#it's like finding someone who doesn't know about star trek but who loves sci fi and getting to be the one who tells them

[letswritetogetherrr]

about me:

Hello! I have been RPing for roughly 14 years, and recently came back from a long hiatus. I'm looking for some OC RPs with other adults! I live in CST and can typically reply several times a day.

Some of my interests include maritime history, vampires, and new wave/goth music, and science fiction (star trek!) so if you want to explore any of these things in our RP, that'd be great!

I am trans, bigender and bisexual, and I write most of my characters as LGBT in some way. I'm 25 and use he/they/it pronouns.

about my RP:

In many aspects I like to meet my partner where they're at, so I am flexible on a lot of these things. I prefer to do multipara, well thought out replies that focus on quality over quantity. I won't go down to less than a couple paragraph typically, unless my partner does for rapid fire dialogue type scenarios. I can go up to a couple discord messages worth of writing, although I prefer to only go long if there's good substance to it!

I exclusively RP OCs, mostly fandomless, of many genders and sexualities. I tend to use written or drawn FCs, but will use IRL ones if that's my partners preference.

NSFW is okay, but I want to focus a lot on plot too! I have a lot of kinky characters, but we'll have to discuss limits privately.

I enjoy writing side characters!

what I'm looking for:

- Long-term partners who love to plot things out and get really invested in our characters together!

- Well-fleshed out worlds, characters, plots

- Straight forward and honest communication

- If you can't reply often please don't hesitate to reach out! That said I would LOVE to find someone who can reply several times a day, since most of the time I can :)

Word bubble of things I like:

Messy & toxic scenarios, vampires & werewolves, modern fantasy, enemies to lovers, found family, slice of life, wholesome fluff, organized crime, divorce, musicians & artists, morally corrupt characters, western, sci-fi, pirates, 70s & 80s, religious themes (Judaism!!!), road trips, working class characters, silly and unrealistic scenarios, polycule drama, gay shit!

Possible hooks/plots:

- Character A finds character B bleeding face down in the mud, kicks the body to check if they're dead. Turns out they're very much alive!

- Character A is a serial dater who loves telling ridiculous lies to first dates, assuming they'll never meet again. Turns out they were terribly charmed by Character B, but now they have to walk back all the lies they told.

- Character A recently moved into a new house, and is pretty sure it's haunted....It is! Character B is a ghost, stuck in the apartment, and glad to finally have some company.

- Character A is a vampire. Character B has always wanted to be one, and is trying to convince A to change them. The only problem is, A is a bad vampire, and doesn't know how to change them.

- Character A is a vampire. Character B is a human, with the most delicious blood A has ever tasted. Now B has a problem - A can't get enough of them.

- A is a line cook, B a waiter. One night it's just the two of them closing the restaurant together, when they come across a slight problem: The world outside the restaurant seems to have ceased to exist.

If any of this catches your eye feel free to reach out!

[kitkatisweird7]

My TV Watchlist

Over the years, I have had a ridiculously long backlog with regards to the shows I have yet to watch. As the ultra nerd who is into all kinds of random stuff, this can be hard to keep track of. So I thought I'd log a few of them here on Tumblr and perhaps I'll discuss them as I go. It's not even a fraction of the backlog but rather shows I have decided to prioritise.

1

Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I have had Star Trek on the watchlist for quite some time. I did attempt The Original Series but I wasn't overly into it as an introduction to the franchise. I suspect I'll get more into it if and when I go back. But my dad has always raved about Star Trek. While I grew up on Star Wars, dad was into Star Trek from childhood up till now. So I've always been curious about the franchise. So I figured I'd check out the series that everyone seems to adore. Watching the first episode as I type, I'm quite liking it and have enjoyed the random episodes of the show I've seen on SyFy over the last couple of years.

2

Charmed.

Strictly speaking I have already started Charmed, about a year ago. I quite liked what I saw, but didn't get chance to fully get into it. The general premise is lovely and it's just a cute little show. It did, however, get me hooked on the song Torn in the short time I spent with it. 90s fantasy stuff that teens were into is generally just a delight. Not overly optimistic about later seasons as I know drama led to a cast change, but such is the way of things.

3

Supernatural.

I should know better than to mention this show here. I'm well aware of the opinions of people on this show and the culture surrounding it, my second favourite show and another show in the early 2010s. Whatever that was all about, I'm really not interested. What I'm into is the recontextualization of old tales. Myths and legends brought into the modern day with a decent cast. Will I get that with Supernatural? Who knows. But a friend of mine was really into the show so I'm gonna trust her judgement as she is now piling through Buffy, my favourite show of all time, following a recommendation from me on the night we met. So I'm gonna guess that we've got similar enough taste that I'm going to at least find the show pleasurable enough to watch. Whether I'll like it more or less than Shadowhunters, be that the books, the film or the show, remains to be seen.

4

Stargate SG-1.

Stargate is one weird show. I didn't even KNOW it was a show when I first came across a Stargate. See, in a Star Wars Jedi Academy mod there is a map called Stargate and I had initially assumed it to be a random creation of someone added because the aesthetics kind of fit. But as it happens that is not quite the case. Turns out it was a movie turned show with multiple spin offs. It seems to be the kind of thing many sci fi nerds get into. Similarly to Star Trek, I have actually seen some of this show. I tend to leave SyFy on at night and fall asleep watching Stargate so I've seen some weird stuff. The general premise of the show is appealing, what more can I say? I'm excited to that.

5

Teen Wolf.

If I'm being honest, I don't even know why I've bothered putting this show on the list. The person who spent years recommending it to me is no longer part of my life and I don't particularly trust their perspective on anything enough to sit down and watch several series of a show. But having said that, werewolves plus teenage life sounds rather appealing. Fantasy works best when put at odds with teenage life in my opinion. It's why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favourite show of all time. But the balance is vital and if this show doesn't have it right, then I may have some issues with it. But when I DO go into this show, I shall do so with an open mind. Regardless of where the idea to watch it originally came from all those years ago

6

Red Dwarf.

