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baggebythesea · 3 years ago

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In a peacetime modern AU of SPOP where the characters are fans of a show similar to our SPOP, how would they engage in fandom? For example: Who would ship whom? Who would write fic or draw art? Who would write or draw smut?? Who would have a wall of theories with evidence connected by a web of threads? Who would do their own thing shipping a rare pair and who would be a card carrying popular ship shipper? Who would strongly empathise with their parallel character and who would just not get them at all? Would anyone cosplay? Which older adult would shock the young'uns by saying 'Well I wouldn't say no...' as they sip their tea from the doorway? (Obviously answer as much or as little as you like!)

Ooooh! Great ask.

Glimmer declares the show the best thing ever (because it's pink and princessy and kicks ass), and the best friend squad watches it religiously. Adora doesn't really get what the big deal with shipping is supposed to be, but she think it's neat that Netossa and Spinnerella is a couple. Lowkey ships Glimmer with Bow because she likes the idea of childhood friends falling in love with each other. Also, she really likes it when the title character gets a horse. Hangs out a lot in fandom space but doesn't really produce content, at least until Bow and Glimmer manages to talk her into writing down some of her many, many theories of how the show will turn out and just what the logistics network through the whispering woods are supposed to look like. She secretly worries when one of her posts don't get as much attention as the last one.

Bow is just hung up on poor Catra and want for her to get some love. Mostly he cheers on Scorpia, but he would ship Catra with Adora or even Double Trouble in desperation for someone to take the cat away from the hole she spend most of the series in. He takes up sewing and makes a point of cosplaying every single princess. Comments on everyone's fanfic and likes everyone's posts.

Glimmer sees a bit of herself in Catra (because she too knows the pain of having a mother who doesn't understand her). She totally ships the cat-girl with the glitter princess and writes really messed up fanfics about them. So much passion. So much delicious, delicious self-destruction. Practically drools at the end of season 4 and all the angst that goes down there. She regularly asks Bow to beta read and traumatises him badly. Gets into fan-fights on social media about stupid shit. Cosplays Catra on a con and makes out with a Glimmer cosplayer.

Angella vaguely recalls the first show from when she was young and earns some much needed mom-points with Glimmer when she digs up a mint condition original She-Ra+Swift Wind toy from a carefully labelled box in the basement. She ships Glimmer with Bow because she really likes that boy. Micah used to watch the show as a kid and had a bit of a crush on the original She-Ra. Ships Bow with Sea Hawk and cheerfully fills the hashtag #SeaBow with memes at least a decade out of fashion. Mortifies his daughter when he take them to a con and insists on cosplaying as Hordak. Ends up in the bar together with George and Lance and sings karaoke to My Little Pony-songs.

George and Lance don't really get the show but are happy to take the kids to con. Cosplays as characters from old Belgian comics.

Catra thinks the show is silly (and watches every episode passionately. Shut up. Just humouring Scorpia, is all). She thinks the Catra character in the show is a wimp, but ships her with Double Trouble because she likes it when villains get their way. Draws really good fanart. A bit of a troll on social media because its so fun to rile up people like Glimmer.

Scorpia ships Catra and Adora and cries just as much as Bow in the First One's Temple part of season 1. She is completely floored by the large, femme and kinda clumsy Scorpia character hooking up with the beautiful, beautiful Perfuma because... um... Writes really bad but 100% heartfelt self insert fanfics. Draws stick figures of Perfuma and Scorpia holding hands. Reads and re-reads her favourite fanfics until her eyes are red from crying and in the end leaves a shy little "it was good"-comment for the last chapter. Tries to work up the courage to go to a con and talk to other fans. Wants to cosplay but has too bad self esteem.

Entrapta thinks the robots are unscientific for reasons she is happy to write hundreds of blog posts about. Ships Darla with the Velvet Glove (the word 'docking' is used extensively). Considers Hordak a total hottie and draws really - and I mean really - explicit fan art. Spends her first convention on the parking lot trying to fix her Emily cosplay.

Lonnie rage-quits watching the show the moment Adora leaves the Horde but thinks Adora and Mermista should just do it already.

Kyle ships Bow with an OC named Lyle who everyone likes and no one makes fun of. Has written a ten chapter fanfic which no one has commented.

Rogelio ships Tung Lashor with Sea Hawk. His fanart can melt through steel.

Sea Hawk ships EVERYONE with Merm-iiiiiiiiiista. Runs ten different fan-events simultaneously. Mermista just ships Adora with Lonnie or whatever. They do duo-cosplay on cons, much to Mermista's embarrassment.

Perfuma ships Entrapta with Hordak, writes post after post exploring their psychosocial dynamic and is downright gleeful when it becomes canon. Spends the cons friend-momming on the rest of the group and makes sure they are all hydrated.

Frosta thinks shipping is stupid and want to see more of princesses teaming up and beating the shit out of the bad guys with the power of friendship. Also has a really detailed backstory for her OC. Only ask if you have plenty of time. Has a pretty good Glimmer cosplay.

Huntara ships Juliette with Castaspella and writes surprisingly sweet fics about them crushing on each other. Keeps order on social media.

Castaspella ships Shadow Weaver with Angella and writes fanfic that could easily be published as high class erotica. She's a really good commentor on other people's fics, giving tons of support and little constructive hints where she feels it might be well received.

Juliette has better things to do than watching a children's cartoon, but she does enjoy some of Castaspella's stories.

Spinnerella ships Catra and Adora and is just so proud when it turns out to be canon. Tells everyone who wants to listen how little representation was available in her first fandom and how far things have come.

Netossa ships Adora and Mermista and draws really hot fanart of them making out in gym showers and the like. Prefers modern aus and couldn't care less about canon as long as it gives her hot characters to play with.

Shadow Weaver doesn't ship anyone because no one is worthy of the love of Adora who is the only worthwhile character. Writes a 40+ chapter story about a badly out-of-character Adora who takes over the Horde and laughs at her enemies from the throne. Is enraged when people dare having the wrong opinion about things but can't tell them so because she feels social media is beneath her. Secretly reads Castaspella's fanfic.

Horde Prime ships Horde Prime with Shadow Weaver. She is written completely out of character in a rather insulting and sexist way. Completely insufferable on social media and insist on everyone signing up to his headcanon.

Hordak says he doesn't ship anyone because romance is silly. Cries over Adora's redemption arc when he thinks no one watches and ships her with Glimmer because he just wants to the poor, rejected Horde soldier lost in a strange land she doesn't understand to get some love and kindness.

Wrong Hordak ships Scorpia with Perfuma because love finds a way. Draws the purest fluff you'll ever see.

Double Trouble trolls social media at every turn and gleefully ships the most messed up shit they can think of. Shadow Weaver and Perfuma, Catra and Sea Hawk, Angella and Hordak, Horde Prime and Swift Wind... Also ships the characters they deem to have most dramatic potential to derail the story such as Entrapta and Hordak, Glimmer and Catra, Glimmer and Double Trouble... kinda has a low key crush on the sparkly character but denies it if anyone asks. Really good at cosplay and runs a tutorial at the cons.

Swift Wind thinks there are too few horse characters. Ships Swift Wind with Rainbow Dash.

Light Hope only ships canon pairings because by definition canon is the only thing that is valid. Writes long, convoluted predictions that she updates after every episode. She gets an existential crisis when her predictions don't pan out in canon.

Mara ships Adora and Glimmer. Still gets hot and fussy every time she thinks of the s1 hot spring scene. Wants the hardworking perfectionist to get love.

Razz write novel length stories where she ship a character mentioned in passing in an unpublished Dickens novel with her old middle school math teacher. No one has any idea what she is going on about or why she posts it in the she-ra tag, but her stories are good and she's a complete delight at cons, so she's welcome in the fandom.

#spop #asks

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thetypedwriter · 4 years ago

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Midnight Sun Book Review

Midnight Sun Book Review by Stephenie Meyer

Oh my god, you guys.

Just. Oh. My. God.

This book took ten years off of my life.

As a heavy reminder, these book reviews are entirely subjective and my very personal opinion. I don’t need the hoards of Twihards coming after me with pitchforks and pretend fangs from Party City because I didn’t fall head-over-heels with this canon spinoff like my fourteen-year-old self would have.

With that measly disclaimer out of the way, let’s move onto the actual book review. If you haven’t heard of Midnight Sun or don’t know what it is, then I don’t know what to tell you except that you avoided 600 plus pages of stream of conscious ranting.

For those of you that would like to be enlightened, Midnight Sun is the retelling of the infamous Twilight book-yes, that Twilight, Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen Twilight, complete with vampires, not so-stellar acting, and the more than notorious forest scene of Edward demanding she say… “vampire!” Gasp.

But no really, like most women in my now mid-20’s, as a teenager, I was obsessed with the Twilight saga and everything it had to offer, especially the dreamy, chivalrous, too good to be true Edward Cullen (fuck Jacob).

I voraciously devoured the books while I was in middle school, attended the midnight book premier for Breaking Dawn, and stayed up way too late for each and every movie screening that followed, a loyal fan to the end. To give you some perspective, I even joined the Twilight club my freshman year of high school.

Yes, if you were wondering, I was indeed that cool.

I was obsessed and in love and outside of Harry Potter, it’s still one of the few book fandoms and series that I was truly enveloped and consumed by. Whether that was due to my age, the experience of the fandom, the cultural phenomena that was following the movies and new releases, or for other reasons, it was an experience I look back on now with simultaneous fondness and slight embarrassment.

I wasn’t embarrassed by my involvement or my experience in the fandom, like many other people, I made great friends through Twilight (including my best friend, whom I met in college when we mutually bonded over our love of Twilight), read countless fanfiction that, to this day, I still remember and cherish with my heart, and it was one of the series that cemented my love of reading and book culture as a whole for me.

However, like everyone else, I inevitably grew up, matured, and my reading tastes changed and became more refined. As an avid re-reader of books, I have tried going back to re-read the Twilight saga multiple times...

...and failed.

The books had simply lost their magic for me.

The story seemed dull and nonsensical, Bella had become the epitome of a Mary Sue, the writing was now apparently mediocre, and Breaking Dawn’s lackluster climax angered me to the point of speechlessness (it still does).

So, I gave up re-reading the series and while I deemed that it was perhaps not as wonderful and life-changing as it had been for 8th grade Melissa, I still appreciated what it had done for me personally and the experiences that I had gained through the books.

Speaking of 8th grade Melissa, the original Midnight Sun, that being twelve chapters of the original manuscript that had been leaked back in 2008, had been put up on Stephenie Meyer’s website for all to enjoy.

Like the good, whipped fangirl I was, I devoured all 12 chapters with ease and lamented the loss of never getting more than that snapshot of Edward’s thoughts and musings.

Now, twelve years later, the full book has been written, published, and released to the delight and downright shock to many age-old Twilight fans that had believed that series to be dead and buried, myself included.

So, when the book came out this August, I swallowed my trepidation, knowing that my love for the characters was now long gone, but I believed that the sentimentality of 8th grade Melissa’s obsession would long linger, making this a pleasant blast from the past to lift my mood.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.

Now, that I’ve told you my whole life story in an effort to explain why I have the feelings I do and to justify that I’m not just being negative for the sake of being negative, this book did not hold up to any of my expectations.

One, it was so freaking long.

Holy shit, was this book long.

As I have said countless times on this blog, I like big books (and I cannot lie). It’s the best feeling in the world when you get into a story and you realize that you have many days ahead of you of being engulfed within this new world that you’ve fallen head-over-heels for.

It’s the opposite, sinking feeling of dread when you feel like you’ve been reading the book for weeks and are getting nothing out of it.

Midnight Sun was a lot like that.

It was too long to be good, especially considering the length was not generally driven by plot, but instead driven by Edward thinking of every fucking thing to the nth degree and driving me crazy in the process.

Homeboy needs to take a chill pill, he overstresses, overthinks, and overanalyzes everything to the point of irritation as a reader.

Meyer’s editor really needed to step in and say, “Hey, Stephenie...is all of this really necessary?” and then proceed to cut out at least 300 pages of nonsense.

But that didn’t happen, probably because first and foremost, the book was already going to sell no matter what changes or edits were made, and this seemed like a book more for Stephenie than anyone else.

It was very much stream of consciousness like I’ve already said, a style of writing defined as a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue.

It wasn’t on the level of James Joyce’s Ulysses or other notable works, but damn was it close.

This writing style I found abhorrently repetitive and exceptionally dull.

Perhaps my fourteen-year-old self would have felt differently and would have sucked up anything about Edward Cullen eagerly considering he was the fictional love of my life.

Or perhaps this book would have made me go running and screaming in the opposite direction as Edward is...kind of awful?

One positive thing I can say about this book is that it paints Bella Swan in a very rosy light, which was actually very refreshing. One of the most famous criticisms that Meyer’s has received is Bella’s lack of character, development, and attributes.

Seeing Bella from Edward’s perspective instead of vice-versa actually showed how kind, thoughtful, and selfless she is, all things that I had never really picked up on before.

I still find her inexcusably dumb sometimes, but much of time during this book, Bella was actually far favorable to Edward or any other character, a blasphemous statement of irony if I had ever heard one.

The payoff, however, is Edward’s reveal as not chivalrous, not gentlemanly, and not as wonderful as I remember. He’s arrogant, selfish, obsessive, and honestly? Downright creepy.

The stalking reaches new levels of not okay, often with him trying to justify his less than criminal activities with the notion of her “safety” as the priority, which I found complete bullshit.

