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irish-urn · 7 months ago

Note

Hey, I just found out that there was a mini lfd fandom on here and I immediately binged all your fanfic! I've seen you mention stuff about the costume dept that worked on the show maybe playing into Dasey, could you maybe expand on that because I'd love to hear your thoughts. <3

HIIIII. Welcome to our little corner of the internet! We are indeed active and (if you're a dasey shipper), we even have a discord where we yammer at each other, so, uh let me know if you're interested in that so I can direct you to the appropriate inviting parties.

(also, if you ever wanna talk about my stories, I am a needy gremlin)

First of all, this is probably gonna be long because despite my English degree, I am a rambler of the highest order (you can tell because my fics are all suuuuuper long). Secondly, I don't have any screenshots to share, so I'll try to be as descriptive as possible, because I genuinely don't have the time to go back and get screenshots (sorry y'all). Thirdly, I AM still in the midst of re-watching the showing all the way through, so all my examples are gonna be from the first half -- BUT DON'T WORRY, I'LL KEEP NOTICING THEM AS I GO -- and fourthly: I wanna talk a little bit about WHY I notice costume choices.

So, I am not a fashion guru or someone who keeps up on trends BUT I am someone who was taught that, as a writer, showing is better than telling. How does a TV show or movie show us things about a character? Costumes are a major part; and I've watched enough behind-the-scenes and read some ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING costume meta from other fandoms, that I think it's fair to say that costumes are speaking VOLUMES. There are whole posts (from, again, other fandoms) on colour theory and I'll touch on that a fair bit; or we could simply talk about how well the clothes sit on the person probably says a lot about how they either view themselves OR want others to view them.

For instance: as a general rule, Casey's clothes are (1) far more form-fitting than Derek's; and (2) overall far more 'put together as a whole' than Derek's. Now, we can be cynical and attribute that to capitalism and sex selling (although Michael Seater is an attractive dude and I wouldn't have been put off by a shirt showing off his arms); OR we could look at it and say: What does this say about Casey and Derek?

Well, we COULD say that it means that Casey is far more comfortable with herself than Derek is. Derek's clothes are far looser, and he often wears layers (jackets over shirts or one shirt over another shirt). Now, partially this was the fashion of the time, but ignore that for a second: this means that Derek is HIDING parts of himself from the world. He's covering himself in literal and figurative layers so that people don't see him naked and vulnerable. Casey, for all that she's clumsy and a nerd and sees herself as not being popular, is also very clearly HERSELF. She loudly proclaims injustices; she runs for class president; she goes up against a bully to protect her stepbrother even though her boyfriend asks her not to... You see where I'm going with this? Derek pretends he doesn't have feelings and bottles them all inside, when we know from watching him in his private moments, that he actually has BIG feelings and a soft, gooey heart.

Take this one step further: what does this mean about how they want to be perceived by others: Casey wants people to believe that she has everything under control. Her hair is done (always way better than anything I did in high school), her outfits match, her nails are done: she might be a keener and a nerd, but she's an EFFECTIVE and PREPARED nerd. Maybe her personality is a turn-off for some, but she can still give a good first impression. Now, for Derek, let's spin back around to my first point: layers were in fashion in the mid-2000s. Derek dresses according to the current trends because he wants to be popular. He also has a certain reputation of being cool, calm, in control, not working too hard, being chill, everything's all good with the V-man. So he dresses 'casually', with his clothes often looking like he just pulled them on. No ironing for Derek!

Also, on another character note before we get into Dasey — Casey dresses very feminine. She wears a lot of skirts and dresses, and when she doesn't, her jeans are often low-rise (again, the style at that time) and her shirts are form-fitting but not too sexy. She's conservative, but still fun underneath the ironed clothes. Casey also wears layers, but those are a lot less noticeable than Derek's, and not quite as often -- that's because Casey is ALSO hiding things; our girl is big on denial. However, because she's our narrator, it's not something they like to draw attention to. She's supposed to be reliable.

(she's not a reliable narrator, fyi).

SO LET'S TALK ABOUT DASEY.

(if this isn't what you wanted, I'm so so sorry)

The first and most consistent impression we get of Derek and Casey is from the theme song and the Genora wedding pictures -- and their outfits demonstrate what I'm talking about above almost perfectly. Casey is wearing a pink dress, very feminine; Derek is wearing a black blazer and a blue dress shirt. (Casey wears a LOT of pink in the show, btw; just a comment on her character). This establishes their characters: see everything I said above -- Derek doesn't wear a tie because he's LOOSE, ya see? -- but also has them in opposite BUT COMPLIMENTARY colours. We see pink vs black and blue and think, Ah, okay, these two are opposites. They're probably gonna fight. And that's true! But they also look really good next to each other! Lots of people, for a good WOW factor, will match pink with black, or blues with pinks. Also to note: Derek's blue shirt is very bright -- it would be easy for them to have him all in dark colours to give us the impression that they are VERY opposite; but they don't. They give him a bright colour TO MATCH her bright colour.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I've also been noticing things like Casey dressing very similarly to girls Derek declares as "hot" -- see Sandra in Marti the Monster -- and in Venturian Candidate, Derek imagines Casey as a sexy personal assistant. She also is a cheerleader at some point -- and we know that that would drive Derek insane.

Let's also take a moment and return to that pink dress Casey wore to Genora's wedding; when do we see it in the show? When she loans it to Vicki. What happens when Vicki is wearing that dress? Derek makes out with her.

THEY DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS. Derek could have made out with Vicki when she was wearing ANYTHING else (like the black and white dress she originally has for the wedding and would be a way to show how DIFFERENT she really is from Casey). But they purposely point out that Vicki looks like Casey, Derek calls her a "total babe", and then when Casey very pointedly states aloud that she can loan Vicki a dress, the ONLY time we see Vicki wearing it is when her mouth is attached to Derek's.

FURTHERMORE: why does Casey insist they DRESS up for their presentation on Percy and Mary Shelley (who are married!!! who. are. MARRIED)??? Sometimes they have Derek and Casey wearing similar styles; I think there was an episode where they were both wearing stripes, but in different directions? But, still: there are HUNDREDS of shirts they could have chosen!!! But they keep finding ones that say: "See!! We're opposites, but connected!"

For a final note, I did find this image:

The famed "same difference" scene.

Please note that Derek and Casey are wearing green and purple respectively. Now, green and purple are considered complementary colours (gasp!), because they are on opposite sides of the colour wheel (gasp!!). But, depending on the shades of green and purple and how they're placed together, green and purple work really really well aesthetically. (Also, interestingly enough when I looked at colour theory, green is supposed to be a healing, stabilizing colour while purple is ambitious and creative. Not really important for this moment, but I think says volumes about the characters themselves.)

Also: they are both in a single layer. Derek has his sleeves rolled up -- actually showing skin!! He's being vulnerable purposely!! Casey has her hair tied back but it's falling out and around her face -- she's very casual and herself in this scene BUT ALSO this lets her hide behind some of her hair if she needs to. Metaphorically, she does. It's not a lot of hair, and Derek sees right through her, but it's enough of a barrier to make a point, and a few seconds after this image above, Derek backs off and retreats into himself.

I could go on, but this is long enough and I'm sure as I continue my (very slow) re-watch of the show, I'll find more things that make me scream. But yeah: the costume department knew what they were doing. There's a reason a lot of us ship Dasey.

#asks #dasey #life with derek #costume meta #colour theory #am i looking at this too closely? you know what; i really don't think so #they have so many options for clothes and yet they purposely chose the ones they did #there must be a reason. i'm sure of it

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crystalninjaphoenix · 1 year ago

Text

Hold My Hand Tight

Paranormal Preteens AU: Episode Nineteen

A JSE Fanfic

Forgive me if the title seems unfitting, I almost forgot to queue this so it's super late as I'm titling it and writing this author's note. I'll get straight to the summary. Chase realizes that he made a mistake earlier, and so tries to make up for it by hanging out with Marvin, just the two of them. There's also a brief discussion about what to do about the thing in the school basement, and a scene where JJ gets an unexpected visitor. Enjoy reading :)

More of this AU

++++++++++++++++++++

The school week passed uneventfully, but still, Chase couldn’t help but feel like something was off. And it wasn’t because of the “paperpillar” in the basement. He hadn’t heard anything about that. No strange sounds or sights, and no rumors about a paper monster in the school. No, this was something else.

It took him until Thursday afternoon to realize what it was. He was watching TV in the living room. Schneep was there, too, but he was curled up reading instead of paying attention to the show (he wasn’t into this show.) The commercials had just started, allowing Chase’s mind to wander—and then it hit him. “Oh my god, I’m an idiot,” he whispered.

Schneep looked over at him. “What? Why?”

“I called Marvin ‘weird’ again.” Chase hit his forehead. “Dumb! Dumb dumb dumb! I didn’t mean it like that! I should’ve used a different word!”

“Chase.” Schneep lowered his book and stared at him.

“Don’t sound so disappointed! You didn’t say anything when it happened!”

“I was busy thinking about how Marvin suddenly had powers. And... a-and I should not have to say something every time you make a mistake.”

Chase slumped back against the sofa. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he repeated, mumbling.

“What did you mean it like, then?” Schneep asked.

“I dunno. Uh... strange, but cool. Because it is cool.” Chase shook his head. “I just... I use that word all the time. Everyone does. Even Marvin does, I’ve heard him say it. But I should’ve thought about what happened. And the, uh... the... surroundings. Of the word. There’s a word for that, um... the context. I should’ve thought about the context.”

