#but Fantasy is definitely more familiar ground than sci-fi for me

[nancyheart11]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite alien (non-human *and* extra-terrestrial) characters? And what do you like about them?

They can be from sci-fi or fantasy, from other worlds or dimensions or realms. All that matters is that they're not from Earth and that they're not human in any traditional sense (and, most of all, that you find them interesting).

hhm well my first thought was Superman, but I feel like that goes against the spirit here

how about, Pattern! from the stormlight archive by Brandon Sanderson.

funky little guy who is a bunch of Escher like squiggles and is trying to understand humans and how they use language.

[mell-eight]

The End of Reprints and Transitioning to New Books

10/15/22 For the past three years, it feels as if all I've been releasing are reprint after reprint after reprint.  I know I've peppered in some new material here and there, but it really felt like the process of re-releasing older books would never end.  I have loved revisiting beloved characters and worlds, particularly my earliest works that helped me grow into the writer I am today.  However, I have missed the process of crafting new things.  That is why I am very happy to say that with the release of The Oracle's Prophecy (renamed from The Sentinel's Prophesy) on October 11th (buy here), I am done with reprinting old material!  It is an incredibly exciting milestone! I really appreciate everyone who stuck with me through what has been a very long road. Re-editing and getting 29 reprints available again for you all to enjoy took a lot out of me (and out of my wonderful editor!), and greatly reduced my writing time for new material.  Thankfully, I had written some new stories prior to starting the reprinting process, so you were able to enjoy brand new material like Wounded Alpha, Ground of Resurrection, and the new fairy tales included in A Little Fairy Dust while you were waiting.  Still, I know there is a hankering for more new books from me. Which brings me to what's next.  I was able to finish writing the sixth and final book in The Oracle series, The Oracle's Current, in between all the editing.  Current has since been waiting for the rest of The Oracle series to be reprinted.  When Current is released on October 25th, it will officially mark the start of my only publishing new material from here on out.  You can already pre-order from NSP! As the reprinting process slowed throughout 2022, I have been able to spend more and more time focused on writing.  I recently completed a trilogy of books called Witch's Circle about a witch, his familiars, a werewolf, and the difficulties they encounter while navigating the supernatural world.  The first book, Coven, could potentially be released at the very end of this year, but certainly no later than very early 2023.  The latter two books in the trilogy, Hunter and Witch, will definitely come out next year.  Plus, I completed a short story called Water's Price about some mermaids, which you should also see in 2023. But wait, there's more!  Lol  While that is everything NSP has currently contracted with me to publish, I have a few other things I've been working on that I hope to submit for NSP's consideration within the next few months.  I have finished writing and am editing a stand alone fantasy story with the (very tentative) title of Fire and Water. As soon as I come up with a better title, I plan to submit it to NSP.  I have also passed the halfway point in writing another stand alone fantasy/sci-fi crossover story called You Can't Sell A Dragon's Heart. I still need to write the major climax scene and tie the HEA off with a pretty bow, so there's still a lot to do, but I definitely think I'll have this story completed soon. Plus, now that I'm done with reprints, I should have more time to focus on my oversized to-do list, upon which I hope to begin making progress again very soon!  I look forward to keeping everyone in the loop as I continue to work on more of my new stories and get them ready for you to read. 

[anchoredheroes]

10. would you be interested into playing a crossover? if yes, do you have any limits?

I'd definitely be into playing crossover, but my limits are... Kind of weird? Also it depends on the type of crossover -- my character in their setting or their character in mine

1: how comfortable am I in the character? The more developed the character is, the more I'm likely to do crossover. if I don't have a solid understanding of them, I can't manipulate it to work in a different setting. It has to feel like the same character, just different. It's why modern settings take awhile for me to develop with especially my dalish muses, because the setting becomes an integral part of their characterisation and I need to find ways of separating that.

2. How familiar am I with the setting? I need* to know the setting to feel comfortable enough to write in it, for the similar reasons above. I can't* write in a setting that I don't know.

2b: sometimes I'll write in a setting or with characters from a setting I don't know if I'm familiar with the Mun and feel comfortable. Such as wow. I know next to nothing about wow, but because I'm comfortable with @musamulta I'm comfortable enough to write with Elian

3: what type of setting is it? Fantasy will obviously be easier to find common ground than sci Fi or modern. I need to be able to find where my character fits. Otherwise.... What the heck am I supposed to do?

[ravenbell-exchange]

Here come the prompts!

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. There haven’t been any Dear Author letters I’ve spotted so far, so I’ve included some additional crossover prompts from people here, just for ease of reference. You absolutely don’t have to pick them - there’s just there in case you want them!

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic – go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

1.

Url: @autobot

Prompt 1: Sports AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Prompt 2: Delinquent Winter: It's snowing, so the delinquents decide to start a snowball fight. Raven and Bellamy really go at each other. Bellamy ends up getting a cut on his lip from an icy snowball, and Raven decides to remedy that with a kiss.

Prompt 3: Season 7: This is pretty vague but just anything with the relationship Bellamy/Raven/Doucette, with Bellamy having had separate relationships with the other two in the past.

Prompt 4 (optional variation on 1): HP AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Momma didn't raise no wussy "N/A"

Also: Have seen all 7 seasons.

2.

Url: @growlereish

Prompt 1: post mount weather road trip. monty, miller, lincoln, gina, octavia, harper welcome to come too. maybe they find a bunch of cars and the delinquents take off into the sunset together. maybe it's just bellamy and raven exploring the world together.

Prompt 2: au where they're on a sports team together. any sport, the sport is not important, it's about the Team As Family and the Narratives

Prompt 3: fantasy au or canon + fantasy elements

Prompt 4: relationship negotiation / exploration

Prompt 5: anything from the expansive list of likes on my dear creator letter: https://growlery.dreamwidth.org/11097.html

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: somnophilia; humiliation, especially as a kink; d/s that's about punishment; discussion of diets/nutrition plans/exercise regimens/body maintenance/weight management/etc

Also: Have seen up to + including 3x08

3.

Url: @kinetic-elaboration​

Prompt 1: High school AU: Bellamy and Raven are exes, but Raven is still good friends with Octavia, so they still see each other all the time

Prompt 2: Bellamy/Raven/Gina negotiating/figuring out a poly relationship in Arkadia pre-S3

Prompt 3: Braven + First real, heavy snow on the ground (canon or canon-divergent AU)

Prompt 4: Librarian!Bellamy and Mechanic!Raven

Prompt 5: Modern AU: Bellamy, Raven, and author's choice other delinquents living in a cramped apartment together; Raven and Bellamy are either struggling with UST or in a secret relationship or FWB arrangement

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: pregnancy/kid fic of any sort; side/background Minty, Marper, or Clexa; explicit sex (implied/fade to black/generically described is ok); character bashing of any kind

Also: Have seen season 1-4 (really do not want to write/read anything related to the timeskip on, please!).  I'm not really into the Grounders generally; I love the delinquents; I headcanon Raven as bisexual but Bellamy as straight.

4.

Url: @justbecauseyoubelievesomething​

Prompt 1: Sci-fi/Space AU where Bellamy and Raven serve on the same ship; (fr)enemies to lovers with lots of angst along the way! Time loop/travel or interdimensional travel shenanigans would be appreciated as well!

Prompt 2: Dark Fairytale/Fantasy AU; very dark, stormy, foresty vibes; one of them is some sort of mythical creature, maybe even ruler of other mythical creatures; dark forbidden romance; for lots of bonus angst, one of them can be a magical creature hunter and reveal themselves at the end!

Prompt 3: Canonverse Ark AU; Bellamy and Raven meet as adults on the Ark because they both join the same secret revolutionary group planning to overthrow Alpha Station; other Delinquents can definitely make appearances!

Prompt 4: Modern AU; one of the two is driving through a small town trying to get home for Christmas when their car breaks down and they are forced to take it to the town's only mechanic; they snark at each other before the mechanic invites the stranded party to Christmas dinner; found family; fluff; basically you're typical Hallmark-esque set-up.

Prompt 5: Any setting! Bellamy and Raven are rivals in some sort of extreme sport (or if set in canonverse can be something like spacewalking). They're constantly pushing each other to their limits trying to beat each other, until Raven permanently injures her leg. She becomes very bitter during her recovery until she realizes that Bellamy isn't competing anymore and confronts him. Maybe feelings come out right away or maybe it takes them a while to get around to realizing it, but lots of angst and hurt/comfort during the build-up!

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Explicit smut; pregnancy/kid fic; incest; student/teacher; character bashing of any other characters

Also: Have seen seasons 1-6 and the first half of season 7.

5.

Url: @ravenbells

Prompt 1: Raven discovering and enjoying the fact that Bellamy is a huge history nerd (can be canon, modern or some kind of fantasy/sci-fi setting).

Prompt 2: Modern AU. Raven is sharing a flat with friends, but one of them has to move out because of Reasons, and Bellamy rents the freed up room. Doesn’t have to be set in the US if you don’t want to, I don’t care that it’s an American show.

Prompt 3: Grounder AU, but set in the past. Bellamy and Raven were children when the nukes that caused the Ark to stay in space for generations went off. Now they are they first generation of survivors who have to build a life in a world without technology.

Prompt 4: Steampunk AU. Can be traditional Victorian-aesthetic steampunk, but if you want to lift your visuals from any other time period, be my guest. I’m going to love anything you do.

Prompt 5: Bellamy and Raven are exes who get back together (can be canon or any AU setting you can imagine).

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Graphic violence

Also: Have only seen the first 2 seasons, please have mercy. If you want to incorporate the characters playing DnD into any of the stories, be my guest - just putting this in here because I know some people in the group love it (Bellamy would play a paladin, fight me), but if you’re not into this stuff, absolutely don’t feel obliged.

6.

Url: shortitude @ AO3

Prompt 1: Modern coffee-shop AU where they meet because both of them has a Specific Table they like to sit at and usually their schedules do not coincide, but then because of fate (someone's wi-fi broke, there's plumbing work happening at home, etc) they have to go to the coffee shop and their table is taken, as are all the others. Luckily, the traitor who took their Specific Table is willing to share it, just for today. (And then every day after.) Friends to Lovers is preferred over Instant Attraction in this one. Even open-ended works. (Please, no pandemic.)

Prompt 2: Canon-based AU: Give me cottagecore survival to replace the weird plots that happened to this show after s2. The idea of the Delinquents settling in a village, life moving on, peace being brokered, etc etc. In the middle of it all, Bellamy and Raven rely on each other to rebuild, and fall in love. A lot.

Prompt 3: Five times Bellamy tried to show his love for Raven and failed, and one time she finally got the point. Oblivious That People Might Love Her!Raven is my tragic and problematic fave. A bonus: competence kink. Acceptable: any form of AU; I am not a stickler for canon.

Prompt 4 (optional): Pacific Rim AU; veteran Jaeger pilot gets pulled back into action because of a need to pull off a last fight against the apocalypse/alien invasion, drifts unexpectedly with the supermouthy, supersmart, very capable engineer/mechanic. Add as many characters from The 100 as you'd like into this, but I am very much more into the wholesome survival of all of them than I am about everyone except Braven dying.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Bellarke content if the Braven content is just a way for Bellamy to "get over" Clarke, be it failed relationship or unrequited one.

Also: Have seen season 1 and Season 2 in full; vaguely familiar with STUFF about how they ended up in space, and nothing beyond that because I literally don't care.

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

1. The Urban Market

The publisher was pushing him for something different. Simon didn't know how much more different things could be! He'd built up an entire paracosm over a span of years and gotten pretty successful, in his own opinion. He'd always thought pretty highly of himself, even though he wasn't always great at communicating this. 

Esmoroth was his life's work. But, his publisher wanted him to "try something new and diverse." The children of Esmoroth were diverse! And this recent trend of everyone trying to appeal to an "urban market" sounded so much like presumptuousness and pandering… more things he didn't want to say, since he couldn't think of a way to say it without sounding like… he shivered… a conservative.

He just… didn't know enough to write any story that appealed to anyone but his target audience, which he had to believe had someone in this so-called urban market as part of the demographics. Esmoroth was for all mankind, especially the children. Though, he would admit the books got darker with time and catered to an older audience in their current form.

Still… he set off to the bookstore coffee shop, where he sometimes wrote all day, sometimes just did some people watching, hoping to get a spark of inspiration. 

That was where he'd first noticed her. 

Now that he thought about it, as he watched her move through the store, tending to customers with a flawless smile and brilliant conversation; he had seen her dozens of times before. He had met her in passing. 

She had even come to one of his less successful book signings here and seemingly bought the book out of pity. He remembered it so well now because she asked how many he had left and he told her a full box. 

"I'll take it," she said. "I know a lot of kids." 

He refused. She worked at a bookstore. He wasn't going to have her do that. "You can have it," he said. The two of them engaged in a battle of refusals. Eventually he won whenever he said, "I should be paying you to take them!" She laughed really loud and hard, almost too loud and hard - as though she knew this statement to be true, and he secretly hoped she didn't feel that way about his work. She slapped some money on the table and said, "Okay. I'll take the books for free, but I'll pay for the signatures. I know a lot of kids, like I said."

