#fanficcy in a good way

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

I hope for Good Omens season 3 Neil Gaiman pulls the, "Actually Aziraphale and Crowley don't need to kiss to show they love each other" card because Michael Sheen would personally bomb the Amazon headquarters

[llycaons]

Wei Wuxian had made a joke, once, about how a night owl like he had managed to lure in such an early bird.

I'm quite fond of this author despite all the flaws in their writing so I do feel a little bad saying this. but this does not qualify as a joke. this is barely anything 😭

[kaesaaurelia]

Unfortunately it's not posted yet, but it will be titled Hustler's Blood, it's currently at about 385k words (just writing the denouement) and because my brain goes blank when I finish a fic and get to the summary page I've written that already:

Heaven tasks Aziraphale with tracking down the nefarious demon Crowley in Prohibition-era Chicago. The city is on the brink of a gang war, in the midst of a violent turf war between taxi companies, and many there are still suffering from the lingering trauma of the Great War. But there are good times to be had, so while Aziraphale figures out what he's going to tell Heaven, he and Crowley indulge in some Roaring Twenties decadence.

But when Crowley vanishes, Aziraphale must find him without tipping off the city's own assigned angel, Vehuel. She's determined not to let things in her city get any worse, but Aziraphale just wants his demon back.

Meanwhile, Crowley must contend with the cruelty of Hymie Weiss, Al Capone's rival on the North Side. Weiss is determined to kill Capone and avenge the murder of his best friend, and he's not above using a captured demon to do it.

Shower thought: Crowley, despite being madly in love, is always subverting fanfiction style tropes, he is completely immune.

Kicked out of his flat, perfect opportunity to move into the bookshop without any implications, no thanks I will now live in my car

Aziraphale's "is there anything I can do for you in return wink wink" Crowley: no

I'm convinced they'd get thrown into a "there was only one bed" situation and it would be like

Crowley: don't worry king, I'll sleep on the wall

Aziraphale: but I don't even sleep...

Crowley: *on the wall* dont worry about it

Bruh they'd be under the mistletoe like

Aziraphale: oh my...look at that.

Crowley: don't worry, angel, we aren't bound by botany-related superstitions. Anyway,

Feel free to invent your own in the tags

[lullabyes22-blog]

First of all, I just wanted to say how much I love your Arcane fics. I’ve been following FnF since I stumbled across it at 10 chapters long, and it’s been a wild ride since! Like a lot of people I’ve been all over the place with my feelings regarding season 2, but as far as I’m concerned FnF is my season 2 (and 3, 4, etc.) lol. You’re a gift to this fandom. Thank you for sharing your brilliant mind and imagination with us readers ❤️

You’ve answered some what-if asks and shared other Arcane thoughts on this blog before, so I have two questions for your consideration, but no pressure to answer either of them!

1. As a fellow writer, I’m in awe of the scale of FnF and the amount of planning/outlining that must be involved—HOLY SHIT! Are there any elements of s2 that have inspired you as you continue to write FnF? Have you considered adapting any s2 elements into later chapters (beyond what you’ve already predicted), or have you held fast to a specific Vision throughout the duration of this writing project?

2. Not sure if you’ve been asked this in the past, but what the hell would a living Silco’s reaction be to Vander’s hellish resuscitation as Warwick, assuming he isn’t immediately mauled in a confrontation?? Is Singed (assuming he’s the culprit) definitely fired??? This feels like such a MESSY terrible horrible no-good very bad situation for everyone involved lmao, and I would love to know your thoughts.

Aaaaah thank you so much! I'm super happy you're enjoying the story! I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I'm glad so many other folks are having fun with it as well <333

Also deeply honored you'd consider FnF in any way adjacent to canon material; that means so much T_T Especially since my own feelings on s2 are pretty mixed, and I'm not really sure what I would even do with those ideas, except maybe throw them out as a one-shot sometime down the road.

1. In terms of the s2 inspiration, I will say I was not the biggest fan of the plot's coherence/cohesion as a whole (too much stuff going on in too little time, too many threads left dangling etc). However, I was very gratified by the thematic journeys of the characters in S2, as in FnF they're actually following a similar trajectory (except for Silco who is, well, dead), and a lot of the same conflicts and themes are coming up. There was a happy sense of vindication that came from that, like, "Oh, so this was actually important, and not just me making a fanficcy mountain out of a molehill."

I will say though, that FnF has its own pretty airtight-ish plot, with many aspects already sketched out in advance, so I'm not going to go re-plotting things to match s2's direction unless and until it becomes necessary. In some ways, tbh, there's a sense of gleeful overlap, as a lot of the plot beats do mirror one another. (The Black Rose make an appearance by Act VII, there's a greater emphasis on magic and high fantasy going forward, Jinx is in the grip of an identity/existential crisis and Vi is stuck at a crossroads, Jayce has become disillusioned and split with Mel, Viktor has retreated underground and will be withdrawing deeper into his work, Ekko will be the one to snap Jinx out of a critical juncture and save Zaun in the long term, Sevika will take a greater leadership role etc...) All of the parallels if not the outright similarities were pretty satisfying.

As for how that's manifesting, a lot of the major developments and character arcs going forward are largely set in stone, but I do have a few key S2 events/details I've been mulling over in the background that I can see myself weaving into the plot at some point. But the rest is probably best kept as a surprise :>

2. As for the hellish resuscitation, well, I'd be lying if I said I haven't been thinking about that one a lot hehehe...

But long story short:

Singed is 100% fired because there is NO WAY Silco would sanction such a thing - and if it occured in the FnF universe, then Singed was absolutely doing it behind Silco's back and will now face the full consequences.

