The World #No Hero [Downward Descending]#3 am musings #writer's commentary

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pageandpanel · 1 year ago

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(originally posted @ Page and Panel on wordpress)

Per my last post, everyone knows it’s been a while since I’ve posted regularly here. But I’m working on getting back at it so where better than with my Marvel Read Through.

But first a correction: In my first Marvel post, I claimed that it contained the first three years of continuity. Well, that was a lie. I’ve been reading these comics in chunks of around 20-30 issues at a time and I thought I could reasonably cram 20 issues of continuity into a single post and still have it be readable. That was also a lie. Instead of 20, I ended up covering only six comics. But once I came to my senses, I forgot to go back and change my intro. You think I proofread these posts before I send them out into the world? Absolutely not. We write like college English majors submitting a paper 15 minutes before the deadline or we don’t write at all!

That being said, we are starting off in July of 1962, Almost a full year since Fantastic Four #1 was published. Marvel won’t churn out the volume of comics we see today for another several years and we’re lucky if we see one or two comics a month, let alone a dozen titles a week. I also want to get better about doing credits in this. For now we mostly just see the team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at the head of every book. But, we have letterers and inkers to acknowledge and after this post, I think, we’re going to see a mix up on some creative teams. Best to get into the habit now.

The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk #2 (published July 1962; story by Stan Lee, art by Jack Kirby; letters by Artie Simek, inks by Steve Ditko) opens with Hulk wandering aimlessly through a swamp, headed for a small town. A sheriff spots him and alerts everyone to take shelter and calls back up. A bunch of sheriffs try to take Hulk down, but obviously fail.

Thankfully, Rick Jones arrives on scene and is able to calm Hulk down and lead him away, apparently using the earliest known version of Natasha’s weirdo “lullaby” from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). How it evolved into *sexy voice* “The sun’s gettin’ real low…” or whatever, is beyond me. And I can’t relive that awful movie or that shoe-horned in fanfic relationship again, so let’s just move on.

Jones manages to coax Hulk to safety and the next morning he’s back to being regular Bruce Banner. Bruce begs Rick to just leave him because he knows he’ll never be able to control the Hulk. Rick refuses to abandon him though. There’s a lot of guilt here and Rick clearly blames himself, as the accident that created the Hulk was during Bruce’s attempt to save Rick’s life. So, I guess they’re just trauma bonded forever. That seems healthy.

We cut away from the emo-est boys of 1962 because, elsewhere, a spaceship has landed. These aliens are aptly named The Toad Men.

They have come seeking the “most brilliant scientific mind on Earth.” And that just so happens to be Bruce Banner. Though, we also have the same claim made by Reed Richards and Hank Pym, so I’m curious what metrics everyone is using. Can we get a proper rubric and a ranking system for this? In a few decades we’ll get periodically updated lists from Marvel on who the smartest people in the universe are, but these three tend to stick somewhere close to the top. Anyway, the Toad Men are here to decide if the smartest man on the planet is enough to resist their planned invasion of Earth. They find Banner and Jones in the Hulk Cave that Banner has set up to contain himself at night. The two are captured and taken aboard the Toad Men’s ship.

The leader of the Toad Men, Torrak, spills their whole plan to Banner and Jones and claims that because they have mastered the magic of magnetism, they cannot be defeated. Magneto is calling from 1963 and he says hands off my schtick. Banner refuses to talk and, because he’s of no use to them, Torrak ejects Rick Jones from the ship in a plastic tube back to Earth. Smart idea to tell a guy your whole plan and then send him home for help, I guess.

On the ground, the US Military has decided to use the classic soft touch both the Hulk and the Military are known for. By launching missiles at an unknown ship and bringing it to crash down in the desert. I’m glad even in the 60s, the US Military was known for being incredibly diplomatic and never following the orders of an absolute blowhard who wants to shoot first and question later….

The ship comes down and because it’s daytime back on earth, the Hulk is gone, leaving Banner in the wreckage. The Toad Men have tunneled underground to escape, leaving behind a scene doesn’t look great for our hero. Ross has Banner arrested for treason because he’s too busy nursing a personal grudge and inferiority complex to ask whether or not he was on the ship willingly. And while Betty Ross tries to plead for Banner’s release, more ships appear in the sky. The Toad King has taken over Earth’s airwaves to announce the incoming invasion. Using magnets, the Toad Men will pull the Moon closer to the planet and unless the people of earth surrender, they will let the moon crash into Earth and kill everyone. Not a great use of a planets’ resources or even really a sustainable invasion, but I guess live your life.

That night, Bruce Banner watches the sun go down and laments what has become of him in, honestly, some of my favorite panels in any of these comics so far.

As the Hulk, he’s able to escape prison and goes hunting for Ross. He ends up at their house where he startles Betty. Ross calls in some soldiers and a tank to the stand-off basically happening in his living room. Hulk escapes with Betty in one of the absolute funniest panels ever. (Ya’ll, Jack Kirby came to play on this book)

Hulk escapes the fight, kidnapping Betty and taking her back to his lap. Betty demands to know why Hulk hates them so much. And Hulk responds with basically “You keep trying to kill me obviously I hate you!” Rick tries to reason with Hulk but fails. Thankfully the sun rises and Hulk becomes Bruce once more.

With the Toad Men’s fleet still hovering over the Earth, Bruce realizes he must use the Gamma Gun he’s created on them. Suspense builds, as no one knows how Gamma will react with magnets! Bruce readies the gun while Rick holds back the soldiers. Thankfully it works and Bruce is declared a hero and cleared of treason. No one seems to question why they followed the Hulk to Bruce’s lap or why the Hulk is gone or how Bruce got out of prison. But at least the Moon isn’t going to crash into the Earth anymore so we’ll take the Ws where we can get them. The only person who suspects the Bruce/Hulk connection is Thunderbolt Ross, but he’s an asshole anyway. And no one really has to worry about the Toad Men because, unlike the Skrulls, we’ll never see this alien race again.

Fantastic Four

Once again, we get a main player in the Marvel Universe introduced SUPER early in Fantastic Four continuity. Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962; story by Stan lee, art by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek) gives us the glorious introduction to Doctor Doom! And on a full splash page, no less.

We’ll get to him in a minute. For now he’s just going to hang out with his pet vulture and play Fantastic Four Barbies TM.

Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben are chilling at the Baxter Building, as they do when they’re waiting for the story to get going. Johnny is reading an in universe copy of The Incredible Hulk, which is a really cool way to advertise your new book and I actually really do love it. Even if it does break continuity a little in a few issues.

Johnny harasses Ben a little, even though Ben is simply trying to enjoy his morning tea. The fight like they always do and it ends with a comic book on fire. Always the parents of the group, Reed and Sue pull them apart before they can actually fight each other. Classic FF opening shenanigans.

Reed Richards into rope play? More likely than you think. 😏

Suddenly, the lights go out in the Baxter Building despite being connected to a generator. A net drops over the entire building. 🚨ASBESTOS WATCH🚨 Johnny remarks that he cannot burn through it because it’s made of Asbestos. Seriously hope Johnny got in on those law suits and/or the smartest man in the universe helps get him some fresh lungs in a decade or two. Anyway, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Enter Doctor Doom! Who has apparently decided it’s time to stop playing with his action figures and come deal with the real Fantastic Four. From his helicopter, he calls out to them and Reed immediately recognizes the voice.

Cue flashback:

Victor Von Doom and Reed Richards were college roommates. But Doom’s interest in sorcery proved to be his downfall. During an experiment to communicate with the dead, Doom sets off an explosion and is expelled from school. More on that eventually.

For now, Doom demands to take Sue as a hostage and she agrees. Once she’s on his ship, he binds her and then demands the rest of the FF board the ship and promise not to attack him. It seems like he probably could have just bound them all up to ensure that no one had their fingers cross, but whatever. It’s his party and we’re all just invited along for the ride. He does put them in a cage though, and takes them to his castle.

This is where we find out that Doctor Doom has invented Time Travel, thus beginning a long and storied history of Time Fuckary in the Marvel Universe. His plan is to send them on a quest in pirate times to procure Blackbeard’s treasure for him. Why can’t he just rob a bank? Good question. Couldn’t tell you.

But in order to save Sue, the rest of the team must agree to this. They go back in time and land in a port where two pirates are conveniently arguing over a pile of period appropriate costumes and fake beards. Ben scares the men away and the three of them suit up to blend in, I guess.

Why do they have wigs and fake beards? Good question. Why does Ben conveniently get black hair and a black beard? Isn’t he getting super into character for a thing they don’t actually want to do? I know what you’re thinking. And trust me, we’ll get there. I promise the pay off is everything you want it to be and more.

Yeah. Ben Grimm was Blackbeard all along. I love comics.

After the fight, they acquire Blackbeard’s treasure and Reed points out that they only agreed to give Doom the chest, not the treasure inside. And that is technically correct, the best kind of correct. So they quickly exchange the riches for chains.

Ben, reveling in his new-found fame, announces that he will not be returning with Reed and Johnny. He claims that there is nothing for him in their time, but at least here he’s made something of himself. To ensure that the other two can’t drag him back to their home time, he orders his crew to soak Johnny with water and wraps Richard in a sail. While he’s preparing to set his two friends loose on the open sea in a lifeboat, a cyclone hits the ship and destroys it. Thus Reed, Johnny, Ben, and the treasure chest all wash ashore.

A time portal opens above them and they are all brought back to the present along with the treasure chest. Doom explains that the reason he couldn’t simply rob a bank is because the treasure contains gems enchanted by Merlin that will make him invincible. When he opens the chest to find nothing but chains, Ben attacks. His punch destroy’s Doom’s armor, revealing that he was nothing more than a robot all along. I can’t believe we got Doombots on Doom’s first appearance. Again, I love comics.

Doom appears on a screen from another part of the castle where he still has Sue Storm hostage. But she’s not going down without a fight. Turning invisible, she manages to short circuit Doom’s control panel and cause an explosion. She escapes and reunites with the rest of the team. Reed, because he’s definitely in the top three ranking of smartest men on Earth, says it’s not worth trying to capture Doom who very likely has traps set up all around his castle. So the Fantastic Four escape through an alligator infested mote in an absolutely nonsense way that prove to me that neither Stan Lee nor Johnny Storm understand how fire works.

Regardless, the team escapes. And once they’re safely out of the castle, Johnny sets it on fire. Because apparently he’s fully trying to murder Doom. Which, I get it. But it kinda goes against the hero code we know and love where heroes don’t actually kill the bad guys. That’s anti-hero territory and we’re a long way off from Frank Castle, still.

The team watches Doom blast out of the castle with a jetpack. We’ll be see him again very soon and for the rest of continuity.

Amazing Spider-Man

Okay technically this is Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962; story by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, art by Steve Ditko, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek) but it’s the first appearance of Spider-Man and the only issue of Amazing Fantasy I’m going to read so it’s basically Amazing Spider-Man #0. Everyone knows this origin story. We’ve seen Uncle Ben bleed out in the streets almost as many times as we’ve seen Martha Wayne’s pearls artfully break and scatter in a Gotham alleyway. But here it is, one more time, for the sake of continuity

Peter Parker is an unassuming high school student. He’s an outcast an deemed a “professional wall flower” by his peers. We open with a group of kids talking about going to a dance they would never in a million years invite Peter to. And I know we’re supposed to think these kids are mean and they’re bullying poor Pete. But let’s be honest, Steve Ditko can’t draw teenagers and Peter looks like a 40 year old divorced math teacher. I wouldn’t want to invite him to the dance either.

