#To continue older incomplete fan fiction

[honekujiras]

Summary:

As I looked out over the scenery that stretched before us, the verdant hills dappled with cottages and the clouds gliding lazily across the sky, I was struck by an overwhelming wave of emotion. It was like a youthful sort of mourning, a thing that held my heart in a vice and refused to let go. It was like catching your smiling reflection and thinking, I will miss this day when I'm old. "Holmesie," said I. "Are you happy?" The Great Detective has retired to the English countryside, and his biographer comes one day seeking counsel.

my piece for day 7 of @greatestfamilyweek - long distance / future! i always thought taking a look at the evolution of iris's and holmes's relationship would be fun :3

read on AO3 or check out the excerpt below!

—-

THESE DAYS, I find that I have precious little room to simply think. Living in the capital will do that to a person: always some lively event taking place downtown or some invitation to a party held by the neighbour of a friend of a colleague. The stacks of incomplete manuscripts seem with each glance ever more endless, too, outnumbered only by the sheer clutter in what one clever man referred to as that "brain-attic" of mine. It is not my intent to complain, of course; if I held some severe, irreconcilable dislike for this foggy town, I would have moved far away by now. Even on this train ride through the English countryside, my thoughts continued to drift London-ward—for better or worse.

The porter had been surprised at my travelling alone, I recall, and I could not blame him. A young woman unaccompanied by a suitor or husband must have made a curious sight, nevermind the vibrance of my hair or the notepad in my hand, kept readily available, kept readily available for whenever a stroke of creativity should strike me. Then again, I suppose I have grown accustomed to getting an odd look or three since my youth.

And as the man took my luggage, I wondered if he would have recognised my name—that is, if he had ever read one of the stories published in the heyday of my authorship. I still receive letters from avid readers on occasion begging for another installation of my masterwork series, but due to a certain series of circumstances, I must always let them down. Since those days, I have tried my hand at writing everything from fantasy to historical retellings to non-fiction, but these have not met nearly as much success. Fortunately, it has not shaken my resolute love for creation, for the art of the English language.

So I say, anyway. But I digress.

It would seem writing is an effective pastime, for the station came into view hardly a moment after I wrote this passage. Once the train crawled to a stop, I took my bags and exited out onto the platform. I had visited Sussex a couple of times in the past, though not as frequently as I would have liked, and yet each occasion made me feel as though I had entered a world entirely separate from my own. The brilliant blue sky stretched out above my head; the pure summer air filled my lungs.

As I stepped back to admire the view, however, I struck against an older gentleman who had deboarded the train behind me. The books he was holding fell to the ground with a muted thud.

"My apologies, sir!" said I. "I didn't notice you were there."

"Nonsense. It was my fault for not moving out of the way," the man said as I crouched to gather them in my arms. The top-most volume was titled The Origin of Tree Worship, and I smiled furtively at the author listed below, one of my noms de plume.

"My," croaked the man, perhaps noticing my expression, "are you a fan of Miss Anna Graham's works as well?"

"You could say that," I replied, thinking about the months I had spent on writing that particular story. "May I ask why Tree Worship? Miss Graham has released quite a few novels more popular than that."

The man laughed, the corners of his eyes wrinkling in a way that was strangely familiar to me. "Mmadam, I have always felt that the soul of a book mattered more than its success," he remarked. "If the author poured their flesh and blood into their writing, then what does the popularity of the thing matter?"

"I'm glad you think so, sir," said I. There was something so deeply reassuring about a stranger uttering these words to me—these words that assuaged an insecurity I had been grappling with for some time.

"Ah, it seems one more landed over there," the man said suddenly, pointing a gnarled finger towards a book that had landed by the wayside. "Would you pick it up for me? My back isn't what it used to be, you see."

"But of course!" I knelt down to pick up the last of the volumes, only to still when I saw the cover. A Study in Scarlet, it read.

"Thank you, my dear Iris," a well-remembered voice replied.

When I whirled around, before me stood not the stooped, elderly book-collector, but a proud man sporting a tweed overcoat and deerstalker cap. His head was held high and his eyes glimmered with mischief. Still, there were certain indications of his age: the streaks of white in the platinum-blond hair beneath his wig, the soft wrinkles of his face that had been only deepened with makeup, and the spectacles and cane that he had not discarded. In all, though, it was that man through and through.

"Holmesie!" I exclaimed.

—-

keep reading on AO3!

[herefortheships]

I had a similar reaction. I was like “seriously? Come on”. Because, listen, at that point, watching the movie for the first time in the theater, I was convinced just moments earlier that she was going to marry him. (And let me add also that I didn't even know this was a ship at the time; I was the kind of casual fan who'd watch Beetlejuice every year during the Halloween season and didn't watch the cartoon when I was younger, so I didn't even have the context of the ship or anything from the fandom. I've never watched the musical either [and had totally forgotten it even existed until I started posting about Beetlejuice on Tumblr lol]).

I feel that the story I was shown was leading to Lydia and Betelgeuse ending up together, especially when Rory ended up being Delores's new "soulmate" and both of them met the same fate. I mean, both Betelgeuse and Lydia had toxic, soul sucking partners; it seemed too perfect a parallel. It felt like something that would be in a romcom, even! With the toxic exes ending up together while the leading characters end up together as well. That is so a romcom trope.

But then that didn't happen and the movie felt weirdly incomplete (to me).

Now that I've had some distance from the movie, I understand it would have been too soon for Lydia to marry Betelgeuse now, but trust me, while watching for the first time it totally made sense to me as a romcom lover if she did marry him.

Then Astrid mentioned the code violation nulling the marriage, and I still held some hope, until Lydia came up with that line and went on to banish him despite everything he did for her and her family. I felt sooo disappointed. He didn't deserve that.

I mean, I’m used to shipping supernatural-human couples, like Spike and Buffy, who have over 100 years between them as a vampire-human couple (and I should mention, he met her when she was 16, too, though they got together when she was an adult). With Betelgeuse being a ghost it's a similar scenario. He’s stuck at whatever age he died at. Of course his spirit can go on years and years, but his spirit being over 600 years old doesn't mean his body continues to age. He technically should have no body, even! Just a ghost body. Putting aside the reality that Michael Keaton has aged, in-universe Betelgeuse should still look the same age he was when he was killed (unless he decides to make himself look older, which he totally would to match Lydia, imo 💚).

So, technically, physically speaking, Lydia should look/be older than Betelgeuse right now, in-universe. Michael Keaton was in his 30s when the first Beetlejuice movie was shot, so we can assume so was Betelgeuse when he died, unless they decide to age him up and say he died at some other age. So, yep, if Betelgeuse was in a living human body, he would be physically at least 20 years younger than Lydia right now, even though his spirit has gone on for hundreds of years.

This is what I mean when I say that we simply cannot apply real world logic to these human-immortal/undead romances. Because our logic doesn't apply. At some point she will be older-looking than him. When the character is immortal or undead, age stops being a concern that should be brought up at all.

I think in Betelegeuse's case it's only brought up because of two reasons: he's not a hot, young guy like Edward in Twilight or Spike and Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a matter of fact, Angel, who arguably died when he was in his mid-20s, dated 16 year old Buffy while being a vampire in his 240s, and nobody bats an eye. Why? Because Angel is hot. That's literally it. (Edit to add: Angel even had sex with Buffy the night she turned 17). The second reason is that Betelgeuse tried to force teenage Lydia to marry him. I could write an entire post about why this one shouldn't even be brought up anymore as an argument, but these ramblings are already too long, so I'll summarize it by saying: look at the point above. Other undead fictional characters have dated (and had sex!) with teenage female characters before and it was never an issue for people to openly and broadly ship them.

It comes back to the point one: Betelgeuse is not conventionally attractive. 🤷🏻‍♀️ He's balding, dirty, vulgar, has a protruding belly, a raspy voice, and he has mold and bugs all over him. If he looked like Spike, or Angel, or Edward, or any of the other immortal/undead characters that have fallen in love with teenage characters before, would there be an argument? I don't think so.

Or maybe there would, who knows. Audiences have become a LOT more inclined to ignore fantasy and look at fiction through mundane lenses.

Characters who are introduced as children are also stuck as children in the minds of these members of the audience. Lydia is in her 50s now (or maybe in her late 40s in the Beetlejuice universe, if only 30 years have passed in there), and she is still being looked at and treated by a portion of the fandom as a child.

The 600 year age gap is a nonissue. It's only brought up now because the audience might have a puritanical, too mundane mentality now, and would expect a fictional woman in an impossible, fantasy setting to behave the same way a real woman would behave in our regular, boring reality.

Am I the only one that rolled my eyes and sighed in the theater during the Beetlejuice sequel when Lydia said the thing about the 600-year-old age gap between her and Beetlejuice? There were so many other things she could have brought up, like him being gross, or crazy, or… I dunno, dead? That’s the one she came up with? It felt so unnecessary.

[willsherjohnkhan]

Decisions, Decisions...

So what do you do when you have a number of incomplete fan fics that you should really be working on, and I have, but then you get majorly distracted my a number of new ideas that are begging to be written?

Stick with the older works, and try to at least get a few of them completed? Or throw myself into the new story ideas to see where they lead?

To be fair, two of the new ideas have had their first chapters uploaded, The Spying Game and Resistance Is Futile.

But its the other three ideas that are currently screaming to be attended to:

1 the VampLock Sherlolly.

2 the Khanolly with a time travel twist.

3 the Victorian Sherlolly with a twist.

To write or not to write, that is the question...

[h0neyd3w-tea]

In your opinion, what is the best written kind of crimeboys relationship in fic? Could also be your favorite, just curious :3

Oh wow lol, you really went in for the kill! I ended up rambling a bit, I hope you don't mind... xD

Honestly, I don't really know. I guess I'm a longtime-ish subscriber to the (over)protective older brother troupe? But I guess my absolute faves are stories where Wilbur is very jaded and has the every-man-for-himself mentality (or even a streak of cruelty), while also being a very dedicated older brother to Tommy-sunshine-innit.

As you've might've guessed, I'm a big fan of any *fictional* messy relationships with lots of bumps and bruises that teeter, or even fall, on the other side of healthy. I especially adore those tropes in a platonic setting with platonic relationships, which is why the DSMP fandom - where most content is platonic - attracted me so.

If you want mainly crimeboys centric reqs with my taste in mind, I really recommend;

Alexander_Wesker on Ao3, someone who writes everything between really fucked up crimeboys content, and really fluffy (with a healthy heaping of angst) crimeboys content. They tend to have an undertone of horror that I personally really enjoy, and tend to write codependent and possessive relationships very well. My favourites from them are mainly; That Boy of Misery (complete), the series Your lies have bloodied roots (complete), and Even Shifting Sands Can't Wear Our Bond Away (incomplete). Just keep in mind that their endings usually range from painfully bittersweet to plain bittersweet.

SilverWing15 on Ao3, who mainly writes SBI, but recently published a 5 chapter long fic focused on Phoenix!Tommy and Naga!Wilbur, where Wilbur may or may not joink a child. Safe and Warm (complete). They're here on tumblr too, but I'm too much of a coward to outright tag them lmao. xD

mvlleen on Ao3, have a fic that may or may not be continued, but is very good even as it is, called of a feather (incomplete(?)). It has god of madness Wilbur with inspiration from his earlier 100-player challenges and is in general a darker au. They have other dark SBI stuff too, but this is the only crimeboys centric one I think.

tynysh on Ao3 has a one-shot that is supposedly a continuation of another work, but works fine as a standalone in my opinion. Wilbur is definitely more than a bit unhinged and more than a little obsessive and is post!ressurection. I'll Trace Figures on Your Smile Lines (complete)

Hope I answered the ask properly, I'll admit that I went off on a tangent there, but I hope it didn't get too messy to read lmao.

Thanks for the Ask! ^^

[queentargary3n]

unfaithful

Sasusaku Fan-fiction AU Lawers Rated M 

FF.net      Link to Chapter 1

Chapter 5

Naruto walked out to his porch, to find Sakura and Sasuke having an amicably conversation, which made him glad, not only because he didn’t want to lose any of them in the firm, just imagining how difficult the office would become if these two didn’t make up made his head spin, but also because he was concerned for Sakura, Sasuke could be a complete asshole sometimes, but Naruto knew his heart was in the right place, he usually didn’t mean the insults he threw around.