“And you should have realized what you did before now,” Schneep muttered.

“I know! But we’ve been kinda busy!” Schoolwork was really starting to get intense, which wasn’t fair, because the end-of-term exams were still at least a month away. And besides that, there was, you know, a giant paper caterpillar in the basement of the school. And that weird Circle group, which everyone was convinced was watching them. And that guy who looked like Anti—Jackie had called him Jack McLoughlin. Chase had tried asking around about him, but he was too old for any of the kids in his year to have known. “And I’ll say again, you didn’t say anything, either. And neither did Stacy!”

“Well maybe she thought you would’ve realized on your own much faster,” Schneep pointed out.

Chase sighed, slumping further. “I should’ve.” He paused. “Uh... what do I do now? I should say sorry, right? Or has it been too long?”

“You should say sorry.”

“Yeah.” Another pause. Chase stared blankly at the commercials on TV. Some toy ad was playing. He didn’t really care about it. “But like... I wanna do more than that, too. Cause like... I don’t want Marvin to hate me. Or think I hate him. I want to do something to make up for... um... being a butt.”

Schneep laughed a little. “Maybe you two can do something together. Ah, ‘hang out’ somewhere.”

“You don’t think that’s too much?”

“You just said you wanted to do more than just say sorry. I think hanging out together could be that.” Schneep shrugged. “Marvin might not want to, of course. In which case, you still say sorry. There is nothing to lose in asking. You should not be so, ah, unsure about yourself.”

“...yeah, I guess you’re right.” Chase nodded. “I don’t know what he’d want to do, though. I guess he could choose. That’d be easier, and show that I, uh... wanna hear about stuff he likes to do.”

Schneep grinned. “That seems good to me. We will see everyone tomorrow after school to talk about everything, ja? You can talk to him after all that about this.”

“That’s a good plan. Thanks, Schneep.”

“You are welcome.”

At that moment, Mom walked into the room. She glanced over at the sofa on her way to the kitchen. “Chase, do you want to break your spine? Stop sitting like that.”

Chase groaned. “It’s fine, Mom!” he said, but sat up straight anyway.

Schneep laughed.

++++++++++++++++++++

The whole group had agreed to meet up at Zelly’s on Friday. Mom dropped Chase and Schneep off, promising to pick them up when they texted her. Everyone else was already there. Jackie, Stacy, and of course, the Jacksons. Chase stared at Marvin for a little longer than he probably should have. But Marvin didn’t notice. He was too busy methodically shredding a napkin.

“Hey guys!” Jackie grinned as Chase and Schneep sat down. “We’re probably not gonna have a lot of time. I have to work in like, half an hour. But I think that’ll be long enough.”

“I didn’t know these guys sold hot chocolate,” Stacy said as she read a menu.

“Yeah, they sell it in winter,” Chase said. “Did they put it on the menu already? It’s not that cold.”

I’m going to disagree, JJ said. He was wearing a blue jacket over his normal shirt.

“Well, let us decide what to get and then talk about the past week,” Schneep said.

They decided on their drinks—Jackie, Stacy, and JJ would get hot chocolate while Chase, Schneep, and Marvin stuck with soda. A server came over and they ordered, adding on a couple baskets of fries for the table. As soon as the server was out of sight, Stacy leaned forward. “So, like, how does this work? Do we just start talking about how to deal with the paper thing in the basement right away?”

“The paperpillar,” Marvin said, his eyes brightening a little. “It’s a paperpillar. Paperpillar!” Clearly, he really liked the word and/or the concept of a paperpillar.

“Yeah, that,” Stacy said. “What’re we gonna do about it?”

“Do we need to do anything about it?” Schneep asked. “It has not come up into the school since we saw it. And I have not heard about any trouble.”

“But like... it tried to eat Jackie, sooo...” Chase pointed out.

“It wasn’t eating me, it was just like... wrapping around me,” Jackie said. “It didn’t hurt or anything. And I don’t think something made of paper can ‘eat’ things in the first place.”

Chase has a good point, though, JJ said. It ran at us the moment it saw us. It will probably do the same thing to anyone who goes into the basement.

“Hmm. Yes, you are right.” Schneep nodded. “Even if most people do not go down there, it looked like there was a lot of, ah, maintenance things there. Someone will go in the basement one day to mess with those things. That is how maintenance works.”

“Alright, so we agree we gotta stop it, then,” Jackie said. “How?”

“Uh... we can, like, burn it or something,” Stacy suggested.

“Whoa!” Chase laughed. “I-I didn’t think you’d say that.”

“What? Cause I’m a girl? Girls can burn things down if they wanna.” Stacy pushed her glasses into place. “And if it’s made of paper, fire is probably the best thing to use. Have you ever seen paper burn? It goes up immediately.”

JJ nodded. We can find lighters easily enough. Maybe we could throw one at it. Maybe a couple, just to be sure it will catch—

“Maybe let’s not set a fire in the school?” Jackie said delicately. “If it spreads to the rest of the building, uh... there’ll be a lot of people in there. So... that’s bad.”

“Oh.” Stacy blinked. “Right.”

Will it spread so easily? JJ wondered.

“Yes,” Jackie emphasized. “If the thing on fire is a big paperpillar that can run really fast, then yes.”

JJ frowned. Probably a bad idea, then.

“There could also be gas things in the basement,” Schneep added.

“Okay, so no fire,” Chase said. “But what do we do, then? We can’t banish it like the ghost, we can’t pop it like the bubble monster, we can’t cut it up like the mushrooms, we can’t... uh... what did we do with the monster dog?”

Marvin, previously rather quiet, straightened. “I was thinking about that, actually. Uh, so, you know, we managed to like, pull all the greenlight out of the monster dog and turn it back to normal, right? Using a bunch of crystals. But, like, uh... I have this now.” He held out his hands, palms up. A tiny ball of green light appeared hovering over each of them. He quickly closed his hands into fists, making the lights disappear, and continued. “Maybe I can just pull the greenlight out of the paperpillar by myself. I mean, if that’s a good idea. Do you guys think it is?”

Chase squirmed in his seat a little, but no one was looking at him to notice.

“Do you think you can do that?” Stacy asked. “I mean, in movies and stuff people always have to learn magic and get better and stuff through practice. Pulling out the greenlight seems hard.”

“I, uh, I have been practicing,” Marvin admitted, sounding a bit embarrassed.

JJ nodded excitedly. He can make shapes!

“Make shapes?” Schneep repeated. He leaned closer, intrigued. “How? Can we see?”

“Oh, uh... s-sure.” Looking uncharacteristically nervous, Marvin cupped his hands together, holding them over the table palms-down. A translucent green golf ball appeared on the table under his hands. Then it shifted to a cube. Then a pyramid. Then a squiggly sort of cylinder. Then Marvin lowered his cupped hands over the shape and it disappeared.

“Cool,” Chase breathed.

Very cool! JJ signed. He can also make glowing stars, like the kind that goes on ceilings, they look so nice at night. And he can make tiny hands and ropes to move and grab stuff.

Marvin laughed. “Y-yeah.”

“Wow.” Jackie grinned. “So, you’re kinda like Green Lantern, then.”

“Who?” Marvin asked.

“He’s a superhero.”

“Oh. Well, I’m a witch.”

“We are getting off topic,” Schneep said, shaking his head. “The point is, do you think you can do that? Pull the greenlight out?”

“Uh... I mean, I don’t think I can really practice that,” Marvin said slowly. “Not without something that has greenlight in it. And the only thing we know about like that right now is the paperpillar. So... we kinda just have to try.”

“If crystals can make greenlight more powerful, maybe we can bring some to try and help you out?” Stacy suggested.

“That’s a great idea!” Jackie said, grinning. “Okay, I think we have a plan. We meet after school one day—oh.” They paused for a moment as the server returned with their fries and drinks. “Thanks.” After everyone had their order, small talk with the server was done, and the server had walked out of earshot, Jackie continued. “We’ll meet after school one day. Go into the basement to find the paperpillar. Most of us will try to distract it as Marvin tries draining the greenlight. If he can’t do it, we’ll run and try again some other day.”

“We’ll need somewhere we can defend, then,” Chase said. “A fort of some kind.”

If we’re doing it after school, maybe we can lure it out of the basement and into one of the classrooms? JJ said. There are sets up in one of the Theatre rooms we can hide behind.

“That sounds perfect,” Stacy said.

“Okay, but before we start talking about more details and stuff, can I ask something?” Chase said. “Has anyone found out anything new about the Circle? Or that Jack guy who looks like Anti?”

A chorus of various ‘no’s rang out around the table. “The same teachers are being weird, but nothing actually happened all week,” Marvin said.

“Maybe they’re not going to do anything,” Stacy said optimistically. “Maybe they’re just going to keep an eye on us to make sure we don’t say anything.”

Schneep frowned. “I do not trust grown-ups like that to not do anything. Just because nothing has happened yet does not mean nothing will happen ever. They are probably just waiting for a good time to... to...” He looked down into his soda glass and went quiet. Chase leaned a bit closer, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. Schneep squeezed back.

“We still have to be careful,” Jackie said. “Try not to go anywhere in school alone. And definitely don’t trust strangers.” He paused. “You also asked about Jack, right, Chase?”

“Mm-hmm.” Chase nodded. “Did you find anything? I didn’t.”

