#lt dan ice cream

[sebastian-morey]

Sebastian Morey Statistical Character Matches:

Haymitch Abernathy (The Hunger Games) Stevie Budd (Schitt's Creek) Lip Gallagher (Shameless) Berta (Two and Half Men) Ray Arnold (Jurassic Park) Stanley Hudson (The Office) Alex Karev (Grey's Anatomy) Will Hunting (Good Will Hunting) Dan Taylor (Forrest Gump)

[gashface]

HEY GUYS!!! ,

This weeks prompt, was set out to learn more about your models, and delve a bit into their lives! <;3 These stories should be an important moment in their life, or just a memory that shaped them.

WARNING: This weeks prompt has a couple trigger warnings, which will be listed above the edit, so keep this in mind and proceed with caution &lt;3

With this in mind, onto the results! This week I was looking for edits that embrace your models story again, but from an earlier time in their lives. The main focus was on storytelling this week, and the edits reflecting this story. Whether this be directly, or in an abstract manner.

Charline Morel by @cyazurai

“Quand il me prend dans ses bras…” Fifteen-year-old Charline could hear her own voice singing, and she knew she was, but there was no heart in it. She hated singing. Well, perhaps she didn’t hate it, but through the circumstances she had grown to despise it. “.. qu'il me parle tout bas…” A tear streaked down her left cheek and she avoided her mother’s disapproving gaze. Beside her, her little sister Delphine enthusiastically played her violin to accompany her as they entertained their parents’ guests. “... le vois la vie en rose.” Another tear, this time on the right. This was not a sad song. This was a happy, romantic song. She should be putting her all into it, but all she could feel was the walls closing in. She was surrounded by people she could no longer see - they were just becoming only silhouetted blurs, judging her and family. They must be perfect. This happens every year. It was her parents’ New Years Eve party, and every year it was her and her sister’s obligation to make sure not to disappoint the hundreds of prestigious guests their parents invited. They had to be perfect or else. She hated this. She hated it. She didn’t want to be forced to sing just for a little bit of positive attention. Why did she have to do this? Why did Delphine have to be perfect at the violin just so that their parents might agree to let them go out for ice cream (when it wasn’t even a guarantee)? It was unfair. It was at this moment that Charlie realized she didn’t want to do this anymore, and so as the tears streamed down her cheeks, she decided to pour her heart into it one last time - because next year, she was going to be her parents’ performing monkey over her dead body.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 8/10

STORY: 10/10

EXECUTION: 9/10

STYLE: 9/10

Parker Winston by @morgynemberisagenderfluiddaddy

TW!: Suicide, self harm, mental health

Hi! My name's Parker, and I've tried to commit suicide multiple times. I know you're thinking that's a morbid and socially awkward way to introduce myself, but hey, it's a big part of my story and who I am. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot more to a person than just their mental health, but a lot of the time, these things tend not to get discussed, period. Let alone when we are trying to get to know somebody, so for today, I hope we can put that stigma aside, and I can tell you a little about my journey.

I have ADHD, and depression is something I have lived with as far back as I can remember. By the time I was twenty, I had tried to kill myself three times, I had a family that didn't talk to me, I'd cut my arms up so much my forearms were more scar than skin, my heart was crushed by someone I thought was the love of my life, and I was hooked on anything I could get my grubby little hands on.

I think about that shit a lot, the things I did, and the decisions I made. I think about the person I was and the person I am today.

They're wildly different people, but now that I'm able to see it from another side, I realize one can't exist without the other. I would've never learned the things I did, and I couldn't have grown from it. It was hell, and I had to claw those life lessons from my struggle like a damn wolverine, but hey, I survived! Despite my best efforts... Yeah, I know that's not funny, but if you don't laugh sometimes, you'll cry, and I'm sick of crying about it.

I hated who I was, and I had a hard time coping with everything I did, not just the suicide attempts but everything. Though I finally realized I couldn't change the past, but I could change the future.

I could get help, and I could make sure none of that ever happened again. I can't change the past, and it aches to know that somewhere in space and time, that kid is still struggling, and I wish I could talk to him... I don't know what I'd say to him because I know he wouldn't listen and probably just lift my wallet. But I still want to hug him, tell him that really it's all going to be okay, that he needs to let go of a lot of shit and learn to love himself, then I'd tell him to get rid of that asshole's shitty T-shirt.

The pain you feel, it's not for nothing, but it's also not forever. You'll learn from this, and in a way you least expect it, it will come full circle. Ease up on the drugs, stop cutting, and get yourself some help. I know you don't think you deserve it, but you do! And believe it or not, one day you're going to have a lot of people that want and need you around. This shit doesn't get any easier, but it does get better. You just need to let it.

So tell that jackass his band ain't shit, tell your parents they're full of shit, and tell your siblings you love them even though they all suck, hang onto your friends, don't be so scared, let yourself feel, and listen to yourself once in a while! You know yourself better than you think, and you know what you need, and guess what! The answer isn't always coke! I can't help that kid anymore, but I can help the one's reading this, and if in this moment you feel hopeless, do me, a stranger on the internet, a favor. Take a deep breath, know that it gets better, and reach out to somebody! You deserve help, you deserve love, and you deserve to be alive! With love, - Parker W.

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 9/10

STORY: 10/10

EXECUTION: 7/10

STYLE: 7/10

Ember Arendse by @wolfrynn313

Ember: "When I saw this week's prompt,I knew that I had to recreate a childhood photo of me at the keyboard with my Mum/Mom. I've always been creatively inclined and so have both of my parents and brothers; I thought it important to focus on the crystallization of my musical inclination and creativity, hence the feature of ice freezing in place. I realized who I was pretty early on and remain to be proud of the person that I grew into."

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 8/10

STORY: 8/10

EXECUTION: 8/10

STYLE: 8/10

Dillion Carter by @mewo-ita

Idea: Cherished memory of being with family at a rollerskating rink’s 80s night.

“Figured I should say something myself this time. My comfort place for the past decade whenever I feel overwhelmed to do anything has been this rink.

I discovered it the first three months after being adopted. I barely talked to anyone an’ just prepared to go back to the orphanage. That never stopped my new family tryin’ though and one day, we put on retro clothes and drove down to this place. It was 80s night, like it is now, and my sisters who I brought today helped me skate.

“Beat it” was playing in the background and I ‘member it being the first time I smiled in years. I was wearing a tomodachi my ma brought me and had no clue what soul or funk was, but I loved it. Did a lot for my confidence and ability to be around strangers— I don’t think I’d even consider being a model if not for that experience. I’d say it affected my fashion sense too, in a good way; makes me more open to change and bold colors.

Sure my folks will be able to find me here from now on; they didn’t know where I went off to before. S’not too bad.”

POINTS

ORIGINALITY: 9/10

STORY: 10/10

EXECUTION: 9/10

STYLE: 9/10

HOLY MOLY GOOD WORK GUYS!

I just want to say, thank you for all the effort you put into every weeks prompt. Your dedication is amazing x it makes hosting this so much fun

The next prompts will be released 8pm aest 25th of June.

Thanks guys x

- Buddy

Prompt Hint:

[axdently]

𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃-𝐃-𝐃-𝐃-𝐃-𝐃-𝐃-𝐃 𝐃𝐔𝐄𝐋 !! ( a post 003 EVENT OPEN ) ─── featuring: 𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒔  & @cagliostrostart

his face was a canvas of colorful bruises, and he could feel the bandages that crisscrossed his battered body. the room was sterile, filled with the faint, antiseptic smell that he'd come to associate with hospitals. the last time he was fully conscious, he was back at the medical tents behind the area of the Glitz Blitz. Skeeter, instead, lays in his hospital bed, nursing a particularly swollen eye. in his hand, he held an ice cream cone, a small comfort in the midst of his discomfort. it was pumpkin-flavored, a seasonal treat that brought a flicker of nostalgia to his white- culture.

with a mischievous glint in his eye, Skeeter couldn't help himself as he began to quote one of his favorite movie lines, re-enacting the famous scene from Forrest Gump. "Lt. Dan! Ice cream!" he exclaimed with a chuckle, offering a grin that was slightly hindered by the swelling. it was a moment of levity in what had been a whirlwind of events. and sure, his head still hurt, and he had broken a couple of bones in his body... but making jokes out of serious ordeals was the only way to go about living life. now, if only someone would listen. the poor imbecile had yet to be conscious for a single visitation.

