#I'm on s2 and even though S3 is when their friendship really starts

[userlaylivia]

@emilyskinners, @maya-matlin, @poguelandia

ONE TREE HILL MEME · 2/6 Friendships » Brooke and Haley - “It’ll be our own little corner of the world, you and me… I like that our street is called ‘Grace’, I’ve never known anybody with as much of it as you… It’ll be our corner.”

[peawinkls]

why jfabe is NOT!!!! boring and lifeless and proving that wrong, an informational thread discussing their relationship and dynamic, because honestly im getting tired of ppl saying their boring

contains s3 spoilers!

The relationship between JFK and abe from Clone High is something alot of people within the community discussed, especially before s3, being talked about more after s2's finale. Many speculated that the two would remain friends or even become more than that.

Now with season 3 out, we have a lot more things to work out with, specifically episode 3. It's something a lot of people are too afraid to admit, but jfabe/abefk would make the show a lot more interesting, rather than its repeatable joanabe plotline.

So, I'm here to talk about the inner workings of this pair, why their so interesting, and why they work out so much, whether platonic or not. If ur not a fan of jfabe/abefk, or heavily dislike the ship, I'd recommend turning away from this post.

Introduction, the who, the when, the why, the how...and their differences n similarities

So, we all know these two characters. JFK the beloved, Abe the hated. Something that many people picked out of the 2020 clone high fandom. But what if i told you that the beloved and the hated were truly meant to be together from the start?

What we already know is that they are the complete opposite of each other in many ways. JFK is meant to be a parody on 90s jocks from highschool movies and tv shows. Abe is the weak nerd who desperately wants to be cool.

JFK is buff and shorter, Abe is tall and lanky. JFK is a douchebag, Abe is the nicer guy. The list goes on and on. And they even have stuff in common, such as the fear of abandonment and the fear of ruining things.

But one difference i can note is that Abe is way more naive than JFK, JFK is portrayed as empty-headed, but not empty-headed enough to not realize whats going on. Of course, despite the differences, both characters make a really good team.

And this was even evident in s2 ep10, aka the finale, where they both realize that they make a great "duo of bros who'll remain friends for the rest of their lives". Jfabe shippers were FEEDING on this shit back then you have no idea

So with this stuff out of the way, it's time to talk about my favorite episode out of season 3.

Bible Humpers: A Much Needed Praycation

This episode revolves around JFK getting tired of having meaningless sex with girls and partying hard, and decides to seek out a new life when he and Abe discovers the prayer pals club, hosted by Lady Godiva. And at first, Abe is happy to see that JFK is taking on new opportunities.

"Where the slut goes, the wing slut follows."

But eventually, JFK starts straying away from Abe and his friendship, to the point of even FORGETTING about the broniversary that Abe had planned for the both of them (he literally baked a giant cake for him, look at me and tell me thats straight cmon now).

Seeing how Abe had already lost Joan and Gandhi, he didn't wanna lose JFK either, and does everything he can to make him happy and thats so clear. And even at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Abe even respected his choice on ultimately choosing celibacy.

He really does care a bunch for JFK, liking him for who he truly was (compared to JFK's other dates) and respecting his choices. And despite choosing celibacy over Abe, the two still remain close, which really tells you how great their bond is.

So something HAS definitely changed throughout the years, from them hating each others guts to potentially becoming clone highs next couple...which didn't happen, and I'm still petty about it i will admit.

But even if they didn't become canon at the end, you could really tell that some people who worked on this episode wanted them to be a thing, and that's a good enough sign for me that they could hopefully become canon in the next season if we ever get one (still petty though).

Let's circle back to season 1 again. I'm not making a jfabe thread without mentioning Litter Kills: Literally, which is another episode that jfabe shippers fed on. In this episode, JFK's close friend Ponce dies, and he's left to grieve over him.

And in this episode, we see a side of JFK that we never saw before. He starts wondering why the hell he's feeling all of these emotions, because he's a Kennedy, and he's not used to them. But Abe helps him realize that emotions like this are normal.

And even if the two hated each other, Abe apologized to him in the end and finally realized his mistakes. It seemed like Abe disliked him, yet he cares about him. Abe never knew what if felt like, because he hasn't lost a friend close to him.

So he starts berating Cleo for comforting JFK and was even aggressive towards JFK as well, believing that he was only doing all of this just to take Cleo away from him. That was all because he NEVER knew what it was like. But he finally understood.

He was sorry, but he felt like he couldn't do much to help because he didn't experience the same thing. So he just hugged JFK and held him...for a really long time.

But that was just enough for JFK, all he needed was comfort, and Abe chose to do that. So even at the episode, he couldn't help but ask JFK if he was alright. And by the next episode, JFK was already feeling better. All it takes is someone to tell you that its gonna be okay.

So what I'm trying to say is despite their own anxieties, flaws, characteristics, whatever, their PERFECT for each other. I don't like how people label them as "boring", when their so much more deeper than that.

Jfabe/AbeFK is one of my comfort ships for this exact reason. Their lore, dynamic and relationship goes beyond that, i don't ship them just because i think their cute, but because their interesting, and it may seem like im going insane over a white boy ship, but i truly, truly, from the bottom of my heart, love this ship to pieces, and hopefully people can see that through me. Thank you, clone high.

[ink-going-insane]

random mystreet and diaries ramble time! specifically about travis!

travis is a really really important character to me. i probably oc-ified him in my mind on accident but iiit's fine probably. but either way he's really special to me with how his character is.

i'll probably end up rambling more about mystreet than diaries because i have more of a personal attachment to ms since that's what i mainly grew up with, so i'm sorry about that in advance ^^;

i'm also. putting it all under a read more because it's gonna get Long. so yea another warning in advance for that!

both in mystreet and diaries, it feels like travis tries to be a sorta comic-relief character at times to get everyone to smile and ignore their troubles. he does really stupid things to distract others from their issues because he's really big on having his friends feel better and happy. he's not the best at communicating at times, but he tries his best by just being weird and getting people to smile. his not too good communication skills do unfortunately cause him to use some of the...tricks he knows at Bad Times (one example being in diaries s2 when lucinda first sees her mother iirc) but he always means well and genuinely just wants everyone to be happy. even in the end of season 6 of mystreet, after everything that happened, the moment he was free and woke up and saw katelyn, he flirts with her in an effort to cheer her up even though they both just went through Hell.

travis is a really selfless character to me. in diaries, with the added s3 enki island lore, travis was essentially fighting a battle that No One There acknowledged. they all thought Travis was the cursed person causing the imps and all that jazz to show and he just. lived with it. he kept saying it was fine when his friends tried to defend him. and then there was the incident in the phoenix alliance island where people were scared of him and iirc he acted like it was fine but it really isn't but aaaaaa. and i'm so so so so happy with his choice after they got enki's relic. his choice to essentially discover himself and live freely without chaining himself down to another burden is something i will forever adore because he deserves it!! and i was so happy he saw that opportunity of freedom, to maybe feel the joy he's been wanting to feel for a long time. i don't know if any of this makes sense i really hope it does.