Lastly, we've got another one from my dad. He once gave me a USB with 6 episodes of the show on it which regrettably I never watched. Thankfully, I am British and it is on iPlayer. I've heard from various sources over the years how good this one is, as a Sci-Fi comedy. Really looking forward to diving into it for that reason. I may wind up doing this one in between another show once I finish watching Sherlock, which really should not have taken 8 years given the show is 4 series long. In any case, one good day with that show should knock it out and open up the secondary show slot given I'm down to the last 3 episodes. Red Dwarf will be a nice change of pace as most of the "new" stuff I watch atm is a lot more high energy given I'm running out of comedies that actually interest me.

Anyways, that's the 6 shows that I've currently got resting towards the top of the backlog. That doesn't necessarily mean things won't get queue jumped. I mean, Hunger Games jumped the queue so I could try to bond with someone so I'm not above bumping shows up for other reasons than actual interest but that's how they sit at the moment. And given Firefly was supposed to be next, around a year ago, I've pretty much proven I have absolutely no rules as to what goes where. As I have no idea if I even WILL watch Firefly any time soon. Another show I only have any perception of because of that Jedi Academy mod, given the presence of the Serenity in it. Likewise, Dollhouse found itself dropping from top priority to "meh, when I get back around to it".

[pupintransit]

A couple years back there was some drama in the SCP community. This is going somewhere i promise.

A story there, SCP-2721, went and made a lot of people very upset for reasons that only make sense if you're predisposed to not letting people have fun writing silly stories. Ostensibly the story documents a strange satellite orbiting the moon. It's made up of two parts, one mostly flesh and the other mostly machinery, connected together by a biomechanical cord. The Foundation doesn't know why it's there but the writings the satellite creates suggests something nefarious. The flesh part (LYRE) finds humanity via Tumblr and through this discovery forms a new identity as a trans woman. She starts a blog, becomes a Homestuck fan, and eventually the mechanical part (LORD) learns to be happy for her.

As a piece of fiction I do not care for it. It's a really interesting concept but I think it leans too hard into the Tumblr fandom culture and becomes alienating and embarrassing to read in a way I don't think the author intended. That's part of the negative attention it received. As much as i don't condone the vitriol the author received, the more I learn about Homestuck and its fandom the worse my life gets. But that wasn't why it got hated on en masse the way it did; It was due largely to LYRE identifying specifically as a trans woman.

There's plenty of stories in the canon of science fiction where aliens and robots learn about humanity and become "more human" as a consequence. There's an episode of Star Trek TNG where an alien develops a gender and gets in shit from her culture about it, and becoming "more human" was basically Data's whole ass character development. Why not have fun with that? Why not have something inhuman decide that, in discovering the intricacies of human society, that being specifically a trans woman is what speaks to them? It spoke to LYRE after all. She found a kinship with a group of humans she could relate to, and in so doing finds a new purpose and abandons the broadly hostile task she was created to perform.

So, here's why I'm leading this mini-essay with a review of a barely passable sci-fi story about a space abomination who learns that she's trans: I wish i were a trans man. Had I been AFAB and transitioned into a trans man I would have had a better quality of life than I do now.

Let's unpack that, shall we?

It's an unconventional thing to apsire to, especially as someone who is AMAB and is basically indistinguishable from a cisgender man right up until you get to my neovagina. For a lot of trans men that's their goal, to not get clocked and be perceived simply as "a man." It's my husband's goal at least, and he's told me (politely) that he doesn't understand the appeal of why being a trans man is aspirational to me. The things about the AFAB experience that I find envious are the sort of thing he transitioned to get away from.

For one, I would have loved a natal vulva. I adore my neovagina, do not misunderstand me. It will stand at the best decision i've ever made until they put me in the ground. But there's things it won't ever be capable of. I would have liked a larger clit for example, and it would have been so exciting to watch it grow in size the further into taking testosterone I get. It would've made sex easier as well. I'd be able to naturally lube myself up with way less of a warm-up, and I wouldn't have to dilate in order to maintain the health of that organ. Those aren't things i can accomplish with the body i have now.

Second, I might have liked having breasts. Smaller boobs run in my family so if I worked out my chest enough I wouldn't need top surgery; they'd just look like softer than normal pecs. Even if top surgery were something i decided i need, it wouldn't be near as disabling as my vaginoplasty. It would still suck on toast and i'm not pretending otherwise, but my husband and other trans masc friends were back to their normal lives by around a month and a half. I've still got at least nine more months until that's true for me.

And finally, and this one is still odd to say out loud for me but... I wish i were able to become pregnant. Occasionally I'll get into a dysphoric zone where it'll dawn on me that my vaginal canal doesn't lead anywhere. There's no uterus or ovaries or cervix attached to it. The only way i can think to describe it is that i feel a physical emptiness inside me. I never really wanted biological kids and for a long time I didn't want to ever be pregnant even if i had the parts for it. It does weird shit to your body after all, so me wanting to avoid it is understandable. But i don't want to avoid it anymore. I want to feel something grow inside me, and nuture a life with my body. I want to have a uterus, to ovulate, and to experience a pregnancy while still being masc presenting. And I could have done that if I were a trans man, but barring a very impressive advancement in medical science that won't be possible in my lifetime.

And I feel guilty about wanting to be a trans man for those reasons because so many of them hate their bodies for the exact same reasons I would want to love mine. Sure, there's plenty of transgender men who like all or some of their "female" body parts and don't feel the need to medically transition into something that passes as cis, but enough do and are vocal about their dysphoria to where i have a bad taste in my mouth for wanting what i do.

Writing this is a challenge as well because I'm trying to balance expressing my feelings honestly while simultaneously not romanticising a lived experience i don't have, nor infantilizing a group of queer folks by indirectly inferring that I know how they do or should feel about themselves. Am i doing a good job at that? I suppose i'll find after i post this fuckin' thing.

A question that gets posed to trans people a lot is, if you could push a button to become cisgender, would you do it? My husband would; being a cis man from the start would have solved a lot of his problems. I can't say that i would make that choice though. I could in theory push the button to make myself a cis woman and that would get me most of the way to where i want to be in terms of physical sensation, but i wouldn't feel like myself. I love being hairy, i love my masculinity, and i love being a man with a cunt. For me, what I want out of my life relies on my body being a specifically transgender one. My ideal transition goals would have me become a transgender man.

And is that honestly such a strange thing for someone AMAB to want?