Jackie shrugged. “Got confirmation from some Band kids that Jack moved back to Ireland right after the school year ended. But they didn’t know anything else about where he’d go. One of them knew his parents’ names, I guess... guess I’ll try looking online or in phone books for their names? Gonna be hard covering all of Ireland, though. So it’ll take a while. And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why Anti would look like that guy.”

“Maybe it’s random,” Stacy guessed. “Maybe Anti just started looking like the first person he saw when he came out of the dark place.”

JJ frowned. Maybe. But I think there’s a connection. It’s just not clear why.

“Yeah.” Chase paused. “Well... back to the paperpillar, then.”

The group talked some more, hashing out the specifics, and agreed to try fighting the paperpillar after school that Monday. After that, they talked some more about school. Mostly complaining about tests and homework. JJ and Schneep insisted it wasn’t that bad, while everyone else universally agreed it sucked. Even Stacy, which surprised Chase, since she seemed like the smart type. Jackie did point out that school was important, but he was probably only doing that because he felt like he had to, as the oldest one in the group. After the school discussion, they talked about games and movies and books for a while before it was time for them to all go. Mostly because Jackie’s shift was about to start and it would’ve been awkward for the kids to stay there while he was working.

But, as Schneep suggested, Chase hung back, waiting. When everyone was gone but him and the twins (Schneep agreed to wait outside) he tapped Marvin on the shoulder and said, “Hey. Can I, uh... talk to you?”

Marvin looked at him. Then he looked at JJ. Then back at him. “Yeah. Do you mean alone? Should JJ leave?”

“Uh... I guess not,” Chase said. “I was just wondering if you wanna... hang out? Sometime this weekend? Not like, the whole group, I mean. Just you and me?”

“Um...” Marvin looked confused. “Sure, but why?”

“I wanna hang out with you,” Chase said. “I don’t think I’ve done stuff with just you before. Or, uh, just you,” he added, looking at JJ. “If you and me wanna do something after this, we can.”

JJ smiled a bit. That’d be great, but I don’t think I’d have the time. I have a lot of classwork to do. But you and Marvin can do stuff together. I don’t mind.

“You sure?” Marvin asked.

I’m sure.

“Alright, then.” Marvin looked back at Chase. “What were you thinking?”

Chase shrugged, trying to look casual. “Whatever you want to do.”

Marvin stared at him. “...shit. What do I like to do?”

JJ laughed, seeing the blank look on his twin’s face.

“Oh shut up.” Marvin shoved him. JJ shoved back. The two of them were distracted by a shoving contest for a couple seconds before Marvin suddenly went “Oh!” and looked back at Chase. “I got it. Do you wanna go watch a movie?”

“A movie?” Chase repeated. “Uh, yeah. Sounds fun. The theater’s closed on Sundays so we’ll have to go tomorrow—”

“Oh, not at the big cinema,” Mavin interrupted. “Have you seen the small one on Everson Street? It’s just called ‘Hollewych Motion Picture Cinema.’ It’s kinda old.”

“Uhhh... I think I’ve seen that?” Chase hadn’t really thought much about it, though. It was just part of the background of that street. “You want to go there?”

“Yeah, we go there all the time during school holidays,” Marvin said, gesturing to him and JJ, who nodded. “They don’t usually show new movies that just came out, instead they screen a lot of ones that are already out. Some of them are kinda old, too, but they can do anything that’s on DVD. We can go tomorrow or Sunday, they’re open all the time. And nobody usually goes there so it’s not as crowded. Which is great.”

“Okay. Sure.” Chase nodded slowly. “I don’t know if Mom will let me go see a movie by myself.”

“Why not? Doesn’t she let you go to the library and park and stuff alone?”

“Yeah, but I dunno. Something about a movie seems different. But, uh, maybe if I say Jackie is going too, that’ll work out. He can... watch a different movie. While we watch ours. If he’s cool with that.” Chase glanced towards the kitchen doors. Jackie had disappeared through them a couple minutes ago. “I’ll ask him. Does that work?”

“Yeah, fucking perfect.” Marvin smiled a little. “So... talk to your mom and Jackie about times and stuff. Then call JJ.” JJ waved. “And I’ll pick up.”

“Got it.” Chase nodded. “I’ll see you later, then.”

“See you later.”

And with that, Chase turned and left the restaurant.

++++++++++++++++++++

Chase was correct; Mom would not let him go to the movies without someone else. When he asked why, she said it would be dark so anything could happen. But she agreed to it when he said Jackei would come. And thankfully, Jackie agreed, too. He picked up Chase Sunday morning, and together the two of them picked up Marvin and drove down to Emerson Street.

This was in the center of the city, where a lot of the older buildings were. Hollewych Motion Picture Cinema sat right on the street. That was a bit weird, since the other theater in town, the Cineworld, was a bit off the street, surrounded by parking lots. Posters were plastered on the sides of its concrete building. There were no posters outside HMPC, only a couple of those signs with the removable letters hanging on the side of the brick building. Marvin, Chase, and Jackie walked up to these signs. They listed the prices for tickets and the movies that were currently playing, times included.

“I brought extra money if you guys need help covering your tickets,” Jackie said.

“No, I got it,” Marvin said. “JJ and I know how much it costs. We use his allowance money for it. I got just enough right here.” He put a hand in his pocket. “But all of this looks boring.”

“Uhhh I wouldn’t mind watching a couple of these,” Chase said. “But, um, yeah. You can choose. I dunno what you’ll want to see if it’s all boring to you, though.”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

There was a ticket booth next to the theater’s entrance. Marvin walked right up to it, leaving Chase and Jackie to follow. A man sat behind the glass in the booth—a boy, really, not that much older than Jackie. He wore a nametag pinned to his shirt that read ‘Nick.’ He wasn’t really paying attention to them, instead reading a thick-looking textbook propped up on the counter. “Hey,” Marvin said.

The guy—Nick quickly closed the textbook. “Hi, what can I do for you toda—Oh hey, Marvin.�� He looked at Chase. “Did Jameson get shorter?” Then at Jackie. “Or... taller?”

Marvin grinned. “No, this is my friend Chase, and the beanie boy is my friend Jackie.”

“Oh, nice to meet you two.” He stared at Jackie for a minute. “Aren’t you that kid with the name change?”

Jackie looked a bit nervous, but smiled. “Uh, yeah, that’s me.”

“Alright.” Nick looked back at Marvin. “What can I get for you today?”

“Do you have an empty theater?” Marvin asked. “Your listings are boring.”

Nick laughed. “Yeah, one’s empty right now. What d’you want to play?”

“Can we watch, uh... that bridge movie? The sad one?”

Nick’s eyes widened slightly. “That’s, uh... probably a bit too sad for your friends’ first visit here. Don’t want to make a bad impression.” He laughed again, just to clear the tension. “How about The Princess Bride? Or maybe Narnia? We’ll be getting the sequel to that soon, y’know.”

“Narnia is good,” Marvin said, looking a bit disappointed but getting over it quickly. “Two for that.”

“Um, what’s playing in the theaters next to the empty one?” Jackie asked.

“We have The Godfather and Spider-Man 2.”

“Oh hell yeah. I’ll have a ticket for Spider-Man 2. Can I just walk in?”

“Yep, go ahead. I think it just barely started.” Nick bent over, fiddling with something under the counter, and reappeared with three yellow tickets. Marvin and Jackie paid for their respective tickets and Nick passed them over, along with some change. “Alright, you two head to Theater 2, it’ll be a moment to get it started. Jackie, right? Yours is Theater 3, it’s to the right of 2. Enjoy your movies.”

The three of them said their thanks and headed inside, Marvin in front. The interior of the small theater was done in shades of warm yellows and oranges against contrasting black. There wasn’t much in the main entrance, just a small counter for concessions manned by a woman with curly blond hair. She was also familiar with Marvin, handing him two small bags of buttered popcorn. Chase watched this and wondered how often the twins came here if the staff knew them on sight. Or maybe not many people worked here. Maybe both.

They walked down the one hallway, with Marvin talking as they went. “This style of, uh, interior design is called ‘art deco,’ JJ really likes it, and I can get where he’s coming from but I think I like ‘art nouveau' more, it’s much more swirly while this one is all angles. And here we are!” He stopped in front of a pair of theater doors.

“You guys have fun,” Jackie said, continuing down the hall. “Text me if anything happens. I’m not gonna silence my phone.” He laughed. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t!” Chase said. “You have fun too!” And he followed Marvin into the room.

There were only five rows of seats in here, and the screen, while much bigger than any TV Chase had ever seen, was way smaller than regular movie screens. The chairs in here looked a bit old, their red fabric cushions faded, but there was something nice about it. “You gotta sit in the middle,” Marvin said, inching his way into the third row. “That way you’re not too close or too far away. But if there’s a lot of people they always go for the middle, too, so if it’s full, I prefer the back. But it’s not full now.” He sat down in the exact middle of the row. Chase sat next to him, and Marvin passed him one of the popcorn bags. “Cool, huh?”

“Yeah.” Chase nodded. “Um... so... I wanna watch the movie, but I... also want to... talk to you about something.”

Marvin stared at him. He nodded slowly. “Okay. Let’s wait for a bit. Watch the start of the movie.”

“Okay.” Chase nodded back. “Um... I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this one. What’s it about?”

“Oh, you haven’t?! Okay, so...”