in mystreet travis's life is more...calm? i guess? there's the child experimentation that happened and then the whole thing of thinking his dad had two different personalities randomly with one of them being Horrible, which actually on second thought my irene does this poor guy still suffer. though we never actually really see any of it and only hear about his father's (well, michael's) negative actions (not including the child experimentation) Twice. once from lucinda talking to kim in s5 and a second time from travis talking to himself in the last episode of s6. he doesn't really talk about himself and instead opts for just vibing in the moment, and doesn’t mind listening to other's troubles.

it's obvious during pdh that he's pretty socially awkward, especially with having dante for a friend. and i think he was his only friend until starting high school where travis met aphmau and the others. like not to be rude but have you Seen dante. guy is a horrible influence. anyway so yea travis wasn't the best at communication, but this is also when he first manages to make someone Smile. he says some really bad pick-up lines to katelyn in s1 in an attempt to cheer her up after her break-up and it gets her to Smile and it distracted her from her troubles and that's when he realized that he can make others Happy with his shenanigans. and so he kept at it, because he wants people and those he cares about to Smile.

oh and quick (not quick i lied) side tangent about the Not Alone Buddies and also travis's role in the story of pdh. aphmau and travis's friendship is so so so special to me. partly because it reminds me of my own friendships vibe-wise, but also because of their special connection. i'm a bit upset that it wasn't expanded upon more during the main mystreet story but it does make a bit of sense since friendships can occasionally drift apart a little bit as you get older so the two of them aren't as close as they used to be. but i still wish they showed more of the closeness that Should Have Been There!! especially in pdh where he was set up to be sorta important! instead of opting for "here's a bunch of scenes with love interests for aphmau that you know aren't going to end up with her and almost nothing else other than strict plot mostly surrounding aphmau and her love interests" they should've had more scenes of her with her friends!!! and travis!!!! and also vylad!!!!!! because they became a trio after he transferred and that literally Never got expanded upon! i don't even think there's another scene of travis with vylad after their first meeting, i genuinely don't remember there being another one At All. maybe one or two? or just none at all and either way that's Bad. and vylad also barely has any proper scenes with aphmau also it hurts. this is a travis post but by extension it's also a Not Alone Buddies post because i love them forever and vylad should've gotten more screentime >:( along with a lot of the other characters they deserved so much more! and it really bothers me that they set up travis to be sorta important at the start of pdh, only to quickly demote him to side character and comedy duo with dante. it really hurts.

in main story mystreet he gets a bit more attention but it's mostly for a comic relief kinda thing at the start. the fact most of his character in s1 got retconned is really funny to me. anyway he gets character development in season 2!! he stood up for himself because katelyn was being Not Nice and i'm so proud of him for it!!! this is also when him being a creep mostly stops iirc so that's nice, but i tend to pretend the creepy scenes Don't Exist in the first place. anyway after that there isn't really much development for him iirc until season 5, though of course there's that nice fun scene in aphmau's year where michael says hello, but he shows up a lot more in season 5 and of course season 6. in s5 it's like "huh i have a weird voice in my head and i suddenly occasionally can't control my actions but surely it must've been me. oh well as long as it makes katelyn happy :)" and like. it's so precious he just wants her to be happy and it hurts knowing michael's intentions and stuff because in both s5 and the start of s6 he just wanted katelyn to smile and be happy and safe so he was okay with letting the weird voice do its thing as long as it helped. it uh. stopped helping after The Incident. but even when he was trapped in his own mind and forced to watch he wanted so badly for it all to stop because he didn't want his friends to suffer. he didn't care what happened to him as long as his friends would be okay, which is why his monologue in the last episode horrifies me. i read a theory that he's going to sacrifice himself to stop the rumored meteor in s7 and something'll cause everyone to forget him and i really really really hope that doesn't happen i hope s7 gives him an actual calming break in the end please.

i'll be honest i...don't know where i was actually going with this post. it just kinda happened. i was alone with my thoughts (bad) and i saw a post with travis on it and just went "travis :)" in my mind and the next thing i knew this wall of text got vomited onto my phone screen. thinking of travis will now be my comfort i guess?? i just think he's neat <3

[findafight]

i don't get why robin and eddie clocking each other is so popular. firstly i find it kind of cheap esp since it's usually a set-up for robin and/or eddie being all-knowing arbiters of lgbt knowledge while steve is clueless and dumb and not lgbt enough (despite usually being bi) to partake in this exchange as well. then it's otherwise used to establish an immediate connection between robin and eddie since they are both gay which automatically makes them besties. secondly it doesn't make much sense w what we see of either robin or eddie. like we know robin struggles w social cues and we see that that extends to sexual orientation through her interactions w vickie. also i think she is just not paying that much attention to eddie i must be honest. then w eddie he spends his time campaigning for the stancy revival while steve blatantly stares at his mouth so. i don't think he'd be good at that either. like the irony in this being so common is that steve is the person that does clock someone else on top of being consistently socially and emotionally intelligent and perceptive. idk sometimes i feel like ppl take him not clocking robin as proof he's incapable of it despite him then clocking someone later and being right, and that s3 scene fitting into the broader context of steve being lonely, insecure, and off his game for most of s3 as well as between s2 and s3. tbh missed comedy potential w steve being the one person in that trio that actually knows what's happening.

oooohg yeah i feel you anon. Not to say that all the fics that have these tropes in them are bad! it just. sometimes gets annoying? I don't want people to feel too bad about it but yes agree.

I think it really is used as a way to fast track their friendship. Truly unfortunate that it's often used to make them all knowing queer guides instead of the disaster teenage gays they are.

Robin is a small town lesbian who is only out to one singular person, she does not know anything, let alone vague little queer codes that might be happening. She wouldn't know Eddie was queer for a variety of reasons. She says herself she's not good at reading people! She's also busy worrying about if she's doing something that might out her or make people suspicious of her, so she's not analyzing other people's actions. She does not care about men that aren't Steve enough to pay enough attention to figure out if Eddie is queer or not lol. She can't even figure out if the girl she likes who likes her back is queer when her best friend is telling her. Oblivious icon! open your eyes, queen!!

Eddie had a man he deliberately broke a moment of romantic tension between his love interest by throwing a vest at his face staring at his lips and still pushed him towards said love interest. Sir. what are you doing. and once it's clear stncy isn't happening you know eddie would be like okay. why aren't you dating Robin? hmm? she's cool! and causes Steve to Suffer. (Steve was flirting with Eddie .5 seconds before he started on this please get with the program Eddie!!)

Also think it's silly that people would stereotype Eddie as Queer from how he dresses as though that's not just how a lot of people dressed? long hair was In in the 80s. Metal fashion was there. It also likely had some/a lot of ingrained homophobia in the subculture (as many things did). Sorry Eddie, but I'm pretty sure our boy Brucie did more for the gays than metallica. (Kissing Clarence Clemens Right On The Mouth Many Times On Stage thank you mr. springsteen and mr. clemens sirs.)

Steve's the only one of these three that 1) knows how to flirt 2) knows when someone is flirting with him 3) has consistently demonstrated being emotionally and socially intelligent to observe people (more than arguably anyone else in the series) and 4) has any kind of functioning gaydar. Totally agree that Steve not clocking Robin despite his gaydar is that he was way off his game, insecure, in a funk, pathetic sad meow meow era, and in a weird state of squish-or-crush on Robin, that was pushed towards crush by Dustin but slam dunked into squish by Robin coming out (does that make any sense?)