"Come on, hang out and get some free ice cream," he shouts to no one in particular.

[leaderintitleonly]

Mom: So your shirt came in. Me: Ah yes... Mom: Lt. Dan's Ice Cream, huh. Me: ...I am Lt. Dan. Mom: I approve of this sense of humor. Lt. Dan Doesn't Want No Ice Cream

[brookston]

Holidays 5.30

Holidays

Anguilla Day

Arab Juice Day

Biafra Remembrance Day (Nigeria)

Canary Islands Day (Spain)

Daily Newspaper Day

Fakesgiving

Fishing Day (Elder Scrolls)

Garden Amazement Day

Harvest Festival (Malaysia)

Heirloom Seed Day

Ice Cream Freezer Day

Indian Arrival Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

International Doubles Day

International Hug Your Cat Day

Jag’s McCartney Day (Turks and Caicos Islands)

Joan of Arc Day

Kaamatan Harvest Festival begins (Kadazandusuns; Malaysia)

Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (Puerto Rico)

Loomis Day

Mother’s Day (Nicaragua)

My Bucket's Got A Hole In It Day

National Creativity Day

National E-Bike Day

National Gopher Revolution Day

National Jennifer Day

National Multiple Sclerosis Day

National Nail Tech Day

National Recruiters Day

National Sofia Day

National Women in Baseball Day

No Garbage Day (Japan)

Paperback Writer Day

Parliament Day (Croatia)

Reconciliation Day (Australia)

Sabitri Amabasya (Odisha, India)

Strawberry Day (French Republic)

Swing Day a.k.a. Tano Day (Korea) [5th Day of 5th Lunar Month]

This Day

Water a Flower Day

World Juice Day

World MS Day

World Sea Lion Day

World Vape Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Mint Julep Day

National Potato Day (Peru)

National Scone Day

4th & Last Tuesday in May

Mampoer Festival (Moonshine Festival; Cullinan, South Africa)

World Bedwetting Day [Last Tuesday]

Independence Days

Dan Državnosti (Statehood Day; Croatia)

Eintractia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Eleytheria (Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Goa Statehood Day (India)

Feast Days

St. Chrysostom (Positivist; Saint)

Einherjar (Asatru; memorial to war dead in Valhalla)

Feast of the Queen of Heaven (Pagan)

Felix, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Ferdinand III of Castile, King of Castile and Leon (Christian; Saint)

Frigg's Day (Norse Queen of Heaven)

Harvest Festival (Malaysia)

Isaac of Dalmatia (Christian; Saint)

Joan of Arc (Christian; Saint)

Joseph Marello (Christian; Saint)

Maguil, Recluse in Picardy (Christian; Saint)

Meinherjar (Feast of Valhalla; Pagan)

Pro Hart (Artology)

Random Acts of Kindness Day (Pastafarian)

Spook (Muppetism)

Walston of Bawburgh (Christian; Saint) [Agricultural Works, Farmers, Farm Workers, Field Hands]

Winnie Ruth Judd Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [29 of 57]

Premieres

Bingo Crosbyana (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)

The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum (Novel; 1980)

Dark Town Strutters Ball, recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917)

Dumb Patrol (WB LT Cartoon; 1931)

Finding Nemo (Animated Disney Film; 2003)

Girls Like You, by Maroon 5 (Song; 2018)

The Italian Job (Film; 2003)

Living in the Material World, by George Harrison (Album; 1973)

Maleficent (Film; 2014)

The Marshall Mathers LP, by Eminem (Album; 2000)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Novel; 1967)

Parasite (Film; 2019)

Passenger to Frankfurt, by Agatha Christie (Novel; 1971)

Sex and the City (Film; 2008)

Today’s Name Days

Ferdinand, Johanna, Otto (Austria)

Emiliya (Bulgaria)

Ferdinand, Ivana (Croatia)

Ferdinand (Czech Republic)

Vigand (Denmark)

Argo, Arro (Estonia)

Pasi (Finland)

Ferdinand, Jeanne, Lorraine (France)

Felix, Ferdinand, Johanna (Germany)

Emmeleia (Greece)

Janka, Zsanett (Hungary)

Felice, Ferdinando, Giovanni (Italy)

Kredo, Lola, Lolita, Vitolds (Latvia)

Ferdinandas, Joana, Jomilė, Vyliaudas, Žana (Lithuania)

Gard, Geir (Norway)

Andonik, Feliks, Ferdynand, Joanna, Sulimir (Poland)

Isaachie (România)

Ferdinand (Slovakia)

Estela, Estrella, Fernando, Juana (Spain)

Fritjof, Vera, Veronika (Sweden)

Joan, Joani, Joann, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Fawn, Fern, Fernanda, Fernando, Ferdinand, Ferdinanda, Ferdinando (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 150 of 2024; 215 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 22 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 16 of 28]

Chinese: Month 4 (Ding-Si), Day 12 (Wu-Zi)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 10 Sivan 5783

Islamic: 10 Dhu al-Qada 1444

J Cal: 28 Bīja; Sevenday [28 of 30]

Julian: 17 May 2023

Moon: 78%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 10 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Chrysostom]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 5 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 71 of 90)

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 9 of 32)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 150 of 2022; 215 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 22 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Púyuè), Day 1 (Gui-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 29 Iyar 5782

Islamic: 28 Shawwal 1443

J Cal: 30 Bīja; Eight Day [30 of 30]

Julian: 17 May 2022

Moon: 0% New Moon

Positivist: 10 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Chrysostom]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 3 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 69 of 90)

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 9 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 5.30

Holidays

Anguilla Day

Arab Juice Day

Biafra Remembrance Day (Nigeria)

Canary Islands Day (Spain)

Daily Newspaper Day

Fakesgiving

Fishing Day (Elder Scrolls)

Garden Amazement Day

Harvest Festival (Malaysia)

Heirloom Seed Day

Ice Cream Freezer Day

Indian Arrival Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

International Doubles Day

International Hug Your Cat Day

Jag’s McCartney Day (Turks and Caicos Islands)

Joan of Arc Day

Kaamatan Harvest Festival begins (Kadazandusuns; Malaysia)

Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (Puerto Rico)

Loomis Day

Mother’s Day (Nicaragua)

My Bucket's Got A Hole In It Day

National Creativity Day

National E-Bike Day

National Gopher Revolution Day

National Jennifer Day

National Multiple Sclerosis Day

National Nail Tech Day

National Recruiters Day

National Sofia Day

National Women in Baseball Day

No Garbage Day (Japan)

Paperback Writer Day

Parliament Day (Croatia)

Reconciliation Day (Australia)

Sabitri Amabasya (Odisha, India)

Strawberry Day (French Republic)

Swing Day a.k.a. Tano Day (Korea) [5th Day of 5th Lunar Month]

This Day

Water a Flower Day

World Juice Day

World MS Day

World Sea Lion Day

World Vape Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Mint Julep Day

National Potato Day (Peru)

National Scone Day

4th & Last Tuesday in May

Mampoer Festival (Moonshine Festival; Cullinan, South Africa)

World Bedwetting Day [Last Tuesday]

Independence Days

Dan Državnosti (Statehood Day; Croatia)

Eintractia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Eleytheria (Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Goa Statehood Day (India)

Feast Days

St. Chrysostom (Positivist; Saint)

Einherjar (Asatru; memorial to war dead in Valhalla)

Feast of the Queen of Heaven (Pagan)

Felix, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Ferdinand III of Castile, King of Castile and Leon (Christian; Saint)

Frigg's Day (Norse Queen of Heaven)

Harvest Festival (Malaysia)

Isaac of Dalmatia (Christian; Saint)

Joan of Arc (Christian; Saint)

Joseph Marello (Christian; Saint)