And it makes sense that Peter is 40 because Aunt May and Uncle Ben are like 110. Seriously Ditko? Why are they so old? Where did you learn to draw people of varying ages? I don’t love Ditko’s art in this as much as I’ve enjoyed Kirby’s on everything else. But he’s really going to shine when he gets to Doctor Strange so I’m holding out for those issues and hoping he’s learned how to draw someone in their late 20s/early 30s by then.

Peter lives with his only living relatives, Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They’re poor but happy and peter is well loved. We don’t learn yet what happened to his parents or how he ended up with his Aunt and Uncle, but that’s not important right now.

Instead of going to dances with teenagers, 40 year old divorced math teacher getting his groove back attends demonstrations of radioactive rays. While watching the demonstration, Peter doesn’t notice a spider drop down onto him until it’s too late. This is literally my worst nightmare I would simply cease to exist.

Peter handles it a little better than I would, though. The spider dies and, feeling a little lightheaded, Peter leaves the demonstration early. Nothing out of the ordinary there…

Side note: Steve Ditko also can’t draw spiders. Can Steve Ditko just not draw? Something to think about.

On his way home he almost gets hit by a car and when he goes to jump out of the way, he discovers that he can jump much further than he thought. He plays around with his powers for a bit, testing their limits and possibilities. He’s strong, he’s fast, he can climb walls. Does whatever a spider can, etc etc. You know the drill.

Later, using his new powers, Peter enters a wrestling match as the “Masked Marvel” and win’s $100. After the match, he is greeted by a TV producer and invited to join him in show business, like you do. Put a pin in that. Because now it’s time for a comic book style make-over montage. Peter goes home to make himself a costume. Project Runway, look out. It’s actually a pretty cool black and red suit. If you’ve seen one Spider-Man costume, you’ve seen them all. This one has the web-wings that don’t make it into every version but still look pretty cool here.

He also makes himself a batch of what he calls web fluid. No real explanation as to how or what it’s made of. But when you’re a 40 year old divorced math teacher with an interest in radiation, you’ve probably got a lot of stuff laying around to whip something up.

Later, Spider-Man has become a celebrity wrestler. One night he goes back stage to see guards chasing a thief and gives them the most fateful “Not my problem, I just work here” in history. Because as fate would have it, a few days later Spider-Man learns that his uncle has been killed by a burglar. Peter puts on his costume and chases the man to an empty warehouse. A fight ensures, the man pulls a gun that peter blasts with web. When he sees the man’s face, Peter realizes that this is not just any burglar, though. It is the same thief Spider-Man let escape.

Peter leaves the burglar wrapped in web for the police to find and goes home to ponder exactly what great responsibility comes with this great power. And that’s the last we’ll see of him for a while. Amazing Spider-Man #1 comes out in March of 63–a year in real time, several recap blog posts from now in my time.

Journey Into Mystery

That brings us to our last first appearance of a new hero for a while: Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962; story by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, art by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Stan Goldberg, and letters by Artie Simek) introduces us to… Donald Blake? No, that can’t be right. The story promised Thor and the Stone Men from Saturn! So, if you’re only familiar with Thor from the movies live I was, and had never really dipped into Thor comics written before a certain point, it was pretty surprising to find that Thor also used to have an alter-ego. In my head, Thor is just Thor. I read a lot of Walt Simonson’s Thor run from the 80s, Jason Aaron’s run from the last decade, and I had known about Blake in passing, but mostly through modern stuff addressing prior retcons. I didn’t realize that for the first several years of being a character, Thor was basically just a costume worn by Donald Blake, and not the other what around. And, yeah, it’s a little more complicated than a costume, but still.

The story opens with our introduction to Donald Blake, a doctor from the US who uses a cane to walk, on vacation in Norway. Conveniently also visiting Norway, are a bunch of rock aliens from Saturn (who kinda look like Ben Grimm painted green. Maybe Ben should go be on Saturn for a while?). Blake overhears a fisherman telling locals about the rock monsters, but no one seems to believe him. Blake decides to go look for himself and, sure enough, rock aliens. He steps on a twig while attempting to run away from the aliens. Obviously the aliens hear it and chase after him. And I’m just going to say it here, Donald Blake is not in the running for smartest scientist in the world. Reed, Hank, and Bruce can all rest easy knowing they’re definitely top three for the time being.

Blake runs for the hills–literally. He loses his cane and takes shelter in a cave. Unfortunately, the exit is blocked off so he’s basically trapped. Until! Magically a secret door opens to a chamber with a fresh new walking stick just lying on a pedestal. *Cardi B Voice* That’s suspicious. That’s weird. Not quite smartest man on earth smart, but smarter than your average bear smart, Blake decides to try to use the cane as a lever to move the boulder blocking his exit. When that doesn’t work, he slams the stick against the boulder out of frustration. There’s a flash of lightning and the stick becomes a hammer. Blake has been transformed into the Norse God of Thunder: Thor.

Weird, huh?

I do like that we get a quick rundown of all of Thor’s powers as Blake slowly works them out for himself. He is super strong, meaning he can lift the boulder out of his way. He can also summon storms and he figures out that if the hammer is throne, it immediately comes back to him. Which does lead to a funny contradiction that Stan Lee will start correcting in future issues.

If he’s not holding the hammer, he goes back to being Blake immediately sometimes. However, if he throws it, he can stay in Thor Form long enough for it to come back to him? Stan Lee will literally give us a countdown timer for how long he can be Thor without the Hammer in his hand later. Thor’s powers as they relate to how close Blake is to the hammer is never consistent despite Stan’s best efforts and it’s so funny to me.

Now that he has super-powers Blake AKA Thor can go out and face the aliens, whose fleet of ships has shown up in Earth’s atmosphere. Thor attacks the aliens and breaks through all of their defenses, including an incredibly named Mechano-Monster. No match for the awesome might of Thor, they flee. Thor changes back into Dr. Bake and is fully ignored by the soldiers who come looking for the invaders.

Journey into Mystery #84 (September 1962; story by Larry Lieber, art by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, and letters by Artie Simek) is where Mystery sort of becomes our anti-communist book. More on that when we unpack. But for now, it’s also our first appearance of Jane Nelson… I mean Foster. Yeah, Nelson doesn’t really have the same ring to it. I’m glad they circled back on that one.

Blake returns home from his trip to Europe and learns that a revolution has broken out against a Communist ruler in San Diablo. As a result, several American doctors agree to go and help, Blake among them. Obviously this is a problem for our evil Communist dictator (and kinda racist caricature), known as The Executioner. And he for sure cam by that name honestly, as we’ll see in a minute. His goal is to keep the peasants too sick and weak to overthrow his government. Which, yeah, that’s definitely what an evil dictator would do.

The other thing an evil dictator would do is send fighter jets to drop bombs on the ship carrying those doctors. Thankfully, Blake is on board. He turns into Thor and smashes the bombs out of the sky. There’s a lot of running back and forth and trying to make sure it’s clear that no one has realized that Blake is Thor despite how often Blake disappears right when Thor arrives which is actually pretty funny.

Despite The Executioner’s best efforts, the boat makes land at San Diablo and the doctors and medical staff come ashore to help the sick and injured civilians.

I was actually surprised to see the on-page display of the Executioner’s firing squad as he demonstrates to his soldier what their fate will be if they do not stop Blake and the other doctors from doing what they came to do. Even without seeing the blood and guts, this was a little brutal for an area that I mostly associate with extreme ✨camp✨.

When their team is attacked again, Thor tries to fight off the soldiers. Eventually, they capture Jane and force Thor to retreat.

I do love that we get an editor’s note user manual for Mjolnir. We’ll get a lot more of these attempts to make his powers make sense because Stan Lee can’t just leave it as “it’s magic, get over it.”

Appearing as Donald Blake, Thor arrives at the Executioner’s base to demand the release of Jane Foster. Obviously, not one for following orders, The Executioner takes Blakes walking stick and orders him to the firing squad. In another “smarter than your average bear” moment, Blake challenges the dictator to fight him man to man. Laughable considering how frail Blake looks. However, Blake manages to get the walking stick away from the Executioner and transform himself into Thor once more.

The storm Thor creates washes away the soldiers as they shout out exactly what we can see happening on the page. This is a writing tick that I so closely associate with Stan Lee that I was a little surprised to only see him listed as the editor on this story. It’s definitely my least favorite thing about a lot of Silver Age comics.

While Thor is fighting off the communist soldiers, democratic forces arrive with aid, causing the communists to flee the fight. Seeing his military in shambles, The Executioner decides now is as good a time as any to cut and run. He steals a bunch of gold and tries to flee. But the communist army catches him and sentence him to his own firing squad for being a traitor. Naturally, the communists realize that the Americans have been their true friends all along and the war comes to an end. Interesting.

In the last few panels of the story, we are assured that no one has connected the Thor/Blake dots yet. And Jane laments that Blake will never be as brave or handsome as The Mighty Thor. So we have our third female character who still kinda only exists to be a potential love interest for our super smart hero man.

There’s a lot to unpack here.

The Hulk Is My Surprise Favorite Comic?

I hadn’t really expected Hulk to be my favorite book of the era, but after two issues it really is shaping up to take that trophy. Jack Kirby is pulling from a lot of old EC horror comics for influence here and I love it. At this point in continuity, Hulk is much more a monster comic than a superhero comic and that has to be a lot of Kirby’s doing. If you read a little about him, you’ll find that he created a lot of the famous monsters in the Marvel Universe and it kinda feels like Hulk was always supposed to fit the horror genre.

This book is also where you really get to see Kirby draw with emotion. The “camera” gets up close and personal in a way that just doesn’t happen in Fantastic Four. There are so many panels of Bruce’s horror and despair that come through so intensely. There’s also more exploration with color in this book than any other. And it’s a little hard to talk about color when I’m reading digital copies where the color and inking have been redone completely. But, there’s just a different pallet at work here. And if you dig into superhero color theory you’ll learn a lot about how heroes mostly get colored with primary colors. Lots blues and reds, specifically. And villains get secondary colors, i.e. green.

I’m just really surprised by how drawn into this book I am, when I’ve never really cared much for Hulk stories.

Aliens and Space-Exploration

We’re getting a lot of Alien invasion stories. I think that’s just a really common plot line for serialized stories in this time period. For some historical contest, we’re in the second decade of the Soviet vs US space race. most of these comics are being published just a year after the first human spaceflight. And we’re still seven years from the first man on the moon. I’m sure there was a lot of anxiety around what exactly was out there, in a space that only a very special and highly trained (despite what the Fantastic Four may think) few could go.

I also think it’s so interesting that we’re at a point where we’re about to start seeing some recycled villains, specifically in the Fantastic Four, but we have several alien invasions and no repeat invaders. In fact, none of the aliens we have seen so far will have any staying power except the Skrulls, which will eventually become a Whole Thing.

Anti-Communist Propaganda

Thor being the HARD anti-communist propaganda book is certainly a choice. I read ahead on Marvel Wiki just to see if San Diablo ever gets mentioned again and apparently it becomes a US-backed democratic state and in 1985 we’ll get a story about Captain America vs a native San Diablan who wants to fund a revolution to overthrow the American created government in his home country. Curious to see how that story is treated, and how two decades will change the way we view American interventionism. Right now, we’re still a little deep in Vietnam for some reflection.

I also didn’t really expect these books to be SO propaganda heavy in such a cringy way. And I probably should have. Stan Lee has never exactly been an iconoclast. But knowing about Kirby’s backstory and Ditko’s personal politics, it will be interesting to see how that comes through in later books.