“There you are Sakura-chan, come back in, Hinata wanted to show you some baby pictures” Naruto said to the pinkette.

“Yeah, coming” Sakura responded to the blond, then turn over to look at Sasuke one more time before going back inside. “You need to ice that, bring down the swelling”

“So…? Everything Ok now?” he asked his brooding friend after Sakura was gone.

“Sure. I think” Sasuke replied. Although he wasn’t, really. There were many things going on in his life right then, things he needed to figure out, starting with what he had found in Karin’s bed, and the fact that instead, all he could think of was Sakura’s delicate hand touching him, it was very concerning for him. I’m messed up. He thought

“You think? You did tell her you are sorry, right?” Naruto asked, crossing his arms around his chest and closing his eyes, trying to figure out this whole drama.

“Yeah… were on friendly terms I’d say”

“Friendly huh? That’s unlike you” his blond friend mentioned.

“And what makes you say that?” Sasuke questioned.

“You’re a bit of a…” dick he wanted to say but decided against that. “Loner…  I remember when we hired Shino it took you a whole year to learn his name, and even then, you barely even acknowledge him, it’s like you didn’t even noticed he was there”

“That’s because I didn’t notice he was there, he’s too quiet!…” Sasuke defended and continued. “but… I should tell you something, I guess…” Sasuke began, trying to find the best words to describe his past relationship to Sakura. “Sakura and I know each other… from before”

“You do? From…?” Naruto asked, confused and scratching the side of his cheek.

Sasuke took a deep breath, formulating the best response he thought necessary to give Naruto. The two men didn’t have any secrets from each other, at least not intentionally, Naruto had definitely earned Sasuke’s trust, he had saved him from a life of criminal activity Sasuke didn’t know how to disentangle from. But this, his past with Sakura felt too personal, too intimate to share. Even so, this was Naruto, and Naruto always managed to get the truth out of him, one way or the other, so Sasuke choose the path of least resistance.

“Sakura and I used to be together” The Uchiha said quietly.

“Huh? Together like together? when?” why Sasuke always felt the need to give Naruto incomplete information, he never knew.

“We were together back in high school, before I left, I hadn’t seen her since” he offered in explanation.

“No Freaking Way!” the metaphorical gears started to turn inside Naruto, he started to remember his last own love confession to Sakura, during their Junior year in college.

It had never been a secret that Naruto was in love with Sakura, they spent every free moment they had together, and during the third year in college, during a drunken bender, he began to question her about her feelings.

“I just… love you so much Sakura… why don’t you want me…?” He couldn’t bring himself to care what he sounded like under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol.

“I do love you Naruto…” Sakura said as she hugged him gently. “It’s just… not the way you do… or deserve… I’m broken Naruto”

“You’re not broken Sakura-chan… you are … you are perfect” He drunkenly offered.

“Naruto… I used to be in love with someone else… he left… he abandoned me, he left me in the middle of the road, all alone, to go do…doesn’t matter, the thing is I haven’t gotten over that. And you can’t wait for me to do… not when there is someone wonderful waiting for you and you’re too stupid to notice. Please just… notice her” She seemed to sober up by explaining.

“Wait! Are you the asshole who abandoned her in the middle of the road? How the fuck?” Naruto marbled at the improbability of the whole affair.

“She told you…” it wasn’t a question; it was a statement mostly to himself.

“Yeah mentioned it back in the day, ya know? Who would’ve thought were the prickhole? that’s what we used to call you back in college by the way”

“Did she say why?” Sasuke asked, wondering how much Naruto already knew about his past.

“No, but I can imagine” Naruto said, remembering first the time he met Sasuke, handcuffed to his hospital bed, police officer standing watch at the door, bloody bandages covering the remnant stump where his left arm had been.

Sasuke was the very first pro bono case, Naruto’s godfather made him take right after graduating law school. According to Jiraiya, he was just a kid, and he showed a lot of promise. apparently, he was some kind of genius who had just made all the wrong decisions in his life.

“He reminds me of you” His godfather had said. “A kid without a family, he’s got the same look on his face you had when I got you. Makes me think what would’ve happened if you’d stayed all by yourself”

Naruto made a commitment to his godfather, and to himself then, to help get this guy out of whatever mess he’d gotten himself into. Starting with the law, Sasuke was wanted for being associated with a motorcycle gang suspected of dealing guns in the black market, between other more gruesome things speculated. He was caught fleeing the scene of suspected arson, a police cruiser had rear-ended him on the road, casing the motorcycle Sasuke was riding to slid under an 18-wheeler. He was extremely lucky to be alive; he was told by the doctors.

“You need to tell me everything so that I can help you, ya know” Naruto had said, taking a seat next to the black-haired guy’s hospital bed.

“I don’t need some kid attorney to represent me” Sasuke responded with disdain.

“grrrr…. You really do get on my nerves ya know? And we’re the same age asshole” Naruto responded; he’d memorized Sasuke’s file a soon as he got it. But he was going to need more than his background to help him. “I think we can get you out of this easily, no matter what you did, that police officer shouldn’t have rear-ended you like that, we can get all of this thrown away claiming police brutality, I mean you lost your damned arm…”

“I don’t want your goddamned help!” Sasuke lashed out at him.

“It doesn’t matter if you do, you have it, deal with it” Naruto said, standing up from where he was seated and taking one last look at the 22-year-old man in bed, before leaving him.

There was something about him that made Naruto not want to give up on him. His godfather had been right, he reminded him of himself, but a different version, a version of himself who had just given up hope things will get better. He couldn’t handle that.

He was there throughout Sasuke’s entire recovery. Everyday seated by his bed, talking about anything, where Sasuke mostly stayed quiet, but more present than any attorney would have ever been for a client. He paid all of his medical bills and years forward of rehabilitation therapy. And when Sasuke questioned him about it, finally deigning himself to offer a word to the blond attorney, he simply said “Have a lot of money, inheritance ya know? Don’t know what to do with it” and shrug him off.  

It sounded supercilious, as if bragging about how much money he had, but Sasuke understood the meaning behind the words, inheritance… He was alone too. He later learned that Naruto had lost his parents at a young age. Going up and down the foster care system until his godparent was able to get custody. Even then he was nothing but trouble, until he reformed himself. Stipulations left by his late parents mentioned he needed a college degree to be able to get access to his inheritance.

“At first it was all for the money, ya know?” Naruto told him sadly. “But then I started to make friends, real friends who were smart and made me want to be better for them too”

“I don’t have any friends” Sasuke answered. He had people he used for his means. And while Orochimaru claimed, everyone who entered the Brotherhood, as he called the gang, was like family, he never gave a damn about any of them. He didn’t have anyone he wanted to be better for, not anymore.

“Well you do now.” The blond one gave him a smile that for some strange reason made him want to smile too. “Now how about you tell your friend why you joined a gang?”

“Asshole” Sasuke exhaled, irritated at how stupid that line was.  He fisted he bedspread of the cheap motel he was currently living in with his sole remaining hand and began “I was 8 when my parents passed away, leaving my brother to raise me, he was only a few years older, but we did good for some time, then he left me too, just out and left, didn’t even get a reason or goodbye, just one day… he was gone, I had to keep that a secret if I didn’t want to be put in the system and keep my parents home. After I graduated from high school, I found that he died. Orochimaru came to me then, said that Itachi had joined the Brotherhood and was killed by a rival gang. He offered me a chance to get revenge. I took it. My brother was a good man, he didn’t deserve to die, I didn’t understand why he’d even joined the Brotherhood in the first place, I guess I joined too to figure that one out”

“Is that what you want, to get revenge? No matter what happens to you?” Naruto asked him.

“I don’t even know what I want, I don’t have anything else to do” Sasuke responded.

“I can help you figure out what happened to your brother Sasuke, and get justice, not revenge but justice, you don’t have to throw your life away for that” He offered.

x

“Does Karin know that?” Naruto wondered about Sasuke’s wife, with both girls working at the office, and how dramatic Karin tended to be, drama was bound to ensue.

Sasuke shook his head no. “I hadn’t seen Sakura until you brought her to interview, and I never told Karin”

“Should we keep it that way?”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t matter either way” Leaving a crying Sakura in the middle of a dark empty road had been one of the biggest regrets of his life. It was a terrible thing to do to a girl, but he needed to be terrible, otherwise she wouldn’t have let go. And with Karin, he didn’t currently feel like opening up about his past to her, besides she was keeping secrets of her own.

“Well she works with us now; we don’t need that kind of drama around the office” Naruto said. “Just… try to be nice to Sakura, or at least your normally aloof self, she’s a good person, and a good asset for the company, she doesn’t need you mistreating her like that, I care about her”

“I’m a professional, if you’re suggesting I can’t keep it that way…”  

Naruto interrupted him. “You know very damned well what I mean asshole”

And he did, he didn’t exactly keep it professional when he called her a whore. He still had the feeling he needed to make amends for that. He didn’t know how or why, but he would try, it was the least Sakura deserved of him, and he knew, but he simply told his friend “Yeah” and went back inside.  

x

Thank you so much if you are still reading this. Please leave a comment so I know you’re still interested! constructive criticism is always appreciated. Is this were you thought the story was going? What do you think should happen next?

[leather-and-lace-lookbook]

Hi all! I’m really into reading KH fan fiction that’s about the next generation, but either there aren’t a lot of good ones out there or they’re incomplete. I thought I’d give it a hand a write one myself!

This is gonna be about one of Sora and Kairi’s children, named Stella, as she goes through her own hero’s journey while trying to simultaneously recover from a truamtic experience that affected her family. I hope you guys like it!

KINGDOM HEARTS *UNTITLED* (Title work in progress)

Prologue

The last thing she remembered was drifting to sleep in the comfort of the castle bedroom, and yet as her eyes shuttered open, all she can see was an abyss of dark blue and a faint light above her. The light appeared to be fading, slowly fading from view. This was when Stella realized she was falling - floating really - almost as though this dark abyss she found herself in is the ocean itself.

Instead of alarm, Stella welcomed her surroundings with ease and a calm mind. She was at peace...but this was routine for her.

Stella felt it, the cold surface touch her back. She had finally landed from her decent. Stella closed her eyes, in hopes that the moment would freeze and she can stay in this blissful state. But alas, she knows what she must do next, or this would not end.

She stood up, and took in the surroundings she had become too familiar with. The rounded panel of stained glass that somehow captured her soul being - her heart. The background painted an all too familiar beach to Stella...it’s the only way she has been able to see that beach these days.

Stella focused on the larger figure whom took up most of the space of the glass - that being herself. Stella always thought it odd that her heart depicted herself with such valor. The glass image of herself is faced down on bended knee, her left hand on her heart and her right hand clutching her Keyblade - Oathkeeper. Her wavy brown hair cascades down her back, and bangs swept across the right side of her face, just above her closed eyes. She sporting her usual attire - a mint blue tank top layered with a black cropped mock neck sweater. Her fathers crown necklace poking through the end of the sweater, resting gently on her chest. Black high-waisted jeans with two silver studded belts on either side of her hips and her mother’s old combat boots which she replaced with mint colored laces.

Encircling the radial of the stained glass were smaller portraits of the people most close to Stella. All of them friends and family. She walked around the platform, taking in each face. She stopped at these two faces that brought upon the fondest memories. On the left was a girl, about her age, with light blond hair and aqua green eyes. A chunk of the left side of her hair was shaven off and the rest of her hair rested on her right shoulder. Her face depicts a knowing smirk, that smirk the girl would give when things went her way.

On the right was a boy who was two years older than Stella and shared similar facial features to the girl on the left. His short hair was silver, almost white, and his eyes were a light blue. His eyes appeared rough, but soft, and his face appeared stern, but focused. A face Stella had daydreamed about for days and nights a time before.

Stella moved onto the next set of faces. These two made her heart sink for she missed them so. The left picture was of a woman with red shoulder length hair and deep blue eyes with rings of violet around the irises. Her complexion was fair and highlighted the woman’s rosy cheeks. Stella’s fair complexion is attributed from this woman.