I found Edward domineering, cold, aggravating, and lackluster, statements which would literally have made my old self sob, which I honestly did when Edward left in New Moon.

I used to be an avid Jacob hater and lover of Edward to the extreme back in the day. Now, I would weep for joy if he left, root for Jacob all the way, and hope that the horrible name of Renesmee never needed to come to fruition in the first place.

Oh, how the turns have tabled.

Other than the atrocious length, my other large criticism came in the form of well...the book was naturally boring in my opinion. Meyer tries to create tension and moments of suspense, but...we already know what happens.

We know the next few years actually. We know they get married, have a baby, and Bella gets turned into a vampire. So all moments of tension and suspense are unceremoniously tossed out the window.

You might say, typedwriter, that’s unfair! We didn’t read this for the tension and suspenseful plot that we already know! We read this to get new information and insight into the Cullens and Edward especially. What do the Cullens do at home? How do they interact? What does this juicy insider insight look like?

Well, I still don’t know because we hardly saw any of it.

I was the most curious about the Cullens as a family unit and more information into how they functioned, interacted, and cohabited. I even wrote a fanfiction back in the day about what freaking Esme did home alone because I was so intrigued by the idea, but nope!

Edward was always stalking Bella 24/7 so almost no new information was gleaned about the Cullens, sucks for you.

There would be little nuggets here and there, little bouts of cool information (Apparently Esme just stays home all day every day doing….nothing?), but not nearly enough to justify a 600+ page book of a recycled plot that we were already familiar with.

I needed more from this book, craved all the little moments in between, and it was a letdown to the most extreme proportions.

Recommendation: I didn’t really enjoy this read despite my past involvement with the series, my lingering fondness for the movies on a cold, rainy day, and the still sporadic delves into Twilight fanfiction that maintains its reputation of quality and characters.

Twilight will always have a special place in my heart for what it did for me and the people it brought into my life, but I wish I had remembered Midnight Sun as the 12 chapters I read on Stephenie Meyer’s website when I was fourteen and infatuated instead of 26 and uninterested and unforgiving.

Score: 4/10

#midnight sun #stephenie meyer #twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #twihard #book blog #book review #Book Recommendations #YA Books #YA Book Review #edward cullen #bella swan #fanfiction #book blogger #book photography #book analysis #book aesthetic

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hippychick006 · 4 years ago

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Misha Panel

I’ve done this summary as it helps to have what Misha actually says to hand as more often than not, his stans misquote him. It’s also useful as Misha often changes things - as he appears to have done between his last virtual panel and this one. Note, I’m only focusing on the key parts where he talks about the show/Jared/Jensen. It is not free of anti castiel/misha comments where I disagree, though those are few and far between for a change. It’s long so putting under a cut...

- Misha confirms his filming finished in March prior to Covid [this comes up later in more detail]. Watching the last epiosode was an emotional experience for him. For him, it represents the end of a chapter of his life.

- Misha says fandoms not going anywhere [*hisses]

- Misha’s future work/projects?: working on senate race in georgia, publishing a book of poetry, couple of film projects he’s trying to get off the ground, one he’s not acting/directing in, the other he may act and/or direct

- Jack brought Cass back but we didn’t get to see it, what happened?: different ending originally that Covid restrictions made impossible to produce. Cool ending involved bringing back lots of cast members over the years. In the original ending, Castiel hadn’t gone to rebuild heaven, there was a different conclusion for him. Misha purposely did not read the last two episodes before they aired as he wanted to be an audience member. He knew a little about Castiel/Jack’s fate in the abstract, but because he wasn’t in it, he doesn’t know what the answer was. He thinks them rebuilding heaven was less boots on the ground and more at a spiritual level [so he’s talking at the metaphysical/spiritual plane level and not corporeal) so they are everywhere (e.g. in drops of rain as per Jack’s speech to Sam in 19). That’s what I’m understanding at least. He says that’s pure speculation though.]

- what qualities does castiel have similar to Misha?: there are a lot of similar qualities [backstabber comes immediately to my mind tbh]. Over time he and the character melded. Over time he evolved into something that didn’t quite fit in with either angels or humanity, he felt like an outsider which Misha has felt for much of his life. He became softer, more sensitive, he tried to do the right thing and be a good person. Oh wow, he says that in order to write to play to Misha’s strengths, the character had to “morph a bit”. I loved bad!ass Castiel, he’s my favourite Castiel!

- What one thing will he take with him from playing Castiel?: on a professional level, it was fascinating to play a character for so many years. He discussed with J2 recently that the characters really became part of them. He doesn’t think that will happen again, just due to length of time the played them. On watching Jensen’s death scene, he cried but it was more “That’s Cass’ friend Dean dying” It was weird to have a blurring of lines between yourself and your character but he thinks that’s what happened with all of them. He’ll take the character away, which will be a part of him forever.

- Misha made fortune cookes and put inside lewd and inappropriate fortunes

[I don’t get this next bit as earlier in the panel he says he didn’t read the last two episodes so didn’t know what was going to happen and gave the answer I documented above and now we have this next question where his answer seems to contradict that]:

- Is there anything more he can say about the originally planned finale?: He doesn’t want to be the one to reveal these state secrets, but what are they going to do, fire him? He feels someone might have said to him, please don’t reveal what was going to happen, but can’t remember for sure if it’s true. He says there was a version of Sam and Dean’s heaven that was populated with all of the people that were from their past that they have come to love. They could not do that because of Covid restrictions.

- Favourite behind the scenes memory of “The boys”: He doesn’t have a favourite memory, they were close friends for 12 years. They had laughing fits and fights and got pissed off at each other. Some of his fondest memories of being at work anywhere were working on Supernatural. He’s never going to be on a set again where there is so much mirth so he’s going to miss that for sure.

- he’s talking about Castiel’s wardrobe which is actually funny - e.g. original suit 3 sizes to big, sometimes showing blood and holes, sometimes being magically fixed, not wearing a tie, going back to wearing a tie... “Nobody complained about that too much...” [uh because some of us were watching other things and your own stans were looking at the background.] He stole some trenchcoats and has them in his closet.

- How do you prepare for emotional scenes?: it’s hard for him to get into that emotional state. To prepare for the Castiel’s declaration of love scene and taken by the empty, Misha needs to be off by himself and not chatting with people, so for that scene he sat on his own in a dark corner of the stage and ruminated on his own. Rob Hayter, stunt coordinator, noticed and stood sentinel and made sure no one disturbed him which Misha said was really sweet. Everyone stopped fucking around for that scene to allow them to do what they needed to do.

- How did you feel when you read the script when Castiel dies?: Misha knew for a long time that ending was coming, he’d been speaking to Rob Berens about it, he was really happy with it. It was the ending he’d wanted for Cass so when he read the script, he was really happy it had made it to the page [i bet it was Misha, how are those destiel sales going through your Stands company?]. It felt it was a little “risky and a little brave” for the show to do [on a fucking network that is number one in Glaad reviews? Are you being fucking serious right now?] He was happy to be a part of that [again sales] and have that character express love like that so he was happy with it.

[Okay, so notice in his last virtual panel 2 weeks ago, he was very happy, he’s now starting to do exactly what he did with Karla movie as he goes on to say...]

He’s seen “some people” [you mean lgbtq+ people?!] “complaining” about this is playing into the “bury the gays” trope which is an insidious and real trope in film and television storytelling in h/w over the years. Misha doesn’t think that’s what was happening with Castiel’s [he died second after the confession MIsha!] First of all Castiel isn’t dead, he’s in heaven working to rebuild it... [you didn’t know this 2 weeks ago, as far as you knew Castiel died and went to the empty]. So much good came from that declaration, because Cass was able to save Dean, which was essential to saving the world, so this declaration wasn’t so then fate strikes you down and you’re done forever. The declaration literally ended up saving the world. It was of Cass’ own volition, he wasn’t forced to do it, it was his choice, and he thinks that’s important, so maybe he’s naieve and doesn’t feel they are playing into that trope.

[You were absolutely playing into that trope Misha and you didn’t give a shit as you did no research on playing an lgbtq+ character so sincerely fuck off]

He’s glad that Castiel got to express that and have that ending. He thinks thats kind of important and he’s proud the show did that. [again fuck off, this was done for you and it showed] He thinks its a conversation they will continue to have as they continue to dissect it going forward [nope, consigned to the dumpster fire I’ve put the majority of the rest of Drabbernatural in]

- Do you think you will ever get an SPN tattoo?: He doesn’t have any but he’s thinking about getting tattoos relating to his children. Is that a sign of desperation that a true hasbeen will do? Should he get a tattoo of Jared and Jensen’s face. He could get a tattoo of Castiel’s face on his abdomen. He’s saying probably not. If they want to get one, totally supportive of that

- what is his favourite moment of the finale?: Dean’s death scene, masterfully executed, excellent performances from both Jared and Jensen in that scene and made him cry

- best memory of your last day on the supernatural set?: everyone being really sweet, lot of tears from cast and crew. The last scene he shot as Castiel was the last scene of the day on a Friday. Him, Alex, Richard S and Jensen all had to get to Las Vegas for a fan convention the next morning. They shot late and finished at 1.30, it was Cass goodbye and Misha’s goodbye to the show. He said they had to get a chartered flight because of the early flight [not sure why he’s saying this as I thought it was Jared’s plane they all travelled in?] He’s talking about going back - because of the issue with the plane - and they are all texting family, saying they love them, so it was such a strange night, he’d said goodbye to Supernatural, he said goodbye to Castiel and later on said goodbye to his kids because they thought they were going to die that night. :(

[Going to add that this puts to rest that Misha was due back for 19 and 20 even before covid, it confirms he was not going to be in either episode, though I maintain, they may have shot an extra scene while they had him to slot into 19 or 20]

- do you think Cass and the other angels got their wings back?: Yes, probably, they have Jack who is the new god. What a long and miserable experience that was of not having wings. Cass was so powerful when he started, he could snap his fingers and teleport and time travel and lost that with his broken wings and they didn’t come back. He doesn’t know why they didn’t fix him as Castiel would have been a much more powerful ally if he didn’t have to drive around in the pimp mobile [uh, for the same reason Sam lost his powers, deus ex machina]. He tells the story of Jared pressing buttons in the car causing the hydraulics to fail costing $10000 of repair.

- in your opinion, what colour are Castiels wings?: shit, I don’t know, I always thought they were black, but now that you’ve said that, they are rainbow coloured, how about that?

- What is the worst joke Jared and Jensen did to you?: [*cough fans looking for things to complain about or hate Jared on]: Jared and Jensen, as you know, they are not good people. He talks about directing an episode and they got excited in the week before, they were going to break into his apartment and steal his furniture, they had all kinds of nefarious plans, the crew tipped him off and told him to watch his home and car keys. They put a fish under the seat in his car and one of the crew told him. Jared removed the canvas on the director’s chair and laid it across so it looked like it was still the chair. Misha fell for that at least 5 times. That was pretty frustrating. Jared kept messing up his lines (which Misha said Jared never does) and Misha was directing in another room, Misha eventually went to see what the problem was and that’s when Jared pied him in the face. Everyone in the crew was complicit in the “assault”. Jensen brought him another shirt, said, “I’m sorry man, that’s sucks, that was too much.” Jensen then pied him in the face.

- What is the real story behind the handprint in the finale?: Um I don't know, but I think it was a nice touch, that was a really lovely callback that worked well. I can’t remember how we came up with that, or was it in the script, I can’t remember. Wasn’t it a good callback to the very beginning. [Again, this appears to differ from what was being reported two weeks ago so might need to go back to that panel if I can get access to it]

-What’s your favourite memory from offline/online panels?: It’s much more fun to be live and in person. I don’t know, I have had some really fun... [PANDERING ALERT COMING UP] Jensen and I have some really fun panels together in Rome. I don’t know why but we always just seem to have a real hoot there, talks about the resume off, they really enjoyed that. He had pizza delivered to a creation panel once. He talks about the Saturday night special and he can’t wait till they can get back to that.

[NOTE CYNICAL PART OF THIS IS FOR HIS FANBASE TO ONCE AGAIN CLAMOUR FOR MORE JENMISH PANELS. I DO NOT TRUST THIS MAN AT ALL]

- What was your favourite version of Castiel to play?: he had the most fun playing Lucifer because Mark P had left a great template to play Lucifer [you took the worst parts imo but Mark fucked his character up too]. He enjoyed playing the human parts of Castiel because it was fun to explore how to be human for the first time. Overall, just regular Cass. He wouldn’t have wanted to trade regular Castiel for other iterations. [A great question would be badass Castiel v late season wooby castiel preference]

#anti misha #anti castiel

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jlf23tumble · 5 years ago

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Hey Jen! I love seeing everyone doing monthly fic recs but yours are my favourite! I know I'm sending this three days early but I can't wait!! x

Yes, I love that!! I’m a bit of a date stickler, so I sat on this one until the very last day, but here’s a mixed bag of things that I read this month and loved...hope they work for you, too!

500 Words of Harry Styles, by haemophilus/ @they-them-pigeon, One Direction, Harry Styles/various pairings, 1.5k. These 3 works are 500 words each, and, like...how??? What kinda sorcery! They’re all perfect mini worlds, w/ gorgeous explorations of Harry and gender and pairings you wouldn’t expect yet totally work.