Marvin had just enough time to explain the basic plot before the lights dimmed and the film started. Chase tried to relax, but he couldn’t. He was busy mentally preparing what to say. And then... well, he was a bit confused. “I thought you said this was a fantasy movie,” he whispered to Marvin.

“I said that they went into the fantasy world,” Marvin replied in a normal volume. “They have to start in the real world first. You’ll see. The beginning is, like, ‘oh my god,’ but then they go out to the country and find stuff there.” He paused. “Also you don’t have to whisper. It’s just us in here.”

“Riiiight.” Chase nodded, going quiet for a moment and trying to pay attention for a bit. Marvin didn’t have any problem with that. He was immediately sucked into the movie, eyes glued to the screen even as he ate popcorn. Chase almost hated to interrupt him. But he had to. So, when the movie seemed to be slowing down, he spoke up again. “Um... can we talk now?”

Marvin glanced at him. “They’re not even in Narnia yet.”

“Yeah, but... but I-I wanna talk before we get too into it.”

Marvin sighed. “I guess that makes sense.” He put the popcorn bag on the seat next to him and looked at Chase. “What is it?”

“I, uh...” Chase’s mind went blank. He fidgeted with his own popcorn bag for a moment before putting it aside and blurting out, “I’m an idiot.”

“Okay.”

“Wha—You’re not gonna, like, say that I’m not?”

“A lot of people are idiots,” Marvin said. “I’m an idiot. But we’re smart in other ways. I thought you were establishing a rapport.”

“A what?” Chase repeated, confused. “What the heck is that?”

“It’s uh... You know, I don’t actually know how to explain it.”

Chase shook his head. “Well, I wasn’t doing that. I was, um, opening up to something. I’m an idiot because... because I didn’t realize I’d made you upset again. When we figured out you had greenlight powers, I said they were weird. I, uh... i-it took me a while to realize you, uh... got... your feelings hurt.”

“...oh.” Marvin stared at him, then looked back at the movie. “That’s fine.”

“No it’s not!” Chase protested. “I didn’t want to upset you! I... I’m sorry I did. I wasn’t really thinking. I was just... using the same word I always would’ve and didn’t think about the context. I’m really sorry. You’re not weird.”

“Yeah, I am.” Marvin didn’t look back at Chase. “I’m an idiot, but I’m not fucking stupid. I like wearing capes and others don’t. I talk a lot and others don’t. I get upset when the lights in the school are too loud and others don’t. I’m a fucking weirdo, Chase. And you don’t have to pretend I’m not. I know. People think I don’t know, but I do. I mean, I didn’t used to know, like when I was really little, but by now, I’ve figured it out. I’m not normal. I’m weird. Fucking... deal with it.”

“...oh.” Chase wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “I, um... It’s not a bad thing. To, uh... not be normal.”

“People always say that,” Marvin sighed. “But like... even though I don’t get made fun of or anything, the difference feels bad sometimes. Like—like—” He gestured vaguely. “Like, everyone is painting a picture, but my paints are different colors. And I can mix colors and stuff to get something that’s sort of close to what everyone else is using, but it’s not right, and everyone can tell. So, like, fuck it, right? Might as well use my own colors. At least then everyone’s looking at my painting. Even though they like everyone else’s better.”

Chase nodded slowly. “Um... I like your painting, though.”

“Uh... I don’t actually have a painting. It’s a metaphor.”

“No, I know. I know what a metaphor is, I’m okay at English class. And I’m keeping going with this one. I like your painting. I like how you use different colors.”

Marvin finally turned to look at him, surprised. “But... you...” He paused, struggling for words. “You keep... It’s... I’m a magic weirdo, though.” He raised one hand, a little baseball-sized sphere of greenlight forming in his palm.

“I like that you’re a magic weirdo,” Chase explained, grinning. “Look at that! That’s so cool. You can just, like, make stuff. Freaking amazing, bro.”

“And... the cape and stuff?”

“I’m not gonna lie, it was, uh, strange at first, but now I know you and it’s also cool.”

Marvin blinked. “I’m... confused.”

“Uh... how do I say this...” Chase looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “If we talk about it like paintings again, I think... I think a lot of people want their paintings to look just like what everyone else wants to see. Maybe they’re drawing a bowl full of apples, but they wanna draw a bowl full of oranges, but people like apples more than oranges so they don't. For me... I’m looking at what everyone else is painting. A-and I’m trying to do the same thing.”

“Why do you want to make the same thing everyone else is making?” Marvin asked quietly.

Chase shrugged. “I think everyone does. But that’s impossible. Everyone paints differently. Why don’t you want to make the same thing?”

Marvin paused. He shrugged. “It’s hard. And it’s not fun. And it’s not... it’s not me.”

“Yeah.” Chase smiled at him. “And I like that. I like that you’re... that you’re so you all the time. I-I wish I could be as much me as I wanna be. But... when my painting starts looking a bit different than everyone else’s, I get nervous. I-I don’t want people to look at it and think ‘I don’t like that because it’s not like mine.’ So, even if it’s hard and not fun and not me, I try to change it. But you don’t. And I think you’re really... I think you’re really brave and cool for that.”

Marvin blinked. His eyes were looking watery. “I... I-I get nervous, too, you know.”

“Yeah, but you do it anyway, and I don’t. In fact, I...” Chase lowered his head, ashamed. “I get so nervous that I don’t even want my painting to be near different ones sometimes. B-but I shouldn’t want that! It’s not fair and it’s mean and it’s not what I really want. I want to hang our paintings together.” He raised his head again. “I want to keep being friends. Screw what other people think. But I-I might make mistakes sometimes. Because I’m not used to it. So... I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

A moment passed. Marvin looked away. It took Chase a moment to realize he was wiping his face on his cape. When Marvin looked back again, his eyes were red, but clear. “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “I... I want to keep being friends, too. I’m not... good at making them. So, a couple mistakes aren’t gonna make me hate you or anything.” He smiled a bit. “But I think you should’ve said this earlier.”

Chase slumped with relief and smiled back. “Yeah. I know now. But I’m an idiot when it comes to other people’s feelings and stuff. Don’t know how to deal with it.”

“Fuck, I don’t know, either. Let’s just agree to talk about stuff right away in the future. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Marvin smiled wider. He leaned over and bumped his shoulder against Chase’s.

Chase laughed. “Oh, man. I have not been watching the movie at all. What’s even going on?”

“Oh shit, I think we missed the first moment! Alright, it’s okay, I remember what happened. So basically...”

As they grabbed their popcorn again and settled down to finish the movie, Chase felt like a weight was lifted from his chest. Huh. He didn’t even realize that was there.

++++++++++++++++++++

JJ closed the textbook, relieved to finally be done with his history notes. Carefully, he slid the sheets of lined paper into his binder, preparing them to be turned in on Monday. God, he hated taking notes. He was already good at remembering stuff. He didn’t need notes. Especially Cornell notes, ugh. They didn’t help at all! Why was his World History teacher so obsessed with them? Why did he need to prove that he’d done them?

He’d do it anyway, of course. They got graded on their notes. It’d look bad if he skipped them and got a bad grade as a result.

Well... now what?

He sighed, leaning back in the kitchen chair. He wished there was room for a desk in his and Marvin’s bedroom. It’d be nice. Doing his homework in the kitchen wasn’t too annoying, but it did mean Mam and Dad sometimes poked their heads in to ask if he was working. Which... obviously he was. And... obviously they were interrupting him. Obviously.

JJ stood up and put his binder back in his bag. Then he headed out. He could hear the TV playing from the living room. Sounded like one of Granmam’s shows. Maybe after he put his bag back in his room, he’d come back down and sit with her. She didn’t mind it when he was there.

Sometimes he and Marvin wished that their grandmother could stay with them all year. Everything seemed... somehow better when she was there. But they knew they couldn’t ask her to do that. They were lucky that she stayed with them through Christmas every year. Grandparents didn’t usually do that.

He headed up the stairs. There was more TV noise coming from Mam and Dad’s room (totally wasn’t fair that they got a second, personal TV and he and Marvin didn’t even have a desk) but he ignored that and headed straight to his room. He walked in, turned on the lights, put his bag in its usual place in the corner by the door—

“Hey.”

—and then spun around when hearing the sudden voice.

Anti was sitting on the windowsill. It was narrow, probably a tough place to sit, but Anti could float so it didn’t really matter to him. He grinned when he saw JJ and gave a little wave.

JJ grabbed the nearest thing he could find—one of Marvin’s shoes—and threw it at Anti. It passed right through him and thudded against the window’s glass.

Anti’s grin disappeared. “You really like throwing things, huh? Rude. You’re so... so fucking rude.” Then he giggled, as if amused by his own swearing.

What are you doing here? JJ demanded.

“I still don’t know what you’re saying, but you pointed at me, so you’re probably asking why I’m here.” Anti tilted his head. “Your twin is off doing something right now. With someone else. Did you know about that?”

Confused, JJ nodded. He glanced around the room, wondering if there was something he could use to get Anti out of here. Maybe if he threw enough stuff at him he’d go away. He took a couple steps forward, aiming to get to the dresser.

“You did? And you’re okay with that?”

JJ nodded again. Why wouldn’t he be okay with that?

“What if Marvin stops doing anything with you?” Anti pressed. “Would you be okay with that? Are you scared of him doing stuff by himself?”

JJ frowned. He shook his head.

“You’re not scared of that?” Anti blinked. The ceiling light flickered. “What if he’s scared of that? What if he doesn’t want you to do things without him?”