Gender transition is a very unique experience for the folks who go through with it. Everyone wants different things, and even though i have trouble understanding why anyone would want a cock and balls (they're so bulky! and in the way! all the time!), I do understand feeling like your body is wrong or incomplete. In a perfect world we'd be able to design ourselves from scratch and pick whatever parts we want. Why not have fun with that? Why not make an active choice as a cis woman to give yourself a cock and balls, or give yourself a uterus and become pregnant as an non-binary AMAB? Culturally we view gender transition as being a shift from one end of the spectrum to the other, and it doesn't have to be. If you want to be one sex, both, neither, or in my case transition specifically into being a transgender man, that can and should be seen as a valid choice.

Maybe SCP-2721 isn't such a bad story after all.

[maplefiasco]

8 Shows To Know Me

Thanks for the tag, @booksandabeer! This was extremely difficult and I look forward to kicking myself in a week when I remember some other show that's 20% of my personality but I totally blanked on when making this list.

No pressure tagging: @asmoonlightthroughthepines, @scare-ard--sleigh, @msmandapants, @blithers, @dontcallmebree and anyone else up for distilling themselves down to eight tv shows!

Okay let's do this!

Star Trek The Next Generation

TNG imprinted on me in 4th or 5th grade. I'd watch it every night before dinner and have lots of opinions about the holodeck and Data. Did I put a headband in front of my eyes and call it LaForge's visor? Yes. Did I unironically love the cheesy episodes like Rascals, The Game, and Disaster? Absolutely. It was also my intro to fannishness, pre-internet. One of my friend's dads had a stack of action figures, and a Riker uniform he'd break out at Halloween. I remember being confused by his whole deal, but mostly thinking it was really cool.

Flight of the Conchords

I saw this promo before the first season premiered and was instantly sold, it was so silly and unassuming. I was in college which is just. the perfect age to find everything about it delightful and hilarious and to be low-key in love with both Bret and Jemaine. I'm pretty sure I've thought about some lyric or throwaway line or small facial expression every day since 2007.

New Girl

I made myself limit this list to only one 2000s/2010s network comedy. New Girl edged out The Office, Parks & Rec, Community, 30 Rock, and even my beloved dark horse, Happy Endings. It's pure comfort. Every character is the best character.

Severance

I will not rest until everyone is as obsessed with this show as me. I've already watched season 1 three times, and I'll probably watch it all the way through again before season 2 comes out. It just hits all my buttons. Eerie weirdness! Sci-fi elements explored at a very personal, human level! Retro corporate dystopian branding and decor! Random moments of absurdity! Existential dread! Defiant jazz!

The Magicians

One doesn't keep up a semi-active sideblog for four years (?!!) and counting for a show without being permanently altered and irreparably damaged by it. One day, a work friend and I were talking tv and she went, "you would like this show! I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but you would like it!" For better or worse... she was not wrong. (On the fandom side, the fic for this show is just exquisite. The art, edits, and gifs are impeccable. I'm grateful it compelled me to start making stuff more regularly. Fussy, high-effort stuff!)

Better Call Saul

I know, I know *pikachu surprised face* that this one made the list. Y'know that post that makes the rounds every once in awhile, about 'ships and fictional relationships that's like, "sure they're in love or whatever. But, like... do they even like each other?" I think this silly lawyer prequel to the crime-and-drugs show accidentally became the best display of two people who like and love each other on tv. (Also yes, everything else about it is A++. Meticulous. Stressful. Exhilarating. No notes.)

Simpsons (Seasons 1-8ish)

This feels like an embarrassingly basic answer, but my personality really is just several early seasons of The Simpsons in a trench coat. It's what shaped my sense of humor. It's the foundation of my marriage. It's why I knew what Citizen Kane was at eight years old.

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies was one of the first times I felt like, "oh! Someone made a show for me specifically!" Every single element was a feast for the eyes, from the saturated colors, to the quirky, overly literal sets, to Chuck's outfits, to Lee Pace's face. Baking AND knitting were heavily featured in every episode! There was a cute romance with supernatural complications. There was whimsical, fairy tale-style Jim Dale narration!

Runners up include: Tuca & Bertie, Buffy, Firefly, Freaks & Geeks, Mad Men, Home Movies, Legion, WandaVision, The Mandalorian, and Lost.

[moonflower-rose]

Hello! This is maybe a strange question, especially since we don't know each other, but you seem kind and reasonable.

How, exactly, does one realize they have Drarry brain rot? Say... Do you maybe hear a song you've loved since before you even cared about Drarry and you suddenly think of them? And then you immediately realize you know another song and the two songs together would be like like telling a Draco POV and another is the Harry POV?

Because... That may be my affliction. Alas! Me with the no storytelling talent.

So I figured you'd be nice enough to tell me if this is normal for daydreamer types or if it's time get off AO3 and Tumblr.

Hi there - this was an interesting ask. I think what stands out for me in particular is when you talk about 'brain rot' and 'affliction' and 'it's time to get off AO3 and Tumblr'.

What I'm hearing with those words is that you feel (or want to imply) that there is something inherently wrong with the behaviour you're describing.

So my answer to you is that Drarry brain rot doesn't exist, because it's perfectly valid for you to enjoy Drarry and to find inspiration in everyday things. Don't get off either AO3 or Tumblr, if anything, lean in! If Drarry fandom makes you feel good - why would you want to stop!?? Nothing rotten about that, especially if you are engaging with others in a positive way and not giving others a hard time if they enjoy things in a different way to you.

I know for me, I have always been a huge daydreamer in general and I've had fandom daydreams specifically since I was a little kid. Star Wars and Star Trek and Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal and The Neverending Story and The Chronicles of Narnia and Fraggle Rock - and that was just before I turned 10! I think what helped me was that my parents were also really big fans of sci-fi and fantasy, and went to Star Trek conventions in the '80s and my mum had an enormous collection of Star Trek novels (shoutout to @dduane for writing several of my personal faves) and she built a huge Romulan warbird model that sat on top of the TV, and they treated this like normal, not unusual or fringe behaviour. They never hid it or acted like it was embarassing. High five to my parents for being a couple of cool nerds.