#the incredible hulk #fantastic four #tales to astonish #spiderman #journey into mystery #marvel comics #the marvel method

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lost-technology · 1 year ago

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I just want to say... that this is actually a real thing. It is a real thing that happens with some real people. Me, for instance. So, I rather like cooking - at least sometimes, anyway. Earlier this year (2023), in January, one of my adult nephews / my partner’s nephew - and the guy who happened to be pretty much my best friend died quite suddenly. He’d had a lot of health problems, but was finally actually starting to get them solved, or so we’d thought. After doing a lot of screaming at God and doing some really freaky artwork and figuring out that I really didn’t need the shit fast food job I had that wouldn’t let me take off for enough time that I needed to grieve, anyway... I spent a lot of time at home cooking. Just cooking. I can’t remember everything I made, but I know that one of the things I made very soon after the event was my eggplant / chicken parmesan combo that is excellent, lasts for many meals when leftovers are frozen and, while fairly straightforward, is kind of a messy pain in the ass to make. When planning the memorial service (being a part of actual PLANNING, which is something I’VE NEVER DONE BEFORE)... well, I got really firm in “I AM GOING TO MAKE CHIMICHANGAS!” - my chimis were one of my nephew’s favorite foods in the world. It was like... from late January up through May I was a cooking-machine. There was week that was an exception for this: I’d gotten the mad urge to fly across the country to re-connect with my blood-family whom I had not seen in over a decade (I also finally had money to do so, though not by much). I never know when I am going to lose one of them, you see, (especially my elderly and health-failing parents) - and I just needed to see them all again, at least once more. I’d been wanting to for years and just wasn’t able to and losing someone was the trigger that got a fire under me to do so. And...*sigh* that was the weekend of reconnecting to restaurants of my childhood and teen years, as well. (And the damndest thing is that I actually wrote a Trigun fanfic inspired by one of these restaurants). So, yeah, OP, this comic speaks to me as well as being an astute observation on the Trigun characters. I’m sorry for blorping all of my enchilada sauce all over your comic.

The best way to deal with any crisis, including an existential one, is...

...is to feed everyone who did not have time to escape, obviously

#vash and food

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samanthahirr · 2 years ago

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MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

(Thank you so much for tagging me, @silverbrume!)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work—any kind of fancreation counts!

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it?

Can I count my ongoing 00Q WIP-epic Off the Books? Yeah, I’m gonna say this is my biggest challenge. I’ve never posted a WIP before, and it’s a much bigger challenge than I anticipated, controlling the pacing, the evolving relationship dynamics, and the gradual reveal of exposition. It doesn’t help that it’s already my longest work to date, and it’s only 1/3 done at 54k. I’ve got reams of notes for this fic and a heavily detailed outline to follow, but I still agonize over nailing all my set-ups and pay-offs. Very challenging project, but my most-rewarding by far.

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?

Queen of Spades by Astolat. One of the first 007 fics I ever read, it took the M & Craig butting-heads dynamic from Casino Royale and amplified their antagonism and manipulations and competition into the stratosphere. I fell in love with Astolat’s headcanons of a Bond who resents orders and leadership but craves M’s approval, and an M who effortlessly manipulates Bond into becoming the agent she wants him to be, and even as Bond sees those manipulations happening, he can only rise to her challenges instead of turning his back on them.

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

Yes! I’ve got a pre-slash 00Q fic all planned and researched, wherein Bond’s punishment for a botched mission is bodyguard-duty for Q at a conference in Salzburg. In this AU, Q & Bond don’t know each other well and have an adversarial relationship. En route, Bond mercilessly taunts Q about his blatant fear of flying…until Bond realizes just after takeoff that Q has dosed himself with an anxiolytic/hypnotic to get through the short flight. Now Bond has a heavily drugged quartermaster at his mercy, and he must choose whether to be cruel or kind for the next seven hours. (Spoiler: Bond chooses kindness, and they forge a mutual respect and tentative friendship by the story’s end.) Tentative title “Bases to Guard or Beleaguer.” Just gotta finish writing a couple other fics before I can start banging this one out.

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how?

I was surprised how effortlessly Touch It, Stroke It, and Undress It came together for 007 Fest 2022. In summer of 2021, I came up with a series of vignettes for aromantic!Q sleeping with all the agents, amusingly thwarting Bond’s seduction attempts. This year I decided to flesh the ideas out into a series of standalone smut scenes with an overarching “lovers to friends-with-benefits” arc for Fest, and I somehow cranked out 21k of smut in under a month! Biggest surprises of the resulting fic: A) I haven’t been that prolific in a decade; B) the multiple POVs were an engaging challenge to figure out; and C) once I stopped being self-conscious about sharing all my kinks, the smut became downright fun to write.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks?

I’m all about hurt/comfort (though if I injure a character too seriously, they can’t have the celebratory ‘we survived’ sex, so I tend to go minor-to-moderate on the physical trauma). And I’m currently fascinated with all the possible variations on a drugging storyline, so expect to see that crop up in my next few fics.

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

None right now, but last year I did fics for The Mandalorian and The Man from UNCLE.

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

I can’t listen to English lyrics when I’m writing, so I listen to a lot of instrumental or foreign-language albums. I spent the month of July looping the Argentinian singer-songwriter Federico Aubele’s second album, Panamericana (produced by Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (shoutout Washington DC!!!) so it’s got sexy-chill electro-lounge vibes), featuring Fede’s genius guitar work and hauntingly gorgeous guest vocals over Latin dance rhythms. And now for August, I’m hooked on a YouTube playlist called Tropical Night Bossa Nova that’s all dreamy/beachy guitar instrumentals.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

In 2016, @beaubete wrote a 300-word piece for Last Drabble Writer Standing called “Property,” wherein Q poses as a buyer to rescue Bond from a slavery ring. I read that fic on June 1, 2021, and it completely rewired my brain. Within four days I’d planned out the entirety of Off the Books, a 150k sequel for a goddamn drabble I’m still writing a year later, and I joined a new fandom, and now I’m a part of the MI6-Cafe. If it hadn’t been for that genius, shocking cliffhanger of a drabble, I might not have started writing in this fandom and meeting everyone in the Cafe, so I’m still so, so grateful that Beaubete’s fanwork exists.

9. Finally, share where you post your works!

My AO3 page

Tagging: @prismatic-bell & @kmk1701d & @a-forger-and-a-point-man

@mi6-cafe

#MI6-cafe #mi6 cafe tag game #mi6cafe community #ask meme

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mittensmorgul · 3 years ago

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For anyone interested in long-term residence in the supernatural fandom, please have some observations I’ve made over the decade I’ve been here. Take it or leave it as you will, but I’ve found all of this info useful over the years I’ve been here.

I wrote this yesterday, and it achieved its mission of identifying the sort of folks who would react negatively to it (i.e. a lot of block lists have been updated), so now that it’s been edited for content, it’s going under a cut (because that is how we do things on tumblr in general, unless we have a deliberate purpose for annoying readers with excessively long text posts) for the sake of people who actually do care about the fandom and its history. If that’s not you or your reason for being here, then keep on keeping on with your own thing, I guess. For those who are interested, there’s a lot of fandom resources some of us have been building for years that you might enjoy knowing about.

First off, I’ve been informed by a few friends who’ve read through this for coherency’s sake that it sort of reads like a *shakes cane from porch* fandom grandma complaint, but honestly... I earned this rocking chair and goshdangit imma rock now. So apologies for any “back in my day” vibes or faint aroma of tiger balm this post might give off. Then again, it’s loosely based on a similar post from 2012 so like... time is a flat circle anyway I guess.

1. There is no such thing as “tumblr famous,” unless you’re referring to the hilarious and delightful fic of the same name (please go read it, you will cackle). Posting Hot Takes for imaginary Clout™ on this site is kind of pointless in the long run. Sure you can post solely for the sake of stirring shit and getting notes, but the majority of the folks who do aren’t long term residents of the fandom. They’re just tourists moving through our little beach town for spring break. If you’re actually intent on moving to this corner of the fandom for an extended stay, please bother to really feel out the permanent residents and understand the culture and general mood of the neighborhood. It bears no resemblance to whatever’s going on across town where all the bars and beach parities are happening, and those loud, drunken revelers are, again, gonna disappear back to their regular lives or on to the next party eventually. That doesn’t mean the fandom is dying, it’s just evolving.

(funny how I had several comments implying that I’m just trying to keep the fandom from evolving with this post, because I sincerely do want the fandom to continue on for years to come, and that is impossible without evolution. We can evolve without self-immolating, though. mostly i included point 1 for an excuse to push ancient but hilarious fanfic on you.)

2. Once you post something here, it’s been unleashed to the fandom winds. You never know where it will end up, or who will comment on it or add to it. Remember that time Misha tweeted the link to the Epic Cockles Love Story post? No? It was wild. That was 2012. They all know we’re here, and how to find us if they want to. Please don’t take it to their doorsteps.

Obviously if someone is being a dick on your posts, please feel free to block them, but the whole entire point of this site is to engage people with your posts. Being big mad that someone reblogged your post with comments or supporting evidence, or happy headcanons or “HECK THIS IS GREAT BECAUSE (insert personal story about their experience or whatever else made them Feel Things about your post)” is frankly ridiculous. If your goal is to avoid any sort of engagement with your posts, then maybe try instagram instead. From what I understand, there is a SPN fandom presence there, and nobody can tarnish your original posts with unwanted commentary. But the ability to reblog with additional commentary is a FEATURE of tumblr that builds community through conversation. Otherwise we’re all just talking to ourselves in a vacuum, and that’s what actually kills fandoms.

(and for the folks who just want to blog how they want to blog and don’t want people to engage on their posts at all, please feel free to block anyone you want, as well... nobody wants to step on your toes, but most of us also don’t want to walk on eggshells wondering if this post is one of the “do not add comments for any reason” sorts of posts, either. This is a huge fandom and most people can’t even begin to keep track of every creator and their url du jour, and what their personal rules might be regarding interaction with their content. Including a “please don’t add comments” note at the bottom of your posts-- and not in your tags that won’t even show up on reblogs, but in the actual body of the post-- would sincerely help avoid any awkward or unwanted interactions, too. At the end of the day, you are in control of your own fandom experience and the block button exists.

For the record, I block zero fandom blogs (which is why I posted this, I wanted it to reach a wide scope... refer to the opening paragraphs as to why).

3. Since this post was partly inspired by a tag I left on that post going around about how “previous tags” mean fuckall on this site (which you can read here), just a reminder that if you like someone’s tags or feel they add value to the post, part of the Peer Review structure of tumblr encourages you to PASTE THEM INTO A REBLOG. If you do this, then at least credit the person who actually wrote the tags! Don’t just copy someone else’s tags into your tags on your reblog of the post without credit either. They were not YOUR tags. (I have had this happen to tag rambles I wrote and someone else got credited with them on a subsequent reblog and it is FRUSTRATING). Just... don’t even bother to write “previous tags” because WHAT PREVIOUS TAGS?! Nobody is gonna bother to chase back the chain of reblogs trying to find where the mystery tags came from, friendos. That way lies madness.

(for the record, since some folks seemed to focus on this point solely, writing “previous tags” on a post isn’t inherently a BAD thing, but for anyone who actually is here for more than one-off shitposting, then it’s sort of a pointless thing in the long run. This wasn’t intended to suggest people who ARE here for one-off shitposting are bad or “doing it wrong,” but for people who might actually want to preserve that hilarious joke or insightful comment. People delete posts and entire blogs all the time around here. Links break. I get that the upcoming generation just shrugs at that and moves on with their lives, but heck... you don’t have to accept that all entertainment is disposable if you don’t want to. There’s a bizarre sort of nihilism plaguing us all about the impermanence of pretty much everything that feels like something we should be fighting against rather than buying into wholesale, even in our escapist entertainment. I’m just exhausted by the complete loss of joy in community.