The picture on the right depicts a man with spiky brown hair sporting the cheekiest smile Stella has ever seen. Apparently Stella has the same smile, but its taking her time to notice. Come to think of it, Stella realizes a lot of her physicality is attributed from this man. Her hair, her sky blue eyes, even the necklace she wears once belonged to the man.

The woman in the left picture is gazing at the image to the right, and the man on the right is gazing right back at her. ‘They’re so in love’ Stella thought to herself. She quickly glances back to the image of the silver haired boy before moving on.

The next image is of a boy who spikes a striking resemblance to the spiky haired man beside him. Same brown spikes and same tan skin. Only this boy has the woman’s deep blue violet ringed eyes, and he isn’t smiling like the man, but instead his lips shift to a slight frown.

The final image is the one Stella dreads every time she’s here...she takes a deep breath before staring at the face. A girl, at least four years older than Stella, stares back at her. Stella feels the burning of tears as she continues to stare at the girl with red hair tied into a high ponytail and deep blue violet eyes.

“Luana”, Stella mutters, before shrinking down and shutting her eyes, allowing the burning tears to wash her face.

Stella could feel the presence that she knew was coming, and dreaded opening her eyes. But she did, and there she was. Luana, her sister, standing before her.

Luana wore what Stella remembered her best in. A lavender halter top with a silver and black sleeveless jacket decorated with pink flowers. Blue shorts with more of the same pink flowers as her jacket and a pair of silver high top sneakers.

“Luana...I-“, Stella spoke before Luana raised her hand to silence her.

“Why didn’t you save me Stella?” Luana spoke.

The shock set in, and as the apparitions of all of the other faces came alive, Stella could feel herself lose all strength as the nightmare took hold.

“Didn’t you hear me sister? Why didn’t you save me?! WHY?!” Luana yelled.

The apparitions came towards Stella, their eyes turning a bright yellow and their skins charring to black and red. Luana came towards Stella, eyes glowing yellow as well and her voice deepening like demons.

“I AM DEAD! BECAUSE OF YOU!”

And just like that, the glass beneath Stella’s feet shattered. As Stella plummeted towards an even darker abyss, she couldn’t help but feel that this is exactly what she deserves.

[u23art]

A LOOK AT SQUARE ENIX

I am not a business man, I am not a business major, I don’t wear a suit, I don’t wear a watch; business is not my world. Yet the conduct of a certain business weighs on my mind heavily, and in light of no light on the horizon for its future and the handful of talent jumping ship I want to collect my thought on Square Enix. This is the company that got me into RPGs with its digestible installments. I knew about the Tales series, I knew about Star Ocean, but as a youth I had no patience for those sorts of games. It wasn’t until around 2003 when I started getting into Kingdom Hearts that I began shoehorning my interest into the genre. Throughout the 2000s to the 2010s, they continued to make unique and memorable titles like Star Ocean 3 and the Final Fantasy VII anthology titles, and yes, their reputation took a hit with the FFXIII fiasco but admittedly in retrospect that was an overreaction from the fans. We savagely bashed a good experience because we were so certain how a Final Fantasy game should conduct itself. What is happening today however, is a betrayal of their conduct of the 2 decades prior. Square Enix has stumbled, not to an extent that they can’t recover, but to an extent that I can’t be excited for their games going forward. Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3: are financial successes but unbalanced experiences. Both are unfinished experiences and represent 1 of 2 sides of a spectrum that the company will next to exclusively tackle. On one end of the spectrum are their high budget AAA titles and on the other end are their mobile games. Their AAA titles, are graphical wonders, but are expensive to make and are left incomplete until further notice. Their mobile games are cute, but are plagued with limitations that constantly dictate how long they can be played which is counterintuitive to any gaming experience. There is a valid point brought up that games get more and more expensive to make as the years go on. However that is no excuse for Square Enix as it was no choice but their own to try and sell their big releases based on their visual quality. I didn’t play Kingdom Hearts 2 for graphics, I played their games for their personalities. Kingdom Hearts was wholesome and refreshing, Final Fantasy 10 is rich with the visuals or its fictional culture, Star Ocean is a science fiction epic. Square Enix doesn’t bank on such personality for new releases, and that’s heart breaking. Instead they’ll only brush the dust off their games with personality when they want to rerelease their older titles. They certainly TRIED to find a middle ground between expensive AAA games and their mobile games with the founding of the Tokyo RPG Factory. I Am Setsuna was………fine, but if they had to charge $40 dollars I would have preferred a physical release. I’ve yet to touch Lost Sphear, I wish to play it one day but I find myself unenthusiastic as it seems built very similarly as I Am Setsuna with a similar graphical style and gameplay. I could theorize all day about what went wrong, but the bottom line is that some time in the past, Square Enix strictly became a business. A passion for games plays second fiddle to the potential income, this point is punctuated by the news of a handful of directors recently departing the company. I can only assume strict management isn’t worth continuing their projects. Frankly I wish Tetsuya Nomura would follow suit so he can have some freedom to finish the games he wants to make and not act passive aggressively towards confused Kingdom Hearts fans who just want context for the mysteries he created in the game people waited a decade for. In summation; Square Enix- Forget about super graphics AND FINISH YOUR #$*%ING GAMES!

[malliebuu]

Mallie’s Reylo Fanfic Rec List:

This is in no particular order and not limited to! There are so many talented writers out there! These are stories that have really stuck with me, so I am sharing them with you all! I will add as I go.

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The Inheritance of the Resistance by @waterlilyrose

Rating: Explicit

Summary: The discovery of a new unknown Duchess of the House of Kenobi brings new life to the Rebellion Court. Having lost their old Queen Leia, Rey and Han are forced into a deeply unconventional but quietly happy marriage. Having never had a family of her own, Rey sees Han as the father figure she always longed for.

So when the disgraced Prince returns to court to make amends with his aging King, how will he take to the girl who is now effectively his stepmother?

Medieval/Tudor Reylo.

Review: This has Tudor vibes - it is unreal. I love history, so naturally historically AUs are right up my ally. I was quite impressed by the setup and dynamic. The author uses Star Wars terms in place for the historical ones. This doesn’t follow the Tudor chain of events, but veers in it’s own original direction. Ben and Rey for this interesting relationship and it is quite troubled because Rey is actually married to Ben’s father ::gasp::. Love this fiction. So beautifully heartbreaking! (complete) 

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There Shall I Be By philcollins

Rating: Not Rated (Mature if anything)

Summary: AU in which Rey, our lonely scavenger from The Force Awakens, meets Kylo Ren under very different circumstances - he's a shepherd on Jakku. Rey inherits an estate on the moon Ceathea and Kylo follows her there, works for her there, and soon encounters his hated old foe, Uncle Luke Skywalker. Will Rey ever accept Kylo's love? Will crusty old Luke Skywalker come between Rey and her true love? More familiar faces will make an appearance in this Force-free story of love, longing, angst, and anger.

Review: This story was so heartbreaking, but so good. A mix of pining, angst, drama and uncertainty. This story I read nonstop and was quite heart broken, but these two stubborn people just need a little extra time in order to figure out they were meant for one another. This story had me sighing and talking aloud with frustration! So well-written! (Complete)

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The End of Father Kylo By Sweet_Solitude

Rating: Explicit

Summary: After a filthy youth and almost suffering a great loss, Kylo turns to priesthood and leads a virtuous life. That is until he meets a girl who turns his world upside down and reminds him that he has a functioning body below his waist.

Review: Again, this one was found during my priest Kylo fazes. Don’t judge me! This has everything you would think when you think of the church and priests, though there is a little bit of something else. Yes, I am going to hell. I know this. Smut, smut! Love this kinky one-shot. If you aren’t offended by this, give it a read. ::fans face:: (one-shot)

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Fault Lines By Devil Betty

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Rey has always dreamed of a family. She starts to believe she could have it when she moves in with her new foster mother, Leia Organa. Then Leia’s son, Ben, moves back home and threatens to ruin the life Rey is trying to build. Nothing will prepare either of them for the truth. Some family secrets should stay hidden.

Review: This story is a “page-turner”. It has a simple setting, but so much happens and the dialogue between both Kylo and Rey are so intriguing. The chemistry is unmistakable and the lemons are to die for. Unfortunately, this is one minor thing that has a draw back, and both character experience a major revelation that hurts them both. Please read warnings before reading!!

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Spit and Sweat by bunnystealsyourcarrots

Rating: Explicit

Summary: In 1975, Finalizer played a gig at CBGB. The punk band gave their best, the crowd went wild, but a young girl named Rey wanted more.

God Save Them All.

Review: AH! This AU I really couldn’t get enough of because it involves our lovely Kylo and Rey, but is also peppered with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll! I mean...no on the drugs, but in all seriousness, I LOVE Rock-n-roll! So, naturally I honed in on this like no one’s tomorrow! The chemistry between Kylo and Rey is off the damn charts! Ugh, the sexual tension! I absolutely love how this starts as a childhood crush and as she gets older Kylo sees her and is completely blown away! (Uncomplete)

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Love and Comfort, Sex and Wondering If This Could Be Our Turn By AquaWolfGirl

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Anonymous Prompt: Ben and Rey are in college and best friends, and very much in love, they just don't realize it. Rey is tired of people making jokes about her being a virgin, so she asks Ben to help her out.

Review: Virgin Rey has a little delima. Ben is there to help guide her. This is actually a very sweet and sexy story! Give it a read! The author is a fantastic writer! (One-Shot)

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nolite te bastardes carborundorum By SaintHeretical

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Born on the fringes of a dystopian dictatorship, Rey has lived most of her life in the shadows until desperation drives her into the hands of the government. Her unblemished womb is her only salvation, which leads to her being placed as a Handmaid in the household of Commander Kylo Ren and his infertile wife.

Her task? Produce a healthy child for the Commander, or be banished to a life of hardship and almost certain death. A Reylo Handmaid’s Tale AU

Review: I loved The Handmaid's Tale, so naturally when I visited this story, I was drawn to that aspect. There is non-con in this, so please beware when reading. If you do not know the Hulu original series, refer to their site for a detailed description. The author, in response to this TV show, stays true, but brings originality and this is really a wonderfully written piece. The author is extremely talented! (Unfinished)

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Innocents Lost By Pontmercy44

Rating: Explicit

Summary: “That’ll scar.” Han stood behind him, nervously. He’d always been nervous around him, first, because he was a baby, and Han didn’t understand babies, and then, because he had the Force, and Han didn’t understand the Force. “Girls like scars.”

“It’s not like it matters.” Ben looked out at the thousands of spires. “I’m going to be a Jedi.”

Han grunted in sympathy, and then sat next to him, swinging his legs off the side of the tower. The urge to feel alive, to take risks and taste danger – that was what he’d inherited from his father. “Heard you got off the hook.”

“Not exactly. Community service.”

“Better than a detention block.” Han leaned back on his hands.

Ben scoffed. “It’s asinine.”

His father shifted, looking up at the stars, through the hazy, translucent atmosphere of Hosnian Prime. “What do they have you doing? Picking up orbit pollution, or something?”

“Worse.” Ben snorted. “Teaching orphans to read and write Basic. On Jakku.”

Han winced. “Only slightly better than a detention block.”

Review: Love this story! I flew through it. Very well-written! Ben has to do community service as punishment and meets little Rey on Jakku. This forbidden relationship is beautiful and bittersweet at the same time. I love this first love adaptation! The author went above and beyond with these two! (complete)

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Daddy Dearest By AquaWolfGirl

Rating: Explicit

Summary: When single father Ben Solo moves into his new apartment in Bespin with 5-month old daughter Amy in tow, he hopes to hell and back that this life will be better than the one they left behind in upstate New York. It's not long before his life becomes a cycle of work, Amy, work, Amy. One night, while trying to fish his keys from his pocket without waking his infant daughter, Rey, his next door neighbor, offers a helping hand.

Review: Daddy Ben! He is a great dad who falls for the babysitter. Interesting read; well written! You feel so sorry for Ben, but also Rey is a God send! Sweet interactions! Give it a read if you want some light hearted, fluffy interactions. Not much for fluff, but this was really a nice read! :3

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Stigmata By SaintHeretical

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Fifteen years after tragedy tore them apart, a priest and his sister band together to protect a homeless girl who appears to have been touched by God. Too bad his excommunicated nephew seems to have other plans for her.

A Reylo slow burn Modern/Religious AU.

