#feel like this whole thing is me just longwinded saying yes and no and contributing nothing

[lunaryrs]

monty & zoe ^^

who is the bigger romantic openly? secretly?

i think they both gleefully indulge in that ^_^ like we got some real sweeties here don't we. i could see them both genuinely going back and forth paying for dates (even as they grow older and share a bank account), i don't think there's a birthday or an anniversary that passes without some sort of grand gesture made. i think more so than i love you and i'm gonna make it everyone else's problem they have a sense of humor about it and sure. they're still making it everyone else's problem. but for the giggles

who is more likely to plan something big for valentine’s day?

see above. they're both very much in this game. god mod the most epic one for the books is zoe having monty sent some flowers and one of those massive teddy bears right to his classroom and he spent the rest of the school day giving it piggyback ride through the hallways

who developed a crush on the other first?

see i know we have lore that you've developed for their relationship but unfortunately it isn't what [redacted] was wearing the first time we met so it just does not take up any real estate in my brain. i can only remember nonsensical things. but my impulse would be to say monty maybe liked zoe first. i kind of imagine zoe to reflect the very best that there was in darcy, being that they were so close, but also she kind of walked in and dream-came-trued it for him, like sabrina carpenter said. unfortunately i stopped responding to this question half way thru and it was unfinished when i went to post so here we are :nerd: but i feel like you know where i was going. you know where i was going, right? just kidding i do vaguely remember all the stuff about

who spends time reading their zodiac compatibilities?

they both do, monty actually led with that on a date in their earliest days and i imagine zoe found it endearing, thanks! but i do think he's weirdly into astrology like he knows his big 3 and all that. he's not ran thru though.

who is more protective?

i mean i guess it depends in what sense i'm saying like if something went bump in the night monty would do the noble thing and scope things out while zoe stayed behind BUT he has been pwned publicly a time or two in the teacher's lounge by the head of the physical education department who wants zoe soooo bad so he's certainly not mr. macho

who tends to get sick more often? who is better at taking care of the other?

monty gets sick in the way that every man gets sick he needs his back rubbed and his forehead kissed PRONTO!

who cooks the dinner, and who washes the dishes?

i hate to answer every question saying they do this equally<3 but that's kind of how i feel. i imagine it switching up between them.

who does the majority of the driving?

sorry see above but a bonus godmod headcanon is that zoe's gotta drive something really really cute like a jeep renegade right?

whose family do they celebrate more holidays with?

i was gonna say the hannas and that i'd just caught a vibe but then i really doubled down on the hannas because i remembered the jameson/orla of it all. god i love this plot i wanna go to their thanksgiving soooo bad

[hanzajesthanza]

i just reread and annotated my second draft of my essay, by the end there was red on every page :’) that’s good, it means i’m cleaning it up, and trimming the fat.

i also figured out my lighting setup to film, i think. it was a struggle for a night or two because i had figured out the perfect lighting, then had to pack away my tripod and camera, and the next night could not figure out how i had achieved that look. but rewatching a few youtube tutorials and working through a process of trial-and-error helped me. it’s frustrating, but fun to experiment.

i’m kind of happy because honestly as i read my essay back, i was like, “fck yes, this is what i’m talking about! this is exactly what i’m talking about! that’s what i’ve been saying and saying…” so it’s clear to me that i really believe in what i’m saying. i just hope that people will listen, because it is quite long and i can’t reduce it too much more without cutting out crucial context to understand the situation. i’m discussing a couple of literary works so i have to define their kind of high-concept premises, multiple witcher medias which i have to describe and define, and multiple historic events and contexts. it’s about a whole conglomerate of things which i’ve cobbled together, but i really do think it makes sense in the way i’ve cobbled it 🥲

i guess all i ask is for patience, because i know it isn’t easy to follow such a longwinded opinion. and i also want to express gratitude for the encouragement i’ve recieved so far. and i want to say that i am having fun working on this, and the process of writing and editing is fun for me. filming is still intimidating, but i did a test film tonight with the introduction, and felt myself, my voice, realizing that i was passionate about the words i was saying. kind of cathartic to bring it to life in that way, that this means something to me and i have an opinion, and i have to admit it aloud, literally say it with my whole chest.