I truly, truly believe Vickie returned Fast Times paused on 53 minutes and five seconds specifically when she knew Robin and/or Steve would be the ones to rewind it. Why else would she not rewind it? when clearly they knew who had rented it and could potentially out her if they read into it? She was getting vibes from robin and knew that Steve would at least report Back to Robin (I refuse to believe the championship game was the only time stobin gossiped like they did. Vickie knows their shenanigans.) so she decided to be indirect but kinda obvious about it!! And while Robin is denying this Steve has seen the truth, he knows exactly what Vickie is doing. (would be very funny if Steve and Vickie clock each other, and then make eye contact like I know what you are. They deserve to become funky little friends while Steve is trying to get her and Robin together.)

[mangosaurus]

Ceratosaurus, Dilophosaurus, and Compy for the ask game! Btw I’m so happy you get to finally participate in it 🧘‍♀️

HEHE same here! kind of wish i was around while it was still getting passed around by my mutuals so i could have sent in my own asks, but better late than never >:)

1. Ceratosaurus - Favorite character design from both series? (Also who in your personal opinion, had the best glow up from CC to CT)

AW MAN THIS IS SUPER HARD. of the nublar 6 my favorite designs in camp cretaceous are tied between yasmina and brooklynn from s3 onward, mostly because i love the way they both wore their hair. in chaos theory darius totally wins over everyone else though, the team really nailed his design there (but i am really fond of some of the concepts the artists came up with during pre-production! same goes for the other campers, especially brooklynn. that bleach blonde pixie cut is my roman empire tbh)

as for biggest glow up ... i feel obligated to give that one to ben, if just because of the growth spurt. also gonna take this opportunity to go on the record and say LEAVE KENJI ALONE I GET THAT HE'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK A BIT ROUGH BUT HIS HAIRCUT ISN'T THAT BAD 😭😭😭

2. Dilophosaurus - How did you discover Camp Cretaceous?

so, i didn't actually start watching camp cretaceous until a few months after the final season wrapped up—i think sometime around september 2022? but i had some close friends who had been keeping up with it for a while, and after hearing them talk about it so much i was like, hey, i want in! which is funny, because i was never really into jurassic park/world before then? i was more of a marine biology kid than a dino kid growing up. but even without knowing the ~lore~ of the franchise, CC and its characters still managed to reel me in, and now i'm here nearly two years later and my hyperfixation is still going strong!

3. Compy - Favorite duo/trio/friendship and why?

favorite purely platonic duo goes to ben and yasmina EASILLYYYY. they just get each other on such a personal level, and i love seeing ben go from this kid yasmina begrudgingly tolerates to someone she trusts enough to confide in, both in JWCC s5 when she realizes she might harbor romantic feelings for sammy, and then again in JWCT s1 when her relationship with sammy has hit a rough patch. shout out to yasmina and darius though, their interactions in JWCC s2 were really sweet, they don't get enough love imo. i've said this at least three billion times before but if kenji is darius's shitty older brother then yasmina is darius's cooler older cousin

as for my favorite trio, i feel like most people would probably say either yasammy + ben or the original three (darius kenji and brooklynn) but for me it's darius brooklynn and ben 🥹 their individual dynamics all mean so much to me, and it doesn't hurt that i also lowkey highkey ship them as an OTV with darius in the middle (although if i had to seriously ship ben with any of the girls, it'd be brooklynn, lol)

🦖✨ JWCC/CT ask game!

[goginaporter]

in honor of people saying that gina doesn’t deserve to be gabriella because they aren’t similar, I’m gonna do a post celebrating gina + showing exactly why she’s fit to play her. I wanna say that these arguments are pointless because it doesn’t matter if gina is like gabriella or not because at the end of the day she's acting. however, gina and gabriella are cut from the same cloth so onwards!

starting with the obvious, at the beginning of hsm and s1 respectively, gabriella and gina are new girls who have moved to east high. not only that, but they've moved schools several times with their single mother, never staying in one place for too long

gabriella encourages troy to do musical theater. after singing with him on new year's eve and then coming to east high, she sees troy's potential and passion for the theater and pushes him to do it. with gina, though her intentions are initially cunning, it's her words that keep ricky in the theater club, not his desire to win back nini.

gabriella is pretty resistant to forging close relationships because of being used to moving all the time, but meeting troy helps her to get out of her shell. the same happens with gina and ricky

both gabriella and gina have incredibly impressive accolades in their past (gabriella with scholastic decathlon and gina starring in annie as a child)

people often say that gabriella is very sweet and almost passive, the latter of which does not describe gina at all. however, gabriella never allows anyone to walk over her. additionally, gina is very sweet and I would argue is the kindest character on the show. below are just some examples of that.

the way that gina is with ricky deserves a whole post on its own, but the way she encourages his talent constantly throughout the series, supports him and helps him process his feelings surrounding his mom, and is generally one of his biggest supporters is so sweet I love their love :’)

her baking gluten-free cupcakes for the theater kids at ashlyn's thanksgiving party and for opening night, despite flying across the country in the latter scenario <333

speaking of s1 opening night, stepping into the role of taylor to help kourt's anxiety despite not being an east high student anymore

constantly affirming ashlyn when she cast doubt on her casting as belle

joining kourt and ashlyn to audition to counter lily's bullying, even when she could've auditioned alone and accepted lily's words that didn't disparage her. also her defending all of her friends!

helping to calm everyone down during the storm and organizing their response to ensure that they'd be okay

this one is kinda sad, but putting her hopes and dreams aside (starring in the musical, living with her mom, choreographing the show, her feelings for ricky) to make her friends and loved ones happy

planning carlos's quince for him and choreographing a whole dance as a gift for him

helping ej with the morning show thingie + encouraging him about himself post-duke

connecting nini with her music producer brother to help her friend with her music career

the grace she extended ej during their relationship throughout s3 (and with the whole date scenario in the s2 finale), including organizing a camp prom-posal for him

the mentorship role she kinda fills for emmy

supporting ashlyn throughout her ensemble crisis

changing the camp movie night to kourt's favorite film to soothe her anxieties and homesickness, helping to fix the stuff backstage for let it go after channing messed with it, and just really all of kourtgina's friendship

there are probably a bunch of other examples but gina is an angel and I'm sick of people acting like she's some awful person for the couple of things she did in the first half of season 1, things that were no worse than all the other main characters' actions. wrapping this up by saying that gina deserves to play gabriella because she's incredibly talented and will knock the role out of the park.

[ursae-minoris-world]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @starlightvld- thank you!!! ☺️

1. How many works do you have on A03? 42! (neat!)

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 140,503!

3. What fandoms do you write for? Mostly vld. I have a Good Omens fic and always want to write more and a few fandom that I'm tempted to write for, but I'm still very much in vld.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? - Breaking point (vld, sheith) ; A little mouse told me (vld, sheith); Flowers and Blood (vld, sheith); A cure to loneliness (Good Omens, ineffable husbands)

This gets long so I'm adding the rest under a read more!!