Marvin wouldn’t be like that, though. The two of them had always been together, and always will be. They’d gone through a lot, told each other things that they’d never told anyone else. JJ isn’t so... insecure... to think that Marvin doing something with Chase means he’ll stop hanging out with JJ. And the same could be said for Marvin, too. Besides, they lived together. They couldn’t ignore each other forever. JJ took a couple steps towards the dresser and shook his head again.

Anti stared at him. His eyes narrowed. He seemed somehow unhappy with JJ’s answers. “What are you scared of?” he whispered. “You don’t ever look scared. You don’t ever look upset at all. But you have to be scared of something. Don’t you?”

JJ raised his shoulders. Something about this conversation was disturbing him. Quickly, he grabbed the nearest item from the dresser and threw it.

The object hit Anti in the chest, right under his neck. “Ow!” Anti gasped, catching the object as it fell. One of Marvin’s crystals. Anti stared at it. He seemed more surprised than hurt. And soon, both those feelings were overtaken by anger. He looked up at JJ, the green in his eyes flaring brighter as the ceiling light flickered wildly. JJ started backing up. “You’re terrible, Jameson Jackson,” Anti growled. “I gave Marvin a nice birthday present. Maybe you’ll get a Christmas present that’s just... as... ni͢c͏e̡.̛”

The light went out for a few seconds. JJ looked up at it. Then he looked back at the window. Though he should have been able to see Anti’s silhouette even in the sudden darkness of the room, he only saw the dark blue square of the window. And then the light turned on again. And his suspicion was confirmed; Anti had disappeared. Marvin’s crystal was on the ledge right where he’d been sitting.

JJ shivered. He walked over and quickly grabbed the crystal—and the shoe he’d thrown first. Then he put them back where he’d found them. And he thought about what Anti meant. If he’d pushed Marvin down the stairs as a ‘present,’ what did he want to do to him? The twin he didn’t like?

...It would be fine, wouldn’t it? JJ would just have to be careful to not go near anything dangerous by himself. He could do that. No need to tell Marvin or any of the others about that. Well, he should probably tell them he saw Anti. But not about the... threat. He didn’t want to worry them. He needed to not worry them. Or anyone. Ever.

JJ headed back downstairs—gripping the bannister tightly—and walked into the living room. As he suspected, Granmam was on the sofa watching one of her ‘shows,’ as she called him. She looked back as he came in. “Hey, lad,” she said, smiling. “Everyt’ing alrigh’? You look a mite pale.”

I’m alright, JJ said.

“Hmm.” Granmam pursed her lips. “Hey, c’mere t’me. Ye want to sit with you granmam for a bit?”

JJ nodded and hurried over. He slid onto the sofa and scooted up next to her. She always smelled a bit like vanilla. It was nice.

“Your brother’s still out?”

He nodded.

“T’ink he’ll want to join in when he gets back?”

Maybe.

Granmam smiled down at him. “Well, I know your parents are up for the night, so we have some time.” She leaned a bit closer and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I love ‘em, but they can be a pair of dryshites sometimes.”

JJ burst into laughter.

Granmam grinned right back. “Not Marvin, o’course, he’s grand. He can come right in if he wants to. For now, let’s have a moment, yea?”

JJ nodded. He leaned his head on her shoulder and stared at the TV. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but that wasn’t really the point of watching shows with Granmam.

Nothing to worry about. No need to worry anyone about anything.

Neither he nor his grandmother saw the shadow walk down the stairs, stare down the hall at them, and then disappear into thin air.

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #jacksepticeye au #chase brody #marvin the magnificent #jameson jackson #dr schneeplestein #jackieboy man #brigid writes fanfiction #pnptau

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cheriboms · 1 year ago

Text

BTTF Year-End Tag Game!

Thank you to both @bttf-dork and @future-boi for tagging me in this ;w; also pika ur comments about my art WAHHHH ILYSM <33 oTL

This year:

How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie?

Since I only hopped on this time train towards the final third of the year lol: fully all the way through, at least 4! Otherwise I've jumped around a lot while looking for clips and references and stuff. So if I stitch all those together, then we'll say approx 5ish :) The first movie is my favorite one!

Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what?

Noooo, I don't really have any merch for things I like, actually... it gives me too much anxiety to publicly show my interests ;w;

How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

None LOL I don't really drink soda to begin with, but if I do, I prefer white (lemon lime) soda anyway :P

What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

I'm going to be honest, I... don't read fanfic very much. 🫣 I usually end up creating my own stuff (art/writing) when I have free time vs looking at other people's, which ik I need to get better at T_T So I don't have a loooot to rec... that being said I MUST shout out "Emmett's first weather expirement." by @alex-a-fans !!! <3 It is my greatest treasure of the year <333

I also really liked "incredible" by @penny-anna, which I read before I officially entered le fandom ;w; lone pine doc and baby marty my beloveds !!!!!

Finally, like basically all of the Doctober prompts from @doctorbrown *O* Days 8, 22, and 30 are some of my favorites, but I really recommend them all oTL theyre SOOO GOOOOOD !!!!!

A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!)

See: everything I reblogged. Jk but fr, everyone is so so talented it's really hard to choose :'0 Here's a bunch of some of my faves in no particular order!!

Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of?

Yes I did !!! It is actually the most fan content I've ever made for a fandom since I was in... maybe junior high? So like YUH. Tbh, it's very difficult for me to find what you would call 'pride' in my art so ehh >_>; that being said, I do think that I had a lot of good IDEAS for Doctober (esp days 19 and 28), but my execution wasnt really the best. I would have liked to draw days 17 and 24 (+ time travel day) a little more properly too; like, I'm not as disappointed at how they turned out, but I still wish they were better and/or I could have given them more time. The ones I most actually-tried-and-dont-mind are days 7, 9, and 21 + under the sea dance day. (So many links was probably cheating but tbf I've kinda bent the rules for the past few questions so... whatevs lol). I've ALSOOO still been working on my godforsaken essay, it is 40 pages rn but even tho it's not done, I'm INSANELY proud of it Q_Q

How many times were you late for school this year?

None! B) For one thing I'm graduated lol, but also I'm typically early gang. I'm that person who'd sit in the classroom by myself for like 5 minutes before everyone else would show up LMBO ^^;

Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them?

Yess I did!! A... lot actually :0 Most of them were by chance/pre bttf era, but still :P Here is my list as well as I could find, sorry it is soooo long, but what are ya gonna do:

Star Wars/The Mandalorian; The Addams Family (1991); The Tale of Desperaux (2008); Cyberchase; & Clue (1985) -- Christopher Lloyd, havent rewatched the latter 3 since I was a kid and literally went :0 to learn he apparently was in them. Also Kings Quest (2015) which isn't a movie/show but I think it counts uwu

Stuart Little (1999) -- Michael J. Fox, which also rocked my world to discover O_O like hearing it now I'm like "yeah thats him alright" but as a kid I would never have been able to tell you that was the same guy from that time travel movie, despite watching both way too much LMBO

Elf (2003) & Last Vegas (2013) -- Mary Steenburgen, nothing much to say except that she slayed ^_^

Love at the Christmas Table (2012) -- Lea Thompson, I didn't care for it and was shouting "LEA GET OUT OF THIS MOVIE, UR BETTER THAN THIS" like the whole time lol.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) & Curious George (2006) -- apparently these have Donald Fullilove (Goldie Wilson) in them? Same w Jason Scott Lee (Whitey) in Lilo & Stitch (2002)??? And Star Wars/Kenobi show apparently had Flea (Needles)????? ...HUH.

I binged both the entirety of Law and Order: SVU as well as Seinfeld this year w my sister; apparently Mary Steenburgen, Lea Thompson, & Casey Siemaszko (3-D) are in at least one episode of the former, while Elsa Raven (Clocktower Lady) and Ricky Dean Logan (Data) are apparently in a random episode of Seinfeld each. So like, technically I saw them, tho I don't distinctly remember it :'D Also, I have been making my way through Little House on the Prairie recently, which has Matt Clark (Chester the Bartender) in a few episodes !

Finally finally finally, I watched I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017), as well as the LOTR trilogy like. Twice? And they all have Elijah Wood of course >:3c

Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

None in the wild, no :P But I did end up being in the top 0.1% of listeners for Huey Lewis this year... so UHHHHH take that as u will LMBO

How many times did you fall down this year?

Hmmm idk?? Probably at least 1 I would think ???

Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like!

Nooo, I didn't even know it existed until like October !!! It looks super fun but atm/last I checked it doesn't come to where I live so :( I should listen to the soundtrack soon!

How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

At least three times, and then probably a few times I'm forgetting :P

If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

The year in general is definitely "Oh great, the atrocity channel!" LMBO (but when hasn't it been since like... 2020? 2016???). For me personally, I think it's either "I don't know if I could take that kind of rejection." or "Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anything, don't do anything, don't interact with anyone, and try not to look at anything." ^^;

⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a Delorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

I think I'm going to try to post more of the things I make, like my art and especially my writing ;w; Most of the time I'm quite George-ish and am too scared to put any of my stuff out there, for fear that no one will like it, so... I need to get better about that. Also I'd LIKE to get a full-time job and my own place some time next year, but we will see !!!

Idrk who to tag :0 ik @brinkle-brackle @mythical-bookworm and @alex-a-fans have already been tagged but havent technically done it yet... maybe also @backintime @tobytost @ectojester @stillpreoccupiedwith1985 @itsthemorph @doctorbrown @knickynoo and @fourth-dimensional-thinker :) but no pressure to do it, just didnt catch if youd been tagged or not!