Heartstrings, by @vondrostes, One Direction, Harry Styles/Sarah Jones, 2.6k. This one totally gave me the Mulder/Scully vibes of some my very fave fics in that pairing, idk why, but brb, gotta jump into some old fic servers.

Here to Take My Medicine, by Throwthemflowers/ @hazzabeeforlou, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 3.7k. U know what? I totally buy the concept of Harry reading goop and Louis going along with it (bonus points for unexpected yet totally welcome daddy kink).

go as slow as you want, by whensheflies/ @choface, One Direction, Harry Styles/Nick Grimshaw, 5k. Most gryles fic, especially lately, is steeped in angst, but not this one! A touch of it, sure, but sweet, sexi, AND tender gender? Sign my ass up for more!

Sweet Baby, by jishler, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 5.4k. It’s harder and harder to find these days, but I’m always down for some good old-fashioned kink discovery, X Factor house era, and this was sweet and hot, perfect combo.

let me be yours, by @louhearted, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 6.6k. Canon Girl Direction is always a win, but this one features pube talk, too? Huge bonus points for daddy kink, not enough of that, if you ask me (and you didn’t, but there you go).

More of a Comment Than a Question, by abrighteryellow/ @a-brighter-yellow, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 8.7k. I know this wasn’t what the author intended, but I am missing all the fan convention stuff that isn’t going to happen this year, and this story perfectly captured it, so thank you AGAIN!

in its lonely and ramshackle head, by objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, 9.8k. The only thing I know of this movie is the hilarious write-up Phoenix and Blake crafted, but it doesn’t matter, this fic is so beautiful! A five times with so much pining and yearning, beautiful!

bathed in blue light, by delgay, Star Wars Sequel, Poe Dameron/Finn, 17k. The lengths I go through to avoid all things Reylo means the pickings can be slim in this fandom, but this felt like a callback to the heady days of early 2016, sigh.

Harriet and Louise, by blake/ @newleafover, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 28k. Words fail me, I was lucky enough to see this before it went up, to yell in the google doc, the long-awaited regency Girl Direction fic does NOT disappoint, so gorgeous!!! Massive hugs to the hero who commissioned it!

The Stars Look Very Different Today, by @kingsofeverything, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 43k. Easily my fave so far in the big bang pack, but here’s some real talk, I love it when Lauren writes space fic.

I’m gonna jump on my soapbox here for a quick sec and tell you that you don’t have to reblog this fic rec list if you don’t wanna, liking it for further reference is okay by me if you aren’t comfortable, but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD leave kudos and comments on fics for authors. Read a wip and cheerlead the author along and revel in the heart-stopping thrill of receiving an ao3 email. I’m blessed *regularly* by all the ones I’m subscribed to, but these two were my absolute faves this month:

Say Something, by @kingsofeverything, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 6 chapters//27 chapters in. Look, I’m gonna level with you, I had some high expectations for this one (50YO omega Harry hooking up with 28YO alpha Louis, eventual mpreg, lactation, and everything else in those tags), and in just six chapters, I wanna yell with how much I love it, talk about dreams surpassed!

Leave a Voicemail after the Song, by @vondrostes, One Direction, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, 13 chapters// ??? chapters. Okay, this is on Patreon for now, it might jump to ao3 down the road, but for the low price of $1/month, you too can get a weekly update to in the heart-breakingly BEAUTIFUL companion to Terran’s epic Call Answered (which *is* on ao3), this time from Harry’s POV. It hurts so good, especially at this point in the story, god.

#fic rec #girl direction #finnpoe #stormpilot #baggenshield #gryles #larry #april 2020 #god there is some great shit out there #thank u authors!!!

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thedeaditeslayer · 4 years ago

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The Cool Side of My Pillow Interview: A Trip Inside the Mind of Bruce Campbell.

When you mention the name Bruce Campbell, the first thing that readily springs to most people’s minds is the boomstick toting, chainsaw-wielding final guy of the Evil Dead franchise, Ash Williams. However, for some of his fans, he will be forever linked with the Harvard educated, resourceful bounty hunter, Brisco County, Jr. Then, of course, there will be those devotees of Burn Notice that will be quick to let you know that Sam Axe, the ex-Navy Seal with a love of Mojitos and Tommy Bahama shirts is their guy because we all know, “Chuck Finley is forever.” For those of you that have never had the pleasure of watching the inventive spy show, Chuck was Sam’s alias that he would use as a cover on certain operations. The mere fact that Bruce Campbell is a part of three vastly different fandoms says quite a bit about his ability as an actor as well as his likeability quotient.

A headliner on the convention circuit for years, the minute he is announced as a guest, tickets go flying out the door and venues sell out. Campbell understands what the people want and he is more than willing to give it to them which is why most promoters clamor to book him. His Q & A sessions are legendary and audiences love the way he sarcastically banters with them. In addition to being an accomplished actor, director and producer, Bruce is also a New York Times bestselling author with four books under his belt. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor, Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B-Movie Actor, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way and his soon to be released, The Cool Side of My Pillow.

His latest book is a collection of essays or as he would say, “rants.” This venture is unlike any of the previous mentioned titles and perhaps his most personal effort to date. In a sense, you get to take a trip inside Campbell’s mind. He expresses his feelings and opinions on a variety of topics from current events and social media to his code of ethics. I was fortunate enough to chat with Bruce about The Cool Side of My Pillow, and his future projects. After reading his book, you come away with the knowledge of how genuine and thoughtful he is which is refreshing in this day and age.

Diabolique: What I like so much about The Cool Side of My Pillow is your honesty. Your writing style makes the reader feel as if they are having an intimate conversation with you. You don’t hold anything back. There are certain aspects in the book which made me feel a tad uncomfortable because you shared some information that was deeply personal, in my mind. I don’t know if I would have included some of the things that you did.

BC: Oh, sure. You always have to decide where you stop. Where is the line? For me, it depends on the type of book. It depends on the type of subject matter. Every project is different.

Diabolique: Were some of the subjects you tackled cathartic for you?

BC: I don’t normally do that sort of stuff. I’m happy to share if I feel something is useful. In the chapter, “What Are You On?” I’m not ragging on people who have habits. I have habits that was the point. There are very few people that just go through their daily life without jacking themselves up, knocking themselves down, knocking themselves out, you know? So, its kind of amazing. The human condition fascinates me.

Diabolique: “A Little Effort Goes a Long Way” is one of my favorite segments. A tale of hard work, ingenuity and perseverance. Which is key to succeeding in the entertainment industry. Where does your drive come from? Some people can pinpoint it to relatives, a mentor…

BC: I do attribute some of it to the Detroit metro area. A lot of my buddies worked on the line, they worked in the factories, it was a great summer job that paid really good money. In Detroit, it was weird. There weren’t a lot of discussions about hopes and dreams. But I could see things happen incrementally that encouraged us. My grandfather worked for ALCOA Aluminum for over 40 years. Would he want to do that job? Was it his favorite job? He wouldn’t even know; it was his only job. He had that job for his whole adult life. My dad wanted to be a painter. I call him a “go betweener” because he didn’t do exactly what he wanted to do but he didn’t do what he didn’t want to do. He got into advertising because it was sort of creative but it wasn’t creative enough so he got into community theater which was more creative. That filled a very strong niche for him and so he kind of straddled the line and then I came along. He allowed me to pretty much do whatever the hell I wanted to do in whatever industry I wanted. He was the first investor in Evil Dead. So, I benefited from the transition of ONLY having drive. Meaning, you just go to work, it doesn’t matter what the job is. The next generation is, “Well, the job kinda matters.” My generation is, “The job matters a hundred percent,” because it determines what you’ve decided to do with your life. So, I am grateful for having enough drive but grateful for being injected with enough freedom of thought to then do my own thing. Partly the drive is the Midwest because you put a tie on, put your sport coat on and you go to work. Get your briefcase, shine your shoes and off you go.

Diabolique: Do you think it is important if you want to be in the arts to have a benefactor? Not necessarily monetarily but someone who encourages you like your dad?

BC: Well, my mom did sort of amateur writing so she was sympathetic at least to that side of the arts. She liked that creative side. My dad was way more interested in acting. So, I saw him in plays and stuff. I definitely benefitted because I had a sensibility that was similar to my dad. My two older brothers could give a shit about acting. They never touched it. I think my dad saw, “Hey, the young guy likes acting just like me.” That was probably an advantage.

Diabolique: Another thing about that particular section that is fascinating to note is your resourcefulness. The anecdote that you recount about having to come up with a way to deliver newspapers in a horrendous snowstorm and the lengths that you went to just to do your job is inspiring. I feel like that isn’t something that would be done by the younger generation, these days.

BC: We were pre-slackers and again, this isn’t to sound like a crabby, old guy on a hill shouting down about the great old days, at that time there were no other options. Our boss dropped off these papers at the top of a hill. That was as far as his van could go. He dumped the whole thing on me and my brother. We delivered them together (the resolution involved Bruce donning hockey skates and a toboggan). So, we thought okay. There was no option of saying, “Dude, I can’t do it. They’re just not going to get their papers today.” That would be the current response. You would wait until the roads were plowed, like that night, and then you would get your damn paper the next day and you’d end up getting two papers. It wasn’t an option. There was nothing in my upbringing that said, you can tell your boss, no. Now, if I thought it would have been very dangerous or life threatening, I probably would have said, no but short of that, there was a slightly different mentality in the air. You did what you were fucking told, for the most part which is a little bit different now.

Diabolique: “The Princess Di Factor” was a thought-provoking chapter because you talk about the click-baiting, disinformation and too much information that occurs on social media. Some of your peers have their PR reps handle their feeds but you are very present in yours. Do you think someone who is interested in getting into show business has to obtain “influencer” status?

BC: I think there is certainly pressure to do it. The old actors when they were doing a film could get away with telling the local studio, “By the way, I don’t do social media.” They say, “I’ve never done it. I don’t have a Twitter feed. I’m not starting now.” They can get away with it. But a younger thespian has a website and at least two or three social media platforms. I think its important to get a distinction of what are using them for? Facebook is all mercenary. Whenever I post, its just for a link to get tickets. I just do that to keep the account warm but I won’t add to it. That one is really inflammatory. They are finally starting to take the misinformation down. It should just be illegal. The stats are mind boggling. Something like 65% of the people who refuse to do social distancing and stuff like that get their information from YouTube. Its not news sources. Its like the Wild West. I think it needs to be settled. I would introduce journalistic standards and practices where by if you tell a little white lie, you get yanked and if you get fact checked and the facts say you’re wrong, that gets yanked.

Diabolique: At the beginning of your book, you discuss the toll of COVID-19 isolation and changes to the convention and motion picture industries. After presenting the Ashland Independent Film Festival awards virtually, do you think conventions might go that route in the future? San Diego Comic Con has gone entirely online which is surprising. Galaxy Con is another.

BC: If we don’t straighten this out, yeah. Sports are going to be weird for a while. Large venues are just going to be strange. How are you going to figure out the San Diego Comic Con? How are they going to make people feel comfortable jamming 125,000 people over a four-day period into that convention center which is already elbow to elbow and unhealthy? I don’t know. I’ve talked to promoters about a bunch of different things. I’m doing a Drive-In tour. Also, some theaters have opened up again so I am going to encourage and reward that so I have added five theater dates for later this summer: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City and San Antonio. I’m getting back out on the road. This is not a tour year at all but when I heard that drive-ins were making a comeback, I thought let me be part of that. Some of them are struggling to open and I want to help. I’m tired of being on the sidelines. I want to get back into it. Drive-ins are perfect. You’ve got your distance. I can go up to cars and hassle them and there’s no problem. I can shine my flashlight in the cars, see if people are having sex, there’s a lot of fun stuff we can do. I want to be the first guy they meet when they come into the place to park. I want to be the guy that parks everybody. It’s time. Everyone wants to feel normal again. Eat the meatloaf sandwich. Going to the drive-in is the oldest meatloaf sandwich you could ever eat. Bring the hooch. Hide it under the seat. Bring a cooler, bring your reefer…

Diabolique: In The Cool Side of My Pillow, you mentioned that you were going to attend San Diego Comic Con, New York Comic Con and the 2020 Electronics Expo which were all canceled due to the pandemic. Were you going to promote the Evil Dead game?

BC: That’s what I was going to do. That’s what I was going to those conventions for.

Diabolique: What’s the status on it?

BC: I have been looking at and approving a bunch of new stuff. They are full-fledged, full bore into it. I think they are talking 2021 for an actual release. Its rolling along, looking great. It got delayed because of the nightmare of video games. Platforms change and evolve. You look at somebody else’s games and go, “Shit! We have to change everything now.” We have to stay current. I have to finish doing the voice work.

Diabolique: I know you are aware of all the rumors surrounding potential work in the future. You even mentioned in your book that you had a few offers. Is there a possibility that you might show up in Doctor Strange 2 and Mall Rats 2?

BC: The Kevin Smith thing could happen if it all winds up together but we haven’t had serious conversations about it. For Dr. Strange, everyone is at the mercy of what Marvel is going to do and this backlog of movies they’re going to do now. So, I think it won’t be until 2021. Marvel has to figure this all out. They have to figure out what movies they are going to do next, what movies they are going to delay, what movies they are going to shit can, what movies they are going to advance and speed up…the marketplace is ever fluid.

Diabolique: Do you have a release date in mind for The Cool Side of My Pillow?