Review: After the priest hype came out, I searched merely to humor myself. I found a few fictions that really had an interesting plot. This is one of them. Focused on Christianity and different groups within. Kylo and Leia are curious about this young girl who turns out to be homeless and has a curious development. She has formed the stigmata. This really is different than anything I have experienced. I usually don’t go for stuff like this, but there is enough angst and romance to fill my needs. LOVE it!

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World In My Eyes By Sasstasticmad

Rated: Explicit

Summary: "The bond should be dead," Rey says through gritted teeth. "Just like you.”

"The bond is only this strong because of you," Kylo Ren tells her. "You're the one who touched me. You took my hand and let me hold yours. This is your fault, not mine. (A post-TLJ force bond fic)

Review: This is after TLJ. I was obsessed for a while, which I am sure comes to no shock to anyone! Everyone was wrapped up in the force bond, which sasstasticmad delivers VERY well! There is so much continued tension between Rey and Kylo. It is quite interesting to see these two continue their interaction from opposite groups. The Resistance Vs First Order. (incomplete)

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Wolves By @albastargazer

Rated: Explicit

Summary: Rey Kenobi is a human beta until one fatal night and everything changes. With the existence of werewolves turning her world upside down, she is left with only her boss, Ben Solo, to help. Little did she know he is an Alpha wolf and the next leader of his pack, intent on claiming his rare omega.

Review: A/O/B dynamic. This story really is amazing. I have always had a soft spot for werewolves and I haven’t really had the pleasure of finding one that really stuck yet, of course, that was until I stumbled upon this little number. The dynamic between Ben and Rey is quite interesting. A horrible event leads Rey down an interesting path. Ben takes charge and attempts to help Rey. Interesting revelations emerge, however. (incomplete)

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Hatchling By g_girl143 @gwendy85

Rated: Teen

Summary: Rey's leads a predictable life as a general labourer at Niima Junkyard until an unexpected visit from the daughter she doesn't even know exists turns her world into a tailspin.

Review: This is simply the sweetest story. I binged it in one sitting. So sad that it doesn’t update as frequently, but when I do get an e-mail I am jumping for joy! This author really is talented. Love the way this dynamic is set up. There are so many intriguing questions-- you are left wanting more. So bitter sweet it isn’t complete! It really is something I haven’t seen done before. Really hope that it is completed someday! So much potential! I cannot wait to see what becomes of this new found family knit that develops on a whim, no thanks for Rey’s surprise daughter! ;)

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Kismet by @ladylionhart

Rated: Mature

Summary: Sometimes, what seems like a simple mistake is truly the first step of a fateful journey.

- Or the one where a single text message sent to the wrong number completely changes the lives of two people and those around them.

Review: Easily one of my all time favs! This is such an amazingly written, intriguing AU. It really begins like none other via text. Both parties, shockingly, continue their witty bouts of conversation until they both begin to develop feelings for one another without actually seeing one another. When they finally begin to interact on a level far from platonic, it heats up fast and you are left needing more! LOVE!

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Summer Heat By @isharan

Rating: Explicit

Summary: A lonely young woman arrives at the cottage she inherited from her grandfather on a remote lake in northern Ontario, to find her neighbor is a rare Alpha, a relic of the old days when humans were ruled by their designation. Across a long hot summer, they connect over their shared history, and she finds that the past may not be as far away as she assumed.

Review: ::Bats lashes:: What can I say about this one? Well, I am slowly dying because man is this a slow burn! This is an A/O/B dynamic, but it is so well written that it isn’t just a heat and commence screwing each other’s brains out. No, this really has amazing storyline that has you asking questions or attempting to figure out the author’s train of thought. Gosh, there are so many good things to say about this fic! Ben is absolutely a dream in this fiction too. I cannot even begin to describe because I just wouldn’t do it justice. This fiction killed me in a good way! (Incomplete)

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Serotonin and Dopamine By Pontmercy44

Rating: Explicit

Summary: He could lie and say it was because he was gentleman, but that wasn’t quite true. “I – well, I want to take advantage of you. But I know better.”

Rey looked at him for a long moment, and Ben thought she might slap him. She didn’t. She started to laugh, shaking her head as if she couldn’t quite believe it. Finally, she said, smiling, “Goodnight, Ben.”

Ben turned and walked slowly back to his car. He heard her door creak open, but he didn’t hear it slam shut. It felt as if he was walking away from his chance, from his chance to have something good and uncomplicated and nice.

Ben turned around, and went back to the door. Rey waited for him, biting her lip. He took off his stocking cap and held it in his hands in front of himself. His ears were cold without his hat, but he was in the posture of remorse and penance. "I'm sorry. I'm an ass. Can I kiss you again?"

Review: This fiction was different and reeled me in because Ben was different. In this fiction he has mental disorder that makes it difficult to form relationships. Though, Rey takes to him and Ben to her in the sweetest of ways! I really liked the development in this story. The author delivers fluffy feels too. I am not usually one that enjoys a ton of fluff, but they did right by it! (Complete)

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An empire to be won By Bitterbones @dvrksister

Rating: Explicit

Summary: The grin of satisfaction that split Rey’s face was utterly demented. “In three days time I will be wed to her son.” Rose blanched at the word son, apparently having been unaware of the familial relationship between her beloved general and the scourge of the galaxy.

Rey chuckled and continued, “It will be televised across the galaxy, and I’m certain that she will be watching; supportive mother that she is. Tell her to look on her son’s face, and see that he is gone. Tell her that the mark she sees there is my own, that it is an engagement gift from myself. And tell her that where she failed to save Ben Solo, I will raise Kylo Ren.”

[In which Kylo and Rey are betrothed as children and separated for their respective darkside trainings. Their reintroduction as adults is explosive, to say the least.]

Review: Cold Showers. I swear, these two, from the beginning, have so much sexual chemistry I had to fan myself when reading. Holy shit, this was tense. I LOVE her Kylo. This is an arranged marriage fiction, but even so there is so much going on in the world she so wonderfully weaved as well as the character interactions. You will be flying through each chapter begging for more! (Incomplete)

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Eunoia By MalevolantReverie @malevolent-reverie @meth-lab-shenanigans

Rate: Explicit

Summary: Rey Kenobi, an underachieving college student becomes tangled in a twisted web with her astronomy professor, Kylo Ren, who is hiding a dark secret. (Unfinished)

Review: Violent, dark, heart wrenching, Eunoia is the cream of the crop for dark fictions. I am a huge horror fan, so naturally I was curious to read something dark and dreary in regards to Reylo. The author doesn’t hope back, which I am quite pleased about. She really builds her word and characters fantastically. The dark character of Kylo really stays completely vile. Please only read if you can hand reading explicit content. Contains non-con!

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The Quietest Evening By MalevolantReverie @malevolent-reverie @meth-lab-shenanigans

Rated: Mature

Summary: Every so often, a girl disappears. No one knows where they go or why they’re taken, but they're never seen alive again. Rey, the police chief’s daughter, is next.

Review: This story is one of my favorites from MR. This one wasn’t nearly as graphic as the others she has written, but I really like the storyline she has built here. It was dark, contained secrets and revelations that had my jaw dropping. I really was at the edge of my seat for this one. It really got my heart pumping! If you are looking for a dark, angsty thriller this is the story for you. Please be aware there are triggers and non-con! (Completed)

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Nobody Knows By hernamewasalice @hernamewasalicewriter

Rated: Explicit

Summary: Nobody knows that the loving wife of Ben Solo was kidnapped as a teenager. Nobody knows. Not their family or closest friends. Not even their twelve year old son, Benny.

Review: Amazing story! This is another extremely dark fic, but more so the past that is associated with Rey and Kylo. Kylo has so many secrets, so does Rey. They look like the perfect couple, but really they have a more sinister start. There are parts that are tender and sweet, but the reality and hard truth of it all is quite painful. Author has an extremely fantastic beginning where she pulls you in. It is seen through the eyes of their son! So good! Recommend! Please be warned, however, there is non-con and violence! (Unfinished)

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[traincat]

i just found out about the gwen and norman babies and i’m just wondering what the fuck

“What the fuck” is a pretty accurate summary, but okay, so. Story time, because while this ask refers to the developments of a story called Sins Past (Amazing Spider-Man #509-#514), in which it was revealed that Gwen Stacy had twins fathered by Norman Osborn, to grasp the full story here we’ve got to go back to a little bit to before the death of Gwen Stacy.

In Amazing Spider-Man #93, after George Stacy’s death, his brother Arthur invites Gwen to come stay with his family in England. (This is notably where The Amazing Spider-Man 2 gets its “Gwen moving to England” storyline.) Peter had been planning to propose to her, but freezes up under the knowledge that Gwen blames Spider-Man for her father’s death:

Gwen takes it as a rejection, and leaves to go stay with her aunt and uncle in England. One thing I don’t think gets touched on enough with Gwen is that she’s very empathic, and good at picking up on all of Peter’s feelings and cues – it’s just that she doesn’t have the full context to interpret them. This also isn’t the first time Peter’s been in this situation; after he graduated high school, knowing that Ned Leeds had proposed to Betty Brant, Peter also had planned to propose to her, somewhat secure in the knowledge that Betty would’ve chosen him over Ned. (She would’ve, and in fact when Betty’s marriage to Ned began falling apart much later, she and Peter briefly engaged in an affair.) But when Betty says she could never love a man who was an adventurer, “a man who risks his life each day”, Peter realizes that as Spider-Man it wouldn’t be fair to propose to her and storms out.

(He notably did not take into consideration that he was a high school graduate with a freelance job who still lived with his aunt in the “to propose or not to propose” dilemma. Typical.)

Gwen would return to New York in Amazing Spider-Man #98 – a whole five issues later. Coincidentally, this also marked the return of the Green Goblin, Norman’s memories of Peter’s secret identity as Spider-Man having returned. The Green Goblin was briefly stopped when Peter used the sight of Harry – who was suffering from a drug overdose – to shock Norman out of the Green Goblin persona. With Norman once again unaware that his son’s best friend and roommate was Spider-Man, Harry on the mend, and Gwen back from England, everything was coming up Parker and, though no specific details had been ironed out, Peter and Gwen were set to marry. (I think it’s important to note with PeterGwen how serious they were, and that they were planning to get married.)

But, famously, that didn’t last – Norman did remember, during a particularly nasty overdose of Harry’s, and he kidnapped and killed Gwen in Amazing Spider-Man #121. 

So with all that in mind, let’s talk Sins Past itself. This got long. More under the cut.

Alright, so, all that said and done – in Sins Past, the story is flipped on its head. In Amazing Spider-Man #509, Peter receives a letter from Gwen, allegedly written while she was in Paris, indicating that when she died she did so with some kind of secret. The letter arrives incomplete, the secret unrevealed.

Furthermore, two mysterious (and super-powered) shadowy figures are trying to kill Peter, but that’s just like, a Wednesday for him. Along the way, and with a stunning admission from Mary Jane, it’s revealed that the two shadowy would-be assassins are Gwen’s twin children, and that their father is Norman Osborn. 

Yeah.

The twins – Sarah and Gabriel Stacy – are aging preternaturally fast because of the Goblin serum Norman had dosed himself with. They were also born after only seven months – but the infants weren’t premature. It’s revealed that that’s why Gwen left for Europe, not, in fact, to stay with her father’s family, but to secretly have her children.

Yeah.

The twins were brought up in France by Norman, kept isolated from the world, and raised as trained fighters who believed that Peter was their father, and that he had abandoned them and killed their mother. So now they’re here to kill him.

Yeah.

So we’ll pause here to take some questions.

1) “What? Why? What?”

So initially, writerJ. Michael Straczynski wanted Sarah and Gabriel to be Peter’s children with Gwen. This was nixed by Marvel, under the belief that having two adult children would age the character too much. I mean, they’re actually like, seven years old, but okay. Denying Peter the status of fatherhood because it would “age him” too much is a frustrating pattern in Spider-Man canon: Norman notably orchestrated the murder of Peter and MJ’s baby several years before. Instead of chucking the story out of the window altogether, which you know, would have been my first pick, it was reworked so that Norman was the father of Gwen’s children, because that was so much better than Peter discovering he had children with one of the people he loved most in the world. Comics are here to be a frustrating experience for everyone.