*shouts from the peanut gallery* IT AIN’T THAT DEEP, JUST GET SOME FRESH AIR AND LOOK AT A PUPPY OR SOMETHING

Yes... yes it isn’t really that deep, but bigger picture in the state of reality we’re all entirely disillusioned with, are we supposed to just give up on everything, including the things we cling to because they bring us a tiny spark of hope that we’re not all just trapped in this dystopian nightmare and things might actually be worth living for?

*peanut gallery clinging to burnt husks of peanuts in a barren peanut field* but this is how we have chosen to cope

Okay... you do you... I feel bad for you but if that’s the case then this post is NOT FOR YOU. AND THAT’S FINE. I honestly do not care if you don’t care! I mean, I’m sorry anyone has to live in a world that drives them to that mindset, but I understand. This post is for anyone who might look at their lives and their choices and think “no wait, I unironically enjoy this and want more from the experience of that enjoyment than I’m currently feeling.” Everyone else can continue with their lives as usual.)

4. CONTENT THEFT IS NEVER OKAY. PERIOD. Things like “credit to the artist” or tagging gifs or images you found on pinterest as “not mine” isn’t actually credit. If you can’t source an image or gif set, DO NOT POST IT! We don’t REPOST (i.e. save an image and then create a new post with it as if it was our own creation). We REBLOG (click the little square arrows and reblog from the actual creator). That goes for gif sets, fanvids, screencaps, meta, fic... everything.

(hopefully everyone here already understands this one, but I felt compelled to include some “these are stupidly obvious” reminders anyway, since this is ostensibly some sort of advice column. This is the equivalent of the warning label on your toaster reminding you not to use it in the bath. Like... duh...)

5. Close kin of item 4 is SOURCE YOUR SHIT.

(for 100% disclosure purposes, I specifically discussed this one in this specific way because of an influx of anon ask messages I received in the wake of the finale. Literally the inciting incident for creating this entire post was what I can only assume was a joking ask about a comment Misha made at a con years ago. Someone actually bothered to take the time to type out those sentences to me. I have no idea what they were expecting in reply, or what could possibly motivate them to send this comment about something so entirely random from, again, several years ago. Just a joke? No idea, but whatever... it got me thinking that there might actually be people who are new to the fandom who MIGHT actually care about the fandom history, and maybe they just don’t know where to go for that info, or how to even begin searching through 16 years of history for things they might actually find enjoyment in, rather than just hauling random out of context garbage out on main and pointing and laughing about it now. People are actually allowed to care about things. It’s not cringeworthy to actually care about things, and you are not alone in actually caring, and there’s this whole big room over here full of people who are thrilled to share in that with you. This post is intended FOR THOSE PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY, so if that is not you, please just continue walking by.)

Yes, I know lots of y’all are new around here right now, but dredging up stuff from years ago that fandom has completely debunked and presenting it as TRU FAX again is just exhausting. We’re not trying to be party poopers, but seriously, we have seen it all and are mostly done with extinguishing bags of flaming dog poop on our front porches for the umpteenth year in a row. I’ve seen a lot of posts that have the same tone as “I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil” or “I heard kylo ren has an eight pack” and just... the information is there for anyone who cares enough to find it.

This goes double for “why is nobody talking about this thing I just discovered while watching the show for the first time?!” And, oh hon, we have talked it all into the ground over the last fifteen years. We’re happy you’re discovering it again, but I promise we talked about it plenty when the episodes originally aired. We have such a rich meta history that lots of us have worked really hard to preserve. I encourage you to seek it out, if nothing else than as historical artifacts. The way we have discussed the show has been a 16-year evolution. People have written literal doctoral dissertations on this show. Your shitposts are fun! We love reliving our own experience through fresh eyes, and seeing your wonder at experiencing it all again for the first time! But y’all didn’t invent this fandom in the last six months, either.

Meta Sources and Minerals provided by our friendly neighborhood fandom archivist, @lets-steal-an-archive

Academic books and articles about SPN

A collection of Meta Essays going back to s1 and organized by topic (all of this has happened before, all of it will happen again)

SPN Heavy Meta Archive (s1-3)

Mel’s Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-12)

Oranges8hands Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-15, with many similar entries to Mel’s... though ymmv on viewpoint in a lot of these too)

Anyone remember Fandom Wank? Not the concept but the actual LJ... No? Okay have a link to SPN topics that ended up there. Through 2013. We have seen so much... including several fandom containment breaches.

for all your art sourcing needs, please see @theroadsofararchive, the repository for so much fandom art.

need to find a gif of something? canonspngifs is a vast repository of gifsets of the entire series. If the gif you want to use in your post happens to be the first gif in the gifset, in the tumblr gif finder thingy just paste the permalink to that post from canonspngifs (which is easily searchable by episode, character, location, situation, quotes, and sometimes even color and clothing items the actors are wearing... it’s really well organized, especially for tumblr >.>) and the first gif will be automatically linked with credit to the gif creator attached. It makes life easy that way. It’s also convenient when trying to remember something specific but can’t remember what episode it’s from. I’ve used the site to jog my memory before going to the superwiki armed with more specific search results to find episode quotes and references. Or sometimes I just scroll through all the nice gifs for fun, too.

Need a screencap of something and know exactly which episode it’s from? Try Home of the Nutty. You might not find the exact screencap you’re looking for, but they have a complete set of caps of every episode, and it’s an incredibly useful resource for quick reference checks and the like. Just give pages a chance to fully load before clicking on the next one. The site is easily overloaded, but it’s still free to use (and again, with credit... Pretty much every screencap on my entire blog is from HotN unless otherwise credited).

As you can see, this is a fandom built on preserving our history. You absolutely are not required to engage with any of this if that’s not of interest to you, but I can only assume that there are people who would be interested in it if only they knew it existed and how to find it. Well, now they do.

6. A few more notes on tags, and how they work on tumblr. The first 20 tags on your ORIGINAL posts are searchable sitewide, so if you want to be able to find something again, tag that thing first before going on general tag rambles. The only place tags on reblogs are searchable is on your own blog. So you don’t have to put 50 tags trying to get a post seen if it’s a reblog. You’re just spitting into the wind at that point. If you have a filing system for finding things again, then by all means add those tags (again, in the first 20, so they’re searchable), but you don’t need to tag a reblog “destiel” and “deancas” and “dean” and “cas” and “dean x cas” or whatever. Pick one for your personal blog’s filing system, that’s all you need.

(this was only added because tagging and searching on this site is so very broken... I get that a lot of folks don’t care about ever searching their own blogs again for anything, so this one only really applies if you do often find yourself trying to find old posts. If not, then it’s not really relevant. It took me years to work out a decent tagging system, and at the beginning of my time here I never thought I’d end up camping out here for a decade and falling this deep into the fandom, and I regretted my lack of consistent tags only years later when I realized I actually wanted to be able to go back and find specific old posts again. So... for anyone who wants to err on the side of caution, working out a sensible tagging system really helps if you’re here for the long term. I personally tag content by episode, because some of my other general tags are so large as to be practically useless as a search term. But whatever system you choose to file stuff on your own blog, it really only has to make sense to you. And again, if this is pointless advice for someone who has no intention of settling here for the long term. Please feel free to ignore it. I just wish someone had explained it this way to me ten years ago and saved me the hassle of retroactively tagging something like 30k posts... especially now that using the mass tag replacer is the fastest way to get your entire blog deleted... oops? so yeah, don’t use the mass tag replacer either >.>)

7. Tags on Tumblr DO NOT WORK LIKE TAGS ON TWITTER. If you @ someone in the body of the post, it will show up in their notifications (if they’re the sort of person who even checks their notifications... not all of us do. For the record, I generally don’t...), but putting actor or ship names in the tags on a tumblr post does absolutely nothing. It’s not the same as tagging the actor’s twitter account in a tweet. Nobody’s getting notifications about you tagging a post about Jensen here as “Jensen Ackles.” There is a difference. Please learn it. (and don’t take headcanons and ESPECIALLY RPF or otherwise explicit art or fic from tumblr to twitter and tag the actors in it. That’s just... not okay.)

(I have seen the pearl clutchers getting all in a huff about the mere existence of RPF or even explicit content of fictional characters if it doesn’t meet their purity standards, but tagging those things allows people who don’t want to see it to actively avoid that content here. Nobody has a right to tell people their fictional content shouldn’t exist at all, or that creators of that fictional content somehow deserve harassment or threats for having dared to create such “immoral” content, won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children... and no... you do not do that here. Don’t be the problematic behavior you wish to ban from the world. Learn to use tags to protect yourself from, as i have attempted to emphasize here, fictional content you are personally upset by. That’s a you problem, not a problem for the creators of potentially upsetting content that they tag appropriately for.)

8. General formatting stuff: If you’re writing long text posts, visually break them up so people aren’t faced with one long wall of text. The enter key is your friend. Also, if you put long text posts under a Read More break and send people to your blog to finish reading, please ensure that your blog is actually visually accessible (tiny text, or light grey text on a dark grey background, or a visually busy background might be aesthetically pleasing to you but nobody can actually read it. Loads of folks won’t even try. Which is great if you don’t actually care whether people are able to appreciate your content or not, but something to at least consider if you *do* actively want to encourage engagement with your work. Confirm how your blog looks on both mobile and desktop and make sure it’s actually functional in both, too).

And since I mentioned that most of my experience on fandom tumblr has been in the SPN fandom, here’s a bit of a reminder for folks who are new around here. With the reminder that I have been here more than a decade and still feel like a newbie myself sometimes...

This is an OLD FANDOM. There are many, many people who have been at this longer than some of you have been alive. The average age for creators in this fandom is older than you think (I think of my friends in their 30′s as young’ins okay? okay). With that understood, you are responsible for the content you consume and are exposed to. Curate your experience. Ship and let ship. YKINMKATOK. Don’t deliberately expose yourself to content you find upsetting for whatever reason. Tags and warnings are your friends, not targets for you to attack in some sort of purity war. People will ship things you do not like (or in specific ways you do not like), will say things you do not agree with, and will find their happiness in things you abhor. That is not your concern. Find what you do like, and support and engage with it, and ignore (or block, or unfollow) the rest. Tumblr has a feature that lets you blacklist tags so the content you’re trying to avoid won’t appear on your dash.

Remember the paradox of tolerance.

It is not your job in fandom to police how other people enjoy the fandom. It’s not *my* job to police how *you* enjoy the fandom, UNLESS your enjoyment is in actively harming other real human beings in the fandom. If you don’t like their take on the character or the show or the plotlines or their ships or anything else, you don’t need to engage with their posts at all! The necessary corollary to this is that clarifying misunderstandings or correcting factual misinformation is not “policing.”

(this is where the peanut gallery reminds me it ain’t that deep, and I plead with them to put down the social media and find just one (1) thing to actually believe in in this godforsaken life, find something other than disdain and cynicism and spite to live for. If those things motivate you to find a larger cause for yourself, then great, use them to your advantage, but use them to find something that makes you a better person or brings you a modicum of joy and connection to your fellow human beings despite living in a dystopian hellscape of a world)

I have seen a lot of posts lately that are founded on the sort of authority that comes with “I watched through tumblr for a few months and then watched the last three episodes of the series” and as such are just... missing the larger context of the entire show, and are unfounded entirely in canon. I 100% appreciate the new enthusiasm for the fandom that we’ve been living in here for years, and it’s wonderful to see new people enjoying the thing we love. Your headcanons are valid, you are valid, but recognize that your headcanons aren’t canon. All of us finale denialists have accepted this in some measure, so we feel you. We truly, truly feel you. But regarding actual canon, we have a resource for that: the Superwiki. Learn it, live it, love it, as Metatron would say.

(which you could discover he said in 10.17 Inside Man, thanks to the superwiki! accept no substitutes!)