it’s kind of terrifying to consider, throughout this process i keep thinking of all the possible different people that might disagree with me and dislike what i have to say, or feel uncomfortable with what i say, and how to make a productive conversation rather than contribute to a negatively controversial one. because i think some people will think that anything on this topic, no matter what is said, is just going to be pure hate, so why even listen to it? but in the moment tonight filming and recording my words, i began to not think about that and about what other people have to say, i just felt my own inner passion and thoughts, like yes, this is really what i mean to communicate. there’s so much i want to share about this. and i just hope it gives voice to people who have felt similarly, but didn’t know how to phrase it. + perhaps teaching something new, sharing the research that i’ve done, stuff that i found really interesting and hope other people will find interesting as well.

and i also hope this is the start of something more. that this is the first of many discussion starters and that i continue to reach out to connect…

[justfandomwritings]

Bro. BRO. United in Fear is the best GoT fics I have ever read, bar none. holy shit, it’s FASCINATING. This kind of soulmate lore is the only kind I will tolerate and it’s executed SO. WELL. The symbolism of Robb putting the marriage cloak on her?? *mwah* just divine. The “no one knows what she is to us” “you know”?? HELL yes, I’m so here for Robb’s rage. Plus I didn’t know how much I needed a TRULY strong noblewoman POV fic until I read this. Bravo my friend. Bravo.

Hello friend! I started getting into Soulmate AUs way back in the day when I still wrote fanfiction for bands, and I wrote a TON of them because I love the idea behind that AU. 

For me, it was never about the insta-love you see in most soulmate AUs; I didn’t like easy, ready-made happily ever afters. I liked diving into the emotional consequences of being so deeply attached to one person. I wanted to explore the real world application of trying to find your soulmate, like how much of your life you’d have to give up to go searching for someone you may never find. I tried to write about the changing relationship that might come with soulmates who knew each other for decades. I loved toying with the idea that a soulmate was destiny’s perfect match “for a perfect world”, but since life isn’t perfect destiny got the real world soulmate wrong sometimes.

And then, my dear, dear, dear friend silentpeaches, posted this Soulmate AU Idea post which broke 30,000 notes, and until she deactivated it was one of the top writing idea posts for years. And she ended said post by naming me the queen of Soulmate AUs. Which was a real honor to hear her say, and at risk of sounding conceited, in some ways it wasn’t far off. I wasn’t THE FIRST person to do Soulmate AUs, far from it, but I probably posted more Soulmate AUs than anyone. And I came up with quite a few of the mechanics that have since become really common in fanfiction AUs.

But at some point, I got sick of writing fanfiction. In large part, that was because I’ve always written on a whim, writing a ton for a few months than not writing at all for the next few months. In smaller part, it was because I grew away from the main fandoms I was in, and I didn’t really know where to plant myself after that.

And since I wasn’t ready to write anything original, I stopped writing all together. 

But when I finally wandered my way back, I planted myself in different fandoms. Only to find that not only had my fandoms changed, but the whole scene of fanfiction had changed. 

It’s not that I don’t like what fanfiction has become, but at risk of sounding older than I am, back in the day, fans gave support, people were loud and proud, and fanfiction was on the up. 

I could talk for ages about why it’s dwindled over the years, because there are a lot of reasons, and I’ve thought over many of them. 

But I think that one of the lesser reasons is that readers are now a bit more judgmental (I would say discerning, but since fanfiction is free to consume, it’s not costing them anything that they would need to discern between two choices). And no one wrote Soulmate AUs anymore. The AU had been written off as ‘childish’ or ‘ridiculous’ or ‘bad plots’ or any number of other things. 

And I was a bit defensive that this thing I like to think I helped shape had been largely abandoned. To be fair, there are and were tons of Soulmate AUs that fell into those categories of ‘insta-love’ or ‘boring’ or ‘poorly written’ or ‘lowbrow fanfiction’, and I am more than guilty of contributing some of them because I was not always a good writer. Many of my AUs missed the mark.