BC: I have to say summer. We’re blasting away. We’re finishing graphics and photos and all that. We’re doing some legal crap. I’m starting a publishing company too. Tartan Media is going to release it. It will be my Campbell clan logo. It will be just to put things out. Movies, TV shows, whatever. That’s the new shingle.

Diabolique: Is there anything else on the horizon?

BC: Because the book isn’t going through Simon & Schuster, they’ll kind of have to find it where they find it. I’ll tweet about it. It will hopefully be available later this summer through Audible. I am going to do the audio book myself within the next two weeks because I want the e-book and the audiobook to come out at the same time. That way it gives you a choice. I want this to be a summer read.

Diabolique: Any updates on Bruce vs Frankenstein?

BC: With Bruce vs Frankenstein, I talked with Mike Richardson, who is my partner on this and we’re going to start with a graphic novel. So, I am going to adapt the screenplay. We’re going to put that out first so people in the industry can get a better sense of it. Mike has been selling a lot of projects to Netflix and he said that’s kind of the way to go with his material and fantasy stuff so he suggested we do that first. We’ll get a great artist, sell it in comic book form, people can totally see it and as a director, its kind of like doing storyboards. It’s a tremendous amount of extra prep that I can do just by going through it because I actually have to think about pages, panels and descriptions. It’s a format that’s not my normal format. Screenplay format, I can fart, I got that down. This is different with the way it looks on the page so it will be a very interesting translation process.

Diabolique: Are you doing any projects outside of Tartan Media?

BC: There’s this movie, 18 ½. It’s directed by Dan Mirvish. He’s with Slamdance. The story is about the missing minutes of the Nixon tapes and what happened to those minutes. Originally, I got hired to play a character in the movie and I couldn’t do it for a number of reasons and then the guy came back and asked if I would play Nixon.

Diabolique: So, the audience will just hear you?

BC: Yes. Apparently, it’s this 18-minute-long fight scene where you will hear Nixon in the background. Ted Raimi comes into play Alexander Haig and Jon Cryer is playing Haldeman. We did all these sessions over Zoom and we each recorded them separately (saying this in Nixon’s voice) having our conversations. They will put it all together and put it in the background.

Diabolique: Anything new to report on Evil Dead?

BC: The official name is Evil Dead Rise. We’re getting a new draft in. I don’t think anything will happen until 2021. Full bore ahead, we’re very excited about it. A whole, new ballgame. No more cabin in the woods.

#Bruce Campbell #The Cool Side of my Pillow

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midnightactual · 5 years ago

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Start

[ Note: Muses from different fandoms who don’t have Bleach verses will probably want to talk with me first. ]

Does your Bleach or Bleach-adjacent muse want to interact with Yoruichi but not know how?

If not... why? But if so, then this is the post for you! It’ll be updated as these ideas are used or added to! While more conventional means (messaging or sending asks to plot) are always available, the following are some quick and easy ways to begin! The preexisting starters are mostly intended for people with whom I don’t already have threads, but if one catches your fancy then don’t be shy!

OPEN STARTERS A preexisting stockpile of open starters is available! (Don’t be intimidated by the length of any given one; it’s only to set the scene.) These are:

Yoruichi running into your muse at an izakaya in Ebisu, Tokyo, while she’s out enjoying herself (and dressed up!) as a civilian. She tries to slip away. (Here)

Your muse encountering Yoruichi after she’s just left a black-tie charity event (in a tuxedo!) in Ebisu, Tokyo. (Here)

Your muse approaching Yoruichi while she’s dancing (very skillfully!) at an EDM club in Shibuya, Tokyo. (Here)

Yoruichi encountering your muse bathing (with an intent to join!) at an outdoor onsen in West Rukongai District 3, Soul Society. (Here)

Yoruichi idling in East Rukongai District 2, only for your muse to encounter her. (Here)

Yoruichi complaining to your muse (over a meal) about the availability of international cuisine in Karakura, and Soul Society’s homogeneous food. (Here)

Yoruichi asking your muse what they mean that “there’s a movie about her”. (Here)

Yoruichi and your muse doing karaoke in a private booth somewhere or other in Karakura or Tokyo. (Here)

Yoruichi going to practice basic swordsmanship training with the 13th Division, to possibly be taught alongside or by your muse. (Here) Patterned off of Tōshirō’s training in chapter 538.

Yoruichi reacting to being told, “I hate you.” (Here)

An excessively ornate April Fool’s Day starter. (Here)

Yoruichi deciding to DJ in Soul Society. (Here)

OPEN PROMPTS & STARTERS There are also prompts for starter ideas posts you can use if you like! These are:

Soft & Sassy Starters (Here)

Sexual Tension Meme (Here)

Just A Peek! Meme (Here)

Various Starters (Here)

Tension: A Symbol Meme (Here)

Misc. Prompts For Your Feels (Here)

Soft Fluff (Here)

Extending Empathy Prompts (Here)

Send 💬 + A Rumor And My Muse Will React To It (Here)

Send 💬 For A Started From Generated Dialogue (Here)

Nonverbal Memes (Here)

CUSTOM STARTERS You can also send in an ask for a custom starter made just for your muse! Just send in the words “custom starter” and I’ll write something for you. You can add additional details if you’d like to guide it more too. Alternately, you can write something for me! (I actually prefer this, to be honest.)

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handmaidensofnaboo · 6 years ago

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“Ultimately, it is very apparent this novel was noticeably, lovingly, and carefully crafted by a Prequel fan, a Padmé fan, a Handmaiden fan... Queen's Shadow is a fitting tribute.”

❦

Queen's Shadow had a somewhat impossible task for me as a handmaiden “super fan,” a potentially “tough critic,” so I commend E.K. Johnston for willingly providing me with an early copy to share my thoughts on it with you all... I was nervous about how Queen's Shadow would turn out to be honest, but EKJ was up to the task...

I'll preface this review by saying Handmaidens were my first real community engagement in fandom. My older sister and I joined the Royal Handmaiden Society on TheForce.Net boards back around 2001 when I was about 14. The RHS was the reason I went to my first convention (Celebration II) and although the group isn't as present online as it once was (please follow @royalhandmaidensociety), I made life long friends and it forever shaped and changed me. It was an overwhelmingly positive fandom experience at a very impressionable age and for that I'm forever thankful... So for those of us who have such deep roots to this, who have, for the past 20 years, analyzed the handmaidens’ every micro expression, every costume, and have carved out our own understanding of them (from what little information that would could find), this book might be a bit "complicated " to process.   At least it was for me.

With the announcement of Queen's Shadow, I was of course initially ecstatic, validated even, that they/we were being seen and heard, finally!! Yet mixed feelings slowly sunk in too. Despite us RHSers long lamenting the lack of content—handmaidens unjustly being overlooked in both Star Wars official media and for a long time in mainstream fandom—it also became this amazing small community space for each of us to freely imagine and play in. It’s been a kind of safe haven I've come to greatly appreciate. With a book featuring them... That could all potentially change. This fandom could change. I found myself wondering a few weeks ago, "Will I even like these girls? Will I love these new versions of Eiraté, Rabé, Sabé...” Something I've previously never had to consider. My fictional friends were about to be exposed on a larger than ever level, and reshaped, officially, forever. I was worried.  

I knew I had to go into this book open minded, no way could EKJ take each one of our different headcanons and fantasies and appease us all in one ultimate text—but to my surprise, there were certainly select striking scenes, moments, I had while reading, where (for me) she did accomplish just that.   After both the prologue and the first chapter in particular (which were centered around my favorite Handmaidens, from TPM), I had to put the book down for a while because I was so overwhelmed in the best kind of way. It truly was so close to capturing what I have wanted all these years that I just wanted to bask in it. Maybe that sounds silly but even simply one chapter filled with handmaidens, is an overwhelming amount of content for us to receive, let alone an ENTIRE book. This little fandom is just so used to excavating for scraps. I reread the beginning of the book again the next day, out of pure enjoyment, before I continued on.  

The unbelievable news, the great news... Something I can't believe even is real... Is that Queen's Shadow starts with handmaidens and ends with handmaidens, and there are handmaidens in… NEARLY? Every. Single. Chapter. I really never thought I'd never see the day. I’m stunned. Yes, they are different then I imagine them, but I'm happy to see them, I still like them, just the same. And Padmé, who has also been sorely ignored, unappreciated, and underutilized within general Star Wars media/merchandise, is also finally getting the spotlight she deeply deserves.

❦

Queen's Shadow is woven like an intricate tapestry threading together Padmé's stories throughout the entire prequel trilogy (especially the first two films), and highlights some of my favorite stylistic and thematic choices within them. Similar to the prequels (especially TPM) it reminded me of a period drama, with it's more formal dialogue, richly detailed costumes, ceremonies and politics, and admittedly a more contemplative pace than the swashbuckling fairy tales of the OT (but still engaging in it's own way). Also like the prequels, you get that occasional ominous foreboding, that sense of pieces being moved behind the curtains by shadowy figures, of unclear motivations by supposed "allies," of tragic destinies being spun—but still find yourself swept away by moments of hope and idealism, despite it all. There is a particularly heartbreaking yet beautiful finale moment of this book with her that was so fitting to George Lucas' vision of Star Wars, it was, as he once said, "like poetry—it rhymes." Anytime something can capture that Lucas approach to storytelling, I am thankful to be reminded of why I loved Star Wars in the first place. (Especially in the Disney era years when I've felt a bit "post break up" about the franchise, to be honest.)

Queen's Shadow is foremost about Padmé's work, shifting and hardening herself into her new role as senator. It does justice to the themes and qualities that originally enchanted and inspired me about her: fulfilling her duty to her people, her compassion for vulnerable communities, and fighting for what's right—through language, through political and inner power, strategy, and unexpected partnerships. And as always, Padmé is luminous.

There is one cause in particular she is advocating for that is notably poignant in its connections to TPM. I was incredibly pleased it was there, relieved even. It was so important and needed for her character. It enriches the choices she makes in the later films. And it is just one of a number of political themes in the book that are timeless and ever relevant, but wasn't inserted into the story in a heavy-handed way. I love that the main audience for this book (young girls), will get these meaty concepts presented to them through our beloved political heroine and the diversely talented women supporting her. While we do see the various skills and character moments of Padmé and her handmaidens, I admit (and this is just my first read impressions) they all still did feel somewhat at a distance for me. I personally would've liked to have dug deeper into their personalities. I'm not sure how to properly articulate it, but I just felt a bit left "wanting more"—for more walls to come down, to have gotten further into their inner thoughts... But I think it's partly the challenge of the large number of characters, the book’s YA length, and a personal preference of writing style. Which, in EKJ’s defense, does compliment these particular characters, who have long had these kind of untouchable, unknowable presences, these masks over them (and she does address that). I think as I reread it, my feelings on may improve as I retain all the subtleties better. But if they remain elusive, that gives us room to fill it out with our own head canons, which is something many of us all ~clearly~ enjoy! It is part of their appeal, part of why we first loved them after all.  It's also important to note the impressive attention to various Star Wars lore that is entwined throughout Queen's Shadow, from remnant gems of "Legends" handmaiden lore (and even RHS in jokes), to architectural details found in Battlefront II, to various appearances by Clone Wars characters... And many more I’m sure I’ve missed. Yet thankfully I can't recall any of it is done in a way that comes off as showy, elitist, or hard to follow (if for example, you're like me and admittedly haven't watched hardly any of the Clone Wars). Additionally, here and there, there were some scenes or lines that didn't quite hit the mark for me personally, one minor set of changes from "Legends" handmaiden ages irked me a bit (we had so little to cling to ok! lol), frustration at already established lore (such as Panaka and Clovis, which EKJ can’t help), and other things that were simply just creative choices of the author (which of course happens for me with almost every Star Wars spin-off).   

Regarding the last point, that was the only other occurrence where I put the book willingly down, this time because I needed to get some space—to process something I decidedly didn't like. It was about midway through the book regarding a particular minor storyline. I don't want to spoil, but I will say it involved a new character that, for me, was taking up too much room in a book that already had plenty of amazing characters I wanted to spend more time with. I just felt he wasn’t exactly needed, or that others easily could've substituted his place and it would've been more meaningful to the lore. These critiques are relatively minor however, and most of them are easy to move beyond, especially when I consider the bigger picture, and the majority of scenes, quotable lines, and pivotal interactions in Queen's Shadow that do seamlessly work. Those more than make up for the handful of things I struggled with.   Ultimately, it is very apparent this novel was noticeably, lovingly, and carefully crafted by a Prequel fan, a Padmé fan, a Handmaiden fan. For this I'm deeply thankful, because it's easy to imagine if it wasn't—How poorly or sloppily Padmé could've been mischaracterized or the possible omission and/or confusion regarding the handmaidens… The latter of which BOTH the revered Dave Filoni and Timothy Zahn are woefully guilty of, (full offense). It hits me sometimes how so much damage could've been done were this in less capable, less attentive hands, with an author that would've cared less. EKJ clearly cared a lot. Minor issues aside, that's really what mattered most to me, at the root of it. So I'm very glad.