#cherry tag games #back to the future #bttf-dork #future-boi #this took way too long to fill out LMBO #but im very happy to be included ;w;#so tysm !!! this was super fun :D

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juniperhillpatient · 10 months ago

Note

For the ask meme: 4, 7, 11, 30, 47 :)

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

Honestly? Before I started Scream AU, it was an ATLA Scream AU! I held onto that idea for YEARS because I wanted to make sure I could do it right - everyone is a suspect, everyone is in danger, & there's a lot of foreshadowing but also a lot of twists. I waited until I felt prepared to do the idea justice, so I've held onto it for a long time. Like, that idea festered in my brain for at least 3 or 4 years. I guess it doesn't count anymore though, since I'm doing it.

Hm... I have a million ideas at all times but one I've had for a pretty long time is Heathers ATLA AU with Katara as Veronica, Azula as Heather Chandler, & Zuko or Jet as JD. Unfortunately, I'll likely never do this one because it wouldn't have Azula/Katara endgame & Azula would die so I doubt anyone who reads my writing wants it.

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

The first fic I EVER wrote? You guys don't need to know about 13 year old Rose's weird Family Guy fanfics, your minds aren't ready. (Also I don't remember & the parts I do remember are embarrassing as fuck lmao.)

Instead, I'll say the first ATLA fanfic I wrote. It's a mediocre high school AU that has Katara/Toph LOL. I was getting my bearings in the ATLA fandom, okay? Also, it is the fic that made the Katara/Azula dynamic take root in my brain even though it's not a focus & I didn't write my first Azutara fic until a bit later lol

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

I learned a lot about fashion through the ages when I was writing the TVD Au & giving Vampire!Azula a fun wardrobe filled with fashion from the last century or so. Do I remember anything I learned? Eh. But I did a lot of research!

I don't typically do a lot of research though for writing. My laziest trait as a writer is that sometimes I just wanna say "go with it." I entirely based the football stuff in my college AU on the TV show Blue Mountain State. That's not to say research isn't important, that's to say I'm lazy.

30. most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.

Okay, I really live by the quote "if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do" from Angel the Series which is funny because I'm barely a fan of that show. I've watched it all through once. I'm much more of a Buffy girl. But that particular quote has always stuck with me. I'm a nihilist but I'm also a compassionate person & I think this quote really sums up how I look at the world. I used to be an idealist but my belief that the world can be changed for the better has faded over time. Instead, I just believe in being kind & doing what you can & that's how I take the quote - doing what you can, even when it seems hopeless. That seems depressing but like, it's not to me. You know?

47. what story are you most proud of?

I honestly go back & forth all the time. I feel like it might actually be Happenstance (a modern university ATLA au with a sit com vibe. It takes place over the course of a school year.) I'm honestly just so proud of the character arcs, the balance of comedy & drama, & these versions of the characters & this version of the universe. I put my heart & soul into that project.

Thank you so much for asking! I love playing these games & having an excuse to ramble :)

#asks #answered #ask games #writing

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rosieblogstuff · 7 months ago

Note

This might be too many but, for the MacGyver ask game:

4, 7, 15, 16, & 18?

There's no such thing as too many. 😂 It's just a matter of how long it'll take me to write something for all of them. But here goes:

Do you have any favorite fandom media you’d like to recommend? (Fic, edits, art, etc.)

Hooooo boy, am I ever bad at picking a favorite of anything and sticking with my opinion the next time I come across something shiny. Has anybody not read Turkey Day yet? Everybody's surely read it. If anyone hasn't they should immediately run over to AO3 right now.

How did you discover the show?

It was October 2021 and I was suffering Peak Pandemic Loneliness. Friday night I watched a couple episodes of The Americans because one of my writing forums was having a big plotting discussion about it. I love spy shows generally and I really enjoyed The Americans the first time through but it was just NOT the mood I was in right then, it was too dark and too bleak. So at the end of episode 2 Amazon popped up a list of “also recommends” stuff and there was the MacGyver reboot, first thing on the list. I loved OG MacGyver, watched it after school and in the summers as a kid, there are episodes I managed to see enough at a time when you were stuck watching whatever the TV wanted to show you that I could easily recall major plot points and characters like 30ish years later BUT. I hadn’t seen the reboot because I’d seen friends panning it on Facebook when it came out. (I’m sure I’ve posted Rosie’s Theory of Why Middle Aged White Guys Hated MacGyver 2016 before. But I didn’t realize it at the time.) So I thought to myself, well I’m already in a bad mood and bored, why not watch something crappy that I’ll probably hate? and started up 1x01.

Obviously that did NOT go as anticipated because 1x01 is really a pretty awesome pilot episode and I enjoyed it enough to immediately start up episode 2, and by the end of episode 2 I was in love with the whole thing. Like, obsessively in love with it in a way I rarely get. I stayed up until 2am watching the first 5 eps in a row.

Have you learned any Mac Hacks?

Oh definitely, although I’ll admit my favorite (and most useful) Mac Hack of all time is from MacGyver 1985: the time OG Mac magnetized an iron pole by hitting it in the same way over and over, a trick that can also be used to magnetize a screwdriver. A few months ago I accidentally locked a door at the youth group where I volunteer. No one had a key and we really needed to get back into the room, and I got it open by user-testing an idea I’d come up with for a fanfic.

What’s your favorite cold open?

Definitely 1x12, the truth serum cold open. The 1x02 North Korea escape is also pretty high on my list of favorites.

If you could wish an episode tag/missing scene fic into existence, which episode would you choose?

Jack taking Mac to Texas to meet his family. We got a family/backstory episode for Riley, Bozer, even Desi, but we have to headcanon basically everything about Jack’s family.

#cairo community ask game #macgyver 2016

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rgbcn · 7 months ago

Note

You talk lots about English not being your first language, so if it's not too personal to ask of course, what's your first language?

Hey! Yeah, no worries it’s not a secret or anything haha.

I’m catalan, from Catalonia (Spain), I speak catalan as my primary language, being spanish my second language (even if we learned both at a same level in school, so here we are bilingual and I guess I can say both are my primary). We could say English is my third best language, I know some French, never learnt Italian or portuguese but it’s quite easy to understand some stuff and I know some basics of Japanese, which would be the language I would like to learn if I had enough time.

It took me a lot of time to get used to understand movies and tvshows in english, and always with subs, because here in the normal television (which I don’t see anymore) all is dubbed(?) so you learn 0 english or other languages watching tv. We started with my husband watching heroes and House MD in english and we never got back to spanish subs. It Crowd and tbbt (only until mid season 3, I never got to see Amy when she appeared then) were some of the other shows we saw that time.

My peak of understanding and write better english was (and I’m serious) reading fanfictions about Shamy. Same characters, same kind of situations over and over, same kind of vocabulary, I started having to search every x words the meaning until I could read from start to end non stopping. And posting online and talking with people helped too. And my live sessions on youtube I had to get better talking so, slowly I got better 👍

Writing fanfics was too challenging, and I’m REALLY glad for my betas, specially my current Beta, Mike, one of my patrons who is from US and LOVES to correct my mistakes in my comics and fics. He did a great job correcting and suggesting better words for idk, half of my current fics.

Anyway, Hope you enjoyed my story time answer 😅

Hugs!

Regina

#storytime #rgbcn #shamy #tbbt #fanart #bigbangtheory #thebigbangtheory #fanfiction #shamy fanfic

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bxsmxth · 11 months ago

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Tagged by @padthaifan (nice fish painting btw xoxo)

Last song played: Turn It Off from The Book of Mormon (It kept playing in my head because I work in a very Mormon workplace now)

Favorite color: I tend to like purple on a most stable basis but I have been appreciating various shades of pink recently

Last TV show watched: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, with my girlfriend

Last movie watched: Ghost in the Shell, also with my girlfriend

Currently reading: My current book is Clearing the Fog: From Surviving to Thriving with Long Covid for reasons which may be obvious considering the title. The last thing I READ though was a certain work I found from a Tumblr post called The Convent School, or Early Experiences of A Young Flagellant (Reader beware: if you choose to look this up out of curiosity like I did, the post wasn't kidding when it said it would make the Puritans of today hurl. TW for borderline incest and far-past-borderline rape and pedophilia. This piece of work is far from a reflection of my proclivities in this area and I ditched pretty early in, so if you are at all unwilling to read some pretty graphic stuff then don't follow my lead)

Sweet/spicy/savory: Sweet

Relationship status: In a relationship

Last thing googled: "Hazu-yari" (which, to save you a Google, is a bow with stabby bits on the tips)

Current obsession: Love Live, specifically Love Live School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live, a gacha rhythm game that released at the beginning of the month with an expiry date of May 31st, 2024. I'm so galled at the absurdity that I'm just going along for the ride but not spending anything (because 1) it will be around for 4 MONTHS and 2) because of the aforementioned fact, the basically-battle pass available in the JP version is there in the global version but unpurchasable (almost as if Bushiroad themselves knew that selling it would be gutsy (except they're still selling Loveca so ????)))

Currently working on: a load of laundry but I might draw or work on updating my Good Omens fanfic

Uhhhhhhh @dinosaurprostitution @estradized-scentgirl there we go I tagged people too (no pressure though obvs) (also if anyone seeing this wants to do it you can say I tagged you lol)

#tag game

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ectojester · 1 year ago

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End of the year tag game from @cheriboms. Ignore the fact that it's technically the 1st.