(and again, there have been people who have been involved in fandom for years who haven’t engaged with canon in years, either! You can play in this universe however you choose, BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CANON AT ALL, WHICH I AM AGAIN POINTEDLY SAYING MIGHT NOT BE YOU, READER, AND I’M NOT SUGGESTING YOU ARE WRONG FOR NOT WANTING TO ACTUALLY ENGAGE WITH CANON, but if you DO want to engage with canon, please have some useful resources. Why do people feel personally attacked by being presented a list of helpful resources? Absolutely baffling.)

(also: words have definitions. “Canon” is a specific thing, meaning in this case “the finished media product that aired on television.” Anything beyond those limits is secondary canon (think: john’s journal, which is not canon but canon adjacent at best...), word of god (i.e stuff said by the writers and showrunners), or headcanon (which includes actor commentary-- they may have helped create the show with their acting choices and whatever, but they are not in control of the story overall). If there’s something you dislike about actual canon, you can reject it and supplement it with your own theories or preferred outcomes-- that’s basically what fanfic is-- but that doesn’t make your theories canon (much to all our dismay, that’s just not how any of this works. This is not to invalidate how anyone engages with the show or the fandom, just trying to clarify what seems to have been a source of unintentional misunderstandings. Your theories do not have to be “canon” to be legitimate interpretations.)

***I am setting this section apart, and did make a separate post of just this following information, because this is where we go from being relatively chill about different parts of fandom choosing to interact in different ways and you do you and blog however you want, to “hey can everybody please understand that the way you are interacting with this specific material might be harmful for specific legal reasons, and stating that you do not care about the consequences of your actions does actively make you the asshole here...” Okay, now that we have that understood:

The spnscripthunt collective has been steadily acquiring new scripts (which are posted in full on the superwiki for everyone to enjoy, for free). The language around how some folks are talking about these scripts is... concerning. For very real legal reasons, actually, and not because we’re feeling precious about the collection and don’t wike it when meanies use them in shitposts.

-First off, these scripts are not “leaks.” They are all verified and legally purchased (or gifted, in some cases, but still acquired entirely above board. we didn’t whack anyone over the head in a back alley for these scripts, or swipe them out of someone’s trailer on set).

(in case anyone was unaware, these scripts are the copywritten protected property of Warner Brothers. So yes, how we use them and share them with the fandom could have legal repercussions. We present them as a collected resource of fandom history which SHOULD fall under Fair Use doctrine, but this is untested legal water. Insinuating that the scripts are somehow not entirely legally obtained, or that posting them for public access involved less than 100% transparent and entirely legal transactions is incredibly concerning.

Once again for the peanut gallery, if you don’t care about any of that and are just having a good time with it, at least be mindful of the work and expense a large group of people have gone through to acquire and present the content you’re all too eager to exploit for cheap thrills. Some of us do actually care and are not exactly comfortable with the fact that others don’t seem to care about burning it all to the ground. We can’t force you to listen or behave as we’d hope you might, but at least be aware of the potential consequences of your actions. All we’re asking is for you to not be the douchebag who sets the whole neighborhood on fire with your illegal fireworks display. Is that too much to ask for? more on that in a second, first... a psa)

-If you see a script for sale and are unsure if it’s legit (or believe it might already be freely available in our collection), please feel free to ask us for advice. Our goal is to make as much of our fandom history available to the entire fandom, and we absolutely do not want anyone shelling out money for stuff you can already find for free.

(seriously, we’ve seen a bunch of resellers cropping up selling printed versions of the scripts we bought and uploaded for everyone to enjoy free of charge, or scripts that are otherwise of dubious origin. We’ve been at this for years now and know what’s actually out there. We don’t want anyone to fall for a scam if we can help it)

-Also, the usual reminder that the scripts we acquire ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE FINAL SHOOTING DRAFTS. In fact, the majority of scripts in our collection are NOT. Changes are made daily to scripts, even during filming. Comparing a Production Draft (white pages, effectively the first “final draft” of what usually becomes a series of drafts before filming wraps) to a much later revision (say... green or goldenrod revisions, several of which we DO have in our collection for comparison) and how those earlier drafts often differ wildly from the aired version versus how similar a much later green draft is to the aired version, for example, can teach you a lot about the television writing process. The link above to the superwiki scripts page has a nice little explainer about how this process works.

Differences between our posted scripts (many of which are white drafts, aka FIRST complete drafts, which will likely go through multiple rounds of revisions before filming even begins) and the aired version of the show are not all “acting choices” or a director or editor just cutting whole scenes on a whim. It’s insulting to everyone involved in production to suggest that’s the case.

(and yeah, fine... whatever, make any sort of posts you like regarding how those changes came about, but at the very least understand that it’s not actually the truth about how any of this works. Don’t care that that’s not the truth and want to make the posts anyway because shitposting is fun and that’s the extent of your sense of humor? FINE! You’re entitled to do that! But at least you DO know the truth now, and hopefully so do the people who engage with your posts. Deliberate ignorance isn’t cute, smooth lions notwithstanding)

There’s probably a whole other post to be made on fandom tagging etiquette, but again I don’t really use the tags enough to know what’s going on with that whole situation. I’ve also probably left a lot of stuff out, so please feel free to add things I’ve overlooked.

Thanks also to @trisscar368 and @thayerkerbasy for help compiling this, too. They were kind enough to escort me through the park to feed these pigeons. Now I need to take them out for ice cream. :’D

So I guess welcome to the neighborhood. Make yourself at home, but like... try not to trash the place while you’re here. Some of us live here by choice, lol.

#this blue hellsite (affectionate)#fandom problems #kinda wish i'd made this post six months ago but here we are i guess lol #long post #now edited for the people who are actually personally invested in the fandom #thanks for participating in this little experiment and I hope this version is actually informative to those who are interested #meaning there's a lot more links to stuff and explainers and whatnot...#and one last reminder that for folks just swinging through for laughs absolutely none of this applies to you #if you are legit interested in fandom history and preservation as we move to the post-canon world then hopefully this is useful to you

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uptonobueno · 2 years ago

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but also on the lack of queerness in the early/main characters in the tvd universe, how are they expecting us to realistically believe that these vampires, especially the ones that have been alive for multiple centuries, haven’t at least had queer sex? like first of all the mikealsons were across an entire ocean from the religions of the book, and had their viking belief system (which tbh i have not and will not do research on to see their views on gay people), somehow stayed straight for 1,000 years despite not having the religious beliefs that made homosexuality a sin? like they’re vampires, created by witches, and immortal, you’re telling me they haven’t at least had queer dalliances or relationships in the past? As if, at the very least, curiosity wouldn’t get the better of you after your fiftyleventh decade roaming the earth? like they honestly expect me to believe that rebecca NEVER had a relationship with a woman? an intense female friendship that ended up turning into more? c’monnnn, over all those years, rebecca who wanted nothing more than female comradery and community, never found a woman that said all the right things, touched all the right places, and who touching felt irresistible? please. i love her with marcel and all, but you can’t tell me she’s never had a female love and i would give an arm and a leg for a ff fanfic with rebeccaxoc in some random time period or maybe a royal court? idk something. i guess finn i can believe since he was daggered for mostly all of the time, but elijah would be a snappy theatre gay but like director or orchestra conductor or some very critical behind the scenes role that i don’t know about. kol is obviously a chaotic pansexual who usually tops but is clearly the one in control when he takes a more submissive role, like you cannot tell me that his near millenia of being close with witches left him a cis straight man, no ... my gay little heart cannot take it, like he has been pegged, he does enjoy it, he gives off the vibes that he fucks, he fucks well - you will finish, it will be fantastic, and no one is off limits. even as kaleb, kol as a character is chaotically bi or pan sexual and no one is safe. klaus is less likely to have had a significant romantic relationship with a man, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been fucked or fucked a man. you’re telling me that, by the sheer amount of time suffered bc of immortal life, the man with the worst daddy issues of all time never questioned everything he ever learned & when first presented with the option of a male lover didn’t jump at the chance? please. we only see scheming & defensive klaus really in the show, always in some sort of combat or fight or drama, but calm klaus? good time klaus? klaus hidden away from the world, unable to be reached, or vacation klaus? art world klaus? can’t tell me the art world ain’t always been full of us queers, he’s been presented plenty of opportunities and he has partaken i guarantee you, even if it was only once to satisfy curiosity. like i’ve only been alive for ~26 years and i’m already bored by life a lot of the time. after centuries and centuries & especially not under the influence of christianity, how would one not have had gay lovers? you’re telling me that lucian&klaus’s and elijah&tristan’s relationships didn’t feel like simple platonic friendship vibes? i feel like something happened b/w at least elijah&tristan, but tristan’s love map is creepily incestual with is sister that ofc nothing could come of it, plus the power dynamic between them, elijah - the one in charge, the one who turned him, the one who demeans him, but tristan likes it. had this been an hbo show or anything other that a cable network, tristan would absolutely follow elijah’s every command, he’s such a sub, he just has to be in charge with his sister & he was elijah’s first sire, so he can’t be embarrassing and let him down so he leads the strix, but there was something more to their relationship, cw was just didn’t show us what it was.

#to #tvd #l have a lot of thoughts about this entire universe

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sarahreesbrennan · 3 years ago

Note

You wrote on twitter that you were too young to be published and did fool things you later regretted. I'm curious about those regrets - is there anything you'd be willing to elaborate on?

I do want to clarify I meant I personally was probably too young, and I wasn't a babe in arms when I was published--I was 24, which is an adult! S.E. Hinton was 18 when her first book was published and she arguably invented young adult fiction. Jennifer Lynn Barnes was a teenager when her first book was published and she's always been a genius rock star. Some people are married and having kids and doing great at their jobs at 24, but some people are in college, or learning the ropes of their jobs and full-time work life in general and messing up because it still feels unfamiliar. Most of us, me included, will be making messes until we die, though we can hope for better messes.

My regrets aren't super secret--I would've conducted myself differently online and offline. One thing I've said before: I wouldn't link up my real name and my fanfic identity the way I did back when. That means having your juvenilia out there and judged, and yourself judged in a very particular way! It is hard to sit in the doctor's office and ask him for written proof you have cancer, because the internet will accuse you of faking it. (Yes that did happen. That poor man's face was like, 'Girl, why do you not live your life right.') As I've said, I have an assistant-with-antis who filters my social media and email so I don't have to come upon hostile stuff, and I do wonder if there are ways to inspire less hostility.

But to be clear regarding that example, I think fandom is awesome in many ways, and it's valuable to say you wrote fanfiction, just don't get too specific. One of my most cherished facts about a (fancy, brilliant, very bestselling) writer friend is that she wrote Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction once. Many of my writer friends used to or still do write it! (Fanfic in general... I'm not outing a bunch of writers as avid Sonic fans...) And being open about my identity did mean I had some beautiful supportive readers from the jump, who were sweet to me and made friends with each other (Marmalade fish shoutout). I love that people connect over fiction, and that they connected over mine. My advice to others is to do it like Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, and be like 'yes I write it, yes the call is coming from inside the building, yes creative engaged people engage creatively in many ways, no you'll never know my online name!' And that's mostly how it's done these days--there are masses of fanfiction writers in TV, in movies, working as editors and agents in publishing, and who are writers, because people who are passionate about creativity are passionate about creativity in many ways. A decade ago and nobody was sure how it was going to go: I do think it went well generally, if uneasily for test balloons like me.