I think the long history of pop culture fandom generally and the size of it, and the 'mainstreaming' of fandom over the past 15 years, demonstrates that it's very normal to enjoy pop culture, to be a fan, to be part of fandom, and to spend time thinking and daydreaming about it. It's as normal as people who are super into sports teams or fashion or cooking or home renovation. They might not be zoning out to songs and imagining Gordon Ramsey sensuously kissing Heston Blumenthal (but maybe they are, and thats okay), but they're probably having other kinds of daydreams about their thing, whatever it may be. Those things are not more valid or legitimate than being a Drarry fan.

In conclusion:

if you have been in fear that your enjoyment of Drarry has been too much, too preoccupying, and says something negative about you, then give that feeling a little kiss on the forehead and chuck it into the sea.

You might not think you have a storytelling talent, or you might not have the confidence to put yourself out there, but your ask was quite whimsical, why not give it a try? Or if you've been super inspired by those two songs and you don't feel ready or able to have a crack at it on your own, maybe you can join forces with someone else to make it happen, or use it as a prompt in a fest (like @hd-wireless) and give it life in another way.

[velvethopewrites]

oops. Almost forgot it was Friday again. 🤦‍♀️ Why do I keep doing that?!

Anyway, this week’s fic is one I just finished and I loved it so much I actually slowed down the reading process so I could wholly enjoy it throughout the week. (I tend to read super fast; always have, always will)

Dreaming in Digital by Ltleflrt (@ltleflrt)

Summary:

When Dean finds a deactivated sex bot, he knows it's his lucky day.

Set in a Cyberpunk world where global warming and climate change has driven most of the human population into domed cities, Sam and Dean hunt rogue tech and science experiments gone wrong in the shadows, protecting the lives of those the government doesn't care about anymore. On a trip to the dump to scavenge for valuables Dean finds Castiel, an Angel Industries sex bot, which is worth his weight in credits. But when he turns the sex bot on, he learns that Castiel is sentient. 

Artificial Intelligence is illegal, and for good reason, but Cas doesn't put off dangerous vibes. That doesn't stop Sam from researching his creators while Dean's off making friends with the android. If there's someone out there creating a robot army unconstrained by the 3 rules of robotics, Sam's going to make sure the operation is shut down for good.

Castiel just wants to exist. He wants to read and work in the Winchester's greenhouse and have movie nights with Dean. But he also wants to understand. Himself. His unexpected reaction to Dean. What it it means to feel.

I have featured Cas as an android/computer/sentient smart house before, but this one is the crown jewel. The character of Castiel that we know and love seems tailor-made here for life as an android. Maybe it’s the Star Trek fan in me, I’m not sure, but this trope fills me with joy.

The thing I love about @ltleflrt’s work is how I can sink right down into their words, no matter the situation and let the story surround me like a well-loved comfy blanket. I totally get sucked in and lose myself, and that is, to my eyes, one of the best things about an author. It’s tough to do and hard to copy, but @ltleflrt makes it look effortless. And, so far, each and every story that I’ve read of this author does that to me. It is honestly such a gift.

The characterization is so good here - Dean in all his care-taking glory, Cas in all his other-ness and Sam in his long-suffering-but- loves-his brother-feels are all pitch perfect. The beauty of the story is not just Dean and Cas becoming friends/allies/something else but also in the way the three learn to become friends and how the brothers help Cas on his journey to find himself.

There is the mystery of Cas (who makes a sex-bot sentient?!) and enough case work here to keep you entertained. There is Gabriel/Sam to make you laugh and smile (as well as trips to a virtual Moondoor, which quite frankly was awesome!) and there is Dean stumbling through his feelings (Man, for a robot, Cas sure is *hot*) and there is Castiel - so naive and yet, so not. He is often blunt, but also tender, and his developing feelings towards Dean are so beautiful to read. If you love a nice friends to lovers buzz, you can’t go wrong with this one. It’s absolutely lovely to read about these two finding their way to be together. And I don’t want to spoil the end - but Cas goes on a journey here that is absolutely breathtaking and reassured me of my love for all things sci-fi and what it means to reach for the stars, even if you’re doing it with gadgetry and circuits.

So many great cameos here, that again, I don’t want to spoil the surprise but this story has one of the best uses of Jimmy Novak and Chuck (as well as Amara) that I’ve ever read. And just when you think Cas and Dean have it all figured out, the author throws some delicious, delicious angst your way that almost makes it seem as though everything is lost. But don’t worry, one of the other great things about @ltleflrt is that you get a fabulous (often very hot), happy ending. So sit back and let the story wash over you - this is one of the most original destiel fics I have ever read and I would gladly read it again and again. It’s hot and funny and emotional and guh, just perfect. (And features Cas in a dress, which I wish we had art for!) So pull up a seat and get lost inside this amazing story world, you won’t be disappointed.

Five out of Five Bees: 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

omg it’s FAN FICTION FRIDAY

Reblog and promote a fic of yours <3

[aceofwands]

I posted 9,706 times in 2022

That's 5,221 more posts than 2021!

12 posts created (0%)

9,694 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mandaloriandy

@snoozingcat

@sunriseseance

@tinsnip

I tagged 1,766 of my posts in 2022

#stranger things - 358 posts

#the orville - 205 posts

#steddie - 196 posts

#cackles - 157 posts

#spoilers - 127 posts

#ds9 - 112 posts

#goncharov - 101 posts

#unreality - 88 posts

#wheeze - 47 posts

#leverage - 46 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#also the authors notes where the characters would 'talk' to the author and complain about what they were being made to do in the story

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I unironically love that in the span of a few weeks we've gone from a cringe revival designed to ward off Twitter refugees, to genuine welcoming posts teaching them the ins and outs of reblogging/tagging/the etiquette, to creating a batshit faux film complete with poster and a goddamn musical theme for a meme (Goncharov) that's spreading across our dashes like a fucking virus. If that doesn't just sum this place up 😂

14 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#4

I started this after I 'finished' Don't Give Up On Me (the McShep vid that I shared last week) and didn't get super far with it back then, but was inspired to go back to it and have basically spent the whole week working on it. No one's more surprised than me that it's done :'D

Anyway, I've described this as Rodney according to Rodney - so everyone who enjoys his manic little bastard energy is gonna have a blast with this :'D

Feel free to give it a kudos on AO3 here.