Maguil, Recluse in Picardy (Christian; Saint)

Meinherjar (Feast of Valhalla; Pagan)

Pro Hart (Artology)

Random Acts of Kindness Day (Pastafarian)

Spook (Muppetism)

Walston of Bawburgh (Christian; Saint) [Agricultural Works, Farmers, Farm Workers, Field Hands]

Winnie Ruth Judd Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [29 of 57]

Premieres

Bingo Crosbyana (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)

The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum (Novel; 1980)

Dark Town Strutters Ball, recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917)

Dumb Patrol (WB LT Cartoon; 1931)

Finding Nemo (Animated Disney Film; 2003)

Girls Like You, by Maroon 5 (Song; 2018)

The Italian Job (Film; 2003)

Living in the Material World, by George Harrison (Album; 1973)

Maleficent (Film; 2014)

The Marshall Mathers LP, by Eminem (Album; 2000)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Novel; 1967)

Parasite (Film; 2019)

Passenger to Frankfurt, by Agatha Christie (Novel; 1971)

Sex and the City (Film; 2008)

Today’s Name Days

Ferdinand, Johanna, Otto (Austria)

Emiliya (Bulgaria)

Ferdinand, Ivana (Croatia)

Ferdinand (Czech Republic)

Vigand (Denmark)

Argo, Arro (Estonia)

Pasi (Finland)

Ferdinand, Jeanne, Lorraine (France)

Felix, Ferdinand, Johanna (Germany)

Emmeleia (Greece)

Janka, Zsanett (Hungary)

Felice, Ferdinando, Giovanni (Italy)

Kredo, Lola, Lolita, Vitolds (Latvia)

Ferdinandas, Joana, Jomilė, Vyliaudas, Žana (Lithuania)

Gard, Geir (Norway)

Andonik, Feliks, Ferdynand, Joanna, Sulimir (Poland)

Isaachie (România)

Ferdinand (Slovakia)

Estela, Estrella, Fernando, Juana (Spain)

Fritjof, Vera, Veronika (Sweden)

Joan, Joani, Joann, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Fawn, Fern, Fernanda, Fernando, Ferdinand, Ferdinanda, Ferdinando (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 150 of 2024; 215 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 22 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 16 of 28]

Chinese: Month 4 (Ding-Si), Day 12 (Wu-Zi)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 10 Sivan 5783

Islamic: 10 Dhu al-Qada 1444

J Cal: 28 Bīja; Sevenday [28 of 30]

Julian: 17 May 2023

Moon: 78%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 10 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Chrysostom]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 5 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 71 of 90)

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 9 of 32)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 150 of 2022; 215 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 22 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Púyuè), Day 1 (Gui-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 29 Iyar 5782

Islamic: 28 Shawwal 1443

J Cal: 30 Bīja; Eight Day [30 of 30]

Julian: 17 May 2022

Moon: 0% New Moon

Positivist: 10 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Chrysostom]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 3 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 69 of 90)

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 9 of 30)

[crazy-sheep-lady]

Lt. Dan can we go one week without you messing up your marking harness???

[fanfic-corner]

Lesser Known Doctor Who Fics

Hello everyone! Happy Doctor Who Day — here's some Doctor Who fics that have under 5,000 hits! I hope you enjoy them :)

Take It, Leave It (But you'd better believe it) by lloydsglasses (760)

“I told my foster mum that I’m gay. Now she keeps trying to set me up with guys."

“Ah,” says the Doctor, with a frown. “That seems… counterintuitive."

Self-Defenestration by gawayne (1.2k)

The Doctor jumps out of a window, and Donna discovers he isn’t quite as human as he looks.

I'm a satellite, I'm out of control by rainbow_porcupine_ninja (1.3k)

Yazmin Khan's so tired of running. The Doctor is always rushing, hurrying from one place to the next and never stopping to talk about it. There is always so much running. All Yaz wants to do was sit down.

OR: In which the Doctor and Yaz finally have that talk.

making time by thereweresunflowers (1.3k)

This time, they really have run out of time. It’s sliding away with the melting of her ice cream and the lump she can sense quietly building in Yaz’s throat. In mere hours, there will be so much they’ll have left unsaid.

There’s silence between the two of them and the Doctor has so many regrets.

or, the ice cream in space scene but there's kissing &lt;3

Whatever fits my skin by lloydsglasses (1.4k)

“So, does that happen to you a lot?” Bill asks once they’re safely back in the Doctor’s study, each cradling a mug of tea. “Getting snogged by gorgeous women as a thanks for saving their lives.”

The Doctor sets his teacup down gently on the desk, mouth pursing in distaste. “Far more often than I’d like.”

it's the end of me, i won't let it be the end of us too by starstruckthirteen (1.6k)

“I’m not going to pretend this won’t hurt, Yaz, ‘cause it will and it pains me to tell you that there’s nothing we can do to stop it. But what that sadness means is that we’ve had such an amazing time, together. The Doctor and Yaz in the TARDIS! Just think of everything we’ve done.”

if it's left to chance or fate, i'll be lost by yasminkhxns (1.7k)

It feels like a nightmare. A living, breathing nightmare. Except this is real, and she would happily pluck the worst of her actual nightmares from her brain and trade it for this living hell. Because this is worse than anything her timeworn mind conjures in her fitful sleeps.

Because Yaz has been shot.

And the Doctor is helpless.

don't hold this war inside by WishingTree (1.8k)

“It’s just - I’m scared,” she finally manages.

“Scared?” the Doctor stills where she’s been trying to roll up the sleeves of her coat, shoving the material of one arm over her elbow and asking, “Scared of what?”

Yaz doesn’t answer, can’t answer, and the Doctor goes to reach for her, aborting the movement halfway and only managing an awkward swaying motion.

“...Scared of me?”

By your side by winged_daydreams (2.7k)

Once her breathing had slowed down and her heart didn’t feel like jumping out of her chest anymore, Yaz finally dared to open her eyes and was met with a smiling Doctor looking down on her.

“Hey, you.”

“Hey”, Yaz answered weakly, feeling extremely tired.

“Do you want to check?”

Yaz nodded. It usually helped.

Sitting up a bit, Yaz trailed her hands under the Doctor’s shirt and reached for her back. Her fingers pressed against the soft skin there, searching for wounds or scars. Once she was satisfied that the skin was perfectly smooth, she retrieved her arms and avoided the Doctor’s gaze, shaking her head in response.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed, Yaz”, the Doctor’s face slowly approached hers and left a chaste kiss on her lips. “What do you think of some breakfast?”

giving up and giving in by seaunicorn (3.1k)

It takes Yaz almost dying for the Doctor to actually confront her feelings.

Baby, it's cold outside. by Ineffablemurderhusbands (3.2k)

The fam and the Doctor goes ice skating.

The Doctor is not very good at it and ends up stumbling.

River catches her.

Painfully Transparent by seaunicorn (4.9k)

After her conversation with Dan, Yaz decides to tell the Doctor how she feels. Unfortunately, the Doctor doesn’t seem to want to discuss and avoids the conversation in increasingly ridiculous ways.

Five times Yaz tries to tell the Doctor how she feels and one time the Doctor finally listens.

the world was void by river_of_words (5.8k)

Yaz's first night on the Tardis contrasted with her last.

Crescendo by WordsInTimeAndSpace (6k)

As her relationship with the Doctor slowly develops into something a little more than friendship, Rose starts to wonder what's holding him back. But one fateful night, he confesses something that makes her realize she never had any reason to worry.

half the world away by timelxrd (9k)

Locked up in a prison cell to live out the rest of her days, the Doctor is left with no choice but to dwell on her most recent discoveries while those around her only chip away at her reserve.

Half a universe away, Yasmin Khan comes to the conclusion that, sometimes, the Doctor needs a helping hand just as much as the next person.

Please send these lesser known fics some love! And if there are any that you know of — whether they be your own or someone else's — please share them with me :)

[mrbrightsideonmars]

You'd think for someone who 1) loves Forrest Gump and 2) has an older brother named Dan who's a fucking Lieutenant in Army Aviation that'd I'd be yucking that up constantly. But honestly, not even when we eat ice cream together.