So, she sat next to him and gave him a name for each book in his box. Whenever he was done, he slipped her money into the box too. She didn't notice that day and if she did later, she didn't bother him about it. She didn't bother him again, to be honest. They passed by each other like they'd never spoken before. Maybe that was why he’d forgotten about meeting her before.

She would come to work, do her job and leave the place with the brightest smile that he knew of… but the saddest eyes he had ever seen, including when he looked in the mirror everyday. Deep, dark brown, without even the slightest hint of light specks, not even when the sun shone on them and they remained as rich as sepia. They were beautiful eyes! Perfect, even in that whatever soul they were allegedly the windows to was boarded up and inaccessible, or just plain old vacant. But… that couldn't be right. There was passion in this woman. He didn't know for what, but for something. He could just tell. 

Now that he noticed her, after all of this time, he wanted to learn more.

First part was “easy.” He would learn her name. He didn’t want to go ask someone. That might lead to questions, so he figured that he would simply look at her nametag. It didn’t occur to him that might be a problem since every time he saw her, she was moving around the store while he was sitting in the bookstore’s coffee shop. 

He walked through the store, with his bag on his shoulder, nonchalantly pretending to browse the books to see if he could get her attention without asking for it. Whenever he reached the fantasy section, she was making a display for Black History Month. There were displays like it all through the store. He couldn't remember them in previous years and wondered if this was her doing in the place. She felt him staring, though he was trying really hard to be chill and she stood up straight and stared at him. He turned his head, pretending to be looking at a book. 

"Anything that I can help you with?" She asked. He looked up. 

She was prettier than he remembered her being whenever they had been next to each other while he was signing those books for the kids she said she knew. She looked prettier up close than she had moments ago from across the store. Her skin was amazing. Not just the skin tone (which he found rather nice), but she looked well hydrated and moisturized. She had a glow and immaculate features. He was staring. He quickly remedied that, forgetting that she had offered help and he focused back on the books in front of him. She sighed. "Let me know if you do!"

"Thank you," he finally managed and looked at her name tag, "Grace." 

She gave him a weird look and a laugh, "No problem…" she looked like she wanted to say more, but she didn't. Instead, she returned to her display.

"Ummm…" she looked up again, reflexively eager to help. "How are you… uh.. deciding what to put on these displays?"

"Well.. this bookstore has an African/African American section and they just put everything there.” She pointed towards that section, rolling her eyes, then held her hands out in a shrug motion, “It's February. I've taken the liberty of grabbing books that are by the genres and setting these displays up in the genre sections.” She communicated with her hands a lot. Big, fluid movements, like a dance, almost, while her voice was very animated. “I feel like it's easier to navigate and hopefully some of these authors get some sales." Simon had been mentally taking notes of her mannerisms, and almost lost track of her words.

"How do you know which genre each book is?" He asked, generically.

She squinted her eyes and curled her lips, "Because I know books PLUS I can read…" she laughed. "Octavia Butler will always be sci-fi, yeah? And Nnedi Okorafor is fantasy… so….You have no idea who either of them are."

"I've definitely heard of one of those… but I'm not familiar with…" she looked disappointed, but not surprised. He felt ashamed. Not because he didn’t know those authors. He didn’t know a lot of authors. But, because she knew that he didn’t know them. "Truth be told, I do far more writing than reading. I'm ummm… my publisher is asking for something that appeals to an urban audience, so I'm trying to expand my...intake…" 

Her eyebrows were furrowed so tightly that her entire forehead was ground together. "Why don't they just give a publishing deal to someone who already writes that content and at least has heard of Black writers?"

"I will be sure to ask in the next email." He was red in the face. 

She bit her lip. He was still a customer, and he had a pretty long running relationship with the store. Longer than hers, even. Every company was trying to get into the “urban market," many of them did that anyways - always code word for Black - but recently, all the places wanted to try to pretend that demographic mattered to them. She couldn’t get upset with him for trying to do his job, and even if she could, she still would do hers. “Everybody at this display table is a better writer than you, so I can't make any suggestions that are on par with what you're used to. I can give you some of my favorites and you can see if the synopses interest you?"

"Yes, please. Thank you.” He wondered why he was thanking her whenever he was certain that at least some of what she said was a little bit insulting. “You're very kind and I know I sound insufferable right now."

"I wouldn't say that. You're looking for help. That's one of the reasons I'm here, to help." She smiled kindly and suggested several books. He bought them all. He didn't know if he'd read any of them. But, she had taken him through the store, telling him several of her favorite books. Not only had he learned her name today, but what kind of content she chose to consume. That was a very successful day, in his opinion.

Simon took his purchases back to the coffee shop and started writing. It wasn't anything like his previous things, but it was very inspired. He couldn't stop. Mostly, it was notes and description. Finding the perfect words for this thing that she did with her lips… sputtering? That sounded ugly. What she did was charming and adorable… like sending a thoughtful breeze through the doorway of her lips… that was… too much. "Pppbbbbrrrrr…" he tried to sound it out in his head without doing it and drawing attention to himself.

Her hair was in dreadlocks… but he saw that there was some conversation surrounding referring to them as such,  especially if you shortened it to "dreads." "Locs" seemed acceptable, but like… the ones in the photos were not like hers. He didn't even know if they could be considered the same hairstyle or HOW. Most of these were of white people, and looked, just different than what her hair was like. He felt slightly uncomfortable specifying Black people, but… even then… some of the photos still weren't of them. Of the ones that were there, he wondered if there was different language for their dreadlocks vs the others. His audience might not know what he was trying to depict if these were the images that came up when you searched, if he only wrote “dreadlocks.” He highlighted that. He’d maybe come back to it. He probably was overthinking this anyway.

He spent hours on mostly mundane, but extremely meticulous research, to make sure that this new character he was creating would be imagined perfectly by the reader. He wanted them as entranced with her as he’d been when meeting Grace for the first time (well, after he actually noticed her.)

"I need to get my usual, please, and yes, I wanna donate to the babies," he heard that lively voice say. He looked up and she was leaning back against the coffee counter, looking right at him. "You're still here, Mr. Laurent?" She smiled, but her expression seemed a little suspicious.

He laughed nervously, "Yeah…" he shut his laptop. "I was suddenly very inspired after my purchase." She nodded and then her order was ready. He closed his mouth, but couldn’t wipe his own smile away. She knew his name.

After she signed her ticket, she threw him a quick salute with her cup and said, "See ya around. Good luck with the Black stuff for your publisher." She winked at him to let him know she was teasing. He still felt ridiculous though.

He hopped up and rushed to the counter, "Um, I'd like to have one of whatever she just ordered."

The barista made a face and chuckled, "Mr. Laurent, I don't think you would like that.."

"So, no? I can't order it?" 

"Of course. Sure. I'll get right on it."

"Thank you!" Simon cheered. Whenever they went to make it, he leaned over to check her ticket on the ticket spike. He couldn't get a clear look, so he snapped a photo with his phone and whenever he got his order, handed over his card with a smile, like nothing had happened. "Thanks again. Can I get a copy of that?" Simon wanted to know her regular coffee order. He didn't know that his pallet could do it alone, and oh boy, whenever he took a sip he nearly choked. What the hell, Grace?

Rose, Lavender, Chamomile infused coffee, heavy non dairy cream, extra sugar, extra shot… WHY? WHY WOULD SOMEONE DRINK THIS??? "It tastes like soap coffee."

"It isn’t much better as a tea. That's what she gets in the mornings if you want to try that." 

"No thank you. I've been daring enough for the day. I'll have my regular." It was just black coffee. He added an extra shot to try to wash the flowers out of his mouth, then proceeded to research things about this dreadful coffee infusion. He wound up researching things until it was time for the store to close.

When he got home, then he could really get to work. He enlarged his photo to see the printed name on the ticket from earlier. Grace St. Catherine. Her profiles were all private. Great. He huffed and pushed his bangs from his face. Which of these might have the most to work with? He couldn't send her something on all of them. Probably… the… one with the photos. He sent her a request to follow and only a few moments later, she approved. He knew that he couldn't go through and like all of her photos. She would see and it might alarm her. But she had so many gorgeous ones. He was glad there was a save option… but he wished that he had the right thousand words for each of them. 

He didn't know what was happening. He was just people watching, as usual, but, this was far beyond any other time. This was maybe.. not okay. 

But… as long as he wasn't being creepy (to her face) or trying to hurt her, what was the harm in longing to know more? What was the harm in needing to see her again as soon as he could?

02. Mandatory Monroe Mingling

[casimania]

YOU KNOW ITS GOTTA BE THE OT3 FOR THE ASK GAME 😍

Yessss! Domestic ship meme for Chloe/Dan/Lucifer below!

who reaches out to new neighbors: Unexpectedly… Maze! She keeps tabs on who comes and goes even better than Lucifer and is even faster than him at going for a snoop, it was her job to watch his back for a long time after all, ansd she watches out for Trixie too now (does the same for Linda and Charlie). The neighbors are probably confused and concerned like “is the scary lady part of the family??”. Chloe then makes Lucifer, Dan and Trixie come with her do a normal greeting-the-neighbors thing. But because Lucifer is Lucifer it turns out in another interrogation without the neighbors noticing (Maze is good at figuring out if they’re shady but Lucifer finds all the juicy, dirty little secrets). Chloe and Dan have to steer him away.

who remembers to buy healthy food: Since Dan started working on the abs he’s been keeping an eyes on his food more carefully and trying a healthier eating pattern too, except he tends to forget a lot when it’s time to restock. Chloe is better at remembering the list they make in time and following it so Dan writes down the stuff and Chloe reminds everyone when it actually has to be bought. Lucifer just wants to order whatever they need. But they want for Trixie to grow up doing normal stuff like groceries runs. They probably regret it when Lucifer turns out to be just a very tall Trixie and they just try shoving whatever they fancy inside the cart and it’s a constant battle (but he’s also easily disarmed by like, hand holding. Chloe reaches over and grabs his hand and he just spends the whole time looking down in wonder at their hands and looking up at Chloe with a big grin. Dan pushes the cart with Trixie balances either in front of it or between it and Dan and occasionally getting him to speed down an aisle). He does win them over some times they’re all ran to the ground by a case and the idea of crawling out of the house is physically painful.

who remembers to buy junk food: Lucifer, Trixie and Dan have the biggest sweet tooth ever (Lucifer has varied tastes while Trixie inherited Dan’s more focused tastes except it’s chocolate cakes instead of puddings, they sometimes vary but those things reappear frequently) and Lucifer and Trixie like junk food in general so no one ever forgets about restocking it. This time Lucifer definitely orders it (especially the pudding, between all the stealing it runs out fast at the precinct).

who fixes the oven when it breaks: Dan is that Dad™who insists on trying to fix things himself to teach Trixie to be self-reliable except sometimes it’s stuff he doesn’t actually know how to fix so he googles it or asks around and it’s a hit or miss. He either patches it up until the next break or fuckign destroys the thing (with familiar things he’s better). Also I like to think it’s a Dan thing in general, like “I can do this myself!!” except sometimes he overestimates and it ends up with a “oh no. oh fuck” (he gets steadily better at accepting help). Chloe is like, “Baby please just call a professional, they exist for a reason, you can teach Trixie how to fix a shelf or something” and she’s got 4 numbers ready from the start. Lucifer is a “throw the whole thing away” guy because he uses it as an excuse to renovate and add something new. But he lets Dan huff around because it’s amusing (and seeing Dan get to work reminds him he’s seen a few pornos starting like that, so another thing to add to his fantasies fodder) but he’s also curious about any parent-daughter interaction. So the whole thing takes a turn for the wholesome seeing Dan trying to explain stuff to Trixie (he still fantasizes about sweaty Dan in a tanktop grunting and wiggling his ass in the air to check inside the oven later).

who waters the plants/feeds their pet(s): Their lives don’t really match up with a pet but they’ve got plants and Chloe is their lifeline. She goes away for a fun Tribe thing and tells everyone to water the plants. They all forget. The day she’s scheduled to come back they panic, “Can’t we just put a lot of water all at once??”, cue Trixie accidentally making a few vases overflows and Chloe comes back to them frantically mopping the floor (it gets funnier the smaller number of plants they have).

who wakes up earlier: Lucifer can’t not sleep but he can get by on minimal sleep, so he often wakes up and lays in bed blissed out enjoying snuggling with his loves. Wake up as in up and leaves the house, it’s Dan. He either hits the gym or the beach for surfing most mornings before work so he’s up real early. Chloe and Lucifer roll around and go back cuddling.

who makes the bed: Lucifer always neatly tucks it in before leaving the house if he’s the last one to go (very fussy devil, he likes making messes but he also likes having everything restored to tidyness after). Chloe is more of the ‘just haphazardly pull the covers up’ before leaving type (mostly to set  somewhat of a good example for Trixie). Dan barely bothers and is the one that always forgets when it’s actually time to change the covers.

who makes the coffee: Lucifer is the one cooking most times so he also makes breakfast and has always coffee ready for Dan and Chloe when they wake up. He’s neutral on it but he starts drinking it regularly because he enjoys when they’re all standing against the counter and Chloe and Dan have these sleepy expressions with half lidded eyes but they sip on the coffee and smile or hum happily against the mug (it’s small cozy moments like these that make him feel all fluttery and content inside, the Devil likes to be painfully domestic). He knows exactly how they take their coffee but he’s also real good at figuring out what else they’d like so he’s always making them trying fancy new stuff for fun and he basically always hits the mark).

