#finella gargoyles

[servicereward]

Fic Posted!

Come to Me, and I Shall Give You Rest by votsalot for Nemi_Thine on AO3

Summary: A woman alone may run into trouble. Two women can cause plenty of it. An episodic look at an ordinary relationship between two extraordinary women - hunted, reviled, and guarding a power desired by dangerous men.

Tags: Finella (Gargoyles)/Mary (Gargoyles); Finella (Gargoyles); Mary (Gargoyles); Brooklyn (Gargoyles); Slow Romance; Time Travel; Femslash; Medieval; Eventual Relationships; Eventual Sex

[gargoylespodcast]

Karine Charlebois and Greg Weisman join us as we hop on board the skiff and head on off to the mystical isle of Avalon!

Discussions range from the historical background of characters such as Kenneth II, Maol Chalvim II, Constantine III, Lady Finella and more. Sheena Easton’s voice acting. Constantine’s villainy and more. Plus the desire to do this triptych ultimately to build a more diverse Manhattan Clan… a mission which is still incomplete. All that and the spin-off that Greg Weisman would love to make, but would likely never be able to sell.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Audible, Spotify, and your podcatcher of choice! And join us on Patreon for the Exclusive Video Edition!

Follow us on Twitter at: @FromEyrie Visit Jennifer L. Anderson’s online stores at: Angel Wings and Demon Tails Visit Karine Charlebois’s online store at: Kanthara Draws Visit Greg Weisman at: Ask Greg Everything you ever wanted to know about Gargoyles at: GargWiki

[votsalot]

1, 13, 14

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

A mix of both! I daydream a lot when I'm doing idle work at home, or my job. I kind of turn scenarios over and around in my head and when I like it, I think about how I would translate that scene into words so other people can see and feel what I do. But when I land on a sentence, I have to write it down really quickly or lose it to the ether. Sometimes an idea hooks me and I have to write it immediately; most recently this is how I was with my published Finella/Mary Gargoyles fic, and before that my unpublished Thara Celehar fic :)

13. Do you listen to music while you write?  If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

Yes :3 I like to listen to music without lyrics when I write, so I listen to a lot of orchestral arrangements, classical music, vibes playlists (like club, lofi, NO HOPE AT THE FINAL BATTLE) and soundtracks. I tend to gravitate music that kind help me get into the headspace of the scene I'm writing, so I try to match emotional tone of the music to what I want to do.

Recently I was listening to the soundtrack from Frieren while I was writing because it has a medieval, whimsical vibe to it as well as emotional depth and high energy.

14. What is your favorite location and position to write in?

My favorite position it write in is with my legs crossed and my laptop on my lapdesk, on the couch, facing towards a corner in the room.

I also have been writing on my PC since setting that up, and have been writing on mg ergonomic chair. This is a better position for my physical health but I do prefer writing like a pretzel, lmao.

I think it's probably because that's how I've always written, back to the days when I was making OCs in elementary school and writing epic self-insert stories in my pink fairy notebooks. I can count on one hand the amount of things I wrote on the family computer because I didn't trust it would stay private, haha.

[makiruz]

Watching Gargoyles Abridged and I don't remember the actual reason Goliath didn't stick around to raise the eggs with Magus and the Princess.

I mean, it'd make so much sense, and he would've run into Demona, and he doesn't need to know her part on the massacre, so they could still make it; they probably still end up in Avalon, meet the time traveling Mary and Finella in the present. I dunno, stuff

[yarnlass]

Its been explained a bit on the comics and a few supplementary posts on askgreg, but essentially Constantine murdered Macbeth’s great grandfather (called King Kenneth in the show—he was the one murdered in the shed, lured there by an unsuspecting Finella).

Kenneth’s son, called Maol Calvim in the show, who flees the castle from Constantine’s forces (leaving Katherine behind by her choice to protect the gargoyle eggs) is Macbeth’s grandfather, who would eventually overthrow Constantine with the help of Findleach and Bodhe’s father.

Maol had no sons but 3 daughters, the eldest of which gave birth to Duncan, who became his heir. Maol married his second daughter to Findleach, who gave birth to Macbeth.

Katherine is Macbeth’s only known living relative (I believe she would be his great aunt?) and ironically, she’s technically both older and younger than he is due to the whimsical magic of Avalon.

I need timeline for Gargoyles Scotland considering Avalon part 1, how does Constantine fit with Macbeth and his backstory...I have a hole in knowledge over Scotland's history.

[servicereward]

WANTED: Horse, witches, and 8-year-old who refuses to respect the crown

[servicereward]

they should adopt a borzoi and name it magus too

SCREAM!! anon!!!!!!!! this is the exact same kind of wet animal!!!