[casimania]

Chlaze + Piercifer AU where Chloe is already involved with Maze and knows the whole Divinity thing is real but the time Pierce strolls in the precinct but... No one tells her who he is once they find out.

Maze doesn't trust him and her priority is keeping Chloe and Trixie safe now and it's better if he doesn't think she may know any of his secrets. And Lucifer is just still worried the more she’s involved in these things the more she's in danger, especially if he himself is the one involving her (cause he's still convinced he ruins everything he touches) and when he just made a pact to defy his Dad (who could retailate hurting people close to him, in his Genius brain the only option is keeping everyone completely in the dark about as many things as possible). So he keeps his mouth shut initially and just tells Maze after she starts sniffing around, cause for her now Chloe and Trixie’s safety has a higher priority than even Lucifer’s and he can trust her to protect them both if Pierce ends up being more dangerous than he lets on.

Also Maze discovers how Marcus tried to get himself killed by almost getting Chloe shot too. And she turns him into a pincushion. She just stabs him and goes "This is for Chloe" then stabs him again and goes "This is for Chloe too" then stabs him another time and goes again "Still for Chloe" and she just goes on and on and he’s not even trying to defend himself anymore cause she gotta get tired at some point, right? Right?? Or she pulls a Charlotte and corners him in the precinct  after she’s dropped off a bounty, puts a hand on his chest and pushes him all the way into his office and there's not much he can do because Demon Stenght, and then she pushes him down on his chair and keeps a hand on his shoulder with enough strength he can't get up. And just starts treathening him. She goes on for like, 10 minutes at least. Until Chloe walks in like "Hey Lt. I have the- Maze! :D" and Maze goes "Chloe! :D" and gets sidetracked so when Chloe walks out she does too like, skipping steps. Pierce is left in his office sort of thinking "What the fuck just happened".

But fast forward some time and the people closest to Lucifer can tell something is going on with him and the Lieutenant but they can’t figure it out, knowing Lucifer it’s something weird. And then then Pierce has weird mood swings too and there’s just something off. But he doesn’t really get buddy buddy with anyone so they can’t figure him out either. This time not even Maze know what’s going on, but she doesn’t care as long as it doesn’t involve her or Chloe, Trixie and Linda. Amenadiel went after Cain of his own volition and can deal with the consequences and Lucifer went after him to the extent he’s the reason the guy didn’t leave LA in the first place. She’s not gonna monitor those two featherbrains 24/7. Linda is actually the one that knows Lucifer and Marcus’ relationship started getting some romantic undertones they deal with in egregiously bad ways.

And then there's some big case and shit goes ass up and Lucifer has to pop out his wings in front of Chloe and Marcus to shield them or something. And Chloe sees Marcus isn’t phased, and thinks Lucifer already revealed himself so she's like "Lucifer why does our boss know about you?? But at least it's another good ol' regolar human in the know." and Marcus is like "Uh. Right, she doesn't know." and she fucking freezes. Cause oh no, who the fuck is this now? And Lucifer just spits out "He'sCainfromtheBiblewhomImayhavefallenalittleinlovewithinbetweentryingtokillhimtoendhisinfinitemisery." and there’s a moment of silence where Chloe’s brain is just processing and Lucifer and Marcus both silently panic because Lucifer rused the L word and gave them both a little jolt of... happyness? Dan gets to the scene and just sees Chloe pummeling Lucifer. No more secrets they said! Keeping people at least marginally updated is the best course to make them aware of potential dangers and able to defend themselves better they said! And he didn't even tell her he had a boyfriend, she just had to guess like everyone else and then discover it like this. And then Marcus pipes up like "... I'm hardly a boy." and then regrets it because she just turns around glares at him and doesn't say anything just because she finally noticed Dan who's like "wtf??" (but she has so many words for him too, she's tired of this Miracle thing and people targeting her for it). Later that night at home she starts throwing pillows at Maze too cause "You knew too!! And didn't tell me anything!!"

They all end up having a heart to heart together. A general update of what’s going on. Marcus looks like he'd prefer to be anywhere else (he kinda looks like he swallowed a lemon, and the more everyone gets emotional the more he looks slightly horrified) , Lucifer holds his hand the whole time (Marcus still looks mildly horrified at everyone Emotioning around him but when Lucifer squeezes his hand he immediately squeezes back), Maze is still glaring at him and basically keeps Chloe almost in her lap the whole time. Chloe tries not to pull her hair out while Lucifer is recounting their shenanigans because they both made so many messes (and she suddenly understands that when they both started being unbearable and their moods were all over the place it was just them realizing they caught the Feels and reacting as well as two emotionally stunted immortals could). She pummels Lucifer some more because they're supposed to be friends and she deserves to know about things that concern her safety and he, no matter how much he believes, doesn't poison everything he touches and deserves to have a friendly shoulder to rely on, and she wants to be that, they're friends and she might be just a mortal but he has to trust her judgment and that she is able to not put herself in unnecessary danger while also supporting him. It's ok if he doesn't tell her everything all the time, some things are just for yourself. But she wants to be there for him and if the only thing that's holding him back is being afraid he'll ruin her well, he won't- and if she could she'd deck not only God and Goddess but also all the angels who made him believe that. And he's like "I'm not crying" while totally crying. Marcus starts with an awkward back pat because he hasn't comforted anyone in ages but then he gets into it and they're full on hugging and Lucifer is still clinging to him by the time they part ways with Chloe and Maze. He tries to act though and detatched through it all but he's also seconds away from just pulling Lucifer in his lap and cradling him in his arms but it's one of those things it's still hard to be spontaneous about, he has the impulse but always stops midway and does something smaller unless Lucifer coaxes it out of him. He still hovers tho. And Lucifer's like "I'm fine!" while almost bawling his eyes out. And he tries to, awkwardly hug Chloe while also not letting go of Marcus and while Maze is still holding onto Chloe.

Later Chloe and Lucifer can finally both talk about Maze and Marcus and, it's nice having Chloe to talk with cause Maze's advice seems to be always "Dump him. Stab him. Stab him and then dump him." and while Linda is helpful a therapy session is way different than just a night out with a friend. And also finally Chloe doesn't alway feel out of the loop and like something bad is going to happen any moment because Maze, Lucifer or Amenadiel are acting strange but everyone is being very vague but also nervous and tense. And also now Lucifer can show up at Chloe and Maze’s place in the middle of the night looking sad as a saggy bowl of cereals and Chloe listens to him mope about Marcus over a tub of ice cream and a romcom and then gives him advice. Maze sometimes walks by, steals some ice cream and mocks him. Or depending waht’s going on with Marcus offers to stab him some more.

[scifrey]

In February of 2017 I had the great pleasure of addressing the Grant MacEwan University English Department with a keynote speech titled “Your Voice is Valid.”

This speech was all about Mary Sues, fandom, and marginalized voices, and is a direct response to the negative reactions that media texts receive when they announce a protagonist that is deemed to be a "Mary Sue".

In the intervening years I think the message of my talk has become even more vital to creators, so I thought I’d record a  new video of the speech to share with a wider audience.

 If you liked this video, you can find more of my writing advice on my website.

Read the full speech on Wattpad, or below:

(Text may not match the video exactly as I did alter some of the phrasing.)

*

My friends, I have a declaration to make. A promise. A vow, if you will. And it is this:

If I hear one more basement-dwelling troll call the lead female protagonist of a genre film a ‘Mary Sue’ one more time, I’m going to scream.

I’m sure you’ve all seen this all before. A major science fiction, fantasy, video game, novel, or comic franchise or publisher announces a new title. Said new title features a lead protagonist who is female, or a person of color, or is not able-bodied, or is non-neurotypical, or is LGBTQA+.