In this age of readers who feel entitled to quality fanfiction, readers don’t support just any fanfiction, they’re often finicky and picky and treat free works like books they’ve bought and paid for. 

In search of encouragement and likes, fanfiction writers write things people will read, and Soulmate AUs just sort of fell into this category that was lesser and wasn’t up to snuff. I wanted to show that Soulmate AUs weren’t at fault for their falling by the wayside, and I was bound and determined to show that they could still hang with the ‘big boys’ for lack of a better expression. Writers just had to change how they presented them. 

And thus, we have my longwinded story about why I decided to write “United in Fear” (and “Loyalty”, my Loki fanfiction). 

You’ve hit the nail on the head with your comment about “Lore”. Soulmate AUs aren’t the problem. It’s a lack of worldbuilding.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you find more Soulmate AUs that strike your fancy, and hopefully more stories of mine too! 

[mercuriallycooperative]

Another one of my two-year-late-rewatches! Again, the below is the complete and unaltered text of my reaction/rewatching-a-day-or-a-few-later of the SU episode “Mr. Greg” from the Summer of Steven like two years back. Including typos, I think. Also, unfortunately missing the line-by-line unpacking of “It’s Over, Isn’t It” that I meant to do, which I guess is why I didn’t post this at the time. I appreciate that past-me’s reaction to things still remains rather relatable, even though I have absolutely no idea if any of those questions got answered in the meanwhile. Also, pffft, my note at the end, ah yes, two years later, definitely got to posting these in a more timely manner. Absolutely.

“Rewatching Steven Universe: Summer of Steven Edition” continues!

(This one was, uh, actually written before the first two episodes of the week because I have Great Outpouring of Feelings(tm).... I didn’t get to it first only because I delayed writing these until after Monster Reunion and Alone at Sea.)

Day 2 (Tuesday, July 19)

Mr. Greg

Okay first thoughts before actually rewatching, after my memory has had time to dull for awhile. This episode was great, I loved it so much, I love Pearl and Greg and Steven and music and singing and feelings and dealing with the spectre of Rose Quartz.

I’m wondering a little where Amethyst and Garnet are, but actually, given the number of times Steven has been left to his own devices for an extended period of time, the gems just sort of... not noticing people have gone for awhile has a lot of precedent. Probably.

I don’t actually have a lot of new and Strongly Opinionated longwinded thoughts to preface this episode, possibly because I left this rewatch for so long. Actually, I suppose I’ll get to actually rewatching all the Summer of Steven episodes after progressing through the whole rest of the episodes eventually. It’ll be interesting to see what information and perception has changed by then.

Now, actually rewatching the episode...

1) Hey, actually, just a thought, but when’re we getting a new opening?

2) Okay, the Marty in the commercial is young!Marty. When the hell did he sell Greg’s song as a jingle, and how long has it been circulating, and why has it taken so long for a) anyone in Beach City to notice and b) Marty to come by with the money?

3) Greg’s song works really well as a jingle, actually.

4) Hey maybe the reason Marty needs the Guacola contract (even though his contract with Greg says Marty gets like 75% so if Greg is rich Marty should be richer) is because Marty got all that money early or over a lot of time and delayed paying Greg long enough that Marty had used up so much of his money, that a sudden 10 million dollar draw on his account put him in a bad place moneywise. A friend of mine proposed that gambling is how Marty could manage to burn that much money to the point he’s in need of sponsorship.

5) $5.95 isn’t a bad deal as long as it’s a good, hefty burger with maybe a soft drink, actually. At least, with real-world American money. What is the in-universe value of American-ish money, anyway- the same as real life, or... ?

6) Actually if the ad is regional (i.e. not in Beach City’s region) and we assume Greg is the only one besides Rose who would have known the song (because his CDs never sold and nobody came to his concert), it’s not too off to assume they’d have never noticed the jingle. I’m now wondering how Greg even found the ad in the first place, it’s not like Marty gave any explanation about why he just handed Greg a large cheque. Maybe some information was written on said cheque, like, from the bank or what the money was from, and it just wasn’t detailed?