1. How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie?

Probably at least 5

2. Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what!

Yeah! I got a patch for my jacket, Marty in his DEVO radiation suit with the caption "Darth Vader. I am an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan!"

3. How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

Zero. Tbh I didnt know they still made them

4. What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

Probably little stuff (the sweet and the sour) wherein Linda notices some similarities between Marty and her parents' high school friend.

5. A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year?

Either this awesome comic by @future-boi or this painting by @slowmotionmovesme that I have saved to my notes and just stare at sometimes.

6. Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did which one are you proudest of?

Aside from doodles on my school assignments, no

7. How many times were you late for school this year?

Probably like 3 times :)

8. Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them?

Clue, Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, Addams Family, Anastasia (Christopher Lloyd is in a lot of stuff), Family Ties, Elf, and Freaky Friday

9. Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

One day while cleaning I just decided to listen to Back in Time on loop

10. How many times did you fall down this year?

Oh idk like 20 at the very least. I went on a night hike in the snow last month. It was steep and my boots were not great.

11. Did you see BTTF the Musical? What was your experience like?

No :( I did seriously consider buying tickets to go to London, but I'd have to borrow the money for it lol. One day...

12. How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

None, that I know of. Don't really know what she gets up to these days 🤔 I think my dad mentioned it once or twice though.

13. If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

"Say whatever's natural, the first thing that comes into your mind."

"Nothing's coming to my mind!"

Mood, George. If ever there was a year for no thoughts, head empty, it was this one.

14. ⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a Delorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

15. Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

Some good grades hopefully. Better study habits, improved hobbies, and cherishing small moments. Should probably work on my people skills too. I will make Good Adult Decisions.

Sorry to be That Person but in my defense the year is also over, so I won't tag anyone. If you want to play, though, go for it!

#bttf #ask #tag game

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tenrousei-kuroi · 6 days ago

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got tagged in a thing

I remember way back when these question-meme things used to get passed around LJ. Always a lot of fun to fill them out but I'm almost certain they're less fun to read >.< Especially when someone is silly enough to tag me and I go rambling...

Actually let's hide behind a cut, no one needs to see this

Last song: Same Thing (Barenaked Ladies) A different song on the album "Born on a Pirate Ship" is what led to me always telling people not to smash spiders or it floods. After a decade of nothing but confused looks I'm starting to think it might not actually be a real superstition. 🕷️🕸️

Favorite color: Green, although I'm also partial to orange. I liked it so much as a kid that my parents (for some god unknown reason) let me paint the entire entryway hallway orange. So since it was the nineties we had that 3-level "wallpaper--wallpaper border--paint" thing going on and it looked like walking into a pumpkin. Still does, actually.

Last movie: Eddie Presley This is really hard to get ahold of nowadays, I'm not sure it was very widely released. Duane Whitaker isn't really a household name to most but this is worth checking out if you're into the kind of bizarre artsy stuff that will win you friends at film school and eye rolls at normal social events.

Last TV show: The Twilight Zone I kind of hate modern t.v. as I feel like everyone's just trying to waste my time with 75-hour long movies disguised as "limited series" or "original series" or whatever the streaming platform you're on wants to call them. It's like once we were "free" of network television and movie theatres we all just collectively forgot how to edit and now everything just draaaags it's interminable.

So I've pretty much cancelled most of my streaming services (waste of money, honestly) and I just buy dvd and blu ray box sets to watch stuff from back when an episode of a television show wasn't allowed to be a 2-hour movie with no actual conclusion.

The Twilight Zone (the original one) is a long-time favorite of mine. I love horror, I love suspense, I love old-school sci-fi, and I love Rod Serling so it's a pretty solid combination. I'm sure plenty of other people around also remember watching Twilight Zone marathons on New Year's, it surely wasn't just my family.

My mother used to always set up a sort of 🏅🥇"Olympic Games"🥈🥉 to go along with it where we all did marathon board games, winning those chocolate gold coins and other prizes. Well, my sister, mother and I would (my dad mostly just sat in his chair and observed, still of that generation where a man having unabashed fun with the women or children in his family was 'weird').

I don't have any hot takes about favorite episodes or scariest episodes, I think I'm pretty normal in that regard. "It's a Good Life", "A Stop at Willoughby", "Time Enough at Last", and "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" are favorites and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is still the one that gives me literal chills it's so scary. But yeah, I feel most people have similar lists of top episodes.

MAN but "It's a Good Life" is good, isn't it? To this day, my mother and I still refer to getting rid of someone or something a "wishing them into the cornfield".

Do we think Stephen King's "Children of the Corn" was inspired by that episode at all? It could just be a coincidence as corn is pretty ubiquitous in the American midwest, but it always seemed connected in my brain...

I think the titles of Twilight Zone episodes are really something special, particularly the ones written by Serling himself. Top notch names and I wish I were talented enough to create titles like that (rather than just copy them, which is what I usually do for my fanfics. If you ever saw a title on one of my fics and thought it was good, rest assured I probably stole it borrowed it to pay homage.)

In a similar vein, why did no one tell me The Corpse Can't Play was found like forever ago? I still had it in my head that nothing from Late Night Horror had survived and yet here it is! Just sitting there for the low-low price of 24 British US Dollars.

Am I going to buy it? No of course not, that would be a silly thing to do as I already purchased it last night about .4 nanoseconds after seeing the listing.

Sweet/savory/spicy: Sweet for drinks, savory for snacks and spicy for actual meals. This is actually always what people mean when they say "well rounded individual".

Relationship status: Literally typing this the morning of my nine-year anniversary. I'll have to get around to marrying the boy one day, he's pretty perfect.

Last thing I googled: United States Refugee Admissions Program. I work for a US refugee non-profit, it hasn't been a good time lately.

Current obsession: Some stupid fic I started writing like ten years ago and never finished. How dare it harass me like this.

Also been going through another musical phase. Not that musicals aren't always kind of on my mind, but I definitely fall hard for a few weeks here or there. Spent about thirty minutes trying to organize my "Top Three" Memory renditions with a friend but after 1. Elaine Paige, and 2. Betty Buckley, we got into a pretty heated contention over whether next up is Heather Headley or Barbra Streisand.

Don't worry, the violence subsided when were at least able to agree that Celine Dion was dead last.

Is anyone else completely fed up with the rampant (and incorrectly administered) pitch correction? It's starting to make everyone sound the same, like the people manning the program are looking at the sounds instead of listening. If someone "imperfectly" hits the note but it sounds good then leave it! That's what makes people's voices unique! It's not about hitting the note, it's about how you hit it...I'm honestly shocked more industry singers aren't against the process given how badly it destroys many of their performances and completely annihilates their actual voice.

I dunno', maybe most people can't hear it or don't care...🎼🎶🎵

What other obsessions are currently eating away at my brain? Well there's the assiduous efforts of The Great God Pan, which has been knocking at my reading list for round about ten years now. The looks I keep getting from people when they find out I "love horror" but haven't read it. Apparently this is like a foodie never having set lips on savory, so fear not, I've finally ordered a copy. It should get here next week and then I can finally assume my rightful place as an official horror novel aficionado.

Looking forward to: Moving. In the preliminary stages of heading across the state to be closer to the ocean. House and job hunting at the same time and I hope to god the two align easily. There's some gorgeous victorian-style homes out where we're looking and I'll be dead in the cold, cold ground before I do something stupid like modernize one. I die a little inside every time someone sends me one of those tik toks of someone ripping out a spiral staircase to put in a straight one or smashing up antique tiling to put down some stupid fake-marble sticky roll. Just buy a McMansion ya' freaks and leave the historically significant homes alone...

We toured a house a few weeks back that legit had a servants' door in the kitchen. Hello?? Heaven?? Sorry you'll have to wait I've found Paradise on earth.

#tenkuroi #horror #books and reading #ramblings #stream of consciousness

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uncleasad · 1 month ago

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For the fanfic director's cut ask game: ⭐

So…it’s taken me forever to get to this 😢 So sorry, and thanks so much for your patience, unsiredtribrid! 🙏

Without further ado, some Director’s Cut fun facts about Have at Least One Totally Epic Love!

(If you are someone who hasn’t read that fic yet and thinks you might want to…BEWARE, MAJOR SPOILERS below! Also TW for discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

. . . . .

With that out of the way…

To quote Hope, “I’ll just start at the beginning.”

I wasn’t a huge The Vampire Diaries fan. I did see part of Season 4, most or all of Season 5, and all of Season 6, and then I stopped watching (though I came back for the finale). I was really intrigued by the family dynamics of the Mikaelsons, though, so I watched most of Season 1 and all of Season 2 of The Originals before growing weary of the constant infighting and betrayal. I never saw Season 3, but for some reason I started watching Season 4…and that’s the reason I’m here today, Summer Fontana as young Hope…she just blew me away. I came back for Season 5 despite Summer having been replaced by Danielle after the time jump, and she portrayed the travails of teen life and being supernatural and a Mikaelson so deftly. When I heard there was a spin-off featuring Hope, I was there for it.

By the end of the first hour, I had found a new reason to stay in Kaylee’s Josie, who was so complex, so very much more than met the eye. By Hope and Josie’s second interaction, ‘The Poking in the Park’ as I like to call it, their chemistry, their connection, their caring…all screamed at me, and I was a Hosie (although I did not know that was ‘a thing’ until I read an article at TV Line or one of those sites about the show after the end of the season, and it mentioned this popular ship fans had dubbed ‘Hosie’). And then the wish AU, and the crush confession, and…Hope and Josie were screaming to the whole world. Well.