It might be the new Iron Man or Spider-man, who are both young black teenagers in the comics now, or the Lt. Michael Burnham of Star Trek: Discovery, or the new Ms. Marvel, a Muslim girl. It could be Jyn Erso, the female lead of the latest Star Wars film or Chirrut, her blind companion. It could be the deaf FBI Director Gordon Cole from Twin Peaks or Clint Barton from Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye graphic novel series. It could be Sara, of Dragon Age fame or Samantha Traynor from Mass Effect, both lesbians, or Dorian also from Dragon Age, who is both a person of color and flamboyantly queer. Maybe it’s Lt. Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber, played by Anthony Rapp of (best known for his time as Mark in Rent) and Wilson Cruz, both open out gay men playing openly out gay men in a romantic relationship in Star Trek Discovery. It could be Captain Christopher Pike, from both the original Star Trek series and the reboot film, who uses a wheelchair and assistive devices to communicate. Or maybe it’s Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, fights with a prosthetic arm in the comics, or Iron Man, whose suit serves as Tony Stark’s ego-tastic pacemaker.

And generally, the audience cheers at this announcement. Yay for diversity! Yay for representation! Yay for working to make the worlds we consume look more like the world we live in! Yay!

But there’s a certain segment of the fan population that does not celebrate.

I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.

This certain brand of fan-person gets all up in arms on social media. They whine. They complain. They say that it’s not appropriate to change the gender, race, orientation, or physical abilities of a fictional creation, or just protest their inclusion to begin with. They decry the erosion of creativity in service of neo-liberalism, overreaching political-correctness, and femi-nazis. (Sorry, sorry – the femi-“alt-right”).

It’s not realistic. “Women can’t survive in space,” they say, “It’s just a fact.” (That is a direct quote, by the way.) “Superheroes can’t be black,” they say. “Video game characters shouldn’t have a sexual orientation,” unless – it seems - that sexual orientation is straight and the game serves to support a male gaze ogling at half-dressed pixilated prostitutes.

“And strong female characters have to wear boob armor. It’s just natural,” they say.

These fan persons predict the end of civilization because things are no longer being done the way they’ve always been done. “There’s nothing wrong with the system,” they say. “So don’t you dare change it.”

And to enforce this opinion, to ensure that it’s really, really clear just how much contempt this certain segment of the fan population holds for any lead protagonist that isn’t a white, heterosexual, able-bodied, neurotypical, cismale, they do everything they can to tear down them down.

They do this by calling that character a ‘Mary Sue.’

When fan fiction author Paula Smith first used the term ‘Mary Sue’ in her 1973 story A Trekkie’s Tale, she was making a commentary on the frequent appearance of original characters in Star Trek fan fiction. Now, I’m going to hazard that most of these characters existed as a masturbatory avatar – wanna bone Spock? (And, um, you know, let’s face it who didn’t?) They you write a story where a character representing you gets to bone Spock.

And if they weren’t a sexual fantasy, then they were an adventure fantasy. Wanna be an officer on the Enterprise? Well, it’s the flagship of the Starfleet, so you better be good enough to get there. Chekov was the youngest navigator in Starfleet history, Uhura is the most tonally sensitive officer in linguistics, and Jim Kirk’s genius burned like a magnesium flare – your self-representative character would have to keep up to earn thier place on that bridge. This led to a slew of hyper sexualized, physically idealized, and unrealistically competent author-based characters populating the fan fiction of the time.

But inserting a trumped-up version of yourself into a narrative wasn’t invented in the 1970s. Aeneas was totally Virgil’s Mary Sue in his Iliad knock off. Dante was such a fanboy of the The Bible that he wrote himself into an adventure exploring it. Robin Hood’s merry men and King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table kept growing in number and characteristics with each retelling. Even painters have inserted themselves into commissioned pictures for centuries.

This isn’t new. This is not a recent human impulse.

But what Paula Smith and the Mary Sue-writing fan ficcers didn’t know at the time was that they were crystallizing what it means to be an engaged consumer of media texts, instead of just a passive one. They had isolated and labelled what it means to be so affected by a story, to love it so much that this same love bubbles up out of you and you have to do something about it, either in play, or in art. For example: in pretending to be a ninja turtle on the play ground, or in trying to recreate the perfect version of a star fleet uniform to wear, or in creating art and making comics depicting your favorite moments or further adventures of the characters you love, or writing stories that encompass missing moments from the narratives.

‘Mary Sues’ are, at their center, a celebration of putting oneself and one’s own heart, and one’s own enjoyment of a media text, first.

Before I talk about why this certain segment of the fan population deploys the term ‘Mary Sue’ the way it does, let’s take a closer look at this impulse for participatory play.

Here’s the sixty four thousand dollar question: where do ‘Mary Sues’ come from?

I’d like you take a moment to think back at the sorts of games you enjoyed when you were about seven years old. Think back. Picture yourself outside, playing with your siblings, or the neighbour’s kids or you cousins. What are you doing? Playing ball games, chase games, and probably something with a narrative? Are you Power Rangers? Are you flying to Neverland with Peter Pan? Are you fighting Dementors and Death Eaters at Hogwarts? Are you the newest members of One Direction, are you Jem and the Holograms or the Misfits? Are you running around collecting Pokémon back before running around and collecting Pokémon IRL was a thing?

That, guys, gals and non-binary pals, is where Mary Sues come from. That’s it. It’s as easy as that.

As a child you didn’t know that modern literary tradition pooh-poohs self-analogous characters, or that realism was required for depth of character. All you knew was that you wanted to be a part of that story, right.  If you wanted to be a train with Thomas and Friends, then you were a train. If you wanted to be a magic pony from Equestria, you were a pony. Or, you know, if you were trying to appease two friends at once, then you were a pony-train.

Self-insert in childhood games teach kids the concept of elastic play, and this essential ability to imagine oneself in skins that are not one’s own, and to stretch and reshape narratives is what breeds creativity and storytelling. It shapes compassion.

Now, think of your early stories. As a child we all told and wrote stories about doing what, to us, were mundane everyday things - like getting ice cream with the fictional characters we know and love.

My friend’s three year old tells his father bed time stories about going on walks through Home Hardware with his friends, the anthropomorphized versions of the local taco food truck and the commuter train his dad takes to work every morning. He doesn’t recognize the difference between real and fictional people (or for him, in this case, the stand-ins that are the figures that loom large in his life right now as a three year old obsessed with massive machines). When you ask him to tell you a story, he talks about these fictions as if they’re real. And he does not hesitate to insert himself into the tale. “I did this. I did that. We went there and then had this for lunch.” He is present in all his own stories because, at this age, he understands the world only from his limited personal POV.

As we grow up, we do learn to differentiate between fantasy and reality. But, I posit that we never truly loose that “me too!” mentality. We see something amazing happening on the screen, or on the page, or on a playing field, and we want to be there, a part of it.

So we sort ourselves into Hogwarts Houses. We choose hockey teams to love, and we wear their jerseys.  We buy ball caps from our favorite breweries. We line up for hours to be the first to watch a new release or to buy a certain smartphone. We collect stamps and baseball cards and first editions of Jane Austen and Dan Brown. We want to be a part of it. Our capitalist, consumer society tells us to prove our love with our dollars, and we do it.

And for fan creators, we want to be a part of it so badly that we’re willing to make more of it. Not for profit, but for sheer love. And for the early writers, the newbies, the blossoming beginners, Mary Sues are where they generally start. Because those are the sorts of stories they’ve been telling yourselves for years already.

But as we get older, as we consume more media texts and find more things to adore, we begin to notice a dearth of representation – you’re not pony trains in our minds any more. We have a better idea of what we look like. And we don’t see it. The glorious fantasy diversity of our childhoods is stripped away, narratives are codified by the mainstream media texts we consume, and people stop looking like us.

I’m reminded of a story I read on Tumblr, of a young black author living in Africa – whose name, I’m afraid, I wasn’t able to find when I went back to look for it, so my apologies to her. The story is about the first time she tried to write a fairytale in elementary school. She made her protagonist a little white girl, and when she was asked why she hadn’t chosen to make the protagonist back, this author realized that it hadn’t even occurred to her that she was allowed make her lead black. Even though she was surrounded by people of color, the adventures, and romance, and magic in everything she consumed only happened to the white folks. She did not know she was allowed to make people like her the heroes because she had never seen it.

