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backtohawkins · 2 years ago

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WELCOME BACK TO HAWKINS, MANNY DIAZ (santiago cabrera fc)

good luck and have a bitchin’ summer!

[SANTIAGO CABRERA, CIS MALE, HE / HIM] who’s that? oh it’s [MANNY DIAZ]. i hear they’re [FORTY] and are known as [THE CAREGIVER] around [DOWNTOWN HAWKINS]. they’re also a [SCIENCE TEACHER] at [HAWKINS MIDDLE SCHOOL]. they’re known to be [EMPATHETIC AND STEADFAST] and [DEFENSIVE AND SELF-SABOTAGING]. some people say they remind them of [AN EARTHQUAKE HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY CAUSING ONLY A SLIGHT TREMOR, TIRED BROWN EYES HIDDEN BEHIND FRAMES, A SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH CUP OF COFFEE TODAY, DOG EARED BOOKS PLACED CAREFULLY ON A SHELF, A DYING CIGARETTE NOT FULLY STUBBED OUT]. [ash, 25, she/her, suicide, self-harm, est]

TW: Racism, War, Death, Political Instability, Drug Addiction, Infertility, Cancer

Armando “Manny” Diaz was born smack dab in the middle of nowhere, in Hooppole, Illinois in 1948. As the third child of six, many people would expect Manny to have quickly faded into the background, especially among some of the bigger personalities in the family. But Manny’s never been quiet, never known when to back down from a fight or when to let something go. As a child, he was always brash, the first to run headfirst into things. No matter how many times Gabe told him to “be safe, be smart,” Manny just couldn’t help himself. If someone in their predominantly white town made a comment about the Diaz family, Manny was there with his quick mouth and even quicker fists. While he might not have always ended fights, he definitely started plenty in the name of standing up for his family.

He’s also always been curious. Around age three, Manny’s favorite question became why. Why was the sky blue? Why did he have to do chores on the farm? Why were the Diaz’s in Illinois and not Chile, where his parents were from and where his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins still lived? Why couldn’t they go back? Most of the time, when a silence lasted for too long, the Diaz family knew that Manny would break it with a “why…” As for the answers to those questions? He had to do chores because he could do them, could help his father with the planting and harvesting, could watch over the animals if Gabe or the girls were busy. The Diaz’s were in Illinois and not Chile because things had been unstable there in the 1930s, causing them to leave in search for a safer place to raise their kids. A place with more opportunities for them, with more stability. And while Manny would grow to appreciate that many, many years later, he spent a long time regretting being so cut off from his culture. At school, he was always the only child in his class from a Latin American background, the only one with a name teachers constantly mispronounced. The only one who had to ride in the car for over an hour on Sundays just to get to the closest Catholic Church who offered a service in Spanish. And as Manny grew, he found himself more and more drawn to keeping up with what was going on in Chile.

Manny always looked up to his older brother, Gabe. A five year age gap between them left Manny always playing the role of the scrappy kid brother. More often than not when they were younger, Gabe had to bail Manny out of trouble, especially when he first started getting into fights. When Manny was thirteen, Gabe moved to the city to go to college, and inspired Manny to leave Hooppole himself when he graduated. Unlike Gabe, Manny chose Illinois State University. He was drawn to a variety of subjects, from English to Physics to Foreign Languages. Ultimately, he kept stumbling his way back to one area: education. When he thought about what he wanted to do most in the world, he knew that the answer was help people. He wanted to be a better teacher than he ever had in school, be someone that kids could come to with problems that had nothing to do with homework or what they were learning in class. He wanted to be like his mother, who had run a daycare out of their farm throughout his childhood. Manny wanted to make a difference, even if it was a small one in just one person’s life.

He was 21 when he was supposed to be drafted for Vietnam - a fate he avoided due to still being in college. Manny wrote to Gabe all the time while he was stationed over there, trying to keep him up to date on everything going on in the US and with their family so he felt like he wasn’t missing anything. In return, he got back pages and pages bleeding black, information redacted before it could even reach Manny’s eyes. It pissed him off, knowing that Gabe couldn’t even talk to him without the government interfering. Unlike Gabe, Manny never would have volunteered to fight. He was horrified by the stories coming back from the frontlines, and protested the war alongside many others at his school. Less than a year later, when four students were shot at a protest on Kent State’s campus, Manny was furious. He was terrified. He was twenty-one years old and worried about his brother dying, his friends dying, himself dying. And the only thing keeping the government from forcing him to serve his time was the fact that he was taking college classes.

After finishing college, Manny left Illinois in the rearview. He loved his family, but his heart was pushing for him to go where he could do something. Be a bigger change than Illinois would allow him to be. So, he went to California, finding a place for himself in Los Angeles. He moved into a neighborhood full of people who looked like him, who spoke the same languages as him, who understood things about him that no one in Illinois had ever been able to. Manny found a home for himself in a tiny, cramped apartment with three roommates, no elevator and no A/C. It was shitty, but it was theirs. His place to come home after school ended, before his volunteer shift at the League of United Latin American Citizens began. Since moving to LA, Manny had been volunteering with organizations promoting the advancement of civil rights for multiple groups. He’d even gone to Christopher Street West’s Gay Pride Parade with one of his roommates, who had come out to him one night over several shots of tequila. In short, during his early 20s, Manny found a sense of community like he never had before. He missed Gabe and his parents and his sisters, but it felt so right being exactly where he was.

Until September 11, 1973 when Chile experienced a military coup that ended with a dictator in charge. For a long time, there was no real news on what was happening. Media inside the country had been cut off, with the new government attempting to keep communication to a minimum. It was confusing, jarring, and Manny had no idea how to help but he wanted to. Chile was a home to him even if he had never stepped foot there. It was the home of the four grandparents he had never known, the countless aunts and uncles and cousins he likely never would see. He just wanted to help them somehow, to do something. Around the same time, though, Gabe was finally returning from Vietnam. After four long years, he was back on American soil and Manny knew his time in Los Angeles was coming to an end. He wanted to go home, to be closer to Gabe for a while. So he packed up, moved back to Illinois briefly to reunite with everyone. But Gabe was different - so different now. He was still in Chicago, a drive from Hooppole, so Manny didn’t notice it so much at first. As time went on, though, it became clearer and clearer. By the time Gabe was addicted, Manny was already wildly out of his depths. And while he tried taking care of him, tried getting him help, it wasn’t enough. So, he left to go be where he could be useful again after giving Rosalia and their parents as much money as he could spare in case Gabe finally managed to give rehab another shot. Over the next several years, Manny would send them more and more to help Gabe out until Rosalia told him to stop, because Gabe wasn’t getting any better. He was stealing from their parents’ farm, begging everyone for money only to spend it on chasing yet another high. Eventually, Manny stopped writing and calling Gabe too. It went unanswered most of the time anyway.

This time, Manny moved to Austin, Texas. Being in the south was a bit jarring for the Midwesterner, and he wasn’t sure how much he liked it, if he was being honest. But there were groups there working to help promote protecting the people of Chile. Manny continued teaching by day, working with the Austin Committee for Human Rights in Chile after Chile’s former ambassador, Orlando Letelier, was assassinated by a car bomb in Washington DC. He worked in canvassing, getting the word out about what was happening and trying his damnedest to get anyone in power to give a single shit.

It was during this time that he met Antonia “Toni” Castillo. A nurse with gumption, passion and a woman who always knew exactly what she wanted, she surprised Manny by asking him out after a meeting they’d both attended. A few dinners and trips to the movies later, and they were going steady. By 1978, they were getting married and thinking about starting a family together. Toni was everything Manny thought he wanted - someone who was passionate, with big ideas on how to change the world and the tenacity to actually do it. She was beautiful, smart, and kind. The exact type of person he wanted to build a life with.

Less than a year later, Manny’s parents were gone within a matter of months of each other. Both were getting on in years, and had lived stressful lives to say the least. They went peacefully, but it still tore Manny up to think about his family suffering through this without him too. He wanted to support them, and find support from them too. So he asked Toni if she would consider moving with him to Hooppole, and she agreed.