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes! I do! Sometimes I can take a little long but I really enjoy talking with my readers!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Just a call... (vld, gen) I think! It's an open ending, but it ends up on a frustrating note (which was the point).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Oh man, they almost always have a happy or at least hopeful ending. Let's go with A little mouse told me (vld, sheith).

Oh, hey, fun anecdote! Someone commented on Stay with me (vld, sheith) to tell me it was the 200,000th work in the "happy ending" tag! They had just witnessed the tag going up to that number with my fic!

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not so far, thankfully. (Happened once on fanart though, but it was just one dumb comment by an anti).

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I haven't so far, I'm not really interested in writing it (never say never, though!).

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Well, I did 2 fairly recently for a crackship event! It was loads of fun. The craziest might be A Mysterious French Chef, which started as a Hunk&Remy idea, but ended up involving Hunk, Allura and the space mice for vld, and Linguini, Colette, and Remy for Ratatouille, and everyone interacting pretty significantly. I really loved mashing the 2 universes, and for something that started as a "crack" idea, it ended up working surprisingly well!!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of. I've had some original (anonymous) poems that I cowrote with a friend plagiarized down to using our actual pseudonym, but that wasn't in fandom or even online!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I don't think so.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! Five times Shiro broke the rules, and one time Keith did with VirdisDrachen (vld, Shiro&Keith). It's based on a roleplay. Other than that, while it's mostly an artist+writer big bang collaboration, I think Square_Orange and I did discuss the plot a fair amount for Let It Snow! (vld, sheith).

I also have 2 fics that are remixes of other people's work, done for the sheith remix event : When you lived! (the “Enormous, within your small hands” remix) inspired by a fic by @annaofaza, and High Score! (the “I want us forever” remix) inspired by a fic by Tragedy_Machine.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? To no-one's surprise: sheith.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I am fairly good at finishing my wips, even if I do have some stuff that has been waiting for a while. I still have my notes about Keith grieving Shiro between s2 and s3 and how the team tried to support him and each other but how things became tense, that I wrote just after s3 aired! I still hope to get to it one day!

There's also the collab with VirdisDrachen tbh because we dropped the rp after a while and I wouldn't finish this alone. So I'm afraid this one will stay as is.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm good with dialogues and characterization? Themes like friendship, found family are my jam, too. Of course it's subjective.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I am learning, but action and fight scenes are *hard*. (But I also love them? haha). On the exact opposite side, stories with very low stakes are sometimes hard to write, when it's just 100% fluff and no conflict, unless it's like, a short scene... It's easier with some emotional or romantic build up (ex mutual pining > getting together) but otherwise I really have to *think* to plot the fic. I'm so used to stories centered around conflict (in the literary sense, including inner conflict, not necessarily an actual fight).

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I agree with @starlightvld that if it's a language that I'm not personally fluent in, I'd look for a native speaker who might want to help or avoid it. Except maybe for conlangs, like Sindarin or Klingon. Although if I ever write in a fandom with something like that, I would f*cking love to get insight from one of these people who actually studied them and are fluent. In a more general way, I'd be cautious that it actually brings something to the story, that it makes sense to use the language that way, and to do it in a way that doesn't confuse readers too much (unless I am purposefully writing for those who know the language, I guess). I will say that I do love different languages to be aknowledged, like for vld fics that actually dig into the paladins having different languages, and the Galra and Altean also, and so on (ex fics where they have universal translators and then there are issues when they break or they can't rely on them for whatever reason).

19. First fandom you wrote for? Voltron! My first fic was a Hunk-centric gen fic, While some count sheep, and I'm still really fond of it!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Oh, that's hard, I like them all for different reasons. I do enjoy Carry me away for the sheith saving each other vibes. A little mouse told me (sheith written from the space mice pov) was such a fun exploration! Honestly, the most kudosed ones in question 4 are all fics I am proud of. To chose a lesser known one, I also love A special day , a vld gen Hunk-centric fic!

Tagging... @sodomhipped, @tomatocages, @an-aphorism @museaway @jacqulinetan @levyscripts @annaofaza and whoever wants to do this!

(also no pressure at all if you are tagged!)

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Simón x Luna

9/10 Fell for them immediately <33 Even though I know why they eventually couldn't be endgame, I still re-fall for them upon rewatch. If I didn't know the endgames beforehand, I would have hoped that Luna would had ended up with him. Once during a liveblog where I rewatched the entire show, I started analyzing some scenes during S2 where I was like "you know, if I didn't know, I would have believed they'd head in the direction of making Lumón endgame" and practically every person replied "no lol Lumón was never supposed to happen it's pretty clear from the start" - which just made me feel both foolish because I felt "dumb" to see it like "but you know, IF I didn't know I would have thought they would!!" when no one else seemed to think so, and also feel more emotional about their scenes for a few episodes... and this eventually lead to me getting an anon telling me to calm down about them because they thought I came off as "passive aggressive and guilt trippy"... and that made me kinda not wanna talk about them at all for a bit because I thought this was how everyone felt, and it wasn't my intention that anyone would feel that!! (spoilers: No one else felt like that at all, it was just that one anon. It was my blog anyway, I shouldn't tailor it to fit how someone else would like it)

This was 2 years ago and my feelings on Lumón are still strong, but also a bit confusing hehe. As I'm a multishipper I really love Simbar. Like, many people believe that if you like Lumón you automatically dislike Simbar. No???? My love for Lumón has NOTHING to do with Simbar, it has to do with me hating LUTTEO. Simón was the best option for LUNA. He also was the best option for Ámbar! There's not enough Simón to go around sadly! And in the end, I think I like Luna to end up single, because she and Simón will ALWAYS have the best friendship and ALWAYS be close. But I will also really wonder what would have happened if Luna spoke first in 3x10 (I've made a wholeass video on that), because I feel like her crush on Simón in S3 could have been done something with! In canon they just brought it up to SPIT IN OUR FACES! Because they could have just had them date in S1, and then just being friends for the remainder of the show, and it would have been fine! But because they brought this up, they just left it super weirdly... and I think it's why I have such confusing feelings. I love them being best friends forever, but I loved their romantic relationship and I thought if they wanted to bring it back they should have ENDED IT BETTER THAN THAT!!

So yeah. Lumón makes me feel a lot. I also get a little ick when people rank the SL kisses and put Simón and Luna's kiss last because they hated them as a couple and then rank Lutteo's first kiss high because "oh but Luna liked it she just pretended she didn't <3"

(also here's the video about the 3x10)

[castlebyersafterdark]

first off, i cant appreciate you enough for openly embracing FOAH. even byler fandom is hella conservative around accepting them as potentially a real life couple, which is odd to me. but i am also happy that their privacy is intact and shipping can be annoying for anyone who likes to keep their private life to themselves.

from S2 onwards i have been deeply into shipping byler and didnt even think of foah back then. but right after S3 promotions it felt as if there is definitely something simmering. so i looked back and did a deep dive into S2 & S1 promo and bam.....it was always there although it was subtle. but S3 was obviously a foah rollercoaster. S4 they were so oddly closed off but overall there is certainly some romantic tension.

idw i always assumed that it would probably be noah to develope a crush on Finn first

BUT BUT BUT when i saw older videos.....oh boy! What came to me as a surprise that Finn had a much much bigger crush on Noah from the start, and it was def. showing. he seemed jealous of milli (perhaps because he wasn't able to decode whether noahxmilli is friendship or otherwise), felt protective of noah, defending why his character is at the core of the show, despising when they were called brothers and ofcourse desire to be around him. and most importantly....he is always very much in control of himself when Noah was not in interview with the group but whenever he was there finn's mood was so different. he seemed more real, nicer version of himself and that was so fucking cute i wanted to die.

sure Noah too checked him out multiple times, staring finn uninterruptedly. flirting back etc. so it was always very much a mutual thing.

i think they keep it downlow. i totally respect that. Your thoughts on this.