This is not natural. This is nurture, not nature. This is learned behavior. And this is hegemony.

No child grows up believing they don’t have place in the story. This is something were are taught. And this is something that we are taught by the media texts we consume.

I do want to pause and make a point here. There isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with writing a narrative from the heterosexual, able bodied, neurotypical, white cismale POV in and of itself. I think we all have stories that we know and love that feature that particular flavor of protagonist. And people from that community deserve to tell their stories as much as folks from any other community.

The problem comes from a reality where when it’s the only narrative. The default narrative. The factory setting. When people who don’t see themselves reflected in the narrative nonetheless feel obligated to write such stories, instead of their own. When they are told and taught that it is the only story worth telling. ‎

There’s this really great essay by Ika Willis, and it’s called “. And I think it’s the one – one of the most important pieces of writing not only on Mary Sues, but on the dire need for representation in general.

In the essay, Willis talks about Mary Sues – beyond being masturbatory adventure avatars for young people just coming into their own sexuality, or avatars to go on adventures with – but as voice avatars. Mary Sues, when wielded with self-awareness, deliberateness, and precision, can force a wedge into the narrative, crack it open, and provide a space for marginalized identities and voices in a media-text that otherwise silences and ignores them.

This is done one of two ways. First: by jamming in a diverse Mary Sue, and making the characters and the world acknowledge and work with that diversity. Or, second: by co-opting a pre-existing character and overlaying a new identity on them while retaining their essential characterization. For example, by writing a story where Bilbo Baggins is non-binary, but still thinking that adventures are messy, dirty things. Or making Sherlock Holmes deaf, but still perfectly capable of solving all the crimes. Or making James Potter Indian, so that the Dursleys prejudiced against Harry not only for his magic, but also for his skin color. Or making Ariel the mermaid wrestle with severe body dysphoria, or Commander Sheppard suffer from severe PTSD.

I like to call this voice avatar Mary Sue a ‘Meta-Sue’, because when authors have evolved enough in their storytelling abilities to consciously deploy Mary Sues as a deliberate trope, they’re doing so on a self-aware, meta-textual level.

So that is where Mary Sues comes from.

But what is a Mary Sue? How can you point at a character and say, “Yes, that is – definitively – a Mary Sue”.

Mary Sues can generally be characterized as:

-Too perfect, or unrealistically skilled. They shouldn’t be able to do all the things they do, or know all the things they know, as easily as they do or know them. For reasons of the plot expedience, they learn too fast, and are able to perform feats that other characters in their world who have studied or trained longer and harder find difficult. For example, Neo in The Matrix.

-They are the black hole of every plot – every major quest or goal of the pre-existing characters warps to include or be about them; every character wants to befriend them, or romance them, or sleep with them, and every villain wants to possess them, or kill them, or sleep with them. This makes sense, as why write a character into the world if you’re not going to have something very important happen to them? So, for example, like Neo in The Matrix.

-A Mary Sue, because it’s usually written by a neophyte author who’s been taught that characters need flaws, has some sort of melodramatic, angsty tragic back-story that, while on the surface seems to motivate them into action, because of lack of experience in creating a follow-through of emotional motivation, doesn’t actually affect their mental health or ability to trust or be happy or in love. For example, like the emotional arc of Neo in The Matrix.

– A Mary Sue saves the day. This goes back to that impulse to be the center of the story. Like Neo in The Matrix.

-And lastly, Mary Sues come from outside the group. They’re from the ‘real world’, like you and I, or have somehow discovered the hero’s secret identity and must be folded into the team, or are a new recruit, or are a sort of previously undiscovered stand-alone Chosen One. Like, for example, Neo in The Matrix.

Now, as I’ve said, there’s actually nothing inherently wrong with writing a Mary Sue. Neo is a Mary Sue, but The Matrix is still a really engaging and well written film. And simply by virtue of the fact that an individual with ingrained cultural foundations is writing a story, that story is inherently rooted in that writer’s lived life and experiences. As much as a writer may try to either highlight or downplay it, each character and story they create has some of themselves in it. The first impulse of storytelling is to talk about oneself. We write about ourselves, only the more we write, the more skilled we become at disguising the sliver of us-ness in a character, folding it into something different and unique. We, as storytellers, as humans, empathize with protagonists and fictional characters constantly – we love putting our feet into other people’s shoes. It’s how we understand and engage with the world.

And we as writers tap into our own emotions in order to describe them on the page. We take slices of our lives – our experiences, our memories, our friend’s verbal tics or hand gestures, aunt Brenda’s way of making tea, Uncle Rudy’s way having a pipe after dinner, that time Grannie got lost at the zoo – and we weave them together into a golem that we call a character, which comes to life with a bit of literary magic. I mean, allow me to be sparklingly reductionist for a second, but in the most basic sense, every character is a Mary Sue.

It’s just a matter of whether the writer has evolved to the point  in their craft that they’ve learned to animate that golem with the sliver of self-ness hidden deep enough that it is unrecognizable as self-ness, but still recognizable as human-ness.

For years, mainstream western media has featured characters that were primarily heterosexual, able bodied, neurotypical, white cismales. And, regrettably, because of that, this flavor of human is now assumed to be the default for a character. When people from other communities speak up requesting other flavours, for characters for whom the imbedded sliver of humanity remains just as poignant and relatable, but the outer shell is of a different variety, this is when that certain segment of the fan population looses their cool.

That certain segment of the fan population has been telling us for years that if we don’t like what we see on TV or in video games, or in books, or comics, or on the stage, that we should just go make our own stuff. And now we are.

“Make your own stuff,” they say, and then follow it up with: “What’s with all this political correctness gone wild? Uhg. This stuff is all just Mary Sue garbage.”

Well, yes. Of course it is. That’s the point.

But why are they saying it like that?

Because they mean it in a derogatory sense.

They don’t mean it in the way that Paula Smith meant it – a little bit belittling but mostly fun; a bemused celebration of why we love putting ourselves into the stories and worlds we enjoy. They don’t mean it the way that Willis means it – a deliberate and knowing way to shove the previously marginalized into the center. They don’t even mean it the way that I mean it in my own work - as a tool for carefully deconstructing and discussing character and narrative with a character and from within a narrative.

When a certain segment of the fan population talks about ‘Mary Sue’, they mean to weaponize it. To make it a stand-in for the worse thing that a character can be: bland, predictable, and too-perfect. Which, granted, many Mary Sues are. But not all of them. And a character doesn’t have to be a Mary Sue to be done badly, either.

When this certain segment of the fan population says ‘Mary Sue’, they’re trying to shame the creators for deviating from the norm - the white, the heterosexual, the able bodied, the neurotypical, the straight cismale.

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “I don’t believe people like this are interesting enough to be the lead character in a story.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “I don’t think there’s any need to listen to that voice. They’re not interesting enough.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “This character is not what I am used to a.k.a. not like me, and I’m gonna whine about it.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “Even though kids from all over the world, from many different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds have had to grow up learning to identify with characters who don’t look or think like them, identifying with characters who don’t look or think like me is hard and I don’t wanna.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: ”Even though I’ve grown up in a position of privilege and power, and even though publishing and producing diverse stories with diverse casts doesn’t actually cut into the proportionate representation that I receive, and never will, I am nonetheless scared that I’ll never see people like me in media texts ever again.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “Considering my fellow human beings as fellow human beings worthy of having stories about them and their own experiences, in their own voices, is hard and I don’t wanna do it.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “I only want stories about me.”

They call leads ‘Mary Sues’ so people will stop writing them and instead write… well, their version of a ‘Mary Sue.’ The character that is representative of their lived experiences, their power and masturbatory fantasies, their physical appearance, their sexual awakenings, their cultural identity, their voice, their kind of narratives.

Missing, of course, that the point of revisionist and inclusive narratives aren’t to shove out previous incarnations, but to coexist alongside them. It’s not taking away one entrée and offering only another – it’s building a buffet.

Okay, so who actually cares if these trolls call these diverse characters Mary Sues?