Life in Hooppole wasn’t drastically different than when he’d left it after high school - but Manny was. He was no longer quite so rough around the edges, not so driven to fix all of the problems in the world. Manny wished he could, but he was no longer naive enough to believe that that would happen in one single lifetime. Instead, he wanted to change the world for his nieces. Rosalia, his older sister, had married a man named Bernardo and moved back to Hooppole herself to take care of the family farm, which was now in her name. Her daughters, Maria and Ingrid, were young and Manny wanted to be there to help take care of them. He picked them up from school when they needed him to, helped them with their science homework and played soccer with them while Bernardo worked. And years later, when their younger sister Bea had her daughter, Sofia, Manny stepped into that role all over again.

Manny was happy then, he would swear it. Did he miss his old life? Sometimes. But he loved this new one too. He didn’t love it when Gabe arrived in 1980, suddenly sober and asking them all to forgive him though. Manny had been so conflicted - he loved his big brother. He had idolized Gabe as a child, always wanting to be exactly like him. But then that version of Gabe that he loved and looked up to had been warped and twisted by drugs and trauma from the war, and suddenly, Manny didn’t recognize him. This Gabe? Sober Gabe? Manny didn’t know him. He might have wanted to, but when Rosalia firmly told them all that it was her or Gabe - the family or Gabe - the choice was easy. Simple. Manny told Gabe it was time to go, walking him to his car and watching him leave without another word.

As the years went on, things between Manny and Toni soured. Toni loved him - she’d willingly followed him to the middle of nowhere Illinois without a second thought. But…she’d thought life would look so different here. When she moved, she’d thought they’d keep up their activist work, traveling to Chicago on weekends to keep up with the movements there instead of sitting on metal bleachers watching Maria and Ingrid’s soccer games. She thought they’d spend more time together, that they’d have at least one child by now. But they didn’t. They couldn’t. After Toni went to the doctor to discuss fertility issues, she found out that she was fine - she should be having children, with as much as she and Manny were trying. Which meant she wasn’t the issue between the two of them - Manny was. Toni asked him to go to the doctor with her, to see a specialist about it, but…Manny was so busy. He was taking care of their family. Rosalia had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, though it was in the early stages. Her prognosis seemed good, but Manny wanted Bernardo to be able to go to as many appointments with her as he could. In the meantime, he and his younger sister Dot had split their time doing shifts at the farm and taking care of Maria and Ingrid. There was just no time to worry about a baby of his own right now!

Manny doesn’t blame Toni for leaving. He doesn’t, truly. The realization that after five years together, their lives were on two separate tracks, wasn’t easy for either of them to swallow. But Toni had always known what she wanted, had always seen things more clearly than Manny did, and when he came home late one night to find her and the separation agreement waiting for him, he’d realized that there was nothing more that could be done. Toni and Manny officially divorced in 1983, and Toni moved to New York days later to begin working at a hospital there. The last time Manny talked to her, she was happily remarried with a baby girl on the way. Manny would be lying if he said it didn’t sting and that there was no resentment, but he wishes it were true.

Things with Rosalia didn’t get better - in fact, they began getting worse. Her chemo wasn’t working as well as it was supposed to, and she felt sicker and sicker all the time. It took a harsh toll on her body; but she never once complained. Manny wasn’t sure how, it was torture just watching it happen, he couldn’t imagine living it. His older sister was so fucking strong. She never cried in front of her kids or Bernardo, saving the tears for just him and Dot. And they cried with her - mourning what her life should have been, what would happen to her daughters, what would happen to their family. And all through it, Manny asked if she wanted him to bring Gabe to say goodbye. And every time, she said no. No, he had hurt their parents too much. He had hurt her too much. She didn’t want him around now out of obligation or something. But in the last weeks of her life, Manny decided he knew what was best for her. He was going to go to Chicago, to the last known address of Gabe, and bring him back to say goodbye. Gabe deserved that, Rosalia deserved that. But when he got there, he found the place empty. Gabe Diaz was gone.

Rosalia died in late May of 1988. It was as peaceful as it could be, with almost all of her family by her side. Manny held Dot as she cried, waiting until he was completely alone to fall apart himself, shaking and sobbing and wishing more than anything that he had someone to hold him and tell him it would all be okay. It was days after the funeral that a check arrived in the mail from Dr. Gabe Diaz, along with a letter explaining the change of address and apologizing again. Manny had no idea how to handle it - where had the money come from? Was Gabe high again? Had he robbed someone? Was he selling now? There were so many questions and not enough information for him to figure out what the hell his older brother was involved in these days.

Part of him wanted to stay to make sure Bernardo and the girls were okay, but they assured him that they were. They had had years of knowing this was coming, and while it would never make it easier, it had helped give them time to make a plan for how to keep the farm running. The girls were getting older now - well into their teens - and they were willing to take over the chores Manny had used to do. Dot was still around, and Bernardo wanted to throw himself into taking care of the land and his daughters to cope with the loss of his wife. No one needed Manny in Hooppole anymore.

So, he packed his car with a few things, ready to go confront Gabe in some town called Hawkins, Indiana. He wasn’t planning on staying forever, just grabbing Gabe and getting him checked into a new program to help get him clean for good this time. But… Gabe was clean. He was working as a therapist for the town, paid for by the government to help the citizens of a cult adjust. Manny is so skeptical of the whole thing, but he’s decided to stick around for a while. He isn’t sure things can be fixed with him and Gabe - he really isn’t - but he won’t know if he doesn’t try. When he saw the job opening for a Science teacher at the local middle school, it all seemed to come together. He could live here with Gabe, keep an eye on him and get to know him better while he worked. Manny doesn’t know who he is outside of being a caregiver these days, but he’s interested in finding out, assuming he can learn to let go of all of the baggage that he brought with him.

#accepted #manny diaz

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procrastinatorproject · 3 years ago

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Fic writer review, thank you to @thelaithlyworm for the tag <3

how many works do you have on AO3?

Ten? Oh no, it’s actualy 12 now!

what’s your total AO3 word count?

86,468

how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Grand total of 1: Star Trek: Picard - although my latest offering might branch a bit into other Trek as well.

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

“Passengers”

“And a Barrel of Gagh”

“CMO’s Log”

“Preparations”

“Game Night”

Which is actually kinda interesting. I wrote Passengers, Preparations, and Game Night while the fandom was still a lot more active (especially in the Aramis in Space corner), so that makes sense. The CMO’s log has had chapters added every few months, giving it probably the most exposure of any of my fics. Barrel of Gagh, though? I think I’m gonna attribute that to Thimblerig turning it into a truly, TRULY brilliant piece of podfic. Also the fact that it’s whump involving a character played by Santiago Cabrera. ‘tis A Thing..... :D

do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I really try to! I love talking with people in the comments and just... thanking the people who found the time and energy to leave comments. But especially in the last few months I have gotten very bad at keeping up with the comments and now there’s about two dozen that I have neglected to reply to for a painfully long time 🙈

But I will get there! Because I love that kind of interaction!

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

So far, none of them have had angsty endings. Angsty middles, yes, but not endings. I’m just a sucker for everyone being happy in the end. Or at least on the way to being better, and supported and cared for on that way.

do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven’t yet, but I’m definitely not opposed. One of the threads of my 200k unpublishable whump scenes takes place in a continuity that has existed in my daydreams for... I wanna say six years at the very least, probably longer. It’s mostly straight-up Star Trek, but with the twist that it involves the Wraith, the telepathic, hive-minded alien race from Stargate: Atlantis that suck the life force out of you with their hands? Or, well, at least a variation thereof.

I once typed up the world building for that particular setting and it took me three hours to try and make it all make sense. So it’s... involved. But not necessarily “crazy”. And I’m not sure I’m ever actually going to publish any of the stories I have set in it (not least because that would envolve finishing any of them and bringing them into a form that is interesting to read for anyone but me...)

have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope.

do you write smut? if so what kind?

Hm, not yet. I do enjoy reading smut, but only under very specific circumstances. I think I may eventually try my hand at smut, but the inner prude is still very strong. Writing about Rios and Xyr making out (which, honestly, was really tame, all things considered) made me melt in a puddle of blushing embarrassment, so full-on smut is probably beyond me at the moment. One day!

have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Though litigating that in a fandom like ours would be... tricky. ST:Pic is way too small to steal stories outright. But similar or the same ideas pop up all the time. And it’s a complete coincidence. Reading the book that recently came out and that has a kinda similar setting to a lot of my stories (pre-season 1, early in Rios’s history as captain of Sirena, dealing with original characters, holo shenanigans, friendship with Raffi, etc.), I was struck by just how many elements, both scenes or story beats and little details, were similar to things that have cropped up in my writing. And it is entirely coincidental, because I am beyond certain that the author doesn’t read fanfic. Just... for legal reasons. Not to mention I wrote a bunch of the things I saw parallels to while the book was already in production, and some of them are only in my drafts.