[servicereward]

mary and finella so many homosexual opportunities. imagine, if you will:

finella asking mary to take off her wimple so she can wash and braid her hair before bedtime

mary offering to keep finella company in her bed as some noblewomen did with their maid servants

bonding over being sad about missing their kids

helping eachother dress and undress even if they don't actually need the help ;)

dropping into the 70s in the middle of the sexual revolution and seeing a bunch of butches and femmes asserting themselves and their community and their love at the first pride parades

[servicereward]

Do you have any top favourite scenes from the show/comics?

First, anon, thank you for your patience while I thought long and in-depth about this. I love the show so much, it's easy for me to come up with 30 different examples of moments I love but that's not very exclusive ^^;

Some of my top scenes, in my rewatch of season 1 I'm undergoing at the moment, have been the little character-building moments between the Manhattan clan. For all of it's behind-the-scenes production struggles, "Enter Macbeth" has some very nice character interplay between Lexington, Brooklyn, and Goliath. "Sorry I was too busy WRITHING in AGONY to notice," and *DISTANT ROARING* "Looks like Bronx found Goliath," come to mind as moments that make me smile.

Another of my top favorite moments, (putting aside all OwenPuck scenes because otherwise this answer would be all about him, lmao) is the scene where Coyote and Dingo break The Pack out of jail. Fox reading Jean-Paul Sartre. "Nietzsche's too butch and Kafka reminds me of your little friends over there." The excellent sequence where Dingo breaks into the building with his powersuit and unleashes high-key horror imagery on the prison guard. It all fits so neatly together, and is such a well-paced scene it feels so luxurious in what it gives you. It's a top-tier scene for a season opener.

I've talked previously about "Kingdom," and what a great episode it is - I think what it really comes down to for me for "favorites" is how lived-in an episode feels. There's a lot of great character work in Gargoyles, which is one of the reasons people keep going back, in that it feels like a tangible world. When Matt comes back home to his tiny little apartment and loosens his tie and then gets startled by Broadway waiting for him. They way the clan collects Cagney to take care of back at the clock tower once it's apparent Elisa isn't coming back (an small but important detail not to forget, from a writing perspective - she's got a cat!) The dramatic but relatively domestic drama of the mutates in the Labryinth (oh no, someone in your underground collective is a major asshole!) Owen also sitting at David's desk with his jacket off and his tie loose. The little details like this make the show feel less like a cartoon where someone opens their closet and has ten of the same outfit as a gag, but like a world that belongs to the characters who live in it. If that makes sense?

Truly, the list does go on, but I'm going to transition to the comics now :)

I need to read the SLG run again; I've read it multiple times, but sometimes the more disparate quality of it's narrative and artistic elements distract me from forming a coherent opinion. But I adore the following moments:

Owen and Delilah bring Free Will to the Table

This is an interesting little interplay that frustrates me on the whole because I'm not entirely sure the Goliath / Thailog part of it is earned, but it does develop Delilah's sense of personhood in the narrative and also gives us a window into Puck's code-of-ethics-as-Owen. Goliath makes a mistake (girlfriends can be won like a prize) but Owen says essentially "Aren't you going to ask her what she wants? Doesn't she have free will?" which is a fascinating conk-on-the-noggin for the faerie-stuck-as-a-mortal-and-is-your-part-time-nemesis to deliver to the protagonist of your story.

And it does deliver in that Delilah says, "Fuck all this" (i wish she literally said that) and ends the party without being hitched to either Goliath or Thailog. She itches something in me because she's claiming some agency. She didn't ask to be here (who does, tbr) and was created from the DNA of two very complicated, very different women (who were unwilling donors to top it off) for the purposes of satisfying Thailog's desire for a romatic partner. NOT OKAY! What does Delilah want? For so much of her existence, what she's wanted has been a foregone conclusion (in that, it doesn't matter) and any move she makes in the narrative on her own agenda is one more step towards actualizating her sense of self. That being said - I would like more Delilah.

Shari = Shaharazade

Shari is such an interesting, stand-out character to me, and I wish she'd been around in the show because I'd love to see her animated. She's mystery wrapped in mystery - her motives are so opaque! She's a high-ranking Illuminati member who has presumably been alive for thousands of years - and she's helping Thailog for some inscrutible reason. I get really excited when she shows up. I'm also interested to see how Thailog and Shari pose as narrative foils to Xanatos and Co in the future, given their parallel but opposing structure.