 As for Warwick himself - he'd 100% retreat to Silco and Vander's little Brokeback bunk in the mines. And Silco would 100% don his old mining duds and dustry greatcoat and go looking for him, because he needs to be SURE it's not just a rumor, and also because he does, subconsciously, desperately want it to be his Vander. And Vander, who has a good measure of the old Vander's memories, and is 100% aware it's not a rumor, because hello: deranged wolfman, will 100% run towards Silco with every intention of tearing him to pieces.

And that is where the similarities end.

Because Vander is too deeply trapped within Warwick's killer shell, and is therefore incapable of having an emotional reunion with anyone, and because Silco is not an idiot and would never go into a skirmish without a loaded gun and an escape route, the end result would be bloody, messy and tragic.

Worst case scenario: both men would kill each other, and in their final death throes, find boyhood memories resurfacing. They'd die in tears, messily and bloodily entwined, but finally at peace with their own demons - which is how Jinx and Vi, teaming up similar to S2, would find them.

Best case scenario: Silco would find Warwick and be forced to try and capture and contain him. He'd enlist Sevika's help and succeed, but when Jinx finds out, she'd be appalled and retraumatized, and convinced Silco is trying to erase her dead dad and supplant him in every sense. She'd go off the rails and have a complete breakdown, and Vi would be the one she'd run to, because Vi is the only person who understands and cares. The sisters would end up teaming against Silco to try and bust WarVander out, and this would cause an irreparable rift between Silco and Jinx.

Cue mass destruction and an epic family feud.

Sevika, who'd be the only person left in Silco's circle of trust, would have to make the call to have Warwick quietly killed in order to save the city from a war, and then lie to Silco, telling him Vander succumbed to his own madness and perished. This would cause Silco's mental state to completely disintegrate. He'd lose what little sanity he had left, and would descend into a pit of guilt and grief.

 Either way, it's a pretty awful tragedy on both sides, and it would take the entire remaining plot of FnF to resolve the fallout, and for Jinx and Vi to find any kind of peace.

So you can see why I've been mulling a lot, but also left it alone haha.

But who knows?

Maybe the story will change my mind, or I'll be struck by some miraculous idea and figure a way out, though I'm doubtful.

Thanks again for the lovely words and thoughtful questions! They really mean a lot <3

[glazedsnail]

Fanficcy

We're closing in to the end (not yet there's like at least 4 parts left lmao)

Misery Loved Company

ShanexOCFarmer (♀️) 18+ / swear words/substance misuse/explicit/suicide ideation/mention of abuse/Blood/injury

I know a good fanfic writer links her parts but I don't feel like it tonight I dribbled tea on my chest and that's tea that'll never end up in my belly.

Look at my family waiting for the jellyfishes. I'm taking Jas with me and there's nothing you can do about it.

Look at us all purple fresh and then there's goober with brown hair smh.

(I have a full folder of screenshots that can last me until I actually play the game again) (I had purple hair/green eyes combo before even knowing the existence of Shane this was truly meant to be)

‘Ok she’s back. Thank you Maru.’

‘I’m back?’

‘The hematoma isn’t new, do you recall when it might have happened?’

‘What do you mean I’m back?’

‘You dozed off a little, Maru got the blood needed. Fern, do you remember anything?’

‘Yes, I mean, yes. I fell face first. What’s this? How do you know my blood type?’

Harvey sighs, I’m obviously being difficult. Maru is softly laughing, removing the empty perfusion bag from the stent in my arm.

‘We have your medical records, on top of having a bank of universal donors if you want to know everything. Now can you answer MY questions? Fern?’

‘My medical records?’

‘When did you fall? Was that before the cut? Do you feel nauseous?’

‘Last night, or early this morning I’m not sure. I’m sorry.’

‘You are in a safe space, alright? Maru thank you again for the stitches. If anyone’s still outside let them know she’s fine.’

The young nurse starts walking towards the door.

‘But no one is allowed in until I say so, is that clear?’

She nods, getting herself ready. 

‘Ok Fern’ Harvey starts ‘I’ll keep you in tonight for observation. But tomorrow we’ll have to send you to Zuzu city for an MRI, alright?’

‘What about my arm?’

‘It was deep, but the shards missed any major arteries or tendons. You’ll get some blisters from the boiling water but’

‘Wait a minute, how do you know?’

He chuckles.

‘Wow you were really out weren’t you? You told us about the glasses and the tea and all.’

‘And all?’

‘Actually that was pretty much it. Do you want to keep the pieces of glass Maru extracted?’

He casually hands me a porcelain bowl with glistening small bits of glass, bloodied gauze, and a pair of tweezers. 

‘I, huh.’

‘I’m joking’ he adds, replacing the bowl on its tray. ‘There’s a bell if you need anything during the night. Anything urgent that is. I’ll phone Gus, see if Emily can deliver you some dinner. Craving anything in particular?’

‘I’m not hungry.’

‘The fusspot special then. Fern you’ve lost a lot of blood, you need to eat. I’ll be upstairs, ok?’

He disappears behind the curtains and I hear the door closing. It’s odd to have a friend turn on their bedside manners…

I feel so silly. Everything hurts so much. And I’m terrified of the town speculations.

Marnie did see it happen, she’d be able to help me dismiss any rumours. Then again, this is the perfect opportunity for her to confirm her narrative. That I’m way too unstable for Shane. 

What a thing to say. Coming to my house, waste my tea, drink my juice. Question my sanity. Forbid me to see her nephew. Nephew who made it clear he didn’t want to see me anyway.