So there is a ton of convergent evolution going on in this particular section of the fandom, and trying to litigate who came up with certain plot ideas or character beats when would be a sysiphean disaster. Some things are clear and whenever I use any of them I give credit where I can, but people will have very similar ideas. It just happens. So no, I haven’t had either a full-on story or “an idea” stolen, and I might change my tune if it ever does happen, but so far, I’m trying to practice equanimity, so I’ll be better at it should I ever need it.

have you ever had a fic translated?

Sadly no. My dad keeps complaining that all my fic is in English so he can’t read any of it, but honestly? I’m kinda glad for this very convenient excuse. Maybe if I ever feel like I want to practice my interpreting skills, I will give translating the stories into German a shot. We’ll see. Otherwise, if anyone feels inspired: Have at it! Just let me know, okay?

have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not quite. I have a draft of off-the-cuff worldbuilding that I wrote on Discord with @curator-on-ao3 and that I would love to turn into an actual short fic (letters from a conference on holo-ethics), but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

what’s your all time favorite ship?

I don’t really do shipping.

what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I WILL NEVER ACCEPT DEFEAT!!!! One day, I will write the next installment of Star Trek: La Sirena! I have so many ideas for that continuity and those characters. I’m not going to abandon them!

what are your writing strengths?

Hmmmmm. Probably detailed worldbuilding? Ask me something about, say, a technological or cultural aspect of Star Trek and chances are, I have thought about it in the past or will come up with three different sets of intricate lore within half an hour. (Things like... the architecture of San Francisco, or Will there still be taxi drivers? or the treaty between IKEA Intergalactic and the Borg Collective, or the Universal Translator, or Emergency Services or Why There Are Very Few Ambulances On Earth Anymore etceterah etceterah...)

I’m also good at slapping together off-the-cuff plot ideas (if, say, you need an explanation for how Seven and Agnes ended up stranded on a desert island, I could probably give you three different scenarios pretty quickly. Just don’t ask me to make them poignant or actually write them.

I’m also very, very good at beginnings.

what are your writing weaknesses?

Everything that isn’t a beginning. Especially endings, or rather: finishing something, but also just... keeping momentum.

I think my dialogue is somewhat samey and not distinct enough between characters. (Also my witty banter is... let’s just say it doesn’t come to me naturally...)

And I also struggle with keeping things brief and to the point. I can write you 30k of whump covering a span of three hours, but fitting a whole story in the same space? Much more difficult!

I have also avoided writing full-on action so far, but where it has crept in it has always been a struggle and been workshopped a lot with the indefatigable beta.

Otherwise, I don’t know. My self-perception is always a little warped, so I’m not sure what other people would say my weaknesses are.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Oof. Well. I have used Spanish sentences in my fic and done the thing where they’re translated in the end note, but I’ve mostly done it sparingly. I’ve also done the ‘“What do you want?” he said in Spanish.’ It’s tricky. But I will likely keep doing it in some instances, even if it’s a bit annoying.

(It also really helps to have a native speaker of Spanish as a beta, even if it’s Spanish from a different region than you’re character.)

Speaking of regional: I’m also torn about the whole “phonetically writing out accents” issue. Some people love it, some people hate it, I’m really unsure because I’m not a native speaker of English, so I’m not even sure I’m consistent in my narrative voice’s regional quirks. So far, I’ve mostly gone with describing that an accent is happening, and only writing out when phrasing actually differs from standard English. Like Ian (Scottish) saying “dinnae” but not writing “I” as “ah” as you’d see on, say, Scottish twitter.

Though it can be a very useful tool if, for instance, you want to indicate a characters accent getting stronger as they get tired or upset. 🧐

Anyway, I don’t think there is one right or wrong answer here and everyones milage will vary.

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Published? ST:PIC

Actually first? Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Pretty much simultaneously, though I did write more for LotR. On graph paper, mind, with my fountain pen turned upside down so I could write smaller. I still have folders worth of those stories that I urgently need to digitize before they fade and I lose them forever...

what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I’m going to quote @thelaithlyworm here: I Love All My Children Equally! I honestly couldn’t say. They are different and I love them for different reasons but I love them all.

Thank you for the tag! ❤ I’ve kinda lost track of who all has done this already or has already been tagged, so feel free to ignore me! But I tink I’m tagging @curator-on-ao3, @aini-nufire, @29-pieces, @flowers-creativity, @highfunctioningflailgirl, @cristobalrios and @the-goofball. And anyone else whom I forgot or who feels inspired to do this!

#ask meme #writing #lili's writing adventures #this was fun!

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cicaklah · 4 years ago

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2020 - a year in fic

2020 was a terrible year, of course, but in terms of yer girl cicak writing fic, it was the most bumper year since *checks official records* records began. (Records in this case being 2010 and in the AO3). Ten years on the ao3! What a milestone.

It was a weird year in fic. I started out super obsessed with The Witcher, and was sure this was the second coming of old fashioned big fandoms, and then almost as soon as I started, I promptly lost interest. I like writing it, but I wasn’t really interested in reading it, or rewatching the series. Therefore I just sort of...wandered away, and periodically came back when some really stupid idea grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.

These were: look what you made me do - the most popular fic I’ve written in a decade of concentrated fic writing. In which Jaskier is basically Taylor Swift c. 2014, and everyone in fantasy Poland wants to know who inspires all those bangers he keeps churning out, and Geralt has a lot of feelings about turnips and his horse and badly timed goats and also whether Jaskier really has been singing about him this whole time. Contains goatus interruptus and my second favourite OC, Titch Westmoreland, tax collector and enthusiastic shipper.

I wrote a sequel to that called Jas Queen, where Geralt goes to see Jaskier perform his new song cycle, and then gets hella laid in the dressing room by Jaskier in drag as Queen Calanthe.

Then @nim-lock drew said hella laying and as thanks I wrote vestis virus whatever the latin is wrong, which is Jaskier, rich aesthete, taking advantage of someone stealing Geralt’s clothes to play dressup, which was an excuse to write SEXUAL TENSION, which way too many months later, I consummated in an indentation in the shape of you.

I continue to not apologise to tswift for anything.

And then out of the blue I decided I wanted to write something stupid and so wrote how an egg makes another egg, which is the best thing I’ve written all year, you should all read it, I am a genius, all praise Meluhha and may she bless us with thick shells and double yolks in 2021.

Anyway in the spring I got SUPER INTO Star Trek Picard, and by that I mean SUPER INTO Agnes Jurati and into how she got away with murder and shagged Santiago Cabrera, who was extra attractive this year, (and I consolidated that by watching The Musketeers, for which I wrote no fic, but I did think about writing fic for it a LOT). I wrote a small thing called ‘a knife in the country’ expecting it to get jossed within a week, and when it didn’t I went kinda...mad? and wrote a series of interlocking stories that I will collect into a series when I can think of a title. They are: red to port, green to starboard, white to guide the way, not a star in the sky that’s got our name, and nothing to fear from the siren’s call. Of these, nothing to fear from the siren’s call, my Rios manifesto that also doubles as a reflection on 10 years of my own PTSD journey, is my second favourite thing I wrote this year.

The other thing I did this year was a WIP Amnesty, which I called the Coronavirus Decameron because at heart I am pretentious as balls. I really liked doing that, and will continue it for as long as the coronavirus continues to provide us with Unprecedented Times.

I finished off a Star Trek The Force Awakens cosmic horror story called if there is love at the end of everything that no one read because no one goes here anymore.

I completed a DS9 erotic farce called ‘I was born like this don’t even gotta try’ which is the closest I’ll probably ever come to writing ABO (where Garak goes into heat, and asks Julian to help, so Julian volunteers his encyclopedic knowledge of holosuite wank programmes, and finally his own arse, to the cause), and then a pet gen project about Bashir’s genetic augmentation from the POV of his mother called all the sinners, saints, that led to people in the comments accusing each other of wanting autistic people to be exterminated, because this is still 2020 after all.

