#especially book-to-screen adaptations

[littlcdarlin]

Pedro saying what he loved about playing General Acacius was “to go and just be blood-soaked and then I see his kind of loyalty and gentleness live next to [his wife]”… he should read Your Fingers In These Wounds and then play my Joel 😔😔😔 I want to speak to him about what he thinks of my characters

[six-improbable-things]

I hate netflix so fucking much. The fact that fucking str*nger th*ngs gets renewed over and over again, even in face of people boycotting it, but shows like Lockwood & Co and Shadow & Bone get axed after one season, despite both being well-received and the latter holding the #1 most-watched spot for WEEKS, if not months after release... It makes me want to start breaking things.

(This is mostly about L&C, but after seeing S&B get canceled, I lost all hope for any netflix show ever reaching completion, given S&B's huge success.)

[stripedtabbycat]

as a Bookish Child i ended up watching a lot of movies that were adapted from books after already reading the books first, so i was used to the idea that movies often changed things from the book. this didn't really bother me as a kid because i understood on some level that these were different versions that were telling different stories, sometimes mostly similar and sometimes just doing their own thing. i didn't question it too much.

then i got older and realized at some point that for a lot of people (and i mean a LOT of people), the movie adaptation of something would be the only version of the story they would ever experience and what they would always think of as that story, and then bad adaptations started to bother me a whole lot more. and i began to become pretentious and annoying about it. this is my villain origin story

[tupperwareyoucanrunover]

No you can’t insult tv adaptations of books they’re my children

[amplexadversary]

I kind of operate on a similar, but not completely overlapping view that, given different media have different strengths and weaknesses, selecting one with such that your project can take the fullest advantage of is a key component of being a skilled artist, when one has control over that kind of thing.

Which, taken to extremes, marks an artistic choice that takes advantage of a unique or mostly-unique feature of the work's medium as a highly desirable one, even if it makes the work hard to adapt, or forces an adaptation to drop the feature of the work that the medium enabled (though, to be honest, I think more of those themselves can be worked around than people tend to strictly assume.)

What's the fancy theory term for the belief that the virtue of a medium is in the things that distinguish it from other media, and the most successful pieces of art qua (film, novels, video games) are specifically those impossible to present in any other way?

Anyway I don't wholly endorse it, but on some instinctive level I do think art created by people who do is more, like, aesthetically virtuous than stuff you can adapt without destroying the whole point of it.

[bweeeb]

SWEETNESS

PEDRO PASCAL × READER

Summary: After an interview, the casua thing between you and Pedro ends up making the public suspect that he is not denying someone who is twenty-three years old.

warnings: nothing major, very cute, age difference but both are adults (obviously), bad writing maybe. Enjoy.

— So, according to the recordings, I think we all saw how close you two have become. How has that been?

You and Pedro smiled at the woman, who seemed to be around 35, interviewing you both.

The curiosity in her eyes was obvious.

— I think it’s been time well spent.

Pedro said, laughing and glancing at you, who was already laughing even before speaking.

— I think our characters demanded a connection of...

— Hatred and anger.

Pedro interrupted you, and you laughed loudly.

— Yes. That’s why I’ve been spending the past few months figuring out which tool is best for channeling hatred towards someone.

— Our makeup team has been covering up all the damage we’ve been doing to each other.

Pedro added, and your extravagant laughter made him laugh as well. You two really were doing some damage to each other, but that was your little secret.

— You can clearly see you can’t stand being around each other.

— No, we can’t.

You said with a smile, waiting for the next questio

— And the movie tackles a delicate theme about relationships and age gaps. What made you both accept such controversial roles? Especially you, Pedro...I’m sure you’ve broken all the minds of 20-something girls with this film.

— He definitely has.

— I don’t know what it is with you all nowadays, thinking an old guy like me is attractive. The conversation shifted back to you and Pedro, and the interviewer smiled with amusement. The chemistry between you two was undeniable, even more than you realized.

— Because you’re a man, you give off the feeling of being a man but don’t have to prove it. You know what I mean? You understand me?

You asked the interviewer, who nodded, agreeing that it was indeed a big difference.

— Of course, I’m a man, but an old one.

— Shut up and answer the question.

You said, laughing, as Pedro gave you a mock-offended look in his usual dramatic way.

— Honestly, I wasn’t going to take the role. When I got the audition, I just said, "Nope." But a lot of people kept telling me I’d be the perfect Nick for the book adaptation, and I hate disappointing my fans.

— So you still wouldn’t date someone in their twenties? Maybe?

— No.

Pedro quickly denied it, and you wanted to roll your eyes but didn’t.

— And you, darling?

Nice deflection, you thought, almost laughing at him.

— Ahm, I gave it a lot of thought, especially about the nude scenes I was informed of before accepting the role. I didn’t want to freak out my family. But once I learned more about the characters, I discovered the adaptation was from a book I love, so I couldn’t say no.

— That’s amazing. I heard you even got a real piercing for one of the scenes in the movie. Are you wearing it now?

The question was directed at you, and you smiled painfully, moving your hair away to reveal the piercings you got during filming.

— I added thirds and a helix. Yep, these guys are fine. — You pointed at the piercings farthest from the cartilage. — But I’ll be honest, this one is hurting a lot right now. I was even going to ask if someone could help me after this because it didn’t hurt this much when I got it done.

You laughed, and both the interviewer and Pedro looked at you with concern. Pedro leaned closer, moving your hair from your neck.

— Oh, crap, darling, it’s swollen. You need to take care of this. — He said in such a calm voice that even if the interview ended right then, the audience would already be glued to the screen. — Do you want to stop?

— I’m fine, thank you.

Without even realizing it, you brushed your thumb against Pedro’s wrist, where his hand rested on your neck to examine you.

Later, the interview was posted, and you almost laughed at how fast the channel edited it. Your ear was still throbbing like it was being pierced again, and lying on the couch, you felt like crying—not because it hurt that much, but because you hated the feeling of discomfort in your body.

— Darling?

You heard Pedro call you and looked over the back of the couch to see him smiling at you.

— Now I’ve finally wrapped everything up. No calls. Ugh. — He flopped onto the couch, and noticing your silence, he looked at you oddly. — What’s wrong?

— Nothing.

You denied it, not wanting to worry him.

— Look at me and say that.

He raised an eyebrow and laughed, sitting cross-legged on the couch.

— Nothing.

— Come on, baby, your ear is hurting, isn’t it?

You murmured your agreement. He then places a hand on your neck and places a kiss on your lips, you move closer, deepening the kiss until he pulls you into his chest, on the side that didn’t hurt.

— I’m sorry about this.

— It’s not your fault.

— No, but you seem exhausted by the pain, and I’m sorry for that.

— Thank you. Have you seen what everyone’s saying?

— I haven’t.

— You’re a terrible liar. They’re calling you a liar. You laughed, feeling comforted in his embrace.

— Me? A liar? Yo nunca mentiría.

— You’re a liar and ridiculously hot when you speak Spanish. “Oh, I’d never date anyone in their twenties,” and two seconds later, “And you, darling?”

— What’s wrong with that?

— Friends don’t call friends “darling.” Like, we’re friends who hook up, but you get my point.

You thought for a second and worried you’d sounded over the top in the classification you seemed to be giving you two.

— You’ve been the most argumentative exception I’ve ever made.

He said, and you nodded in agreement.

— I hope I am. I’d hate to find out another young woman took my spot as a legend.

— Legend for what?

— For being the youngest person in the world to hook up with the ridiculously hot Pedro Pascal. You said, and he laughed loudly. You didn’t know how far this would go, but you intended to enjoy the sweetness of that man for as long as it lasted

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷

I hope everybody enjoy this.

Requests are opened!

[wosospacegirl]

And they were roommates - part 9

Summary: Y/n gets injured and has to stay in recovery for 8 months. It's a good thing her friend and teammate Kyra is more than willing to move in with her. wink wink

Warnings: Y/n is suffering from a very serious disease called jealousy <3 also.... omg are Alessia and Leah on a date!!???

Word count: 6.5k

MASTERLIST

notes: sorry it's a bit big

You can read Part 1 here and Part 10 here

..

Going on a few days without Kyra and Y/n had to admit. It was harder than she expected, but not only routine-wise. Sure, she had to adapt her ordinary day-to-day life now that Kyra was playing in the USA for the SheBelieves Cup.

Y/n had frozen meals in the freezer; and had turned her living room into a bedroom because she couldn’t go upstairs without assistance; she was only using the downstairs bathroom for the same reason, and her new driver to physion was Beth Mead.

It was hard to acclimate to all those changes, but it was manageable. But what wasn’t manageable? Missing Kyra.

Y/n didn’t wake up with kisses on her face, except for Footy, who licked her face in the morning because he wanted his wet food for breakfast. Kyra wasn’t there to massage her hands or paint her nails.

Kyra would always wake Y/n up in the morning to tell her about a crazy dream she had, Y/n would always get angry at her. She was sleeping! Why wake her up?...but now she missed it.

Kyra always lost the TV remote somewhere and they had to spend 20 minutes of their day looking for it, even though Kyra would –pinky finger– swear that she wasn’t the last one to see it. Now it was just boring to find the remote where Y/n actually had last placed it.

Y/n absolutely hated to share her stuff–Kyra wasn’t allowed to use her makeup, her hair care products, or her clothes. But now, Y/n would give them all away just to have Kyra back home.

Y/n wasn’t lonely. She had the company of her elderly neighbour, Mrs Petunia, Lotte and Beth also dropped by her house every evening for some girl dinner; Y/n texted Leah almost every day and video-chatted Kyra every single day.

But it still wasn’t enough.

It was weird to admit that Y/n just missed having people around–all of her people, especially Kyra.

Y/n thought the hardest thing about the international break was seeing every one of her teammates and other footballers playing while she had to watch on the sideline. But no, the hardest thing was watching her friend and Kyra making new memories while she was just sitting on her sofa eating chips.

She felt like the odd one out, and she couldn't even blame anyone. It was like watching a life Y/n wasn’t part of.

Y/n was reading a book about chess–that’s how bored she was –when she got a notification on her phone. Kyra was facetiming her. When Y/n picked up, Kyra’s face popped up on the screen, bright and smiling.

“Hi, baby,” Kyra said happily, a fork in her mouth as she was eating what looked like a fruit salad.

“Oh my god, are you eating fruits?” Y/n deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

Kyra rolled her eyes dramatically. “Shut up. What can I say, you’re rubbing off on me or something.”

Y/n had to bite back the thoughts running wild in her mind. Rubbing off on me, huh? But she bit her tongue.

“But how was your night? Did you sleep well”? Kyra continued, almost innocent compared to Y/n’s mind.

It seemed like Kyra was in the restaurant of the hotel, there were a lot of people walking behind her with plates in their hands. All of those people were wearing jerseys with their country’s flag on their left chest, Y/n saw the USA flag, Japan, Colombia and of course, Australia.

They were having breakfast while Y/n found herself stuck in that awkward limbo between afternoon and evening — a side effect of the frustrating time zone difference.

When Y/n was getting ready to reply, Kyra turned around from the camera and waved at whoever was on her right, a smile on her face as she talked to the person off-camera.

“Yeah, Yeah,” Kyra said. “I’ll be there as soon as I finish my breakfast,” Kyra said.

Y/n waited until Kyra was done, but it looked like the person had a whole lot to talk to her.

“No, I didn’t yet,” Kyra said more seriously, now turning her whole body away from her cell phone, so Y/n was only seeing her back. “But I think Alanna did, you could ask her.”

Y/n rolled her eyes but kept her patience.

“Sorry,” Kyra said, guilt on her face. “I'm a bit busy this morning with the match coming and all that.”

“It’s okay,” Y/n said, smiling. “Match days are the worst. Everybody gets stressed out.”

Maybe Y/n was feeling a little neglected, but she knew how intense any pre-match routine could get, especially an international one. “We can talk later if you want?” Y/n suggested..

“Nah, it’s okay, we can talk now,” Kyra said smiling. “I have gym later and then the game, it’s better if we talk now–but tell me, how was your night?” She picked up a banana and put it in her mouth.

“I’ve slept ok-ish” Y/n said, balancing the phone in one of her tights. 

“Just okay?” Kyra frowned. “What happened? Is the cast still bothering you? Did you try raising it on a pillow like we did last time?”

Y/n shifted, suddenly wishing she hadn’t brought it up. She wasn’t going to say she couldn't sleep well because she got used to how Kyra would always softly scratch her back to lull her to sleep.

So, she lied.

“Oh yeah, this thing is my personal enemy, “Y/n said, faking a laugh. “I tried everything, but it didn’t work”.

Kyra's face softened, in the way she always did when she was worried. “I’m sorry, love–I wish I was there to help.”

“Don’t worry about it, Ky,” Y/n said, shrugging it off.  “But tell me about today’s game! How are you feeling?”

Australia would play against Colombia in the first game of the Shebelieves Cup. There haven't been any matches until now because all the teams were focusing on training and just getting used to each other's play style and getting back to their rhythm.

“Oh…I’m a little nervous,” Kyra admitted, taking a mouthful of her fruit salad, this time Y/n saw blueberries on her fork.

Y/n arched an eyebrow, silently challenging Kyra to be honest.

“–Okay, actually I’m very nervous,” she sighed, her tone betraying her fear. “I almost threw up when I woke up and realised the game was today.”

“Don’t be,” Y/n said softly. “It’s just like any other game, yeah? You’re one of the best midfielders in the world right now, Ky. You’ve been training a lot here at Arsenal and Houston.

Kyra’s face scrunched slightly, a little embarrassed–like she always did when Y/n said something nice to her. Kyra didn’t know how to take a compliment and Y/n thought it was cute.

“You’re turning into a cheesy person,” Kyra said, half-smile on her face. “What’s coming next? Serenades?

Y/n chuckled. “If you get lucky, I’ll write you an inspirational poem next.

Kyra laughed. Y/n missed her laugh…a lot.

Before Y/n could say anything, Kyra suddenly turned away from the camera and waved–again– to someone off-screen.

Y/n waited…and waited. Kyra kept talking to the mystery person, her voice was quieter and Y/n couldn't really listen to her or what she was saying.

Y/n was about to ask what was going on when Kyra’s screen was filled with blonde hair. Y/n narrowed her eyes, trying to understand what was happening and whose hair that was.

In a few seconds, the screen was clear of the hair and Kyra appeared in the frame again, but this time she wasn’t alone anymore, she had another girl by her side. 

Charli. She had golden, straight hair and was wearing a Matildas jersey. 

She was sitting on the chair next to Kyra, shoulder to shoulder. , a big smile on her face.

Charli was an Australian player, and she also played for Tottenham–a big rival of Arsenal. Y/n had, of course, played against her sometimes.

She knew Charli and Kyra were friends, but since Kyra moved in she didn’t mention her a lot, so she thought they were just the kind of friends you weren’t really the type to go out with much or spend a lot of time together..