who burns breakfast: Chloe and Dan try to make something extremely elaborated for Lucifer because he’s always cooking for them but they have it in over their heads (and are trying to be quick and silent) and end up burning something while. When Lucifer smells burning stuff he comes barrelling into the kitchen ready for a fight and Trixie trails after him. He’s like, very touched. But then either stirs them away so he can whip up himself the thing they botched, or they still sit him down and feed him waffles or pancakes or something else they know how to do with thier eyes closed. Lucifer loves the idea of preparing stuff for them and surprising them with new things, but also just kicking back, eating whatever they set in front of him and licking syrup off his fingers while one of them stands nearby and absentmindedly runs a hand back and forth through his hair and down his neck… is very nice. He probably falls asleep like that at least once. He doesn’t faceplant in a waffle just because he’s seeking out the hand even in his sleep and doesn’t slump forward too much. It reminds Dan and Chloe of Trixie when she was very little.

how do they let each other know they’re leaving the house: Dan bellows everyone’s names and then “I’M LEAVING! BYE!” from the door loud enough to wake the dead. Answers vary gretly depending on the hour he does it (from loving responses from around the house to threats of physical violence if he tries breaking the sound barrier one more time at the ass crack of dawn if he leves early). Chloe pokes her head in whichever room they are and “Guys I’m going!”. Lucifer forget to say anything sometimes but never leaves without a kiss or some nuzzling.

how do they greet each other when one of them gets home: Dan bellows (again) “I’M HOME” as soon as he opens the door. Chloe just says “Hi!” at a normal volume once she’s fully inside. Lucifer barges in screaming “DeeeTeEECtiIIVeeeES” until he finds some of them to kiss. It’s a Thing for him apparently, goodbye kiss and welcome home kiss.

who brings home little gifts like flowers/chocolates more often: Lucifer is always getting Dana and Chloe little trinkets and gifts. He started out with more extravagant stuff but they managed to get him to tone it down a little. They vary from sweet or funny to “I know this must be a sex toy but what the hell is it supposed to be exactly??”.

who picks the movie for movie night: They wrote down a ton of movies and put them in a bowl to avoid bicker over it for an entire hour. If Trixie partecipates they let her choose something age appropriate she likes.

their favorite kind of movie to watch: Dan and Lucifer love action flicks (the bloodier and full of ridiculous explosions, one-liners and half naked people the better). Lucifer gets into cheesy romcoms with Chloe (it becomes a shared guilty pleasure, they look for the very outrageous ones). Trixie becomes a sci-fi buff growing up.

who first suggests a pillow fort: Oh man Dan and Trxie are all over it (personal hc that is was sometimes Dan always liked but in his family he got at a certain age where they decided he was too old for it, so they didn’t make them with him and he was embarassed to do one by himself and get caught, so he’s the most enthusiastic next to Trixie and never makes her feel like it’s a thing just for little kids). And angels nesting is a thing in every fandom with angels so it reminds Lucifer a lot of a nest so he gets a little weird about it at first because it reminds him of his sibligns and the Silver City, but gets very into it after a while (which later brings him to feel a little dristessed when they bring the whole thing down, which leads to them helping him build an actual nest).

who builds the pillow fort: In the Decker-Espinoza family Trixie gives directions and Dan and Chloe are the certified builders. With Lucifer thrown in the mix he goes for the aesthetics and so the first color coordinated pillow forts are born, he adds some flair.

who tries to distract the other during the movie: Lucifer with Trixie present = constant running commentary and continuous “pet me” requests (he loves his cuddles but if they get distracted and stop he prods at them until someone starts petting hair or running their hands over his back again, like excuse me! attend to me!). Lucifer without Trixie = naughty wandering hands (he’s very good at multitasking and will try to offer commentary of a movie in the middle of giving oral).

who falls asleep first: When she has a case Chloe is always very keyed up so she drops as soon as she hit the pillow. Lucifer makes an effort to wait for Dan to also fall asleep. He likes knowing they’re all safe and comfortable dozing off near him, and likes falling asleep to the sound of that deep breathing of the dead to the world sleeping.

who is big spoon/little spoon: Lucifer absolutely craves the shit out of being in the middle, something about having someone on his back and front makes him feel incredibly safe and loved and makes sleeping so much easier. Chloe and Dan are very versatile on that front so they swap a lot between being big and little spoon when it’s comfortable to be all squished together.

[hunnybadgerv]

Writer Ask Meme 3. What is your favorite/least favorite part about writing? 10. Pick an author (or writing friend) to co-write a book with 12. Which story (or: stories) of yours do you like best? why? 17. What things (scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing? 29. Is writing more of a hobby or do you write with the intention of getting published? 36. Post a snippet 49. Favorite fictional world?

Behind the Scenes of Fic Writing: 30 Questions for Authors

3. What is your favorite/least favorite part about writing?  Getting started. Once I’m writing, I can usually find the zone. But it’s getting started that is always the hardest for me. Like this morning, I didn’t know where to even start. So, I opted to edit, since it is something I wanted to accomplish this week. And I know that in the revision process I also tend to refine my prose, i.e., write, so my editing and writing work today coincided. 

I have, however, written every day this month and I’m hoping to continue that trend. But regardless of the time of day, getting started tends to be my biggest obstacle overall. 

10. Pick an author (or writing friend) to co-write a book with. Must it only be one? Gosh. 

There are so many great writers I know, more than I could ever even try to consider for this.  

I’ve always admired @theoriginalladya for the uniqueness of her ideas and character development are second to none; I equally love and hate when she and I talk about her characters because I get super excited about them because of how amazing they are. Then I quickly become obsessed, which may or may not be the only “bad” thing. @painterofhorizons has angst super powers; even in a snippet of text she can rip your soul clean from your body. Her writing is so evocative and emotionally striking. Then there is @chyrstis, whose ability to seamlessly weave humor into her fics sparks more than envy. She manages to put characters into such believable, yet laughable situations that it only serves to endear them to readers. 

I’m not sure I could ever co-write a piece, but I would count myself lucky to write with any of the writers I regularly associate with, especially one of these three. Apologies to all the amazing writers I know who I did not mention by name, but I already didn’t follow the question in the first place by mentioning three rather than a single one. 

12. Which story (or: stories) of yours do you like best? why?  Oh gosh. This is so cruel. One story! Really? That’s all. Honestly, First Watch of the Night (Guardians in the Darkness Series) is one of my favorite. I think that might be in part because of nostalgia--it is Nyx Shepard’s WIP. I actually have it planned all the way through ME3, though I’ve currently stalled in the revision process in the ME1 timeline. I’m not sure why either. 

I find myself wondering if the reason I have not finished it is because once I know what happens, maybe I won’t have the drive to finish writing it. Maybe I can’t get past the block because I’m worried that finishing their story will vacate those muses from my mind, which I kind of don’t want. I really have grown quite attached to Nyx, Kaidan, and her crew. 

Honestly, I think that might be the struggle I end up in with all my longer fics. Short fics in collection are so much easier because the story never has to end. A long fic follows a certain line and has a definite conclusion, which I think worries me.

17. What things (scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing?  Umm, If you were to look at characters like Tayen Quick, Nyx and Feign Shepard, Furia, Remy McGinnis, Mari Ryder, Cyna Mahariel, and Laerke, you’d see a common thread connecting them. I tend enjoy writing strong female characters, especially those that are flawed or broken in some way. Honestly, Nyx and Furia, also to some extent Leah Rook, all share imposter syndrome to one degree or another--so does Mari. I always tend to have one or two characters that share a flaw. I have Mari, Laerke, and Furia who have all lost their entire families. Characters that come from big families. But I tend to write female protagonists more so than males. 

29. Is writing more of a hobby or do you write with the intention of getting published?  I published a short story in college. And I really would like to be published some day. Right now, I am mostly writing for me. I’ve got original fiction ideas, but I don’t work on them currently. I focus on my fandom work in order to practice and hone the skills and plans I have for future pieces.

I want to write something in the mix of fantasy/sci-fi. But I also have a strong sense of realism. I still hold tight to Mark Twain’s statement that the difference between real life and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. Things have to stem logically from one another in a story, and I always try to ground my writing in experience--sights, smells, sounds, textures that my readers can be familiar with--in order to add some sense of connection. I try to make my characters flawed in ways that feel accurate to them. 

A part of me screams in the back of my head that I am a writer. I can be an author, but a part of me worries that perhaps it may not happen. I keep writing. And I keep trying new things. I’ll always be a storyteller. I will keep writing and falling in love with fictional beings and places that I cannot resist exploring.

36. Post a snippet  This is from First Watch of the Night. I really love the characters and depth I managed to capture in this piece. Honestly, it’s one of the pieces of my own writing that intimidates me ... a lot. I don’t write the same way anymore. I feel like my writing lacks the same emotional depth right now. And I’m not sure why. It might have to do with how disconnected from other humans I have been in the last decade.

The scene here is Nyx Shepard and her father from Chapter 18:

The two Shepards watched one another for a long moment, before Taranis returned his attention to one of the soft cherries. The commander sighed, sipping her tea quietly while the captain waited. It was his usual tactic. He knew there was more and he could always wait her out. Nyx would talk to him in her own time, even if it had to be in carefully crafted abstractions. His daughter knew the drill. Taranis' methods were nothing new to her. He would take long pauses, allowing her to consider all the things she was not telling him. Then he would ask careful questions in case it was actually related to her current or a classified assignment--since need to know could interfere with her desire to disclose and his fatherly curiosity.

Whatever it was, Nyx held onto it much longer than usual, which told him she really did not want to bring it up. Despite this, Taranis knew she would relent because she kept glancing over at him with a look that suggested she was merely trying to find the way to bring it up. Nyx always came first for him; he redirected his career to give her the life she had, a life where there was always one parent there to hold her tight when things weren't just so. He knew it was not perfect, but he did everything he could to be there for her.

Nyx sighed as she set the tea cup on the table between them. "Fine," she breathed heavily.

It took another few moments for her to look up at him. Then she scooted a little closer, lowering her voice in discretion. Watching her carefully Taranis could not quite be sure what she was going to say, but she bit her lip and winced a little when she finally asked a question he never expected to hear.

"What did you do when you met Mom?"

Everything froze for a second or two as he stared at her. The little blush on her cheeks threw her father for a loop, but made him smile. "Well, damn."

The commander shook her head at him, trying to discourage him from thinking too hard about what she had just asked.

"Answer the question, please."

Captain Taranis Shepard rubbed his hand through the short stubble on the back of his head as he stared at his daughter in stunned silence. "I avoided her. Tried to just keep my distance. I even put in for a transfer," he admitted with a wry smile. "It got denied because I did not put in what command thought was a valid reason. Then, on leave, I talked to your Grandpa Shepard about it."

Nyx smiled and laughed. "And what did the old devil dog have to say about that?"

Her voice held a note of disbelief that her father was not surprised to hear. Taranis' father was a stickler for rules, regulations, expectations. He was strict and set high expectations. The captain could tell by the way his daughter eyed the dregs in her tea cup that she was as completely unprepared for what her father was about to say as Taranis had been when he heard it.

"He told me it was not a weakness to want someone to be part of your life."

Nyx's eyes darted to his. She was easily as shocked as he had been. Moving the tea cup, Taranis laid her hand out in his and covered it with the other.

"I told him all the things, I'm pretty sure you're telling yourself right now. All the excuses about regs, concerns, and bad experiences and stories you've heard," Taranis said quietly as he stroked the back of her hand lightly.

She leaned toward him. Her voice was tight with emotion. "And?"

Holding her hand tightly, her father smiled at her softly. "He told me that there are some things that outweigh the regs."

They were both quiet for a moment as Nyx let herself fall back in the chair. Her mind was clearly racing. Kirk Shepard had always stern, at best; he still was totally by the book in everything except when he met his wife. That was the only rule Taranis could think of his father ever even bending, let alone breaking out right. Nyx had been very close with both her grandfathers; she respected them as men and as marines. For her they were role models, people she that influenced her greatly.

"I'm going to tell you something you probably don't know. My parents met in the service, too. We Shepards seem to fall for our brethren," he said playfully. Nyx did not look relieved in the slightest. "He almost lost her on a mission. Even in love, your grandfather was still the same man. He couldn't justify risking the primary objective. The mission at all costs, you know?"

Taranis knew she understood it. Hell, he knew she lived that decree just as solidly as his father.

"She made it out alive, barely. Your grandfather, sentimental bastard, proposed to her when she woke up from surgery. Grandma Amelie was just as stoic as he was. Told him she would consider it, but only if he promised to do always put the mission first, even if she was in his command. She believed him when he said he would. Even lived up to it. Had to put her at risk once more in the field before they got married."

"And he told you this when you asked him about Mom?"

"Yep," Taranis said, nodding as he studied his daughter's reaction. "I was rather hoping I wouldn't have to tell it to you, but I guess it was too much to hope you'd break the trend of falling for servicemen."