I wrote part 4 of lesbian han solo, it takes a village (but there’s only you and me) a series I will eventually finish at this rate sometime in 2040, where Han and Leia’s daughter is born, and their relationship begins to fail.

I finished off one of my many, many Star Trek Discovery WIPs from 1st season when the show didn’t make me want to pull my hair out, and rediscovered my deep ashburn feels in someday I’ll love what I can’t find in you, thanks to the eternal cheerleading of @drstrangewillseeyounow.

I also finished a Modern Raffles story that I started writing in summer 2019 when England won the world cup, that if you know your raffles and your cricket is a work of genius, but mostly went over people’s heads. It is called by the barest of margins and just, this is my third favourite thing I’ve written this year.

Finally for the decameron, I wrote a hitman story called in every life a little rain about 47 being poisoned and hallucinating/fantasising/remembering Diana wearing fancy shoes and them maybe having a secret relationship, that I am really proud of.

Outside of the above, I also wrote a tenet fic called never odd or even, where I attempt to fix the film somewhat, and somewhat succeeded. I’m happy with it, even if I thought it would do better in terms of engagement.

All in all I published 68,140 words of fic, most of which was written in 2020. I also wrote about 30,000 words of thesis and 20,000 words of reports for my new job. Overall, I would have written more, but I got a proper job that requires me to do things and use my brain in October, so then lost the ability to sit in front of my computer on an evening.

Thank you to everyone who read my stories and commented in 2020, especially all the hannibal fans who discovered my old works, and anyone who reads even steak don’t cry or the rose of terok nor especially.

May Meluhha bless us all in 2021.

#fic review 2020 #fic reflections #my fic #fic writing problems #fic recs #cicak #2020 review

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paperwick · 5 years ago

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So I watched Picard, here’s my spoiler-free take on it.

Overall, it was overproduced and lacked either the momentum that carries an action film or the meandering thoughtfulness that worked so well for both Star Trek the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. That said I liked it alright.

Whenever Patrick Stewart or Brent Spiner was on screen, I was captivated. P.Stew is still one of the very best actors I’ve had the pleasure of watching and once again, he carries this show a great deal of the way. Michelle Herd was fantastic, Santiago Cabrera was a dream, but that’s where the show stops holding strong for me. Those four actors made the show.

The cinematography was excessive. It was artistic with its ultra quick cuts when we needed space to breath, it was chaotic in fight scenes where we needed to pull back to actually understand how cool the action really is. You never really get the full scope of whats happening, it’s all sacrificed for the shaky-cam, quick-fire cuts. Scenes where you don’t need to cut at all, where you could let the camera sit and really take in the scene at the same rate as the character are often over-saturated with cut-ins, montage shots, and just... just a ton of visual garbage.

There were shots that drove me a little crazy where they wanted to show “symbolism”. There’s a shot in particular that gets recycled several times throughout the show, where you see the character from behind a holographic screen with faces overlaid on their own, and one particularly with Picard touching the wrong side of his head to make the shot “work”. It all pulled me out of the show, brought me back to reality enough to critique every third scene.

There’s a montage sequence they do every other episode, where they “heist-plan” scenes together. They’ll be talking about science in the “planning-scene” and cut to the “action-scene” in the future back and forth. I didn’t love it, and it happened constantly. It was chaos and once again it just butchered the pacing of the show.

The other thing I had the most trouble with was the writing. There’s a lot of weak points in the plot, and things touched on that are only there once so a character can be like “AHA”. A character’s mannerisms show up once mid-season, something that hasn’t happened before this moment, and doesn’t happen after, JUST for a quippy scene of dialogue. It was strung together very poorly.

And really, what was worse for me, Star Trek hasn’t asked the “bigger” questions in a long time. It’s just entertainment, generally mindless entertainment. If it asks a question, it’s a simple one. I want Star Trek to challenge us again.

We’re living in a world that is so close, so overwhelmingly close to developing synthetic life, and I would love for them to explore at what point we stop treating AI as a commodity, as something owned by a corporation, as a tool. At what point does AI become a lifeform?

But instead of pursuing contemporary problems, of any kind really, it goes with the quick-paced action film route of the JJ Abrams films. It did some interesting things with the morality of resigning from power in protest, but it never really capitalized on it. It was just touched on here and there. There was also something really interesting in the morality of killing for a cause, which came up CONSTANTLY, but once again was never really explored. So much was just squashed into the show and didn’t really matter over the course of it.

Still, seeing Picard and Data interacting soothed my aching heart. I was underwhelmed by the show, I don’t think they should make a second season. I think they misstepped hard at the end by going with the gutsy play and then magicking themselves out of it.

But the opening music is lovely, so there’s that.

I give it a... 7/10. Not terrible, lacking in charm, but you can’t deny how incredible Patrick Stewart’s performance is. The show’s greatest sin is not living up to its potential.

#thoughts #star trek #picard

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discotreque · 5 years ago

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Picard 1.08: Broken Pieces

I'm so tired, y'all. My cat ate one of my hair elastics, because she's an idiot, and she was up all night puking extremely loudly all over the apartment. I have reached the age where I can't just bounce back from a sleepless night with a couple of Red Bulls and sheer force of will, so I'm kinda wrecked.

But I don't think I've ever been so wrecked that I couldn't ramble about Star Trek for a minute, so—shall we?

Spoilers:

We open on Aia, "The Grief World," possibly the most extra name for a planet in all of Star Trek canon.

This flashback is set 14 years ago, and Ramdha is present. But when we met her as one of the disordered Romulan xBs, they said she and her ship were assimilated 16 years ago. Either I'm misremembering or that's an obvious error. Which happens—I'm not mad, just confused.

Speaking of confusion: we see only female Romulans experiencing the Admonition (cool name btw), and Oh mentions a tradition passed down from their "foremothers." Are the Zhat Vash a female-only sect like the Qowat Milat? If so, what's Narek's deal? Or are only women Admonished, and male Zhat Vash agents just have to take their word for it?

None of this actually matters. I told you I was tired.

I really liked the scene with Narissa and Ramdha, mainly because I like Peyton List a lot and she got to show some complexity for a change, but Narissa remains an uncompelling villain to me. Even if she thinks she's working to save trillions of lives, she's indulging in an awful lot of sadism along the way; you get the impression she'd be torturing and murdering people even if she weren't an anti-android crusader.

They told us up front that Rios had a tragic backstory, but wowwwww. Two weeks in a row, this show gets us grieving for a character we've never met—impressive.

Prop watch! The phaser Raffi pulls on Soji looks more like a 21st-century firearm than any weapon we've ever seen on Star Trek, which added some possibly-unintentional heft to the scene. You just don't get the same visceral reaction seeing someone held at dustbuster-point.

The return of Admiral Fucking Bongwater! I worry Oh's going to get her before this is all over, though.

More infinitesimally tiny nitpicking: the JJ Abrams movies introduced the idea that phaser bolts on "stun" are blue, and ones on "kill" are red, and as far as I could tell, the first two seasons of Discovery used the same convention. (Which is a retcon I'm fine with: it makes fight scenes more visually understandable.) We've seen both red and blue phaser fire on Picard, and every confirmed phaser kill has been from a red shot. This episode, we see Seven shoot a bunch of Romulans with blue bolts, but later Narissa says they were killed by phasers. I don't know what to believe anymore!!!

I have literally never been more attracted to Jeri Ryan than in this episode. What a babe.

Every conversation about Data on this show ends up making me weepy. "He loved you" was the heavy hitter line, of course, but Picard saying that he felt as limited in his own emotional capacity as Data also had me reeling.

I totally called the engineering hologram being Scottish. Is it a terribly clever joke? No. Did I know they would be powerless to resist it anyway? Yes. Did I laugh my ass off when it finally came to pass? Absolutely I did.

Moving stars around the galaxy is pretty cool, but I read a novel once where some hyper-advanced aliens were moving stars back in time. Way cooler.

The physical comedy in the scene with Mr. Hospitality the close-talker and Raffi, who has a basic normal sense of personal space, was hilarious.

Rios is a sad boy who listens to sad songs on vinyl records and reads sad philosophy books. So basically he's every guy I knew in my 20's, zing!