22 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

#3

The Orville season 3 is now on Disney+

If any of you have thought, hmmm, what on earth is that wacky Seth McFarlane sci-fi show everyone's been raving about for the past 10 weeks? (the first two seasons were already on there)

First of all, it's not Family Guy in space, I promise. It's like contemporary 90s era Star Trek with a sprinkle of workplace dramedy (though it was originally billed as a comedy by Fox). The cast of characters are all delightful and lovable. The SFX for both makeup and the CG is fucking spectacular. But most importantly, the writing is clever and the stories are well told - the characters and their dialogue are relatable and believable, and the stories deal with so many contemporary issues - everything from religious fanaticism to social media, slavery to suicide, populist leaders to trans rights.

This is a world in which humans still enjoy getting hammered and know pop culture - but also one which is completely committed to the idea of a world without capitalism, where Earth came together with other alien worlds to form a planetary Union for shared advancement and protection and cultural exchange. (And unlike Trek which is often handwavey about it, they actually go into this lore properly!)

It's optimistic, goofy, funny, but also not afraid to pull any punches and made us all cry at least once an episode in season 3.

Season 3 was the best season yet, but each of those episodes was built onto the foundation established in the first two seasons. So please, give it a chance - go in knowing you're getting goofy Star Trek that starts a bit too comedic and needs a bit of time to find its space legs. But I promise, if you stick with it, you're in for a hell of a ride and some absolutely incredible sci-fi.

In conclusion: do you love found family? Do you love optimistic space explorers? Do you love wacky adventures?

Watch The Orville!

24 notes - Posted August 11, 2022

#2

seen some folks suggesting Goncharov is the latest escalation to ward the Twitter refugees away, but I gotta respectfully disagree

Goncharov is the equivalent of you and your cousins putting on a 'play' for all your parents when you were 8

we're just trying to show off for our new audience

could your old social media site do this??? I don't think so! [pulls a fully formed fake 1973 Scorsese film out of someone's knock off boots like a magician wielding a bouquet of fake flowers]

26 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Finally finished the McShep vid I started back in June during my SGA rewatch. Can't believe it's taken this long for me to make a vid about my two favourite idiots in love <3

Feel free to give it a kudos on AO3 here.

93 notes - Posted January 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[ifeelbetterer]

Hello! I'm rereading Jane Eyre for he first time since i was 12, and was wondering - what are your thoughts on Bertha?

MY BUDDY MY PAL. I love you forever for sending me this ask. If I knew who you were (and also had the moneys), I would send you daffodils every day for the rest of your mortal life for sending me this ask. I have never been given the opportunity to do this immensely awesome thing I am about to do before. I am buzzing with excitement about the wonders you are about to encounter. 

Because before I say what I personally think, I have just the BEST NEWS to give you and it is the highpoint of my literary life that I get to be the one to tell you this: there’s a book/miniseries* for you called Wide Sargasso Sea. It is SO EXCELLENT and I hope you repay me for guiding you in its direction by coming back and dropping me a line about it once you’ve consumed it. It’s Jane Eyre from Bertha’s pov. What happened was Jean Rhys, who obviously was tuned into future trends in fanfic like some kind of fandom divining rod, took this excellent fic trope of “this version is pov from THE OTHER ONE” and applied a lifetime of just masterful postcolonial thought/experience/emotion and made this goddamned masterpiece. They call it both a feminist and a postcolonial response to Jane Eyre (missing, of course, the fandom divining rod angle I am pushing hard here). It IS. It’s so good. 

* excellent book, excellent miniseries. I am not bothered by how you choose to consume, but run to it as soon as you have finished your re-read of Jane. 

God. I am so excited about you encountering Wide Sargasso Sea. Please PLEASE come back and talk to me about it someday. I know Jane Eyre is a handful and you might not get to it any time soon, but when you do. Please come back. If it is fifteen years from now, please come back and talk to me about it. I will be as excited about it then. 

My thoughts about Bertha are directly tied to everything Rhys does with the character. She’ll expand Jane Eyre for you, not damage it. You will see whole worlds that Bronte never imagined unfold in the novel. Because there’s a lot to “abroad” that Bronte was only guessing at, circumscribed as she was by her era, her privilege, her race, and her gender. So when she says “oh Bertha was from the West Indies” she has only the most broad strokes of “abroad” in mind there. So Bertha needs someone more sympathetic to expand her, to give real flesh to a character that is more a function than a person in the original novel. And Jean Rhys does that. 

There are, of course, other ways to read her. If you take as given that Bronte was incapable of understanding the realness of such a foreign person, you can see Bertha more as a reflection of Jane’s worst fears and her most extreme desires. Jane is, after all, the child who screamed in a red room once upon a time. She’s still the girl who responded to Helen’s death by curling around her corpse. This girl is, like Bronte herself, not a being who can be confined to the societal expectations of a proper lady. She expands. Jane is a little touched by the same magical “madness” that has seized her mirror locked up in the attic. Jane, who rebelled so hard when she was younger and then just crushed herself into the shape that school required her to be, that Jane also could very well set a house on fire. Jane is also the woman who walks out into the moors rather than compromise her agency for Rochester, who she actually legit loves. So I think there’s a way you can see Jane finding Bertha as a sign of the dangers of penning herself away like she already does, like women in general (at the time and even, I would argue, today) were expected to do. Bertha is what happens when you squeeze women into tiny little pigeon holes that they, as real living people, cannot be contained by. Bertha bursts her seams, so to speak, and Jane learns that this will happen to her too if she has to be contained in a neat little pigeon hole too. 

So she walks out onto the moors and makes a new life for herself that is entirely, completely subject to her own will. 

(Which is why I haaaaaate when adaptations of Jane Eyre cut the St. John bits. They’re SO PIVOTAL.)

So that’s how Bertha is more a function than a person in Bronte’s version. She’s a lesson Jane learns about oppression but she’s also not a real person that Jane is ever tempted to free from oppression. I count that more as an authorial sin than the character’s, but Jane SHOULD have freed Bertha. Like the unicorn in The Last Unicorn frees the harpy, Jane SHOULD have freed the fellow being who was like her and who she saw herself reflected in. If Jane is the character she is, she’s actually a better person than Bronte—small wonder, right? we all right our characters better than ourselves—and Jane would have saved Bertha. 