She shrugged and looked at their hands for a long moment. "Seemed to be going well for a while," Nyx said quietly.

"Just tell me it's not the Zingel kid."

Her laugh made him smile, and brightened her eyes. "No, it's not Caz."

Taranis leaned back in his chair, fidgeting with his uniform for a moment. "So, tell me something about this fella."

The way she tilted her head at him suggested that the question might have been her maximum.

"At least tell me his name so I can start checking up and get a little peace."

"Da."

"Fine." Taranis let his hands fall on the arms of his chair. "Don't relieve your old father of the undue stress he is now placed under worrying about what kind of man his plucking his daughter's heart strings."

"Seriously?" she replied with a doubtful look.

They both knew she did not see herself as the type of woman who was plucked, but Taranis had a long and vivid memory and he could still recall the girl with the romantic sensibilities.

"What? I remember the shelves of Austen, Gaskell, and the Brontes. Then there were the sonnets your grandmother always sent you. And if I recall you were planning on marrying Captain Wentworth." He tilted his head at her slightly. "Perhaps I should have seen this coming after all."

They both laughed. Then Nyx sprang forward and hugged her father around the neck. "I've missed you, Da."

"I love you, Nyxy-girl."

Her lips were warm on his cheek. "Love you, too," she repeated before she stood. "I should probably go."

"We should do this again," her father offered, as he stood and proffered his arm. "Soon."

His daughter smiled and looked away for a moment. "Sure. As soon as I can."

Once they exited the little shop, they stopped and he touched her cheek before he bent and kissed her forehead again. He did not like her chosen phrase. Taranis knew she meant it, but he also knew the schedule she had kept for the past several years and there was little hope of relief given the most recent change.

"I'd prefer sooner," he noted.

It always killed him to say what he said next, the phrase was tradition, but always made his heart ache because he knew there was always a chance that he could lose his girl in the line of duty. He had been in her boots and hung them up for her. She had taken them up with fervor and so much more skill and determination than Taranis ever possessed.

"Good hunting, Commander," he said, a waver in his voice, as he saluted her sharply.

Nyx returned it as smartly as she would to an admiral. "Thank you Captain."

Taranis watched the girl with her mother's hair and his eyes weave through the crowds in the wards. He remembered meeting a boy once, at her basic graduation. Keith or Kyle or something that started with a K. He managed to stick around until a few months after her graduation from Exeter. Somehow the kid had stuck it out through three mission deployments before the relationship ended without so much as a whimper. The captain could not remember his name or much else about him. Even after a few years together, his daughter never hinted at the question she just asked. It elated and scared the hell out of him.

49. Favorite fictional world?  I really enjoy writing ME and in SWTOR. They are amazing worlds full of science, magic, adventure, and drama. Though I’m also drawn to fantasy for the same reasons. But I think futuristic worlds and space are some of my favorites.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Chapter 1; In Which Death Awaits and a Plot is Hatched

"You're fucking persistent, I'll give you that," Izar growled, planting his foot in the snow and pivoting around to face the wards. He slammed his hands on the wards, causing a deep resonance to sound across the snowy grounds. He was lifted off his feet and sent flying. Izar clenched his lips together before he gave a delighted laugh, not even stopping as he was deposited harshly onto the ground. He spread his arms out around his body, making tracks in the snow beneath him. Odd… he never had made a snow angel before.  Izar leaned his head into the snow, ignoring the eerie quiet that reverberated across the grounds. The army was flabbergasted at what had just happened, Izar knew. Though, hopefully they were impressed, because he was even impressed with himself. Sadly, it didn't take long for the fighting to continue for he heard magic and curses being passed back and forth between the crowds a few yards away from his current position. Chaos would erupt shortly. The two groups were still in quiet surprise over the areas lack of magic. Soon, the students and the professors would either herd together inside the castle, escape, or join the fray. Until that time… Izar kicked his arms and legs out, creating a snow angel beneath him. His green eyes stared at the sky above him, observing the snowflakes as they slowly drifted into focus. Without the soft and yellowed glow from Hogwarts, the only thing left to light the grounds was the half moon and the curses being released from their owners' wands. He smiled thinly, finding himself feeling rather numb despite the situation that transpired earlier. He issued a controlled moan. "What… are you doing?" Izar gave the towering man a look of disdain. "Exactly what it looks like, My Lord." Voldemort's lips thinned as he watched Izar create a deeper snow angel. "They did warn me that the insanity was strong within you. Obviously, I hadn't given it proper consideration." A pause. "Until now." While his Master’s tone was light in his mocking, Izar could see the man deeper than that. There was a knowing glint in the crimson eyes as they watched Izar in the snow. The Dark Lord believed Izar was averting his focus and attention away from reality in order to avoid thinking about his near-death experience. Was he? Possibly… no, most certainly. He had almost been absorbed into the castle’s wards. Izar had been taken off-guard. There was this nagging feeling that Izar could have prevented everything that transpired in the last few minutes.  -- Did the above introduction catch your interest? I sincerely hope so. I also hope that, from there, your eyes continue on, trifling through this post, absorbing the information I offer and nurturing a growing interest that will lead you to my door. Writing is not just a pass-time. It's an adventure, an extravagant and deeply fulfilling world created for our very own enjoyment - this is the reason I am now here in search of partners. Optimistically thinking, I have not scared too many of you away with my mutterings and lavish vocabulary! Let's move on, shall we? Who am I? Online I go by the alias Ariikos Melanthios, but Ari or Arik is just fine. I'm a 19+ British Roleplayer employed by a fabulous company that sometimes requires my absolute attention and - at other times - lets me relax within my home while they look for something for me to do.  I can reply a minimum of once a day, often more, but attempt to always assure my partner when I need to delay a response. I play both male and female characters (as well as those between and far from that spectrum) and am open to all pairings, with experience thereof. How do I write? Usually over email or google docs, but I could always give letters a try! Sorry, that was a poor attempt at humour. My posts tend to cross the line of 1000 words as a constant, but can sometimes dip below when replies require a faster-paced thought process, such as in combat or conversation. They also have a tendency to far surpass that, such as in the case of a recent roleplay in which my starter post was over 5000 words! Fear not, weary traveller! At no point will I expect you to match these lengths, only wishing for a response that carries your half of the story. I'd be happy to share some examples upon contact - just ask. Am I missing anything?  Probably. Almost definitely, so feel free to ask any questions. I'm not particularly shy! So, what do I want from you? - 3rd person, multi-paragraph to novella, eligible responses.  - Active participation in the musing and creation process.  - Uses Google Docs or Email for roleplay reponses, and either Google Hangouts or Discord for musing (sorry the Discord word limit is too much of a hassle). Fandom's or Originals? I enjoy roleplaying in both, so let me know what you're interested in. I will not play a Canon for your OC, or a Canon/Canon relationship 99% of the time. However, you may be the single person to convince me of otherwise if the plot is juicy enough! - Harry Potter; please bring me your ideas. This is my favourite series (if you couldn't tell from the opener) and I can do anything from starting with kids in their first year, to Professors or Aurors. Good guys or bad guys. AUs, Crossovers or Canon!  - Dragon Age; huge nerd of this game, please send any ideas my way, including obscure settings in the general universe but separate from the canon storylines. All of the games are fantastic! - MCU; comics and films, preference towards X-Men but generally open to anything. - The Witcher; books, games or TV series! - Telltale The Walking Dead; a little more obscure, but believe it could make for an interesting take on the original story.  - Star Trek; new or old generation, or our own take! - Resident Evil; preference towards the films, but familiar with the games too.  - Sword Art Online - Doctor Who; any doctor, or our own. Honestly, I'm missing so many here, but just ask and I probably know it! If not, I'm always willing to do the research and put in the effort.  Onto original plots - in general I want to create a world with you! - Fantasy - Sci-Fi - Urban - Dystopia - Mythology - Medieval - Superpowers - Darker Themes - etc I'm usually up for anything though I'm not a huge fan of slice-of-life. Anything with action and I'm in. Well, I think that's about everything. If you've made it this far, congratulations! Please introduction yourself upon first contact, letting me know what you're looking for! If you can provide information about yourself, your likes and dislikes then you'd gain extra points in my book! You will absolutely be judged by your introduction, aha.  Find me @ Ariikos#3683 AriikosMelanthios@gmail.com Looking forward to hearing from you!

[valkyrieelysia18]

My RWBY Volume 6(and beyond) Wish List

Hello everyone! Sorry to both my Tumblr followers and any who might read my stories. My personal laptop has technical issues and I’m currently doing everything on the home computer. Added to that I do have a college class I have to do work for. Anyway, I decided to do something smaller for this post.

RWBY Volume 5 wrapped up quite a while ago and it was....something. Seriously guys, I’m enjoying reading the fan fiction than I am watching the actual show. Now Miles and Kerry have responded that they are looking at the fans’ responses and are moving with that going forward, but that still doesn’t change what they’ve already done. So, I decided to throw in my two cents, or rather ten points, of what I want to see in Volume 6 and beyond. These aren’t ranked in any particular order and keep in mind these are my personal opinions. If you agree that’s great, if you don’t be polite about it. Common courtesy, you know.

1. Show, Don’t Tell; Less Exposition Please.

One of the biggest complaints of Volume 5 is the overabundance exposition, often with the same information being repeated with little to no visuals to go along with it. I understand exposition is often necessary, but in a visual medium it’s incredibly important to show these things. Show us Faunus discrimination in Remnant, show us the mines of Mantle and how dangerous it can be, show us the devastation of the battles of The Great War and how it still affects the present. DON’T just talk about it and leave it at that. 

2. More Care in the Writing and the Fight Scenes

You know it makes sense that I would complain the former, but the fact that I’m complaining about the later is kind of a bad sign. Anyone who has read my writing would know that I SUCK at writing fight scenes and the fact that I find the Battle of Haven’s fights terrible is just sad. I’m not asking for Monty levels of quality (that will never happen), just some more polish and improvement. Also, with Rooster Teeth’s other shows and its new ones, I’m concerned over whether Miles and Kerry can really give RWBY the quality care it deserves. Perhaps they should think getting a professional fantasy/sci-fi writer to help.

3. More World Building 

Whatever you feel about Volume 4, the one thing it definitely has over 5 is the world building and that was not just confined to the World of Remnant videos. We were introduced to Menagerie, saw the upper crust of Atlesian society, touched on religion, and we saw how life was like outside of the kingdoms. As for World of Remnant, I actually rather like the series as its a way to give exposition without grounding the show to a halt to tell it to the audience. Volume 5.....not so much. Which is a same because the city of Mistral could have been amazing location to explore and interact with so a lot of missed potential there. For example, most of Mistral we’ve seen seems to based on Central Asia, but Pyrrha  was more Greco Roman and explaining this would have made Mistral a bit more complex than Vale is. Or perhaps the group could have taken a break from training to do some shopping, sightseeing, or take in a show and perhaps run into some familiar faces like the rest of team SSSN or team ABRN. It would have allowed us to care more about this city and be more concerned with protecting it. I really didn't care so much about the city so it was hard for me to really get invested in the Battle of Haven. Any good fantasy writer will tell you that your world is just as much of a character as its inhabitants.

4. Give Ruby More to Do

For being the main character, Ruby really hasn’t been doing much to live up to the role. In fact, her adversaries have been getting more development than she has. I mean, she got a small scene with her and Oscar discussing how she’s handling losing Pyrrha and Penny, but we need more than that. She needs to do more than simply going along with things. Have her develop her silver eye powers, let her learn more about her mother and her past role in the conflict, put her in a situation that makes her question if what she is doing is the right thing to do. While the show is technically named after the team, that doesn't change the fact that Ruby is the focus character and needs some serious development.

5. More Oscar, Less Ozcar

Another complaint I have with Volume 5 is how Oscar really wasn’t given much time to be himself bar that one scene with Ruby, mostly serving as Ozpin’s mouthpiece to the group. Which is a shame because it would have been great to see him interact with Jaune, Nora, and Ren. It would definitely allow Oscar to grow and be his own character that way, showing that while he and Ozpin may be like minded souls, they are not exactly the same and they won’t always agree. I’m looking forward to how the aftermath of Ozpin taking over against the farm boy’s will is handled. That is not something that can be just brushed aside and never talk about again.

6. No Backtracking on Renora

For all the issues with shipping in the RWBY community, no one can deny that Ren and Nora are absolutely adorable together. Which is why I want to see their relationship continue to grow and develop. Have them go on dates so they can just be cute or offer relationship advice to the other members with their own possible developing romances Though another thing I feel that needs to be touched on with these two is Nora’s backstory. It was noted in the flashback in Kuroyuri that Nora didn’t look like a native of the town, so how did she get there? Was she orphaned or abandoned? How did she go from a scared quiet girl to the exuberant pancake loving hammer wielder we know today? Also, if the two were originally from Anima, why did they enroll at Beacon? All good questions I hope will be answered in due time.