I fall back on the large pillow with a sigh. The stitches are already itchy. The hospital gown is thin like toilet paper. The duvet is too thick. The perfusion stent is uncomfortable. Wait, hospital gown? How long was I out? Where are my clothes?

I’m too upset.

And hungry.

I pass my hand on my tired face. I try to remember what happened and what was said during the panic. I think about Vincent and Jas. Way to traumatise a generation. I carefully touch the bump on my forehead. “I’ll take you to Harvey’s in the morning.” He said. I scoff. Right. I didn’t believe a word he said anyway. That whole date was an absolute disaster. I had no fun, no laugh. Nothing. I faked through the whole ordeal. Comfortable arms? Soft lips? Warm smile? Kind eyes? … I slap myself. Left hand against my forehead.

‘Ow, ouch, oh what a fucking idiot’ I wince, folding myself over in pain. I never want to see him ever again.

Someone knocks on the door and doesn’t even wait for an answer to open. I assume it’s Emily with my food. ‘Ugh Emily I’m so happy to see you. I hope you brought something good, I’m starving. I have so much to tell you, you’re… Oh. It’s you.’

The curtain opened and out appeared Shane, holding a box.

‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, crawling back under the duvet.

‘Emily told me she had to deliver this to the hospital. I knew it was for you, so…’

‘Very professional of Emily I see…’

He puts the box on the bedside table and grabs a chair.

‘I’m not going to beat around the bush, Fern. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left so abruptly last night.’

‘It’s ok, no sweat.’ I lie.

‘It’s absolutely not ok. It’s never ok. Especially after… the time we spent together.’

My thighs tense up at the reminder. I try really hard not to look at him, lest I see his lustful eyes and sleazy smile on top of me, his sweaty body all over my naked skin.

I shiver.

Well that was an exercise in futility.

‘What do you want.’ I say in the coldest tone I can while my brain showers me with millions of images of me and Shane completely naked. 

Hardly appropriate. ‘I mainly came to see how you’re doing.’

‘I’m fine.’ I cut short

‘Do you mind telling me what happened?’

‘Ask your aunt.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You heard me.’ I’m bitter. Who wouldn’t? ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, Fern. Did Marnie come to visit you?’

I scoff. How dare he?

‘Shane, please, don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining, ok?

‘At least look at me.’

‘No.’

‘Fern, I’m sorry I hurt you. Leaving you there, in the chicken coop I… Well I panicked. I simply panicked. I don’t have any excuses other than I fucking panicked. Remembered how and why I was being so… rude to you in the first place, and seeing how we were now, it just…What if in the end I’m just… reverting back to that jerk… Fern, look at me!’

‘You know there’s a bell I can tug at to get Harvey down.’ 

‘You wouldn’t do that.’

‘Try me’

‘You wouldn’t bother anyone to get rid of me, one, you’re too polite, and self conscious. And two, for some reason I can’t understand you.. Like me? Still?’

‘So you came here to insult me, I see.’

He carefully grabs my heavily bandaged arm.

‘Did you… do that yourself?’

‘I said ask your aunt.’

‘Did SHE do that?’

I chuckle, what an idiot.

‘Yes, actually. She came in and said “if you touch my nephew again I’ll cut your arm, worthless farmer!” and did this to show me she wasn’t kidding.’

He laughs, the bastard.

‘Fern’

‘It’s not that far from the truth, you know.’

He stays silent, dumbfounded.

‘W-what?’ He stutters after a moment. I finally look at him. He’s out of his Joja uniform, making me realise how long I did pass out. He looks even more tired than usual. And worried. His cold hands are cradling mine, softly rubbing it with his thumbs. He brings it to his lips and kisses it. His other hand reaches my hair he tucks behind my ear.

‘Nasty bump there.’

‘See, I ended up at Harvey’s without your help’

He bites into his lip and looks down. We stay silent for a while, his hand rubbing mine, and I feel terrible to play with him like that. I, probably, didn’t need to bring Marnie in the conversation, when he’s already confused. ‘I broke a glass, in…Hum, in anger. And instead of, you know, doing the sensible thing like going to the hospital, I spend too long trying to fix it myself…’’ 

He softly kisses the bandages. I remember him seeing the wound and asking what I did, in the panic of it all. I kinda see where he’s coming from. But I’ll never admit it.

‘So’ I start ‘ What did Gus prepare for me?’

‘I actually don’t know, I just grabbed the box and left.’ He hands me the warm lunch box.

‘No notes this time?’ He dares say, in a laugh.

‘Like you’re in a position to make jokes. Aw! Some fried mushrooms and eggplant parmesan. Nice.’

‘So, does he know your favourite too then?’

‘Only one of them is my favourite’ I say, biting into a mushroom. ‘I’ll let you guess which one.’

‘I’m a terrible cook but I’m willing to try.’

I almost choke on my mushroom bite. Who said anything about cooking what for who now. I sigh.

‘He also packed some cookies. Do you, erm. Do you want to join me and grab some?’

‘You don’t want me to leave you alone? You won’t ring on Harvey?’

I laugh.

‘If anything happens, know that I have the power to make him come down in an instant!’

‘What pyjamas do you think he wears?’

‘I can ring to find out.’ I joke, extending my arm to the chord.

He laughs, timidly, and smiles at me. I smile back. I can’t fight it. I shuffle slowly to the side and pat the bed.

‘Come on. Let’s have a cookie sleepover.’

He chuckles and joins me.

‘Aren’t you cold in that gown?’ He asks, looking at me out of the cover, before lifting it for himself. ‘Oh shit that’s heavy duty stuff.’

‘Yeah I barely need the gown at all, it’ll make me sweaty.’