  The more open minded you go in, the more you will enjoy Queen's Shadow, and (I say this for myself, as much as for anyone else who can relate) we can still make space for and enjoy our old head canons alongside to the new lore, or even mesh them together... I admittedly struggled a few times, but I definitely enjoyed reading it overall, particularly all the scenes on Naboo (and another planet that will go unnamed for now)...   If you love Padmé, the handmaidens, Naboo culture, prequel politics—this book is a must read. The more time that passes, and as I reflect back, the more I feel that Queen's Shadow is a fitting tribute to Padmé and our handmaidens, let alone the prequel era itself. Queen's Shadow will be comfortably situated on my bookshelf beside our other established classics: Queen Amidala's Journal and Queen's Amulet, and I’m looking forward to revisiting it again when the audiobook comes out (holy heck we're finally gonna hear almost all the handmaiden names pronounced??! Have we been saying them "correct" all these years?? Stay tuned lmao...) I'll probably be posting my spoiler thoughts on Queen's Shadow after the book's release on March 5, 2019. Pre-orders are available online, though I really recommend purchasing it at your local independent book store if you can, and/or requesting your local libraries get a copy! Please share your own pictures/thoughts/reviews on here, twitter, instagram etc. and tag it. We gotta encourage Disney to give us more, because this book definitively ends with an invitation for a sequel or spin off of some sort, and I, a bit desperately, want it!! The more we can support Queen's Shadow with the language Disney knows best ($$ and exposure) the better chance of future Padmé and handmaiden content, and they deserve it!! All of it—books, comics, Disney+ streaming miniseries, video games—Give them the legacy Rogue Squadron got. It's their time.  

Again, thank you so much E.K. Johnston for creating this beautiful book, and going out of your way to provide me a copy. I'll always treasure that moment when I got that surprise package in the mail, a book nearly 20 years in the waiting. I was 12 years old again, that snowy day on my porch.

  Can't wait to read everyone's thoughts. MTFBWY. ✨✨✨

Thank you for reading,

@handmaidensofnaboo

❦

♕ Pre Order Queen's Shadow

♕ Purchase Queen’s Shadow at your local independent bookstore

♕ Follow author E.K. Johnston: website | twitter | instagram | tumblr

♕ Follow cover artist Tara C. Philips: website | twitter | instagram | tumblr

#queen's shadow #ek johnston #padme amidala #handmaidens #naboo royal handmaidens #VERY minor?? barely any ~ spoilers~#um ps the background silk in this is from the inside of my original battlemaiden gown my sis made for me for celebration ii <333 #this is long im sorry #guys idk why yall write i feel sick to my stomach posting this and i edited it so many times all week aslfjaskfj #idk how yall can do this for large audiences #lmaooo

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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

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(1) Rawb has compassion that's for sure. Man the fact that for 6 years now he would make shows and stream on Christmas day, all because he had lonely fans who he knew needed that, is amazing to me. I just like seeing someone actually focusing on empowering the younger generation of creators and he as has 12 years of experience doing this so he's qualified for that. He' using his statues of influencer responsibly. Plus giving advice on how not to act like his like his toxic younger self.

It’s definitely a challenging question to answer. Not simply because “How do we get students interested in material?” is pretty much THE concern of every teacher out there, whether it’s because they’re truly passionate about their subject and want to create as much engagement as possible, or because they’re practical and want to fill as many seats as possible, keeping their departments funded and their salary paid. It amounts to the same. More than just the acknowledgement of, “This is an ongoing question everyone is struggling with as technology/interests change” we need to remember that most teachers don’t have nearly as much control over their material as many students assume. Not unless they work at an open-minded university, have tenure as a safety net, have the leeway to teach things outside of GE requirements, have the funding and access to certain resources, etc. If, for example, I decide I want to teach my students video games it’s not enough to just get my syllabus approved by the department---a potential hurdle in and of itself, depending on where you teach. Students need to access primary texts, which in this case is much harder to achieve than just telling them to buy books (and we all know that the cost of “just” buying books is an ongoing problem as well). Does this student own an XBox, Wii, Nintendo, etc? Can’t exactly ask them to buy one for a single class. Does the school have video game platforms as a resource? Perhaps so, but it’s a hassle for the student to come to campus, get permission to access this resource, sit in a public space, and play the very limited number of games the school has on file for an amount of time that allows for even halfway decent analysis. That’s not really conducive to a good experience. Or learning. So then how about we limit the games to laptops? Everyone has a laptop nowadays. Well, not actually, but let’s take a gamble and hope. Can we play this game? Nope. It’s PC only and plenty of people own Macs. So we’ll limit the corpus further. How about this game? Great... but it also costs $40. Will the school give me money to pay for the primary texts myself? No they will not. So that’s not a great investment when you need to assign 6-10 games across the course of the semester. The students would be dropping a small fortune and none too pleased about it.

All of which is the precise sort of thinking I had to do, weeks before the class was held with very little idea of what was available to me and no idea who would be in my class/what resources they had access to/what they were willing to acquire.To say nothing of the hundred other questions like, “Is it worth engaging with this game for a week when it’s meant to be played for 200 hours?” Or “Is a media-heavy class truly accessible?” (I had to completely re-work one visually-heavy class when I learned a week before the class started that one student was blind.) Or “Does limiting the syllabus in this way even result in a satisfying, educational experience?” A lot of the feedback I received was akin to, “Hey, why did we play this game instead of this one way more representative of the genre we were discussing?” and the answers kept coming back to, “Because this game exists on dual platforms, was $50 cheaper, and had chaptered gameplay I could easily assign. I can’t just tell you all to play for an hour because then everyone will have had a wildly different experience, especially when considering skill level. There has to be set division akin to assigning page length because that’s how school functions.” Obviously incorporating media interests isn’t always this complicated, but it does help demonstrate why seemingly simple questions like, “Why don’t more teachers include video games? People love them and it would get everyone engaged!” aren’t actually simple at all. It does get people engaged... if you can pull it off.

Regarding incorporating other aspects, I (like many) usually fall back on creative projects. I haven’t exactly figured out a fun way to teach MLA citations yet because some information just needs to be presented without complications, but other assignments can come with more freedom. Try re-writing this story as a series of tweets. We’re talking linguistics this week, so go analyze the specifics of Discord conversations. I was just speaking to a colleague about how fandom praises AO3′s tagging system and bemoans the fact that this doesn’t exist for mainstream fiction. We were working through the potential usefulness (and fun) of asking students to tag whatever it is they’re reading in class, encouraging formal categorization as well as free-form reflections. Ultimately though, a group of 24 students are far more likely to come up with cool ways of engaging on their own if they’re given the freedom to explore and the courage to do so. I prefer to keep things broad then, knowing that with a bit of encouragement students will find a way to connect that broad topic back to their own interests. Many students do, for example, find the topic of gender incredibly boring, if not stupid or even something they’re really resistant to... but a lot of them are athletes and, with a little nudge, start questioning why the pro they look up to isn’t paid as much as another, or why this particular sport is still segregated by sex when their own experiences suggest it shouldn’t be. Suddenly they’re giving presentations about something they’re passionate about---that also fits the assignment requirements---and talking about their pro’s latest Instagram post---that’s also now cited properly. It’s about finding a balance. Some information/classes will always just be boring. It’s inevitable, especially when one considers the basic fact that what’s fascinating to one person is going to be dull as hell to another. But to my mind the more instructors who are at least taking small steps to implement the things their students are engaged with outside the classroom (What if I encourage them to take pictures of the PowerPoint and google new terms instead of just banning phones?) and the more students who have guided freedom in the classroom (What if I acknowledge that academic writing conventions can be very limiting, so let’s compromise by you learning the rules for future use but I also encourage you to break those rules here if you have good reason?) the better.

#teaching #school #gaming #Anonymous

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mikkeneko · 6 years ago

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The Rules of Marketing Your Fic

This is by no means an 'official' writing guide, not backed by studies or science. Say rather it's the things I've observed, trial-and-error over my going-on-twenty years of writing and publishing fics online.

1. Starting out in a new fandom

The first stage is participation. You need to get to know your territory, and make yourself known to the territory. Look around. Find the hubs of fandom activity and, if they are open to newcomers, join them.

Participate in discussions. Look at other people's creations and comment on them.

Create things that are integrative and participatory: kink memes, contests, writing memes that are going around. Read, analyze, and add your own thoughts to meta posts.

Get people used to seeing your name and face (or icon.)

2. Producing your own content in the fandom

When you feel that you have a) read enough in the fandom to get the lay of the land and b) participated enough that your presence is known, you can start producing more of your own content that is not integrative or participatory.

You can subvert the local memes and conventions (in fact, that's a great way to make interesting content) but you have to know what they are first.

3. Gaining and maintaining a reader base

If people comment on your stuff, if your time and/or social spoons allow, answer them! Your goal is not just to passively collect reader attention but to cultivate a relationship with your readers. Positive feedback encourages desired behavior!

A few guidelines for replying to readers:

a. Thank them for their time and attention. It can get repetitive writing "Thank you for reading" over and over again, but remember that for the most part they will only see YOUR reply, not the replies you make to everyone else.

b. Write a reply that is approximately as substantive as the comment they left. If they only wrote a few words, a reply of a few words is fine. But if they wrote long happy paragraphs, that deserves at least a few lines of response. If you reply more to longer comments, people will leave longer and more substantive comments!

c. If they have questions, answer them to the extent you feel comfortable doing so. Some authors wish to withhold info that might be spoilery for later in the fic. Personally I'm of the opinion that if the reader wants to know, I'll tell them -- if they don't mind spoiling their own surprise, I don't mind either.

d. Don't get pulled into negative spirals. If someone writes a negative review or otherwise a comment that you don't feel comfortable with, answer only to the extent that you feel you can do so civilly. For instance, if someone says "Do you think you can make this story [pairing X?]" you can answer with "I don't plan to go in that direction, but that's a nice thought." If they say "I can't keep reading this fic now that you've done..." you can answer with "Everyone has their own limits. Thank you for your time up till now." If you don't feel you can even say that much politely, don't answer at all. If you need to, delete the comment (assuming your platform has the means to do so) so that you aren't reminded of the negative feelings every time you visit the page. Whatever you do, don't ask other people to pile onto the hater on your behalf.

4. Maintaining interest in your works

This gets out of the realm of fandom etiquette and into more vague marketing concepts. Once again, this is stuff that I have found to work over time.

a. Have complete metadata for each work

Each work should have a title. Don't go around calling your work "that stoner AU my buddy and I came up with" or a vague description (even if it's accurate.) Coming up with titles is hard, I know, but it needs to be done. If you can't even come up with a full structure for your work, that signals that it's unfinished and unpolished, and less appealing to readers.

Each work should have a description. Each description should be unique. If you have a series of works that all look the same at first glance -- "another modern AU," "yet another nightclub rave story" "more sap and porn" then readers will have trouble keeping them apart in their minds. Make sure that each story is its own thing and has its own, distinct description. Look up the concept of an "elevator pitch" and apply it to your own work.

Tag and warn appropriately for each work. Don't assume "it has all the stuff all my work always has, you know me" because you don't know how people will find your stuff or come in for the first time.

b. Keep a consistent schedule

Easier said than done. I KNOW, believe me I know. But this is essential for all ongoing works. If you want your readers to follow along for a long time, your fic has to become part of their weekly schedule. Try to update on the same day of each week whenever possible.

Try to avoid unplanned hiatuses. If you know you aren't going to be updating for a while, add a note to that effect on the chapter. Readers will be more willing to accept hiatuses if they know they're coming, and they aren't looking fruitlessly for an update and being disappointed when it doesn't come.

c. Post, promote, and reblog at peak hours

Pretty standard stuff. Try to post at a time when your readers will have the time to sit and engage with the work, not just note it in passing as they hurry to work. If you finish late at night it's probably better to wait until the next afternoon before posting.

d. Keep your chapters at a comfortable length for consumption

This one's variable -- everyone's reading habits are different, and it's more important to keep a consistent schedule than a consistent chapter length. But a chapter that is too short may leave readers feeling frustrated, wondering why they bothered engaging for so little content. And a chapter that is too long may actually overwhelm readers and cause them to put off your chapter or fic until later -- maybe forever.

Generally speaking, between 1k-8k is a good chapter length. Less than that, consider waiting until you have more. More than that, consider splitting the chapter into multiple chapters.

e. Keep your personal drama out of the writing

Try to avoid what I call author histrionics. It's tempting to get drawn into making excuses or expressing frustration in the author's notes, but it's not really the place -- it doesn't age well. If you have a relationship with commenters where they can commiserate with you, then you can discuss whatever the problem is in comments, but keep it out of the fic itself.

That’s all I can think of for now. If other authors reading this have ideas of their own, feel free to add them on!

#long post #let me sing you the song of my people #marketing your fic #rules of writing

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salt-and-a-dash-of-pepper · 6 years ago

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Writing Advice - On Wump Done Wrong

I’ll start by saying that I like my fair share of whump. It’s an exciting way to explore areas of a character that you had only seen flashes of, or perhaps none at all, in how they deal with copious amounts of stress. Not to be boorishly conventional, but the rise and popularity of Edgar Allan Poe suggest a growing interest in how characters--or humans--respond to unusually stressful situations, and how they might crack in some sense. Now popularized, whump has become a genre in of itself in the fanfiction community and often highly appraised for its exploration of characters and general “I want to see this character to get hurt and that character to watch” candy.

But. I think the fandom does it too much. This interest, I think, has morphed into a sort of fascination as the decades have piled on each other and each concept of “stressful situation” becomes more and more extreme as it gets more popular.