7. Jaune and Ozpin Talk

This is a talk that feels like a long time coming. While Cinder may have been the one to kill Pyrrha, it’s very clear that Jaune still holds Ozpin and his inner circle partly responsible for his partner's death. As a result, I feel like a talk with him and Ozpin would be a good way for Jaune to be able to vent his frustrations in a much more healthy manner as well as allow him to understand what really happened those last few days before everything went wrong. Perhaps it would lead to a talk on how a leader’s duty is to help as many people as he can and sometimes that means sacrifice. I think that’s a good lesson for our blond to learn as he is the tactician and semi healer of the group. The other thing that I feel needs to be addressed is Jaune’s transcripts. I covered in a previous post on how there’s no way Ozpin didn’t know about it and this would be a great way to address why Ozpin let him into Beacon in the first place as well as reassure that what happened with Pyrrha was not his fault.

8. More on the Schnees

Since we’re going back to Atlas, I’d like to see more from Weiss’ family. Whitely could use some more development beyond “Jacques’ faithful little follower” and I would really like to see their mother make an appearance. Heck, it would nice to hear more about Nicolaus. Winter as a subordinate of Ironwood would play a role in the affairs in Atlas as would Jacques’ position as the head of the Schnee Dust Company. If anything, I would like to see Jacques realize that there is nothing he can do to make Weiss fall in line and have his actions come back to bite him. HARD.

9. More on the Villains

The thing about villains is that it is just as important to develop them as the heroes. While RWBY’s villains have been very good at messing things up for our good guys, their motivations haven’t been as well fleshed out. Now some villains like Roman Torchwick and Tyrion which are delightfully evil don’t need much of an explanation for why they do what they do, but the others do need some development. I have no problem with Hazel’s motivation being a personal one so much as it being a WEAK personal motivation. I mean, a training accident at Beacon doesn’t really translate to it being completely Ozpin’s fault and him being “evil.” I really hope there’s more to this situation. And then there’s the other questions to answer. What led to Watts being “disgraced?” Why did Cinder have such a fixation on power, acting as if she deserved said power by right? What does Adam want to make humanity pay for? Above all, what happened between Salem and Ozpin to cause this all in the first place? 

10. Team STRQ

There’s so much on this team that I really want to know. What were their dynamics back before Raven left and everything went wrong? What were Tai and Summer’s weapons? Their semblances? What’s Tai’s feelings on all of this? If Team STRQ was what interested Ozpin, what was Tai’s role? What was the nature of Tai and Summer’s relationship? Is Ruby really just like Summer or are there some notable differences that haven‘t been discussed yet? I feel like we’re due for a Team STRQ flashback some time in the future.

Well, that’s all for me. If you got anything add, don’t be shy. Next time, I hope to do a drabble that involves a head canon of mine.

[pagesaplenty]

10 Books to Read if You Want to Date Pete

I have had a few conversations lately surrounding dating, books, and intelligence as an intimidating roadblock. Before I get started on this fun little feature, let’s shed some clarity first. One, I am fine with my status as a single lady. It isn’t a burden, nor is this post a cry for help (matchmakers *wink*). Secondly, I do not believe our passions should so cloister us from any type of relationship that we can’t socialize with someone if they don’t have or share our passions or have any future chance of sharing them. I have friends and family I have meaningful conversations with and take joy in our relationship…and they are not readers. It can be done!

While I’m naming this feature “books to read to date me”, to me this list serves more as a window into who I am and how books have (and do) impact me as a person. Perhaps none of these appeal to you, but maybe you want to know or connect more with me? These titles, while huge favorites, each carry a story of their own and a story that can spark meaningful relationships. By no means do I expect someone to change who they are and suddenly read books that are not their cup of tea or try reading at all. I have learned, the hard way, you should never read a book to impress someone. Chances are they won’t be paying attention anyways (hello bookstore boy I read ‘On the Road’ for and wanted nothing to do with the Beat Generation, save beating my brains out, after I finished).

In no particular order…

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell – When I was a teenager in the homeschool world, it was a difficult world to gain footing in. It felt a little like the people obsessed with being Purebloods in Harry Potter. I had not been homeschooled my whole life and had left public education; we were in between. Classics were not my forte. They intimidated me, bored me, and even made me feel stupid. Then at a gathering with more down to earth homeschoolers, a girl a few years older than me mentioned reading Elizabeth Gaskell and how much she liked her writing (better than Austen). I think it was the way she talked about books that made it seem possible for me to try reading this classic author, even if she was a contemporary of Dickens. The next trip to Barnes and Noble I was shocked to discover the monstrous size of this book. Queue intimidation all over again. However, I managed to muster my determination and read the book. It was a magical moment to read a classic and not feel bored or overwhelmed by lack of understanding for language and time.

 Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig – A few years ago TWLOHA’s Suicide Prevention Week Theme was based around this book. I was familiar with Matt’s work, but had never read any of it. It was the first time I have ever read a book and felt understood surrounding my own mental health. This is a book I want more of my friends and family to read. I wish more people with loved ones coping with mental health would read this. In my opinion it is a source of hope to see, on the page, so clearly the things I live with and I believe more people need to understand in order to be sources of hope, understanding, and strength for each other. Matt’s honesty, while heavy at times, is very refreshing and clarity amid the chaos that can be my thought process.

 Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – My siblings have been graphic novel readers for many years. In all those years I know they tried on numerous occasions to convince me to read them too. In my fear of not reading a “real book” and reading something “childish” I deprived myself of many years’ worth of fun and engaging reading in the world of comics. Saga was the first graphic novel I read, and it ignited my imagination and joy for the medium. I love fantasy and sci-fi. I love art. I love reading. I love Saga. Saga is all of those plus it’s cheeky and filled with humor. I haven’t finished the series yet because I read them slowly… I don’t want the series to be over too soon! Don’t let outside influences fool you…reading comics is reading.

 I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith – I was tricked into reading this! When I was a teenager I didn’t read very widely or diversely. I read fantasy and more fantasy. Then the occasional school assigned book that landed me more in the historical fiction genre as a secondary comfort zone. One summertime visit to my Gran’s in Ohio and a stop at our favorite local shop there, had me picking up this book. The green and yellow wallpaper design drew me in, but even more so was the shout out on the cover from J.K. Rowling. (By the way, I rarely read what books are about because I think summaries are written in such a spoiling fashion. I count on good covers, I know terrible, and Freddy to help me find out if I’ll like something.) Well a J.K. Rowling quote on the cover and the word ‘Castle’ in the title definitely sets this story up to be a fantastical one! Not so much, but nonetheless I persisted and fell in love. Dodie Smith writes a strong voice for a coming of age story. I love her word usage and the book is filled with quotable wisdoms. The quirkiness of Cassandra’s family is something to warm your heart to and find kindred spirits on many levels. I once had a friend compare me to Cassandra after I gifted him with the book and I thought I would squeal of said honor.

 C.S. Lewis Biography – This biography stands out for me for a number of reasons. I don’t typical like or read Christian Fiction of Non-Fiction. When I was a Sophomore my Mum’s curriculum for literature was a biography and a book by the author. This specific biography really impacted the way I perceived my own faith at the time. Reading about Lewis’ turning points and his fascination with heaven were very grounding for my teenage years. The fear of the unknown has always been a trigger for me, but to read how at peace he was with heaven will be something I never forget. Also as someone raised in a faith based home, I believe it is important to read testimonies/backgrounds that are not similar (and ‘perfect’ at first sight) to your own. Diversity of all types is imperative for growth.

 The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – This is another book that made me feel like I was a grown-up and had arrived because I picked it up when I was younger, and it wasn’t my normal reading. My friend had brought it back from a trip and I was instantly intrigued by the cover. This book is dense. I know that turns some people off, so much so the audiobook is abridged to cut out ‘unnecessary’ elements (which personally annoys the hell out of me). As you can see from my own writing, I love detail. I enjoy immersive stories and elements that you know were researched to the gills all for the delight of a story, a fictional one at that. I cannot say too much without spoiling this story, but I can say it is a more mature ‘National Treasure’ paired with folklore/history of ‘Dracula’.

 A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott – It may surprise many who know me to see this Alcott book on my list instead of ‘Little Women’. Alcott is my favorite author. Almost 60% of one my bookcases in dedicated to books by and about her. While I love ‘Little Women’ and all the memories it holds for me, I know ultimately it was not what Alcott wanted to write. Years ago the copy of ‘A Long Fatal Love Chase’ that Freddy and I came across looked more like a mix between a thriller and sizzling mass market romance. Freddy read it first and we still to this day talk about how we didn’t believe it could possibly be by Alcott.  While the story itself isn’t earth shattering, for me it is the idea behind it. The idea that Louisa still found a way to write what she wanted to write. This book still found a way to survive in the shadow of ‘Little Women’ all these years later. It is a story I enjoyed and Louisa’s influence continues to be in my life. That I may write, write what I NEED to write, and for it to endure in one form or another.

 Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ -

"I was armed with millions of smiles. Apologetic smiles, pity-me smiles, I-look-unto-God smiles---name all the fake smiles needed to get through an afternoon with a group of people who claim to want the best for you while poking at your open sore with a stick---and I had them ready."

From it’s ‘simple’ orange cover to quotes like the above, this story’s subtlety and ability to shock grasped at my heart and held on. The story could have go on and on and I would not have shied away from reading it. While heavy with thought (and subject matter) and intention, Ayọ̀bámi writes so masterfully. I’m writing this right now and thinking I need to read it again. I am so struck by her writing. I also am indebted to her because after finishing I wanted more and it sent me on a path to find more Nigerian writers, whom I love too.

 Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh – When my grandmother was dying, we read this book out loud together. We would discuss and talk about her life after each chapter. We would talk about the shape of the shell we were living in right at that moment. I did not love everything about this book because many instances Anne spoke from a level of privilege I have never experienced and that can leave a taste not so pleasant. However, for the memories it has for me and its ability to have so much to ponder, I find this book a very valuable one. The way she writes about nature feels like my childhood and how my Mum taught us to look at the world around us.

 Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke – I probably talk about this book too much. For such a little book it certainly houses much wisdom. I recently read the letters on my Instagram and was struck anew by things I hadn’t been the first time. I know because this is the first book I have ever allowed myself to write in (aside from my Bible). There were parts that brought me to tears anew that I hadn’t underlined previously. I imagine Rilke calmly sitting in a corner as he observes the world and embraces his failures and struggles as growth. This book of letters holds something different for each reader and therein lies its value.

[cooperjones2020]

Second City, chp. 3

Summary: Sometimes she worries she’s settling — for a smaller job, a smaller city, a smaller life than she’d promised herself — but that was before she found out Jughead Jones lives in Chicago. That was before she found out the final secret of Jason Blossom’s murder.

A/N: As Juggie says, this chapter is a little bit meta. And pretty nerdy. I just have a lot of feelings about books, okay. Also I fudged with canon a little re: Jug’s writing style. So sue me.

ao3-->http://archiveofourown.org/works/11409360/chapters/25755798

Second City one / two

Nobodies Nobody Knows one / two (ao3)

In which Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones drink tequila

When the uber drops her off outside the bar Jughead selected, she buys herself some time by checking her email. She’s already spotted him inside but doesn’t know if he’s seen her, so the email-checking is a precautionary measure.

Though she wouldn’t be surprised if she had any last minutes notes from her boss.

The week thus far has not been kind to her. Cynthia found out she’d twisted the truth about her and Jug’s shared history. Turns out she once dated his agent. Cynthia also loves the idea that she’s the inspiration for Jughead’s heroine and is all over the plaster-Betty’s-picture-on-the-side-of-a-bus idea train.

Betty’s feeling that particularly potent mixture of nauseous because she’s disappointed someone, nervous about seeing Jughead, and migraine-y because she’s been staring at a computer screen all day. The farther the cab had gotten from the Loop, though, the more the nerves had emerged as the heavy favorite for emotion of the night.

She forces herself not to pace as she stares at her phone screen. Public spaces. She feels more comfortable about being around him in public spaces. They’d emailed about maybe doing the interview in either of their apartments, for sake of ease. She’s not ready to see his apartment. Being on the back of his motorcycle had been overwhelming enough. She isn’t ready to saturate herself with even more of him.

The prospect of her apartment is even more terrifying. She is afraid of what he would make of her life, what details and detritus he would weave into a narrative she couldn’t control.

A public space means no home field advantage. And it means an escape hatch, if she needs it.

She can see him inside, sitting in the far corner where the bar top meets the wall. He has his laptop out and a cup of coffee at his elbow, beanie covering his hair but for the one stray curl. If not for the wall of liquor she can see to the right of him, he could be in his booth at Pop’s.

Who drinks coffee at a bar at 8 pm?

Get a hold of yourself, Cooper. If you can’t feel brave, you can at least act like you do.

She goes in.

“Hey — sorry I’m late.”

He arches an eyebrow. “You’re not. And you know it.” Well she’s not early, which is the same thing. She busies herself setting her bag down and getting arranged on the bar stool while she keeps talking.

“How was Riverdale?”

“Great. Weird. They put my book in a special display in the library at Riverdale High. No matter that I didn’t graduate from there.”

“Well, I guess the story does take place there.”

“Yeah. Anyway, JB graduated and no one cried, so gold star for the weekend. I read your piece yesterday.”

His sudden change of topic gives her whiplash, but a sudden puff of warmth smokes in her stomach at his words.

“Oh thanks, you didn’t have to.”