Thank you!! I'm really glad to have created a little spot where we can have fun and be rational and not judge one another. Away from the spotlight which I think is appropriate for this topic - but it's not some huge, evil that needs to be maligned and made so taboo. I think blogging as done here is pretty private. You wouldn't want to openly discuss it everywhere over social media where the press and unkind people linger. I think observing people is interesting. Celebrities are interesting. It's romance, it's reading between the lines, it's analyzing what's in front of you, it's seeing two people you like and might admire and think have incredible chemistry and just think that they could or do have something - and hoping you've got it right.

It's really funny, because very early on in my super young days in fandom started with a celeb ship and I haven't really engaged much with this stuff in many years - and ST is now the most emotionally dramatic and immersive fandom experience I've had since and here we go again! Back to my roots.

Interesting that so many have given the impression that something flipped during the season 3 promo. Seems to be a common thread. Also interesting when people say that Finn seems to be the one crushing first - I don't really have an opinion one way or another, though I do agree that certain things in some stuff from the season 3 era and previous do give some vibes. I've observed the somewhat jealous tension with that trio though - it's pretty apparent at times, even beyond any crush. Good insights though, enjoyed your read of the situation!

This kind of stuff I think appeals to many, even beyond a romantic sap like me who's just enamored by the general concept of relationships, because it is investigative and a little like tracking clues to unveil a mystery. As long as we're just observing and interpreting what's right before our eyes and not being intrusive and invading their actual lives - what's so wrong about it? You know who's in the wrong? Paparazzi who hound celebrities and stalker "stans" who follow them to their homes and press that print disparaging shit and people who harass them online. That's wrong. Loving a celebrity and following their lives / career and analyzing interviews and shared content and finding the idea of a relationship compelling isn't wrong when you think about it.

[sofyachy]

Good Omens 3 Thinky-Thoughts

Now that I've had some time to watch Good Omens Season 2 and go through all the stages of grief (including rewatching repeatedly and dreaming up various fanfiction plots), I'm ready to start jotting down some reflections on S2 and where I think S3 should go. So, spoilers! You know what to do...

Pride & Prejudice

First, the Jane Austen / Pride & Prejudice references in the script are no accident. Alright, I absolutely loved the joke about Austen being a jewel thief and brandy smuggler, and Aziraphale trying to make people fall in love at a ball is a very Aziraphale thing to do. But the references go much deeper.

We can see parallels between the way Aziraphale and Crowley relate to each other with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. After being snubbed at a ball, Elizabeth becomes prejudiced against Darcy in subsequent interactions, and "willfully misunderstands" his behavior and motivations even when doing so would go against her otherwise sensible observation skills. Similarly, despite Aziraphale and Crowley's ongoing arrangement / partnership / friendship / oblivious marriage / etc., Aziraphale repeatedly demonstrates his prejudice against Crowley for being a demon. For example: "You're a demon, I'm sure you've fired lots of guns." "You're a demon, you're one of the bad guys." Throughout both seasons, we see examples of Crowley committing good deeds, but Aziraphale continues to see him as the enemy.

Crowley, meanwhile, shares Darcy's difficulty with communication and recognizing that his desires aren't lining up with Aziraphale's / Elizabeth's. Both of them appear to realize their own feelings before their partner's. We see examples of Darcy singling out Elizabeth in social situations long before he proposes to her. Crowley, meanwhile, appears to have something of a silent epiphany in S2 when Nina mentions that other people's love lives are easier to understand than one's own.

After Nina and Maggie tell him that he needs to open up and tell Aziraphale how he feels, Crowley proceeds to do so at the worst possible time -- making his own version of a proposal similar to Darcy's. Neither one of them could "read the room" and only really considered their own needs instead of the other's. Crowley wants Aziraphale to turn down a new job offer that he's obviously ecstatic about because he himself doesn't want to go back to heaven and be Aziraphale's sidekick. He has too much pride for that, and Aziraphale can't see that Crowley's burned his bridges with heaven anyway.

The results of these failures are as devastating in that final bookshop scene as they are in the drawing room in Hunsford. However, Austen's novel doesn't end there, and so I think Season 3 could follow some parallels with the rest of it. We may see both Aziraphale and Crowley self-reflecting and reconfiguring their understanding of who the other actually is. Maybe they bump into each other accidentally after these reflections and see each other in a new light. Maybe the Second Coming of Christ pulls a Lydia and runs off with a demon, and Crowley has to stop them. (I'm laughing as I write this last sentence.)

The Crow Road

Another book that S2 references is The Crow Road by Iain Banks. I haven't read it (though I'm adding it to my reading list) -- though there is a decent analysis of its use in the story here. I think it may have some clues about possible directions for S3 as well.

Talking to God

Season 2 showed us God talking to Job and Crowley's jealousy with him for being able to have that conversation. God asks Job if he can do certain things that we've already seen Crowley do (manipulate lightning, make constellations, etc.). Maybe this is a hint that Crowley already has the qualifications that Job doesn't and will get that conversation somehow. Crowley still carries a lot of baggage about falling from heaven (and Aziraphale repeatedly rubbing salt in that wound can't be helpful). I think it would help him if he could have a chat with God and maybe find some peace with that part of his identity.

Deception

Aziraphale is terrible at deception except when Crowley's at stake. He can see that Muriel is terrible at it when she arrives as a "human police officer," but in the same episode he pretends to be a journalist with no more success than Muriel had. Likewise, he is terrible at sleight of hand magic tricks except when Furfur has evidence that could get Crowley in trouble. At first, I thought there was a pattern with angels in general being inherently terrible at deception, and this would retcon the examples in S1. In S1, Aziraphale first poses as a gardener so he can influence the Antichrist. But maybe this isn't meant to be effective, as he can fool a child but his appearance isn't presented as convincing to the audience. Similarly, we've seen that he can lie to save Job's children from the wrath of God. He only needs to fool the other angels for this, however, and their inherent belief in the goodness of one of their own means that they believe him. At the end of S1, Aziraphale is able to convince Hell that he's Crowley. How could he possibly be convincing about this when he is otherwise so bad at playing pretend? The only explanation that makes sense is that his willpower to keep Crowley safe overrides his angelic need to be true to himself.