For those who don’t understand the term “whump,” it is a word used primarily--if not solely--in fan communities to describe a character’s response, subconscious and/or conscious, to intense, often severe, situations that often have lasting effects on their mental, emotional, and/or physical well-being. This can include:

torture,

starvation,

prolonged abuse,

prolonged injuries,

and other extreme situations

Whump is not usually short-lived, not in terms of “time,” but rather length of text. Whump usually drags on for several chapters and often occupies more than 30% of the story, especially in reference to fanfiction. For traditional books, “whump” often does not appear, for whump is a genre in of itself more than a piece of a story. However, I also think because whump is handled so poorly in so many instances, it is filtered out during the editing process.

Why?

Because so many do too much.

Whump is designed for the most extreme moments within a character, to explore and watch and experiment. But the issue is, in most cases, the writer doesn’t know when to stop. They keep seeking out the extreme. And as they pursue more and more severe circumstances, the cases eventually become unrealistic, comical, and no longer does the reader care about the character. The climax has already been reached and instead of seeking out the final falling action, the writer keeps on trying to one-up the climax.

The Technical Issues

Anyone who has passed their first year in high school is aware of Freytag’s Pyramid, though perhaps not by that term. It is also known as the plot diagram:

I won’t go into depth, but the three main points of composition for the pyramid itself--rising action, climax, and falling action--are what often gets skewed in whump fanfictions. Rising action, naturally is the build-up (and often has an “inciting incident that leads to the rising action or stands within it; but that’s a discussion for another time). The climax is the point of no return, where an action cannot be taken back and is the main driving point for the rest of the plot. The climax is the axel that pivots the story in a certain way and how the rest of the story is carried out. The falling action is the time when characters then deal with the conflict. That certainly doesn’t mean that new conflicts don’t arise, but they must always be smaller than the main climax. Hence the pyramid shape.

For good whump stories, the rising action is the capture, the first days of captivity, or the battle where the hero will be shot. Depending on the style of the fanfiction, the actual torture, the shot in the chest, the abuse, can occur in the rising action as well, as the writer’s main focus is not how the character was hurt, but the aftermath, where their emotional breakdowns are instead the climax. Small conflicts might occur during this, building up to the climax. On a chart, it would look a lot like this:

Notice that the building conflicts never reach higher than the climax itself. What most whump writers get wrong, however, is that they treat the building conflicts as grand as the climax itself. Or, they haven’t pre-planned what the climax is, so they introduce several climaxes so they don’t have to compromise and re-evaluate how they would organize the story.

For example, I’ve read many Marvel fics where the character has already experienced their “extreme” moment, usually a kidnapping, but as they are resting, their friends fall under a hypnotic spell and they are the only ones to stop it. Them, sitting in the hospital, nursing wounds and incapable of standing. The reader sets their teeth on edge. You’ve introduced another climax on top of the primary climax. If organized properly, their kidnapping moment wouldn’t have been the climax. Instead, the hypnotic spell and its aftermath would have been the climax. But the writer often treats them as equal climaxes, and this what I like to call “stacking” the extremes.

Another example I will use is when writers set extra climaxes at the falling action. Just as the rising action, it is certainly possible to add conflicts in the falling action. But, as in the previous example, these “conflicts” are overblown into climaxes once again. The character is recovering from torture. Their immune systems are failing, and they begin to grow sick. Panic sets in, as they struggle to breathe. During this point, their torturer reappears as well. They are thrown back into the torturer’s hands and given even worse treatment. At this point, the reader has had no time to breathe and they wonder, just for a moment, if the character really just is that pathetic.

Character Responses

Climaxes require certain reactions from the characters, which will impact the reader’s reaction. Character reactions hint on the severity of certain situations. Overreactions, therefore, cause a misinterpretation of the situation and suggest that a conflict within the rising or falling action is the climax. Characters’ emotions build up much like the Freytag Pyramid. Characters will have neutral, oftentimes natural emotions, and once the point of action occurs, every emotion afterwards will be their response until they reach the climax. Then, every emotion after is a response to the climax, that ultimately leads to their resolution.

This is approached differently for different characters. For the character experiencing the whump, they will respond first to the severe circumstances they are under, and the climax will act as their most intense emotion during or after the event. The falling action is their falling emotions, and how they respond to the climax, until they finally reach a resolution. However…

Most writers write their characters like this. At almost every instance, they respond in panic, terror, or hysterical sobbing. Because these responses are intense, and because the “whump” genre demands extreme circumstances, writers will make the mistake of making these extreme responses, such as hysteria, more frequent. What they don’t recognize is that the build-up to these emotions is what makes them extreme and enticing. If writers make them frequent occurrences, the build-up is lost, and the character seems weak, unnecessarily hysterical, and so uncomfortably not human that readers will exit out of the story.

Again, the stacking. Writers assume that stacking extreme circumstances on top of one another invokes sympathy and properly portrays the “whump.” But it is because of this stacking, whump is given a bad name. Stacking extreme circumstances with extreme reactions causes the reader to withdraw.

This also involves the side characters who interact with the one who experienced the same circumstances. They will not respond in the same way that the main character does. They will not weep with the same intensity or feel the same fear. Sympathy is expected, but intense sympathy is too much.

Balance

Balance is key. Every moment of pain requires a similar moment of respite. The severity of the pain also affects the intensity of the respite. They need to reach equal levels on the scale for the reader to be satisfied. Extreme circumstances do not require extreme respite. They require normalcy, and that normalcy properly balances the extreme circumstances that occurred.

Write wisely. Pre-plan. And stop, for the love of God, making these characters unnatural.

#writing advice #whump #writing #writers #mine #my stuff #marvel #spiderman #fanfiction #fan fiction #ff #ff.net #ao3 #fanfic

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fantompainblog · 6 years ago

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Never Too Young

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3695276/1/Never-Too-Young

Author: koolkame

Official Summary: At a paranormal convention a team of young superheroes will do battle with their foes for possession of a powerful artifact that could destroy everything they love. Start of the Never Too Young Crossover Universe.

Fandoms: Primarily Danny Phantom, the Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Ben 10, WITCH, and American Dragon: Jake Long

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Status: Last Updated August 1, 2009

Length: 10 Chapters, 99,198 Words

Rating: T

Introduction:

We got ourselves our first mega-crossover here folks! A mega-crossover is a crossover fic between three or more properties. Now putting so many different characters and worlds in one story is no easy feat. There are a few common ways of doing a mega-crossover, you can have characters traveling a multiverse and visiting various fictional worlds, or you can take a bunch of properties and put them in the same setting. Never Too Young goes with the second one.

The Source Material:

There’s a lot of these so we’re not gonna go too deep into each one, but these are all urban fantasy/superhero cartoons from the mid/late 2000s. And, except for WITCH, these are all shows I watched as a kid, I haven’t revisited any since then, but I think Ben 10 or Danny Phantom probably hold up the best. American Dragon and Juniper Lee are also notable for, by complete coincidence, having nearly the same premise and setup, but on separate networks. As for WITCH, it’s based on an Italian magical girl comic, and Greg Weisman, creator of Gargoyles, was involved in the writing. Don’t worry about getting lost in all the shows though; the author does an excellent job of letting you know everyone’s deal, they even provided info on where in each show’s timeline this story takes place in before the first chapter.

The Fic:

It’s a damn shame this got dropped; this fic is a lot of fun and a breath of fresh air after the slim pickings that have been the last few reviews. A lot is going on in this story, and while we don’t get a lot of payoff, the author does a great job of making you want to find out more. I also appreciate that everyone, except for the Danny Phantom cast, finds out about their respective secret identities pretty quickly. My one major criticism is that there are maybe a few too many characters, I think that a few of the supporting characters could be cut and the story would still work out fine. The writing in Never Too Young is pretty good, and there’s a fun bit of writing that I want to highlight: In the first chapter all the groups of heroes and villains are introduced with the first line of their POV section echoing the last line. It’s a really efficient way of getting through introductions, and it’s a clever writing technique that just makes me smile. Overall, I’d say that Never Too Young is a fun and enjoyable read, especially if you’re nostalgic for this era of cartoons.

Next Time: Oh? Worm?

#fantom pain #fanfiction #fanfic #danny phantom #w.i.t.c.h.#the life and times of juniper lee #american dragon: Jake Long #Ben 10 #crossovers

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fanfic-scribbles · 7 years ago

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On the Run: Chapter Five

Chapter Five: “Trial by Fire” or “Yes It Goes On and On My Friends”

Masterlist Here

Overall Story Facts:

Fandom: MCU Avengers; MCU Captain America

Adventure/Romance – James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes/Reader – Female Reader

Warnings: Violence, language, eventual romance, reader character with sassy/abrasive personality

Chapter Summary: A close encounter gives you a different insight into Bucky’s mindset. Also, maybe the Avengers are what they’re cracked up to be. Except for Captain America. He’s still the biggest little shit you know.

Special Chapter Warnings: Violence (not graphically described), emotional turmoil.

Words: 5169 (weeps)

A/N: I am so sorry for the length of this chapter. Every time I tried to edit it, it…just kept going longer. And longer. I have to take my hands off it or it will never end. I mean, it was definitely fun to write, but damn… Other than that, not much for notes this week. Please enjoy. Oh! Wait, I lied, I have a note: I have made a loose timeline and am going to start noting when the flashback chapters take place (or thereabouts). The Reader flashback (chapter two) is about two years before the beginning of this story, and the Steve Rogers one (chapter four) takes place about a year before the beginning of this story. What happened in between then? That will come out in future chapters. For now, just enjoy the ride.

Chapter : “Trial by Fire” or “Yes It Goes On and On My Friends”

You. Are. Bored. And tired. And maybe a little bit cranky.

“Aren't there Geneva Conventions against this?”

You can see Steve roll his eyes in the rearview mirror. Thankfully, Captain Caffeine-Denier is driving so you aren’t stuck next to him. As fun as it might be to test the limits of Captain America’s patience, it’s much better to do it where he can’t wrap his hands around your throat.

“It’s almost nine,” Steve says, taking the time to glance back at you again. “When will you stop needing coffee?”

“When I get some.” Duh. “Eyes on the road, Captain Car Accident. If I end up in “Red Asphalt” number 500 I’m gonna haunt your star-spangled ass for eternity.”

“It might be worth it for the wails of agony whenever I walk into a Starbucks,” he mutters.

You snort. “You go to Starbucks? You’re killing me; your fake glasses say ‘Brooklyn hipster douche’ but in reality you’re more of a faux-hipster douche.”

“Okay, hipster and not-hipster,” he says like he gets it (fat chance). “But why does ‘douche’ carry across both? You can get more creative than that.”

“Yeah but your honest personality carries through no matter what you wear.”

“Maybe you’ll feel better if you eat something,” Sam interjects and digs in a duffle bag. You don’t care if he makes a stupid fucking ‘eat a Snickers’ joke because your stomach grumbles at the mere mention of something edible. But what Sam holds out to you is…is…

Your stomach goes silent and you can only stare at the granola bar in his hand.

“You okay back there?” Steve asks. “You stopped complaining.”

You blink. “Okay…” you say and press your back up against the window, pushing back as far away from that thing as you can get. “Okay, I give; what do you want to know? Just–just take it away, please; I’ll cooperate.”

Sam laughs but, mercifully, puts it back. “It’s a granola bar, not a taser.”

“You’re trying to turn my insides into shrapnel. Nuh uh; I’m not falling for that shit.”

“You mentioned cooperating,” Steve says, sounding more like the wretched morning person you just know he is. “How did you meet Bucky?”

Hah. What a loser. “Who names their kid Bucky? Like, do parents never consider all the terrible nicknames that people can make from that?”

Steve rolls his eyes again and goes back to scowling at the road. That’s definitely not a bad thing; you rest your head against the window and watch the pavement pass by.

“Buchanan.”

You have to think on what that little non sequitur is about. Steve is stealing glances at you again. “His middle name is Buchanan. James Buchanan Barnes. That’s where ‘Bucky’ comes from.”

“Okay.” You know bait when you smell it so you leave it floating for a much dumber fish. “By the way, where are we going?”

“A safehouse Barnes has used in the past,” Natasha says.

“Ah.” That means exactly nothing to you. “And you’re hoping to…find him there?”

“Or a lead on his direction,” she says and that is that for the next ten hours.

Okay, so not literally. It might even still technically be morning when Steve pulls down a street in an under-construction industrial district. The car goes slow, as if this is a neighborhood with a really bored cop just sitting over yonder. But Steve is silent (thank heavens), Natasha is sitting up straighter and even Sam, chill as he is, is at attention. You…sit there and look pretty. Because unless they need someone squinting at building numbers, there’s nothing else to do and you don’t want to distract them.

Mostly you don’t want to distract them, but once you’ve parked you’re bored again as they rifle through the back and load up on weapons. Well, Natasha at least grabs some weapons: a couple of guns, a knife or three, and some little silver things you don’t get a good look at. Steve grabs his shield but doesn’t change out of his ‘normal’ clothes. Sam grabs…a backpack. It’s a nice backpack, you have to admit; hard, futuristic–

“Ooo,” you say when you realize what it really is and you swing behind him to look at it. “Is this where your wings are?”

“You know about my wings?” he says, sounding amused.

“I’ve read a newspaper within the past five years. I know some stuff.” You walk next to him because, despite flying possibilities, right now it’s just a backpack and you doubt that’s going to change anytime soon. Natasha and Steve are walking ahead and aside from him glancing back on occasion, they don’t pay you much attention. That’s…fine. Doesn’t help the atmosphere, though. Benign as the unfinished office building looks– tall, wide, with brick overlay and sheets of plastic blowing lazily in the breeze. The surrounding area is so quiet that it’s creepy. Also, weird. The inside is unpainted, not carpeted, and from what you can tell the entire building has frames but no windows. And yet Natasha goes to the elevator, punches in a code on a little pinpad, and it works. The doors open.