Say what you will about the writing on this show, but the acting is almost uniformly phenomenal. I've heard more than one actor say that being on a show with Sir Patrick Stewart makes you instinctively up your acting game, and honestly, I think it shows all over the place, even when P. Stew's not in the actual scene.

All of that last point was basically to say Jeri Ryan is also acting her ass off this episode. I always thought she was a great actor, all the way from her debut on Voyager, but she is taking it to another level here and I cannot look away.

Can't decide who's showing off more in the scene with all the holograms: Santiago Cabrera or director Maja Vrvilo. Standing ovation to them both.

Raffi calls Rios's record player a "Walkman," which is adorable.

I will literally bet money that, had we seen Beautiful Flower (RIP), he would have been played by a relatively makeup-free Brent Spiner. Furthermore, I predict we're going to see another android from that line (i.e. Spiner returning sans the Data makeup) before the end of the season. And if it doesn’t happen and I remember to, I will call myself out.

Agnes is like "I promise I won't kill you," and Soji's just "Like you fucking could."

There was a cute moment on the Ready Room this week when Wil Wheaton mentioned seeing an early cut of this episode without most of the VFX, and Jeri Ryan's immediate reaction was "Oh, so I looked like a total idiot!"

All those Borg being vented into space was rugged as fuck. This show has gone to some lengths to establish individual Borg drones as not only victims, but victims who can potentially be saved. On TNG and Voyager, you cheered when a Borg cube blew up. On this show, when thousands of drones are unceremoniously killed, it feels like the massacre it is.

Everyone who's been whining about the nasty, nasty language on this show is going to have a fucking field day with this episode.

Speaking of f-bombs, I get the feeling Picard should have called Clancy back with the news that her head of security is a Romulan agent. Seems like information she should have, um, ASAP?

When Soji took over La Sirena with zero difficulty I burst out laughing. Like father, like daughter!

I am extremely interested to see what happens next with this Borg cube.

Picard's speech to Rios feels like the thesis of this whole show. I like it.

And fuckin' Narek is still around. Ugh.

Next week is Part 1 of the two-part season finale: "Et in Arcadia Ego." How's that for a title?

#star trek picard #star trek picard spoilers #picard spoilers #amy's episode notes

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ysrith · 5 years ago

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Meanderings on Star Trek and my love/hate for it

I love sci/fi and fantasy. I love Star Trek, but I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Trek, beacuse I am often disappointed by it. It creates wonderful worlds and characters that capture the imagination, but often fails to develop them, falling back on established tropes and predictable storylines. In fact some of the best explorations of the Trek universe have been outside the remit of the TV shows/movies, but in the remit of the extended universe created in the large collection of novels associated with the universe. In particular, I absolutely adore Peter David’s Excalibur series, which takes some of the more interesting and non conventional Trek characters, introduced over the years, put them together as one large, dysfunctional family and takes them in directions that is very satisfying. I have also always had issues about the sanctity of Starfleet in the ST universe. Starfleet is a reflection of US culture, and this is a US TV show, but maybe it’s because I come from a European background that I have been far more interested in the wider universe around it. Those other races, Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, Bajorans were just as interesting and in some ways more so. I loved it when DS9 expanded our understanding of the wider ST universe. I still think the last half of DS9 is some of the best Sci/fi, not just Star Trek, out there. So i approached the latest series, Star Trek Picard, with some trepidation. I was intrigued by the casting, Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd lured me in, but also Romulans!!!! Oh yes, Star Trek could always do with more Romulan intrigue. Back in the day, Diane Duane write a great series, The Rhiannsu, exploring Romulan culture, which has obviously been read by the current script-writers, in case you are wondering where “secret names for lovers only” comes from, H’rai Yan. There is something about that race that really captures my imagination, and despite all the TV shows and books, we actually know very litlle about their culture. They are not simply hot angry Vulcans.

So yeah, Romulans and intrigue and a wonderful tie-in to the Kelvin universe.

But ultimately, Star Trek Picard has left my disappointed. They built it all up and in the end it boiled down to basic Trek 101. And now it would appear that they are going a different direction in Season 2, with a return to the Federation and re-introducing the characters from the older series. Fine and I can understand why more traditional ST may prefer this, but for me that leaves many interesting things unresolved. The Romulan refugees on Yashti? The Borg XBs shipwrecked on Coppelius? What happens to the Zhat Vash now that the mission has been successful? Ganmadan was averted, wasn’t it? I need more, the least of which is WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO NAREK? .

#star trek #star trek picard #romulans

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takaraphoenix · 6 years ago

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Writing a post about how much I need James Marsters and Dominic Sherwood to star in the same franchise reminded me that wait, I did a pitch for that before.

Which in return reminded me that wait, I sat through a long and boring day at college last semester and actually did a more detailed pitch. And since I have absolutely nothing to do right now, hear me out.

It’s a TV show based around a pack of werewolves. More precisely, focusing on one particular werewolf who can turn at will while the others are bound by the moon. Also, there’s gays in it and basically most of my favorite actors. Really, it was mainly born from me making a list of TV actors I enjoy and would like to see in the same piece together and then I spun a plot around it. It turned into a bit of a mix between Shadowhunters and Teen Wolf, really. With maybe a slight dash of Vampire Diaries in there.

So let’s start with the cast, yes?

Dominic Sherwood as Heliodoro ‘Haley’ O’Rinn, an orphaned werewolf and the protagonist of our story.

Dylan O’Brien as Maximillian ‘Max’ Blythe, Haley’s best friend, a nerd with a lot of chaotic energy, who also turns out to be a sorcerer without knowing it.

Yaya DaCosta as Jessamine ‘Jess’ Kemp, Haley’s other best friend and the voice of reason in their chaotic trio. Also love interest to Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien. She’s the human who runs with wolves and where they sometimes let their instincts win out over common sense, she is the one with a plan.

Alexandra Daddario as Menodora ‘Meena’ O’Rinn, Haley’s twin-sister, stricter than Haley and taking everything, including training, more seriously than him. The twins aren’t very close, but Meena is fiercely protective of her brother, even when she doesn’t like to show it.

Alyssa Milano as Dorothea O’Rinn, Haley and Meena’s mother who dies in the first episode but we will have regular flashbacks to the childhood of the twins and the things Meena, in particular, learned from her mother. Because she was the Alpha of the pack - and Meena was supposed to follow in her pawprints, so to speak.

James Marsters as Lucius O’Rinn, Haley and Meena’s father and the husband of Dorothea O’Rinn/Alyssa Milano. He was the aloof and fun parent who used to play a lot with little Haley while Meena learned all the important Alpha lessons from their mother.

John Laroquette as Conall O’Rinn, the grandfather of Haley and Meena, who raises them after their parents die when they are still small children. He lives in a secluded cabin in the woods, knowing he has to protect his grandchildren after their entire pack, including their parents, was killed.

Amy Acker as Riley Blakesley, the Alpha of the new pack moving into the territory over the following ten years since the O’Rinns and their pack were murdered. She is a one hundred percent badass and becomes a new mentor-figure to Meena O’Rinn/Alexandra Daddario after the twins meet her.

Jamie Chung as Sara Lin, the loyal Beta and second-in-command of Riley Blakesley/Amy Acker. Like her Alpha, she is a strong and fierce fighter. And she particularly has no time for Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien’s nonsense.

Santiago Cabrera as Antonio ‘Tony’ Del Bosque, Haley’s love-interest and a member of Riley Blakesley/Amy Acker’s pack. He is reckless and gets into a lot of trouble, which is why he gets dragged into this mess.

Shemar Moore as Mark Chase, Tony Del Bosque/Santiago Cabrera’s best friend and Sara Lin/Jamie Chung’s love interest. Which always puts him into an awkward position, because he knows what his best friend is up to - and he should tell his girlfriend, for one because honesty is key to a healthy relationship and also because she is the pack’s second-in-command so honesty is key to staying healthy.

Jane Lynch as Cassandra Leclair, a powerful sorceress who will help our friends on their quest. She is the one who will enlighten Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien about his heritage and she also finds out why the O’Rinn pack has been killed.

John Barrowman as Maximus Bloodworth, the main villain of our show, former best friend of Lucius O’Rinn/James Marsters, former apprentice to Cassandra Leclair/Jane Lynch and also the biological father of Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien.