2) “So Gwen cheated on Peter?”

This is a frustrating take on the situation I’ve seen on more than one anti-Gwen post, painting Gwen as the villain of the piece for sleeping with Norman, instead of as a vulnerable young woman taken advantage of by the father of one of her best friends, a disturbingly realistic scenario before you ever even add in the fact that Norman is a literal supervillain. When Gwen recounts her one sexual encounter with Norman to Mary Jane, she herself seems confused about how and why she ended up in the situation. While I don’t think the intent was to have the encounter be out and out nonconsensual, there’s more than enough room to wonder. 

This is a very emotional time for the cast of Spider-Man; George Stacy is dead. Gwen blames Spider-Man and Peter is dealing with that and the way he is dealing with it is making Gwen doubt his love for her. Both Harry and Norman are falling apart in very different ways. Sometimes, things happen and situations arise and there’s no planning involved; “naive young woman is seduced by the darkness inside of an older man” is a tired trope, but a prevalent one. In any event, even if Gwen did deliberately cheat on Peter (which, no matter how you read the issue of consent in Sins Past, is clearly not what Gwen describes to Mary Jane), she was taken advantage of by an older man in a position of power over her, and after she had his children he turned around, killed her, and raised and abused her children to believe that the man Gwen wanted to raise them had abandoned them and murdered Gwen. So there’s no version of events here in which Gwen Stacy is the bad guy, and using that argument to prop up one of Peter’s other love interests as a better person than her is a bad take. There are no “good people” here: these are fictional characters who have been handled by many different creators over the years. They cannot make their own choices.

3) “Wait, J. Michael Straczynski? Isn’t that the guy whose Spider-Man comics you’re always telling people to read?”

Haha yeah it sure is!! It can be rough recommending a whole run, because the longer they get, the greater the chance there is of there being that one story in there you reaaaaally don’t think is for everyone, which is Sins Past. And this is tough, because as much as I don’t think Sins Past should be in continuity, JMS’ amazing voices for both Peter and Mary Jane never falters.

There are a lot of different kinds of bad stories in mainstream superhero comics: bad plot, bad characterization; good plot, bad characterization; bad plot, good characterization – and those are just some of the possible bad story combinations. I think Sins Past is a bad plot that’s very disrespectful to a female character whose legacy was already her brutal death at the hands of a supervillain. Reframing that death so that, instead of merely being at the wrong place at the wrong time and paying the ultimate price, Norman purposefully hunted down Gwen before she could tell Peter about her twins, doesn’t help. As a fan of Gwen, I don’t like her part in this story and I personally don’t think it should exist (as the story it currently is, and I’ll touch on that later) in continuity. I think it should be explicitly retconned out in a way that brooks no argument. (JMS himself has said he wished to retcon it out, but wasn’t allowed.)

That being said, have I read this like eight times? You bet. I think the art is stunning, I think JMS’ is really an incredible talent when it comes to writing Peter, who can be, to put it simply, a difficult character to get. I find the PeterMJ scenes are beautiful, as are Peter’s melancholy-tinged memories of Gwen. Also, I love comic book garbage. Skrulls? Clones? Robots? A character’s long lost children, artificially aged to adulthood and back to kill their supposed father? Oh my God, that’s so stupid. I want twenty of it.

So my feelings here are really mixed. I don’t like the rewrite of Gwen’s history. I don’t like that this is in serious continuity (and I’ll touch on that in a moment). Additionally, I don’t think the timeline really works – I’ve never felt Gwen was abroad for quite that long, even with the sped up pregnancy, and when she does come back, there’s quite a lot of time for her to tell Peter, which was something Sins Past had made clear she’d intended to do. But whatever, retcons are retcons, they rarely if ever are perfect fits. I do like the characterization of Peter and Mary Jane, and I like it a lot. If I had to pick a story that in my own opinion perfectly highlights how Peter experiences every single strong emotion, it would be this one, which is unfortunate because, well, everything else about this. It is unfortunately totally believable to me that Norman would have slept with Gwen and then killed her, but tbh if I was picking a member of Peter’s social circle who would willingly sleep with Norman, it’d be Flash, who briefly worked for Norman and was quite enamored by him – before he waterboarded Flash with whiskey, strapped him into a semi-truck, and made him crash into Midtown High, landing him in a coma. Oh, and then, way later, also murdering him. Norman’s gonna Norman.

Like I said: mixed feelings.

3) “Wait, but is it in continuity when it’s almost never brought up again, and nobody, not Peter or Mary Jane or Norman, mentions it even when it would make sense to and also nobody wants this in continuity anymore?”

Hhhh yeah it unfortunately is, and I’ll outline why, because it would have been so easy to take it out of continuity. So Sins Past takes place shortly before One More Day, wherein Aunt May was shot following the events of Civil War, during which Peter had revealed his identity on national television and the Spider-Man cat was out of the bag. In One More Day, Peter’s offered a choice by Mephisto: his marriage for his aunt’s life. Ultimately, unable to live with himself if he says no, Peter agrees. The marriage (although notably not the long term committed relationship – in the altered timeline, Peter and Mary Jane were still together from the date of their wedding to just after Civil War) was erased from the timeline, Aunt May was saved, and Peter’s identity was once again hidden from the world and from many of the people who had already know, like Felicia Hardy, the Fantastic Four, and most notably from Aunt May. There were also some additional changes made: most notably, Harry Osborn, who died in Spectacular Spider-Man #200, the best issue of all time, was alive. Clearly, the changes to the narrative’s web, if you will, extended beyond the framework of just Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. Like I said: basically nobody talks about this story. It shows up on lists of the worst comic book plots of all time all the time. The characters almost never bring up Gabriel or Sarah – there is a sequel story called Sins Remembered: Sarah’s Story (The Spectacular Spider-Man vol 2 issues #23-26), written by Samm Barnes, where Sarah sends for Peter’s help in Paris and he does his level best to be her dad.

But of course all is not as it seems blah blah. I won’t say it’s the worst comic I’ve ever read. 

It would have been easy, then, to retcon Gabriel and Sarah out with Brand New Day, since nobody ever talks about them or wants this story to be in continuity, including its original writer. Right?

Wrong. In the American Son miniseries, which is post-Brand New Day, Gabriel Stacy makes a prominent reappearance, although Sarah’s whereabouts are unknown.

I’ll be honest: I personally don’t consider this series of events to be canon. I never mention or include it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s extra-canon material, not to be counted. But that’s just me personally as a reader. If I was asked whether or not this was actually canon, in that it was published and not retconned back out – the answer is yes, the twins exist in canon. Not my personal canon, but the actual canon.

But we could fix that.

4) “Well, Traincat,” said nobody, “how WOULD you fix Gabriel and Sarah Stacy so that the twins could be kept in continuity without everyone screaming?”

Great question, me! I would fix it with the greatest out Spider-Man storytelling has ever given us: clones. It’s very notable that Sarah looks exactly like Gwen…

Gabriel was specifically drawn with a strong resemblance to Peter. Look at that. The Osborn hair doesn’t spare people that way. The answer then, becomes simple: keep the story. Keep Gabriel and Sarah. But have them be revealed as two of the Jackal’s Peter and Gwen clones. It’s a better explanation for why Gabriel and Sarah would be adults than “the goblin serum did it”, and planting the twins, who could fully believe they were who they said they were with the use of artificial memories, in Peter’s path as a form of psychological torment fits with many of villains – presenting Spider-Man with the children of his lost love, fathered by one of his greatest enemies, as a form of torture. As for Mary Jane’s recount of when she found out, well – the same thing: implanted memories. There are more than enough characters on the Marvel landscape who are capable of that. It’d be pretty easy to pull off, since Marvel seems stubbornly set on keeping Gabriel and Sarah on the playing field, and honestly, it makes a lot more sense. Clones! (Let me pull it off, Marvel!!)

One final note: Sins Past outright alleges that Gwen and Peter never had sex, because Peter knows from the start in the story that they couldn’t be his children. To which I would like to say: lol yeah right.

So that’s (probably more than you wanted to know about) Sins Past! 

[ask-de-writer]

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To Read the Rest of this Novel in Progress go to DARING DO AND THE COMPASS OF DISCORD

DARING DO AND THE COMPASS OF DISCORD

by De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

Cover Art by Aranel the Cyborg

19679 words Presently written The story is incomplete THIS A WORK IN PROGRESS Because this is a Work In Progress, new writing or changes to older text will be indicated by BOLDFACE TYPE.

© 2017 by Glen Ten-Eyck Writing begun 01/24/17

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author. ////////////// Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

Chapter 11  The Battle At Spinel Drift

Daring Do quietly set up a Magic Net call.  Meridian's face appeared in the Mirror.  “What is it, Doctor Do?  I hear what appears to be a military action in the background.”

She nodded.  “It is, here, take a look.”  She held up the mirror so that Meridian could see the half track that was blocking the road.  “As you can see and hear, the Zebra Confederation has illegally entered Eland Republic territory and are attacking the northern entrance to the Diamond Dog's Spinel Drift.  It appears to be a small number of attackers.  

“We are requesting permission to assist the Spinel Drift.”

She could see the conflict in Meridian's face.  “We understand your distaste for the use of automatic weapons, Sir.  Still, the Zebras are using them and, as you know already, we possess an MT 84.”

Heavily, he nodded.  “This is not Discord's Chaos.  If you feel it necessary, you have permission to enter the fray.”

“Thank you, Sir.  We appreciate how heavy a decision that was.”  She closed the mirror and nodded to Withers.

“This is your area of expertise, Withers.  As of now, you are in charge.”

Withers nodded and directed, “First back up until we can't be seen by anypony in the half track. We need to scout their position before we enter the fight.  I hear at least two guns that appear to be old MT 81s.  Obsolete does not mean harmless!”

While Withers was talking, Daring Do was backing their truck down the road and around the bend, out of sight from the battle ahead of them.

As soon as they were safe, Withers got out, taking his rifle with him.  He told Morail, “I need you to stay here with the MT 84 to protect the truck and Doctor Do.  I am going to scout the location of enemy.  I will be back soon.”

Morail nodded her understanding.  Withers quietly went into the roadside brush and seemed to vanish.  Watching his professional skill, Daring Do smiled tightly and wished him well.

After a wait that seemed interminable but was really only about ten minutes, Withers came back.  Gathering the others to him, Withers took paper and and began to sketch out the Zebra position.

“They have three MT 81s. Two are on these high points, to fire down on the Enclave entrance. The last one is down here.  We need to remove or get around the half track to be able to take it out.”

Daring Do asked, “How well guarded is the half track?”

Withers replied, “I saw only the driver.  The Zebra leader does not appear to be too well trained.  He has all of his forces committed to the attack, except for the half track driver.  While I was scouting, his attention was entirely on the action around the entrance.”

Morail pointed to the roadside where the half track was parked and inquired, “From my visits to the Spinel Drift when I was younger, I seem to remember that this is a longish slope.  Am I right?”

“It is.  What do you have in mind?”

“I will want you and Doctor Do to cover me while I sneak up and plant a pair of remote detonation charges on the half track.  Don't shoot unless he spots me.

“Then we will come around the bend.  I will open fire on those two high point MT 81s.  We should be able to knock out both of the high positions, since we are taking them from behind.  Their own half track will shield us from the lower one.”

Morail grinned savagely. “Until I blow those charges.  They should flip it onto that slope without much damage to the road.  We should be able to mop up the other gun without too much trouble.”

Withers nodded acceptance. “I will take those rocks up to the right.  When you two start your move, I will pepper the lower MT 81 to keep them from turning its mount to shoot at you.”

Tense, Daring Do took the wheel of the truck.  Morail got two of her explosive blocks and set the detonators into them.  She crawled away up the road and around the bend.

It was not much later that she returned the same way.  Climbing into the truck bed, behind the MT 84, she rapped the top of the cab to let Daring Do know that she was ready.  Withers ghosted off through the brush and climbed into position behind the granite boulders.

 With his high sign, Daring Do charged the truck around the bend!  She felt the recoil make the truck shudder as she heard Morail's three round bursts from the MT 84!  A shell from the Zebra Confederation's MT 81 nest on the left exploded in the road!