Stronger Together

We've also seen that Crowley and Aziraphale are much stronger when they work together than when they're on their own. When they combine their powers to keep Gabriel safe without being noticed by Heaven or Hell, instead of the infinitesimal miracle they intend, they get something exponentially more powerful. It's questionable whether they actually tried to go for the tiny dose of power they said they would give -- I don't think they fully trusted each other to do enough to keep them all safe and could easily have "juiced it" to make up for the other's deficiencies. But the reactions from Heaven and Hell indicate that what they accomplished was worrisomely powerful. It's possible that the reason the Metatron chose Aziraphale to replace Gabriel was to separate the two of them and keep that power in check. In S3, maybe we would see them team up again to wield that power for an even greater purpose.

The Gun

Now, without a better transition, we're probably going to see the Nazi zombies again. We see that they're still around London at the end of the S2 scene in 1941. We also discover that 1941 Aziraphale keeps a Derringer pistol in a hollowed-out book in the bookshop. Following Chekhov's law, that gun is bound to make another appearance. The 1941 scene in S2 ends with A and C (I'm getting tired of typing out their names) hanging out in the bookshop. The zombies know where to find them. Guns can stop zombies. A is the type of angel who would probably bless his bullets and bestow them with special miracle powers. I could easily see the zombies storming the bookshop and A shooting them -- maybe saving C, or maybe accidentally shooting him, too, for the show to really milk some drama. Or maybe we get a callback to the magic show and C catches the bullet in his teeth. In any case, I think we're going to see some gun-on-zombie action.

Other more fanfiction-y thoughts:

Nina and Maggie Summon A and C into a therapist's office for couples counseling. Or maybe Muriel reads a self-help book and tries to do it herself. Crowley tries to take over another patient's session via demonic possession "because it's an emergency" and he absolutely has to rant to someone about what Aziraphale is doing. Please, someone, I absolutely need to read this fic.

[siesporamor]

What are your opinions on all of the main couples in SL?

LMAO, it took me so long to answer this ask, but I just have so mant thoughts. I'm not sure if the question is about endgame couples, so I'll just talk about whatever I want.

Putting this under a cut because I'm not a monster.

Lutteo is... fine. I don't hate them, but I also don't like them. Leaving aside my own headcanons for the characters, they just don't work for most of the show. Matteo in seasons 1 and 2 is a complete asshole who doesn't deserve Luna. Just to list some of the shit he does: flirts with her while he's still with Ámbar, kisses her without her consent, sometimes borderline harasses her, is a dick to her best friend, prioritizes his career over their relationship even when he ends up hurting her, never listens to her perspective and assumes all of her criticism is in bad faith. I especially can't get behind the s2 storyline, where Luna is incredibly upset by Matteo's behavior—saying he doesn't have a girlfriend during an interview and staging PR relationships, or insulting Simón live—, but he brushes it all off with the excuse that it's essential to his career and tells her she's envious of his success. And he's somehow surprised that Luna would defend her childhood best friend when her boyfriend publicly humiliates him online?

That being said, when Matteo finally becomes a decent person in s3, I think they mostly work as a couple (still don't ship them). At that point, though, does it really matter? I'm not going to forget the first two seasons. If Luna absolutely needed to end up with somebody, because amatonormativity, she deserved someone better.

Lumón is objectively the best Luna ship. They're childhood best friends and know and take care of each other like nobody else. Still, when I see such an adorable m/f friendship, I grab onto it and would rather it stayed platonic, because there's enough romance in medias.

Simbar gives me life. I'm honestly obsessed and, as I've already said, they're one of my OTPs and the reason why I started watching Soy Luna. Ámbar and Simón are characters I already love on their own and they complement each other so well. They have a great premise (dating-someone-for-a-revenge-plan trope, my beloved <3), a believable enemies to friends to lovers arc (also a favorite trope of mine), fluffy banter, delicious angst and tension, domestic scenes to balance it out, great chemistry, and the actors work their asses off in emotional scenes. They communicate, support and respect each other like a healthy couple would do. Simón is the first person to see the good in Ámbar and push her to be the better version of herself. Ámbar also challenges Simón and his perspective. While a bit dramatized for narrative purpose (don't date people to fix them), that's what a relationship should do (says the aro who's never even had a date in her life).

Gastina may not be endgame, but they are in my heart. They're adorable, have excellent chemistry, and them bonding over shared interests is both realistic and cute. While cliché, I like the FelicityForNow plotline and I think it gave Gastina a solid basis that makes it impossible not to root for them. Forever mad about the route s3 took, especially because it didn't have to? They had Gastón's actor available for a couple scenes, they could've filmed the finale with him or just slapped a clip of him onto a tablet screen, then keep his and Nina's relationship going through texts, it really wasn't that hard. To me Nina goes to college in Oxford and they get back together again, I will accept no other option.

Pelfi is such a sweet ship! It's a bit of a Simbar 1.0, in the sense that Pedro formed a genuine friendship with Delfi and helped her become a better version of herself. Even if Delfi back pedaling in s2 was random and made their relationship arc a bit weird, narratively speaking, I always enjoy these two. They're such cuties and them staring at each other with heart eyes in s3 >>>

Yamiro is considered a main couple, I guess? They can be cute, but I'm not particularly fond of either Yam or Ramiro and I also headcanon them both as gay, not to mention they hurt each other and argue a bit too much for my taste.

Thanks for the ask, I hope I interpreted the question correctly!

[pinkprimrose05]

hehe Yuya for the character ask game :)

also maybe Yuzu or Ruri if you want!

Warning: Long Post, may contain spoilers.

First things first: My friend, I'm really sorry for how late this answer is. School just came back and wrecked my schedule with a sledgehammer, so it's kinda hard to sit down and properly talk about characters these days. Unfortunately, that means I'm not sure if I can do Yuzu, but Ruri has been done in answer to another ask that you'll find by clicking the "character breakdown tag".

With that being said... let's talk about the disaster tomato child!

1) What I think of this character:

It's kinda hard to be coherent about this, but I'll try to put it simply: Yuuya is my blorbiest blorbo ever, among all faves I have, across all fandoms I'm in. He's a pure beam of sunshine, a soft blanket of comfort, a cute ball of enthusiasm and flair that is never boring to watch, and a joy to see and hear on screen at all times. Also relatable on a spiritual, personal level. Also perfect headcanon material. Also adorable design and an actually cool aesthetic with the S2 riding suit. Also might have been my first fiction crush, but I never really stopped to verify that when I was like, twelve.

2) My romantic ships for them:

Yuzu! I'm a classic vanilla when it comes to romantic ships, and they have undeniable chemistry even if you ignore the "childhood besties" cliché. They're just so adorable together, and I'm glad the writers managed to make their main ship actually convincing, because the track record is all around terrible (aside from Faithshipping, that is).

3) Platonic OTP:

Oh come on, this is Yuuya we're talking about. Half of his canon platonic ships can and do count as OTP for me, and that extends to other potential friendships. All of that includes, but is not limited to: Yuugo, Yuuto, Yuuri, Serena, Sawatari, Sora, Shun, Jack- hell, he would've been good friends with even Zarc if given the chance. I'm not even going into crossovers with other series (though I would like to give a shoutout to Juudai, because he and Yuuya just have. so many things to bond over. It's a little uncanny in retrospect, but it won't stop me from seeing them as the bestiest of besties among the protagonists).