But, weirdly, Charli was wrapping her arm around Kyras’s shoulder like they were pretty much intimate. 

Kyra and Charli began engaging in a conversation that Y/n couldn’t understand. And just like that, it was like  Y/n wasn’t even there on the screen. 

Y/n wanted to just end the call and be petty about the whole situation, but she decided to try and be a better person.

She breathed in and out.

“Hm… hi?” Y/n said flatly.

“Oh baby,” Kyra said, almost panicking as if she had really forgotten Y/n was there. “Sorry, um, this is Charli–my friend. I told you about her before, and of course, we’ve played against her in some matches.”

Kyra turned her phone to her right, so the screen was focusing on Charli. The blonde girl was waving at her, still casually slung around Kyra’s shoulder.

Y/n didn't want the camera on Charli, she wanted to see Kyra and only Kyra. And if it wasn't too much to ask, she wanted Charli a few meters away from Kyra.

“Hi Y/n!” Charli said. “I know we’ve played against each other multiple times, but it's nice to meet you outside of football.

“Well, technically,” Y/n said, sharper than she intended. “We’re talking while you’re getting ready for a game, so I wouldn’t say it's outside of football,”

Charli's smile faltered slightly. 

Y/n sounded more harsh than she meant to. But it was done now.

“Hmm, yeah,” She said awkwardly. “Yeah, no, you are right–”

The camera wasn’t on Kyra, but she knew the girl had her mouth open at Y/n’s harshness like she always did when Y/n said something out of the pocket in any social situation.

“I’m sorry,” Charli said. “It must be hard for you, losing international break because of your injury and just having to watch everyone else pla–”

“Charli! Don’t say that” Y/n heard Kyra whisper, but well, she wasn’t really whispering, so Y/n heard it loud and clear.

“Say what?” Charli asked, turning her gaze from Y/n to Kyra. “Wasn’t she the one who broke her tibia?”

Y/n just watched, a little amused at the whole situation, although she still felt rather uncomfortable.

Y/n could picture Kyra facepalming herself.

“Yeah, but you don’t need to say it,” Kyra muttered.

“Why?” Charli said innocently. “She is injured I’m not–”

Y/n watched as the camera shook violently as if Kyra had stood up fast.

“Hi baby, sorry about that,” Kyra said, smiling nervously while clearly walking with the phone in her hand. 

‘Oh no, it’s totally cool to be the third wheel on Facetime,’ Y/n said dryly. She meant it to sound playful, but bitterness crept into her voice.

Kyra’s voice dropped to that soft, sweet tone Y/n knew too well — the one she always used when she knew Y/n was upset. 

“Baby,” Kyra said gently, “Don’t be like that…”

And just like that, Y/n’s walls began to crack. Kyra’s soft tone always made Y/n come completely undone. She felt like she could talk to Kyra about anything inside her mind, anything that was bothering her. 

For a split second Y/n wanted to push,  to talk about the whole Charli situation. She wanted to tell Kyra how much it sucked seeing her so close to somebody while Y/n missed her like crazy. 

Y/n was well aware the reason she was bothered had more to do with herself and how she was missing Kyra than with Charli per se.

Also, Kyra had a big game coming up in a few hours. She didn’t need Y/n annoying her jealousy right now.

So she just let it go.

“I’m fine,” Y/n said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I just didn’t expect to have company during our call, that’s all.”

Kyra sighed, clearly not looking convinced. “I know it’s hard. I miss you too,” she said softly. “I wish I could be there.”

Y/n shifted her phone to her other hand, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Yeah,” she mumbled. “Me too.”

“Hey,” Kyra said more firmly now. “When I get back, we’re watching the new Marvel film.

“Oh come on,”  Y/n scoffed “You’re the only one that still likes Marvel,”

Kyra made her watch every single Marvel film there was. Y/n, trying to be good, did so without complaining, but  Kyra had promised that she wouldn’t make her watch any new ones, just the old “classics.

“Exactly,” Kyra said with a grin. I’m forcing you to watch it with me because you owe me for being mean to Charli.”

“I wasn’t mean,” Y/n protested, frowning on her face.

“You were a little mean,” Kyra teased, her smile wide enough that Y/n couldn’t stay annoyed.

“I’ll apologize,” Y/n muttered. “Someday.”

“Someday?” Kyra said. “I’ll text Charli right now and tell her you’re planning a public apology speech, white shirt on and all that.”

“Oh my god, stop,” Y/n rolled her eyes playfully.

Kyra was so dramatic, it always made her laugh.

“I have to go now,” Kyra said sadly. “I have a gym session and then our last training before the match.”

“Oh yeah,” Y/n said. “Okay, go kick ass out there.,”

“I’ll do my best?” Y/n was ready to end the call, but Kyra spoke. “I’ll call you again after the game, okay? Just me and you.” 

Y/n smiled, genuinely smiled. Just her and Kyra.

“Yeah, ok! I'll wait for your call after the game.”

Y/n ended the call and sunk back into the couch, her body aching in ways she couldn’t quite explain.

She might’ve been hurt, stuck in this stupid cast with nothing to do, but knowing that Kyra would come back soon, made everything feel a little easier.

And for now, that was enough.

..

Hours later, Y/n was still on the sofa, her only company was Footy, but even he wasn’t giving her attention to focus on the yellow butterfly that rested on the window’s glass.

Y/n had no plans for the day. Mrs Petunia was out of town for the day with some of her friends from bingo, and Beth and Lotte would come later in the evening. 

She had read every book in the house, and even though she had been dying to watch the new season of her favourite series she could’t because Kyra made her promise Y/n would wait and watch it with her.

Bored out of her mind, Y/n decided to open Instagram and scroll endlessly through her friends' stories. Each tap felt like wasted time…but again, she didn’t have much to do and it kept her distracted for a little while, at least.

Y/n found out Beth was on a walk with her dogs in some sunny park; Lotte was in a café with her partner. Caitlin was in the gym alongside Steph, and Katie McCabe was getting ready for a game.

The next story that popped up on her screen was one posted by Alessia. The girl had shared a picture of a table — a table for two — with wine on the side and every little detail that indicated it was a date.

There was someone there with Alessia, but Y/n could only see parts of the person's hands. She tilted her head, squinting at the screen. The rings on those fingers... they looked familiar…too familiar.

Y/n furrowed her brows, her mind racing. She knew she'd seen those rings before — the delicate silver band stacked just above a thicker one, the way they seemed to sit perfectly snug together. Then it hit her — she'd seen Leah absentmindedly spinning those rings around her fingers during a team meeting.

"This can’t be right," Y/n muttered to herself, suddenly feeling far more invested in Alessia’s love life–or possible love life–than she should be.

Everybody in her life was doing something while she was stuck inside her house with no form of entertainment — unless you counted piecing together a potential secret relationship as entertainment.

She was going to corner Leah about it when they came back from the Lionesses, she had to do it person to person or else Leah wouldn’t say anything… and she couldn’t talk to Alessia about it because the poor girl would combust and start stammering.

The thought made her smile faintly, but her mind drifted to Kyra and it reminded Y/nt of the situation she was in–all alone in a big house. If Kyra were here, she would’ve found a way to cheer Y/n up — suggesting some random date idea like pottery or something just as chaotic but sweet.

Talking about Kyra, her story shined on Y/n’s scream. Y/n clicked on her face and was quickly met with a picture of her and Charli, they were stretching on the floor of a gym while Charli held her phone, taking a mirror photo.

Kyra looked good, very good. 

She was wearing different clothes from hours earlier, her yellow shorts leaving a lot of skin showing. Her hair was also in a ponytail, leaving Y/n daydreaming about the day Kyra would be back and she would kiss it all over.

Y/n clicked the screen and went to the next stories. Kyra and Charli, again.

Now they were sitting on a bench in the changing room, Charli wrapping her arms around Kyra’s waist as they smiled at the picture.

Y/n felt her stomach boiling with…jealousy. It felt like a tight knot, unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

Y/n wasn’t the jealous type, or at least, she never thought she was. She had always been laid-back, trusting that the people who mattered would stick around and show it. And if they didn’t? Fine. She’d move on, no hard feelings. But with Kyra… with Kyra, it was different.

But when it came to Kyra, Y/n couldn’t shake it. She hated that Kyra was so close to Charli. Why did Charli get to be the one getting hugs, the one posing for pictures with her? Why wasn’t it her?

All of those reasons were very clear in Y/n’s mind. 

She knew that Charli and Kyra were friends and had grown up together inside the Matildas, she also knew the only reason she or Kyra didn’t post pictures together was because they didn’t want the media to know about them yet.

But still. Even if she tried to rationalize all her feelings, they still stung. The jealousy was still there, and it was uncomfortable.

Y/n wasn’t used to feeling jealous. She was confident, unbothered. She didn’t know what to do with it, or how to fix it. The only thing that would make Y/n feel better was to have Kyra just for her for the time being–yeah she did have Kyra just for her in the last 3 months, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Y/n fought the urge to comment, to send something sarcastic or an angry emoji. That wasn’t the reaction she wanted, not from Kyra. She didn’t want to seem petty.

But the universe, or whatever form that controlled it, had other thoughts in mind because when Y/n skipped to the next story she was met with Leah and Keira laughing.

Great. Just great.

Y/n felt a twinge of jealousy again, but she wasn’t about to let Kyra see it. That would make her look ridiculous—like a possessive freak. But Leah? Leah could handle it.

Y/n stared at the picture of Leah and Keira together. A scowl tugged at her lips before she tapped out, “Ugly,” in Leah’s DMs. 

To her surprise, Leah replied almost instantly.

Y/n: Ugly

Leah: Block.

Y/n: Please do, I don’t want to see your face…or Keira’s

Leah: Bro you can’t still be jealous of Keira. It’s been years.

Y/n didn’t reply immediately.

Y/n: You’re literally smiling at the picture, tough. You never smile at our pictures.

Leah: You never smile either.

Y/n: 🙄

Leah: What’s going on? You’re being dramatic. That’s not like you.

Y/n: nothing. Don’t wanna talk about it

Leah: right…cranky.

Y/n: I gotta go, I have some stuff to do.

Leah: Yeah? Like taking a nap?

Y/n: i hate you.

Leah: I hate you too. Bye. I’ll tell Keira you sent her a kiss.

Y/n: Don’t lie.

Y/n growled under her breath and tossed her phone on the coffee table with a dramatic clunk.

“Great,” Y/n muttered, dragging her blanket up to her chin. “Guess I’ll just stay here..while everyone’s out having fun with their best friends.”

Footy meowed lazily from his spot on her lap, stretching one paw over her stomach like he was claiming her as his own. It seemed like he had forgotten the butterfly.

“At least you still love me,” Y/n grumbled, scratching behind his ears. “Not like some people that are off and about making new best friends like it’s a race.”

Footy blinked at her, utterly unimpressed.

“Exactly,” Y/n sighed. “It’s betrayal, plain and simple.”

Her phone buzzed again. Y/n reached for her phone and Footy jumped on the floor, not enjoying the sudden movement.

Leah: Keira’s not in my Spotify family plan like you are. Just saying.

Y/n grinned to herself, flopping back onto the couch. Footy, clearly over the dramatics, climbed back onto her stomach like nothing had happened.

“See?” Y/n murmured, giving him a smug scratch behind the ears. “Still got it.”

..

“You’re pouting,” Lotte pointed out. Raising an eyebrow at Y/n.

“I’m not,” Y/n grumbled, crossing her arms and sinking deeper into the sofa.

“Yes you are,” Beth chimed in, clearly enjoying herself. “It’s just a hug. We hug each other all the time and it doesn't mean a thing.”

Beth and Lotte had come by Y/n’s house to watch the Australian game for the Shebelieves Cup with her. They were having a good time–chips on the table, soda cans and sweets were on the coffee table–until Kyra scored,

“Yay!” Y/n said, happily, but her mood soured when Charli sprinted herself towards Kyra, launching herself into her arms. Kyra caught her mid-air, a grin on her face. No yay.

The game ended like that. Kyra had scored the only goal of the match in the 86th minute–Y/n was extremely proud and happy for Kyra– but also irritated.

Y/n was well aware that it was a normal type of celebration, it was totally platonic. 

She had done similar celebrations with plenty of her teammates. However, watching Charli do it with Kyra? Nope, it didn’t sound platonic at all.

“I know it doesn't mean anything,” Y/n said, trying her best to sound casual “I’m not bothered by that.” 

Y/She  reached over the coffee table and took some chips, bringing them into her mouth, chewing them as if they’d solace all her problems–and also–she’d hoped having a mouth full would signal Beth that Y/n didn’t wanna talk about it.

But it was Beth, and she wasn’t known for picking hints.

“Boiling it up won’t help!” Beth sang dramatically, clearly enjoying herself. “But whatever you want, we can keep on eating chips and pretend you’re not mad.” 

“I wanna eat chips and pretend I’m not mad,” Y/n deadpanned, rolling her eyes.  Then, with a sigh, she added more gently, “Hey, Lotte, can you grab my phone for me, please?”

She pointed at her phone charging beside the loveseat where Lotte was sitting. 

“Yeah, of course,” Lotte replied, handing it over.

“Thanks, baby” Y/n said, her voice quieter. “Kyra said she’d call after the game.” She paused, fiddling with her phone like she wasn’t sure why she’d brought it up at all.

“Maybe you should talk to her about it when she calls,” Lotted suggested, sipping on some tea she had made herself, a thoughtful look on her face,

“Talk to her about what?” Y/n asked, pretending to be confused.

“Oh please,”  Beth cut in impatiently “About the whole ‘I’m jealous of your best friend’ thing?”

“I’m not talking to Kyra about it!” Y/n scoffed, unlocking her phone. “She’ll think I’m possessive,” 

“You are a bit possessive,” Lotte said matter-of-factly. “Not in a bad way! It’s just…part of your personality.”

“What? No, I’m not!” Y/n argued, her voice rising slightly.

“Yeah,” Beth nodded, grinning “You don’t like to share your stuff during training.”

“That’s because we should all carry our personal items in our training bag!” Y/n snapped. “I’m not giving you my socks!”

“You also don’t share food,” Lotte pointed out, her tone light.

"That’s called having boundaries!” Y/n shot back. “I'm not a buffet."

“You’re also very jealous of Leah and Keira,” Beth said casually, leaning back with a smirk.

“Because Leah’s my friend!” Y/n exclaimed defensively. “For years!”

“Baby get over it! Keira and Leah’s been best friends since they were fourteen.”  Beth teased, dramatically throwing her hands up.

“Well, they should’ve broken up by now. No friendship lasts that long,” Y/n muttered under her breath, mostly to herself.

“You know that’s not how friendships work, right?” Lotte laughed.

“All we’re saying is,” Lotte continued softly. “You’re a bit…jealous. It’s who you are, you can’t do much about it besides talking to Kyra and explaining how you feel.”