Well, unfortunately, because this certain segment of the population have traditionally been the group most listened-to by the mainstream media creators and the big money, their opinions have power. (Never mind that they’re not actually the biggest group of consumers anymore, nor no longer the most vocal.)

So, this is where you come in.

You have the power to take the Mary Sue from the edge of the narrative and into the centre. And you do can do this by normalizing it. Think back to that author who didn’t think little black girls were allowed to be the heroes of fairy tales. Now imagine how much different her inner world, her imagination might have been at the stage when she was first learning to understand her own self-worth, if she had seen faces like hers on the television, in comics, in games, and on the written page every day of her life.

And not just one or two heroes, but a broad spectrum of characters that run the gamut from hero to villain, from fragile to powerful, from straight to gay, and every other kind of intersectional identity.

You have the power to give children the ability to see themselves.

Multi-faceted representation normalizes the marginalized.

And if you have the privilege to be part of the passing member of the mainstream, then weaponize your privilege. Refuse to work with publishers, or websites, or conventions that don’t also support diverse creators. Put diverse characters in your work, and do so thoughtfully and with the input of the people from the community you are portraying. And if you’re given the opportunity to submit or speak at an event, offer to share the microphone.

The first thing I did when actor Burn Gorman got a Twitter account was to Tweet him  my thanks for saving the world in Pacific Rim while on a cane. As someone who isn’t as mobile as the heroes I see in action films - who knows for a fact that when the zombie apocalypse comes I will not be a-able to outrun the monsters – it meant so much to me that his character was not only an integral and vital member of the team who cancelled the apocalypse, but also that not once in the film did someone call him a cripple, or tell him he couldn’t participate because of his disability, or leave him behind.

Diversity matters.

Not because it’s a trendy hashtag, or a way to sell media texts to a locked-down niche market, but because every single human being deserves to be told that they have a voice worth listening to; a life worth celebrating and showcasing in a narrative; a reality worth acknowledging and accepting and protecting; emotions that are worth exploring and validating; intelligence that is worth investing in and listening to; and a capacity to love that is worth adoring.

White, heterosexual, neurotypical, able-bodied cismales are not the only people on the planet who are human.

And you have a right to tell your story your way.

Calling something a ‘Mary Sue’ in order to dismiss it out of hand, as an excuse to hate something before even seeing it, is how the trolls bury your Narrative and your Identity.  We are storytellers, all of us. Every person in this room. Whether your wheel house is in fiction, or academia, or narrative non-fiction, we impart knowledge and offer experience through the written word, through the telling of tales, through leading a reader from one thought to another.

And we none of deserve to be shouted down, talked over, or dismissed. No one can tell you that your story isn’t worth telling. Of course it is. It’s yours.

And don’t let anyone call your characters, or your work, or you a ’Mary Sue’ in the derogatory sense ever again. Or I am going to scream.

[fairestmusesismoving]

Good news, feeling creative. Bad news. Migraine aura along with the other “we have pre flu” symptoms. I know you don’t need an explanation, but give me some time and I should be up and rolling tonight with some more medication. Was gonna say running and forgot I can’t do that because I have Lt. Dan legs.

That Mun on No Forrest I Don’t Want Ice Cream

[cheeksandsqueakshamsters]

Lt. Dan is memorialized 🌈☁️in this lovely piece of art by @pawlove_arts who captured his spirit so well. He’s up in hammy heaven eating all the ice cream 🍦 a hammy can eat! I miss this boy every minute of every day. I miss his smell and his little paws 🐾 and I could go on and on. I can’t wait to make a canvas of this and hang it on my wall. Also posted is his little planter where I buried him and his paw 🐾 prints the vet made us. #memorial #hamstermemorial #ltdanthehamster #cheeksandsqueakshams #rescuehamster #paralyzed #paralyzedhamsters (at Foothill Ranch, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuMC-ohHNMC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1c9x0pvzivdsb

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

September 21, 2021

NOW YOU CAN COMPOST YOUR FAMILY — FOR REAL

There are some people who just don't like the idea of getting buried, even after they're dead — so they get cremated. And there are folks who can't fathom getting shoved into a blazing oven after years of purchasing expensive moisturizers. Well, hold onto your cotyledons, there is now a third option: composting. (We are not making this up.) Just like backyard composting, your body, along with some wood chips and straw, can turn into enough soil to fill a pickup. It takes about six months. Think of it, your family could use the compost for a memorial tree planting. Future offspring and relatives would drive by the beautiful foliage and say, “Hey, look, there's Uncle Billy.” As the world and cemeteries get more crowded, composting is looking like a better ecological strategy with spiritual benefits (ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that). And think of the green-house emissions it would mitigate. What if every person who died was now a tree. Imagine a scrub oak in California dubbed, “The Gipper,” or a bald cypress in Texas called LBJ.” This could change many afterlife plans. In the near future, folks might do a lot of thinking about what tree they want to nurture after they move on to the world of compost. On the other hand, you could become a flowerbed.

10 REASONS UTAH IS THE HAPPIEST STATE IN THE U.S.A.

In case you needed telling, Utah is the happiest state in the country. But to make it official, the website WalletHub.com gave Utah the top spot after factoring in a whole bunch of stuff. As usual, the staff here at Smart Bomb wanted to get to the nitty-gritty, so we analyzed WalletHub's algorithms to find the essentials.

Utahns are happy because:

1 – We can eat as much ice cream as we want and nobody will roll their eyes.

2 – We know there'll always be a “next season” for the Utes.

3 – When we get down, we just go to Chuck-A-Rama.

4 – Utahns know someone else will make the hard decisions for us.

5 – We take half-gallon cool cups of Diet Coke everywhere we go.

6 – Utahns have “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” to sin for us — guiltless joy.

7 – The LDS Church does not use tithing to fund capital projects, like malls.

8 – Six days a week we can count on warm beer at the State Liquor store.

9 – We have a special place for secret political meetings — Krispy Kreme.

10 – And climate change is in the Lord's hands, so we don't worry about it.

DEMS TO ERASE WHITE AMERICA WITH IMMIGRANTS

Democrats are continuing their heinous conspiracy and want to let all those Haitian refugees swarm into the U.S. where they will all become citizens and vote for Democrats. That ain't all, when their kids grow up they will be voting Democrat, too — it's like cancer. Beginning to see a pattern here? And what about the invasion from Central America after hurricanes Etta and Iota in 2020? Here is what GOP strategists have assured us for a long time: Democrats are bringing in black and brown people by the millions who will dilute America's whiteness. Even Tucker Carlson says so. It's only fair then that Red States adopt voting restrictions to keep 'em from voting. Or as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News firebrand Laura Ingraham: “The revolution has begun — a silent revolution by the Democrat Party and Joe Biden to take over the country... They are allowing this year, probably 2 million, maybe another million into this country... You’re talking about millions and millions and millions of new voters, and they will thank the Democrats and Biden for bringing them here.” And don't listen to Democrats who say this is white supremacy, we're just tryin' to keep this country the way God meant it to be — white. As for Mexican food — well, that's different.

Post script — And that'll do it for another week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of Facebook so you don't have to. In George Orwell's classic novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” the protagonist, Winston, is watched by Big Brother on “tele-screens.” Published in 1949, it appears prescient — but it seems like we are Big Brother watching ourselves for the likes of Facebook and others who are only too happy to keep tabs on us. But, oddly, it also reminded the staff here at Smart Bomb of the modern-day Republican Party. In Orwell's book, “The Party” is forcing adoption of a new language, called “Newspeak,” to rewrite history and keep party members in line by eliminating words it doesn't like. Thinking outside The Party's constrictive dogma is a “thoughtcrime,” enforced by the Thought Police. Flash forward to Jan. 6, 2021 and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. According to congressional Republicans — save Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — said insurrection never happened and insisting it did is a “thoughtcrime.” Not agreeing with “The Big Lie” that Trump won reelection also is a “thoughtcrime.” Of course, our analysis takes a little artistic license, but we're fairly sure the political climate in this country today would scare the pants off Orwell.