4) Unpopular Opinion Corner:

It's not as controversial around here as it is on other spheres of social media, but despite my misgivings about the way the Smile philosophy was used in the Xyz arc and the early half of Fusion, I actually like Yuuya's character arc more than most.

This kid had locked himself behind a smile and a chuckle for three whole years, following his father's footsteps all the way along, without any sense of signature or independence to call his own. Even after acquiring Pendulum and becoming the pioneer of a new form of entertainment, Yuuya still struggles to balance his father's ideals and his own original flair, but it doesn't stop him from trying to reach for that which lies beyond the Pendulum (pun wholly intended :D), and eventually, through many trials and tribulations, he makes it. He makes it when he realizes that Pendulum and its evolution is his specialty, that it's fine -good, even- to share it with everyone else, that it's still unique to him in that he's the reason it exists at all, that it's the brand of his style and his Entertainment Dueling, and that he can use it to spread and share joy his own way. Because sometimes a smile is not enough to fix one's life, but it's a start that opens the path for you to go forward and find what you seek.

This is why the Friendship Cup finalé was the peak of Yuuya's development, and why most of S3 feels like such a drop in said development, when it simply focuses on other aspects of his outlook that he needed to address (like the tendency to trust and forgive anyone, even in the middle of a warzone). Sure, it does relegate Yuuya's sense of identity to smile propaganda for the stretch of an arc and a half, and sure, that was rather painful to watch, but it doesn't negate the improvement that already happened; just goes back on it on a few occasions, as is the natural human response of returning to comfort in the face of great adversity. And to be fair to the back half of the season, well, one can't exactly keep their cool with YuGiOh's closest equivalent to the devil telling them to commit atrocities... in an environment that very much deserves all atrocities coming its way.

5) Something I wish would happen to them:

SOMEONE TAKE THIS BOY TO THERAPY, HOLY SHIT. The writers really said "let's see how many ways there are to fuck with our protagonist" and just- threw their all at Yuuya, no holds barred. He needs a bonus episode(s) where he gets to catch a break for once in frankly too long, maybe sort out these old and new issues he needs to tackle, possibly go out with Yuzu and Sora to get icecream and just do mundane kid things... you know, just give the guy a moment to breathe, unwind, and prepare for what's next. He deserves it. Really. I would like to personally give him a break.

*snatches Yuuya to gently pat his head and hand him a strawberry candy*

Dear Lord, I really do love my tomato boi.

[kurokoros]

I like Robin in canon, specifically season 3. (I am not huge fan of her in season 4 and for some reason the airiness of the actress's voice just bugs me) But I found her character interesting in season 3.

And then I came to fandom. Specifically, her and Steve's relationship as portrayed in fandom. People see them as codependent and really close and I struggle to wrap my head around that. Do I see them as close friends? Yes. But I see them more as me and my friend, where they're good friends and talk almost every day but aren't codependent on each other. And it's also the superiority with their favorite pairing of characters being platonic, if that makes sense. Like they see Platonic Stobin as the best ship for Steve and I hate it when people do it in general, like when they say that Jancy is the best ship or Stancy or Steddie. Like yes, some would make more sense canonically but sometimes people don't like ships for various reasons. But with Platonic Stobin, it feels like they are untouchable because they are a platonic relationship vs all the romantic ones.

I definitely agree with most of this!

ngl I was doomed to dislike Robin from the start. I don't like any of the main characters or major secondary characters introduced post-S2. S3 is my least favorite season of the series, and both Robin and Erica were involved in the plotline I think had the most bullshit premise, so I'm just painfully indifferent to both of them lmao So, yeah, I never cared for Robin. And it really rubbed me the wrong way that they had Robin rant about how much of an asshole Steve was after he woke up from being beaten unconscious like wtf???

(listen if we needed Russian soldiers in S3, I would have adored new deputy!steve and Hopper having a run in with a small group of soldiers or something. That would have been more interesting than a full scale invasion under the mall but I'm not going to get into how shit that plot point is)

I'm also kind of meh about MH as an actress. It just kind of seems like she tends to play herself, from what little I've seen. There's not much range to her performances imo

Fandom definitely ruined Steve and Robin as friends for me though. I hate the "codependency" angle. I don't see the whole "platonic soulmates" thing. They're just normal friends who went through something traumatic together. And they weren't even really friends when that happened. The show kind of makes it seem like they'd been coworkers forever, but Dustin congratulated Steve on getting the job at Scoops after he came back from camp, so Steve and Robin had only been working together for like... a month. At most. And it doesn't seem like they hang out outside of work in S3. Their friendship really is nonexistent in S3 outside of Steve saying he's laughed more in the last month than in a long time (even though all they have is teasing but vaguely-antagonistic banter)???

The whole "platonic ship is inherently better than a romantic one" argument is also one I don't care for. Like... Steve has already had platonic relationships. In S1 he was friends with Tommy and Carol and the show never implies that Steve is only friends with Carol because he wants to fuck her, if the point of Stobin was to be "boys and girls can just be friends!" He has platonic friendships with the kids that could have been developed more. We could have had more interactions between Steve and Jonathan. Or Steve and Hopper. Or they could have kept Tommy and Carol around and actually developed that friendship.

Neither platonic nor romantic relationships are inherently better than the other. All that matters if is how that relationship is nourished on screen, and I simply do not find Stobin to be as deep as the show and fandom want me to believe.

(Like, unpopular opinion I guess, but I wish they had introduced a new love interest for Steve at some point that wasn't a surprise bait and switch. I would have rather seen Steve move on from Nancy completely, than put up with whatever the hell the Duffers were doing in S4.)

I don't know where I was going with this, but yeah, I simply do not care for Robin or platonic soulmates stobin

[immobiliter]

so i'm thinking very much about the way that aimee interacts with boys throughout the show, because we see early on that her only interactions with adam are based around the pair having sex or discussing their sex lives. we see aimee call adam "sweet when nobody's watching," but we don't ever really see the pair as a couple, and from the way that aimee acts around adam in those early episodes ( extremely performative lmao, she is throwing herself at that boy whether he wants her to or not ), it's really quite clear that she only knows how to interact with boys in terms of how appealing she is to them sexually. after dumping adam, she then moves onto kyle very quickly ( implying that there was not much in the way of dating or build up ), a character in the show who isn't really given much of a personality aside from being a known stoner/drug dealer and a bit of a voyeur/creep ( since he was "sex king" in the first episode of s3 ).

we then get to beloved golden retriever good boy steve, who triggers some self-reflection on aimee's part to try and work out why her performative attitude towards sex isn't working with him and he, *gasp*, actually wishes to know what she wants during sex. he becomes her longterm boyfriend and we actually see the pair as a couple ( and then see it's eventual breakdown as aimee pulls away from him ), but what is interesting about this is that we never see aimee in a dynamic with a boy that is purely platonic. she doesn't get to interact with the likes of eric ( which i think is a damn shame considering ncuti & aimee's friendship bts, although ncuti has my hopes up for a scene between them in s4 ), nor does she get to really interact meaningfully with anyone aside from maeve from s2 onwards.