I had found Landon Kirby, the townie server who had memorized the attractive girl’s milkshake order (and, honestly, we all would have done the same, right?), sweet. He seemed compassionate and provided a normalcy Hope needed in her life as The Hollow sought to overtake her once again. When Hope met up with him again in the beginning of Legacies, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s that nice boy again.’ Somewhere in that first hour, though, everything changed. He seemed shifty, he started lying to Hope, and then he stole the knife and got a bus full of innocents killed (ultimately neither were his fault, but…). And then Hope and Josie became kindred spirits, and it was all over for Mister Kirby. (The writers’ writing constantly insufferable behavior and repeating the same things over and over again effectively completely sabotaged his character, which, uh, didn’t help.)

Where was I? Ah, yes, so I’d realized I was not alone in liking Hope and Josie together. I’d been reading fanfic off and on for years, initially on random sites, later on FFN, and about that time AO3 won the Hugo, so I learned it existed 😂 Sometime in the fall of 2019/beginning of Season 2 I started reading Hosie fics on AO3. They were awesome, there were a bunch of incredible authors and super-nice folks (👋 @avengerskye), and despite the awkward turns of S2, we were all excited.

My first-ever thing you’d call a fanfic was an extremely awkward follow-up to War and Remembrance I wrote in middle school. I had sixth and seventh grade teachers who encouraged writing, and I wrote a ton…that fanfic, new installments of my long-running (since third grade) sci-fi series, lots of other stuff I can no longer remember. High school really beat the love of reading and writing out of me, and college and grad school drove it further into the ground and piled rubble on its grave. But it was slowly coming back, and Hosie, well, Hosie had me excited again.

In early 2020 😳 during the month-long break between 2x13 and 2x14, I came up with an idea for quick one-shot (famous last words, I would later learn) idea that would honor Hope and Landon’s connection from The Originals and then move on to Hope’s true epic love, Josie, that the series was shoving in our faces yet doggedly refusing to actually pursue. Hope had just chosen saving the twins over saving Landon! I remembered Hayley’s letter to Hope from S5 and went to look that up. And I started writing. Nearly a thousand words later, I’d written…a prologue 😂 But I published it, and people seemed to like it and left lovely comments, even though it was the first fiction I’d written in ages.

So I wrote the second chapter, which clocked in at 2200 words, still covering well-trodden ground, but introducing some Hosie elements into their pasts, including during 1x07 while Hope was trapped in The Necromancer’s mind and the twins were in Europe. And now my one-shot was going to be 3 or 4 chapters. Another 1600 words, officially picking up after the events of 2x13, and I had written the first 1½ scenes of what I was then envisioning as Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 clocked in at almost 4400 words, longer than the entire fic so far…and there was still one more scene from “Chapter 3” to come. Chapter 5, almost 2K words again. From my end note on the chapter:

Incidentally, this concludes where I envisioned the original chapter 2 (in the original 3-chapter conception of this story) ending. That also means this is the end of “past events” and everything going forward will be happening in the present, at least in theory.

😂

Incidentally, that was also the last chapter written and published before the country finally shut down 😢 We had seen one more episode of the show by then, 2x14, the first therapy box/noir-world 😍, where Hope had chosen the twins over Landon again. (And yet! 🤬)

Chapter 6 came next, on March 24, two days before what would become the season finale aired. (We’d seen the Sadistic Seventeen/The Merge episode the prior week.) There’s a line in the chapter’s beginning notes:

I heard on the radio Saturday evening that local-ish band REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” was back on the charts again 30-some years after it was originally released, and it felt like kismet while writing this chapter.

That moment is seared in my memory, oddly enough. I was down near the river, harvesting sand that had been deposited by the spring (late winter) floods. I had two 5-gallon contractor buckets full, and I wasn’t going to carry them both all the way back up the hill. So I brought the van down the path, and as I was loading the (quite heavy) buckets in the back, that bit of news came over the radio, followed by, I’m fairly certain, the song itself.

This section from the end notes for Chapter 6 pretty much says it all:

It’s become increasingly difficult for me to write the latter part of this story as things out there worsen; I think these rambling, no-action chapters are my subconscious way of trying to put off the impending battle (and the angst and hurt that will surround it) while the real world is hurting. But I don’t think I can interpolate any more chapters, so either the pain will come or this story will end up on hiatus.

While I had all of the rest of the story in mind at this point (except the epilogue, or parts of it), I think it will surprise no on that the fic did, in fact, go on hiatus. It’s hard to write a potential armageddon in the midst of a viral apocalypse.

In April, to try to get writing again, I started After Ten Long Years; by May, I was 15K words into it and trying to wrangle plot threads, but I had a short fluffy idea that became the first of my seasonal Tales from the Salvatore Kitchen series. By June I was stuck again, and I began writing another new fic, my Old West Hosie WIP.

In August, inspired by AdeleDazeem’s summery treat summer lovin' had me a blast (wait, no, that's just the leaf-blower) (add it to your reading list if you haven’t!), I’d written another Tales from the Salvatore Kitchen installment. By September, I’d gotten stuck on Old West Hosie and begun yet another fic, the Hosie Alternate Realities WIP. In November, another bit of fun in the kitchen—that little series of fluffy one-shots was cooking! 😩 [Bad puns also being a trademark of the Tales from the Salvatore Kitchen…]

At the beginning of February 2021, 10 months since I left off, I was back with the final lead-up to the climactic battle, aka Chapter 7. And then 10 days later, the final chapter! From Chapter 8’s notes:

A year ago(!) when I started writing this story, “Mad World” was showing up all over the place, even before the pandemic had hit the US; as I was plotting the end of the story, that seemed like a fitting lyric for this chapter. (If somehow you missed the quarantine acoustic version from the singer and his teenage daughter last April…go listen!) And, hey…I’ve managed to finish my story involving Malivore’s resurrection before canon got him resurrected…barely! Go, me! (Thanks, pandemic…but not really.)

(It really was wild how “Mad World” had shown up on several shows just before the pandemic exploded; the one I still remember is Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.)

I’d had the idea to resurrect/reembody Malivore back in 2020, well before the show aired episodes hinting at that direction, so it was wild to see that we’d both had similar ideas!

This chapter was also my first experience with AO3’s lovely habit of not prompting you to update the publication date of a draft chapter before publishing, so it was published in the middle of page two or three of the Hosie tag, and I didn’t notice for two days! So, other than the subscribers, no one knew Chapter 8 existed 😂

But all was not lost! I had one sentence in my notes that I’d wanted to include in Chapter 8 but couldn’t make it fit, so it’s epilogue time! (It’s somewhere in that final paragraph, but I’d have to both find and attempt to decipher, after all these years, my notes to say for sure.) Josie and Hope as a folk duo! The Siphon & The Tribrid, later Persephone & Eurydice! With a song about Landon inspired by a classic Gordon Lightfoot tune! And some very special moments on the Seine to wrap it all up, two days shy of a year after the fic began.

(So, to recap: work title from a Hayley Marshall quote, plus chapter titles from an REM song/lyric, a Tears for Fears lyric, a Winston Churchill book title, a play on a Gabriel García Márquez book title, and another Hayley Marshall quote. And a fake song title that’s a play on a Gordon Lightfoot song title.)

Also to recap: a one-shot became a two-shot became…8 chapters and an epilogue! (Like The Cape, only better 😂) It has never failed that any fic I begin to publish serially before completing the writing always spawns at least one more chapter than I’d planned on writing 😂

If you’ve made it to this point, congratulations! You have far more patience than me, or a morbid curiosity about how my mind works 😂

A few more notes before wrapping up: this is also the only fic that’s first-person POV. I don’t know why it felt right when I began. (I think some of my early writing was first-person, but I think the bulk of it has always been third-person. And all of my subsequent fics are.)

If I everWhen I finally finish those first three WIPs I began during the writing hiatus on Have at Least One Totally Epic Love, it’ll be very odd, because my opinions of both Landon and Alaric have soured considerably since then, Landon as the frustratingly bone-headed writing of his character and his and Hope’s “relationship” persisted, despite all the potential for Hosie they also wrote into the series, and Alaric because, well…

This is the work that has the most hits, most subscriptions, and most bookmarks, and I doubt I’ll ever approach those levels again. (It also held most comment threads until this summer’s The One with Hope’s Wedding and most words until 2022’s And I Will Always Love You; most kudos has belonged since 2021 to You Couldn’t Even Bother To Check On Me?, which is second in just about every other stat.) It’s weird to seem like you peaked with your very first fic 😂 but such are the vagaries of fandom!

I’ve kinda wanted to tell the story of this fic for a while now, before the parts that aren’t documented in the chapter notes get lost to time, and it is so entwined with my becoming a Hosie and finding AO3, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity, so you got a very long, rambling Director’s Cut!

Thanks so much for the ask, my friend, and for your patience until I could find time and space for this to all gel in my head and then write it down 🙏 (I actually got to it faster than I did to Rika’s 😳😂 a little over a month 😂)

#ask #ask games #director’s cut ask game #unsiredtribrid #Have at Least One Totally Epic Love #hosie #this is the way my mind works #hope mikaelson #josie saltzman #landon kirby #writing process #AO3 #fandom

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