“You know, I actually read it before I saw the byline and I wondered why the voice was so familiar. So which one was your favorite?”

She’s a little bit dazed by the compliment and doesn’t immediately put two and two together for the question.

“Favorite what?”

“Favorite bookstore.”

“Oh, right, duh. Um, Myopic, I think. Though Bookman’s Corner was a close second.”

His eyes crinkle when he smiles. “Good choices. Myopic is one of my favorites too. Did you go into the occult section? They have an armchair in the window in that room on the second floor that overlooks Milwaukee Ave. I wrote a good forty percent of the new book from that spot.”

“No I didn’t see it, I’ll have to go back.”

“You will.” She breaks eye contact when he doesn’t, and turns to the glass of water in front of her.

“Hey, Betts.” He reaches out and touches her hand briefly before retreating. “How about a drink?”

It is by far the least professional thing she’s ever done, but she truly, completely, 100% cross-her-heart-and-hope-to-die does not believe she will make it through this evening without alcohol. As if by magic, or the power of positive thinking, the bartender sets before her something bedecked with cherries and way too colorful to taste like anything other than cough syrup.

She looks at Jughead, wondering if he’d ordered something for her before she came in. But he’s frowning at the glass. The bartender nods to a table past the bar.

“Courtesy a that guy.” They both turn to look, and a man on the far side of room is raising his glass to her. She returns the gesture and, as usual, blushes, before turning her body more fully towards Jughead and crossing her legs. He puts a hand on the back of her chair.

“What a dick. Like he can’t see we’re together. Want me to go talk to him?”

“No, I’m a big girl. I can do it myself.”

“But—”

“No, Jug. I’m not going to let the two of you grunt over me like neanderthals arguing over a piece of meat. If you go over there, he’ll think you’re my boyfriend and that’s why he’ll back off. I don’t want it to be like that. I want him to back off because I say I’m not interested, not because you say so.”

She notices him exhale forcefully.

“Besides, what if he’s my one true love. If I don’t talk to him, I’ll never find out and then I’ll die alone surrounded by cats.”

“Why, Betty Cooper, are you being sarcastic?” An impish sort of mirth springs to his eyes and it makes something ache inside her.

“It’s not like you have the market cornered. I’ll be right back.” She takes her purse to the bathroom, with a pit stop to thank the man, and manages to get away without giving him her number. She’s not sure why—he is cute—but it feels like a betrayal somehow.

When she gets back, the bartender has replaced the frou frou drink with a shot of something clear. Tequila, she thinks, because it’s accompanied by a salt shaker and a wedge of lime resting on a napkin.

“You want to do tequila shots?”

“Liquid courage, Betts,” he says, in an echo of her thoughts from earlier. For a moment she feels guilty, but she’s glad he’s nervous too.

She squints at him and takes the shot, before delicately setting the lime rind back on the napkin. When she turns back, his grin could split his face.

“You’re a bad influence, Jones.”

“Always.”

When the bartender has cleared away the shot glasses in favor of a Goose Island for him and a glass of wine for her, he says, “So we should probably get started?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” She sets up the recorder, thankful it’s a Wednesday and the bar is quiet. He hits the ground running. More verbose that she remembers. Charmingly articulate. She almost wishes they were doing a podcast instead of an article.

“The sequel came as a bit of a surprise. At the end of The Final Fissure, you revealed the murderer. What story is left to tell?”

“I don’t really think of Sweetwater Subtext—that’s the title by the way, nailed down for sure today—Anyway, I don’t think of Sweetwater Subtext as a sequel, though technically it is because some of it takes place later than Final Fissure. I think of them more as companions, separated by genre but connected by story. The Final Fissure is more plot-driven—definitely commercial fiction. Sweetwater Subtext explores more of the motivations of the characters, I’d say it’s more literary.”

“Does that mean it will alienate some of your original readership?”

“I hope not. I don’t think the genre should have anything to do with whether a story is compelling, enjoyable. I think writers—well, more likely critics—tend to underestimate readers. Preferring genre fiction like crime or romance or sci-fi doesn’t say anything about a reader’s abilities, only their interests. Readers have already developed a relationship with these characters, hopefully they care enough about them to want to know more.”

“I was surprised when I first picked up Final Fissure and saw the genre. You gave up on your Philip Marlowe fantasies.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know how much hard boiled crime fiction you’ve read, but it usually doesn’t turn out well for the women. You get to college and take one theory course, and all of a sudden all you can see is the male gaze and the forced dichotomy between the ingenue and the femme fatale.

“Besides, you took over the story pretty early on and your voice—sorry, Betsy’s voice—was pretty insistent.”

Her mouth screws up at the mention of her fictional alter ego. “You just had to pick Betsy, didn’t you? Do you remember our third grade teacher called me that all year, no matter how many times me, or you, or Archie corrected her?”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I tried to call her every variation of Elizabeth there is. Eliza stuck for a while but I kept writing ‘Betts’ in spite of myself so calling her Betsy saved me a ton of rewriting and annoyed calls from my editor. Though she found other things to latch onto. She thought ‘Betsy’ was ‘too mid-century, not enough millennial.’”

Betty laughs at his air quotes. “I’ve thought that myself more than once. But you withstood the pressure?”

“Never let it be said that I don’t suffer for my art.”

He pops the toothpick that previously held her frou frou drink cherries into his mouth, and she tries hard not to fixate on the tip of his tongue as it rolls the piece of wood from tooth to tooth. Focus, Cooper. What’s next in her notes?

“One of the big changes this time around must be your relationship to your readers. Have you felt the pressure of people waiting for this story, of what they might want to happen next? Has it affected you, either in your work or in your life?”

“Obviously the story starts in your head. But as soon as it’s printed, readers make it their own. It’s a dialogue in which they define the story—and me as the author, by default—as much as by who they are as by who I am. In the case of The Final Fissure, I was just trying to tell the story. Writing it was as much an act of therapy for me as it was a work of literature for everyone else. I wrote it as a teenager and then sat on it for many years, before I had the emotional distance I needed to edit it into a shape that would hold some broader appeal. This time around, it’s a little bit meta. Sweetwater Subtext is the same narrator coming back to a defining event of his life, trying to understand how it’s shaped him. Final Fissure was for me, but Sweetwater Subtext I did write with a specific audience in mind.”

“Not the audience who’s bought and loved it?”

“No, something a bit narrower than that.”

She doesn’t quite know how to follow-up without asking him who the audience is, but that feels too intimate. So she switches gears.

“If you wrote The Final Fissure in high school, and Sweetwater Subtext in the last couple of years, what did you do in the meantime?”

“I wrote a lot of short fiction. Creative writing at a university pretty much runs on the short story workshop.”

“So should we be looking for a short story collection next?”

“Haha, no. I think I subjected my workshop-mates to enough of the torture that was my short fiction. And it definitely overlapped with the world of The Final Fissure and Sweetwater Subtext.  Some of it got recycled into the two books. Maybe the story of Jason Blossom’s murder is the only story I have in me. Maybe I’ll be writing about it, who I was—who we were—then, for the rest of my life, in one way or another.”

Betty’s afraid to touch the subtext of that statement with a ten-foot pole. She presses the tip of her tongue against the back of her front teeth and wills herself not to flush. Or, if she does, hopes Jug will attribute it to the alcohol.

“Okay…so if the story is basically the same, how else was the writing experience different this time around?”

“In some ways, I think Sweetwater Subtext might have been harder to write — I’ve read The Final Fissure so many times but I also lived it. I’m not sure how to separate fact from fiction, I’m not sure if I know the difference. Sweetwater Subtext is much more internal, there’s much more room for error, interpretation.”

“Did your routine change? Anything in the physical process of how you wrote?”

“Definitely. Being an established author has conveyed a huge privilege on me. The Final Fissure was written in spare time at school or late nights at the diner. I’m still a nighttime writer. I still can’t write at home, I need people around me to observe. But writing gets to be the focus of my day now. I’ve also gotten better at letting other people see my writing. As a teenager, I was obsessive about making it perfect first.”

“Oh I remember.” They’re both facing ahead, so the recorder has a better angle, but she can see him smiling at her out of the corners of her eyes.

“But now, sometimes it’s just get it on the page and send it off, especially if I’m under a deadline. Still, though, I like some feedback if only to reaffirm my own conviction that I’m headed in the right direction. Actually, Archie looked at a few chapters of Sweetwater Subtext pretty early on.”

“Really? I can’t see him as a particularly dedicated editor.”

Jughead’s laugh is big, his head is thrown back and his shoulders shake. “No, definitely not. But it was more feedback on the content I was looking for, than the style. Whether I was crossing a line with anything.”

“Well, color me intrigued.”

“Good.”

She takes a risk. “I’m surprised Archie didn’t tell you I was moving here.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t exactly talk about you.”

It hurts. She knows it shouldn’t. She knows it makes sense. But it does. Because it sounds like ‘I don’t think about you.’

“Right, obviously. That was stupid of me.” Way to ruin it, Betty. “On a related note, what do you owe to the real people upon whom you base your characters?”

“That’s a question I’ve been wrestling with. The best answer I’ve been able to come up with, insufficient as it is, is honesty.”

[bucketofchum]

Learn about Modo

Tagged by @missmellifluous. I’ll put this under a cut too I guess.

1. Coke or Pepsi: I don’t like soda, but pepsi? It tastes sweeter. But I can’t handle carbonation. 

2. Disney or Dreamworks: Both...? I feel like Disney gets a lot of the credit for a lot of things Dreamworks does. Disney does seem more classic, but Dreamworks does take more risks.

3. Coffee or Tea: Neither? I don’t really drink either. I’ve had more tea than coffee though. But like, not the kind with bags and cream and stuff. I don’t understand that.

4. Books or Movies: Both? I definitely watch more movies than I read books though. Easier to consume. But books just fuck me up when I’m done.

5. Windows or Mac: Mac

6. DC or Marvel: Marvel mostly, but I do love me some Bat Family. Grayson is the fave.

7. X-box or Playstation: Sorry I don’t game...I’m......fake gamer guy......

8. Dragon Age or Mass Effect: ........I don’t know........

9. Night Owl or Early Riser: Um, does it count if I just don’t sleep? Am I both? Mostly night owl. 

10. Cards or Chess: ...neither...???? idk. I mean I played Yugioh, which is a card game.

11. Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate.

12. Vans or Converse: I have never worn either. But they both look nice.

13. Lavallan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar:

Who...

14. Fluff or Angst: I love me some fluff but I live the angst.

15. Beach or Forest: Forest! I could spend my life in the woods. Can’t spend more than 2 days on the beach...

16. Dogs or Cats: porque no los dos

17. Clear Skies or Rain: Clear skies. I like being able to go out.

18. Cooking or Eating Out: Cooking. Save money. Plus I’m a good cook.

19. Spicy Food or Mild: idk it depends. Some things taste better spicy, some things taste better mild. But I don’t think I’ve ever made anything without adding hella seasonings...

20. Halloween/Samhin or Solistice/Yule/Christmas: idk does it matter when you don’t celebrate anything? I like Halloween though. For the aesthetic.

21. Little too cold or little too hot: Can I just have normal temperature...? Probs too hot. I feel like I will fall asleep and never wake up if it’s too cold. Plus, I have lived just fine in the literal desert without AC. But I have also lived in a place where I could see my breath indoors and...no thanks...I don’t want that for me ever again. I want to be able to feel all my extremities. I have too many bad cold experiences.

22. Superpower: Um, teleportation? That would solve the issue of global food distribution. 

23. Animation or Live Action: Animation for sure.

24. Paragon or Renegade: ???? I try to be a paragon but I guess I’m always a renegade. Unwilling renegade?

25. Bath or Showers: When was the last time I had a bath...

26. Team Cap or Team Ironman: This breaks my heart cuz like. In the movie, Tony was just trying to do Good(TM). - @kayvsworld I usually like Steve but I didn’t like him all that much in that movie.

27. Fantasy or Sci-Fi: Eh? Idk, neither? I consume more fantasy media though. (fantasy costco theme song plays in the background)

28. Fav Quotes:  We often complain about “society” as a whole, but what we often forget is that we comprise society. If we want to change society, we must change ourselves. (fuck I think that was a quote from myself - what an asshole)

29. Youtube or Netflix: I don’t follow any youtubers, so I just use youtube for music. I guess Netflix.

30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: Never read either. *shrinks away in fear from all the hate I’ll get for this*

31. When I Feel Accomplished: When I’ve helped make someone happy (:

32. Star Wars or Star Trek: idk it’s been a long time since I’ve watched Star Trek. I remember I liekd Data and that was it. I know it had some pretty monumental moments, like first interracial kiss - and also had an Asian lead actor!! But I’m mostly caught up on Star Wars. So they each have their perks I guess.

33. Paperback Books or Hardback: Either? Paperback is easier to read, but I’m anxious not to damage to books.

34. A world without literature or music: idk - both would seem pretty shitty. I don’t listen to music much, but I play violin. But all the world’s history is contained in literature, so probs literature.