7) “This is what did it? Burgers?” I get the impression Pearl is trying to hang what happened on just one event that started everything. Then again, it’s a fair point. If Greg had, say, been singing about the glory of war and nationalism in the way that hot-blooded youth stereotypically might, or even angsty nobody-understands-my-feelings hackneyed stuff, how would things have gone then? Was it only the fact that Greg’s schtick was Space and the Universe that drew Rose in, that first night? I wonder if that’s something Pearl wonders. Wonders why her own dreams of stars weren’t enough for Rose.

8) Oh god that is something they had and may yet have in common, isn’t it. The stars, and dreaming of flying off into them.

9) “She would have loved it.” Aside from Pearl continuing to break my heart, this bit is curious in a couple of ways. Greg is asking Pearl what Rose would have thought- and by his tone of voice, it is an actual question, not a rhetorical one. Greg and Rose were together for years and years, but Greg still will ask Pearl to confirm some things. (Then again. Human memory is not crystalline clear.) More interesting still, Pearl brings herself to answer honestly, if sadly.

10) After asking, Greg immediately looks like he kinda regrets it, like, ‘uh, oh, uh, maybe I shouldn’a done that, right, Pearl still can’t really. Talk to me, about this.’

11) ‘Don’t Cost Nothing’ is a wonderful song and I like it. Also. “You could buy a house and a car” oh Steven you’ve said what the whole fandom thought the moment the teasers and promos started rolling. “Or I could buy you all the finest courses online”, Greg, making with the realness here, that was just such a good line that’s just- it really places it in the modern day, and I kinda like it, dated like that, just a little.

12) The size of that van is occasionally rather odd seeming- does it shift a lot, do you think? I’mma keep an eye on that as I rewatch earlier episodes...

13) Pearl’s unamused expression as Greg and Steven burst in through the door of the house while Pearl is pacing (and presumably brooding). Actually, on that note, Pearl probably could have escaped a number of the things in this episode if she’d hid in her room after walking away from the van.

14) “Empire City!” “And let’s bring Pearl!” Steven did you just think of this plan on the fly, oh for the love of- I can’t not laugh, that was just a very sudden addition to that song that came rather out of left field.

15) Greg’s startled “What-!?” and Pearl’s rather more put together “I don’t know...” segueing into:

16) “I don’t know, past experiences have taught me that three’s a crowd.” Whoa there. That was, pointed. Think about this line for a moment, though... Was there some time in the past when Rose did try to bring both Pearl and Greg to a thing, trying to, I dunno, get them to get along over her, and it didn’t go well. Ah, jeez. And Pearl’s expression for the second half of this line looks like Unfond Memories(tm) and- I wouldn’t say exactly bitterness, because we’ve seen that in younger Pearl, but some blend of bitterness and dry distaste, something that comes with time.

17) “It’s be great! Just you, me, Pearl- and don’t forget Mom!” Steven you had to go and make it weird. You were starting to convince them, even with Pearl’s Skeptical Face(tm), and then you had to go and make it weird.

18) Le Hotel. What a very generic name for the hotel.

19) Greg when did you get those business cards printed out, or are they literally printer paper and ink as opposed to anything remotely professional. What am I saying they say Bazzzilionaire on them, professional is not what is happening here.

20) Pearl carrying the stuff in from the car- to avoid some of the super awkward while she could, maybe? Because like, she probably would not have brought stuff, so that’s Steven’s stuff, yeah, and Greg’s, in the suitcase. For that matter, Greg was on about the sights in Empire City, the things around to do, and then we cut to the hotel straight away- did they all three of them wander around and do other stuff for a bit before checking into the hotel?

21) Pearl looks super uncomfortable being carried like that though- is it a touching people thing, or a touching human people thing, or a touching stranger human people thing, or just that this whole situation is awkward in general and what even the fuck? Like, being sat at the dining table, you’ll notice the lines under her eyes- she looks really very upset in a shocked sort of way.

22) Pearl being like Greg what the fuck why are you on the table. And then rescuing that one plate.