He laughs, locking his eyes into mine. I feel myself breathing heavily, looking back at him. He softly caresses my cheek, my neck, reaches my shoulder and undo the first knot of the hospital  gown. He sighs, breathing heavily too.

‘Harvey could hear us’ I say in one whisper, helping him put the box of food aside and get rid of his belt.

‘I’ll have to keep you quiet’ he says in my ear. I shiver, let him devour my neck, climb slowly, delicately, on top of me.

‘Watch for the stent.’

‘I’ll be very careful, the softest.’ He slowly inserts himself inside of me with incredible ease. He tries to conceal a groan as he feels my wet inside surrounding him, ready for him.

He breathes heavily against my neck. I grab him, letting him fall completely into me. He moves ever so slowly, making me taste every inch of him in a delicious soft dance, punctuated by his breathing and low growl.

‘You ok baby? I’m not hurting you?’

I shiver.

‘N-no’ I whisper back ‘This feels..Ah..Great.’

I fail at concealing a moan. Shane softly covers my mouth with his hand.

‘Shh. You’re gonna get us caught.’ he whispers directly in my ear, moving with the only goal of making me explicitly squeal.

He’s enjoying it. This is outrageous. I’ve never been so turned on in my life. 

‘That’s my good girl.’ He looks at me, still covering my mouth, moving his hips to overwhelm me, forcing me to stay silent. I try to keep my muffled whimpers as down as possible.

‘Shane…’

He kisses me with such intense softness. I grab the back of his head, kissing him back. My eyes are getting wet from the multiple sensations, the edges of pleasures Shane is balancing me on. The risk of getting caught, the self-inflicted restriction of making any kind of noise, while subjected to the creaking of the bed, the wet sound of our bodies merging, and his slow breathing against my skin. 

I lift my bandaged arm to him.

‘Ha shit.’

‘Are you ok?’

‘Yeah I’m sorry ah.. No, don’t stop… It’s only my arm. I almost forgot why I was there.’

‘Almost?’ He replies, kissing all the free skin he can find. ‘Then I’m not doing a good job.’ he laughs, moving inside me, making me yelp.

‘Shane!’

‘Shh.’

‘You certainly are enjoying yourself’ I say between gasps and heavy breathings. ‘Are you not?’ He asks, attacking me with a stronger thrust.

‘Fuck, Shane!’

‘I said: “are you not?”’ I yield, like I’m able to do anything else. ‘I am…’ I grab him by the back of his head, locking him with my legs. ‘ I love feeling your hard cock inside my warm pussy.’ I feel him try to conceal a spasm. Despite it all, it seems I know how to get the upper hand.

‘Fern…’ 

I’m overstimulated by his slow passionate fuck, the low sound of his whispering voice.

‘F-Fern.’ he repeats, slowly moving between my legs.

He buries his head in my neck. I bite into his shoulder. Tears fall down my temples as I conceal a scream, barely. I hear him growl, feel him tremble, feel his warmth covering my walls. 

‘Fuck Fern I’m sorry.’

‘It’s ok… It’s ok, don’t worry. No please stay… stay inside of me…’ 

‘I couldn’t…Control anything I’

I laugh

‘Shane it’s fine. Come don’t worry.’ I grab him back to let him fall on me, give him some rest. He works on getting his breathing back to normal, I play with his hair, feeling my heart pumping in my chest. I try to process how we came at the same time, like two stupid romance protagonists. I laugh to myself. After a while, disappointingly, he slips down next to me.

‘Are you gonna leave?’ I try to sound completely disinterested whatever he chooses. After all, about an hour ago I said I didn’t want to see him ever again. Then I saw him again, and invited him on my hospital bed, made him comfortable in between my legs, cried at the overwhelming pleasure he inflicted on me I… I need to stop and reevaluate my convictions. ‘No, unless you want me to.’

‘I guess you got what you came for.’

‘Fern’ He shuffles against me, moving his fingers delicately on my tender skin. ‘I know you don’t believe that of me.’

‘There’s been precedent.’

‘I had no clue this would happen’ he simply says, now kissing my chest ‘It’s certainly not why I came here.’

‘Then why?’

‘I still haven’t had any of those cookies for starters’

I slap his shoulder, failing to push him off the bed. He has no right to make me laugh.

He gains back his composure and sits up. ‘First of all, I wanted to check on you.’ He grabs me in his arms, making himself more comfortable on the hospital bed. He accidentally pushes his shorts, all with belt and set of keys, off the mattress. It all falls in a loud repeating clink of noises. We both brace ourselves, keeping an ear out for “old man Harv’” running down the stairs. Nothing. Fortunately. We both sigh and he continues. ‘When Caroline ran into Joja she was white as a sheet. She was shouting for Harvey. I was trying to calm her down and help her find the doc but then she said your name.  I let her there, and took off. As stupid as it was of me. She was panic stricken, about something that happened to you. I was so scared.’ I see his eyes shifting left and right. The memories of this afternoon are mixing with distant ones. Distant memories of hurt loved ones he’ll never be able to process. He wasn’t there. He couldn’t be there. It haunts him. I grab his shaking hand.

‘And then I saw everyone outside the clinic. Jas ran to me, crying. Penny’s hands covered in blood. I tried to ask what happened, Jas was crying on my shoulder. I got no answers. I had to run in. This.. rush overrode every sense in me, telling me I had to see you now, just in case.’  He’s trembling. I realise he’s having some sort of PTSD episode. I catch him, pulling him towards me.

‘Take a deep breath, Shane. You’re fine. I’m fine. It’s ok.’ I cradle him in my arms, swaying side to side, softly humming. ‘I did tell you about Jas’ parents.’