And with that, we have actually finished the cast list and gotten quite far on the story. But let’s focus on only the story now.

Dorothea O’Rinn/Alyssa Milano and Lucius O’Rinn/James Marsters are killed in our opening scene, along with their entire pack, leaving Haley O’Rinn/Dominic Sherwood and his twin-sister Meena O’Rinn/Alexandra Daddario as orphans.

All we see is a fire and a shadowy figure walking away from it.

The next scene, ten years later, the twins are living with their grandfather Conall O’Rinn/John Laroquette in a secluded cabin in the woods, keeping away from society as much as possible.

Only that Haley’s best friends from high school are two people that really can not be shaken off - Jess Kemp/Yaya DaCosta and Max Blythe/Dylan O’Brien.

Max and Haley have always gotten into a lot of trouble, even as little children. Jess was always the voice of reason behind them who essentially kept the two idiots alive. But when she starts to suspect there might be a cult in their small little hometown of Sunhaven, even Jess’ curiosity is piqued, so the trio goes and investigates.

It started five years ago, that new people moved there and were behaving weird. Living together in one big house, people who definitely were not family. But lately, there seemed to be more and more.

Jess’ suspicion is that Riley Blakesley/Amy Acker is some kind of cult-leader.

Only that she’s not. She’s an Alpha werewolf who was chased away from her own territory by hunters and considering the O’Rinn pack had been dead for ten years alrady, she figured she could claim the land.

First there is distrust and suspicion - Riley thinks the trio might be hunters, while they actually believe that Riley and her pack are a cult.

Conall O’Rinn has a lot of explaining to do. We’ll do that about mid-season.

Haley doesn’t know he’s a werewolf. He was only ten when their parents died and since he was not next in line, there was no reason to concern him with it. Well, in the back of his mind, he vaguely remembers wolves but he figured that was just his overly active imagination, you know? His twin-sister Meena however had been groomed to become the next Alpha from a young age and she always knew that they were both wolves.

That revelation causes a rift between the twins and it also makes Haley really freak out. Because, what? He’s a werewolf now? He always was a werewolf?

He runs away in a panic.

Not knowing what to do, Jess and Max go to seek help from the werewolf pack because who knows where Haley went and if something happened to him.

The Alpha however is still talking to grandpa O’Rinn and will not be disturbed - her loyal and fierce second-in-command Sara Lin/Jamie Chung makes sure of that. To appease her, her mate Mark Chase/Shemar Moore decides to get the meddling human kids out of the way.

Listening to their story though, he and his best friend Tony Del Bosque/Santiago Cabrera decide to thelp them find the runaway young wolf.

It’s Tony who finds Haley, trapped in a cave where he slipped and panicked. Only... the boy isn’t human when he finds him. Instead, he’s a beautiful white wolf. In the middle of a bright and sunny day. Something that should be absolutely impossible.

Now that needs to be reported to the Alpha. Because usually, young werewolves undergo their first change at age 25 - and it’s coming up for them. But it should only happen on a full moon. Wolves can’t just change at will.

Understandably freaked out, they look toward Riley for answers. The Alpha has to know what any of this means, right? Well, no, not really.

She instead sends them onto a quest to New York to visit a great sorceress - she might understand what strange magic is going on here.

While the pack-situation may not be sorted out, Riley does feel responsible for them so she sends Tony, Mark and Sara (the latter under great protests because she feels like babysitting is beneath her and that she ought to protect the Alpha and the pack) along with them. The journey is long and dangerous, after all. Sorcerers can’t be trusted and who knew what might lay along the way?

They travel cross country and encounter different supernatural creatures along the way, seeing the world with different eyes now. Jess grows incredibly fascinated by it all and starts documenting it, while Tony and Haley slowly fall in love with each other during the journey. Though neither is yet ready to admit anything.

Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger of Cassandra Leclair/Jane Lynch opening her door and greeting them - “I have been waiting to meet you, Sun Wolf.”.

Throughout the first season, we’d have a lot of flashbacks to the twins’ childhood. To their dad playing with Haley whenever their mom was teaching Meena about wolves. Most of the flashbacks would be Haley re-evaluating his memories, seeing the things in them that he, as an innocent child, had overlooked. And in those flashbacks, John Barrowman would repeatedly appear as their father’s best friend, though remaining unnamed for now and unassuming.

By the way, The Sun Wolf would also be the title of the show.

We open up season 2 where we left off in season 1 and Cassandra essentially tells Haley that there is nothing she can do for him. She only knows of a prophecy about a wolf who would walk the sun and that’s it.

The second season mainly takes place in New York, where Cassandra did however notice the magic pulsing through Max and starts teaching him about his powers. He never met his father, was raised by a single mother who never spoke a word of who Max’ father even was.

Haley all the while is majorly sulking because he feels like a freak, where Tony becomes a reassuring, gentle voice to him.

Jess gets her own plotline where she starts feeling left out. Between Haley the day-walking werewolf and Max the sorcerer, she was just... human. Her interest in magical creatures sparked in season one leads her to discover vampires though.

And while she doesn’t get turned, she gets into a lot of trouble with them. Weak from bloodloss and delirious with vampire-venom, she is used as bait to lure the others out. The vampires are out to kill them, but thankfully they brought Sara, Mark and Tony - aka three well-trained wolves - with them. Though Sara does most of the ass-kicking.

Afterward, we see the vampires reporting back to a shadowy figure where we can’t make out the face.

Sara decides to take Jess under her wing after this. She teaches the girl how to fight and how to defend herself and they share some bonding. Sara confides that she doesn’t always like being a werewolf, that all she ever wanted was a peaceful life. That turning every full moon is painful and a curse.

Jess learns to appreciate her humanity and embraces her role in their team. She gathers all the information she can - now no longer just a random journal about the supernatural they encountered, but clear evidence and everything they can find out about the Sun Wolf.

After Max’ training ends, Cassandra sends them on their way back home. They’re still bummed out that they didn’t really find any leads and she suggests they should talk to Max’ father about it - since he was a local sorcerer back when the O’Rinn pack was still in town, apparently (otherwise the siring of a son would have been hard, after all).

They get a name from her, because she recognized the signature of Max’ magic as that of a former student of hers. Maximus Bloodworth.

On their way back to Sunhaven, they are attacked by hunters.

In the final scene of season 2, we see the hunters report back to the same shadowy figure as the vampires earlier this season. The doorbell rings, interrupting the meeting. The figure walks toward the door and opens it to have our protagonists standing in front of him. “Are you Maximus Bloodworth? I think I’m your son”, says Max as the camera pans over his shoulder to reveal John Barrowman as not just Max’ father but also the one who had tried to kill them all along.

In season 3, we are finally returned to Sunhaven and have Maximus Bloodworth/John Barrowman relay the story of how the O’Rinn pack died from his perspective. Which, obviously, is a lie. He also tells them how he had fled, trying to save his own life, not knowing that Max’ mom was pregnant at the time. Which is... actually not a lie. Max is a factor he had not anticipated, so he changes his plans. He tries to sway them, to be the voice in Max’ ear, to appeal to the boys’ longing for a father-figure.

So season 3 sees a heavy focus on Max’ loyalty being torn between his friends and his father, with Maximus teaching him not just magic but dark magic that in its essence corrupts a sorcerer’s soul.

We are also shown that while they were off questing, Meena joined the pack and has taken to learning from Riley. That puts Meena and Sara at odds, because Sara sees her position as second-in-command threatened.

This season, Tony and Haley are actually finally going to get together. Because Max is so busy reuniting with his father, while Jess has completely buried herself in her research and in absorbing all the knowledge she can. In that time, Haley draws a lot of strength from Tony and here, back in the woods, he can actually train his shifting.

Now, Jess’ digging and researching brings her dangerously close to the truth, ending in an epic reveal. Because reading up on magic and wolves and sorcerers, she finds out that the first werewolf had been cursed by a sorcerer to walk the night under the full moon, using powerful light magic. So she finds out, or rather deducts, that it was powerful dark magic that enabled Haley to walk in the sunlight. The only powerful sorcerer anywhere nearby however was Maximus Bloodworth.

Max does not like to hear that. His dad was everything he had always pictured and more. And the dark magic he had unbeknowns been using had been corrupting him too.