I actually think it’s a better ending. It makes Bertha a new Helen, not some kind of dire omen. Jane’s story is about her relationship with women, not Rochester. The aunt is the first person who matters, than Helen. Then there’s the bit about Rochester. But then we go back to women: Bertha and St. John’s sisters. And it makes more sense to me that a Jane who counted Helen’s death as not a freak of circumstance, but the fault of the conditions of the school.....THAT Jane should not sit idly by while a woman is killed by the conditions of where she lives. THAT Jane should free Bertha and THEN walk out onto the moors. Then there would be days of walking, of sleeping but not knowing if Bertha will come upon her in the night, of startling when she catches glimpses of Bertha out of the corner of her eye, of Bertha slowly creeping closer, of Bertha’s trauma and her rage finding outlets, of Jane finding herself in response to them and finding her own rage and her own trauma in watching someone else heal themself, etc. 

Making St. John the end of the book is the coward’s way out. 

[desultory-novice]

Hello there! Firstly I'd like to say I'm fascinated by your Kirby lore theories, I love how insightful you are with them and how well thought out they are! Phenomenal work

Now, recently I've also came up witg a tgeory of my own and, if it isn't too much of a bother, I'd love to know your opinion about it: https://jpdesenhador.tumblr.com/post/683001278858739712/my-kirby-lore-theory

(Tl;DR: Me and some colleagues believe that Another Dimension os the Kirby Equivalent of the afterlife)

Thank you so much! That's very sweet of you!

Also, sorry it took me so long to get around to this!

First off, excellent work yourself on this! As someone who writes a lot about the Kirby series, I know the work that goes into just the act of writing itself and I can tell the effort you put into this!

Now, you asked for my opinions on your theory! I wrote them down steam-of-consciousness style as I was reading through it. (A whole lot boils down to "Good find!" and "Smart!") I also added some thoughts and speculation of my own!

Thoughts:

I love how you made the connection of Void being a form of god to the residents of the Kirby universe. It fits nicely with that idea that a creature beyond human/ancient explanation would likely be interpreted as (a) god, and thus that Another Dimension where Void exists, regardless of its actual powers, would become the basis for building a parallel religion off of it. (It's also very Star Trek to discover an alien creature/space and then go on to answer the question of "Is this God or what older societies interpreted as God?")

...And of course, the whole "paradise" = paradise connection. Speaking of the "Lor" I feel like (citation needed) several creation myths in our own world have involved a boat or ship of some kind? One capable of ferrying people to paradise. And there’s Noah’s Ark, too.

Heh. All this has got me thinking of Sphere Doomers as “angels.” Well, I guess they’d be more like cherubim? ...Hmm. “Two pairs of wings and four faces.” Aren’t there four types of Doomer? And their mouths stretch all around, which could also represent the “four faces” thing. “Gleaming like polished brass” - they do tend toward a coppery color, at least, the Grand Doomer does...!

While it's funny to think of Another Dimension as the afterlife, the points about the characters who canonically end up there all do so after they should have died is pretty tight. In a normal sci-fi story, the Star Dream accident would absolutely have caused Susie's "death" (and you’re right in how her father Max talks about his failure to “get her back” and his far-too-late understanding that no machine can undo "death"). Then there’s Magolor's "death" (and boy does his resemble one, albeit, a cartoon version. But the visuals of him “ascending to heaven” can't be denied. All he needs is a little halo!) 

What struck me reading this is that I'd become so used to "not dead until the Twitter art confirms it" death in Kirby, I hadn't batted an eye at Hyness sacrificing himself and the mage sisters but...yeah, the word "sacrifice" really spells it out though, doesn't it? They could all have died.

I'm really curious about the presence of the Phantoms in Forgo Dreams in FL though. These characters are not dead, yet Elfilis is able to sustain their shadows in their little corner of the afterlife...

And NICE theory about Royal Road. There was always something unusual about that stage to me. It looks unlike anything else in TDX. And the rifts in that stage bear a strong resemblance to the one on the Lor's sail, being a double-star pattern! It wouldn't be all that unusual for Taranza and Sectonia to possess that power either, because the fairies of Kirby 64 probably possess the SAME dimension hopping power, since the portals in 64 look so much like rifts. (And their being rifts neatly explains why Kirby and the gang can visit planets like Earth-....err, Shiver Star, which definitely don't exist in the Gamble Galaxy unless something happened to move the planet out of our own solar system.)

While I'm handing out applause, GOOD CATCH on how Taranza’s “Queen's Phantom” looks like Phantom Fecto. (The word Phantom in all these.)

While your essay didn't state this outright, I think there's potential in the idea of the Parallel bosses having a connection with the phantom bosses. I'm not certain myself where I want to toss my coin in on this, as it's still a mystery what divides characters between "stuck as a phantom/a fully developed parallel character" and "comes back to life later." (I would say “maybe anyone who died once is a candidate for splitting off into a parallel self!” but we’ve never seen Dedede sent to Another Dimension, and Landia didn’t die either...)

As to the backgrounds in Morpho Knight's arena, it's interesting that, given the possibility that Taranza and Sectonia have dimensional rift powers (...which also gives a lot more context as to how Taranza even ACQUIRED the Dimensional Mirror, given I believe there's some debate about what it is/where it is/its condition after the Amazing Mirror) all the characters with the Another Dimension background have ties to Another Dimension.

Most of the Wave 1 friends have ties to Dark matter; Marx is the mystery there, having not participated in any of the Dark Matter incidents - although you can, without much need for headcanon, put him safely in that group if you believe him to be a native resident of Popstar. I bring this up because Wave 2, grouped into the Dark Star background, all share a common trait of NOT being Popstar natives. In fact, outside of DMK, they're all possibly from Earth!

(I'll have to do some more thinking about the lore implications of the backgrounds in the Morpho Knight fight...)

...Ahh, wish I could chime in on the Mirror World stuff. I am STILL trying to make sense of all that myself. It's...difficult. (Which probably means it is the ripest area for more exploration in future Kirby games? At least now that we've got a pretty good basis for understanding the transition from humans (human-expies) to the the ancients.) But I can't help but note the star (aka, dimensional rift) patterns on the mirror. And the fact that it is topped by a CROWN.