I nod, feeling the tears gathering in my eyes.

‘And you did the best you could. For her, and for yourself.’

I tightens my arms around him as much as my injury and this stupid stent allow me. ‘I’m fine, Shane. Look at me. All I’ll get is a stupid scar. We’re all fine, ok?’

He removes himself from my arms.

‘I’m sorry, I…I’m not sure what happened.’ He says, wiping his wet eyes.

‘You’ve had to process so much on your own, to keep strong for others, on your own.’ I recall Marnie’s words from this afternoon, asking me to leave Shane alone, for his own sake. Is she right? Would I bring him down? I’m in such a better place than ever before, that’s got to count for something, right? I don’t want to die anymore.

‘Fern?’

‘What?’

‘I said “how’s your arm?” You’re rubbing it.’ I didn’t even realise I’ve been doing that.

‘It’s ok. Harvey said it looked fine. He even asked if I wanted to keep the shards but he was joking.’

He laughs ‘That’d be kinda cool.’

‘Right? And he just threw them away.’

‘What if he actually keeps everything and has a collection box or something.’

‘Shane that’s so gross’

‘I know but imagine, everything that’s been inside someone’s body! A Pelican Town time capsule, a keepsake of some sort.’

‘So, he’s got shards of glass from me, what else?’

‘Well, I’m not sure how well pumped stomach content would keep.’

‘Oh of course, that night…’ 

I look to the side, to the empty bed in the corner Shane was occupying that night I stumbled upon him on the cliff. Harvey had done a great job preventing Shane from falling to alcohol poisoning. I shudder at the idea of what could’ve happened.

Shane grabs my chin, turning my head to him instead of the empty bed full of bad memories.

‘I’m fine.’ he says, knowing exactly what I was thinking about. ‘I mean, not…”fine”, but, I’m ok.’ he quickly adds, laughing. 

‘Can you stay with me a little longer?’ I ask, nuzzling into his chest. ‘I don’t want to be alone in this room.’

‘You can always ring for Harvey to come down’ he answers with a grin. ‘Yeah, you know what. I might. He seems like a good cuddler. Good night, Shane.’ I reply, turning my back on him and covering myself with the heavy blanket. ‘Don’t forget your pants on the way out.’

He laughs, I feel him shuffling down, lying next to me. He passes his arm under my neck and intertwines his fingers with mine. I’m too stunned to say anything. His other arm is resting on my waist, his hand on my chest. His leg pushes mines to insert himself in between.  I hear him sigh, and he kisses the top of my head.

‘G’night, baby’ he says in a soft whisper.

I’m, err, surprised? Pleasantly surprised that is.

I can’t help but feel bitter. I should have told about Marnie, about what she wants, what she knows, from his own mouth.

I didn’t say anything, I let him make love to me. Ha! Let him. Like I didn’t want it as much, if not more. I let him weaken me, make me laugh, remind me that I fell in love with him. He genuinely seems to not know about Marnie’s little visit. It wouldn’t be his choice. If he didn’t want me around he wouldn’t be spooning me right now.

But perhaps Marnie’s right. I can be a bad influence on him. All my talks about trying to be together and see, were they just to serve me? I don’t know properly why I fell for him. The only certain thing is that I want him happy. Do I want it enough to let him be happy without me? What if his happiness is kept at bay because of me? Every day he’d look at me and know that I tried to kill myself once. I can’t possibly bring him any good.

I can’t choose for him.

He holds me closer, as if to calm my troubled thoughts.

‘Good night, Shane.’ I finally whisper back.

[anthurak]

Sooo... I just watched the new Gundam SEED movie, and I'd like to regale you all with a story.

You see, somewhere between ten and fifteen years ago, I can't recall precisely when, I made a theory entry on the TvTropes Wild-Mass Guessing page for Gundam Seed, concerning one Lacus Clyne.

For some context, Seed holds special distinction as the show that really got me into Gundam. It wasn't my first ever Gundam, that honor goes to the venerable Mobile Fighter G-Gundam, but it was first Gundam I really got into as a fan, and from there the rest of the franchise followed.

Now this theory came about as I had recently noticed some... odd little details about Lacus at certain points. Namely that she seemed to be able to sense certain people in a very TELLING way. Specifically, during the final battle of the original Seed, when Rau Le Creuset attacks the Eternal, Lacus makes a curious comment of "What is that...?", the same question MU and KIRA previously asked when 'sensing' Rau with their not-Newtype powers. Essentially implying that Lacus is somehow also able to 'sense' Le Creuset.

And then later in Destiny, Lacus happens to do this again, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where she seems to 'sense' Kira's approach and presence right before he arrives in the Strike Rouge to protect the Eternal.

Now the funny thing is, across both SEED and Destiny it appeared that the only people to exhibit these not-Newtype psychic powers were those connected with the vague and mysterious so-called 'Ultimate Coordinator Project' that apparently created Kira; Mu, Rau, Kira himself, and later Rey Za Burrel in Destiny.

So with that in mind, the conclusion I drew was that the shows were implying that Lacus was somehow ALSO connected to this project, perhaps even being another so-called 'Ultimate Coordinator' just like Kira. For one, she seems to have all of the same stranger traits that Kira himself has, namely again those 'not-newtype' senses, and even the even more vague and mysterious 'SEED Mode'.

Thusly I made the theory entry on the TvTropes page with all the evidence I had.

And over the next ten years, this theory drifted completely from my awareness along with my interest in SEED as a whole. Mostly due to realizing that other Gundam shows were actually a lot better than Seed.