her interactions then become solely female-centric, as maeve's bff, then with jean as she starts going to therapy, and then her cute if brief dynamic with maureen. she even becomes very female-focused herself, developing a hyperfocus on female genitalia ( specifically vulvas lmao ) during s3 — which, while i know there is a wide variety of sexualities and gender expression presented to us in sex ed meaning that aimee herself is straight-presenting, if you squint.... that whole arc could be a bisexual awakening arc. it could.

and this is all interesting because, despite her wonderful development over three seasons, aimee still hasn't been given a chance to break out of those restricting interactions with boys. the only boy she interacts with is steve, who admittedly is now a commited, longterm boyfriend — however one of the reasons for their break up is aimee's struggle in talking to him about how affected she is even just by him being physically affectionate with her ( even though he is the ideal candidate to understand and help: steve is demisexual himself, as per his shame sign at the end of s3, and says to her at the end of s2 that he just misses talking to her ). she still puts the emphasis on sex above everything else that goes along with a relationship, to the detriment of her dynamic with her boyfriend. so what i am saying in a very long roundabout way is that one of the ways aimee can help continue to heal her trauma, and fix some of her ingrained habits when it comes to men, is just by having a boy as a friend. no strings attached, no nothing.

[astriiformes]

For the writers ask meme: 1, 2, 17, 35

1 - Do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

I usually know how stories will end, but not necessarily where, if that makes sense. There have been exceptions in both cases, but usually I have some idea of how the central crisis will be resolved and general emotional beats I want the ending to have, but not exactly what that's going to look like. The former gives me something specific to work towards and lends emotional coherence to the work as a whole, but even when I'm working towards a particular ending scene, I don't always have a totally clear picture of it.

Like, I knew "Several Witches Are Typing" would end with the team getting back to Willow's house and her dads discovering them, but hadn't necessarily fleshed out everything beyond that when I started the story. Sometimes I'll even have really specific details pinned down but be missing another big, important chunk (by the time I actually started writing "Aurum Horizontale" I knew Keyleth was going to give Percy the friendship bracelet made from the fragments of his exploded gun, but wasn't entirely sure if Percy was going to leave with Vox Machina or not -- an uncertainty that I ultimately realized he would have himself, so I dug into that).

I don't like having nothing though. The stories I don't have a clear ending for are also, not coincidentally often the stories that end up abandoned. Every time I think my excitement at the start is enough to propel me through, I end up being wrong.

On the flip side, the stories I do have endings in mind for are the ones I hang onto for years and years, and am confident I have a shot at actually finishing even when I've taken long hiatuses. I know exactly how "I Breathed a Song Into the Air" is going to end, as well as the transgender Marty McFly WIP I've had in my drafts for ages. I also have a pretty solid idea of the ending of my trans Caleb Wittebane fic ("Go Down to the Netherworld, Plant Grapes) and the TOH Sherlock Holmes pastiche that I haven't even officially started writing yet. And I'm working on defining the ending to the longer of my two Pentiment WIPs ("Beharren ist Eine Kunst") for exactly this reason, so hopefully that can lend anyone interested in those stories some hope even if my updates are uh, inconsistent.

2 - Talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

Usually this happens because they've decided to make the story longer (or I've misjudged how long a scene would actually be...)

Unfortunately the best example I had of this was a fic I'm still contemplating ways to rework -- I had a oneshot I was working on mid-S2/S3 TOH hiatus that collided with another idea of mine and had the potential to be a really interesting, long story, but ultimately hit me during something of a writing slump, and the show restarted before I got much of it written. I'd love to at least clean up the original oneshot into something postable one day, but would have to scrap a lot of my favorite parts of the longer story now since I don't think it can be repurposed into something I like.

Alas. It was a really cool thing to have happen (writing two things at once and realizing there was enough fascinating thematic overlap to turn it into a single story if I played my cards right) and I hope someday it happens with a fic I can actually get off the ground.

17 - What is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

A more recent example, but I'm awfully fond of this one from my Pentiment exchange fic, "Long Upon the Land" (Paul, my boy Paul)

It wasn’t fair, and the older he grew, the more he found the gentleness and piety he’d always tried to cultivate tested by the bitter serpent that had curled itself around his heart, whispering that one day he ought to spit back “Fathers, provoke not your children to indignation, lest they be discouraged,” with a less-than-righteous venom the next time he was told obedience was a virtue.

35 - Tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

A recent one, but I am extremely fond of Magdalene Druckeryn, even as someone who is a lot more like Andreas myself. She's so incredibly stubborn and plucky, an a lovely example of how to do female protagonists in historical fiction that are constrained by the position of women in society but don't let themselves be completely limited by it (and, have lovely and encouraging relationships with other women of the same time period instead of falling prey to the idea that "interesting" historical women have to be an exception). The game gave her such incredibly demanding shoes to fill as an Act III protagonist and she does so wonderfully. I lack her particular brand of snark and courage -- my own looks quite different -- but I love her, and I'm loving having a fic project where I get to write her, too.

[arrthurpendragon]

Gonna take the opportunity to gush about Morgan!

I just love her so much 😭 my poor baby, she's so resilient and deserves so many hugs and so much love. She loses both her parents on the same night and then is raised by the man who killed them...and then Thawne, even though he does come to love her, can't focus on raising her because he's too busy plotting revenge on someone else (Barry, who's not yet the Flash, but Thawne ofc hated him regardless)! So she has to be raised by her godmother, Tina…without her getting any of the mom benefits, since Eowells is still her dad on paper. Talk about complicated 😂

It's so funny to think about, though, how Morgan’s existed basically as long as I've been in the Flash fandom 😅 ever since I watched s2 (maybe about a month after I started the show overall, and mind you this was back in March/April 2020). Ever since I met Jesse Wells (our lovely E2 speedster whom I adore), I've always wanted to make an Earth-1 doppelgänger of her. So Morgan’s always existed in relation to Jesse, which is why I never really intended to write the s1 arc. I figured she'd sorta be involved with Team Flash the same way Iris is in s1: from the sidelines. And s2 is maybe when she'd really become part of the Team. So I didn’t think there was much to say about the s1 period.

Of course, Morgan very much grew into her own person 😂 and I'm so, so glad for it 💞 I can’t imagine her any other way. And I can’t imagine not writing the s1 arc—turns out there is a lot to say!

Ooh and Morgan’s powers also originally weren't gonna be forcefields. I was thinking about super strength at first, but...I didn't wanna give her the same powers as a one-off villain who was shown to very quickly die from them (mostly because I wasn't sure how Morgan could be the exception to that 😅 I thought about nanotech, but that was too much pseudoscience for me).

She also originally wasn't as close to Barry and Iris as she is now. She always had a sibling relationship with Caitlin and Cisco ever since they met, but...her friendships with Barry and Iris came about when I actually started writing the s1 arc (working at Jitters with Iris gave her something to do…and ofc if she’s friends with Iris, and linked to STAR Labs, she’d be friends with Barry too). And now...I can't imagine the AU without those friendships 💞 especially Barry&Morgan!

(Which is gonna make s3 with Savitar sooo good and angsty…but I won’t say too much about that yet!)

It's so neat to see how excited you are for your OC! Morgan sounds pretty awesome and it's neat to see how things have played out, even if a bit differently than originally planned!

Good luck with your creativity going forward!