The Void Termina fight gives us a clear visual of Void using the Master Crown as a weapon. However, it's the corrupted version of the crown, not Landia's version, which is very interesting, since (novel) lore suggests it was Magolor's wicked heart that caused it to take that form. The Dimension Mirror's "crown" could be representative of the pure version of the Master Crown? (Hilarious if the Mirror Dimension turns out to be "hell." I'm not sure I’m on board with that idea, but do I wonder, if Void isn't the "god" of both the present dimension and the mirror dimension, then what is Mirror Void like? The “Zero as Lucifer” idea is a good one, but that leaves a disconnect between the Kirby verse's Lucifer and their hell. That is, there's no Lucifer/Zero there. Although you could say they've got their "the lake of fire" if you look at Dark Mind that way!)

Oh, and because I'm writing these comments as I'm reading, I need to wheel back and say, regarding the Lor, ("Paradise Starcutter") the Japanese name becomes incredibly relevant here, as Starcutter is an EN localization of "Ship that crosses (the) Heaven(s)." If Another Dimension is the afterlife/was rationalized as the afterlife by the Ancients, then of course after making a ship that could safely carry them through that afterlife, they’d dub it the ship capable of "traversing heaven."

Hmm. I don't necessarily like the use of "corrupt" to describe Haltmann and Sectonia, as, despite their undeniably evil deeds in game, they both started out as victims of a greater power. Well, Max might’ve still been a Nightmare Capitalist if he and Susie had stayed together, but she might have been a calming influence on him too. 

Meanwhile, Magolor, lovable monster that he is and present "good guy" didn't need his mind warped at all to desire the Master Crown. And his soul was VERY MUCH CORRUPTED. But.....I guess that's up for debate. I don't personally subscribe to "...being in the presence of the Master Crown is what made Magolor desire in the first place" but I know it's a popular theory for his actions. As much as I hate the novel's (spoilers!) summation that Magolor just had "evil in his heart", it does succinctly remove any blame from the crown. BUT THEN AGAIN there's the issue of Void spawning the corrupted crown, and if it was built by the Ancients using Void as a base, then it would have been MADE corrupted! Argh! I have so many thoughts about that stupid crown!

A-ahem. But yes, I think Haltmann and Sectonia are stuck as phantoms/unable to resurrect because of their unusual circumstances. Star Dream literally deleted Max's soul, and we saw with Leongar that you might not be able to come back to life if even a few pieces of your soul (in his case, the ones the Beast Pack had) are missing. As to Sectonia, I rationalize it with the fact that she's only "half-dead" having fused with the Dreamstalk, which is still alive and healthy. So she also doesn't possess all the pieces of her soul. This can also be used to explain why Sectonia and Forgo look the same in phantom form! As Elfilis's soul is fractured too, since part of them is still alive in Elfilin.

(Ough... I suppose in that sense, Max, who doesn't have ANY of his soul left, can't even come back as a phantom...)

...Hahahaha! Oh my gosh, I love the idea that Morpho is constantly checking their power level against Kirby to see if they're powerful enough to devour them yet/if it's Kirby's time to be consumed. It's so GRIM! ("Grim" Reaper?)

Aha! There's the bit about the Sphere Doomers as angels! Glad that showed up!

...So, yes! I mostly wrote this post as commentary/reaction to the essay, but I have to say, in conclusion, good job to you and the rest of the team who put it together! I really liked it! 

It was quite the fun read, and it got me thinking about some things that hadn't come to my attention before. I definitely think there's ground here to build even more theories out of, whether Another Dimension is the actual afterlife or that "afterlife" is the best word the humanity-derived Ancients have for it. (After all, people don't magically come back to life in OUR world...)

To those who haven't read this yet, totally give it a look!! I know I'll probably be playing around with some of the ideas from this essay in my future Kirby theorizing! (That darn Mirror Dimension.... What DOES it represent?!)

[themadauthorshatter]

... Why am I like this?😅

Happy Tree Friends Headcanons(because it's a good show):

After Lumpy, Flippy is the tallest character.

Cuddles and Giggles are roommates. And an on again off again couple.

Flaky DOES use shampoo to try getting rid of her dandruff, but all she inadvertently does is make her scalp more dry because she uses too much shampoo and scrubs too hard.

Don't ask Mime to drive you places. Flippy, Cuddles, Toothy, and Flaky learned this the hard way, all on seperate occasions.

Building on the theory that everyone in the town is immortal and recovers from their deaths and injuries, they usually wake up in bed wearing the same clothes they died in. They remeber how they died, but it's more like a dream that becomes a memory.

No one fully brings up dying because the phantom pain is there.

Mime does ASMR.

Flaky is one of the shortest girl in town, and slicing all the time does not help.

Flippy and Flaky, aethsteticly, are Legosi and Haru from Beastars. Relationship wise, they have a very brother-sister bond; Flaky's short and scared of everything, while Flippy's tall as a tree and has seen too much to be afraid of the same things as everyone else. They have private, inside jokes,

Flaky, Petunia, and Giggles have sleepovers regularly at each other's houses.

When the girls are at Giggles's house for a sleepover, Cuddles joins in, after asking of course. He's not a lady's man, he's a slut for a good time with friends, playing board games, gossip, venting about stuff, you know quality time.

Cuddles is the definition of a bisaster.

Flippy is good friends with a lot of the characters, but he especially likes spending time with Sniffles, the girls, Cuddles, Mime, and anyine that isn't Lifty, Shifty, or Nutty, especially Nutty; that's too much energy, laughter, and noise for him.

That's fine, because Nutty doesn't like Flippy, either. Who drinks coffee black, rarely eats sweets, doesn't game, doesn't smile and laugh and have a good time all the time, go on murderous rampages, say he's proud to have been a part of something that fucked him up, and still say he's happy with his life?

Lammy and Flippy are good friends and talk quite often. Their relationship never goes further than being anchors to each other, when it comes to 'flipping out.' (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this video please).

Flippy has TONS of scars from serving the army. Don't ask where or how he got them. Cuddles found out the hard way why that's a bad idea.

Giggles and Cuddles regularly have lunch with Toothy.

A group consisting of Giggles, Flaky, Lammy, Flippy, Mime, Flaky, Petunia, Sniffles, Handy, and Mole had a picnic once, where everyone brought something to contribute.