Mary, Finella, and Brooklyn's timedance adventure begins

I think the last two issues of the SLG run were the strongest, and the content in them literally made me shriek when I read it. For one, you've got delicious interplay between Brooklyn's existence in the narrative. He's from the past in the future in the past in the present. Mary and Finella's relationship is great (and for the part of me that reads with shipping goggles - gay, please? they can bond over missing their kids and then kiss about it....a fine lady and her handmaiden, nothing to look at here boss, no sir!) Truly I want more Mary, Finella, and Brooklyn adventures. I think the beginning of their story was the best thing to come out of the 2006 comics run. Also, "You named the horse Magus?" "Something about his face...." (Magus confirmed horsey face🐴✨ ✊😔)

As for the new runs, I'm soaking it all in. I'm very excited for Quest - I don't have a "Top Favorite" scene from it yet, though I very much enjoy the fact we're getting a fleshed out picture of the NYC world of organized crime as it exists in Gargoyles. I like that they're all scared shitless of Uncle Dracon and I want him to show up more, he's been a very interesting player in the plot. I also really like the sequence where Renard says his goodbyes to his friends and family, even if it does implode ~10k words of unpublished fic I have on my Google Drive. But that's what the canon non-compliant tag on AO3 is for 👍! This is the short way to say I think Titania should be scarier. Like, shit-your-pants scary. I love women.

I love them so much, I married one! *ba-dum**tiss* 🥁🎶

[servicereward]

I have a theory that Finella had a son born out of wedlock, and that Kenneth helped her hide the connection / foster him with a family (Jon Snow style).

"Maybe-that's-evidence" Evidence:

In the panels above, emphasis is put on Finella's response to Mary's question. "You had a son?" "I -- no!" What was she going to say and why did she say it so emphatically?

In Avalon Pt 1 we are shown she has fond feelings for Kenneth - he has, as far as we can tell, romantic feelings for her. She does not want to marry him, but in her own words she, "doesn't want to hurt him." Doesn't sound like something someone would say about another person if they killed their child, in my opinion.

In the same episode (the same exchange with Constantine, actually) she also says that Kenneth thinks she's "restless," and it can only be cured by marriage. In the context of this theory, Finella's "restlessness" would be her own sexual self-determination. In fulfilling his role as king, patriarchal head of the state, and out of his feelings for her, Kenneth would see himself as "saving her virtue" by proposing marriage.

RE: The "Claim" on the poster; the rest of the content is lies (Katherine ran away, the grimorum never belonged to the king, Mary + Finella aren't witches, the gargoyles Finella and Mary knew are either cursed or not born yet. etc.) which have a root in truth (Katherine is missing, so is the grimorum, Finella and Mary helped protect the eggs). So - what to make of this bit with Kenneth and Finella's son? I can see it being based on a seed of court gossip, then twisted to suit the narrative Constantine was building around his ascent to power.

This theory would implicate a very complicated, fraught, yet interesting dynamic between Finella and Kenneth given their respective roles in the kingdom and the narrative.

[servicereward]

1, 22, 25 and (if you want) 7? ☺️

Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

A mix of both! I daydream a lot when I'm doing idle work at home, or my job. I kind of turn scenarios over and around in my head and when I like it, I think about how I would translate that scene into words so other people can see and feel what I do. But when I land on a sentence, I have to write it down really quickly or lose it to the ether. Sometimes an idea hooks me and I have to write it immediately; most recently this is how I was with my published Finella/Mary Gargoyles fic, and before that my unpublished Thara Celehar fic for The Chronicles of Osreth series by Katherine Addison :)

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

I usually title my fic during the writing process; it's relatively easy for me to come up with titles but sometimes I need to work on the story for a little bit in order to fashion it. I try to make my title a concentration of the fics central theme (longer work) or event (one-shot). For example, "Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest," is about two women finding kinship and eventually romantic love with one another after living lives of hardship within their respective social classes.

"Orders of Service" (posting TDB) spans the years of 1988-2198 and OwenPuck's experiences with life, love, devotion, and death from both an immortal and mortal lens.

"The Eternal Child" (posting TBD) is an alternate timeline one-shot where Alexander and Puck were taken back to Avalon after the events of The Gathering Pt 1 + 2.

By contrast, I have an unnamed WIP alternating between the respective childhoods of Fox and David, filed under a folder named "The Childhood Series" and with silly throw-away title of "Dr. Spock: On Parenting a Megalomaniac." This one could be seen as a companion piece to "Orders of Service" because allusions are made to events in that fic, but out-rightly it's about David and his relationship with Petros 1960-1975ish, Petros and his relationship with his wife, Fox's relationship as an adult with Titania, and Titania's relationship with Fox as a baby.

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

My favorite part of the writing process is the writing - it feels so good to have a concept come to life with words that come from my own brain. This has always been one of my favorite parts of writing. I do enjoy brainstorming, because it's like an AMV in my head. But there is such a high to landing on the right flow of words to convey exactly what you are seeing and feeling in your head. Once I'm in the zone I can be in there for hours, building something and looking back and my work and appreciating what I've done so far.