23) Okay wait a second. When they were being carried out of the dining room, did... did they just bump Pearl’s head against the doorframe? Wait I’m rewatching that. Yes. Yes they did. They bumped a (once again very distressed looking) Pearl’s head against the top of the doorframe. There. There was even a *thunk* coconut sound effect. Why. Why. Okay that’s probably one of a hundred straws atop the camel’s back during this episode.

24) And a super crowded elevator with a contingent of singing strangers- yeesh. Uh. Who all somehow manage to get out before Greg and Steven and Pearl get to the penthouse, where yet more waitstaff are already set up?

25) I just noticed from the aerial view entering the room, but Pearl is literally crouched down and hiding behind Greg, peering out at everything.

26) Why. Would there be a waterslide. And like. A full pool? Is that a thing penthouses have?

27) Not to mention, when did they have the time during this montage to get the suits? Were they singing while they got the suits? How did they get Pearl a suit? Did they get her to sit for measurements, or did they just guess? How did they get her into the suit? (Well actually the answer to some of this is probably just Steven’s puppydog eyes.)

28) In the pool wearing the suits? Really?

29) Okay so I was feeling really odd throughout this whole episode about Pearl sort of being confronted with a weird parody of Old Homeworld, that which we presume was a sort of decadent empire, or at least the part that Pearl was made to be in, a fancy, made-to-order servant. I suspect some of that might be contributing to Pearl’s discomfort.

30) Pearl, just crouching by the water, trying to find inner peace in idleness by poking it. Relatable.

31) And she looks rather upset when they keep offering her food. Like, yeah, on top of a day like that, even thinking about food considering her distaste for it is probably... yeah.

32) I love when Pearl sort of just starts getting into the song, with the suit and the hat and the tap dancing. Like, she’s just starting to kinda chill, enjoying Steven being happy.

33) Also, it occurs to me, the fountains in Pearl’s room in the temple are probably set up similarly to the room from The Test or Rose’s/Steven’s room, like, the water and things flowing through the Temple are probably programmed in, some weird extra mystical something-or-other. Or the water is piped in and cleaned from literally the ocean right outside. As opposed to the waste of potable water, in an area with high population density as compared to water access, which what I presume (after considering it for a bit) that Pearl means by “wasteful”.

34) That slight against the barn though. “Unlike that termite ridden barn-” hah. And, it looks like we see that Pearl does indeed have her contribution to Sardonyx’s gestures and mannerisms.

35) “You’re having fun?” “More or less.” “So dance with me, just say-” “No!” Well that happened. I feel like that episode might not have come to quite such a head if Greg hadn’t tried the dancing thing- particularly, hadn’t just swung right in there and tried to pull Pearl into a dance. Like, if he’d asked and Pearl said no and Steven said please, Pearl might have been convinced into a short, careful dance (which, to be fair, might have ended as badly anyway). Also, the implied continuation of that line into the same “Just say yes” as Jasper’s is very interesting considering how the Crewniverse has been thusfar with parallels.

36) Pearl suddenly looks very, very tired. My suspicions lie with the idea that Greg’s attempt at a dance reminded her in that instant of both of their dances with Rose, and how it must have felt that Greg had taken all Rose’s dances away from Pearl, from the start and in the end.

37) Have to shoutout to the guy to was like, Boo, you ruined the song! because whoa dude chill. Also, so I guess in-universe the singing is very much a thing that is actually of the happening. I’m curious to what extent.

38) “Don’t worry about it kiddo. It’s always been this way.” Seriously, I’m curious how past interactions with Greg and Pearl have gone. Like, we see (and have seen in the past) that they can get along decently well in the present day. They certainly don’t devolve into squabbling. What led up to that, and what does Greg mean, exactly? That things can be going fine, swimmingly even, and then a small thing a word or a moment can suddenly chill the atmosphere, probably.

39) Please note that in the scene just before “It’s Over, Isn’t It?” when Pearl is walking toward Greg and Steven’s room, the state of that penthouse. That blasted golf game is on the flatscreen TV, over which there is strewn a sock, there’s a towel on the lampshade, and then in Greg’s and Steven’s room there are socks and pizza all over the place. I never quite understand how that ends up happening- like, in real life too, sometimes, I look away, and suddenly there’s food boxes and such everywhere.