Overall, as regards regrets, if you're alive, you're making mistakes, and if you're growing, you're learning from them. Often the more you care, the more mistakes you make. There are some things only life experience can teach you, and I've seen people who came into writing with experience from being, for instance, lawyers which they were able to use in many ways, and there were times I wished I'd acquired experience or lost naivety in a job that wasn't my dream job. Sometimes I really didn't know what was going on, and later I was like 'Ohhh! Oh Lord.' I would say a few things I wish I'd known: How to draw boundaries like circles of salt that others couldn't cross. The personal and the professional are going to blur, but it's still important to try and differentiate them. How to pick your battles: recognise the unwinnable, find the most likely strategy for victory with the winnable ones. Know that people won't like you just because you're making life more convenient for them, so don't do it for that reason. OMG abide by contracts and make sure the contracts cover every eventuality. Learn the art of standing your ground calmly. (One day, I'll get it.)

But getting published at any age is complicated: I have one friend who was sure she was going to die after she got her publishing contract because it was her dream accomplished, and what was left? I have more life experience in my 30s, but I also had most of those years totally slain by cancer: my writing went off a cliff long before I was diagnosed, and then I couldn't write, and since then I've been scrambling. If I'd been published first at 30 I might have handled myself in style, but there definitely wouldn't have been two trilogies before the long pause. One very lovely, very talented lady who was first published in the same year I was died shortly after. You don't know what's coming: Margaret Mitchell was hit by a speeding drunk driver and we'll never know if rumours she planned to write a sequel to Gone with the Wind are true. The people whose first books were out in 2020 had a tough time, and I would've freaked out if I'd been in their position and am glad I didn't have a non-tie-in novel out--it was very strange to have two tie-ins out that year as it was! People were reading books in 2020, but it was harder for new books to get on their radar.

I didn't write the tweet to alarm anyone, or say there was a magical time it was best to be published at. Lots of amazing writers aren't published, are published feeling they're too young, are published feeling they're too old. I think my tweet was really to say, there's no precise right time, and no way to execute your dreams exactly right. I do look back on stuff and think, oh lord, me at 30 might have handled THAT better. I hope that I'll look back at me now from 50 and go, I'd crush the stuff that crushed her!

Are there things I would change, sure. But I probably would make different mistakes if it had all happened differently for me. Humans constantly torment ourselves imagining the magic way we could've got everything right, a task exactly nobody has accomplished. I've never lived a perfect life or written a perfect book, and I don't know anyone else who has. I'm really glad I was published, and really proud of all my books. If you've never done something you've regretted, how much have you done? Keep going.

#stumbling through publication #writing #fanfiction

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ilikekidsshows · 3 years ago

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One thing that pisses me off not just about the miraculous fandom but modern fandoms is fans inability to consume long overarching stories.

Like so many people are complaining about how long the reveal is taking or why haven't certain characters outgrown this trait yet or why is this character arc botched or abandoned. Like guys we just got the confirmation this show will be 7 seasons long PLUS like 3 tv specials. We're only roughly halfway through the series.

Once the reveal happens half the tension in the show is gone! I'm not saying leave the reveal till season 7 and make us wait 9 years this isn't HIMYM but miraculous is not a fast paced story. It's a long haul story. I just wish more fans would be patient. Miraculous is in the extremely fortunate and rare position that it will have a conclusive end and not be suddenly cancelled. That was and still is a huge problem for shows and cartoons with dedicated fans but networks pull the plug for stupid ass reasons.

So miraculous fans please chill the fuck out on things not resolving right away. We still have 78+ episodes plus the tv specials. If we get the end to certain things now it'll be so boring.

I think the concept of Instant Gratification describes the issue with many modern fandoms today. I hate to sound like I'm anti-technology, but the constant stream of quick and short bursts of entertainment allowed by the information age has made people more impatient. It's not about waiting for the climax to get a deeper sense of satisfaction, it's about getting that instant gratification right this instant. It's why one-shot fanfics are all over the place, when multi-chapter stories used to be just as common and popular, if not even more so, and it’s also why people are less willing to read a fic that’s still a work in progress. It's why people refuse to watch Youtube video essays even as they leave comments on the topic based on the title and thumbnail alone because, while they couldn't be assed to watch a 20-minute video (let alone an hour long one), they sure can spend that time calling the Youtuber names and making arguments the video actually already refutes. It's why a lot of online arguments happen only because one party read nothing but the first and maybe the last paragraph of someone's post and skipped all the explanation for their point of view (if I've ignored an counter argument for one of my posts, it was either because I missed it or because said counter argument did this. I have attention deficit issues so I do genuinely forget responses sometimes, but I'm also not writing a second essay for someone who's proven to me they won't read it).

Of course, it's only by constantly consuming only fast-paced content that you can become this impatient. People have different ideas about stories based on what stories they have encountered in the past.

Another thing that influences the Miraculous fandom in particular is that, while I love to show off exactly how much Miraculous has done to build up the overarching plotlines, Miraculous isn't really a show that's about a single story. It's easy to understand why people think it is one though: there's one main villain, we keep discovering more about the mythology, one of the main plot threads is the romantic relationship between the leads and singular episodes and plot elements tend to get payoff later. What is the purpose of a show if not to progress the story? Because the heroes aren't getting closer to defeating Gabriel or getting together, people think that the story isn't accomplishing anything.

I'll do a comparison to illustrate why these things aren't as clear-cut signs of a continuous storyline as people think. In the Spider-Man comics, you can pick any issue up and the chances are that the villain will be a part of Spider-Man's already established Rogues Gallery, who's back for more after who knows how many defeats, and those past defeats might even get referenced in callbacks to previous issues. It's also very possible that Peter and Mary Jane's relationship is the central focus with them not being together yet, having relationship problems or even having broken up (in really old issues the girl might be Gwen Stacy and short-term options have also always been available for romantic entanglements). Does this mean Spider-Man is a continuous story where the only point is that all the villains get put away for good and Peter and MJ live happily ever after? No, it doesn't. Spider-Man is designed to go on indefinitely, so there's no clear ending point. So, what is the point of Spider-Man then, if there is no Ending?

It used to be the single issue, because comic books used to have every issue be a stand-alone story about the hero and their supportive cast. These days it's more every three-to-six issues, because superhero comics are written to have short story arcs that can then be collected into trade paperbacks. A superhero series is not a single story; it's a series that functions as a story engine, meaning the series can generate several shorter stories where the hero helps fix a problem or solve a mystery.

In the superhero genre a villain will never get killed off or removed from stories permanently as long as the writers think they can still come up with stories to tell about them. The hero's romantic life will never be completely smooth sailing unless the writer is using other things to ramp up the stakes. Everything always allows for there to be another adventure.

I think the huge success of Avatar: the Last Airbender made people think that a series that is a single story is always superior to a series with multiple shorter plots. When I was liveblogging Sailor Moon, a viewer offered to give me a list of all the non-filler episodes because they genuinely thought I'd feel like I was wasting time on the show otherwise. This attitude is simply not based on fact. It's not fair to compare Miraculous Ladybug to Avatar, because they're both setting up to do completely different things. Miraculous Ladybug is trying to become a brand, like Batman or Spider-Man. It is part of the "Zag Heroes" lineup, a series of French-created superhero franchises to compete in the America-centric superhero market. This challenge is good for the genre, because Marvel and DC have started resembling each other more and more as these companies stew in their old ideas and copy everything that worked for the other one. The superhero genre needs new blood.

Also, Avatar: the Last Airbender first became popular by doing episodic plots for almost the entirety of the first season because it's actually not a wise choice to expect the audience to be willing to commit to a story that'll only give payoff later when working with an untested IP. Very often shows with longer story arcs start with the episodic format to hook people first, and sometimes the more linear plot is introduced specifically because the audience for the show is now expected to be both dedicated enough and older and capable of keeping up. Because, here's the thing: you can't expect little kids to remember every episode or even every character you've introduced in your show. I'm not sure if people are ready to hear that but I'm throwing it out there anyway. Kids are not dumb, they can understand more complex storylines, but many kids are still training their memory, so they might not remember the details of complex storylines that go on for too long.

This is why the news that Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season was going to have a recommended viewing order originally had me concerned. Miraculous is being branded for kids. The plot requiring too much skill in memorizing story details will make it less accessible to kids and might put those two additional seasons at risk. However, it seems that the "constantly changing status quo" concept of Truth, Lies and Gang of Secrets was a fluke and the evolution of the show is more subtle, so they might not be cutting the amount of episodes for those final seasons because the show is getting too complicated for kids to follow all the important details.

Regardless, Miraculous Ladybug being an adventure cartoon TV show instead of a comic book or a more cheaper-to-produce TV drama does mean that Miraculous Ladybug isn’t expected to go on for decades like a superhero comic or a soap opera. Because of this, it can have evolution and changes and even a planned ending. The show is expected to end at some point, even by the people making money off of it, mostly because making a cartoon like this indefinitely costs a lot of money, and kids’ adventure shows tend to see a decrease in returns if they go on for too long.

#media and fandom response #ml fandom salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir

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darklove9314-blog · 3 years ago

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Stay: A Nessian Fanfic

Author’s Note: (This fanfic is for Nessian month.Prompt used: What if I don’t��want you to go?”. For more prompts and if you want to participate in Nessian month feel free to check out, @illyrianet page.)

Nesta looked around the house once more, making sure she had everything packed as Feyre stood by the door, her hands fidgeting. she knew Feyre would not understand this now, but the last thing she wanted was to be a burden to her sister any longer. She had to leave. Had to find her own path in life that was far away from the Night Court.

After their father had passed, The Archeron Sisters had been left with the ships he had sailed on. The Nesta still was docked and ready to be sailed once again.

Nesta wasn’t sure where she would go. Where the ocean would take her. What adventures laid for her on the open sea, but she knew it was a risk she was willing to take. An adventure she was ready to go on.

She turned to Feyre pulling her into a hug. Surprising her youngest sister with the gesture.

“Thank you.” She whispered to her. Feyre pulled away confusion lighting her features.

“For what?” She asked.

“For providing for us when no one else did, I’m sorry it took me this long to thank you for it. and I’m sorry about how I treated you. When we were in the cottage. “ Nesta told her, It was an apology she had wanted to make to Feyre privately without anyone else present. It wasn’t their apology to hear.

“I forgive you, but I’m sorry also.”

Nesta‘s eyebrows rose.

“What are you sorry for?” She asked,

“For not seeing that perhaps you were just as lost as me. That maybe you were trying to just get by through whatever means necessary like we all were.”

“It’s still no-“

Feyre held up her hand,

“Our father was the one who should have been taking care of us. I know you’re the eldest, but you were a child too. We all were.“

Nesta looked down at the floor looking at her shoes.

“Do you think there will ever be a day where we forgive him? For what happened to us?” Nesta asked. She had never truly wanted to hate her father. All she ever wanted was for her father to show that he cared about them. But now that he was gone-

“I wish I could tell you that you will, that the pain from what he did will lessen with time, however, I can’t dictate whether or not he earned your forgiveness. Only you can determine if you‘re ready for that.”

Nesta nodded. The lump forming in her throat.

“Will you escort me to the ship? “ She asked, Feyre nodded. as Feyre winnowed Nesta to the ship. She was getting better at that.

Nesta expected a lot of things to happen when she arrived to the docked ship. What she didn’t expect was who was there waiting for her.

“Cassian.” She whispered as he turned towards her. The sunrise on the horizon illuminating his hair. He had always been beautiful. Now he was just breathtaking.

“I’ll give leave you two to it.” Feyre said ready to winnow away as Nesta grasped her arm. keeping her there.

“Feyre, I-“

Feyre pulled her into a hug surprising her as her sister told her.

“Go off and show the world what an Archeron sister can do. Let them no there are no limits to what you can achieve. “ Feyre whispered as Nesta hugged her back. “I love you Nesta.“

“I love you too.” She told her back. as Feyre gave her a smile and winnowed away.

Nesta took a deep breath and headed to Cassian knowing this was something she had to do.