“Uh…” you say and hang back.

“It’s all right. It’s safe,” Sam says and gestures for you to go in.

Yeah, because being in a small space with grumpy Captain America, stoic Black Widow, and srs bsns Falcon is a safe, grand old time. You suck it up before one of them can decide to do it for you. The doors shut, the elevator moves, and it is…slow. Natasha actually sighs as you make your way up to whatever ridiculous floor you’re going to. You forget all sense of self-preservation and start humming. Muzak, eat your heart out.

“‘The Song That Never Ends’? Really?” Sam says but, again, more amused than annoyed. You flash him a smile but continue to hum as you stare at the back of Big Blond Eagle’s head. Less than a minute goes by when Steve suddenly slams his hand on the button to stop the elevator.

You are not ashamed of the fact that you find yourself clinging to the one and only Sam “Falcon” Wilson like he is your own personal lifeline. To be fair, his wings probably can’t do much in an elevator shaft, let alone the elevator itself, but you’ll tackle Natasha to the ground before you willingly wrap your arms around Steve.

“What was that noise?” Natasha asks you, smiling, while Sam tries (poorly, the bastard) to hide his laughter.

Not. Ashamed. And you’re not even going to acknowledge her question. “Can we please get out of the suspended steel deathtrap?!”

“In a moment,” Steve says, preparing his shield. It’s enough to make Sam stop laughing (mostly) and wipes any sense of amusement off Natasha’s face. Sam shuffles you behind him into a corner and there’s a tense second, after Steve forces the doors open, where he pokes his head out and you hope he doesn’t get shot in his stupid face because he might have denied you coffee but you don’t hate him that much. (Yet.)

Thankfully he pulls his head back in, sans lead, and lightens the straight line of his shoulders. “Clear,” he says and you all leave the tiny metal box. You walk down the hall and when you come up at another intersecting hallway they all treat the corner with just as much care and concern.

You don’t have the mental energy to panic at all of these so you just watch Steve bear his shield and Natasha hold her gun at the ready. Once the coast is declared clear and all three are more relaxed as they glance at the rooms you slowly pass, you ask, “Hey, Captain Coffee-Block, why don’t you have a gun?”

He glances back at you, like he’s surprised you’re talking, and then he looks forward with a grimace that implies he’s remembered who he’s dealing with. “I don’t need one.”

You beg to differ. “You take a vow of non-violence or something?” Wait; he had dropped as many bodies in your living room as Natasha had. “Or a…vow of non-lethal…violence?”

Steve flashes you a smirk. “How articulate.”

Brat. “Hey, you’re the one that vetoed a morning essential.” You wave your arms. “I won't speak for anyone else here but some of us mere mortals require a little boost when we have to get up at ass-crack o’clock.”

Steve mutters something you can’t hear but it makes Natasha smile (before she quickly goes back to being too cool for school) so it probably isn’t very flattering. You mock an exaggerated gasp. “Captain America, are you making fun of me?”

Steve looks at you again, his face almost a straight line. “Do you get more or less annoying with coffee?”

Sam laughs and Natasha rolls her eyes, but she looks at you like she expects an answer. “Definitely less,” you say. You all stop by a door. It looks like any other door you’ve passed so far but Natasha breaks the doorknob and she and Sam case it with their heads on swivel sticks before entering and doing a more thorough search. It’s a…big room. Empty. Boring. Despite that, Steve, Sam, and Natasha look in every corner (all four of ‘em) while you hang back and watch from the hallway. Whatever they’re seeking they don’t find, and soon you’re all back to slinking down the hallway.

“How do I know you’re just not saying that to get coffee?” Steve asks, looking right at you even though he’s still walking. You hope he trips.

“Wha– oh.” You snort. “Buddy, think of it in practical terms. Coffee means I’m drinking, not talking.”

“Ah,” he says as you all stop at another room. “I’ll make it a priority then.”

You clasp your hands. “A man after my heart.”

He’s standing on the other side of the door across from you while Sam and Natasha check out the inside. His big blue eyes go wide and hopeful. It is grossly adorable. “Oh? You mean you have one?”

You clutch your chest. “Oh! The cruelty! Someone fetch the smelling salts!”

He rolls his eyes, losing all pretense of innocence. “I was born in 1918 not 1818.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Natasha, are they flirting or do they actually hate each other?” Sam asks as they rejoin you. “I can’t tell sometimes.”

Laughter bubbles up from somewhere inside you that’s safe from your cold dead heart. Flirting. With Legal Blond Eagle. You cross your arms over your aching stomach and grip your sides. You actually fall on your ass as hilarity knocks you off balance.

“Not flirting,” Natasha says.

“Are you kidding me,” you wheeze as Sam helps you up. You wipe away tears. “Oh my g–”

Contrary to what the good captain might think, you are not dumb, nor are you actively suicidal. So when Steve puts his hand up and Sam goes silent, you also shut up and stop. You stay next to Sam as he pulls out his gun. Steve moves closer to the window frame, shield in hand, and leans against the wall on one side while Natasha makes herself as flush as a painting on the other side. There’s no glass, it’s all open; open to the bright, late morning sunshine and a warm breeze that flows past you. The wind makes you flinch; makes you realize how exposed you are.

You try to take a step back but Sam’s hand presses firm on your lower back so you stop. You look from Sam to Natasha to Steve and decide that maybe a shield is a perfectly fine thing to have after all.

There’s a faint but still all too close explosion outside that makes you want to both jump out of your skin and hit the deck, so you freeze. Steve looks down and spits out a curse that is, unfortunately, drowned out by Natasha’s string of them just before she kicks him back out of the open frame. Gunfire sounds in distant pops that become louder as the bullets start hitting the side of the building and the wall behind you.

Sam shoves you flat and you curl up as he rises just slightly to start firing back. Action movies are so much better when you’re flipping past them with a remote, you think. A flash of movement down the hall makes you un-hedgehog and you can see two black-suited people with nasty-looking guns taking aim in your direction.

You don’t think, you just grab the fabric of Sam’s sleeve and yank him down. He swears at his own misfire but before he starts to yell at you, you just point down the hall and he goes on guard immediately. Sam gets the guy who’s starting to aim at you first, and then the other one that’s already firing at him. While they fall, though, three more come from the corner behind them and pick up the slack.

Two firefights two days in a row. This shit is tired.

Your ears are ringing from gunfire and Steve’s shouts aren’t quite loud enough to pierce the haze, though you do try to make out what he’s saying. You hear him shout “GO!” just as something explodes and the hall fills with gas. This is very familiar. Greatest hits or a shitty lack of creativity, it’s the same stuff as before and you scramble on all fours, trying to get away from the wisps already burning your eyes and making you wheeze. A hand grabs the back of your shirt and helps you with that.

‘Helps’ you by throwing you into a stairwell so hard your head smashes into the railing and you lie there, dazed, as the door slams shut, muffling the sounds of the fight. Unless your resident elder statesman is taking more offense to you than he’s letting on–

“That her?”

“Yeah.”

Aw, now this is some bullshit. You play possum, shutting your eyes and deepening your breathing just in case they come to check. Cold concrete isn’t the nicest thing to rest on, but it does provide good contrast to the hot, pulsing pain near your temple and accompanying trail of blood.

“Reload. We won't have any other time to do it,” Assface says.

“Has there been any sign of him?” Douchewad asks.

“No,” Assface grunts and something clicks loudly. “All right. Move.”

One of them grabs you and drapes you over his shoulder. It’s uncomfortable– there are a lot of stupid pokey bits digging into your soft and tender stomach. Briefly you debate the merits of you, an unarmed person without a deathwish, taking on both Grunt #1 and Grunt #2, both armed. The deliberation ends with a resounding ‘fuck that,’ so you keep playing dead. They carry you down a few levels, go back inside the building proper and walk in the opposite direction of the fighting upstairs. They then enter into another echoing stairwell, where they meet up with a group of their equally violent friends.

Yeah, ‘waking up’ seems like a real bad time. Thankfully you are laid upon the ground and ignored while they talk plans and placement. The group disperses with their orders and you are left once more with Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum.

“This is ridiculous,” Douchewad says.

“What do you propose?” Assface asks.

“Shoot her and drag her out. They won't fight so hard over her corpse.”

Words and thoughts cannot express just how not in favor of this plan you are.

“Idiot; she has to be alive. Orders are orders.”

Yes; overruled, Douchewad. ‘Orders’ though. That’s…concerning. But you put it on the backburner for now. You have enough to worry about.

“Dragging her out of here alive is going to be impossible. Black Widow will cut her losses if it gets to be too much.”

“She won't. Her ‘Captain’ won’t let her and she’s his faithful little dog.”

Oh, you are so going to tell Natasha about this. Then she is going to beat the shit out of them and you are going to watch and feel bad not one whit.

“Just because he used her for a safe house doesn’t mean he’ll come back for her.”

…What?

“Oh, he’ll come.” Assface laughs. “We were in loose contact with the cell in Ohio–”

‘The cell in Ohio’ do these people ever listen to themselves or are you really living out a piece of shitty Tom Clancy fanfiction?

“–and they found out he’d been hiding in that dump–”

Hey, asshole, that ‘dump’ was home.

“–and he burned them down. Razed everything. Almost did the same to the base in Tennessee. Normally he leaves something for the Fed pigs to find.”

“And they’re sure it was because of her?”

“Mm hm. Before he went and joined his ‘Superhero Pal Squad’–”

Buddy. Leave the demeaning and derogatory nicknames to the professionals. That was pathetic.

“–we had no record of him, aside from the places he was taking out. Everybody assumed he just kept moving too long. But no, he just erased his tracks too good so he could go back and play house. We have better records of him when he’s on the road with Widow and Hawkeye, for fuck’s sake. Once we did track her down we kept a loose eye on her; figured she was just a crash site. The tape, though? They finally got something out of it just a few days ago. One of the agents was asking about her and the Soldier made threats about if anything happens to her.”

That…that’s…

Something.

It’s a lot easier to lie still after that. After Bucky had left you had hoped for a phone call, a letter, a note, a fucking pamphlet or napkin scribble, just something from him, to you, to let you know he was okay, that he hadn’t…forgotten you. All this time you’ve thought he’s taken your advice to ‘forget about it’ with gusto. But it turns out that ignoring you like a regrettable Spring Break hookup is just his (demented) way of protecting you.

Once you’ve railed him out for his terrible taste in best friends, you’re going to have some choice words about that.

Shots fire but it’s a testament to just how much that fucking raccoon upends your world that you barely notice at first. Asswad and Doucheface or whatever shoot back and you curl up to protect your ears and make a smaller target, but the two numbnuts drop and you flinch as footsteps approach.

Natasha sighs. “Are you going to lie there all day?”

You unfold and use the railing to get up. You’re a little unsteady at first– your legs don’t want to work and your head sways a bit, but when Natasha sizes you up your nerves are what almost bring you down. “Are you all right?” she asks, looking at your head.

You touch it and– fuck, ow, you forgot about that, but the dull headache is back to remind you and that dried blood is going to be hell to get out of your hair. “Yeah, fucking aces,” you grumble.

She gives a curt nod. “Follow me,” she says and starts down. At every landing she stops a moment, listens by the door, and then goes. You never get to stop– she’s moving quick and light and you’re clambering behind like Lurch.

When you catch up she asks, “Why didn’t you run?”

“What?” you ask even as you're trying to get a working breath again.

“From those two idiots,” she says and motions up with her head.

“Wait…” You stand and take a deep breath. “From the guys wielding guns bigger than some children I’ve seen? Really?” She lifts a shoulder and you roll your eyes. “Lady, you need some normal friends. Ones who don’t get their kicks from driving into warzones.”

She stares at you. It’s unnerving. You are not a fan. “Did they say anything?”

You shrug as casually as you can. “Apparently they’re trying to take me alive.”

She rolls her eyes. “I could have told you that.”

Anger flares up in you. “Could you have? Interesting. Because you haven’t told me shit.”

She doesn’t get to say or do anything, thankfully. Not so thankfully, it’s because a door slams somewhere up above and you can hear people running down the steps.

Natasha opens the door and you realize you’re at ground level and the first thing you see is a small group of Bad Guys with, surprise, guns. They don’t notice you at first though and that’s enough time for Natasha to shoot two of them, order you to “Go!” with a firm shove, and engage the last two standing.

You stumble over your feet but run out the side door– and immediately press yourself back against the building behind a decorative outcropping at the sight of more guys (do they ever end?) running around the front to go for Natasha. As soon as they’re gone you bust your ass and run.

You push your body well past its limits, take a few turns, and end up gasping for air in a parking garage. Once you get past wishing to die already, you look around. It’s devoid of people, nearly empty, and so much more exposed than you want to be. But no one has followed you, you’re alone, and there are a few scattered cars. And since your ride has been blown to smithereens…

You try a couple of cars before you find an older Cadillac with a busted back door lock. Within a few minutes (during which every distant sound is making you jump; thanks a lot for the possible PTSD, Captain) you have the car hotwired and ready to go.