Y/n let out a long sigh, rolling her eyes like she was done with the conversation. She heard Lotte and Beth exchange a quiet sigh too. Good. They got the hint.

What better way to ignore a problem than some endless Instagram scrolling?

“What if we order pizza?” Beth suggested, ending the silence that hung between them.

“Yes! pepperoni pizza!” Lotte said happily. “What do you want, Y/n?”

“Pepperoni is fine, Lottie,” Y/n replied absently, distracted by her phone. “Thanks.”

Y/n saw Kyra’s profile picture pop up with a new story. 

When she clicked on it, her heart sank. The story was a photo of Kyra’s arm slung lazily over Charli’s shoulder, a grin on both their faces. 

‘Best assistant ever ❤️’ written right in the centre of the picture.

“Yeah. Great assist.” Y/n scoffed bitterly, locking her phone and tossing it on the couch.

“What?” Beth questioned, looking up at Y/n. “What happened?”

“Kyra and Charli,” Y/n mumbled., not even wanting to look at Beth and Lotte. “It's on her Instagram.” 

Both Beth and Lotte checked their phone and exchanged a look before giving Y/n pitying glances.

“Best assistant ever,” Y/n repeated under her breath.

The worst part? The last time she played, she’d assisted Kyra too–a perfect cross to Kyra’s feet, setting her up for the winning goal. 

Y/n remembered the way Kyra had sprinted straight to her afterwards. ‘You’re actually the best!’ she had said while grinning and cupping Y/n’s cheeks, their teammate around them, cheering Kyra on.

That memory felt distant now–buried under the sharp crack of her tibia snapping just ten minutes later. 

Now Kyra had a new best assistant.

Lotte and Beth sat closer, one on either side of Y/n. Lotte shifted closer, quietly wrapping her arm around Y/n’s shoulders and pulling her into a gentle hug.

Y/n usually hated physical contact — too awkward, too much — but she let Lotte hold her. It felt... steadying. Safe.

Beth settled on her other side, placing a firm, grounding hand over Y/n’s tightly clenched fist.

“Guess that didn’t help about how you were feeling, huh?” Beth said an empathetic smile on her face.

Y/n just shook her head.

“It’s okay to feel jealous, you know,” Beth continued. “It doesn't mean you’re possessive, I mean– I’d lose my mind if Viv posted a picture with someone hugging her like that.”

“I don’t know,” Y/n said, shaking her head. “It’s just… everything feels off. Like, Kyra’s gone, and I’m stuck here, and… I don’t know.” She paused, fingers anxiously picking at a loose thread on her hoodie. “I guess I’m scared she’s gonna realize I’m just... not enough.”

Lotte gave her a gentle nudge. “Hey, it’s okay to feel like this, and it’s nice that you’re talking about it.

“No, it’s not..” Y/n muttered under her breath.”It’s stupid to feel like this. I know they’re just friends. It’s just Charli. But…” She trailed off, her thumb swiping over the screen again. “I hate how it feels.”

“–I think I’m also scared that Kyra will, um, realize she can do better than me,” Y/n confessed, her voice low. “Because I’m cranky and grumpy all the time and she’s just the nicest and kindest person I have ever met.

"Look, if Kyra wanted ‘nice and kind’ she wouldn’t have picked you in the first place," Beth said with a smirk.

“Wow, thanks” Y/n murmured, rolling her eyes.

“I mean it lovingly,” Beth said. “But, seriously, this is the most I’ve heard you talk about in months. Please, continue.”

Y/n groaned, feeling both embarrassed and relieved 

“You guys are right, I am possessive– over my stuff, with my friends and Kyra. But I don't like it, this feeling makes me feel like crap and I–I just hate it.”

“Kyra told me she was going to call me after the game but it’s been–” Y/n looked at her watch. “Almost 40 minutes. Nothing. But she still had time to post a picture with Charli.”

“She’s probably out commemorating the team,” Lotte said gently. “When we win a gem with Arsenla we always go out to do something fun…she’ll call you when she gets back at the hotel.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right–I just missed her,” Y/n admitted, her voice quieter now. “I got used to having her around all by myself and now she’s gone and…I don’t like having her attention split–”

“–I know I sound like a little kid, but I really don’t like sharing. And I really don’t like sharing Kyra.” 

"Yeah, we noticed, baby,” Beth said, teasing, but also comforting.

“That’s normal though... you’re allowed to miss her,” Lotte said shooting.

“And I don’t know what to do about it.” she continued, frustration creeping into her voice. “Maybe I’ll have to talk to Kyra about that or maybe I should just suck it up and learn that Kyra is her own person with her own life and I’m gonna be on the sidelines sometimes and that’s okay.”

"You know, you don’t have to figure it all out right now..." Lotted said, “It’s something you’re learning about yourself.”

“Also doesn't mean love,” Lotted murmured, her voice soft.

“Huh?” Y/n blinked, confused. 

“She means,” Beth chimed in, “just because someone can’t give you all their attention doesn’t mean they love you any less.”

“Or that if they’re giving someone else attention, they love that person more,” Lotte added. “I think you’re just... mixing up love and attention. And that’s probably where the jealousy’s coming from.”

“Especially now that everyone you care about is away, and you don’t have much to keep yourself busy,” Beth pointed out.

Y/n was quiet, trying to understand what Lotte and Beth were saying. Wow, maybe they were right and–

“Wait.” Y/n’s head shot up from Lotte’s shoulder. “Did you guys just get me ranting about everything?”

Beth shrugged casually. “Yeah, but you feel better, don’t you?”

“Hm, yeah, I do,” Y/n said suspiciously. “Kinda…”

“Great,” Beth said, holding out her hand “Now pass me the chips before you start crying on them.”

“Why are you like that?” Y/n grumbled, shoving the bag into her hand.

..

Y/n was lying down on the sofa–on her made-up bed– with Footy sleeping by her feet. Kyra had sent her a message minutes earlier that she was going to Videochat Y/n as soon as she got back to the hotel room.

Just like that, Y/n got a Facetime notification. She accepted and Kyra's face appeared on the screen, but by the looks of her background, it looked like Kyra was hiding in the bathroom from Steph and Caitlin again.

“Hi love,” Kyra said, waving. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier, we just got back from the bar we went to celebrate.”

She was still wearing her jersey, so she really had just got back from the celebration, her tired face also giving it away.

“It’s okay, Ky,” Y/n said softly, even though she did get upset by it earlier. “It was a great game, you guys deserve to celebrate.”

“Also,” Y/n continued smiling. “I’m so so proud of you, you were amazing, one of your best games yet.”

“Yeah?” Kyra asked, slightly blushing on her cheeks. “Did you watch like..the whole game?”

“Of course! Me, Beth and Lotted did, we did this to get together,” Y/n said. “I told you I’d be your hype girl, didn’t I? Just doing my job.”

Kyra smiled. “I’m so glad it was good, the whole team was in great sync, but the defence wasn’t one of our best, but we’re getting there.”

“It was just the first game,” Y/n said. “You guys gonna get even better by the next one, just keep on training like you’re doing.”

They continued to talk about their game and its technicalities until Kyra completely changed the subjects.

“Baby,” Kyra said, almost carefully. “Is there like…something you wanna talk to me about?”

Y/n froze, feeling her cheeks getting hot. Did Kyra know about the whole jealous thing? It was obvious she was upset in the morning when Charli messed up their conversation, but she hadn’t let out how she felt after Charli hugged her.

“Hm, why?” Y/n asked, fidgeting with her phone. 

“It’s just…” Kyra began. “Leah sent me a weird message.”

Y/n furrowed her eyebrow and moved closer to the camera.

“Weird like what?” she asked suspiciously.

“She said, quote on quote, ‘Y/n is being clingy and showing emotions, what the fuck did you do?” Kyra said, her face startled, as if Leah’s message had caught her off guard.

“Oh, I-I don’t know what she's talking about?” Y/n lied.

“And then Beth just sent me a picture of you, like,  no text, just a picture.”

What the fuck Bethany.

“What picture?” Y/n asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

“You’re like sitting on the sofa, you have a pout on and look really angry,” Kyra explained. “You rarely pout so I was really worried.”

“Hmm, well–” Y/n hesitated for a moment, then went quiet, unsure whether to tell Kyra what had been going on in her head.

“It’s okay, you can tell me. " Kyra said gently. “I’m not there with you, but I still wanna know if you’re upset.”

Y/n bit her lip, unsure whether to voice what had been eating at her all day. It wasn’t like she liked feeling jealous, but the emotions had hit her all at once, and now they were bubbling up, and there was no stopping them.

She trusted Kyra–she was one of the most important people in Y/n’s life, and had been for the last month. She could talk to her about how she felt…she just needed to be brave.

“I was jealous of you and Charli,” Y/n blurted out before she could change her mind.

Kyra lifted her eyebrows as if she was really surprised by the revelation.

“You’re jealous? Of Charli?” Kyra said. “Why? Did I do something?”

“No, no!” Y/n said quickly. “You didn’t do anything, I'm just…” She swallowed, her voice dropping to a mumble. “...possessive.”

“I was a bit, hm, upset, by the way she hugged you after your goal,” Y/n admitted, hating to open up. “And then you wrote the ‘best assistance ever’ and I got jealous because…hm, I also assisted you a lot, and I wanted to be your best assistance. Not Charli.”

For a second, Y/n braced herself for Kyra to respond seriously — maybe even get annoyed. But instead, Kyra chuckled softly.

“Baby, my love,” Kyra said, her voice warm. “You don’t even need to be jealous of anyone, especially Charli… I’m like, so down bad for you, it’s pathetic.

Y/n smiled, shyly. “I'm also down bad for you.”

“I know,” Kyra teased with a wink. “Got you talking about feelings and all that.”

“Shut up,” Y/n murmured.

“Now tell me,” Kyra grinned. “What the bloody hell were you talking about with Leha that got her worried?”

“Nothing,” Y/n said with a dismissive wave. “She was just being all friendly with Keira again…”

If it was safe to say Y/n jealousy of Keira was a very common topic of conversation between the Arsenal girls.

Y/n grumbled something unintelligible, earning another giggle from Kyra.

“But I gotta admit,” Kyra said. “You’re kinda cute when you're jealous.”

“No I'm not,” Y/n grumbled again.

“Yes you are,” Kyra insisted. “I even made that picture Beth sent into my wallpaper.”

“Kyra, please,” Y/n said deadpan. “Take it off. Put a picture of footy instead.”

“Nah, you’re cuter.”

Y/n groaned, tugging the blanket over her head.

“Hey, come on!” Kyra called out. “Don’t hide from me, you grump!”

Y/n peeked out, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not a grump.”

“You are,” Kyra laughed. “But you’re my grump.”

There was a pause — a warm, comfortable silence that neither of them felt the need to fill. Kyra’s face softened, her voice quieter when she spoke again.

“I miss you, you know?” Kyra murmured. “It’s weird not having you around to be obsessed over what I eat…Steph and Caitlin don’t let me pick any films during team movie night.”

Y/n’s chest tightened at that. “I miss you too,” she admitted. “It’s too quiet here without you… and Footy keeps sighing like he's disappointed in me. Guess I’m not the favourite mom”

“Poor boy,” Kyra teased. “He’s probably wondering why you’re so bad at cuddling.”

“Rude,” Y/n said, but she smiled. “I’m great at cuddling…but only within my own species.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Kyra promised. “And when I get back, I’m dragging you out of the house– I feel like you’re a part of this sofa already.

“You’re the worst,” Y/n muttered, her voice soft. 

“You love me, thought ” Kyra shot back.

“Yes I do,” Y/n said quietly, smiling despite herself. “Kinda love you a lot.”

..

Part 10 here

Notes: Please like, share and let me know what you think! Feedback is important and makes me want to write even more. :D

Notes//2: literally just wanted to write 3 little scenes: Y/n jealous of Charli, Y/n jealous of Keira and Y/n slowly realising something is going on between Alessia and Leah, but then it turned into a 6.5k monsters

Read more of my work here -> Masterlist

[princeanon]

To anyone who’s finding it really hard to read the Fantasy High webtoon without being upset about the changes made, here’s a headcanon that has helped me accept the changes and I think could really help a lot of you:

(Keep in mind I’ve only read the first three chapters)

In the canon universe, the webtoon is a comic series that the Bad Kids decide to make sometime post-canon to recount their adventures in a fun and somewhat fictionalized way. (Think of it like mythology, changing their stories to become more linear and easier to tell across generations.)

This would explain a lot of the changes made that I’ve seen upsetting people:

D&D (and real life) is great because even though plot is important, it’s just enough to leave a lot of room for a bunch of different main characters to share the spotlight. Comics aren’t (especially webtoon comics that you only read a bit at a time), so even though all of the characters can have their moments, there has to be one character that is focused on more to really drive the plot.

The Bad Kids recognize this, and since they refuse to use a different medium (a movie is a lot of work for six kids; they already have a podcast; longer, non-illustrated books would be bad for Ragh and frankly, not nearly as cool), they all eventually come to a consensus that at least for freshman year, their little angel and licensed PI Riz Gukgak should be the lead, since he can justifiably drive the plot. In real life, it doesn’t make sense to have one lead since none of them knew about the big scheme to begin with, but in retrospect it works.

Of course, Fabian’s not gonna be as charming to start out because he recognizes that he was kind of a jerk for a bit before joining the squad and especially before single-handedly killing toxic masculinity.

Of course, Fig is gonna be the last Bad Kids introduced because that’s how she’d want it to go. It’s so much more badass to be mysterious for a few chapters and then show up in a blaze of glory!!

Of course, Riz is gonna look ever so slightly cooler than he actually was as a freshman, because that’s how he viewed himself and the others don’t have the heart to tell him “no you were actually really awkward and un-cool and you have to look that way for the comic”

Of course, Adaine isn’t going to emphasize her argument with her parents from the first day of school, because why would she? Her parents suck, and the less screen time they get, the less power they have over her life now. Aelwyn too, as much as she loves her sister, she wasn’t really part of the grand scheme, so it wouldn’t make sense to establish her as a villain immediately.

Of course, Gorgug is going to make his introduction of him raging. His difficulty coping with his rage was a really big part of his journey throughout freshman year. His title card is who he really is though, with cool artificer themes, even though he doesn’t know it yet.

And of course, Kristen is gonna wear a corn-themed outfit because that’s a visual representation of how she felt early on the year, and especially how brainwashed she was by the church. You’re telling me Kristen Chilis Applebees isn’t going to look at a comic book version of herself in freshman year, think about all the time she spent justifying Coach Daybreak’s actions and her parents actions and her actions, and how deeply that trauma goes for her and her siblings, and how much her story would mean to someone going through the same thing as her, and say “now dress her up like corn”????