The season ends with an epic show-down and fight between Max and Haley during which Jess gets hurt. In the end, Max flees with his father and we are left not knowing Jess’ fate.

Season 4 opens up in the hospital, where Jess is bitching to Sara about how much she hates it here.

The pack had done their best trying to find Max and his father and now they are trying to find out why Maximus would have done this in the first place.

Max all the while starts growing suspicious on his own. Now that they are no longer in a cozy lake house, having fun father-son bonding, he sees his father’s scheming and his underlings.

One day, he confronts his father and asks for the truth, demands to be trusted.

Maximus reveals that werewolves are bound to the moon. Instead, Maximus wanted to bind them to him. An army of obedient wolves, who can shift and attack and fight whatever day or night it is. He had used Meena and Haley as experiments when they were born, he had been trusted by their parents, had babysat them and spend a lot of time around them. And while the magic did not take with Meena, it took with Haley.

But when their mother found out about it and alerted the pack, it became too risky and Maximus intended to kill them all and only take Haley with him. Only that the twins had been with their grandfather at the time and the attack resulted in a large fire. Not knowing the twins had been gone to begin with and being unable to find them in the ashes now, Maximus assumed they had perished alongside their pack.

Only when Haley ran away and shifted at day, not far off from Maximus’ lake house, did he realize that his experiments had survived and been successful.

Panicked and disgusted does Max run away.

The pack however is not too welcoming toward the traitor. Sara in particular chases him off, because she had grown very protective over Jess since the vampire-incident in New York.

Not knowing what to do, Max finds himself returning to Cassandra Leclair in New York. The sorceress takes him in and she shares stories of his father’s youth. He had always had great potential, but also too much pride. He thought sorcerers were above all else. They were the ones who had created the curses of werewolves and vampires, they should be the ones to wipe them up. For that, he intended to pitch them against each other - since they had been rivals for as long as they existed.

While Max overcomes his addiction to dark magic at Cassandra’s and Jess goes through physical therapy at Sunhaven, Meena and Haley slowly reconnect again, because Meena knows how much it hurt Haley to lose his best friend like that. In the end, it is Meena who encourages Haley to go and search for Max - especially after Sara reveals that Max had dropped by weeks ago.

The twins go on this quest together and bond, sharing about their respective experiences. How Haley had always felt excluded by their mother favoring Meena. How Meena had always envied that Haley got to just grow up and be a child. Their parents were what had caused the rift between them.

In the end, Meena makes it to Cassandra’s. Bloodied and battered. And alone. Because Maximus knew that on the long run, Haley would come and seek out his best friend - and of course did Maximus know where his son went. He kidnapped the boy. And that’s how we end season 4.

Now, in the fifth and final season, the pack has to band together to track down Maximus and free Haley.

Jess and Max rekindle their friendship during this quest. They also find a new sense of appreciation for Tony, who is going completely crazy with worry for his boyfriend - and anger toward Meena for taking Haley on this quest without any form of backup.

Riley and Sara get to kick major ass. A lot of asses will be kicked this season, because Maximus also had his vampire experiments - and he had continued those over the past ten years. He has an army of vampires who can walk in the sunlight (which is why we had the vampires attack our team in season 2).

This season is very action packed and dramatic overall, so there’s not much to tell. In the end, they win, obviously. Riley, and other members of her pack, die during the fight. And we conclude the series with Meena becoming the rightful Alpha of the Sunhaven pack.

We see, battered and bruised but very much alive, Sara and Mark swearing their loyalty to their new Alpha who had proven herself during the final battle against the vampires.

We see Tony and Haley, happy and together, kissing in the sunset at the very cave they had first met.

We see Jess and Max opening up a book store - with a special section dedicated to magic, a book written by Jess laid out in the display.

#TV Show Pitch #Werewolves #Dominic Sherwood #James Marsters #Alexandra Daddario #Dylan O'Brien #Santiago Cabrera #Yaya DaCosta #Alyssa Milano #John Laroquette #John Barrowman #Jane Lynch #Amy Acker #Jamie Chung #Shemar Moore

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hithelleth · 7 years ago

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Salvation S1

Why do I keep getting into shows that are likely to be cancelled!? Oh, right, because I’m a masochist. So, I’ve finished Salvation and it was so good! I’ve been internally squeeing for days, so I’ll try to get things out of my system now so I can then maybe focus on other fannish (and non-fannish) things.

(This turned out long, so I put it under the cut and tried to make it more easily readable with some bolding. My apologies to those on mobile.)

I’ve always had a thing for doomsday premises, so this was right up my alley with an impending extinction level event that must remain secret from the general populace to avoid panic while the big shots try to prevent it.

Except that unlike a number of cheesy movies where the world comes together to save humanity and/or help each other after the disaster, Salvation creators tackled it from the other end: the whole season is set before the disaster strikes and nobody is willing to cooperate.

I found the approach refreshing and really liked it. Probably because I’m what I call a pessimistic idealist. I mean, don’t get me wrong, obviously, if such a scenario happens in real life, I do hope (or want to) that humanity would come together to save itself/the Earth. But the pessimist in me thinks there is just as much chance for us to kill each other before the Earth/space/whatever gets to us.

Although, of course, with the current political atmosphere where the orange menace and the little dumpling (you know who I mean, they don’t deserve to be named) are throwing threats with nuclear war weapons around, the cold-war-era-like hostilities in the show gave me chills.

So, there’s political power play galore while the tech wiz and co. are trying to find the way to save the world while being obstructed on every step by politicians. I liked the suspense it all brought out, and how it made the show fast paced (but didn’t take anything from complexity). I also liked all the shadiness and there was a lot of it around, as basically everyone does at least something not quite right (even if with the best of intentions).

I liked that the focus of the show is sort-of evenly spread between science and politics as well as different age groups, as in the characters in their early to mid-twenties and those around/in their forties, which I’m more into the older I get (seriously, it’s one of the biggest reality checks as to age when I realise that the character/actor(ess) is only a few years older than me, or worse, younger!)

And while I’m at that… I have a new OT3!!!! Come on, you knew this was coming, I’m that weird person who can find more or less likely OT3s anywhere and I proudly own it.

But damn it, I wasn’t looking for it! Then again I never do, you know how it goes: I don’t choose my ships, they chose me. Those three fuckers! Why am I doing this to myself? Why? *high pitched pterodactyl screeching*

I’m talking about Harris/Grace/Darius (in all variations), just to be clear. Seriously, I have no idea how it happened, but around episode 5 or 6, I was like, “well maybe instead of squabbling and ‘slight’ signs of jealousy, you could, you know, work together?” and then one thought led to another and I was like, “yeah, I could ship it, provided Harris wasn’t evil…” (I mean, he was a very, very bad boy once or twice, but turned out not to be evil) and the rest is history. *insert more swearing* Yeah, episode 8 didn’t help at all. And then of course they did work together so well towards the end of the season. *sighs*

Anyway, look, I’m not asking for much, just a S2 where they can occasionally (well, the more often the better, but I’ll take what I get) share screen time and be the badass power world/country-saving trio they are. My imagination can do the rest. ;)

But of course, IAD was promoted to a regular on Hawaii 5-O, so I’m not sure what that would mean – although Salvation is a summer show, so I guess coordination could be possible – and the ratings seem to be shit and I don’t want to get my hopes up despite the articles floating around saying not all is lost for S2. *fingers crossed*

Which brings me to a bit of ranting about a plot hole or two and a few general observations and possible S2 speculations.

a) You want me to believe that the US Secretary of Defence can just simply drive around on his own, NBD, and nobody bats an eye? FFS, even in my itty bitty country where the cabinet members really aren’t in much danger of imminent assassination, they have drivers and security details, especially the Defence Minister. It did come very handy for the plot that Harris could just drive around like it’s nobody business, though.

b) How did they get the selected 160 on site so fast? Magic? Because they couldn’t have picked them solely from Tanz personnel, since that would be mostly scientists, and they did pick historians, artists, etc… And those would be from all around the country, I’d say. (It’s shitty enough that they would be all only Americans, like the rest of the world has no smart people to offer. Also, for genetic diversity it would be better if people were from other countries, too.)

Unless they brought them into Tanz as they picked them, before the nuclear alarm. But didn’t they finish the selection process just a day or a couple before (my memory is a bit foggy, I’ll have to rewatch)?