You’re planning out how to get back to the building (you cannot get lost, you will never live it down), and how to fit Steve “I’ve never met a gym I don’t like” Rogers in the car (no fucking way is he allowed to sit shotgun. In fact, if you’re driving, can you get away with stuffing him in the trunk?) when you have the sudden, striking, dizzying thought that…

…You don’t have to go back. If you want, you can just leave. Sam, Steve, and Natasha are all Avengers and they will be just fine without you. You can get away from guns and explosions and–

You think of Steve, putting his shield behind you and covering you bodily when you ran out of your home. Sam, who put his hand on yours when you started shaking during the drive after and who just straight up killed a guy who had aimed at you. Natasha, who had come after you and forced you to run while she covered you. All of these people who are Bucky’s friends and who are currently bugging the shit out of you because they’re worried about your favorite (by default, you swear) trash panda.

“Motherfucking conscience,” you snarl and tear out of the parking garage. You take your anger out on the accelerator. “Do you have any idea how much easier my life would be without you? No Trash Panda, no Grandpa Freedom, no– oh, wow.”

Natasha has somehow done a mid-air somersault with some dude’s head in her thighs, and he goes flying past the front of your car just before you pull up. She’s still on guard so you motion for her to get her ass inside the vehicle.

As soon as she’s in you’re off. “What was that you said earlier?” she asks. “About having ‘normal friends who don’t drive into warzones’?”

“Shut up,” you grumble, driving around and searching for Sam and Steve. Are they out of the building? They better be out of the building. “Shut up. You wanna go back? I can drop you off.”

Natasha is primping in the visor mirror. “No thank you. I’m done.”

There’s something about her tone that you really don’t like, but before you can ask, there’s a minor explosion (seriously what is your life) from where you just were. Natasha hasn’t even glanced back, even now that she’s done fixing her hair and wiping away blood and dirt. She’s looking out the windshield, but does spare you a glance and a shrug. “They blew up ours. It’s only fair.”

“You,” you say, fixing your eyes ahead, “Are scary.”

“Thank you,” Natasha says and points upward. You follow the line and–

Falcon is flying. Dodging something, probably gunfire, but he’s taking hairpin turns and diving and–

“Turn right,” Natasha says and you scramble to turn the wheel before you run into a wall and head onto a small road. It leads to a dirt-covered construction site where Fa– Sam has landed and he and Steve are talking in the midst of unconscious-or-dead Hydra jerks and broken weapons.

Natasha rolls down her window. “Hey boys,” she says and it’s pretty funny to see them jump. “Need a ride?”

Sam grins and he and Steve hop in the back. That is also satisfying, watching Steve hunch up behind Natasha like he’s ready to start ringing bells in Notre Dame. But, too bad for hilarity, good for Steve and Sam, Cadillacs aren’t the smallest of cars, and they get themselves sorted out comfortably.

“Thanks for picking us up,” Sam says.

“Yeah, well, cash, grass, or ass, no one rides for free,” you say just as lightly. Sam chuckles.

“Where did you get the car?” Steve asks.

“Good question.” Natasha looks at you and smirks. She says your name like she’s anticipating and delighted by the trouble you’re about to get into. “Where did you get the car?”

You scowl at her. Snitch. “Parking garage,” you mumble, hoping they can’t hear you.

Of course, Steve has to say something about it. “Did you st–”

“Oh no, I do not want to hear about morality from you!” you snap. “Grand theft person is way worse than grand theft auto.”

Captain Asshole is unrepentantly smug. “If you say so,” he says mildly as you get on the freeway. “Both felonies, though. So welcome to the club.”

Traffic is light enough that you shoot him a glare. Sam is ‘coughing’ and Natasha is smirking, while Steve is black to blue-eyed innocence. You roll your eyes back onto the road and sigh in disgust. “Great. I’m on a scavenger hunt with Double-Oh Red Scare, Captain Kidnapper, and Techno Icarus.”

“You willing to go along for the ride now, Patty?” Sam asks.

“Guess so, now that I’m a fugitive too.” You mean for it to be a joke but it comes out dour. Now that ‘fight or flight’ are not your only two options, the adrenaline is fading and you can feel every aching muscle, every throb of pain in your head pulsing steadily worse. The others all fade to quiet which is both a blessing and a curse– less annoying, for sure, but there’s also nothing to distract you, other than the road.

“Do you want me to drive?” Sam offers.

If Sam drives then you’ll be stuck in the back with Steve and you can’t. You just can’t. “No,” you say and grip the wheel so tight your hands hurt. It’s all you can do right now to consciously keep a measured weight on the gas rather than press it to the floor. What if all of this is for nothing? What if…

You want to put it into words, maybe make a joke to lighten it and piss off Captain “Can’t Keep a Fucking Eye on His Own Best Friend” Rogers, but the words don’t come. Your mouth is open though and you can feel Black Widow staring at you. “Um, guess I should…probably ask where we’re heading, though.” Go you, it sounds almost normal.

“Keep going. We’ll get some distance,” she says.

“Cool.” ‘How do you know he’s alive’ still sounds too blunt. ‘He didn’t leave a note, did he?’ is too oblique or, if they get it, inappropriately morbid.

Natasha says your name gently. “Did those two…gentlemen…say anything to you?”

Ooo, points for phrasing. “No,” you say and swallow a lump of tears. ‘Do you think Bucky can handle an evil organization going after him this hard’ is too wordy and dumb. The three musketeers wouldn’t be after him if they thought everything was hunky dory. Unless they just worry too much and everything really is fine.

But what if it’s not.

What if he’s not.

What if you never get to yell at him for the tragically hilarious contradiction of being thoughtless because he thought too much?

What if…

Natasha says your name again, firm, and you want to vomit. So you do. In a metaphorical sense.

“What if he’s dead?” you ask, feeling as pained on its release as you would of actual stomach acid. “What if this is a wild goose chase? What if…” You can’t say it again, so you don’t.

They’re silent. Someone leans in, and at first you don’t know who, but it’s Steve who says, “He’s not dead.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that,” he insists. His tone isn’t Captain America and it isn’t Steve Rogers. It’s hard but…kind. You don’t know what to make of it. “Bucky has lived through so much. More than anyone should ever have to, more than anyone else can ever take. If he was dead Hydra would know it. We would know it.”

You’re not sure you believe him. You want to, though. You sniffle and realize that, ugh, you’re crying in front of relative strangers. Trash Panda would mock you forever if he could see you right now, and the thought makes you rub your face almost hard enough to peel skin.

“We’ll talk about it once we all get some rest,” Natasha says. “You were right, before…we haven’t told you anything but we’ve been asking questions nonstop. It’s not fair. So, once we can take a breath, we’ll tell you what we know.”

You wait for her to add about you returning the favor, but it doesn’t come. And for some reason, you don’t care as much about holding back anymore. “Mmkay.”

She nods once. “Pull off on the shoulder and we’ll switch.”

You listen to the rhythmic ticking of the blinker and come to a slow stop in the dirt. You take a moment to get your body in order. Steve takes the opportunity to lean back in next to you and say, “Shotgun.”

It turns out that Steve being his little-shit self is all it takes to make you feel almost normal again and you glare at him. “In your fucking dreams, Flag Boy,” you say and get out of the car.

Before you leave your side you hear Natasha tell him, “If you try to take this seat I will break all your bones and shove you in the trunk,” and you actually smile. She may be fucking scary, but Black Widow is a-okay by you.

User Tag List: @gravity-9-8 @grey-stardancer @asslikegilinsky @fandomlover03 @howdoesoneadult @projectxhappiness

#bucky x reader #on the run #avengers fanfic #captain america fanfiction #avengers reader insert #steve rogers #natasha romanoff #sam wilson

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captain-of-the-historicfuture · 3 years ago

Note

hey hey hey! Sorry im late but for the fanfic writing ask: multiples of 4 starting with the # 1 and going 'till the end?

Sorry I’m so late answering these that you got deleted in between LOL. Now this ask appears on my blog as being from anonymous, but I already had it in my drafts so I remember it’s from you, @invictusmaneo.

Without further ado, answers are below the cut because… They’re a little long. :)

1. What do you like most/least about writing?

Oh gosh, I simply really like writing. Every step of the creative process exhilarates. Every word written is a breath of life out of me, a pump of blood through me. And that is an incredible, incredible gift for me. While every activity has pros and cons, writing is so complementary to my existence that I can appreciate even the downsides.

I have no idea how to put it in words beyond that, my friend. (Ironic?)

I guess what I like least is that I can’t (or at least shouldn’t) do it all the time. What is “it”? Daydreaming any second, with any energy, I can spare? Investing thought into every syllable I put forth? Looking into random topics constantly? Organising tirelessly? Revising anything I pen for hours and hours?

Yes.

Seriously, though. The inclinations and habits of a writer follow me wherever I may go, but sometimes I’m not supposed to brainstorm or care so much about the rhythms of sentences or review every word before me. And the part I dislike is not so much that these habits follow me—I’m proud of them—but that day-to-day life doesn’t always have a place for them. Which sucks.

4. Do you work with a beta? Why/why not?

With my novels, yes. Sometimes with my shorter multichaps. Rarely with my one-shots and ficlets. Never with my drabbles and challenge submissions.

When a story has more than one chapter, I can start to feel overwhelmed about the little things, since they’re not all in one place, you know? IDRK how to explain it, but yeah. Once it gets to that, it’s quite comforting to think, “I don’t have to stress about keeping track of everything, even when I’m revising, because I’ll have other eyes to help me out.”

However, when a story is not so unwieldy to handle by myself, getting a beta can prove to be the hard part. With so many fandoms, so few conventional interests, and so hectic a schedule, I’d need a different beta for every project and that’s just…a lot to juggle.

Either way, I recognise the hard and noble work to which betas dedicate themselves, and I am proud to share a creative space with them.

8. What kind of narrator do you prefer to write?

Unreliable narrators are intriguing, but they don’t tend to mesh well with the type of stories I write. Stream-of-consciousness narration doesn’t mesh well with…well, me. However, I do like limited narration. Omniscient can be fun with certain writing activities/challenges, but it just doesn’t go with the typical writing project of mine.

12. Do you tend to write long or short chapters?

Hooo, boy, long chapters fo’ sure.

My average chapter length is, like, six or seven thousand words. The short end of my chapter word count range would hover around 3k, but even that is rare in my bibliography. Most of my novels contain a 4k-long chapter, so I suppose that would be a more accurate “short end of my range”. As for the long end, well… I’ve written 10k+ chapters before. Whoops.

16. How do you feel about inquits (they said, he yells, etc.)?

Well, first off, I have never heard them called “inquits” before. I usually call them “dialogue tags”. Interesting LOL.

Anyway. I won’t use them if I don’t have to, and it can be fun to play with what constitutes “not having to”. I haven’t built up to Hemingway’s courage in yeeting dialogue tags inquits, but I look up to it.

When I do use them, I try to stick to “said”, “replied”, “asked”, and “answered”. Of course, I’m a fan of precise verbs above (pretty much) all else, so I’m also not afraid to stray from those inquits.

20. How do you feel about punctuation?

I love it (with wavering intensity) and I pay as much attention to it as I can. I enjoy details, I enjoy rules, and punctuation is just details with rules. Isn’t that beautiful?

24. Do you think a lot about story structure/arcs?

YES. So much. They’re the skeletons of stories and man do I like bones.

Honestly though, I can’t get down to business until I’m comfortable with the story’s structure and the characters’ arcs. And by “comfortable”, I mean, like. Intimate. Known inside and out. And even the eventual act of getting down to business means, for me, delving further into that structure, those arcs. For me, it’s more than just expanding them: it’s branching out, growing them.

Am I being overdramatic? Perhaps.

28. How do you approach writing new characters?

I pretty much just throw myself into it LOL. As a starting point, I give every character one verbal and one physical idiosyncrasy. I can’t think of any examples for my fanfics off the top of my head, so I’ll use Rosewood.

Ed says “yeah?” frequently. He’ll be like, “You’re my chief royal advisor, so I can trust you to tell me the truth about Gale, yeah?” to Duane or, “Keep everyone out of the east wing tonight, yeah?” to Etta. And his chin betrays his feelings a lot—the crease, stiffness, direction; whether and how he’s touching it. This may seem small and insignificant, but any kind of signpost can at least keep my characters distinct, and that can help me make them unique and real.

If I’m having trouble with a new character, I’ll either employ some Theatre Skillz to get into their head, or I’ll check out some OC question blogs. Tunglr is a real writer’s haven, yeah?

(See what I did there?)

32. Do you write more canon compliant/divergent or full-blown AU?

I have a tendency to write canon compliant fics, although canon divergent fix-its are my bread and butter. However, Philinda has been really widening my berth. I’ve been writing so many AUs for them, it’s wild. But wildly fun! The only other full-blown AU project I’ve undertaken was a Hamilton novel, and I didn’t even finish it because I got tired of my own ideas LOL.

36. Do you use author notes?

I always have something at the very end of a fic, and usually I have a quick note about betas or inspiration (i.e. whether I used any for that part, who they were if I did, etc.) before each chapter.

40. What writing detail are you most proud of in CttC?

I did so much research. I even used some of my lovely newfound knowledge for my history IA, which my teacher really liked because it was a topic he had never encountered before. And despite having all that work, I still had a lot of fun doing the research and integrating it into the story.

Thank you so much for sending all of these! Writing is fun to write about. xP

Send in some asks about the technical side of writing for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

#thou canst not then be false to any man }#invictusmaneo #to write and read comes by nature }#talking about cttc makes me want to work on it rn #like i am so attached to that wip #i love it #anyway #to summarise this post #i think way too much about way too many things #alternatively:#i am addicted to writing :/

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