40) Actually, wait, where did Pearl go, for the intervening time? Between her “No!” and her song? Did she, what, hang out in a different room, or on a balcony, or just go for a walk? I want to know this.

41) What is with the roses everywhere as furnishing, honestly, is this actually how hotels of the fancy kind have themselves set up? Or was this like, the one day of the month where the hotel has the fancy room set up with bouquets of roses?

42) Pearl looks in on Steven and Greg, and as she sighs, she smiles, a little. I just. I recognize that expression, okay, from the inside, same as the laugh at the end of Sworn to the Sword, the bittersweet happy that’s wrapped around sorrow that goes back, back, back.

43) And now for my exceedingly long line-by-line unpacking of my interpretation of “It’s Over, Isn’t it?”, prefaced by some comments.

Oh boy, this song, though. I’ve been listening to it on repeat since I heard it, tryin’ to sing it, just all sorts of Great Outpourings of Feelings(tm). There’s just so much nuance in this song, the way it’s sung and the way it was written and due credit to whoever played the instrumentals, it’s just. Amazing to me.

44) Okay, now, but after that. It’s Greg’s turn now to sound so very tired. It’s unsettling, the way we don’t see his face until the very end of this scene. It’s weird to think, actually- keeping turned away from things is, as far as I remember, not something we’ve ever seen Greg do. We never hear him sound defeated, either, and yet here....

45) And Pearl, calling out after him- it’s interesting, she’s so very far beyond the point she wants to hurt anyone with her grief. Maybe once she would have wanted to make Greg guilty, make him understand the hurt she was feeling, but now, she’s just. Tired. Done. Her quiet, “I shouldn’t have come along”...

46) Steven is starting more of his plans to fix things and people... It’ll be interesting to see him continue, but, at the moment, I’m rather just relieved this one didn’t go wrong on him. Because this could have gone really, really rather off.

47) Steven, glaring at both of them. I wonder, is that his determination face?

48) And really, in this case, Steven is very perceptive. It’s actually not so much a surprise, because these are two of the most important people in his life, and he’s seen their hurts, he’s seen a lot of this hurt in particular. More than any of the people-plans he’s ever had, he certainly does have the background for this one.

49) I’m curious, now, though. Pearl says “I don’t hate you” and the way she says it, that reads very true to me, but did she every? Hate Greg? And if so, when did she stop?

50) Them bonding a little over Rose and the things they both saw in her, saw of her, is wonderful and I want to see more of it.

51) And rounding it out with compassion and understanding and a dance, willingly held, is a good way to bring things around full circle to the start of this altercation, and, for that matter, the start of everything really.

52) Ending it in laughter was a nice touch too, although I now really wonder when the heck all the waitstaff reappeared, and how much of the goings on they took in. Because really, this was a microcosm of a lot of the Pearl-Greg heartbreak that Rose left behind, and it would I think have been fairly clear to a perceptive individual what was up. What I’m trying to say, is, I wonder if this scene brought any of the waitstaff to tears and secondhand heartbreak later.

53) Pearl looking at the bill as though she has limited scope about what exactly is up with this Earth-human-money and its value is entertaining- especially when she’s still chimes in to the reprise of “Don’t Cost Nothing/It’s Over Isn’t It”

54) For that matter, though, it’s interesting, her reaction to trying to improv lines. “Getting it wrong-” Pearl looked like she was really about to start freaking out a little there, before Greg chimed in the accompanying “-don’t cost nothing.” It’s interesting to wonder here, what sort of intersection that reaction is between it being just a Pearl-thing-that-she-does versus a product-of-Homeworld-and-the-Pearl’s-as-poised-servants thing.

55) Pearl and Greg talking at the end really cements the fact they have something of a new understanding. Like, I’m sure both of them have lingering issues about what’s happened that they won’t be sharing with one another, but, for the most part, I hope to see them moving forward.

Well, that was long. Lots of thoughts. More episodes to come! (Hopefully in a more timely manner.)