And nobody seemed surprised at the sight of the space-ship, so I guess they were told the actual truth or at least the Mars colonisation version beforehand? I think the second is more likely.

But, never mind, that is not even my biggest problem with the 160 and I can easily let it pass, because time on TV can work in mysterious ways (plus, maybe they cut the scenes that were supposed to clear it up.)

c) No, my biggest problem is that if 160 people are the minimum viable population, I assume those people must be able to procreate (and have healthy and diverse enough genes.)

And so there were mostly young people in their twenties (mostly women) and thirties in the Salvation bunker. So far so good.

Of course if we only look to the continuation of human species, choosing young people makes sense.

(I’m not going into the fact that if all those youth are the best and the brightest, there would be other issues with picking people who must have been child prodigies and could therefore lack the social skills that are just as important for humanity as science – but I guess the humanities studies part of the group can compensate for what others lack in that field.)

It also makes perfect sense that some people would be chosen for qualities other than reproductive abilities, which is where Harris and Grace come in.

I mean, men don’t have that sort of a problem, but with Zoe about to start college, Grace must be at least in her early 40s (although Jennifer is younger) since she doesn’t strike me as a teen mom, and a woman of her age has a hard time having a healthy child even in the most optimal, peaceful conditions and with the best medical treatment available, so I think it’s safe to say Grace having any more kids, especially in a couple of years, is out of the question. But that’s okay.

My problem is with Darius being disqualified on grounds of carrying the Huntington’s gene. Sure, it served as a fantastic testimony of his character that he would work on the Mars project and then this saving the mankind thing knowing that he can’t go/save himself. That’s great, what a good person!

But since other people were picked for their leadership/wisdom/merit, then why not Darius?

Did the writers forget that contraception is a thing? You know, to prevent ‘accidentally’ spreading his bad genes around? And pre-natal screening also exists (okay, IDK if they can find out about the Huntington’s gene that way, but still) – and there are doctors (I assume a few actual MDs have been picked) around to do it and in case of a positive result an abortion is an option? (But god forbid we’d even think of the A-word on a national network in the US, of course.) Or you know, just have the guy have a vasectomy, the easiest sure-fire solution. (Yeah, now I’m being mean.)

My point in short: there is no logical reason (I know, looking for logic on TV; I never learn) for Darius not to be among the 160 apart from the writers’ need for characterisation through drama.

Anyway, I think that if we get S2, it might turn out the nukes were false alarm or something, because Santiago Cabrera is first-billed and I expect they wouldn’t kill him off, so this disqualification issue will be moot.

So, if we get S2:

d) The usurping VP (why TF does he have to be named Monroe Bennett? *wry smile* *cue reminiscing of a certain other show*) escaped and will be wreaking havoc, I assume.

e) I’d really like if Amanda somehow survived (I mean, it’s TV, anything is survivable on TV, a little chest/shoulder wound should be nothing), because I liked her.

f) I had to google the actor who played Grace’s dad (he was awesome!) because he looked familiar and look, he also played the substitute pressie who needed to be bullied into doing the right thing in TLS.

g) With the EM drive being magnetic (duh), I think Liam’s idea has something to do with trying to use the EM drive to pull the asteroid in off the impact course. I vote for partial success, because otherwise the show’s premise would go out of the window and they might as well just end it.

And I think that’s all I’ve got (for now).

I think I’ll go find some pretties to queue up for next week. Although, I’ve already been in the tags a little and as far as I could see, nobody ships my OT3 (I’m not surprised at all), so I might need to do some giffing myself. And maybe write fic. But after I finish my current fic exchange assignment, which I should be doing instead of writing this, but oh well. Maybe now I’ll be able to concentrate better.

Tagging @street-of-mercy, because you got me into this mess! ;) (You don’t have to respond or anything, but in case you’re interested in my thoughts and questionable shipping choices, here you go. :D)

#CBS Salvation #salvation cbs #salvation meta #my meta: salvation

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4yourexcitement · 6 years ago

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Credit: Sara Remley

It was an already incredible day for Star Trek in Hall H, with Discovery season three hype, a new Short Treks trailer, surprise panel stars, the unveiling of a new animated show, as well as an official Star Trek podcast, but nothing topped the last portion of the panel with Captain Picard himself, Sir Patrick Stewart. The hall erupted upon his appearance, and the panel only got better from there.

Credit: Sara Remley

He was joined onstage by Isa Briones (Dahj), Santiago Cabrera (Cristobal “Chris” Rios), Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Harry Treadaway (Narek) and Evan Evagora (Elnor), alongside executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman and Heather Kadin as well as supervising producer Kirsten Beyer.

The first thing Stewart did was say how much his dog in the series wanted to be there for the panel. CBS All Access has now confirmed that his name will be Number One, and isn’t it just perfect?

He went onto say, “I read a line in a scene [that is coming up] where I say, ‘We never know, do we, when our last moment will be.’ For me, I can twist that a little and say, ‘We never know, do we, when our best moment will be. And that is now.’”

Credit: Sara Remley

Stewart had been asked to reprise his role of Picard many times, and always turned them down. When asked why he decided to take on the mantle of Jean-Luc again he said, “As the subject matter of this new proposed series became clearer to me, and when I began to meet our incredibly distinguished writing team and to attend the sessions with them, I knew that something very unusual was going to happen and I wanted to be a part of it. So, here I am, and [I’m] very very happy to be here.”

After the trailer dropped the fans were so uproarious Stewart asked for it to be played again, and for the hall to hold in its enthusiasm until the end of the trailer in order to pick up things they might have missed the first time and said, “then when it’s over you can riot!” A pin drop could have been heard during the second play-through, such is the quiet, commanding power of the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart.

Credit: CBS All Access

Surprise stars from the trailer, Brent Spiner (Data), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh) then joined the panel, and Stewart slipped in that Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) will also be in the series.

Credit: Sara Remley

The cast had to be pretty tight lipped about their roles in Picard, but executive producer Akiva Goldsman said of the show as a whole that it’s “slower, more gentle, more lyrical. It is certainly more character based. It also takes on the same thing that the [other series took on], which is hope for a future that is in many ways better than the world we live in today. We think it’s a new kind of Star Trek show, made by a lot of people who love all the old kinds of Star Trek shows.”

Of Picard’s character in this new series, executive producer Alex Kurtzman said, “Picard represents the ideal captain. He is the leader we all want, and boy do we need that, now more than ever. It’s impossible to distinguish the character of Picard from Patrick himself because they really are in many ways, one, in a beautiful way.”

Credit: Sara Remley

Kurtzman continued saying, “TNG (The Next Generation) reflected a more innocent time…but we live in a much more complicated and darker time now. And Trek at its best has always been a mirror that’s reflected the world that we live in. So Picard, in the best way, is the one who is still standing up for what matters. He’s the one who’s still standing up for the ideals that we believe in.”

He clarified that “we’re not seeking to reinvent it. We’re [not] doing the dark version of TNG. But Picard has to soul search and in order to make the world brighter he has to face that [dark] part of himself. And he’s still fighting for all the things he would have fought for in TNG. He has to dig even deeper into himself in order to get there, and I think that’s why he remains such an aspirational and amazing captain, because we all want to believe that in the darkest of times the best part of ourselves would emerge and that is Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick.”

Credit: Sara Remley

Stewart got teary-eyed at the end of the panel, while speaking of filming the last episode of The Next Generation. He said, “Jonathan Frakes and I had a scene in the captain’s ready room, and he said, ‘It’s been an honor, Captain.’ And I was supposed to say, ‘No, the honor has all been mine.’ And I couldn’t say it. The emotion of saying goodbye to those seven years was so intense. We tried again and again to get it on camera, and it was almost impossible. I found as soon as we began talking in the writer’s room, that powerful emotion came surging back, and it’s still right here on this platform, and it’s not going to go away.”

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SDCC 2019: Sir Patrick Stewart Captains Hall H with Star Trek: Picard Panel It was an already incredible day for Star Trek in Hall H, with Discovery season three hype, a new Short Treks trailer, surprise panel stars, the unveiling of a new animated show, as well as an official Star Trek podcast, but nothing topped the last portion of the panel with Captain Picard himself, Sir Patrick Stewart.

#aiison pill #isa briones #patrick stewart #star trek #Star Trek: Picard

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