“You came. “ She whispered. He tipped her chin up, she swore she could get lost in that gaze of his.

“We’re you hoping otherwise.” He grinned, his fingers stroking her chin, lost in thought.

“No.” She stated blatantly. “I-I was hoping you’d come.“

Cassian’s eyebrows rose in question, usually she would draw our their game but this wasn’t the time to be doing this. Not when she was about to leave.

“Cassian, I-“

“At first I wanted to be selfish.” He started looking up at him in surprise. “I wanted you to stay here with me in Velaris. Wanted to be everything that you needed to heal.” He took in a deep breath looking out towards the horizon. “But I know that’s not what you want. What you need, so I’m not here to stop you.I want you to live your life, to get the freedom that you r always talked about having. I want that for you so badly that I’m willing to let you go even if I know being away from you will hurt.”

He took a step closer, her heart beating faster. An emotion she could now decipher, sharper than any blade slicing through her.

He produced something small in his hand as Nesta glanced down at it. He turned her hand over placing the object in her hand as her hand stayed turned over in his. feeling his warmth.

“I want you to have this.“ Cassian told her as Nesta looked down at it. “Any good sailor needs one.”

“You got me a compass.” She whispered the arrow pointing to him.

A sad smile played on his lips as he placed his hand over the compass and she gazed upon this male who had changed her life in so many different ways.

“I wanted to make sure that you could always find your way home.“ He whispered as she glanced up at him closing the distance between their lips as she gave him a soft tender kiss. knowing that it would possibly be their last.

“Thank you.” She whispered her forehead leaning against his as he placed a soft kiss there.

“Go show the world what you’re made of Archeron. I better get going.” He smiled about to walk away and leave her be as she grasped his hand keeping him there. knowing that the words she was about to say would be selfish, but she had to try.

“What if…What if I don’t want you to go?” She asked, holding her breath. the next few moments determining everything,

He dipped his head down catching her lips in another kiss, this time their kisses became more urgent. defined.

“Then I would love to accompany you to wherever you go.” He stated, her eyes widening.

“Wh-What about your family? Your life here?”

Cassian glanced around before looking at her once more. love lingered in his eyes. “I have been with them for nearly five decades. Have shared so many loving memories that I will always cherish, but-“ He smiled grasping her hand in his. “They also know that I have waited five hundred years for a women like you. For someone to call my own. For someone to be my home, and I think that I’ve always known that you were that person. They‘ll understand that. They always do.” Cassian stated taking Nesta’s breath away.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nesta asked as Cassian walked with her to the ship. Her foot on the threshold of it.

“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life, Now let’s go on our next adventure, Nes.” He smiled as they boarded the ship, leaving the city full of stars as the Dawn finally broke over the horizon.

#nesta archeron #nesta #cassain #nessian #nessianmonth #acosf spoilers

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theysayitscrazy · 3 years ago

Text

Eliminated Part 2 (NSFW)

FanFic Friday Week 4 (Slightly Late) @rebelwrites

Clay Spenser x Reader (Reader is Full Metal’s sister)

Let me know if you wanna be tagged when I post.

You stare at the invitation with mild contempt. It was overly shiny and sparkly, and covered in glitter. It was just plain gaudy. The amount of pink included should be outlawed. You hated this time of your 20’s. Everyone you knew was either getting married, buying houses, or having babies. Yet, you were still single. You chose your career, over a relationship. Well, according to your ex, that’s what happened.

In reality, you grew apart and lived different lives while struggling to make things work. In the end, they hadn’t worked out, and the problem had to be eliminated.

That had been a year ago. Now you were thirty years old, single, and too focused on your career to even meet a guy outside the office. And the dating world had gone digital in the last decade, leaving you completely out of the loop on where to even begin. The idea of meeting a guy from the internet left you unsettled and turned off.

You sigh and toss the envelope on the bar in front of you and reach for your drink.

Your phone chirps and you reach for it as someone sits in the seat next to you at the bar. Annoyed, you look up from your phone to give whoever it was that decided they needed to sit so close to you in an empty bar, a piece of your mind, only to find the blond haired and blue-eyed charmer known as Clay Spenser.

“Spenser,” you acknowledge.

He leans forward on the bar and motions for the bartender. He orders a beer and then snatches up the invitation. “Holy pinkness,” he chuckles.

You roll your eyes as you skim over the email you just received from a client.

“Always working?” Clay asks.

You glance up from your phone and realize you’re being rude. Sighing, you turn off the screen and set your phone down. “Usually,” you grumble in response.

Clay’s smile is easy, but you can see the way he’s watching you, like he’s reading your mood. “Bad day?” he asks.

“Yes… no… I don’t know.” You sigh and take a pull off your glass.

Clay chuckles again. “I’ve never known you to not have an answer.”

You shake your head and look down at your phone as a text message chirps through. You can feel Clay’s eyes on you, like they usually are, but you ignore him, like you usually do. Ever since that night at your brother’s house, when your ex had been eliminated, things had gotten interesting between the two of you.

The flirting was fun. But that’s all it was. Fun, right? He worked with you brother, he was younger than you, if only by a couple years, but he felt… wholesome. He wasn’t tainted like you were.

Before you can answer the string of text messages that came thru, your phone rings. When Harvey’s face pops up the screen you frown and debate answering it. You were done with him for the day. You groan and answer the facetime call. “Hey.”

Harvey’s smirk is annoying as he looks you over.

You rolled your eyes, knowing what he saw. White pinstripe halter stop that buttoned down the middle and showed ample cleavage but stayed professional. The black matching suit coat was off and draped around the back of the bar stool, so your vibrant black and watercolor tattoos that covered both arms were on display and contrasted against your professional attire.

“You need something?” you raise an eyebrow at him, waiting for his sardonic comments to start rolling in.

“Yeah, for you to get your head out of your ass. Let me guess, you’re at some dive bar, drink in hand, wallowing self-pity,” Harvey shoots at you as he levels you with a typical Specter head tilt.

You narrow your eyes at him as Clay chuckles.

“Boo hoo, your last college sorority sister is getting married. What do you care? You haven’t talked to the chick in two years. Put your big girl panties on and man up. I need you to meet a client.”

You pick up your drink and stare Harvey down as you toss back the remnants of the straight whiskey.

Harvey smirks, “We both know you can handle your liquor. So why don’t you take that SEAL team hot shot you got eating out of the palm of your hand and go meet the client. I’ll text you the address. It’s in Rochester.”

“Harvey, that’s an hour away and it’s a shitty neighborhood,” you shoot back him.

Harvey smirks. “Good thing you’ll have a bodyguard. Oh, and another thing. Get laid.” He hangs up the phone.

You let out a frustrated growl and slam the phone on the bar top.

Clay turns his big body towards you and smirks. “Need a bodyguard?”

You glare at him and grab your keys off the bar. You slide off the barstool and grab your black pinstripe jacket off the back. You take your time pulling it on. Clay’s eyes are on you. Once things are buttoned in place, your black jacket matching your black pants, you look up to meet Clay’s gaze and raise an eyebrow at him.

He smirks and lets his gaze wander over your body. He no longer hides his blatant attraction for you, and while he’s yet to act on it, he’s stared in many of your fantasy’s. How’d he get you off with those deft fingers. That scruffy beard adding pleasure as he ran kisses down your body.

His smirk widens, as if he can read your dirty thoughts. You keep your face indifferent though. You play it off with a roll of your eyes.

“I’ll drive,” he comments and holds out his hand.

You stare at those fingers before you think fuck it and hand over the keys to your Range Rover. You ignore him and turn toward the exist.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asks.

Confused you glance at him over your shoulder and groan when he’s holding up the pink wedding invitation. He laughs and looks at it. “It’s pretty horrible.”

“She an old sorority sister,” you sigh with a shrug. “She’s…bubbly.”

“I can’t believe you were ever in a sorority,” Clay sniggers. “Not Miss tattooed, ‘Punk Rock Princess over here.’ Miss, ‘I’ll eliminate any threats to my person.’”

You roll again and turn toward the door. “Bitch please,” you shook back at him. “I’m a God Damn Queen.”

~*~

“That was not what I was expecting,” Clay murmured when he pulled in your brother’s driveway, several hours later.

You glance over at him. He’d been quiet the entire drive back from the client’s house. “My job isn’t always mergers and acquisitions,” you state, knowing where his head was at. “Sure, they pay the bills and I’m damn good at it. But this, is why I became a lawyer. People like Carl Terron. People who were taken advantage of and used and degraded, and in the end lost everything. This case could be the case that changes laws and sets precedents, so that something like what happed to Terron, doesn’t happen to anyone else again. This case could help save lives.”

Clay turned to you during your passionate speech and watched you. When you stopped speaking, he reached out with his large hand and cupped the side of your face.

You freeze. For as much the two of you had been flirting for the past year, he’d never made a move before. His blazing blue eyes bore into yours. His intensity stirs something deep inside you. You wait, watching him, like a deer in the headlights.

His fingers curl around the back of your head as his calloused thumb caresses your cheek.

“Clay,” you say, not really sure why you’re stopping this.

He drops his hand almost instantly and you immediately miss the warmth of his palm. Pain flashes across his eyes, or regret maybe? “I’m sorry,” he sighs, and looks out the front window. “I know you’re still dealing with last year. I shouldn’t have come on so strong.”

“It’s not that,” you sigh, playing with the several rings on your fingers.

“Then what is it?” Clay asks, looking over at you, hurt still evident in his eyes.

His pain strikes you and you reach out and take his hand in yours. “I’m being stupid.” You play with those deft fingers in yours, and a blush tints your cheeks as you think of all your fantasies that those fingers played a staring role in.

“That’s a lie. You’re one of the smartest people I know,” Clay says and squeezes your fingers between his. “What’s going on with you today?”

You look up, startled, and find yourself staring into his endless baby blues. “What do you mean?” you ask, confused.

“I mean, you’re not yourself. Yeah, at client’s house you put on a good show, but before that, at the bar… now? What’s going on with you?” His gaze is piercing, and you find yourself at a loss for words.

You open your mouth, trying to find the words, when a knock on the window behind Clay startles you. “Shit!” you shriek and jump a mile out of your seat.

Clay turns, and you see your brother looming through the driver’s side window, flashlight shining in on you. You reach across the center console and lean over Clay’s big body and press the button for the window. “What the fuck?” you yell at Scott.

“What the fuck you doin out here?” Metal’s voice is deep and commanding.

“Sitting in the fuckin car, what’s it look like we’re doing? Jesus fucking Christ. What the fuck you out here for?” Your anger kicks up.

“It’s my house. I’m allowed to wonder why my baby sister is sitting in the dark in her car late at night. Where the fuck ya been? It’s past midnight,” Metal demands.

Pissed, you climb over the center console and get right into Clay’s lap. “Shit,” he groans and holds his arms out in surrender as you climb fully into his lap.

You ignore him as you settle onto his powerful thighs and get in your brother’s face through the window. “Why the fuck is it any of your business where the fuck I’ve been? Cut the shit Scott. I’m thirty fucking years old. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want, and you can fuck off,” you shout at him.

Scott laughs and you roll your eyes. “Spenser though, really?”

“Fuck yeah, and fuck you,” you shout back him, a smirk on your face.

“Fuck you,” Scott grumbles and heads for the house.

When Scott was gone, you let out a chuckle and lean into Clay. You find yourself tucked against him, your head on his shoulder, in the crook of his neck. “Hold me,” you murmur into his ear.

His arms come around you in a tight embrace and cradles you against his warm body. You’re curled against his chest and for the first time in who knew how many years, you finally felt safe. He is solid and broad and strong, and you relish the feeling of being in his arms.

You take a deep breath, breathing in his scent and close your eyes. He smells like home.