7. Post a snippet from a wip.

This is a snippet from my 2198 WIP - the odds of it ever being published like how I envision are long, but I find it a very fun writing exercise to flesh out concepts like the Space Spawn and the science fiction aspect of alien tech / being in the year 2198. I'll post two snippets, both works in progress.

Snippet 1: (Context: This is from a Spawn perspective. I tried to make their concepts of self, identity, and communication alien while still being engaging. In my version of 2198 The Spawn are a mix of militocracy / theocracy, and have the ability to change their shape in detailed biological ways but cannot be exact physical copies of any one alien race; they are always Spawn. They are raised without the concept of individual identity unless very high up in the government, and typically communicate with each other telepathically)

The suspension chamber was a clean, edgeless void. The refractive index of the space was turned to maximum, as ordered. The light inside was pure, white, and familiar. The Spawn discovered long ago that the environs in which they thrived were often distressing to those who would resist them.

This subject was faring better than most. In the time it took for all the bio-enquiries, and between alterations, the subject had managed to find a corner. It wasn’t exactly a corner, of course, but as close as one could find in a suspension chamber. The subject kneeled where the slope of the floor began to curve into the slow slope of the ceiling, pressing it’s frons against the wall of light. 

This proof of resource was amusing. A small impressiveness. This subject had directed a large number of subversives, after all. Some intelligence was obvious. 

Praetorfect drew close to the subject’s side with the disabled limb. Deprived of its rudimentary prosthetic, the arm stopped abruptly above the middle joint. It was not likely the subject would resist or attack, but caution bred favorable contingencies.

Praetorfect cleared the throat. Using it was uncomfortable and undignified. But it was too high an expectation to hold that this fleshy race would perceive the insight of the Spawn. The synthesized mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and argon slid back through the primary orifice and over the infolding of membranes that were suspended across the laryngeal cavity. There was no taste to it, because Praetorfect saw no need for taste buds.

“How are you feeling?” The voice was thin, quavering. It would suit the purpose even if Praetorfect ran out of patience on the pleura and respiration muscles.

Subject did not respond. It’s eyes remained closed. Praetorfect had spent years studying Earthling emotional expressions and psychological signaling when the planet was disclosed as the fleet’s next objective - this subject was neutral. 

But it was awake. 

The Bioficers were sure, Praetorfect was told.

“Feeling poorly?” Praetorfect answered for it. “That is understandable.”

Subject did not respond. The environment was cold - were humans prone to states of torpor?

Praetorfect had come here for answers to questions. Perhaps that could be one of them. The bioficers could help.

“You are a unique subject,” Praetorfect said. “Life on this acquisition was not thought worth studying, until you.”

Subject did not respond.

“We are happy we could put you back together again. We took you apart twice.” A pause. It was strange to think about drawing in air to make sounds. All of the languages here were ugly. Praetorfect continued making noise. “Do you know what isotopes are?”

Subject did not respond.

“There is an element common to - most - life in the galaxy. Your world calls it - carbon-14? There exists technology that can determine the age of biological organisms using the science of particle emission. This is combined with some knowledge of light speed mechanics on a subatomic level, and this is used to...the details are inconsequential. But you know the effects.”

The subject’s shoulders rose and fell in perfect time. Each of it’s breaths was no shorter or longer than the duration of the last. Praetorfect wondered if it had been broken, despite what the bioficers said. 

That would make the inculcation problematic.

Snippet 2: (Context: This is an original alien character created for the fic interacting with Delilah. She's an odd-duck from a mainstream Spawn perspective)

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you are nice to look at.”

“Stop it.”

“Is it wrong?” A-Li was incorporating more tonal shifts and variation in her speech patterns. Usually she mirrored whoever she was talking to, regardless of what they were talking about. Her words came out hot. Delilah paused, scaling back her feelings.

A-Li had little hold on social nuance.

“It’s creeping me out,” Delilah explained. “Don’t you know that’s weird? I thought you were supposed to be an Earth expert.”

“It’s one thing to know. Another to experience.”

Delilah rolled her eyes. She supposed that made sense. But still.

Then A-Li said, “I wish I looked like you.”

No. Absolutely not. She turned fast enough to make the spawn skitter into the depths of her cell.

“If I come back here tomorrow and you’re wearing my face, I’ll rearrange it for you. This mug belongs to me, and me alone,” Delilah growled.

“You would rearrange my face? That’s so kind,” A-Li crept forward on hands and knees again, as was her wont. “It takes a lot of time and energy so I would appreciate the help.”