The driver of the half track had his rifle out and started to shoot at their truck's windshield! Twin fireballs eruped under his vehicle!  The blast lifted him from his feet and hurled him aside as his machine lifted up and slammed back down, teetering at the edge of the rocky slope!

Hoping that Morail would have the sense to hang on tight, Daring Do, aimed their truck at the damaged half track!  The impact jolted them to a brief stop!  The flaming wreck tumbled down, bouncing as it rolled, scattering burning debris.

Steering as best she could while peering through the spiderweb of cracks in her windshield, Daring Do sent their truck careening down the road into the Zebra position!

She was reassured by the recoil shocks and muzzle blasts coming over the cab top.  Morail was still busy back there!

There fell a sudden silence! Daring Do hit the brakes, preparing to leap out to Morail's assistance when she made out the frantically waiving white flags from the Zebra positions!

The solid gates of the Spinel Drift yawned wide to release a small horde of Diamond Dogs carrying arms!  One group detached themselves from the rest and charged up the road toward the truck!

Daring Do was too shaken to clearly follow Morail's rapid barking of Diamond Dog as she explained the situation.

(To Be Continued)

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[oldschoolsciencefiction]

What happens when a character casts such a long shadow that pop culture can't entirely leave him behind, but at the same time that character is firmly rooted in a time and place from which pop culture has itself moved on? The somewhat less than reassuring answer can be found in the film "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze" (1975), the TV series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (1979-81), and the TV series "Flash Gordon" (2007-08). In all cases, it's probably fair to say the Pulp Era characters in question simply didn't successfully transition to the modern era.

Even the cult film "Flash Gordon" (1980) produced by Dino De Laurentiis succeeded only insofar as it created an over-the-top campy and color-saturated reimagining. A lot of fun to watch? Absolutely. But it didn't result in a new iteration of Flash Gordon being a serious and credible late 20th century pop culture character in the same way that, for example, Han Solo from Star Wars was. Put simply, it's extremely difficult to reboot Pulp Era characters for contemporary pop cultural tastes.

It was with this in mind that I recently purchased "Avengers of the Moon," the new Captain Future novel by Allen Steele.

Captain Future is my favorite pulp character. The Captain's backstory is about as "pulp-y" as it gets. As a child, Curtis "Curt" Newton -- Captain Future's real name -- was orphaned when his parents were murdered by the malevolent Victor Corvo. Curt's father, Roger, was a brilliant scientist who had relocated to the Moon to work on his experiments. After his death, Curt was brought up by The Brain, the disembodied central nervous system of Roger's colleague Simon Wright; Otho, an android who was a master of disguise as well as an effective combatant; and Grag, a powerful and self-aware robot.

Captain Future was universally revered by the citizens of the solar system, a solar system it should be noted teeming with sentient alien life on several planets and moons. The Captain and his Futuremen worked closely with two members of the Planet Police, the solar system's interplanetary law enforcement agency: Marshal Ezra Gurney, a senior Planet Police official whose speech and personality seem better suited to the Old West than to outer space, and Joan Randall, an agent who had feelings for Curt although their relationship never developed into anything serious.

The stories were quite imaginative albeit formulaic. But there was just something about the chemistry of the characters that really worked, Curt Newton was the young, handsome space hero, as adept with his mind as with his fists or his proton pistol. Otho and Grag bickered and insulted each other constantly but cared deeply for each other. Simon "The Brain" Wright was the elder statesman. While not achieving the notoriety of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, Captain Future, created by Mort Weisinger and written primarily by Edmond Hamilton, still reigned from his secret base in Tycho Crater on the Moon over his pulp science fiction empire from 1940 to 1951.

Enter journalist and sci fi author Allen Steele. Steele previously dealt with Captain Future somewhat obliquely in his 1996 Hugo Award-winning novella "The Death of Captain Future" in which a fan of the pulp hero acts out a fantasy based on the exploits of the character. In "Avengers of the Moon," Steele attempts the impossible task of rebooting the Captain Future universe for modern sci fi fans.

The novel is set in the 24th century rather than the early 21st of the original pulp series but earlier in Curtis Newton's reimagined timeline: Newton is not yet Captain Future but a somewhat awkward youth, understandable given his limited contact with other humans and unique upbringing by his surrogate family. Early on in the novel, Newton learns of the murder of his parents by Senator Victor Corvo two decades earlier and plans revenge.

While Steele's Curtis Newton is credible as the man who is not quite yet the hero he will become, the Futuremen diverge to a greater degree from their pulp incarnations. Otho is harsher than the lovable rogue of the 1940s. At one point he actually threatens Simon Wright with death. An interesting plot change is that Otho was originally supposed to be the body for the brain of Simon Wright but because Otho's own brain developed sentience so rapidly, this plan was abandoned on ethical grounds. As a result, the Brain remains in a drone that flies using ducted fans rather than the force beams of the old sci fi magazines. Grag is more robotic in temperament. Ezra and Joan initially treat Curt with disdain and the very name "Captain Future" invites eye rolls and laughter rather than the awe and respect displayed from the very first pulp story, “Captain Future and the Space Emperor” (1940).

One of the saddest concessions to modernity is that Captain Future's spaceship, the Comet, is reduced to a 20 year old yacht that has to hitch a ride on a lightsail ship to travel from the Moon to Mars. This much diminished Comet even lacks the power to lift off from Mars' surface were it to land there. Thankfully, a worthier successor to the vessel is hinted at near the novel's end.

The solar system civilization from the pulps survives surprisingly intact with the assorted aliens of the worlds of the system being rebooted as human beings who have been genetically modified to accommodate failed or incomplete terraforming procedures on the various moons and planets.

I won't spoil the plot further except to say that not too surprisingly by the end of the novel, Curt Newton has accepted the mantle of Captain Future and the name now commands respect rather than prompts derision.

Anyone picking up "Avengers of the Moon" with the expectation that he or she will rediscover the magic of those old sci fi magazine stories will be disappointed, not because of any failing by the author but because that’s not the purpose of this book. Steele could have written a novel in direct continuity with the 1940s Captain Future universe but it would have been merely a pastiche. Instead, he chose the much more difficult task of trying to capture the soul of those wonderful old pulp characters and transplant them into a grittier and harder science fiction story to appeal to modern readers. In this all but unworkable endeavor, the author probably comes as close to success as is possible.

Reading "Avengers of the Moon" is like meeting some old friends for the first time in 20 years and discovering that they are now rather different people. And that's okay. It means you can both reminisce and get acquainted. This iteration of the pulp icon is clearly the product of a culture that is older, less confident, less optimistic, and more cynical than the culture that produced the original. But that's exactly the kind of culture that needs a hero like Captain Future.

Old School Science Fiction recommends adding Allen Steele's "Avengers of the Moon" to your summer reading list.

[writernotwaiting]

Master List of writernotwaiting’s fiction, updated

For my lovely readers:

All of the fandom-related fics are also available on Ao3 under the same user name as here. Feel free to re-blog/share. If you like what you read, I would love to hear from you.

The older Loki fics are mostly MCU, but the new ones have evolved into a bit of a mash-up between MCU, and Norse mythos. Some are vaguely canon-compliant, but most play pretty loosely with canon, frankly.

Multi-chapter Fics:

A Walk on Part in the War (with illustrations by the incomparable amatesera). Loki + non-human OFC. Post Thor: Dark World. Rated M -- complete

What’s Past Is Prologue (including recipes for snickerdoodles, beef stew, focaccia, and peppermint mousse for two). Loki + human OFC. Post Thor: Dark World. Rated M -- complete

Fallen Angels (incomplete). Loki + Sigyn. AU. Rated E

Mis-Matched (incomplete). Rated M (at this point, anyway; this might change). Loki + Sigyn.

Short Fics:

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – Loki + OFC. NSFW

Beware of Dragons (and Fairy Godmothers) – Hal (Shakespeare’s Henry IV + OFC. NSFW

A Dangerous Dance – Sir Thomas Sharpe + Edith Cushing

Grades Are Due – Oakley (Unrelated) + OFC. NSFW

Whose Rules? – continuation of Grades Are Due. NSFW

Playing It Safe – conclusion? of the Oakley series. NSFW

Harvesting Words – fluffy AU fairy tale with Adam (Only Lovers Left Alive) + OFC

Farewell, Scarlet Dahlia – noir parody starring Magnus Martinsson + OFC. NSFW

It’s What’s for Breakfast – flash fiction, not fandom related

The Night Watchman – AU Halloween fic with Adam (Only Lovers Left Alive) + OFC. NSFW

Negotium Interruptus – Loki + Natasha Romanov. NSFW

Memento Mori--Memento Vitae – Loki +Natasha Romanov. Loosely connected to NI, but you don’t need to read one to make sense of the other. NSFW

Thorki:

Barista-Meet-Cute-I-Hate/Love-You-But-Our-Friends-Are-Dating-And-There’s-Alcohol-Involved (because, of course, there’s alcohol involved) – AU in which Thor and Loki are not brothers. This is also a blatant attempt to cram as many fan fiction clichés into one fic as I possibly can. Three chapters on Ao3 only. Rated E.

[chevd-blog]

My Two Cents: Whitewashing and Politically Correct Casting in Film

I’m poking the hornets’ nest again. 

Recently, it was announced that the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the 2017 season. Now, I’m a pretty big fan of Doctor Who, so of course, this was a big deal for me. I’m going to be sad to see him go. At first, I’ll admit, I was skeptical-- I absolutely adored David Tennant and Matt Smith in the role, and Capaldi’s version of the Doctor was very different. But in time, despite being older and initially quite a bit more abrasive, the last season truly made me a believer (particularly his performances in “The Zygon Inversion” and “Heaven Sent”).

But I digress.

Of course, with the news of Capaldi’s departure, there’s been the inevitable wave of conjecture-- who will play the Thirteenth Doctor? And of course, part of this conjecture has been the now-commonplace suggestion that the role in question need not go to another white male actor. This is something that has been seen with increasing frequency in recent years, and which has been directed at everything from Star Wars to Marvel to James Bond. As a fan of these franchises, I’m invested in this discussion. So, against my better judgment, I find myself compelled to broach the subject of how to approach race and gender in casting.

Before I begin-- I realize that identity politics can be a very thorny and divisive subject, even in the context of the film industry. I’d like to note, as a white male film fan, the opinions I express here are only my own, and should be taken with a grain of salt. I mean absolutely no disrespect to anybody else, and I appreciate other perspectives on the issue, including ones that diverge from my own, so long as they are respectful as well.

So what is whitewashing? Basically, it’s the practice of productions casting white actors for non-white roles. It’s a very old practice that Hollywood has undertaken ever since its inception. This 2016 segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver sums it up quite nicely (warning: NSFW language):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebG4TO_xss

(Just as an aside-- while the John Oliver segment succinctly sums up the issue pretty well, I don’t agree with the entirety of it. For example, Tom Cruise’s role in The Last Samurai was a fictional character, but one which was based largely on a real historical figure named Jules Brunet. Admittedly, the film did take some liberties with the character, portraying him as American, where Brunet was actually French. Also, while it is largely open to audience interpretation, my impression of the film was that the “Last Samurai” referenced by the title was actually Ken Watanabe’s character, and not Tom Cruise’s.)

As shown here, there’s been quite a lot of backlash against whitewashing in recent years, with demands of more political correctness in casting becoming much more frequent. On the whole, honestly, I have to say I find fault with both sides of this dichotomy. Yes, whitewashing a movie like Gods of Egypt is absolutely ridiculous. I acknowledge that. And I also acknowledge that Hollywood has a long history of white actors being given preferential treatment. On the other hand, blind political correctness of any kind irks me as well, because it feels like an incomplete, disingenuous, kneejerk reaction to a complex problem. It doesn’t actually fix anything, it just breeds resentment. I suppose, for me, the governing principle is actually as simple as plausibility and faithfulness to the source material. Let’s take this on a case-by-case basis, using some of the properties that are most important to me, and I’ll explain my stance on each.