Point is, the webtoon is an adaptation of a pre-existing world in the same way any “non-fiction” media is an adaptation of the real world. Real life isn’t linear, D&D isn’t linear, but written media (especially webtoon comics) are. It’s not gonna be a perfect replica of the original because that doesn’t make for a good comic. If it helps to view the webtoon as an in-canon adaptation of their story written by the Bad Kids, then that’s great! If it doesn’t, and you still can’t enjoy the comic, then don’t read it.

Just don’t take this gift from Dropout away from those of us who love (or want to love) it. And especially don’t hate on the writers, artists, or anyone in Dimension 20 for making minor changes in order to fit the new media.

(It’d be like hating on the Bad Kids for telling their story in a new way.)

[sweetbuckybarnes]

Crossword Masters

Summary: On their way back from closing a case, Spencer realises he had finished his crossword book. Only to look over the shoulder of BAU member Y/N, and see her playing a crossword game.

809 words

After finally closing a case that took a week in Washington, the BAU were finally on the jet and were making their way back to Quantico.

Hotch was looking over his paperwork, Rossi was reading a book, Morgan had challenged Alex to a game of Poker (with gummy worms being their currency) the pair had encouraged JJ to join. Spencer was finishing his crossword, as Y/N fiddled with her phone.

Y/N had joined the team three months after the sudden death of Spencer's girlfriend Maeve, she was used to Spencer being a little bit standoffish (Alex mentioned it was something to do with her hair or some kind of facial feature she inherited from her parents).

Spencer flipped the page after he finished yet another crossword (it was something he had picked up in the past month in order to quieten his mind).

Instead of being greeted by another crossword, he met the end page and back cover of his book. Damn, it had taken him just under a week to finish this book.

He put the book down on the table and looked over at what the rest of the team was doing. Which is when he noticed the game Y/N was playing.

A crossword game.

He kept watching her as she set letters on a board, Spencer couldn't help but watch her game as points were added and deducted from her final score. How her 'opponent' must be some kind of artificial intelligence, as she completed her game with a score of 120 points to the 'opponent's 66. Spencer watched as she moved onto the next crossword she had to complete in order to unveil some kind of picture that was locked away.

Spencer looked at the crossword over her shoulder, seeing words form in front of him. Much like everything, he couldn't keep a hold of his tongue. "Sues."

Alex glanced over her shoulder at Spencer. She was getting used to Spencer. Y/N looked over at him, raising a single eyebrow and taking an earbud out of her ear. The sound of a pop hit could faintly be heard. "I'm sorry?"

That was one thing about Y/N. She was unbelievably polite. In some aspects, she could put both the British and the Canadians to shame!

Spencer points at her screen. "Indicts. Four letters, it's sues."

Y/N looked down at her phone, which showed she currently has two As, a D, a S, and a C. "Thank you, Reid."

As Y/N progressed through the game, Spencer would sometimes blurt out words for her crossword. "Netting," was one, and "amass," was another.

The two letter word in the bottom corner was bugging him. Good night. How could there be a two letter word for good night.

There is one if you were a late teenager in the early 2000s. "GN, what does that mean?"

"It's text speak. Every teenager and young adult was texting like that in the 90s and early 2000s. You're looking at one of them," Y/N held her hands up in defence.

"I wasn't."

"That's because you're an old grandpa."

Spencer was only three years older than Y/N, but she would always call him a grandpa, especially when he had a full-fledged job and his second PhD underway when she was halfway through college.

Spencer rolls his eyes at Y/N. "There is no way anyone texted like that 10 years ago."

Y/N took that as a challenge, opening her text messages and starting an empty thread (so she doesn't send a random text to someone in her contacts).

Lol, omg wuz gr8 2 c u but gtg ttyl!!!

She turned her screen to face Spencer, and it looked like his brain just broke, simply looking at it. "What is that? Is that even English?"

Y/N burst out laughing. "JJ, can you explain this to Reid?"

JJ took Y/N's phone. Not even a second later. "Laugh out loud, oh my God, great to see you, but go to go, talk to you later," she quickly receited and passed the phone back to Y/N.

"What did he mean by that?"

"Texting was in its early stages in the 90s and early 2000s, so we found a way to adapt. You could only have 160 characters, so you got creative," Y/N tells Spencer. "I once had an ex-boyfriend when I was on Spring Break from College text me J4F and a question mark," Spencer's face was still confused. "Just for fun."

"Essentially, he was asking if I was up..." Y/N trailed off. Spencer blinked. "Sex, he asked if I was awake for sex."

Spencer's eyebrows raised. "That was dating?"

"That was just for hooking up. Dating was a disaster in the 2000s. And it still is now when I think about it..."

[centaurianthropology]

Thoughts and Probably Overly-Thorough Analysis on Adaptation in ‘Murderbot’ Episodes 1 and 2

After discussing adapting a very internal book series to the screen in this post, I was excited to actually get to watch how the show tackled visually trying to tell the story, especially given that the episodes are only approximately 30 minutes long.  That is TIGHT, and requires some tight scripting to establish the world, the characters, and the stakes. 

So, non-spoiler thoughts above the cut: I liked it!  I feel like the vibe is right, while changing some necessary things to better establish the world and several important concepts for non-readers.  The first scene felt a little clunky as far as pacing/info-dumping/character intro went, but after that I do feel like the pace evened out into something I genuinely found enjoyable.  There is a lot of effort to start defining cultures, concepts, and characters, and by and large I think it succeeded.  I have a few changes I might question, but we’re way too early in the season for me to feel comfortable judging them.  So overall, as someone who has read the books and enjoys seeing how things have to change to adapt to a different storytelling medium?  I think it’s overall successful, particularly as the first two episodes are clearly the setup episodes (almost always the hardest episodes to really nail during adaptation). 

If you’re looking for a 1:1 translation of the books, and if you’re really sensitive to changing the original, this is probably not going to be the show for you.  Luckily, there are great books and audiobooks still there for you!  But if you’re open to the changes, if your vision of these books and these character is flexible and you might even be excited to see a different version than the one already told, you will hopefully find it as fun a ride as I did.

By the end of episode two, particularly after some really great scenes featuring Alexander Skarsgard (whose portrayal of Murderbot completely won me over) and David Dastmalchian (Gurathin was always one of my favorites, and he is doing such interesting things to deepen the character), I am hooked.

More spoilery thoughts on the episodes below!

So, what do you have to do in intro episodes?  You have to introduce characters, situation and, in speculative fiction, also concepts and setting.  And for half-hour sci-fi episodes you’re almost certainly requiring a lot of shorthand, a lot of quick ways to get information across, a lot of info in as little time as possible.  Both of the first episodes dropped at once, and that’s honestly good, because they more or less function as the introductory two-parter before the action kicks off. 

The pacing is fairly leisurely, focused on introducing us to the world, the characters, and how they got to the place they are for the story.  And even after the intros, I do feel like we will probably be devoting more time to giving some of the more underserved characters more expansive moments.  But for having to do a lot in about an hour’s worth of television, I think they accomplished what they set out to do with fairly minimal clunkiness.

S1E1: ‘FreeCommerce’

That said the initial scene is a bit clunky.  I get why it was necessary.  We have to establish several big concepts in a hurry: what a SecUnit is, what they are generally used for, a sense of the Corporation Rim, and the hacked governor module that lies as the basis of the whole story going forward.  Those are big sci-fi concepts to front-load, and I do think the scene could have maybe taken one more pass through editing to not make it feel quite so rushed (a few pauses and beats here and there would have been appreciated), but I also understand that the sense was likely to get the information dump over quickly to get on with the story.  So, less elegant than one might hope, but not a deal-breaker by any means.  Information conveyed, moving on.

The introduction to the PresAux team, in my opinion, goes a lot better.  Largely because the writers play it out over multiple scenes and scenarios, giving us perspectives on these characters in three very different situations (at Port FreeCommerce, setting up their base, and facing their first real threat in the story).  I think hard-cutting to the actual beginning of ‘All Systems Red’ briefly, before flashing back to show the team having to rent Murderbot is a great choice.  We get the nod to the book-readers for the in medias res cold open of ‘All Systems Red’, while still going back to help the non-readers really understand who these people are and how they got here.

Playing up the hippie vibes of the team is smart visual and storytelling shorthand.  We immediately get a good sense that they don’t quite fit in with the Corporation Rim.  I love that it’s pointed out that their clothing is hand made, that there are patterns and textures, that there is jewelry and accessories and fun bags.  Put that against the Company’s sales reps’ tech-bro synthetic aesthetics, and it works!  My one wish would have been that the sales reps were all a little more artificially hot, to really drive home how unmakeuped and natural the PresAux team looks.  But still, a solid contrast to let us know that these are not your usual group of spacefarers.

And it continues throughout negotiations, leading up to the humming consesus circle.  Again, I think this is a great choice, because it serves multiple purposes all at once.  We can feel how different their society is to the one that Murderbot understands, and even sets them apart from our culture, which unfortunately is a lot more like Corporation Rim culture than Preservation. 

And this, I think, is why amplifying the hippie commune vibes of these characters is such a great choice: we as the audience are mostly in Murderbot’s head, so PresAux comes off the way that it initially sees them.  They seem weird, quirky, naive.  And yet, I believe that throughout the series both Murderbot and we will have our expectations challenged.  Why can’t people be emotionally open, trusting, and kind, even be fairly far-out and kooky, and still be highly competent, intelligent individuals who manage to hold their own under difficult circumstances.  In our own particular cultural moment, earnestness and emotional openness and the general hopeful and sweet vibes of the Preservation team is viewed as “cringe”.  I think there are probably going to be some viewers who look at them and want them to be some cool, cynical rebel college communists rather than drum-circle having hippies who love decorating their surroundings, embroidering, and jewelry making.  But I am very hopeful that, over the course of the season, we are shown how much their culture of openness, trust, and kindness can be a strength.  We might be asked to confront our own biases against earnestness and ‘quirkiness’, which could blind us to how competent these people are, much as Murderbot itself was initially blinded.

The scene on Port FreeCommerce serves as our introduction to the vibes of at least some of the individual members of PresAux as well.  Pin-Lee is running point in negotiations, so we know they’re someone who either has negotiating, business, or legal expertise (something that is difficult to establish through the rest of the story).  Dr. Mensah is clearly in charge, but has no desire to make unilateral decisions.  She takes other opinions into account (even if she ultimately disagrees with them), states her philosophical and moral objections to SecUnits clearly, but still acts as a realist: if they are going to do this survey, they have to cooperate with the Company.  The hellish compromise.

But because the whole team essentially has to compromise their morals and ethics to do this survey the way that the Company is insisting it get done (renting what is essentially mandatory slave labor), she makes sure that her entire team agrees with her before signing their contact.  We see that the team is very cooperative, but Gurathin is a bit of an awkward outsider (though immediately invited to be an insider by Ratthi, so we also get a sense of his open and warm nature), although at this point in the episode we don’t know why he doesn’t seem to fit as seamlessly as the others.

Moving to the survey planet and the team’s habitat is also a scene that pulls a lot of multilayered weight.  It establishes all the important components of the habitat, it establishes Murderbot’s disgust of human bodily functions, and further expands on the team and how Muderbot responds to them.  These are important moments because these are the initial impressions that will go on to be confirmed or subverted throughout the season.  While it’s a bit on the nose to just do a verbal intro of everyone, it’s also a good use of time in a 30-minute episode to just get everyone’s names out there, base-level relationships, jobs, and at least one individual facet of them (Mensah has 80 million seven children, Arada and Pin-Lee are married but might be going through a bit of a rough patch, Ratthi flirts with All The Things, Gurathin is an augmented human, and Bharadwaj is hoarding soap for unknown reasons).  We see them decorating their habitat, growing plants inside, playing music (again, more cultural establishment and ways of making both Murderbot and the audience initially confused by this bunch), and being … really sweet with one another, honestly.  I felt immediately endeared to them and wanted to know more (why are you hoarding soap, Bharadwaj??).  We get tiny character beats like Arada running up the stairs to call dibs on rooms, followed by Ratthi and Pin-Lee, and we get a moment of Pin-Lee pausing as they run past SecUnit to smile at it and seem to try to engage with it, if only briefly.  We get Ratthi painting the habitat, and Gurathin fretting over if the paint washes off (they’re never getting their deposit back …).

We also get that Murderbot Does Not Want to Be Here, and see it grappling with humanity as a whole.  It seems to find actual human relationships offputting and confusing, but loves the melodramatic interpretations of relationships on ‘Sanctuary Moon’.  Reality makes it deeply uncomfortable, but unreality has become its comfort and what it mostly spends its time focused on.  Through its avoidance of them and their oddities, we get a sense both of its fear of being found out, and we get a Chekhov’s gun of emotional attachment.  It doesn’t want it, but it’s also deeply fascinated by its facsimile.  And given how open and loving this group seems to be in general (with one notable and delightfully bitchy exception, love you Gurathin), we can already see how it’s going to be loved whether it wants to be or not.

The final establishment of character, situation, and place, occurs with the return to the cold open of ‘All Systems Red’, now armed with enough information to actually care at least somewhat when Bharadwaj gets attacked by the worm, as well as somewhat understanding why she and Arada might initially not listen to the SecUnit (they know it’s refurbished and all the rest of their Company equipment is a bit shit, they’re scientists excited about their work, the planet was rated safe). 

The worm attack works fairly well.  The CG of Murderbot jumping down feels a bit floaty, but as soon as it closes in for combat the visual effects are on point, and the pacing of the scene is frantic and fun.  The use of the ‘Sanctuary Moon’ clip to give Murderbot a means of trying to comfort Arada to get her walking was great, and it was really this scene that sold me on Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot.  After hearing its snarky internal monologue, hearing the awkwardness of its actual attempts at a social interaction is delightful!  Internal-Monologue!Murderbot is quippy and witty and sarcastic.  Outside!SecUnit is awkwardness and social anxiety personified.  And I feel like this disconnect can really hit home for a lot of people with bad social anxiety. 

This is also important to establish the initial character reactions to a majorly tramatic and shocking moment for them.  Arada goes into shock, but after that gets forceful and defensive of both SecUnit and her field of study (her lines about animals were actually great, and really set her apart in her own unique way). 

Pin-Lee demands action.  They can get loud and abrasive, and they clearly need to have control over their circumstances or they start to get very twitchy, but they are also caring, careful to correct themself when they say something that could be genuinely insulting. 

Ratthi is concerned for everyone, but also has a base-level chill nature that means he can’t stay worked up to the intensity that others can.  It makes him a sweet and leveling presence in tense scenes. 

Gurathin has to be useful.  He preps the medbay.  He stays with Bharadwaj until she wakes up, monitoring her vitals and the equipment, even though there isn’t much he can do.  But the equipment is his thing.  The tech is his thing, and he’s going to make it work.  Which is why, of course, he’s also the first to notice something is off with their SecUnit.  Not only is he focused on the equipment (and at this point viewing SecUnit more as faulty equipment than a person), but we find out that he’s the only one of the team who might have actually had prior experience with SecUnits, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Mensah stays cool under fire, staying at the heart of the discussion while taking everyone’s thoughts and feelings into account.  She keeps everyone directed, focused, and calm.  And then, when she is alone, she falls apart, slipping into a full-blown panic attack over almost losing Bharadwaj.  And honestly?  I love them giving her a panic disorder.  Giving a character a panic disorder while still showing that she is competent, a respected leader, and tries her damndest to push through the panic to reassure and care for her people is a lovely touch. 