Up until tonight, when I was reminded of my theory during my viewing of Gundam SEED Freedom.

Specifically when the movie revealed that somehow, my theory from 10+ years ago was actually FUCKING RIGHT on the GODDAMN MONEY.

Needless to say, I think my reaction to this earned me a few dirty looks in the theater.

Oh, and the movie was... alright.

VERY fanficcy. In the good AND bad way.

[divinekangaroo]

Do you think Tommy and Lizzie storyline in the show intended for a slow burn?

As in, was the S5 and S6 relationship intended from S1 or S2? No, I didn’t think so.

But do I think who they are together in S5 and S6 is consistent and a feasible outcome based on all seasons worth of characterisation? Yep, with some minor reservations about Lizzie - I felt she had some giant leaps in characterisation between seasons that are difficult to swallow without assuming she had big experiences off screen. But her focus on Tommy was always there so the hmmm moment is more about Lizzie herself than about Lizzie x Tommy being conceivable or not.

Each season of PB is so different in terms of focus and plot style and theming, and each character is shown with a different slice/take on who they are, I imagined a writing approach roughly like ‘what lens or frame or plot type do we want to show/explore this season? What if Tommy’s married this season? What if he’s drug addicted this season? Let’s throw these developed characters in together into X type of situation and see how they react this time around.’ But with a very strong focus on what the characters experienced prior so the consistency/development is evident with hindsight, rather than as something planned moving forward. The time gaps between seasons and how all the characters have moved on so far from where they were also lends itself to this.

There’s always been something that feels a bit fanficcy about PB to me, and I think what that is, is they built very good characters and a strong setting, but then tested so many different story types, plot types, trope types etc across the seasons it was a little like the way fanfiction tests defined characters in different frameworks.

Hope that makes sense?? I feel clumsy about explaining that sensibility, but hope it comes across. it’s one of the things I like most about the show, these gaps and possibilities between what we actually see on screen. Sometimes I think this desire to have everything explicit and unambiguous is making for some very boring media, and PB really subverts that trend from S3 onwards.

[stevielicious]

hey, I wanna let off some steam and write up a couple of imagines or just scenarios. I could never write a fic but the only way I’m gonna get rid of these thoughts are if I write them up. the last time I had written about anything fanficcy was a good six years ago so bare with me lmao. if you like the way I write, drop a request, I won’t mind!

stay sweet🍬x

[dude1818]

System Collapse by Martha Wells became available at my library on Monday and I finished it tonight. That was a very good Murderbot book

I wasn't expecting an immediate sequel to Network Effect, and in some ways it feels a little tacked on (surprise! second colony), but it works well as a standalone adventure. It was very interesting seeing SecUnit interact with the colony's central system throughout the story, and I'm intrigued about the new rogue SecUnit that's staying undercover

Only real complaint is that it's starting to read more fanficcy in some way. I don't know if this is accurate, but it feels like the asides to the audience (and the nested asides) are coming more frequently, and at a certain point that gets distracting

[whatiwillsay]

You say both Toe and Tily were real but i don't think people can fall in love in same time two different people and to write devastating passionate love songs for two different people in same time so that mean either Toe was real and Tily was just a made up gaylor theory or Tily was real and Toe was a long term bearding arrangement

we have fundamental disagreements on the diversity in human beings capacity to love or be attracted to multiple people at the same time.

but i do have vetted info direct from a good source that claims joe and taylor were on and off for a good portion of their relationship including during rep tour (when lily was traveling with taylor). we have another confirmed timeframe from jack in late 2021 that taylor wrote you’re losing me about joe then only to get back with him later and taylor’s team confirmed when they broke up for good that they had broken up before.

just because you couldn’t fall in love with two people at the same time doesn’t mean others can’t. look into polyamory for example.

taylor has a bunch of songs about cheating from betty to illicit affairs to high infidelity. what are these songs about if she didn’t get involved with two people at the same time?

furthermore while i enjoy doing a lot of lily lyric analysis and think concluding that some songs are about her is an extremely reasonable take to have, it’s possible taylor had a fling with her and all the london lover songs are still about joe. so all the passionate love songs are just about one person.

and here’s one last theory for good measure. this is a little too fanficcy for my taste and i don’t really believe it but plenty of other people around the blog and pod are open to it so on their behalf- it’s possible joe started out as a fake relationship to cover for lily and then taylor and joe ended up falling for each other accidentally. “i hate accidents except when we went from friends to this” and “we were supposed to be just friends” are lyrics that come to mind that could be describing that.

all in all it’s really impossible to know for sure and maybe tily wasn’t a thing but joe really doesn’t get in the way of tily at all.

[commander-minkowski]

finally watched go2. hmm. I have mixed feelings

scope creep was always going to be a HUGE problem with a story like this even getting a second season, so I was prepared for that, but I underestimated just how far the stakes would fall. none of the major plotlines felt like they had any tension or sense of urgency AT ALL.

the gabriel mystery had a surface-level feeling of momentum, but none of the underlying structure of a mystery. what I mean by that is that there were red herrings, there was foreshadowing, but there was no systematic laying out of clues that would allow the characters OR the audience to solve the mystery before it was explained through flashbacks in the last episode. practically all of the "clues" we get (with the exception of that one closeup of the fly ig) end up being irrelevant misdirects. I get the sense that the fake-out of something sinister happening (a cursed jukebox, the resurrectionist) was meant to be funny or whimsical but it just fell flat.

shax is not an interesting or intimidating antagonist in the slightest and never does anything that actually affects anything. she's just there when the plot needs some conflict, and that conflict is quickly and lazily resolved each time.