35. Who was the last person to make me laugh: idk probs @necromilk 

36. Sour or Sweet Candy: Both? I don’t eat candy much. 

37. Believe in aliens?: Um, I think it’s statistically improbable that extraterrestrial life does not exist. It’s just....not very likely that there are no “aliens”

38. Dawn or Dusk: Well I like sunsets more than sunrises, so dusk? BUT. There is nothing more satisfying than waking up at the ass crack of dawn, just as the sun rises. Idk.

39. Piercings or Tattoos: I have a piercing but not a tattoo, so I guess...piercings? I could see myself getting more piercings but not really tattoos.

40. Girls? Hot?: Yes.

41. Snow or Fog: Snow! It’s better than rain because the slow melting allows better percolation into the ground without runoff. (:

42. Sleep facing the wall or room: idk doesn’t matter. I move around too much (both locations, sleeping arrangements, and in my sleep) for it to matter. When I’m tired, I just crash.

43. TRC of AFTG: what.

44. Horror or Drama: uM.... I’m a big weenie who is bad at horror. But dramas are kind of boring :/

45. Orcarina of Time or Majora’s Mask: Are these video games....

46. Living in nature or city: Definitely nature. Like I said, I could live just fine in the woods.

47. Any addictions: Uh...tumblr...?

48. Languages: English and French are the only fluent ones. Then I got lil bits of: Chinese, German, Hindi.

49. What music do I listen too: Fuck anything. Mostly 60s-80s junk. Musicals stuff? Music from cartoons. Schoolhouse rock. Crap, basically. Oh, I do like electroswing though. (:

50. Fav mythical creature: idk m8. I don’t put much thought into this stuff. Sphinxes are cool I guess. Riddles n shit. (I’ve got hella centaur characters tho)

51. Safe zone: I’m never safe. Anywhere. >_>

52. First fandom: Um, power rangers? Maybe? I learned English watching Power Rangers.

53. Cartoons or Adult Shows: Cartoons probs. I’m a big baby.

54. Current music: Uh, Griffin McElroy’s soundcloud.

55. Favorite starter?: Is this a pokemon question?

56.  What would your witch’s familiar be? That’s an animal, right? Probably something useless, like a chinchilla. 

Tagging....  

@interstellerace  @smol-lucio @bees-smile-at-flowers @elsendor-personal @iamterra @mongooseland @not-even-a-grandma @a-common-nook @blackturtlesofdeath @machinedoggerism @arebone

I believe @syntaxeme was already tagged but you might wanna see my responses haha

People I wanna tag but can’t seem to tag: @spunkiestein and @llucioo 

[eclecticanalyst]

We’re Expecting You...To Boldly Go

[or, a fun exercise in comparing The Love Boat to Star Trek: The Next Generation]

I’ve always had a fondness for shows that aired several decades before I was born. When I was a kid, I loved the TV channel Boomerang, because it broadcasted classic cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Snorks and The Jetsons. As I entered my preteen years, I graduated to live-action, checking out DVD box sets of The Facts of Life and Fantasy Island and The Love Boat from the library.

I don’t know if other people in my generation are familiar with The Love Boat—it was a television show that ran on ABC from 1977-1987. The show took place on a cruise ship, the Pacific Princess, and a typical episode would begin with the Princess leaving out of its home port of Los Angeles, proceeding to such stops as Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta before ultimately returning to Los Angeles at the end of the hour. The Love Boat’s claim to fame was its rotating roster of guest stars (with a new lineup in each episode), who were a mix of contemporary actors/celebrities (like Jim Nabors, Florence Henderson, and Sonny Bono) and old Hollywood/Broadway royalty (like Gene Kelly, Ethel Merman, and Zsa Zsa Gabor). These guest stars would provide the Pacific Princess with its passengers. There was a regular cast of characters that helped anchor (pun intended) the show—Merrill Stubing, ship’s captain; Adam “Doc” Bricker, ship’s doctor; Burl “Gopher” Smith, assistant yeoman purser; Isaac Washington, chief bartender; and Julie McCoy, cruise director. Vicki Stubing, the captain’s teenaged daughter, was added to the cast in season 3. In the final few seasons, Julie was replaced by her sister Judy, and the ship gained a photographer in Ace–full name Ashley Covington Evans. (Also, every so often, a guest star would play a member of the crew, like the gift shop manager or the chef, rather than a passenger.)

A standard episode was divided into three storylines that played out simultaneously over the course of a cruise. The vast majority of the storylines were romance-based, but there were others that consisted of family drama or old friends getting together. The regular cast members would participate in the passengers’ stories to varying degrees, sometimes being an integral part of the plot and sometimes only existing on the sidelines. The storylines would all get resolved by the time the Pacific Princess returned to Los Angeles, and the passengers would (almost always cheerfully) disembark, usually never to be seen again. Plotlines did not carry over from one week to the next, and even if a guest star returned in a later episode, chances were they would be playing a completely new character.

Although the guest cast took up the majority of the screen time, I was always more invested in the regulars, and wished we could spend more time with them—learning their backstories, exploring their dynamics with each other, and watching them actually do cruise ship work instead of pal around with the passengers. Because of The Love Boat’s near-anthology setup, not much effort was put into any sort of ongoing character development. Intense romances on the main cast’s part one week would be completely forgotten the next week, family deaths wouldn’t be brought up until it was relevant to that episode’s storyline, and new details about the crew’s past would be added as plot points, even sometimes directly contradicting a previous episode.

(The Love Boat had other issues that have less to do with my criticism of the writing and more to do with an adherence to certain flawed social practices, like how Isaac's love interests were always Black, or how single mothers were greeted with raised eyebrows, or how people of Asian or Latino/a descent were accompanied by specific musical cues–but these issues are not the point of this post so I won’t get into them at this time.)

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered the year The Love Boat went off the air—1987—and ran until 1994. I only got into Star Trek in college, and TNG was my first series as it was easily available on BBC America. Although it had been several years since I had watched The Love Boat on a regular basis, one day a connection was made in my mind, and it occurred to me that there were a great deal of parallels to be drawn between a certain rom-com/drama at sea and a certain sci-fi adventure in space. I kept this observation in my head for years, but now that I have a blog (and because I have been rewatching a few episodes of The Love Boat in the past few weeks), I have decided to write out all of these parallels in detail.

First: the basic setup. The main cast is the crew of a ship, but we only really meet a handful of the hundreds of actual crew members needed to run the ship. In The Love Boat, for example, we don’t see the engineering crew, but the Pacific Princess must certainly have one in order to function, and although we do sometimes see Captain Stubing hanging out on the bridge, we don’t even know the name of the first officer. As I mentioned above, occasionally a guest star would play a crew member in an episode, acting as if they’d been there the whole time, but we would never see them again after that one appearance. A few times, one of the main cast would interact with an extra portraying a crew member—Julie would ask a steward to escort a guest somewhere, or Isaac would ask a waitress to carry a tray of drinks over to someone—but for the most part it seemed like our regulars did all the work on the ship. When Captain Stubing would have pre-cruise preparation meetings, it was always just with the main cast, who were not necessarily the people a real cruise ship captain would be meeting with right before sailing. (Take Gopher—he was only the assistant yeoman purser, and yet he was in all those meetings while the chief yeoman purser was not. Actually, I’m pretty sure the chief purser never made an appearance in the entire ten years the show was on the air. I believe Gopher got a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it promotion to chief purser in later seasons, but he was definitely assistant-purser-with-odd-authority at first.)

In TNG, the same sort of thing would happen. CMO Beverly Crusher claimed to have other doctors working under her, but beyond a Vulcan named Selar who showed up in one episode of the show, we didn’t see them. Missions that seemed suited to one of the science departments of the Enterprise, like xenobiology or astrophysics, would be carried out by senior staff members—also known as the main cast. There were a few more named recurring crew member characters on TNG than on The Love Boat, like Miles O’Brien and Reg Barclay, but for the most part our bridge crew did pretty much everything. And while it makes sense on TNG for the senior staff to interact with each other a great deal, they should also be interacting with their respective teams—and yet we don’t really see that happen. Geordi and Data are more likely to address an engineering problem on their own in a given episode than Geordi and the actual engineering staff, and we don’t really see Worf running his security teams through drills or target practice. On The Love Boat, Doc and Isaac for some reason are often seen checking passengers in at boarding, when that should not be in their job description at all and what we should see is Gopher supervising his staff doing those duties.

Both shows are more plot driven rather than character driven. Our main cast members in both shows are meant to serve as respondents to new situations brought aboard their respective ships, rather than personalities to be interrogated in depth. The main cast is defined enough that the audience can have a favorite character and know how a Picard story differs from a Worf story, or a Gopher story from a Julie story. But all in all the draw and focus of TNG was more “What is the crisis on the planet of the week?” or “What common ground can be found with this new alien species?” or “What commentary on the human condition can be extrapolated from this shipwide invasion?” rather than, say, Beverly’s mental and emotional state as a widow working under the man who ordered her husband to his death or the nuances of Troi and Riker’s no-longer-dating-but-still-sort-of-in-love friendship. Meanwhile, The Love Boat was preoccupied with “What sort of antics will this week’s cast of characters bring on board?”. Doc joked regularly about his multiple ex-wives, but we never got a character study about how Doc seemed to like falling in love more than maintaining a romantic relationship in the long term.

The Love Boat’s regular cast were pretty much the same season to season—Gopher was accident-prone and quick to goof around, Doc maintained his Lothario status, Captain Stubing was quick to both rebuke and advise. I didn’t really watch the post-Julie seasons, so maybe some character developments happened that I missed, but generally the passengers were the ones transformed by their time on the ship, not the crew. TNG characters did have a bit more of an arc than the crew of the Pacific Princess—Data got more in touch with his humanity and Picard relaxed more around his personnel, for instance. But that didn’t apply to all the characters—I’m hard-pressed to think of any sizeable developments in Geordi’s character beyond being promoted to Chief Engineer. Speaking of that promotion, once the show found its footing and everyone had the positions they would come to be known for—Geordi as Chief Engineer rather than the helmsman he was early on, Worf as Chief Tactical Officer post-death of Tasha Yar—nothing really changed for our main characters’ situations. The status quo was strictly enforced despite events unfolding that would have naturally led to transitions. After “Best of Both Worlds,” it would have made sense for Riker to ascend to his own command, but instead he stayed first officer season after season. Worf resigned his commission to fight in the Klingon Civil War, but once that was over, he strolled back onto the bridge without even any extra paperwork.

That aversion to long-term change was in keeping with the episodic nature of both shows. Nowadays, we’re used to the need to keep up with each season’s developments in a television show and watch every episode lest we miss some important revelation. In the case of TNG and The Love Boat, for the most part, you can drop a new viewer into any given episode and they’ll be fine. The stories are largely self-contained, and everything is pretty much resolved at the end of the hour.

This TNG/TLB comparison, however, is not resolved just yet...stay tuned for part 2!

[mrmichaelchadler]

Netflix's The Umbrella Academy a Not-So-Super Fusion of X-Men and Watchmen

Before we get HBO’s “Watchmen” remake and witness more stories of young mutants with the next “X-Men” movie, Netflix offers their own fusion of these superhero properties: "The Umbrella Academy". Derived from the Dark Horse comics written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Ba, this new series tells of siblings who have special powers, and are forced to evaluate their lives and relationships outside the world of fighting crime. But the intrigue garnered by this premise is defeated not just by its slow pacing (across ten, one-hour episodes) but also by the story's superficial, and juvenile approach to such a story: it's never as quirky, cutting edge, or plainly cool as it so desperately wants to be.  

Created by Jeremy Slater, “The Umbrella Academy” tells of seven special children who were born on the same day, after their respective mothers became suddenly pregnant. They were all adopted by billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), who made them into a family of crime-fighters, each with super abilities honed over time. There’s Diego (David Catañeda) who can throw a knife like a boomerang, Luther (Tom Hopper), whose extra burly physique covered by a coat is not just muscle, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who has the ability to control people’s minds with her words, Klaus (Robert Sheehan), who can see dead people but is also fresh out of rehab, and Ben, now deceased, who had the ability to unleash a murderous squid from inside his body. The highly intelligent, time-traveling Dr. Manhattan of the group is played by Aidan Gallagher, who, like his siblings was not named, and is simply known as Number Five. But unlike his siblings, he still looks like a preteen, which is one of a thousand details that “The Umbrella Academy” eventually explains before moving on to the next offbeat detail. But the standout of the group is Ellen Page’s Vanya, who has no powers. She can, however, play violin,  and when she was younger, wrote the family’s saga in a tell-all book that’s created bad blood with her siblings. 

At the start of “The Umbrella Academy,” the family is estranged and scattered—Luther is on the Moon, Allison is a movie star, Klaus is in rehab. But Hargreeves’ mysterious passing gets them back in the same gothic mansion for the first time in many years, forcing them to wrestle with their angst towards each other and their cold, distant father. True to the story’s exhaustive plotting, “The Umbrella Academy” has issues to resolve not just with regards to the past, present, but also the future—the apocalypse is coming in eight days, as Number Five finds out, and only they can stop it. 

If a superhero story is only as interesting as its villain, “The Umbrella Academy” is in grave danger: it rambles when giving our heroes something to overcome, and fails to create an urgency in its expansive run-time despite all that the story focuses on. Their inner battles, with themselves and toward their siblings, are not all that compelling, even though that’s what the series wants its heart to be. The script wants to take a funhouse mirror to real expressions of family drama, but the world and tone of “The Umbrella Academy” is nowhere near grounded enough. 