“Y/n, what was that about?” Clay asks softly.

You shake your head, not wanting to break the moment. He’s so warm, so safe.

Clay’s large hand slides up your back and his fingers card through your hair.

“Do you think I’m a bad person?” you ask, before he can say anything.

Clay stills, his hand fisted in your hair. “No. Why would you think that?”

“Before… you had asked me what was going on with me today,” you murmur into his neck, finding it easier to speak without looking at him.

His hand not fisted into your chignon, rubs idle circles on your back. Calming… soothing. “Does this have to do with your ex?” he asks.

You nod slowly. “He was friends with all my friends in college. We met our freshman year. We had all the same friends. So that Wedding invitation just brought up a bunch of old memories, both good and bad,” you sigh.

Clay’s fingers massage your scalp as he holds you tight against him. “No, I don’t think you’re a bad person,” he finally answers. “I think you’re strong and fierce and aren’t afraid to stand up for yourself. You can take care of yourself and others and eliminate any problems that comes your way.”

You find yourself smiling against his neck. You pull back to look him in the eyes. There’s a seriousness in his blazing blue eyes that you hadn’t seen before. It makes you pause and take him in, really take him in. For all the flirting and banter the two of you had thrown back and forth for the past year, you hadn’t really stopped to consider how fucking real he was.

There was a raw honesty in those baby blues that grasped at your heartstrings and pulled. What you had mistaken as wholesome, was in actuality, genuine and real. You were surrounded by fake people on the daily, but Clay Spenser, was as real as they came.

You reach up and run your fingers through his scruffy beard. It was softer than you expect. His eyes are on your face, watching your every move. It’s clear by his cautious gaze, he’s waiting for you to make the first move.

So, you do. You lean forward, lacing your fingers through his beard and pull his mouth down to yours at the same time. His fingers tighten in your hair, and you gasp as he pulls your hair so deliciously. He takes advantage of your gasp and his tongue sweeps in. Your eyes drift close as the kiss turns more passionate.

You shift against him and realize your pencil skirt is ridiculous and not cooperating. You groan when he nibbles on your bottom lip. You try to pull away, but he’s got a firm grip in your hair, so you whimper against his lips.

His chuckle has your eyes opening. His eyes are watching you while he bites down just a bit harder. His hand slides up your thigh and under your pencil skirt with ease. You whimper again and let your eyes fall close. He releases your lip, so you use his beard to pull his mouth back to yours. “Uh uh, baby,” he murmurs against your lips.

You snap open your eyes again, and he’s smirking down at you. “Bu-”

“Shh,” he whispers. “Trust me?”

You gasp slightly and your eyes go wide. The earnestness in his gaze has you nodding though. It’s reluctant and slow, and Clay seems to get that. He presses a soft kiss to your lips before he whispers, “Close your eyes.”

And you do. You rest your head in the crook of his neck and let him take care of you.

His hands work magic on your body. One slides down and manages to undo the clasp and zipper at the back of your pencil skirt while his other hand slides up your thigh to your core and he chuckles when he finds the lack of panties. “Naughty, naughty,” he murmurs.

You smirk and place an open-mouthed kiss to the column of his neck.

The sharp pinch to your inner thigh has you jumping and groaning. “None of that,” he orders, his voice deep.

You let out a pathetic whimper and give into him. His deft finger’s part your folds and he chuckles again, “So wet for me, baby.”

He takes his time sliding one long and thick finger all the way to the knuckle and you part your thighs as much as the now unzipped pencil skirt will allow. He slides in a second finger, and you groan. God his fingers are thick. God damn, do they feel good.

His thumb circles your clit almost teasingly and you thrust your hips up to try and get some friction from it. The pinch to your nipple comes as a surprise and you let out a low groan. “Be good.” Clay commands, softly.

You run your hand through his beard and slide it to the back of his head, curling your fingers in his curls.

His pace is brutal and you’re barely holding on when his mouth covers yours and he says, “Come for me,” against your lips.

You shatter into a million pieces in the front seat of your Range Rover. “Good girl,” Clay’s voice is rough and deep and has you opening your eyes. He watching you with a reverent smile on his lips.

You grin and use his beard to pull his mouth to yours again. His fingers in your cunt swirl again and let out a low groan. “Wanna come inside?” you ask.

He chuckles and swirls his fingers again. “I thought I already was.”

You close your eyes and let out a little whimper. “The house Clay.”

“Your brother gonna kill me?”

“Nah, I’ll deal with Scott.”

“Gonna eliminate him?”

“I’m gonna eliminate you if you don’t finish what you started.” His rich laugh puts a smile on your face, and you have a thought. “Hey, you wanna go to a wedding with me?”

“Do I have to wear a tie?”

Your eyes snap open to take in his goofy face and grin. “Only if you wanna use it to tie me up later,” you smirk at him.

He grins wickedly and curls his fingers inside you, sending you over the edge again.

#seal team #clay spenser #clay spenser x reader #clay spenser imagine #seal team x reader #seal team imagine #full metal #full metal has a sister #Eliminated Part Two #don't kill your boyfriend #FanFicFriday #Rebels Fan Fic Friday #a week late

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autumnslance · 3 years ago

Text

About Plagiarism

I left a long, planned essay on Twitter tonight. I will copy the meat of it here for y’all, as recently a friend was copied (a rarer ship in the fandom, so very noticeable by the writer and their regular beta reader) and it seems we need a Talk, kids. Links and screenshots and my rambling underway.

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Apparently we need to discuss what is and isn’t plagiarism. Especially in FanFic where we're interacting with the same characters, settings, ideas. Let’s start with the dictionary and continue the thread from there (I like the word origin/history personally):

Definition of plagiarize

transitive verb : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

The Kidnapping Roots of Plagiarize

If schools wish to impress upon their students how serious an offense plagiarism is, they might start with an explanation of the word’s history. Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius “kidnapper.” This word, derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete.

“Ideas” is fuzzy in the Merriam-Webster definition. There are story archetypes that exist in many forms. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth/Hero's Journey outlines many famous stories. And it's popular to say that “Avatar” is “Dances with Wolves” is “Pocahontas” is “The Last Samurai” etc.

But note how while those films have similar plotlines--”Military Guy falls for Native woman, learns to appreciate her Culture, stands up to Evil Bosses”--none of them execute those ideas in the same way. Sully’s story is different from Dunbar’s not just cuz one’s a Science Fiction epic and the other a Western. Disney's “Pocahontas” Very Loosely takes history and uses the same story beats. The Last Samurai uses the Meiji era Westernization. Same ideas, different executions, even beyond settings.

None of these are plagiarizing each other though the ideas are similar. They’re told in their own ways, own language; both in the genres they belong to (Western, Pseudo-History, SciFi, Animated) and how characters interact with each other and settings. Original dialogues (variable quality).

We also see this in books as similar novel plots get published in waves so we end up with bunches of post-apocalypse teen revolutionaries or various vampires or lots of young wizard stories all at once. Sometimes ideas just happen like this; multiple discovery, simultaneous invention, concurrent inspiration, cognitive emergence are all phrases I’ve seen for it. So it happens in original content as well, and legality gets fuzzy (Also why you don't send authors your fanfic ideas).

In existing properties, this gets trickier but even “Elementary”’s Holmes and Watson are nothing like the BBC’s “Sherlock” characters. Who are nothing like other versions of the Detective and his Doctor pal over the decades in various media properties.

FanFic's in a similar position where like Sherlock Holmes we play with the same characters, setting, and storyarcs but give our own spin to them. People can and will have similar ideas about plots. Trick is to use your own words. Take the characters and make the story your own.

I have a good example courtesy of @raelly-writing. We both ship Wolcred. We both wrote soft post-Paglth’an scenes with Thancred and our WoLs. Both features the couples helping each other undress, examining injuries, bathing, bantering. My fic was written soon after 5.5 part 1 came out. Dara’s is much more recent. Yet at no point reading hers did I feel she was copying my words. The PoVs differ. Our characters focus on different things. Mine has a mini-arc concerning the Nutkin.

The links for comparison’s sake (and maybe leave kudos/comments if so inclined please and thanks). Note while the scenes are very similar no phrases are written in the same way. Mine: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25417882/chapters/76059467 Dara’s: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067565/chapters/81832915

Dara and I both hang out in certain Discords and I know conversations about Thancred and WoL caring for each other post-battle has come up in those channels and we've both participated. It’s a stock FanFic scene to boot. Cuz it's soft and feels warm and snuggly.

I HAVE been copied before, back in WoW. My case is pretty clear cut so here are the images of my old RP Haven profile (1st, old RP website) and the plagiarist’s RSP (2nd, an in game mod to share descriptions and basic info).

This was a decade ago on Shadow Council and I think the character deleted so any Availa’s in WoW now aren’t the same person. I left the names to point out what changed. Just the names and a word or 2 to make sense for the class changes as well. Otherwise lifted directly from my RP profile.

The funny part is how the person got caught. Literally walked into our weekly RP Guild meeting that I was running and asked to join. Folks noticed right away the similar backstory; after all there may have been more Outland-born Azerothians. My initial excitement at a character I could weave into our story turned to gut-twisting rage and grief as I recognized my own exact words though. Words I’d carefully crafted and constantly iterated on to improve over time (before and after this incident, until the site died).

When caught they tried to claim their significant other had leveled the character for them and made up the backstory based on Skyrim. If you know WoW’s Outland story and Skyrim’s plot you know how ridiculous that is. Also tried to lie about other drama I knew about thanks to roommate's characters but hey. I had to be blunt that I’d shared the info with Haven mods and other guild officers Alliance and Horde. That we would not “laugh about this” one day though lucky this was “just” RP not original or academic work. Cuz if it'd been monetized or academic I would've raked them through the coals.

I felt violated. Hurt. Had anxiety attacks. They took MY WORDS and tried to claim them as theirs. Have another character born in Outland trained by Draenei; Awesome! Our characters have an instant connect in similarities and differences of that experience. Don’t steal my characters wholesale!

Then the audacity of trying to come into my guild as if no one would notice. ShC wasn’t a large server by then, still active but not nearly Wyrmrest Accord or Moon Guard big. My character was well known due to my writing and RP. Speaking of how easy it is to get caught in specific spaces...A case of a self-published novelist getting noticed for plagiarizing fanfic was discovered recently (explicit erotica examples through the thread).

One way they got noticed was how much content they put out in only a year, lifted from fandom. The examples in Kokom’s threads show how the material was altered but still recognizable. In some cases, just the names are changed as in my experience. In other passages more has changed but you can still see the bones of the original fic poking through in the descriptions and character interactions, even with adjustments made.

Similar ideas happen. Similar plots exist. Same 'ships with friends are fun! In FanFic we’re working with the same material. It’s possible to write a similar scene differently. To make that scene and characters your own. All we’re asking is not to copy others' words. Others' characters. Others' specific phrases and descriptions used to bring those words, those characters, to life. Use your own. In the end you’ll be happier.

I get wanting to have what the perceived “popular people” have. I get seeing concepts others succeed with and wanting some of that too. We all get a bit jealous now and then for various reasons. Sometimes we don't even realize it, consciously. But do it in your own way. Maybe check to see if you’re getting a bit too close to the “inspiration” you admired, maybe reread often. Don’t hurt your fellow creatives. If you do and get caught don’t try to double down. Have the grace to be abashed at least and work to do better. Eventually you WILL get caught. All it takes is once to throw all else you've done into question. Ao3 doesn’t take kindly to plagiarists. Nor do a lot of fan communities focused on writing and RP. Getting back that trust is hard. The internet doesn’t forget easily, for good or ill.

#writing #blogging #about me #social media #plagiarism #fanfiction #Ao3

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