muriel's total naivete pulls the urgency out of the other major plotline, c and a needing to make nina and maggie fall in love. so many times things are set up that you expect will be a huge issue later on, only for them to be resolved within five minutes due to a plot convenience or sheer dumb luck.

also, this may be a matter of preference, but I don't think crowley and aziraphale work well as THE protagonists. their whole thing is frittering around, weaseling out of getting stuff done, and wasting time until they're absolutely backed against the wall and have to move or die while other, more dynamic characters drive most of the plot. and this is not a bad thing! it's what their characters are written to do in the book and in season 1 and they do it very well!! it just doesn't work in this season and imo contributed to if not created a lot of the problems above

all the new side characters were hugely underdeveloped.

idk there was some stuff I liked. crowley living in his car with his little plants was funny. the art direction/sets/costumes/special effects were gorgeous. muriel was cute. the kiss and the breakup were very satisfying in an angsty, fanficcy way. like, this was an enjoyable season for the most part. they just forgot to put the good in it methinks

[belowzion]

Helluverse Rewrite: Chapter 1, the Themes of Hell

This is a complete rewrite of the Hellaverse me and my friend are busy daily to write. At the end of this, we will be completely changing the characters looks, feels and even voices. Until then, enjoy the ideas we've thrown into the Fanficcy version of what we thought was squandered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hell is other people, Arackniss. Its not the fire that burns the soul here."

-Angel Dust I feel like every story and universe should be based around the ideas and themes of what it tries to convey. The world should be built around what might be the most interesting setting for the main characters to be put in. Thankfully, Hell has MANY messages it can convey due to it housing 7 9 Circles. Based off of Dantes Inferno in that regard, we have given each of these Circles their own themes and ideas.

However, the most general idea between all of this has been... Hell being other people. In Hell, the Sinner usually reaps what they've sown. They are given a second chance. They spawn in these large, dormitory-like buildings, for the first year of their life... If they are NOT immensely sinful. Special cases are made for people that have excessively sinned their entire life. However, most end up in Hell. It does not matter if you're good or evil, if you did not pray to God, you will never pass through those pearly gates.

For a month, the sinner has their rights of signing their souls away, taken away. For a MONTH. They are given a set of special education as to what will happen here, how they might best survive in Hell and how they should live like.

"Hell encourages immorality, baby~ Only way to survive here is to find that inner peace! That being, accepting yourself for the scum you are~"

-Valentino

Valentino is one of these cases. Mikhail "Milo" Tarantino was a... yoga teacher. Not a very high place to be in, not what you'd expect of a future pimp lord. The man was not very sinful, however, we're talking about the type of yoga teacher that hangs out with your wife behind your back. Tarantino would encourage finding ones inner peace, to accept yourself for who you are.

When he died and spawned in Hell, he embraced that idea... He no longer hid who he truly was. Became a ruthless pimp lord that held the chains of untold amounts of sex-workers.

You see, in order to survive in Hell, sinners will have to completely give up their humanity... or be a victim to many creative ways demons and sinners take advantage of them. In Hell, morality is dead, many things we illegalize in the name of goodness is allowed and most of law-enforcement happens through whatever Demon Lord runs the city to protect their citizens... well, if you're a valuable citizen to protect. If a cannibal decides to serve themselves with you and no one knows your name, they can do that at the side of the road.

This of course, encourages absolutely ABHORRENT behaviour. It encourages the worst aspects of humanity to come out, defiling whatever God had in mind as their image of perfection to be, twisting them into demons.

The vilest of sinners however, usually meet their end by recklessly indulging in their sins too much...

"The Bubs here seem to follow in her footsteps, accepting of outsiders with dignity and grace. While these oversized insects seem to share their queens hospitality, the sinners that seem to come here, may end up in a worse shape than before… They see a Bub, taking out a sinner with a wheelbarrow, deceased, fattened to the brim as honey leaks out of its mouth… maybe they are taking out to bury the poor gu- he brought the over-indulgent sinner to his family… where they immidietly begin cutting up the sinners corpse, and set up a barbecue to prepare it for consumption… The only crime bigger than to deny food, after all, is to deny food the chance of becoming something Worth overindulging in."

This... is the idea of Hell. I hope you like reading these as I'd love to keep summarizing my thoughts here more and more. Please, leave any feedback and criticism you feel is valid as I am open to any ideas and inspirations.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

As a firm hater of 'forgive the bad guy or you would be as bad as him uwu', the brutality of his final send off did make me happy but I do think that implying that the heroes would simply leave him there forever would not have been a good look for them. Try to kill him to end his suffering!!!! But also fail at it.

Eh I mean the protagonists’ complete lack of moral complexity was something I found very dull to begin with in the duology. It needed more ethical quandaries! So I find that a pretty boring dichotomy.

But also I struggle to take a lot of that plotline seriously because it feels so fanficcy and thematically cut off from the trilogy. Either way I wouldn’t read it as brutal rather than like a character hyping cool moment. He gets to not only save the day but doesn’t even have to feel bad about a single thing he did lmao. There’s also the element of like only thee most important and powerful person can save the world and he’s the only person cool enough to do it! It’s very indulgent and aggrandizing lol

[booasaur]

Did you watch the new promo clip? With Cruz, Joe and Kaitlyn? 1x07 is going to make me cry, I just know it. T_T

Oh, I did, I was just giffing it.

I'm a little surprised both that they released a clip that reveals so much and tha by this point in ep 7, some pretty big stuff's already gone down? That Cruz and Aaliyah have talked about their relationship, possibly even more when the transmitter was off, that Kaitlyn and Joe know about it.