With these three data points we actually get a good baseline for these characters in their element, out of their element, and in danger.  They already feel human and flawed, despite not knowing any of them deeply yet.  It also means that we’re already able to read more into their interactions than Murderbot is grasping quite yet.  After all, it’s not great at this social thing, and it REALLY doesn’t get them and their culture.

This gets highlighted when it has to come out and talk to the team out of its armor.  Again, Alexander Skarsgard does a fantastic job of radiating the incredible social anxiety of a being that would vastly prefer to only ever have to interact with other people safely behind a helmet.  Being so exposed, with its feet and its face and its hands all on gangly display in one of the crew jumpsuits, is so clearly an existential nightmare to it.  And the more most of the team try to thank it, welcome it, treat it like a person, the more uncomfortable it becomes.  The speech is hilarious, but also a great bit of disconnect between its social comfort zone and that of the Preservation team.  And in that moment, we realize that, even if some of them are trying to embrace it, to invite it to be more integrated with them, to give it a chance, they understand Muderbot as little as Murderbot understands them.

I have seen some people not liking part of this scene because Arada misgenders Murderbot by calling it ‘he’, but I think this is actually an important part of character building for her, Murderbot, and the story.  My guess is that the writers are going to Rule Of Threes Murderbot’s pronouns, as many viewers have likely never encountered someone who uses it/its pronouns.  This scene serves as the Introduction: Arada is well-meaning, but accidentally misgenders it because she is reacting to the face she saw (as many well-meaning people can do).  Gurathin immediately and vehemently corrects her … for the wrong reasons.  He’s thinking of their SecUnit as a malfunctioning piece of equipment, while Arada is thinking of it as a human, so he is dehumanizing it.  They are both wrong, but also both a bit right.  Arada is right that Murderbot is a person, but she is wrong in immediately defaulting to Human Male when she thinks of it.  Gurathin is right in that it has no interest in being human and is, in fact, quite attached to being a construct and having no gender, but he’s wrong in treating it as equipment.  I imagine that, per the Rule of Threes, this topic will be Reinforced later, and then Confirmed in a final scene so the audience learns its pronouns properly, even audience members who might initially struggle to use the right pronouns or do the same as Arada by seeing Alexander Skarsgard and making assumptions.

And speaking of assumptions, the audience also gets its first hint that perhaps ‘Murderbot’ wasn’t simply a cool name it plucked out of the aether, but ties much more intensely into the fragments of memories it has.  We find out that SecUnits are routinely memory wiped, but a few seconds of something awful have leaked through.  It sees people screaming, running, and dying, and it has the feeling it might be responsible.  And despite its general misanthrope, it doesn’t seem at all pleased by this memory.  If anything, it seems horrified.  It’s one thing to idly speculate about killing humans, but another to realize it might well have already done precisely what all the SecUnits on the entertainment feeds do: go crazy and kill all its clients.

Introducing that memory and then having a one-on-one with Mensah is an interesting choice, because it adds layers to the scene.  She is clearly trying to thank it again, maybe reach out, but she’s also trying to figure out what’s happening with her clearly incredibly anxious SecUnit.  It’s terrified she suspects it’s hacked its governor module, but it’s also afraid she’s getting attached, which could be worse.  After all, if it’s done something awful once, there’s nothing stopping it from doing so again. 

The memories keep playing even after she leaves, and it says the same line it lifted from ‘Sanctuary Moon’ to itself: “Stay calm; it’ll be okay.  You have my word.”  It’s honestly creepy, and it’s clearly meant for the audience to read this initially as a threat to the scientists.  But looking at it again, considering how traumatized it seems to be by this fragmented memory, the line takes on an almost self-soothing quality.  Is it speaking to the people in its memory?  The PresAux team?  Itself? 

The first episode does a workmanlike and occasionally inspired job of introducing us to all the things it needed to.  And for all that this first episode is fairly direct in its storytelling, I feel like there are layers that will feel deeper on future viewing after the whole season is out.

S1E2: ‘Eye Contact’

The second half of our introduction to this show had two major jobs: reinforce themes from the first episode, deepen character beats, and get us to the point where the plot kicks off.  The show does this by splitting the episode into two subplots that both kick off with the opening scene.

We open in the hopper, and it’s clear from the first scene that this episode will, at least in part, focus on better establishing and characterizing Gurathin.  I’m hoping each of the characters gets this treatment going forward, because I really have to commend the episode for how much we learn about him throughout.  There are a lot of layers at play, both in the writing of his character and in David Dastmalchian’s performance.  This is a guy with anxiety to rival Murderbot’s, even if he can cover it better.  He’s trying to keep their conversation out of its purview, because he doesn’t trust it.  He doesn’t trust anyone outside of this small friend group he’s got, and he especially doesn’t trust anything coming from the Company.  And even though the group thinks he’s being overly paranoid, it’s really nice to see how immediately they confirm that he has good reasons for not trusting the Company, and they all love him (and Ratthi calls him “Gugu”, which … chef’s kiss).  We now get our first big hint of what makes him the outsider of the group: he’s not originally from Preservation.  As we learn later, he’s almost certainly originally from the Corporation Rim, and whatever happened to him there has fucked him up badly.

Mensah once again comes in as the tempering force.  She mentions her conversation with SecUnit.  She wanted to see if she could trust it, and she FEELS like she can, but THINKS they should be cautious.  I like this slight change from the books, as all the Preservation natives feel the immediate desire to trust and befriend SecUnit, but in this they are a bit more cautious because they aren’t certain if they can trust anything supplied by the Company. 

I think this is the benefit of the visual medium expanding out the story.  After all, while the audience is able to hear all of Murderbot’s internal snark, they only get the anxiety-ridden, clearly atypical external SecUnit.  And even if some of them are now seeing it as a person, they are also seeing that it works for a deeply untrustworthy company that may or may not be deceiving them.  So with the information and experiences they currently have, Gurathin is making a reasonable argument for leaving the SecUnit behind. 

And from a storytelling perspective, it makes sense to leave it behind.  It would be easy for this episode to feel like it was retreading the worm incident from the first episode, but having Mensah and Bharadwaj decide to go alone to survey the blacked out area in the map makes the stakes very different. 

And speaking of, though we don’t get a lot of time with her, I am LOVING Bharadwaj.  The actress is hilarious, particularly when the character is clearly high as balls on stimulants and pain meds is just fantastic.  I also love her little moment later of academic one-upsmanship.  Having known so many academics in my life, that was the most real moment of academic bullshit so far.  I cackled!

Their plot is primarily used to reestablish Bharadwaj, and to get Mensah into a dangerous situation (and honestly, I don’t think she should have gone alone trying to climb a fucking mountain, but whatever).  She ends up having another panic attack, and it’s a good beat to see her trying to force her way through it.  She doesn’t want to let the team down.  Even while she’s spiraling she’s trying to be so supportive and encouraging to her team.  I like that she doesn’t handle this situation perfectly.  I like that she struggles and sort of fails, and still keeps pushing.  One of the things the show has been consistently good at is giving the characters very relatable flaws.  She takes her role so seriously she’s going to put herself through hell to see it done, all while trying to mask how bad it’s getting in front of the people she cares about.  This is a good way of reinforcing what we learned about her in the last episode, and setting up an emotional arc for her.

And speaking of setting up emotional arcs, let’s talk about Murderbot and Gurathin, or what I like to call The Best Scenes in the Show So Far Holy Shit.

The scenes between them function on so many levels: comedy, drama, character development, worldbuilding.  We have it all right here!  Major concepts that will be important later (ComfortUnits, Corporation Rim vs Preservation culture) are established quickly and with deliberate discomfort for both characters.  Gurathin weaponizes Murderbot’s deep discomfort with eye contact and social interaction to try to interrogate it and figure out what’s gone wrong, but it doesn’t really go the way either of them wants it to go, because both of them are socially awkward disasters; both of them have conflicting motivations and desires; both of them don’t understand one another and understand one another way, WAY too well.

This leads to scenes that can be interpreted on multiple levels, all while setting up some meaty stakes.  Both characters are trying to do multiple things at once, and it’s really fun to see how well or poorly they succeed.  Gurathin definitely set up the scene to be at least a bit intimidating … and promptly fumbles it when he realizes that his chair isn’t a swivel chair and he can’t turn and do a cool reveal, but instead drags it around, scraping along the floor.  And honestly, part of him not only can’t be intimidating, but doesn’t want to be.  Part of him wants to understand this incredibly awkward being he’s now sharing space with.  There is a weird earnestness, almost a stream-of-consciousness strangeness to the way Gurathin is written in this scene that I adore, and that David Dastmalchian absolutely nails.  He seems even weirder than Murderbot in his own way.

They’re both such messes, and both ready to needle the shit out of one another.  Gurathin, especially, is clearly trying to provoke reactions, to test boundaries.  It’s almost like he’s conducting a stress test on a computer system, but with a sentient being instead, and his life potentially on the line.  He questions Murderbot about its capacity for emotion, for connection, by comparing it to ComfortUnits, but because, again, this is an interrogation conducted by and to the two most cripplingly awkward beings on the hab, it half comes off like he’s hitting on it.

And then there’s the reason for the episode title, and something that is both a deeply dirty trick on Gurathin’s part, and an absolute red flag waved in front of a bull.  He orders (likely suspecting that this SecUnit might be capable of disobeying orders) that they maintain eye contact throughout this interaction. 

And I think that red flag in front of a bull is the other level he’s trying to work at in this scene.  This is a systems stress test, trying to tease out what is happening and where what he sees as a malfunction lies.  But he’s also painting himself as a target.  He’s pulling out every nasty trick in the book to make sure that, if this SecUnit really is rogue and really is going to go on a killing spree, it doesn’t go after anyone but him.  Because as was established in the opening scene: Gurathin may be a paranoid dick, but he loves his weird extrovert friends so, so deeply, and he would absolutely die to protect them.

Because Gurathin, above all things, needs to feel useful.

Murderbot is trying to dodge questions, trying not to give anything away.  It’s trying to bear up under the sheer painful amount of eye contact required, and it’s trying to get Gurathin back (you make me look you in the eye?  I’ll make you see your friends making out with one another!).  And the funniest thing is that they’re basically just inflicting on the other what they already find uncomfortable.  Again and again, they parallel one another.  It was established twice last episode and hammered home now.

And at the same time, there is a weirdly heart-to-heart quality to this interaction.  Because as much as Gurathin is trying to be a hardass, and as much as Murderbot is trying to shut this interaction down as quickly as possible, Gurathin is also just trying to understand, and Murderbot can’t help but explain itself a bit.  It’s the awful moment of sympathy with someone you loath because they’re far too much like you, but you just keep reaching out.  And that layer of earnestness, of accidental vulnerability on both of their parts, adds such a lovely, bizarre tinge of sweetness to what is otherwise a fairly brutal encounter for both of them.

The choices in this scene are what sold me on the show, from the storytelling to the writing to the performances.  The actors fucking kill this scene.  Alexander Skarsgard gets to do a lot of subtle facial expressions as the internal snarky narration struggles to emerge under its facade of calm, and its deep levels of social anxiety keep kneecapping it from fully extracting itself from the conversation or getting the upper hand.  And David Dastmalchian brings all the conflicting motivations, all the half-aborted gestures of hostility and kindness and awkwardness and paranoia through to make Gurathin feel desperately, earnestly human.  I really can’t say enough about their performances; they bounce off one another fantastically.

And of course, these two storylines dovetail at the end of the episode as Mensah finds the Alien Remnant (really cool use of visual effects there!), almost gets eaten by a worm, and everyone realizes that either the maps are glitching out due to the Remnants’ influence, or someone is deliberately hiding them.  They try to confer with the other survey team currently on the planet, a small group from a company called DeltFall, but something is wrong.  And as the episode closes with bodies strewn over the darkened DeltFall habitat, I think we’re about to see the plot kick into gear.

Conclusions

So, what did I think about the first two episodes overall?  They were solid.  I want more establishing time with quite a few of the characters (Bharadwaj, Ratthi, Pin-Lee, and Arada especially), but episode two in particular made me confident this show is going fun places.  Because the scenes between Murderbot and Gurathin were added for the show; this is new material, and it’s exactly the sort of thing I was hoping we would get from an adaptation.  Those scenes struck the perfect blend of humor and danger and sincerity and anger that I read in the books.  That was what convinced me that the show really could pull off something new and fun and fresh both as an adaptation of a series of books I enjoy, and as a piece of science fiction media that feels defiantly hopeful and colorful and weird in the face of a fairly bleak and depressing sci-fi television landscape. 

Like I said before, doing set-up episodes is incredibly hard to do gracefully in television, and doing sci-fi setup where you’re having to explain places, politics, and concepts as well as characters and situations, is even more challenging.  And you’ve got two half-hour time slots to do it in.  And with those limitations in mind, I feel like the show currently ranges from Gets-the-Job-Done-Inelegantly-but-Fine to Holy-Shit-I-Want-to-See-More-of-That-Right-Now. 

I want to get to know all these weirdos on the same intense level I now feel we know Murderbot and Gurathin, and I feel like we will.  Will it be the perfect show?  No.  It will not.  Have I still watched both of these episodes multiple times, and am I super excited to see DeltFall and how much things are about to go to shit?  Oh hell yes.  I am so excited!

So, yes.  There are my scattered thought about this adaptation, where it mostly succeeds and occasionally feels clunky.  The cast is charming and occasionally electric, and I am eager to see more.

[drchucktingle]

Good evening Dr. Tingle! Would you ever like to see a film adaption of Bury Your Gays? I think it would be so neat (especially with all of the tv and movie references present in the novel). If there ever was a movie, who would you want hypothetically cast?