Let’s start in the realm of sci-fi. As a general rule, I would say that diversity is a boon in sci-fi, because one of the inherent appeals of the genre in the first place is the removal of real-world racial barriers. There have been so many fantastic non-white characters in my favorite sci-fi canons: Sulu, Uhura, Worf, La Forge, Tuvok, Chakotay and Torres in the Star Trek universe, Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu in Star Wars, Morpheus in The Matrix. Likewise, for women, there’s Princess Leia, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Trinity. All of these characters have had a profound impact on me, and serve as a way for sci-fi to do what it does better than any other genre: reflect on the human experience, which in no small part includes our diversity. So long as there’s no conflict with the continuity, I’m satisfied. So from my position, the uproar over Finn from The Force Awakens made no sense. In the context of the continuity, there was nothing that really seemed problematic to me about the character being non-white, and I’d love to see more good roles created for females and non-white actors in sci-fi. This is an instance where I oppose whitewashing and unequal treatment of women.

Fine, I hear you say. The characters you’ve mentioned here were all clean slates when they first appeared in their respective franchises. What about non-white or female characters who are already established, as with live-action adaptations of books or animated series? Here, again, I reassert my stance against whitewashing. The best example I can cite here is the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie. I’ve been a big fan of GitS since the first season of Stand Alone Complex aired on [adult swim] over a decade ago, during my early college days. I desperately want this to be a good movie. And in fairness, until the movie comes out, I’m trying to withhold too much judgment, but... I have to admit, I’m not thrilled by the casting of Scarlett Johanssen as Motoko Kusanagi. I don’t like the concept of discarding an established character’s core identity for the sake of being more sympathetic to a certain demographic of viewers.

Conversely, though, this is the same problem I have with the other side of the coin: political correctness in casting for its own sake. To demonstrate, let’s talk now about a character who was originally created as a white male: James Bond. I’ve been a fan of the James Bond movies since I was a kid, so this is a franchise which is uncommonly close to my heart. I have every single Bond movie in my collection, and I’ve seen them all multiple times. Growing up, I respected Sean Connery’s classics, and the grace brought to the role by Roger Moore, but of course, my favorite was the current one at the time, Pierce Brosnan. For me, there was nobody else who could make the role his own like Brosnan did. And then Daniel Craig was cast. As I was with Capaldi’s Doctor, I was a bit skeptical of Craig’s Bond at first. It wasn’t because he was the so-called “Blond Bond”, as he was called by so many others. It was because he was so serious, so dry, so gritty. Whatever wry sense of humor Brosnan brought to the role, Craig seemed to remove. In retrospect, it was probably for the better, considering that Ian Fleming’s original books depict Bond as a lot less “fun” than the movies made him out to be through the years, and I recognize that Daniel Craig is a talented actor. In Skyfall, I was heartened to see him even starting to lighten up with the role ever so slightly. With recent rumors of Craig’s retirement from the 007 mantle, though, much has been made of creating a female “Jane Bond” role for an actress, or, as mentioned in the clip above, casting Idris Elba. Now, as I just mentioned, I realize the movies have not always been faithful to the plot elements in Fleming’s books, and for the most part... yeah, it’s not that consequential to me. However, I do feel that changing the role of James Bond himself purely for the sake of political correctness is a bridge too far. I don’t say this to cast aspersions on Idris Elba, who is a truly phenomenal actor. But it is a complete, wholesale abandonment of Fleming’s original intent with the character. As an artist and an occasional writer myself, that doesn’t sit right with me. Yes, the Cold War is over, and popular attitudes about Bond’s womanizing ways have changed-- but to alter the core identity of James Bond would, I feel, fundamentally shatter the franchise. For those of us who have invested decades in the franchise’s evolution, and in the character’s development, it’s essentially saying, “All that time and emotion you put into following this is now completely nullified, and you don’t matter.” And truthfully, what logical sense does it make, to alter a pre-existing character’s identity, when someone could just as soon come up with a completely original non-white or female spy character? You want a franchise? Go for it. Own it. Create a new character to rival James Bond and Jason Bourne at the box office. I’ll be standing in line at the theater for a ticket just like you. I’d welcome diversity in this genre too. I just don’t see the sense in throwing 50+ years of continuity out the window and antagonizing longtime fans of 007 to accomplish it.

So what about the Doctor, who, like James Bond, also has 50+ years of precedent to consider? Well... the Doctor is a Time Lord, from Gallifrey. Things are a bit different for Time Lords, as there actually is established precedent for drastic canonical identity changes during regeneration, including race and gender. During Capaldi’s tenure as Doctor, his longtime Time Lord arch-rival, the Master, resurfaced with a new female identity, Missy-- and it was a great plot twist. In the past week, once again, I’ve seen Idris Elba suggested for the new role. In this case, I say-- yeah, great, if he wanted the role, I’d totally support that, because it doesn’t contradict the character’s canon. There are only really two things I’d prefer to see in a new Doctor: 1) that it remains a British role, and 2) that it goes to someone who will be able to believably embody the Doctor. That’s it, no skin color or gender requirements.

In conclusion-- my biggest problem with the usual arguments about this issue (and to some extent, about identity politics in general) is that the discussion really isn’t so simple as to merit a black-or-white response. No single answer is correct for every instance. Whitewashing is a perpetuation of an exclusionary status quo, but baseless political correctness can damage a franchise’s credibility as well. When it comes to casting, my suggestion is to practice moderation, make decisions based on what is best for the craft of storytelling on an individual basis, and look to the source for a guide.

[badkatdesignsmastersblog]

BASIC NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

Before I start on the full script and screenplay I’ll get to work on planning this out. I read and consume a lot of detective fiction, and the narrative trends of the genre are as follows. I will not be following these 100% to the letter, but it will definitely help me to have a roadmap to refer to while I write the narrative aspect of the game. I will edit this with updates to the story structure; as of the initial writing of this post I’m suffering from a really bad yeast infection and sitting for longer periods of time than 4 hours can agitate the itching. Sorry to the lecturers who have to read this, I know it’s TMI. (edit June 3: reblogging and adding multiple “continue reading” tabs makes for a bad user experience so I’ll just add updates and mark them throughout.)

PHASE 1: THE INCITING INCIDENT  This will be the event that starts the story. Every piece of fiction has them, and in murder mysteries they’re oftentimes the murder or the set up to the murder. For our purposes in mapping out my narrative, this will be the discovery of Vicar Henry Gravesend’s corpse -- this will happen in an introductory cutscene before the gameplay begins. 

PHASE 2: DETECTIVE ARRIVES ON THE SCENE  After all the initial dust clears and everyone can see that the victim is indeed dead, there is a call for someone to solve the crime. This is where the detective comes in, and in my narrative will happen directly after the opening cutscene and character builder. This will have one of three dialogue paths (one for each job). 

ACADEMIC: It’s a late night at the University and you’re busy in the library cramming to finish an abstract meant to be submitted for peer review the following afternoon when a student aide knocks on the door and informs you of the invitation down to Clemency Hill. Dialogue options would be stupid to implement from here, but it could be an interesting way to introduce the attribute scores’ effect. 

PERFORMER: You’re just coming off of your final performance for the evening. Your Guts and Likeability scores dictate whether you are a bareknuckle boxer on Wednesday and Friday nights in the big basement room underneath Ponder Road’s only decent pub, Battery City, or the singer and rhythm guitarist in a newly-minted garage band called The Cobras that play on Wednesday and Friday nights on Battery City’s main upstairs pub stage. As you wipe the sweat (and maybe blood) off yourself you hear a commotion and head outside (or upstairs) and the barman tells you you’ve been summoned to Clemency Hill. 

BEAT COP: You’re in between coffees 10 and 11 on a quiet night - your shift patrolling the cobblestone streets is about to start when your boss tells you that you’ve been told to report at Clemency Hill to investigate the murder of Vicar Gravesend, notorious gossip and pillar of the local community. When you try to protest and beg that they send Sergeant Guts and his sidekick, the commander informs you icily that you’ve been requested specially. 

PHASE 3: FIRST IMPRESSIONS  Once the detective arrives on the scene, the first thing they do is take stock of the surroundings and immediate vicinity of the dead body, and talk to any witnesses hanging around, forming initial conclusions based on circumstantial and incomplete evidence. My narrative will diverge from here because our player character’s girlfriend is already being implicated, so naturally she’ll take the time to talk to her first and get her side of the story before forming impressions of the situation in question. 

EDIT: June 3rd 2021

PHASE 4: INVESTIGATION PART 1 After an initial sweep of the scene and a quick moment spent forming first impressions, the detective will immediately start talking to people and getting a feel for the surroundings. This will largely differ based on economic background in my game, where the first of several clues will show up in dialogue depending on the options chosen. 

NOBLE BACKGROUND: As a noble, your first thought is to question those immediately in your social sphere. You talk to three NPCs and depending on the stats you chose (and how well an internal random integer generator from 1 to 20 rolls), you will glean quick nuggets of info that might later tie into evidence, before being summoned for an audience with Draconis Veride, smarmy patron of the current ruling political dynasty and real piece of shit, for a waltz (3/4 time rhythm minigame) to get you either up to speed or manipulated into his line of thinking - depending on those stats - filling you in on all the stuff he knows and batting away any questions as to his intent before sending you off to investigate the leads he is generous enough to bestow upon you should you succeed in his rhythm game (if the player fucks up the rhythm game 5 times he will consider the dancing a failure and you will go through this first investigation phase without his “help”).

 URCHIN BACKGROUND: You can choose to try to question either the help ir the guests first, but the guests (bar a few) will be dismissive of you in this first section because rich people are like Southern moms - if you don’t measure up to their expectations they will let the poison drip unabated from their mouths while disguising it as honey. Depending on your Street Smarts stat you might be able to figure out something a rich NPC might not want you to know - but for most part your first section will likely be spent chatting to the help. This will further diverge depending on your job:

BEAT COP: As a beat cop most of the help are already aware of you and will have no problem complying with your sleep-deprived demands because they know you could have them incarcerated. Tolliver Stupples, the butler, holds you in particularly high esteem and asks everyone to help you as best they can, but the younger staff are distrustful; cops are a violent wing of the law that oppresses the poor and the marginalised with few to no actions taken towards upper class perpetrators - the judicial/carceral system is vicious and they have seen too many of their friends fall prey to the law to trust you or speak frankly. Trying to prove yourself trustworthy as a detective working within the criminal justice system will not be easy. 

PERFORMER: While some of the older guard below decks are slower to trust you, the younger employees are entirely enraptured with you. They all watch you on their nights off at Battery City and they’re very big fans, so when you ask them questions they won’t try to lie through falsehood. The older generations will take some time to cajole into honesty but most have already let their guard down somewhat because they can see you speak frankly and can handle manual labour (blistered fingers, bruises and bandages can be par for the course as either trade). 

ACADEMIC: No one will trust you initially because most of the help will see your standing in academia as a sign of privilege and therefore disdain towards the working classes. Talking to one miss Daisy and offering night lessons in art history and painting or one mister Mortimer and offering night him lessons in toxicological studies and properties of poisons at the university will help you gain a foothold in your investigation and make it a little easier to talk their peers specifically. Getting others to trust you may not be so easy, but it won’t be impossible.

PHASE 5: CLUES AND FOLLOW UPS This will largely consist of finding things the other characters have mentioned. In the game this will take the form of going to the locations of said clues and working through a minigame to come up with a fragment of evidence that will go on the evidence board for the final solve. These will be dictated by the occupational background you chose. 

Aspects of Phases 4 and 5 will repeat a number of times, each time depending on the outcome of the last time you spoke to an NPC or if you found a clue. Christine, the evening’s entertainment, is capable of fluttering between social strata and becoming your bridge to investigating the other half of the party; you meet her after the first Phase 5 puzzle in both Noble and Urchin backgrounds. 

PHASE 6: THE TURN  Often in detective fiction investigation of initial clues will point to a perpetrator, but this conclusion often gets overturned narratively somehow: sometimes they are working for someone else, or else the evidence will turn out to be circumstantial and not actually relevant to the murder at hand. However, because this is a game, and different occupations will lead to different clues, there will be different turns depending on the character build chosen at the start of the game. A turn can happen at any point in the game’s narrative depending on whenever the player chooses to try for the final solve - they will almost always get it wrong, but I will allow for a small pool of options. This will lead into a Phoenix Wright style interrogation sequence, but like, classier and more serious. 