I guess I'm used to much slower pacing for this kind of thing, or just less things happening at all. But I have to remember, the ship isn't the thing here, it's just a device to up the stakes and frankly, is just as soapy as the rest of Taylor Sheridan's writing.

I'm still so shocked that I'm watching this unfold on a Taylor Sheridan show and as much as I know it's going to end badly, I just want to say up front, when it does, I will still be incredibly sad and angry! I'm not gonna take a single lesson from this!

Also, I have to say, I'm pissed that we're having to watch THIS show to get this kind of central fanficcy ship, what's everyone else doing? There's a reason it's grabbed so many people so quickly, actually, my friend binged all the eps this week and while she had many criticisms of the show and writing itself, lol, she did have this to say about the ship itself:

It's kinda normal to have this ..... draw. To stuff like this. Okay yeah, it's because these are very beautiful women, absolutely. But secondly, there is something about a storyline with high stakes and real leverage. And I don't mean the high stakes IN the story, but outside of it, right, the meta high stakes. That all odds are stacked against them, it seems 100% like this won't work out, that one of them or both will be killed, with a shitty ass writer, and so forth. But then the reward would be so insanely high, right, this golden ass trope of an asset and a mark falling in love and there's this deception and the hurt puppy backstory and the misogyny and they're fully main characters and the main story

And that was a good point, right, that part of the draw IS the high possibility that it won't work out and yet every one of us is hoping against hope that it'll still be okay. The true will they/won't they, surprise stories, those are the ones that feel so much more rewarding when they work out than being told up front, this is going to happen or even when you watch after a show's finished, knowing they're endgame. That is its own kind of comforting, but as much as the lows don't match the potential lows of watching live, the highs don't either.

Although, not to say that other shows haven't done anything, NCIS Hawai'i is still there, hell, Shelter right now? I'm kinda really digging it! I'm still on the fence about The Afterparty but I think at this point, I'm going in and adding to the gif list. Of course Harley Quinn! But I'm still way behind, I never did catch up from s3. :x

[dynared]

Funnily enough, Skybound already has somewhat of a way to introduce at least Jan or a character inspired by him (and by extension, Star Saber) due to the circumstances of Jimmy Witwicky's death. Jan's parents died in a spacecraft incident caused by the Dinoforce, this could easily be reworked into Jan's parents being apart of the shuttle crew that Jimmy Witwicky was on. Furthermore, if they want to incorporate more G.I. Joe components then they could swap out Jan (who likely isn't very well known outside of rare Victory fans) and replace him with Billy Kessler, Cobra Commander's son

This would fulfil Star Saber adopting a child whose parent/s died in a spacecraft related accident, Billy Kessler being on the good guys and an enemy to his biological father and would also explain how Cobra Commander ended up in Cobra-La (with the loose story being that he obviously survived the shuttle incident and was taken in by Golobulus, for reasons unknown as of yet)

It's extremely fanficcy sure but so was IDW Star Saber so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Like I said before, this is all just a writing exercise to see what avenues they could take the character based on his existing personality and characterization, balanced of course by Robert Kirkman's statements at NYCC 2023 that he had no immediate plans for these characters and the fact that I trust the creator of Invincible and The Walking Dead far more than the guy who made fanfic and tried to make its elements and characterization canon.

That being said, having Star Saber adopt someone from the shuttle accident does directly connect him to the main storyline in a way that he likely wouldn't be if he was off doing his own thing fighting other masters of Metallikato and those who would hurt the innocent, presumably in the pages of Void Rivals. Billy Kessler, if he is alive in this universe (and considering Cobra Commander is a human, not a snake-person, he may very well be) being adopted by Star Saber is an interesting idea if only because the original comics had him taken in by an Arashikage master after his attempts to get his dad to abandon his crusade didn't pan out. The idea of contrasting the Arashikage ninjas with the Metallikato masters appeals to me, but I'm not sure how it would play out. Of course, odds are if Billy is in this scenario, he'll be younger than the original Billy, who was a teenager when the narrative first met him again, while Jan was in the equivalent of elementary school.

Still, it's more proof that while you don't have to have Star Saber be a stock Autobot leader, you can do things with his original characterization that don't involve a baseless religious fundamentalist angle that no one liked.

[meltingpenguins]

So I haven't watched S2 yet, but from things like gifs and online summaries, it seems kinda... fanficy, I guess? And not in a good way. Crowley confessing his feelings right before Aziraphale goes to make a terrible decision, Gabriel and Beelzebub apparently being a thing... I'm pretty sure I also saw a gif of Aziraphale as a woman at one point. Not a bad thing necessarily, but from what I'm getting S2, seems to be rather pandering.

Said it before, the whole season feels jumbled. As if they threw things at the wall and didn't wait what would stick (might have been due to amzen demanding fast results, would you be surprised?)

There are good ideas, but overall it feels like the season would have done better without an attempt at an overarching plot. just give us one or two eps each focusing on the characters and what they've been up to etc, how they got from A to B in terms of plot development, that kind of thing.

But yeah, it does feel extremely fanficcy and catering, and not in the good way. s1 already had a severe issue with stuff that felt... desperate in lack of a better word. Already there a lot of scenes, a lot of dialogue, a lot of cinematography felt as if someone (not necessarily just mr gaiman) was frantically waving their arms shouting 'look how clever this is, look how meaningful, look at this shoutout/reference, isn't that nifty'? It has the air of a fanfic writer shoehorning in all of the fandoms favourite theories etc into a convoluted mess just to get kudos.

I dearly hope that there won't be a s3. Not with amzen at least. If another studio gets to try, maybe then we can look forward to 'neighbour of the beast', but with amzen it feels like a lost cause :/