HELLO BUCKAROO this is always a fun question to consider actors for a book adaption. when writing i sometimes CAST IN MY HEAD and sometimes it is just kind of a made up buckaroo. there are really only two characters in BURY YOUR GAYS that were cast in my head while writing and i will mention those below.

ultimately WHOEVER was to trot in these rolls i would be happy with, so lets just consider this a fun way through imagination. i will say that i would prefer to cast queer actors, but also i know the business of hollywood means sometimes that does not work out to get the movie on screens. if bury your gays was turned into a movie i would really have no say in any of this anyway, but queer actors would be my preference when possible.

despite all of that, when writing MISHA, the actor in my head was NOT a queer actor as far as i know (although for some reason us queer buckaroos have given him a pass to play queer characters which i think is very funny and interesting, i guess we just love him a lot regardless) anyway lets kick it off there

MISHA BYRNE

when writing BURY YOUR GAYS i was picturing none other than BILL HADER. maybe it is because i was watchin a lot of BARRY at the time, not exactly sure why but thats the truth.

that being said i think i would be great to get a queer lead in there. so if that was the case i would say LEE PACE, and of course we have the ultimate fan cast MISHA COLLINS

TARA ITO

this is the other character that was FULLY IN MY HEAD as i wrote it and mentally cast from day one. it also kind of coincides with the trot of a tv show i was watching at the time which was PEN 15. so tara in my mind was always MAYA ERSKINE

ZEKE ROMERO

not exactly a known actor in my head, but when considering options i think that OSCAR ISSAC would be very good

JACK HAYS

there are a few options for this, but i keep thinking of a very clean shaven MURRAY BARTLETT in a suit. another options would be ZACHARY QUINTO especially if we get chris pine as chris oak because thats just some incredible META KIRK AND SPOCK action for the sledgehammer scene.

now onto the dang villains.

CHRIS OAK

okay so obviously we gotta cast CHRIS PINE in this role (i might have an in). however if that does not work out i would like to suggest COLMAN DOMINGO

THE SMOKER / UNCLE KEITH

would be neat to have the monsters also play their inspiration. in the case of THE SMOKER i think STEVE BUSCEMI would be incredible

MRS. WHY / AGENT Y

last buck not least i propose ELIZABETH DEBICKI as MRS. WHY

if you have not read bury your gays yet but now you are DANG INTERESTED then you can get it here. thanks for reading buckaroos feel free to reply with your own castings. I AM NO EXPERT you know my art just as well as i do so i am curious your thoughts. LOVE IS REAL

[mostlymarvelgirl]

A Winchester Kind Of Love

Pairing: Sam Winchester X AU!Reader

Summary: You never expected to wake up in the Supernatural universe. But after inexplicably appearing in the bunker, surrounded by the very people you once watched on screen, you have no choice but to adapt. While searching for a way back home, you form unexpected bonds—especially with Sam. But when emotions start to blur and reality becomes harder to face, you begin to wonder… do you truly belong here? And what happens when the lines between fiction and reality are no longer so clear?

Words: 3000 words smth (sorry)

Reader's Personality: The reader's personality is deeply introspective, independent, and emotionally guarded.

Warnings: Angst, emotional conflict, Themes of identity and belonging, Mild language, Slow-burn romance with mutual pining, Heartbreak but with maybe a hopeful ending.

The first time you saw Sam Winchester in real life, you thought you were hallucinating.

Or maybe, you were dead.

Because there was no way in hell you were standing inside the Men of Letters bunker, wearing the same clothes you went to bed in, while Sam Winchester—fictional, TV character Sam Winchester—stared at you like you were the world’s weirdest case.

The reactions were immediate.

Dean had burst into the room, gun drawn, shouting, “Who the hell are you, and how the hell did you get in here?”

You had barely been able to stammer out a response before Castiel appeared, blue eyes narrowing as he scanned you with his grace. “She is… human,” he said slowly. “But… she does not belong to this world.”

Dean had scoffed. “Yeah? No kidding. You don’t just *pop* into a locked-down bunker unless you’re packing some serious mojo.”

Sam had been quieter, more calculating. “Who are you?”

It took hours, a mild panic attack, and a lot of rapid questioning from both sides before you finally admitted the truth:

Back home, the Supernatural universe was nothing more than a TV show.

A stupid, heartbreaking, addictive TV show that you knew inside and out.

And now? Now, you were here. In it.

Dean had been the first to react. “Oh, great. Another alternate universe. Because that never goes wrong.”

Cas had tilted his head. “This is… highly unusual.”

And Sam? Sam had just stared at you, trying to figure out if you were real—or if the universe had just played its cruelest trick yet.

.

.

.

Months Later…

You were still here.

You helped with hunts (you were shocked that you even could). You researched cases with Sam, argued with Dean, even got on Castiel’s good side.

And yet… you still felt like an outsider.

You weren’t real here.

And Sam—God, Sam—was getting too close.

It started small. The way his eyes lingered a little longer when you laughed. How he always seemed to check in on you first after a hunt. The late-night talks over books and whiskey, where he’d tell you things he never told anyone else.

At first, it was fine because there was still a plan. Sam had been researching, looking for a way to send you back. He had promised, back in the beginning, that they’d find a way. You had clung to that—because it was easier than considering the alternative.

But then, the updates stopped coming. Every time you asked, Sam’s face would tighten, and he’d mumble something about dead ends and cosmic deadlocks.

And so, you stopped asking.

But the feeling in your gut told you the truth: Sam wasn’t looking anymore.

Not really.

.

.

.

It wasn’t supposed to come out. Not like this.

The motel room was quiet except for the scratching of Sam’s pen against his journal and the occasional rustling of paper. You sat on the bed, knees pulled up, carefully rubbing moisturizer into your skin. A small, mundane moment after a long day of chasing down leads.

Sam sighed, rubbing his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. “This case is a mess.”

You hummed in agreement, your attention half on your reflection in the motel mirror. “When is it not?”

He huffed a soft laugh, but when you glanced at him, he was already watching you again. That look. The one that made your stomach twist. You knew very well what that look meant.

And before you could stop yourself, before you could shove the words back where they belonged, you blurted it out.

“You don’t actually love me, you know.”

Silence.

Sam’s head tilted slightly, brow furrowing. “What?”

You swallowed hard, suddenly wishing you could take it back. But the words were already hanging in the air, so you forced yourself to meet his gaze. “You think you’re falling for me, but you’re not.” Your voice was softer now, but the weight of the words was just as heavy. “You just feel… safe with me. Because I know everything about you. And that’s not real.”

His face twisted, hurt flashing across it like a wound you’d just opened. “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is.” You turned back to the mirror, fiddling with the lotion bottle, unable to face him. “I don’t belong here. And you deserve better than someone who—who doesn’t even belong in your world.”

Sam’s jaw clenched. “Why do you keep saying that?”

You exhaled sharply. “Because it’s true! Because—” You hesitated, throat tightening. “Because you stopped looking, Sam.”

The room went dead silent.

You saw it in his face, the way his expression faltered for just a second. And that was all you needed.

“Oh my God,” you whispered. “You stopped looking.”

Sam looked away, running a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t—” He sighed, voice barely above a whisper. “I couldn’t find anything.”

“That’s a lie.” Your voice cracked. “You just… didn’t want to find anything.”

His silence was all the answer you needed.

.

.

.

Dean found out about Sam stopping his search before he found you outside the bunker.

And he was furious.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Sam?” Dean had shouted, pacing the library while Sam sat, head in his hands. “You kept her trapped here? Lied to her? Jesus, man, she’s been alone this whole time—thinking she had no way home.”

Dean narrowed his eyes. “The spell. The one Cas found. What happened to it?”

Sam let out a slow breath, not meeting his brother’s eyes. “I—burned it.”

The air in the room shifted.

Dean lunged, shoving Sam back. “You son of a—”

Before things could go further, Castiel stepped between them, voice calm but firm. “That’s enough.”

.

.

.

The hunt had been brutal.

You and Sam barely spoke as you drove back to the motel, exhaustion hanging in the air like a storm cloud. The weight of everything—of hunts, of lies, of feelings neither of you had the courage to name—pressed down between you both.

The motel room was small, the kind of run-down place you were used to by now. Sam immediately sat at the desk, flipping open his laptop, while you silently grabbed your toiletries and disappeared into the bathroom.

When you stepped out, wrapped in a robe, you caught Sam staring.

Not just looking—staring—like you were something fragile, something slipping through his fingers.

.

.

.

A week later, you finally sat across from Sam, the weight of everything between you impossible to ignore. You exhaled shakily before finally voicing what had been gnawing at you for months. “You know… I do love you, Sam.”

His eyes widened slightly, but you weren’t done. “I just… I’m not sure I’m good enough for you.” Your voice wavered as you admitted, “I’m not built for relationships. I forget little things, I zone out, I’m moody. I’d probably mess this up somehow, and you—” You swallowed. “You’re perfect.”

Sam watched you, his expression soft but serious. Then, in a slow, deliberate motion, he reached out, cradling your face in his large hands. His thumbs brushed gently over your cheekbones, his eyes searching yours with an intensity that made your breath hitch.

“You’re not perfect,” he said, voice low. “And neither am I.” He hesitated before adding, “But I see you. Every part of you. And I still want this.”

Your eyes burned, the weight of his words settling deep into your chest.

And when he kissed you—slow, tender, filled with everything neither of you had been able to say—you realized, for the first time, that maybe… just maybe… you belonged here after all.

.

.

.

THE END.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I don't really write. I just wrote this because idk I just got motivated for a really realistic version of me entering spn universe and how it would go. Closest possible thing. Feel free to give criticism cause I honestly don't really like this and I want to improve a lot. Thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

EXTRA: ;)

Sam Winchester was the perfect boyfriend. And it was almost annoying.

He brought you (your favorite drink) just the way you liked it. He noticed your favorite songs and hummed them under his breath. He rubbed circles into your back when you were exhausted, memorized your quirks, and never once made you feel like you didn’t belong.

One night, as you lay curled up against his chest, you grinned and murmured, “You know, I was actually more of a Dean girl.”

Sam’s whole body tensed. “Excuse me?”

You giggled. “I used to write fanfics and everything.”

He groaned. “Oh, you are never living this down.”

You just laughed, pressing a kiss to his jaw. Because for once, you were exactly where you belonged.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

[nammikisulora]

I recently finished Moby Dick and since then I've been contemplating what I'd want from a "perfect" adaptation of it. this is what I've got so far:

first off it needs to be a tv show, not a movie. the book is so big 'cause it needs to fit a whale in it, thus an adaptation ought to do the same

Ishmael needs to narrate this baby. give me voiceover ffs, this is absolutely essential

keep the infodumps. for the love god keep the fucking infodumps. condensed, sure, but they need to be there! everyone who watches needs to know exactly how Very Normal™️ our boy is about whales and whale hunting

also tbh i feel like the whole whale phrenology thing is pretty essential to the vibe of Ishmael. do not make this guy normal about this shit

for this to work, some kind of framing device is probably best. easiest is probably to have Old Ishmael writing The Book and figure out some way to segue between infodump documentary style and Plot

oh and also include the side stories of the ships they meet somehow

make. it. gay. I need Ishmael and Queequeg to be banging on screen, okay? at the inn in the beginning, on the Pequod after the whale flensing scene… it needs to be there

HOWEVER this must not be acknowledged in the narration. look, they're just really good friends, snuggling in bed during their hearts' honeymoon, 'kay? and checking out how hot your friend is while he's stomping around on a dead whale, cutting it up and fending off the sharks, clad in only shirt and stockings, is just what anyone would do!

what about all the things Ishmael can't possibly know about, then? like private conversations between Ahab and Starbuck and such? I mean I guess our guy could be eavesdropping, but eh - Melville didn't care, so the hypothetical show could just as well handwave it too

keep the whole end sequence as close to the book as possible. top tier imagery there

obviously there's more needed, especially in regards to the characters but eh. if anyone's got anything to add I'd love to hear it!

[frogguchi]

just finished the conclave book! my initial comment is that they did not make thomas lawrence sassy enough.

kidding aside! this has gotta be one of the best book to screen adaptations i have seen, saying as someone who has watched the movie first before the book. it was a fun read, especially lomeli’s inner monologue like ohmygod give him a break!

i liked the ending that the movie gave us, the conclusion it had. i liked the other background the book provided. i loved both. 10/10, 5 stars. habemus papam to MY pope!

also what was the author trying to say here actually. room of tears scene found to be homoerotic in both movie and book!

[joezworld]

Express Engines

So, recently some friends of mine (@sparkarrestor chief among them) finally got me to watch some TTTE fan videos on youtube. I really never got into that stuff - I’m “an old” by Tumblr standards, and my first exposure to TTTE fan video content was back in the days of wooden models filmed with potatoes, and Trainz productions that still had the Fraps logo onscreen. Things were dire, and I never bothered to really investigate further in the intervening decade+. Watching it now, I’m absolutely astounded by the level of quality and skill that a lot of people on youtube have gotten up to. I find writing to be tedious and slow, but at the least I get a few new paragraphs or pages at the end of each night to read back through. Filmmaking, especially the animated stuff that these people are making, is such a long game that I don’t think I could stand it. 

One of the first things that Sparks (and @weirdowithaquill) showed me was Rhydyronen’s Express Engines, the superbly made adaptation of the second book in Sodor Island Forum’s (SiF) Extended Railway Series. (ERS)  I could honestly go on about the production quality and filmmaking skill involved in this for some time, but I feel as though after a while it would stop being constructive responses and more just me pointing at the screen and mumbling things about camera movements, so I’ll relent for right now. Just assume that I really enjoyed it and keep coming back to it.  

(That being said, watching “Fourth Time Unlucky” and “Keeping Up With Castle” made me feel like my third eye was opening several different times. I had no idea that some of the filmmaking techniques in this were even possible, especially the big conversation set piece in Fourth Time Unlucky.)

---

All that being said… I do have quite a few issues with the story itself. Not the cinematography, the animation, or the voice acting, but the heart of this work - the script. It’s not a problem with Rhydyronen, the creator, instead it’s something inherent to the work itself. 

Allow me to explain:

SiF’s ERS was very formative to me as “a young,” entering the fandom in the late -00s and early -10s. I read literally of them, and even went through the long-since-retconned V1 archive that is still present on the “Your Own Railway Series Style Stories” page. There’s a non-zero chance that I know more about this series of works than anyone who isn’t an active or former contributor to the ERS. Even to this day, I check in every other Saturday to see what they’ve put out. A lot of my works are based in no small part on the real world setting of Sodor-in-the-present that they’ve done. It’s a huge part of my life, and even if I never log in to the site again, its influence will hang over my life for years or even decades to come.

There’s just one problem with all of this: The ERS is, from a very fundamental standpoint, bad. 

I don’t mean this in a critical “this is terribly written” way - far from it, in fact. The real issue with the ERS is more fundamental: they created a world, a rich tapestry of words and stories, that draws from the works of Wilbert and Christopher Awdry… and then they made it profoundly miserable to be in. 

Now, this is not a bad thing, as @mean-scarlet-deceiver has rather masterfully written, but with SiF, it’s a more cloying and existential form of misery that doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. Sodor is on its face a normal place to live, like any other part of England, but read almost any story and you will find things happening that seem to go against the grain of most TTTE fic writers, but also of just basic understandings of human decency. 

Starting off from the beginning, ERS book 42 Evan the Private Engine is a great example of what I’m talking about. Evan, the titular engine, is a privately owned narrow gauge engine operating on the Skarloey Railway. At one point, many years ago, he broke down and was abandoned by his owner in situ. Now, for everyone who is a dyed in the wool TTTE fan like me, search your feelings and think of what happens to this engine next. Is he adopted by the Skarloey engines? Do they re-home him somewhere else? Is this actually a story being told by Skarloey to the other engines? Vote now on your phones. 