The external obstacles feel aren’t much more gripping: the revelation of apocalyptic stakes in episode one feels like "The Umbrella Academy" is following superhero trends and not subverting them, its story focusing on Number Five trying to figure out who is behind the destruction. On a smaller scale, the family members are not shown fighting crime in their their current lives, but they do battle two villains named Hazel and Cha Cha, played by Cameron Britton and Mary J. Blige, respectively. The latter duo are Tarantino-esque hitmen of a mysterious employer, and they don’t pop on screen when the focus is on them gabbing about their next job, or their friendship. True to the mild imagination of “The Umbrella Academy,” these characters are used mostly to inspire stylized action scenes, wearing goofy masks while they fire guns because it’s what amuses this show. I’ll give “The Umbrella Academy” that it is awesome to see Mary J. Blige walk away from an exploding donut shop in slow motion, but that’s a fleeting moment of edginess, and it arrives around episode eight. 

The biggest enemy that “The Umbrella Academy” has is itself, thwarted by its ambitions to juggle all of these characters, their relationships, their mysteries. There are other characters too, like Vanya’s love interest Leonard played by John Magaro, and a couple of cops who are on the trail of everyone involved. Oh right, and then there’s the apocalypse. This busy nature initially makes for a slow start, as its pilot embeds us in their grief as means of gloomy exposition, but then it creates the opposite effect by the second and third episodes and onward—the series is both slow moving and overstuffed.

With all of these characters and their backgrounds, told by a story that yearns to create momentum out of constant cliffhangers and generally withholding information, the series is often frustrating, if not exhausting (I wouldn’t have made it past episode three were it not for professional obligations). There’s moments where this scatterbrained nature even strands the actors, like a scene in which Klaus experiences something so traumatic on a bus around episode five, yet we don’t know what he’s reacting to—we can only watch him cry his eyes out while Big Thief’s mournful spiritual “Mary” plays in the background, as if the simple presentation of emotion is all we need to be engaged. In a larger sense, it sucks the life out of top-tier talent like Ellen Page, who spends much of the series having her secrets revealed at a glacial pace, her performance becomes one big cloud until she’s given more to work with.

With the zealousness of a teenager's sketchbook, “The Umbrella Academy” has a heightened imagination for its world-building and inhabitants, forcefully mixing sci-fi with fantasy with gothic production design and prep school costuming (Number Five is always in his academy uniform). But it doesn’t lead to a memorable collective style, so much as emphasize this show’s motivation to create cool without being original. The camera's framing too, with high and low angles used often to spruce up dialogue-driven scenes, feels less like it comes from artistic intent, and more like a misguided idea of edgy visual storytelling. 

Given that “The Umbrella Academy” is executive produced by comic co-creator Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, you'd expect a definitive quality from its music. It's disappointing then, that the constant score plays with the obvious presence of a laugh track, and its soundtrack is full of familiar needle drops—Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” amps up an otherwise bland shootout in a department store, while “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany blares during an impromptu dance moment in the pilot. Even “Exit Music” by Radiohead feels more ho-hum than it ever should. Maybe the show's younger audience will find these cuts striking, and make a few Radiohead fans, but within “The Umbrella Academy” they’re totally played out. Their presence is a lot like the themes and visuals that define “The Umbrella Academy”—they’ll likely be most impactful if you haven’t experienced them numerous times before. 

All episodes of season one screened for review. 

from All Content http://bit.ly/2DF3i5A

[ges-sa]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review

New Post has been published on https://ges-sa.com/star-wars-the-last-jedi-review/

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”28032,28043,28056,28055,28059,28060,28048,28047,28046,28050,28061,28062,28063,28064,28065,28066,28054,28053,28042,28040,28039″][vc_column_text]A long time ago…it seemed like a pipedream to expect any more Star Wars movies from George Lucas and Lucasfilm, despite longstanding ideas for Episodes VII, VIII & IX. That was however, until Disney purchased Lucasfilm and made it no secret that they would be continuing the cinematic adventures set in the “Galaxy Far, Far Away”. It’s almost hard to imagine now with three new Star Wars movies released in the last three years, that there was a time when this was nothing but a fantasy. The hype train for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ has been rolling full force ever since audiences left cinemas at the end of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ in 2015 and with speculation of Rey’s origins, full details about Supreme Leader Snoke and Porgs; all audiences want to know is whether this newest entry into the ‘Star Wars’ saga is good and worth all the hype invested into it. The short answer is……MOST DEFINITELY!!!

No spoilers here so fear not, you’re entering a safe space.

The Rian Johnson directed ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ continues where ‘The Force Awakens’ left off and ups the stakes significantly for our heroes in the Resistance. This film doesn’t waste any time dropping us right into the thick of it as the Resistance faces off with the villainous First Order while Rey’s story continues after having discovered Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To. There are many instances throughout the film of moments and nods to earlier films in the series like ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’ that will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s seen those films but at the same time will be very different and altogether new given the context of the film and trajectory of where these moments lead. It’s as though ‘The Force Awakens’ was channeling as lot of familiar ground in a narrative and visual sense from ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ in order to reintroduce fans new and old to the series, and while there are certainly seemingly still elements of that to be found in ‘The Last Jedi’ it seems a lot less outright deliberate here and more of a slight of hand before taking viewers in some very new and surprising directions which will challenge what we know already and hopefully leave the door wide open to go in bold new directions for the trilogy finale in ‘Episode IX’. Some might argue that the film drags somewhat in the middle of the second act, although I never got that impression personally. It almost seems as though this film not only have three acts, but quite possibly a fourth for as soon as you get the sense that things are wrapping up and the film might be coming to an end (assuming you aren’t the type of viewer who checks their watch during the movie) and then suddenly things pick again and we get a whole additional sequence which almost could have easily been in ‘Episode IX’ but comes across an extra gift from the film makers here and what a gift it is. This is truly one to see.

The film is beautifully directed and shot by Rian Johnson. The blend of live action sets and props with carefully placed and necessary CGI look great and make this one of the more visually enriching and eye pleasing Star Wars films in the series, more so than even ‘The Force Awakens’. The trend of great directors from Episode VII to Episode VIII continues. The visual and narrative callbacks to earlier films are very well done too and at one point there is even a scene that looks as though it was inspired by or directly lifted from an episode of ‘Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs’, anyone who has seen that series will recognize this moment when it unfolds on the screen.

Very little needs to be said about the cast as everyone brings their ‘A’ game. Every major featured character of note gets at least one moment to shine. While the bulk of the movie and the current trilogy so far center around Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who both more than carry their share of scenes they appear in and fair even better in this movie than the last; every other actor like John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Laura Dern, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran and more both returning and new deserve credit for their performances. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher who arguably give their best performance to date as an older and wiser Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa respectively. It makes this all the more saddening that this will be the final time we ever see Carrie Fisher in this role. One almost has to wonder what her role and impact would have been in the next film in the saga two years from now.

Finally, no Star Wars review would be complete without mentioning the beautiful orchestral score from the legendary John Williams. A veteran of of this franchise, scoring every film in the series, as well enhancing plenty of other classic movies throughout the decades with his distinctive scoring, this film would not sound the same without him. The scoring throughout is so good that I’d strongly recommend anyone with an interest in such things to get themselves a copy of the soundtrack to appreciate it in all its glory.

Any Star Wars fan worth his salt, new or old, owes it to themselves to see this movie, but if you are already a Star Wars fan you hardly need me to tell you that. While this is a strong self contained story within the overarching narrative of this trilogy and the series a s whole, anyone jumping on board for the first time with film might feel a little overwhelmed and out of their depth without some prior knowledge of character and events that have come before. Try to go into this movie avoiding spoilers as it will make the experience all the more richer and you don’t want to have to leave the room when others start inevitably talking about all the big developments from this movie. ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ and now ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ have both been a treat and cannot be recommended enough. For anyone too young to have been able to see the original trilogy in cinemas during first and 20th anniversary releases, or the prequel trilogy during its theatrical run, this is the closest feeling to capturing that excitement, particularly now for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Additional Information

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Reviewed on: Cinema 2D Available on: Cinema 2D, Cinema 3D, 4DX, IMAX 3D, Cine Prestige Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi Age Rating: 10-12 PG V Estimated RRP: R50 – R175 Release Date: 15 December 2017[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Likes

The cast and characters, new & old

The story

The score

Dislikes

The development and fate of some characters *currently without knowing what is in store next*

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[thelowercasegimmick]

YA Review, 9/19/16: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Speculative fiction is often divided into two sub-categories: fantasy and science fiction.  Ostensibly, the difference between the two is that fantasy is completely impossible, whereas science fiction is at least a little grounded in reality and what could be possible in the future.  But in terms of what gets categorized as one or the other, that distinction is basically meaningless.  Star Wars, under that definition, would be unambiguously fantastical - the force is nothing but magic, with no reality-based explanation, and it’s set in a fictional galaxy, far in the past.  Yet it’s almost always called science fiction, or at most science fantasy.  The real difference between fantasy and science fiction - the one that publishers and bookstores care about when they decide if a book is one or the other - is aesthetic.  Star Wars may have magic, but it also has spaceships, robots, and gunfights, all of which match the generic conventions of science fiction more than fantasy.

I bring this up because this is a book about dragons, and I read it at the recommendation of a sci-fi blog that called it one of the best science fiction novels of 2012.  Having read it, I might not go quite that far, but I see why they say that.  This book has a lot of strengths, and one of the biggest and most interesting to me is its use of genre in its worldbuilding.

At first glance, this appears to be a traditional fantasy setting.  Fantasy tends to be backward-looking and mythology-oriented, and that’s the case here: this is a book about dragons, with the standard quasi-mideival setting, complete with princesses and knights.  But as Hartman develops the world and the dragons within it, you start to question whether it’s that simple.  I wish I could link you to the review that inspired me to read this book, but unfortunately, it’s from a now-defunct blog.  But anyway, the central insight from Sean Wills, co-author of that review, was that if you replaced the dragons here with aliens, you’d have a fairly standard sci-fi premise.  The dragons are sort of outside invaders to the humans, and the focus of this book is on the culture class between humans and dragons.  Apart from hoarding, the dragons here don’t follow much of the mythology associated with dragons - Hartman downplays the fantastical elements that would make them players in an epic fantasy story.  Instead of being enemies faced in open combat, the humans force the dragons to ‘pass’ as humans, hiding who they really are so that they make the humans more comfortable.  This is something that is sometimes explored in fantasy, but is far more common in sci-fi.  Most non-human fantasy cultures are shown to be ‘barbaric’ somehow (usually racially coded), whereas aliens are shown in this light far more often.

So basically, Hartman takes an allegory familiar to sci-fi (aliens representing a culture different from ‘our’ culture that isn’t devalued by the narrative), and applies it to fantasy.  What results is some of the most original epic fantasy worldbuilding I’ve ever seen.  Admittedly, I’m not a big fan of epic fantasy, mostly because so much of it seems to recycle the same tropes and ideas, with only minor variations.  What Hartman does here feels new, in a way that little else does.

Of course, this wouldn’t mean much without a good protagonist to see the world from.  And Hartman more than provides that, with Phina.  So many authors would write a human protagonist, just by default, but I’m glad Hartman chose to write about a dragon, even though a human protagonist likely would’ve been more relatable.  Hartman pulls you into Phina’s world and conflict effortlessly.  There are some scenes that feel viscerally real, particularly in Phina’s self-hatred and desire to be more human, in her efforts to fit into the human world.  It’s the kind of thing that works better if you experience Phina’s arc with her, but suffice it to say, Hartman takes an allegory that could’ve felt tired or perfunctory, and invigorates it with such a compelling character.  In some ways, the worldbuilding and allegory resembled the Kiesha’Ra series by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, and while Atwater-Rhodes nearly matches Hartman in originality and quality of prose, Atwater-Rhodes’ characters have never come to life in quite the same way.

Speaking of prose, Hartman’s prose is simply beautiful.  Epic fantasy writing can get purple and a little ridiculous to me sometimes, but Hartman’s prose manages to feel elegant without ever falling into that territory.  I guess the prose is the most fantasy-ish thing about the novel, but that’s certainly not a problem - it recalls the best of the genre.  And it fits perfectly with what I think is the crux of this novel - using fantasy language (both in the prose and the ideas) to tell a sci-fi story.

My only real problem with this book was the slow pacing - the plot is potentially exciting, but Hartman often fails to really deliver on any sense of urgency.  I normally like books with a focus on character interactions and exploring cultures, but here, it undermines the tension, rather than adding to it.  And that’s a shame, because the effect is to take away from the allegory - it’s harder to understand the weight of the situations Hartman writes about when the ticking clock feels a bit too slow, the stakes too distant too far into the novel.  With some plot tightening, this could easily be one of the best fantasy books I’ve ever read.

As it stands, though, it’s still damn good.  Hartman is an incredibly talented writer, and she has lots of great ideas to explore.  I look forward to reading the sequel to this book (it came out a while ago, I just haven’t gotten to it yet), and I look forward to whatever Hartman decides to do next.