Alright Wilson, we know that you and the guys in the band have committed your share of thoughtcrimes, albeit under the cloak of darkness. Just because you think Big Brother is watching, doesn't necessarily mean you're paranoid and sometimes, as Amy Winehouse once said, it's back to black. So, pick it Wilson:

Darkness, darkness Hide my yearning For the things I cannot be Keep my mind from constant turning Toward the things I cannot see now Things I cannot see now Things I cannot see Darkness, darkness Long and lonesome Ease the day that brings me pain I have felt the edge of sadness I have known the depth of fear Darkness, darkness, be my blanket Cover me with the endless night Take away, take away the pain of knowing Fill the emptiness of right now Emptiness of right now, now, now Emptiness of right now

(Darkness, Darkness — The Youngbloods)

[uss-edsall]

favorite maritime anecdotes?

Here’s fifteen

1. “Somewhere during this period, I came across another small, telling anecdote that reveals more about the spirit of the destroyer’s crew. After the bombing in the Flores Sea, Houston lost not only her number three turret, cold storage locker, and crew’s head as well as three searchlights and two motor launches; her laundry was also destroyed. At that point the men of Edsall volunteered to provide laundry service for the cruiser. Bob Fulton told me that the last time he saw Edsall was when his clothes were being lowered over the port side of Houston’s quarterdeck to the destroyer. As he put it, “I don’t know where that brave ship is today, but wherever she is, my clothes are still aboard.””

–A Blue Sea of Blood: Deciphering the Mysterious Fate of the USS Edsall, by Donald M. Kehn

2. 

3. 

4. “On one of those raids the steering wheel [of USS Salt Lake City CA-25], loosened by the jar of the firing, fell off. The helmsman held it up in his two hands. And he turned to the captain with deference. “Sir,” he said, “what do I do with this now?” “Switch steering to auxiliary steering aft,” ordered the sweating Captain. The crew fell into a certain nonchalance about combat. At Saipan the officer of the deck accepted a line from a tanker and started fueling while an air attack was going on at an island two miles away. During one bombardment some genius of the commissary discovered caviar left over from a gala in San Francisco a year before. Officers off duty munched it in the wardroom while the guns roared. Off Okinawa, Poncho Miller, the boss of the lookouts, reported calmly, “Jap Betty (a bombing plane) is directly overhead.” “Signal it to keep going,” was the reply. “

5.  From Enterprise, by Barrett Tillman (the practice was for escorting destroyers to rescue shot down pilots, and they’d bring them back to the carrier in exchange for five gallons of ice-cream, for carriers had icecream makers, but for the most part destroyers did not,)

6. “An ensign who graduated from the Naval Academy during Hart’s tenure as superintendent was considerably unnerved when he heard that Hart was the admiral who was coming to inspect his ship. When Hart came into the bridge, he seemed just as formidable as ever and, to test the alertness of the engine-room crew, he walked over to the voice tube and shouted into it: “If eggs are five cents apiece, how much would a dozen cost?” To the horror of the ensign, the reply came back: “Shut up, you dumb son of a bitch, don’t you know we’re being inspected?” Hart showed just a twitch at the corners of his mouth. “They are alert,” he announced.”

—  A Different Kind Of Victory: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Hart, by James Leutze

7. “Lt. (j.g.) John J. A. “Jack” Michel of Pope had grabbed the final boat back to his destroyer after getting his “fill” of San Miguel beer at the Army-Navy Club. He expected, with no pleasure, that his ship would again be conducting minefield patrols again the following week. Weather conditions on Manila Bay that night were typical according to Michel: “sticky [and] breathless.” He eventually fell asleep in his sweltering miniature stateroom, in spite of its dysfunctional ventilator and location next to the forward fire room. In the middle of that momentous night—and no doubt still damp with beery perspiration—he was awakened from his slumbers to be told, “I don’t suppose you’re particularly interested right now, but Pearl Harbor was bombed and we’re at war with Japan.” Michel could only mumble, “The bastards,” before going right back to sleep.”

—  In The Highest Degree Tragic: The Sacrifice of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet during World War II, by Donald M. Kehn

8. From Signals from the Falklands, by John Winton

9. “Lieutenant Pat McEntee in the Atlanta witnessed it: a Wildcat closing fast on a Betty from behind. The fighter was evidently out of ammunition, for its driver resorted to an unusual tactic. Down came his landing gear. Down went his airspeed. It looked to McEntee as if he was trying “to set his ship down on the bomber’s broad back. And he did—again and again, and again, with sledgehammer impact. He literally was pounding the enemy into the sea with his wheels.” The bomber pilot had no escape. If he tried to pull up, it only increased the force of the impacts. Any evasive turn was easily matched by the agile fighter. “The only course open led down. But before the Jap could make a decision, something snapped under the pounding and the bomber plunged beneath the waves of Savo Sound.”

- James D. Hornfischer, Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal 

10. “The first time the South Dakota’s main battery was tested with a full nine-gun broadside, the wave of blast pressure pushed through the passageway where Captain Thomas Gatch was standing, tearing his pants right off him. The vast power of the sixteen-inch guns required a perfect physical apparatus to ensure not only their working order but also the safety of the ship.”

-Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, by James D. Hornfischer

11. “Electrician’s Mate John J. Kellejian’s battle station on the flag bridge often put him beside the task force commander. During a general quarters emergency drill there was little to do in flag country, prompting Halsey to ask Kellejian if he played cribbage. The youngster had never heard of it so the admiral exclaimed, “Don’t worry about it, son. I’ll teach you.” After a tutorial, Halsey declared the electrician ready to play, the stakes being a nickel a round. “I lost my ass,” Kellejian said, losing more than fifty games, but since sailors never had much money, the admiral seemed to forget the debt. Following Halsey’s death in 1959, Kellejian—long out of the Navy—received a summons from the admiral’s estate, demanding payment of a debt of $ 2.80. Kellejian phoned Halsey’s sister, who explained that Wild Bill had carried the amount as a joke to share with friends. The debt was forgiven, but John Kellejian kept the summons as a souvenir of his costly lessons at the knee of Admiral William F. Halsey.“–Enterprise, by Barrett Tillman

12. "Early that morning, the convoy came under attack from the USS Sturgeon, a submarine which fired a salvo of torpedoes and was rewarded with some satisfying explosions. These prompted the facetious signal “Sturgeon no longer virgin.” As no Japanese ship was actually penetrated, this claim was premature. So was the ejaculation of large numbers of torpedoes that night by the four old but dashing destroyers of Rear Admiral William A. Glassford’s Task Force 5, US Asiatic fleet, alerted by air reconnaissance from Java.”

–The Pacific Campaign, by Dan van der Vat

13. “USS Overton (DD-239), with two boilers inoperative, was sent to meet the speedy Queen Elizabeth 500 miles at sea, and escort her to port. Running her best speed in a full gale, she shifted fuel to the port tanks to counterbalance the force of the wind. Waves smashed the splinter shield of her bow gun, leaked through the forecastle deck, caused a six-foot crack in the main deck, carried away the bridge windshield, and washed two depth charges out of the racks, but the destroyer kept up the pace. When she finally hove to in the lee of the land, her unbalanced fuel tanks caused her to take a 33 degree list to port. But in the words of her skipper’s official report, ‘Other than this superficial damage, the ship had weathered the trip very well.’” – Flush Decks & Four Pipes, by Cdr. John D. Alden

14. “On 18 September, 1942, USS Barney (DD-149), while escorting a convoy from Trinidad to Guantanamo, rammed USS Greer (DD-145)’s stern. This dislodged depth charges that went off under Barney’s keel, forcing both to creep home to Charleston for repairs. After this, Greer seems to have made a career out of collisions, for she rammed and sank USS Moonstone off the Atlantic Coast, and on 30 November, while seeking to avoid a tanker, she was rammed amidships by USS Rapidan.”

–Flush Decks & Four Pipes, by John D. Alden Cdr US Navy (Ret.)

15. From HMS Rodney, by Ian Ballantyne

[das-blut]

The only good thing about being wounded in the buttocks is the ice cream. They gave me all the ice cream I could eat

LT DAN ICE CREEEAAAMMMM