[Buzzing noise] Wrong answer! What actually happens is that Evan is left where he is for so long that everyone forgets about him, and he’s covered in the overgrowth out by the lake. When he’s discovered “many years later,” he’s lost his memory, and will never get it back. 

This is the first book in the ERS. I told @lswro2-222 about this and she’s still mad about it. 

Things do not improve from there. The ERS is filled with countless stories of: 

Engines being forgotten about for decades, (ERS #152 – Scrapyard Engines) 

Engines being threatened with scrapping after suffering from mechanical issues (ERS #58 – Brave Mountain Engines)

When said engine (quite reasonably) tries to ensure their place on the railway by sabotaging someone else, they’re sent away for scrap anyways (ERS #70 – Norman the Mountain Engine)

Engines rather abruptly deciding to leave the island of Sodor, for almost no in-text reason. (ERS #221 – Dane the Electric Engine)

Engines rather abruptly deciding to leave the island of Sodor, just as their character arc was reaching a high point (ERS #320 – Procor the Mainland Engine)

Massive interpersonal conflicts between members of railway staff that would in any other universe result in someone quitting due to the toxic work environment. (ERS #462 - The Joint Controllers, ERS # 464 - The Fat Controller's Birthday Party)

Extremely out-of-place bouts of anti-diesel racism all the way in the 1990s (ERSN #9 – Dockside Engines)

The Fat Controller (among others) treating engines like children, property, or in some other extremely dehumanizing way, even if they had no control over the situation. (ERS #452 – Lorries and Engines, among many others)

I could go on for some time, and many of these are far from the worst examples. There’s also a huge number of baffling choices, like creating an engine that can only talk in horse noises, and then much later having this engine have a mental breakdown over his inability to communicate. (ERSN7 - The Pegasus Railtour Campaign) They also killed off Stephen Hatt, but did it in a way that rubs me the wrong way and does nothing to really add to the character's legacy. (ERSN #15 – The Hatt Family’s Engines) I could go on about this one for about as long as I could go on about Pegasus, but I don’t have that much time at any point between now and forever, so we'll leave it at that.) 

Meanwhile, interesting characters are often created and then immediately set aside in favor of things that are nowhere near as interesting. Now that I know this is a matter of taste, but would you rather read about a diesel engine placed in storage for so long that she turned malevolently insane, (ERS #169 – Sudrian Diesel Engines) or various background characters like a skip lorry that interacts with almost none of the “main” cast of the island? (ERS #475 - Rocky the Skip Lorry) I know which one I want to see, which is why the insane diesel hasn’t gotten a story all to herself since her introduction in (checks notes) 2011. 

However, all of this pales in comparison to the real issue with the ERS - all of this is more or less subjective, but there’s a real, substantial, problem here: Nobody actually seems to like each other. 

Reading through the stories, there’s this overwhelming sense that none of the characters - engine, person, or otherwise, actually enjoy each other’s company unless it’s explicitly stated in text. Even then, that measure is sometimes shaky, as characterizations can change from book to book. Engines can be on good terms with each other in one, and the next, they can be snapping at each other for no clearly defined reason. 

Well, they might try to define it, but the ERS is rather insistent on following the short, easy to digest four-story format used by the Awdrys, which means that any character development occurs suddenly, and with little room to flesh things out. What this results in is often poorly-explained conflict that could be salvaged if they ever strayed away from the standard 4-story format. A good example of this is ERS# 340 - BoCo & the Freight Diesels. This book is actually one of the better ones in terms of character arcs - it follows a pair of class 60 diesels (Spartan and Wakefield) as they deal with the fallout of their brother/leader leaving Sodor unexpectedly. (ERS #320 - I could go on about that decision as well. The character was written out because it conflicted with what the actual, IRL locomotive he was based on was doing. Meanwhile, I’ve got City of Goddamn Truro running rampage through Sodor.) These three engines have better-than-average characterization due to the absolutely god-tier introductory story they received (ERS #151), but even still, the relatively short length of each book/chapter means that the contents of book 340 and the preceding stories don’t exactly give us enough insight into the engine’s psyches to fully grasp what’s happening. It’s not so much of a case of “telling instead of showing” as it is “this comes at you quickly and without any real advance warning.” This is probably more true to life with how people act under stress, but… this is fiction. You can show the audience what’s going on. There’s a good reason why some of the best works in the ERS are the long-form ERS Novels that allow characters room to breathe. 

(Also, in #340, the Fat Controller just absolutely rips an engine a new one for causing an accident, in the process completely sidestepping the fact that said engine had a driver and a second man on board the entire time. SiF does their level best to infantilize the engines whenever possible while at the same time making them 100% responsible for the failings of the people around them.)

Another great example of this is Daphne - the NWR’s Deltic that I stole for my own fan works because there’s a solid core to the character, but she’s been sadly let down by the works that follow. In the ERS she has a decently traumatic backstory, with lots of room for expansion of the character or at the very least, hints of other things. However Daphne is at most a secondary character to the ERS, and often appears in other stories, rather than her own. In these, the writers follow a handy rule of thumb for writing her: 

Deltics are loud, and so naturally, Daphne must be loud. Loud people are annoying, so Daphne must be annoying. Because Daphne is annoying, she must often speak without thinking. Because she speaks without thinking, she must be the most irritating bitch anyone has ever seen. 

I mean this seriously. Daphne’s entire role in a lot of the ERS is to show up, say something unintentionally insulting, and then drive away. She had a good introduction to the ERS in book #135, but since then she’s mostly been a loudmouth side character. Even her entry in the ERS guide says so: 

Daphne is best known as the big diesel with the big mouth! There is little denying that she is a good worker when she wants to be, but her occasionally spiky temper, bossiness and boastfulness can often lead to her fall from grace. She also has a knack of speaking without thinking, something that has caused many an upset or unfortunate incident over the years.

This is not an interesting character. This is an annoyance of the highest order and I don’t know why they keep her around.

At no point since her introduction over a decade ago has anyone tried to change this. They let her stagnate in the background while the fucking horse engine gets his own novel! 

-

I apologize, I’m getting slightly off track here. What I’m trying to say is that the ERS fundamentally does not understand its characters, starting at the Fat Controller and working their way down the list. There’s hundreds of episodes of someone getting yelled at for an incident outside their control, even when it’s plainly obvious that it had to be. Characters vary wildly, and act outside of what you would expect, considering when a story might happen in-universe. 

A great example of this is in Book #338. Honey, a new-build diesel shunter, is bought by the Ffarquhar Quarry Company and in short order, pulls every capital-D-Diesel trick in the book to get Mavis replaced… and it works. Mavis is hauled away on a lorry to an uncertain future, (she eventually gets bought by the NWR, don’t worry) with everyone in real fear that she’s going to get scrapped. Now, in my works, Thomas and Co. would probably commit murder; a lot of more normal folks might have the entire Ffarquhar branch in an uproar - something like the deputation that saved Donald and Douglas way back when. 

What SiF does… is nothing. Absolutely nothing. Thomas and Co. not only don’t try and get Mavis back, but they eventually welcome Honey into the branch line family a few books later (ERS #368 – Christmas at Ffarquhar) despite Honey being one of the only engines in the ERS or the original RWS to succeed in her evil mission. 

This is such a fundamental misunderstanding of the characters, starting with the most obvious one - Thomas the Tank Engine - that this almost would have to be set in the 1960s or 1950s. Nobody has grown attached to Mavis yet, and Honey isn’t obviously evil or something. 

Naaaaaaaaaaah. This story canonically takes place in 2018 and Honey speaks in Gen-Z/Millenial slang while actively sabotaging Mavis in broad daylight. I wish I was making this up. 

------

Apologies, I got off track again. 

So, what does any of this have to do with the Express Engines youtube video that I linked up top? 

Well, I think it shows rather clearly how the ERS rather wantonly misunderstands its own characters. Writers far better than I (@mean-scarlet-deceiver) have written pages and pages on the mental states of many of the RWS cast, most notably Gordon, who is the main character of Express Engines.

Again, Jobey has written far more on the subject than I have, but suffice it to say that by 1996 - the “canon” date of Express Engines - Gordon has mellowed out significantly. Even if he thinks that he’s going to be top dog on Sodor forever, he definitely isn’t up his own ass about it like how he was in the early days. He’s getting old and he knows it, and when Pip and Emma eventually do show up in the RWS, he’s remarkably mellow about the whole thing. Granted, that’s about 10-15 years further up the line, but it goes to show that he’s not going to go ballistic or act like a child at the first sign of his dominance being threatened like he might have in the 1930s. 

(Actually, having read all the books, I don’t think he’d act like that at most points after maybe WWII. A lot of his “I’m the fastest and the best!” schtick came from being a very big but very solitary fish in a very small pond, and getting him someone his own size to play with might have taken the edge off of his sense of self-importance.) 

Quite naturally, that’s exactly what he does in Express Engines. 

In the “book” version of the story, the main source of conflict is him lying to newly-arrived Sodor Castle about whistle codes, and this goes directly into the time trial section of the story, before wrapping up with a neat little bow of Gordon going off to get an overhaul. 

As a side note, the SiF-standard infantilization of engines starts off strong with this book. The primary conflict is Gordon feeling threatened by the arrival of a new express engine. What nobody has told him is that said new express engine is there primarily to cover for him when goes in for an overhaul. Why has nobody told him this? Because nobody told him he was getting an overhaul. The poor engine was going insane and picking fights based on literally nothing but a misunderstanding. 

Now, this is all fine and good - it actually reads a lot like Gordon just giving the new kid a hard time while working through his own insecurities, (something we can probably all relate to) but the video adaptation adds more stories, and goes… a lot further. 

For those who haven’t seen it, in the video, Gordon is basically being sidelined to the nth degree following Sodor Castle’s arrival, and it is driving him up the wall. Following the events of Fourth Time Unlucky, which covers the whistle code scene, Gordon and Sodor Castle are in a near constant feud, which comes to a head in the next (all-new) episode Keeping Up With Castle. In it, the primary set piece is a scene that @lswro2-222 called “Gordon McFuckin’ Loses It,” because, frankly, he does. There’s an extended race scene between a borderline-crazy Gordon and an all-too-smug Sodor Castle (seriously, he’s approaching unlikeable levels of smug and snooty) that ends with Gordon dangerously overshooting the platforms at Wellsworth. It’s very well shot, very well edited, has some great voice acting, and absolutely positively does not make sense within any existing characterization of Gordon that I have ever seen. 

I’ve thought about it for some time and maybe if this happened during the height of the modernization plan in the 60s, when everyone’s spirits were at an all-time low, it might have worked. It might have fit with the desperation and malaise of that era, maybe. For this story to take place in the late 90s, this is an almost impossible characterization of Gordon. I hate to be prescriptive of other people’s fan works and go “he would not fucking say that” but… he would not fucking say that. At all. Under any circumstances. It just wouldn’t happen. 

In a similar vein to that, the characterization of the other engines really chafes at me. Sodor Castle shows up, seemingly displacing Gordon to the slow services, and the immediate response is to embrace the newcomer while mocking Gordon. This is perhaps the closest to “canon” I would say the video comes - the engines would do that at first; Gordon getting one-upped so publicly by a Westerner would be hilarious for a good long while. The issue, however, comes from the fact that nobody ever seems to notice that Gordon is legitimately upset by this whole development. They either continue mocking him or actively take Sodor Castle's side, which isn't something you do unless you have a rather strong dislike for someone. Not exactly the way you'd think the engines would act after being shoved together for 50-70 years… unless you write for the ERS. 

Also, I have a particular bug up my ass about Sodor Castle in this video. He's almost too smug and prissy to be likeable. A lot of his lines work really well as singular lines, but the instant you realize the circumstances they're said in it all falls apart. As an example, during the race scene in Keeping Up With Castle, you'd think he'd be concerned or worried when Gordon goes screeching through Wellsworth with his brakes hard on. Even if he dislikes Gordon by now, the passengers must have gone through the far walls of the coaches, and instead Castle takes the time to gloat. It's the little things like that that really get me - the writers are obviously aware of what's going on, and choosing this particular response says a lot in a very unintentional way.

And, on the subject of saying things, I do want to make one point clear: This is not a mean-spirited “takedown” of the ERS. Any fan work that’s gone on for literal decades, with hundreds of distinct stories and characters, is commendable just in the sheer effort exerted by those involved. I will gladly applaud SiF in their work to have a consistent quality and tone to their work, even if it's not one that I universally agree with. 

Furthermore, I like the ERS. While many of the stories in it are misses, when they hit it out of the park, they really do it. The ERS Novels, especially numbers 1, 2, and 9 (The Life & Times Of Jim The Jinx, The Peel Godred Railway, Dockside Engines) are unironically good.

Many of the characters, especially those introduced in the ERS’s early days like Daphne, Winston, Samarkand, Zelda, and the Class 60 trio, are legitimately interesting, and had captivating introductions to the franchise. Sometimes, SiF even predicts the future, adding Pip and Emma to Sodor years before Chris Awdry did, and did so with an excellent set of stories that heavily influenced my own interpretation of the characters.  (and then, in a classic SiF move, they de-canonized those stories once it became clear that they couldn’t be reconciled with new Awdry canon) There is a lot of genuine skill that has gone into the ERS, and it’s definitely influenced the entire TTTE fan community whether you realize it or not. (Everyone calls the works diesel Wendell. Why? SiF named him.) It certainly influenced me, and that’s why I feel the need to write this all out. This series has been a significant part of my life for a significant part of my life, and it disappoints me to no end that it stumbles so often. This isn’t a callout of “you suck,” instead it’s a callout of “do better, please.” 

--------------

This viewpoint has taken me several months to collate into a single thinkpiece. I kicked the idea around for a bit, thought it out more, watched the video a few more times, and then realized that I’d have to talk about SiF a lot. (oh no, what a tragedy.) So here it is. Hope you enjoyed it.

------------

Oh, one other thing. 

While I was watching the video, and thinking about how wrong this all was, and then I thought, “well I’d do this differently.” 

And then I did. 

And then things got very out of hand. 

I may have stolen some characters from SiF. 

(Don’t worry, they’re some of the ones that I like, from the few books that I enjoy.)

Anyway, here's Express Engines. 

2001 

It was barely spring on the Island of Sodor, and already the railway was being pushed to its limits. Congestion at other ports on the mainland had forced more ships into the port of Tidmouth (and, by extension, the ports of Knapford and Arlesburgh), and so the cargo trains got longer and more frequent. 

At the same time, the Easter holidays coincided with a spate of unseasonably early warm weather, so the island was swarmed with people seeking sunny beaches and scenic getaways. Tourist class tickets were in especially high demand, and on some days the Limited and the Midday Express would strain under the weight of five, seven, or even ten third class coaches. 