Lumpy and Nutty were invited, but they declined, to the dismay of Giggles and Cuddles and the pure relief of Flippy and Handy.

Flippy likes different people for different reasons: Giggles because she's outspoken and, ironically, has had very dirty sense of humor, Cuddles because I dare you to find someone who can be mad or feel anything negative around him, Lammy because of what I previously listed, Flaky because she's like a little sister to him, Sniffles because it's nice to hang out with a smart person sometimes, Handy because where Handy struggles physically he struggles mentally and somewhat understands him, Petunia because of how organized she is, Pop and Cub because seeing them together is free serotonin, Toothy because of the pathos, Mole because the guy needs someone to walk with sometimes, and Mime because of the silence when Mime's not miming.

Nutty and Flippy don't hate each other, they just don't like or agree with each other and find the other annoying.

Splendid admires Flippy for his bravery in serving the army. Flippy admires Splendid's ability to fly, seeing as how he's a flying squirrel.

Flippy's not a picky eater. He'll eat anything, even stuff he doesn't like.

Cuddles is friendly with everyone, but he's most friendly with Giggles; couple bias.

Toothy is friendly with everyone, even Nutty.

Giggles loves musicals, and often shares the interest with others.

Sniffles is smart enough to know how to turn a car into a plane, but also knows not to do it, just in case.

Lifty and Shifty have been to jail at least eight times.

Cuddles, Giggles, Toothy, Mime, and Flaky waited for a long time to see Flippy again. They waited at the town boarder to greet him, and surprise him in the best way EVER!

Spoiler alert: Everyone cried, including Flippy.

Flippy and Flaky don't like horror. Flippy because 1) He's very confident he can take a majority of the villains. 2) He doesn't exactly believe in aliens or the supernatural. 3) the flashing lights trigger him. 4) There are a few horror villains that genuinely set off his fight or die instinct(flight is never an option). Flaky doesn't like it because ot all scares her.

Flippy is more of a sci-fi buff, so expect him to be watching Star Trek while curled up in a ball on his couch.

[newmoneytrash]

i finished all of the New star trek shows and here are my big brained thoughts about them

Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1 to 3) - i have such complex feelings about this show because i don't know that i like it but i *do* like some of the characters, but liking the characters just ends up being frustrating because it's not an ensemble show like it should be. this is just the michael burnham show: a star trek adventure, which is not what i really want. i used to be a lot more harsh towards this show (especially just after the first season finished) but i'm trying to just accept things more for what they are and not what i want them to be, but even then there are so many ways the show is just annoying. it's like they consciously choose to write themselves into corners to find creative solutions out of them but those solutions are never, ever good or even really make sense. if this was just a generic sci-fi show and not a star trek show it would probably be better because it wouldn't have all of that baggage that it completely fails to carry, but if it was a random sci-fi show i can't say that i would be interested at all to watch it. also it's very funny that they killed off the robot bridge crew lady and at the end of the episode they were like 'oh here is her replacement' and it's just the same actor except now she doesn't have to wear all of that robot stuff all of the time

Star Trek: Short Trek (Seasons 1 and 2) - this is maybe the secret best new star trek show. not every episode is good, but it succeeds in just being little short stories into random crew members' lives which is what i want the most. i hope they start making them again when strange new worlds comes out because it has so much potential for really fun storytelling

Star Trek: Lower Decks (Seasons 1 and 2) - i maybe had the lowest expectations for lower decks than any other star trek thing ever and i wasn't sure i was even going to watch it, but someone convinced me to and i'm glad i did because it's easily my favourite new star trek show. it gives a terrible, horrible, awful first impression and it's easy to write it off as rick and morty but star trek, but the whole first season has such a good arc that kind of snuck up on me and by the end of it i was shocked how much i cared. the second season kind of does a lot of work to undo a lot of the character growth that was done in the first season, but keeping things status quo is a very star trek thing to do so it feels extremely deliberate. it's really good and you can tell it's made by people who love star trek a lot, especially TNG

Star Trek: Picard (Season 1) - this is doo doo out of a giant space butt. i think a show with an elderly picard has so much potential, but making it a space thriller with this one billion year old man diving around in gun fights is not at all the direction they should have gone. all of the new characters they added feel soulless and bad, i really don't like it at all! and i love picard, i would die for this fictional man from outside space, but this show can eat shit. i'll still watch the next season because i'm already on this path anyway so it feels weird not to and i genuinely hope it's a lot better, but it would be extremely hard to disappoint me more than i've already been disappointed

anyway i just finished the last episode of discovery today just in time for prodigy this week. i'm truly a little star trek boy

[zephyrianightshade]

To the Star Trek point way up at the top, the producers were apparently surprised by the fact that Spock turned out more popular than Kirk with the ladies. They kept taking Kirk's shirt off to get the girls and it just about backfired on them. Women liked Spock because of entirely different reasons. (It is like the producers weren't paying attention.) Kirk is MANLY! MEN GO TO SPACE! MANLY MEN! (They did but with a bunch of women keeping silent behind them)

Kirk was in love with his ship (and Spock). Men love ships, that is why they call them "she". MANLY MEN !

We ladies were in love with a half alien man who wouldn't play frelling headgames with us. He was cold but he was honest. Is he acting crazy? Probably for a good reason! Okay, let's deal with that. Is he smiling? Something is wrong with him or the ship. Let's deal with that.

You know what happened? Kirk is a ladies man! Let's try to give Kirk this... Idea that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. They were not expecting us to scrutinize the show the way we do.

Honestly I was too young to see the show in its first run, but I did catch on quick when I was a kid and watching reruns on Channel 2. I used to hate Kirk for his womanizing to find out in my adulthood that I have probably slept with more people than he did. All of his "conquests" were a lot tamer and more explicable than mine.

If I was a captain (I am female) and had to screw someone to keep my ship and crew safe, I would totally do it. Kirk did it, and so did Spock (very nearly).

Maybe I am overthinking this. Maybe the guys went, "Shit, girls really like Star Trek. Let's make it hard for them. Girls get dolls not the cool toys."

I have to go revise my Sci - fi novel now.

I wonder when exactly it was that Star Trek stopped being perceived as light, fluffy, not-really-legitimate sci fi that ~housewives~ liked and started being seen as serious nerd business that girls had to keep their gross cooties off.