Edit: June 5th 2021

PHASE 7: POST-TURN INVESTIGATIONS  So if the initial suspicion is wrong, the character often re-examines their clues and hunts around for more, recombining and re-evaluating until the true culprit prevails. This will be for the most part exactly the same for mine, although if the player has jumped to a conclusion about someone’s perceived guilt, they will lose that NPC’s cooperation and help for any clues they may require moving forward. This will be one of the easier things to code. 

PHASE 8: THE UNMASKING  After all the examining and re-evaluating and data gathering, the story climaxes with the final unmasking and social trial of the guilty party. This is where all the clues are finally connected together in a way that makes logical sense and in context works with the guilty party, who is in effect apprehended by the local constabulary. My version of this will work two-fold: the Presto, a final timed version of the red yarn evidence board puzzle; and a final witness interrogation mini-game with the murderer. I will of course be adding in dialogue to show my values surrounding policing and the carceral state regardless of whether or not Vanessa’s chosen background is a cop or not. 

[dweemeister]

Blog introduction for newer followers

Especially those who started following around the holiday season or after, I just wanted to say thank you for following this small blog of mine. Good day to you, and I hope that -- in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic -- you are all well, in addition to those elders and the immunosuppressed in your life. The name is Eric and, I suspect many of you have gotten the gist of what this blog is about, but if not, read on!

And -- oh boy -- I have some unpopular opinions to share with all of you under the cut!

What’s the point of this blog?

Well, you are following a blog that concentrates on classic movies, mostly made before 1980. I specialize in Old Hollywood (silent era-late 1960s), but you will see plenty of American and international animation (from the earliest works to our globalized present), Japanese cinema (post-WWII films in particular), and the staples of European cinema (the French masters, Ingmar Bergman, the Italian greats, etc). Musicals, American Westerns, and science fiction are my favorite genres. South Asian cinema, African cinema, and Latin American cinema make appearances on this blog, but I don’t know as much as I would like. I’m an omnivore, as I’ll watch mostly anything (very select subgenres of exploitation film - like slasher - are a hard pass). The closure of American theaters is definitely going to prevent me from seeing a lot of 2020 releases this year.

For followers who are in their twenties like me (or perhaps younger), these classic movies that dominate the blog are new movies to all of you. If you’ve never seen, say, City Lights (1931), it would be a newer movie to you personally than a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) or Frozen (2010).

Since this blog’s creation in August 2012, I have written and published 680+ movie reviews, tagged “My Movie Odyssey” (which refers to movies that I have just completed and had otherwise never seen before in their entirety). The most recent review was on The African Queen (1951). You can find an index for all movie reviews I’ve published here - films that I’ve written on are as recent as the most recent batch of Oscar-nominated short films and as far back as 1914 (for now). The Movie Odyssey write-ups have been drying up lately, but with this COVID-19 pandemic and other developments in my life, there’ll be more time for reviews. Keep your eyes peeled!

The queueing schedule of this blog is significantly - but not entirely - based on Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) daily North American schedule. When tumblr banned adult content in December 2018, it also knocked out a lot of blogs that I reblogged from from tags that I search in order to queue the blog. Since then, it has been more difficult to queue this blog - ESPECIALLY in terms of more obscure older films - but on this blog continues.

Is there any non-film content to be aware of?

Well other than the COVID-19 posts that’ll be around for a bit, I like to feature an occasional Peanuts comic around once to thrice a week if I remember to queue them. I’m also a huge soccer fan - Arsenal, LA Galaxy, and the US national teams - so those get featured, too on occasion (there’s no sports for the foreseeable future though). On Sunday mornings (recall I’m from Southern California), there’s a piece of nature photography posted around 7:30 AM Pacific Time.

And oh man, with Star Trek: Picard nearing the end of its first season... watch out. Yes, I’m a Trekkie. You’ll see the odd television posts too - mostly from the Star Trek franchise and M*A*S*H.

You’ll also notice, on occasion, I post/reblog a “nightcap” - a piece of music that strikes my fancy for whatever reason.

Do you post any objectionable content?

All posts with what I deem to portray graphic violence and nudity (I’m such a prude, I guess) is tagged “nsfw” for those of you using tumblr savior. Those posts, however, are very rare, and this is not a nsfw blog. If you consider socially liberal, economically left-center politics objectionable, you might want to know I didn’t vote for Bernie though Warren was my second choice #Byedon2020, don’t worry because this isn’t an overly political blog. However, my politics should be very obvious if you follow me for a while and read certain Movie Odyssey reviews closely (again, those reviews don’t get explicitly political but I could never deny that my political views do influence what I write sometimes).

Some news articles I post can be distressing, and I’m not afraid of writing (whether through personal posts or in my movie write-ups) on heavier issues and themes.

What else?

More info about me in the about section, I guess? Thank you for getting this far and I hope you are entertained and intrigued by this blog (and perhaps you’ll learn some new things, too)!

I hold some rather unpopular opinions about films old and new too that might sound scandalous (it’s all under the cut):

Emotional manipulation, taking the neutral sense of the word “manipulation”, is a necessity in film. I do watch films to have my emotions manipulated (in the neutral sense), but there is a line between emotional manipulation and exploitation. It’s the latter you should be wary of.

I think the Academy Awards/Oscars are meaningful. Principally, it is the Academy’s major fundraiser for the year. On a daily basis, the Academy maintains a vast film library (from all eras, nations, genres, lengths, you name it) and preserves films for posterity. They also have tons of initiatives in helping young filmmakers and fostering film education. The Oscar ceremony also shows us where the tastes of a select group of people (industry insiders) lied at a point in time. I could talk your ear off about this.

How Green Was My Valley is a fantastic film. If you transported me back to the 1940s, I might very well have voted for it over Citizen Kane at the time.

I can’t stand how modern film score composers are trying to make their scores sound as much like Hans Zimmer’s as possible. Most of the time, they are Zimmer’s ghostwriters and acolytes.

I’m a big fan of Disney Animation, but I am very suspicious about the artistic direction of the studio (live-action remakes, the Pixar brain drain, overreliance on meta humor to put down the earlier Disney classics) and the Walt Disney Company’s attempts to buy essentially all the IP they need.

I have a rather low opinion about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with the exceptions of the first Iron Man, first Captain America, and Black Panther. By the mid-2010s, I was watching MCU movies only because friends asked me if I was interested in going.

For superhero movies (in general), I’m a little scared about how much air and attention they have taken away from other, smaller films in the last decade and how they have shaped audience perceptions about what a movie should be. Most notably: low- and mid-budget dramas don’t need to be seen in a theater and you should stream them instead.

The conventional wisdom is that Marlon Brando and James Dean transformed acting in the 1950s. I vehemently disagree and contend the latter’s tragic death has created a legend that has overshadowed an incomplete film career.

I appreciate the French New Wave, but I don’t love it. I would grit my teeth to recommend anything other than The 400 Blows to anyone.

Isao Takahata has the most fascinating and accomplished filmography of any animation director I’ve seen the films of. Where Miyazaki is more influential because of his mostly fantastical films, Takahata pushed that envelope about what animated film could be.

I appreciate the films of two directors that are the favorite of a certain demographic: David Fincher and Christopher Nolan (hey, I’m actually in that specific demographic). But I’ve never particularly enjoyed their films.

The Shawshank Redemption is #1 on imdb’s Top 250 movies of all time. It wouldn’t come close to #250 if you asked me to make such a list. Please don’t ask me to make such a list.

[nexrp5-blog]

NAME: Quentin Caleb Tineo. BIRTHDAY: November 13th, 1968. PRONOUNS: He/him. GENDER/SEX: Cisgender/male. OCCUPATION: Criminology student. FACE CLAIM: KJ Apa.

AESTHETIC – Clothing scattered all over your bedroom floor, smudged handwriting, eternal nihilism, greying sweaters, the stranger beside me, true crime shows, investigation manuals, rebel without a cause, graphic tees, cold espresso, soccer boots, crimson scars, hoodies layered under jackets, creative chaos, slasher films, secret boxes under your bed, cereal for dinner, messy bed head, dog hair everywhere.

LIKES: Dogs, psychology, everything spooky, peanut butter, conspiracy theories, steak medium rare, going on runs, snow, Anthony perkins, video games, sour candy, all kinds of movies, getting things for free, pumpkin pie, playing soccer after classes.

DISLIKES: Snobs, music played on the radio, parents who can’t control their children, lemons, PDA, cranky senior citizens, most reptiles, mosquito bites, jello, republicans, socks with sandals, Kenny Rogers, smiling in pictures.

HEAD CANONS

– He’s from Baltimore, Maryland, born to an aspiring police officer out of work and a lovely young teacher and how sad it will be that the union won’t last longer than the first fourteen years of his life. First it was Mommy and Daddy, then Mommy against Daddy and it took a toll on an already miserable boy, because above anything else, it ought to be his fault. His mother had always told him to smile for the camera, so memories would last forever but the only memories he’s got now are ones of verbal fights until late at night, until one day, his father broke the news that the three of them would no longer be together. He wasn’t scared, nor mad or incomplete, in fact he felt nothing until anger hit and oh, it’s left a mark. It was his mother’s fault, he had seen so himself. She’s tried calling a couple of times in recent years, but he’s not planning on picking up. He still likes Baltimore plenty, though, once he finds himself some money, he’ll visit.

– SELF HARM TW // A red line for every sad day and every time his mother left out of pure spite, a new blood-red line appeared on hidden forearms. It was his way of coping, his way of punishing himself and others. First, it was sadness, then it was anger. And the coping mechanism turned into something else, into a thing he felt the need to do to feel completely awake and himself. It caused for ugly scars dating back to grade ten to still grace hands and arms. It’s grown with him, better on some days, scar tissue burning with memories on others. What he did acts as a reason he doesn’t go to pool parties, or strips off his shirt unless he absolutely has to. He feels embarrassed, weak and like an impulsive teenager, but has to live with it. Admittedly, it’s also a big part of why he’s not big on sleeping around, or wanted any past romances to last. No one wants to hear a sad, sappy life story.

– The boy’s a fan of the scary and unusual, everything spooky that gives you the creeps. Whereas others find pleasure in knitting and rooting for favourite characters on soap operas, Quentin’s interest dives into another direction: He loves anything serial killer related, the minds of true evil, if it does exist. In fact, he has an immense knowledge of all the famous names: From Bundy to Gein. Normal’s just the norm, not a general label that has to fit everyone. He finds himself as fascinated by Sheffield’s history, so full of idle darkness that captures the whole town. Moving here quenched his thirst for eerie facts. However it’s questionable how much he actually believes in ghosts. Sure, it would be interesting to witness a real life exorcism or watch the ghouls dance at midnight, but without hard evidence, he won’t believe telltales.

– His first plan stuck with the police academy, but he got rejected: First once, then twice. It wasn’t so much the deed of making sure Sheffield’s safe and sound that drove him, more so the urge to please his father at all costs. What better way to do it than to help him out at work? He had trained for it as soon as graduation had come, picked out better clothes to talk to officials, but in the end, he wasn’t made for the psychological evaluation. Embarrassment was all he had heard his father whine about, Quentin was surely made for other things. The bitter taste of failure attached to disappointment, Quentin was forced to move on with his life: And it went in the opposite direction. After losing a previous sense of direction, he wandered, straying further away from original plans.

– You won’t ever see him without his constant companion, a Labrador named Dexter. The dog was a gift for his sixteenth birthday, after years of whining and asking his Dad for it more than twice a day. He follows him everywhere and Quentin invests a lot of time in teaching his best friend tough tricks that often earn both of them a surprised smile by others. Quentin has a rule he obeys: People that his dog is hostile towards, the male can’t trust himself. A dog’s got better senses, is good and brave by nature and doesn’t do any harm.

CONNECTIONS

AKSEL LUNDQVIST – His roommate and technically, only friend. He’s lived with the older for about four years now, enjoying a rather quiet atmosphere. Aksel’s an author, he’s never been big on fiction but he likes the way he thinks. They’re both pessimistic, inevitably a bit gloomy and total homebodies.

SAWYER KINNEY – They met at a party, then continued to meet within the boy’s own four walls and there had never been more than physical attraction until there was. She’s good, she’s nice, he can appreciate her way of telling stories and it makes him feel a little lighter even though he’s probably still only smiling to himself. They fill all aspects of boyfriend and girlfriend, without actually dating. Oblivious? Check.

PENNED BY PJ.