Fortunately, none of the engines were “down” for heavy maintenance, so while there wasn’t a scrabble to find available motive power, some… interesting schedule choices had to be made. 

-

“Henry, it’s occurred to me that I haven’t seen you leave to pull the Kipper in some time.” Gordon said one morning. 

“I haven’t been.” Henry yawned. “BoCo’s been taking it.”  

“BoCo?” 

“He said yes, don’t worry.” Henry said blearily. 

“But why aren’t you-”

“Because I’m getting about two hours of sleep if I take the Kipper and the morning stopper train, and that’s if someone isn’t snoring loud enough to shake the dust off the ceiling beams.”

“I assure you that I do not-”

“S’not you, you daft thing. It’s James. I think there’s something wrong with him.”

--

Bear growled in displeasure. It was a deep, bass-y sound that seemed to echo through the ground, and Bill and Ben fled back to the clay pits in terror. 

“-and if I catch you pulling that ever again, I’ll be the last thing you ever see!” 

Edward looked on in awe. “Can you teach BoCo how to do that?”

--

Duck goggled. “I think I’ve seen it all now.” 

Emma smiled meekly. “I know it’s a little unusual, but-”

“I didn’t mean it as a bad thing., Duck cut in graciously. 

“Oh thanks.” She looked around. “I wish we didn’t have such a long train, we could probably come down here more often. It’s very pretty-”

“Oi!” cut in Mike, from the Small Railway’s tracks. “What’s wrong wit’ Oliver?”

Looking back, Duck could see Oliver trying and failing to hide from Pip, much to her chagrin. 

“Don’t worry about it! He deserves it!” he said after a moment’s deliberation.

--

“Excuse me,” the big EWS diesel asked as he rolled into Crovan’s Gate with a line of flatbeds. “But is this a heritage railway or something? What are you doing here exactly? Are you on a railtour?” 

“Railtour?” James sniffed. “I’m not a railtour! I'm late! Ta ta!” 

And he steamed away in a hurry. 

“That… didn’t answer my question.”

----

During this time, the Fat Controller was nowhere to be seen. Rumours flew between the coaches and trucks that he was out finding them another engine, but the engines themselves knew better. 

“From where would he find a King class?”

“I don’t know! But there’s a biiiiig engine back there under a sheet, and a bunch of paint all labeled “GW Green” sitting around - more than Duck and Oliver could need put together!”

Well, some of them did. 

“James, what now?” Henry groaned as he rolled into the shed. All he wanted to do was sleep,but it seemed like this wouldn’t happen soon. 

“Look,” James spluttered, as Gordon and Bear stared with skepticism heavy on their brows. “All I know is: Engine, sheet, paint, and soon!”

“Soon?” Bear scoffed. “Soon what? Soon the hols will be over? Soon that summer will come? Show me some proof.”

“Oh for- what about that tarped over thingy that came in last Christmas? I saw it! That’s real!” 

“That could be anything!” Gordon butted in. “There’s dozens of preserved lines that wish to make use of our facilities. For all we know, it is a King class that’s being restored for a museum!”

Henry suddenly felt very bemused. He had something to say now, but it needed to be timed perfectly.

He waited a few minutes, as Bear and Gordon continued grilling James over details that he couldn’t possibly have known. It was quite funny, but not as funny as what he had to say. 

Finally, as his eyelids drooped and his fire died down to embers, he saw his chance. “Excuse me, if I may.” He yawned. Gordon and Bear stopped mid-sentence to look at him. From the startled look Gordon was hiding, it seemed like they’d forgotten he was there.  “But I did overhear from the coaches on the Limited, who themselves overheard from the Fat Controller, that we are getting another engine - just not a King, but instead, a Castle!” 

The reactions of the others were priceless, and held just long enough for him to close his eyes and fall happily to sleep!

-----

The next morning, The Fat Controller arrived as the sun rose. “Well, my ears have been burning all morning,” he said jovially. “So I assume you already know about the new engines,-”

“EngineS?”

----

Last year - around Guy Fawkes Night

Stephen Hatt strode into his office to find his secretary holding the phone about three feet from her ear. Even at that distance, a great commotion was clearly audible. 

“The National Railway Museum for you sir,” she said, straining to keep the phone as far away as possible. “Mind the volume when you answer.” 

He gave her a wide berth and an askance look as he entered his office. Sitting down at his desk, he picked up the handset out of reflex, and quickly set it back down again. Carefully, he moved the phone to the other end of his desk, and pushed the speakerphone button with the corner of a particularly tall book. 

Pandemonium burst forth from the device, and it took a moment for Stephen to pick out the sound of a human voice over what sounded like a fully-involved riot in the background. “Hello? Stephen? Are you there? It’s Andrew. Look, Stephen, I shan’t mince words with you, but we’ve made a terrible mistake and you’re the only person left who can fix it.”

Stephen, having recovered from being assaulted by a wave of sound, raised an eyebrow. “Fix it? I haven’t even been told what the problem is yet!” 

“What? Can you speak up- oh for goodness’ sake!” There was a sound of a phone handset being put down, and then the sound of a door opening. The sounds of the riot became louder and more pronounced for a moment, and then there was a bellow of “QUIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEET!” that shook the phone. 

The door then shut with a suddenly audible click, and then Andrew was back on the phone. “I’m terribly sorry about that.”

“What is happening over there?” Stephen asked, agog. 

“My problem.” Andrew said, his tone hasty. He clearly expected the noise to start up again. “We’ve done some, uh. re-arranging of our collections you see, and two engines were put together who really have no business being anywhere near-”

“CITY OF TRURO I WILL KILL YOU TONIGHT.” A female voice came through loud and clear, to the point where the speakerphone vibrated halfway off the desk. “KEEP TALKING AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.”

Stephen’s expression became slightly more fixed, and he stayed quiet for a long moment. 

Andrew could feel his hesitation. “Please. We haven’t been able to open for three days. They’re on opposite sides of the building and they’re still at it. We have to get one of them off property.” 

“Andrew…” Stephen said slowly. “You do recall that City of Truro had a most remarkable change of fortune some years ago, correct?”

“Stephen,” Andrew was close to begging. “Nobody will take him. We have to do something!” 

“Your use of the word 'we' is very inspired, Andy.” Stephen was actually going to have to get up and walk around his desk to reach the phone. 

“Wait! Wait!” His finger stopped inches from the “end call” button. “We’ll do anything! Name it!” 

The Fat Controller smiled. “Anything, you say?” 

-------

The engine had been brought in under cover - both tarpaulin and darkness. Once it had been delivered, it had been immediately shunted away into a far corner of the works, away from prying eyes. 

It was only then that the cover was removed, and the engine was revealed. A six-coupled Westerner, one of the great Castles of yore. She - and she most definitely was a she - was resplendent in Great Western Green and Gold, complete with all the little filigree marks that only a steam-era Swindon would apply. The paint had barely lost its luster, and it appeared from the outside as though this engine had been shunted through a portal in time. 

The only part of her that showed any age at all was her face. Around her eyes and brows were laugh lines and wrinkles, a generation of smiles and conversation physically worked into the structure of her beauty. 

She wasn’t smiling now, though. Frown lines cut into her face unnaturally, as she sent a venomous glare in the direction of the man standing by her pony truck.

“You were much more compliant back at the Science Museum,” he said, continuing an argument that had been ongoing since the moment he’d arrived in her line of sight. 

“I was valued at the Science Museum,” she snapped, putting heavy weight on the word valued. “And then you deaccessioned me.” 

“We were renovating!” He protested. “I would’ve thought that you would have loved being amongst your own kind. You were to be put in your own special museum!” 

“I was in the Museum longer than I ever was on the rails, but you never cared enough to find out which setting I preferred, did you?” she hissed. “All you wanted was Neil’s job!” 

“Sir Cossons stood down to run English Heritage and you know it.” 

“All I know is that you were in there for less than a month before I was 'better suited for display in York!'” 

“So you could be put in Swindon when the museum there was ready!” 

“But I didn’t want to go to Swindon!” she screeched. “And in any event, This. Isn’t. Swindon! You and Andrew sold me rather than deal with Truro!”

“Truro is more…” 

“Say that he’s more famous than me. Say it. That’s all Showboat Sharp ever cares about. Not that he’s totally unsuitable for public display, or that he-”

“He can keep his mouth shut when Andy tells him to, which is more than I can say about you!” He looked at her with disgust in his eyes. “You are a train! You are supposed to be seen and not heard, and no more!” 

Whatever she was about to say in reply - and it would have been vicious - was cut off by the opening of a distant door. A top-hatted figure emerged from the outside, and made his way towards them. 

“And,” the man whispered. “We didn’t sell you. I gave you away. It’s the only way the fat bastard would take this deal.”

There was a quiet “so glad to be valued...”, but it was lost in the arrival of the top hat wearing man. “Ah, Dr. Sharp, and Caerphilly Castle, I’m Stephen Hatt. Wonderful to meet you both in person.” 

“Charmed.” Lied man and engine as one as a small crowd of workmen filed in behind the man. 

Without prompting, the portly man clambered up onto Caerphilly’s bufferbeam to address the room. To her surprise, he did so gracefully, managing to not snag himself on her lamp irons, and his shoes were sturdy boots that gripped the metal properly. Maybe he wasn’t an officious fop after all?

“Well everyone,” he said, facing the group. “This is the surprise that I have been talking about. Without going into too many details, it seems as though the Science Museum’s recent renovations have left Caerphilly Castle without a home. Now, she was originally relocated to York, however a…” He paused diplomatically. “Certain engine caused much trouble for her there, and she has now made her way to us. I’d like to thank Dr. Sharp, the director of the Science Museum, for this kind contribution to our railway.”

“How much did you pay for ‘er?” came a voice from the front of the group of men. “Was it market value for once?” It was followed by poorly-suppressed laughter from the crowd. 

Even with his face away from her, Caerphilly could see that Stephen’s body language turned slightly defensive, but before he could say anything, Dr. Lindsay Sharp PhD., head of the largest  Science Museum in the United Kingdom, spoke up. “Actually, you have received her gratis.” he said with a smarmy smile. “We’re just glad to see her go to a good home! Hopefully you can put her on display someplace where the public can learn from her.”

Less-suppressed laughter met this. Stephen Hatt turned to look down at the other man. “Lindsay? Forgive me for disagreeing with you in public, but you do know that we intend to restore this engine to traffic, right?” 

There was a not insignificant amount of spluttering and swearing. Dr. Sharp had absolutely not known that. 

Caerphilly hadn’t known either. “You want me… to run again?” she said, not quite believing what she was hearing. 

“Of course!” Stephen said kindly. “Gordon, our primary express engine, is coming up on his boiler ticket, so we need another express engine to fill the gap.” He paused seriously. “Did you think that we were going to stick you on a plinth somewhere?” 

“I… I really did sir,” she said quietly. “I didn’t think that anyone wanted steam engines anymore.” She blinked. “Goodness, if I’d known, I would have insisted on having someone else come with me! Lord knows that Evening Star is never going to run under the current administration.” 

Stephen missed the acid glare she sent Dr. Sharp’s way. “Oh, how funny it is that you mention that. We actually have a 9F that we purchased recently. You’ll be meeting her soon enough, her name is-”

[perseidlion]

The Interview With the Vampire TV show is a perfect example of how adaptations do not have to follow the source material closely to be an excellent adaptation.

(This is a spoiler-free commentary, but it does discuss the dynamics of the characters in general.)

I read the books back in the day, and of course, saw the original movie. Despite a laundry list of big changes, the series still feels extremely true to the books because it captures the spirit. It gets the characters and their fucked-up dynamics right. It doesn't shy away from them being melodramatic monsters. It keeps to the rules established in the source material. The show also makes sure to preserve key moments and key scenes, but always with a twist.

Since they did that, they were free to shift things in time, amp up and adapt certain dynamics, and change the race of characters in a way that deepens the story and complicates already extremely complicated power dynamics.

The original movie stuck more closely to the era and the appearance of the characters as described by Anne Rice, but I don't think the story loses anything by changing those two elements. In fact, it gives it modern relevance and room for political and social commentary.

I have never ascribed to the idea that an adaptation has to be slavishly accurate to the source material to be a good adaptation. It just has to be smart enough to identify what to keep and what can change. An adaptation adapts. Honestly, I find it boring when I see exactly what was in a book up on screen with no surprises. Where's the fun in that?

The difference between a good adaptation and a bad one is not how accurate it is to the source material, but how well the adaptation respects what made the story compelling to begin with.

What's important here?

Lestat is dramatic and powerful and a monster who is deeply charismatic, but also manipulative.

Louis is overdramatic and self-hating, but oddly drawn to Lestat.

Claudia is fierce, but bitter about her eternal childhood.

Their relationship is deeply toxic but with true affection. They are monsters, but monsters capable of intense love and devotion - to the point where it has the power to destroy them.

THAT is at the core of this story. THAT is what they keep intact. This frees up all sorts of avenues for play around a few key plot beats.

This room for play also gives opportunities to expand on thinner characters or rewrite them entirely. It's been a long time since I read the books, but I don't recall Daniel standing out as more than a framing device, especially in earlier books. But in the show, he's one of the best parts. Not only does he take a much more active role in the story, he delivers some of the most hilarious and cutting lines of the entire series. If the show had stuck closely to the source material, we wouldn't have this Daniel.

It was also smart of them to make Claudia a few years older. The eternal child element is preserved, but the layer of arrested teenaged hormones and womanhood that will never blossom adds an extra layer of angst and sadness. She is stuck forever in a state of rebellion, never allowed to settle and come into her own.

Having her be a young Black woman also deepens her attachment to Louis, visually, socially and symbolically. They are different from Lestat and they understand each other in a way he never can. She's still very much the Claudia from the book but with layers added to deepen her character and add new, fresh dynamics and complications.

It's also delightful to see the show take the homoeroticism that was subtextual in the early books with Louis and Lestat (and in the original film) and making it unapologetically text. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles have always been incredibly queer and subversive, but it's amazing to see that side of it fully embraced and stated plainly with no ambiguity or qualifiers or hints. It's queer and that queerness is woven into the fabric of the entire narrative. Louis and Lestat are the toxic beating heart of the Vampire Chronicles.

It's also important because we need messy, dark, fucked-up queer narratives. Sweet, coming-of-age stories and romances are of course, important - especially for younger queer people. But us older queer folk not only want to see ourselves in multiple genres, we want permission to see imperfect, messy, and yes, even evil characters. It's a way of reclaiming the monstrous queer that was villainized for so long and making it our own. We want to find something beautiful in the dark.

If we all thought about it, we could probably think of dozens of examples where a show or movie went far off-script from the source material and was still an excellent adaptation.

Interview With the Vampire is just the most recent and one of the best examples of a stellar adaptation that respects the source material but also builds and expands on it.

I look forward to seeing how they surprise me next season.