#meg is so hard to draw actually

[megatronisababygirl]

Echoes of Messatines give me so much joy (and much more heartache)

Oh I adore Med student Megatron so so much. And the way Ratchet is written *chef kiss*

I adore their relationship so much

Also I need the world to stop being mean to medic Meggy

[hercarisntyours]

dreamt about oplita and woke up crying from happiness and cuteness

[nomiyakazehaya]

some more tf doodles! still trying to get the hang of robo shapes in general,, tfp designs are painful but kinda fun at the same time 🥲

[teenytraveler]

🎉2022 ART VS ARTIST + ART WRAP!🎉

I'm not usually the one to make new years resolutions (mainly cause i never really go through with them), but after fighting burnout for the last 2 years caused by me taking on too many projects at once, I completely lost the sole joy of just drawing for myself. This year I want this to change, so I really wanna work on my art habits to help me fall in love with art all over again!

All of the illus you see here are the ones I've drawn for myself over the last couple months - I hope you'll see more from me as I let myself just enjoy my hobby :D Thank you for supporting me all the way throughout the year!

What about you guys? Do you have any new year resolutions for 2023?

[alnair-jpg]

Olympics AU Info dump!

First, I am blown away by how much love the series is getting, thank you all so much! I do really enjoy all the comments and reactions in the tags. Know that they all delight me and the only reason I don’t reply to everything is because there are so many! But I read them all 💕

General questions:

Can you draw the designs or concepts? Write fanfic in this AU?

Yes of course! I’d love for you to tag me if you post them so I can see

Do they all know each other?

At first, I would say no- with the exception of Nico and Will (they’re developing a whole backstory in my head that I cannot and will not stop.). But they all meet in the Olympic Village after the opening ceremonies and quickly become friends. They all try their best to attend each other’s events. (Someone please tell me how Percabeth becomes a thing. Please. 🙏 )

Why didn’t Percy win gold?

Percy was an Olympic medalist in swimming before moving to diving. After competing in several swimming events and feeling like they were all just small variations of the same thing, he wanted more of a challenge. He chose diving to stay rooted in to the water, but to add a new dimension to his bodily awareness and control.

What’s Annabeth and Luke’s rivalry?

They most definitely trained together, and it was Luke’s skill that motivated Annabeth to aim for the Olympics. But, she wanted to compete for her home country, Greece, which Luke thought was just a shortcut since there was a clearer path to an Olympic team in a smaller country. Annabeth is constantly trying to prove to him that she would have made it to the top of the sport either way.

Also, apologies to the IRL fencers out there for the inconsistency. I know fencing is a gendered sport, and Annabeth’s gear/style are inconsistent, please forgive the oversight ☺️🫶

Volleyball?

The whole Hunters of Artemis are a volleyball team (that apparently has no country 😅). Thalia ends up the captain. When Reyna moves on from tennis they welcome her with open arms.

Rejected sports

Will as a runner. Canonically, he’s super fast, but just having him as a sprinter didn’t fit with his personality.

Will as a pole vaulter. Specifically the guy that lost because he was ‘blessed a little too much’ and knocked down the bar. I will not explain further.

Will as a gymnast. He was this || close to being a gymnast essentially modeled after Steven Nedoroscik, I had the sketch and everything. (I shared it here!) But when an anyonomous ask clued me into the sick medical team uniforms it all fell into place from there. (Thank you no-longer-anon @helyeahmangocheese !)

Percy in anything equestrian related. I see him not having the patience for all the formality of it all, but he definitely crashes Hazel’s shows and chats up all the competition (the horses.)

Annabeth on a sailing team. Also, related to that, Reyna on a sailing team. It was a fun idea, especially for Reyna and her history with pirates but ultimately it was really hard to capture in a few illustrations.

Nico in several winter sports. For consistency mostly. He could fit for a lot of winter sports - ice skating and snowboarding are my personal favorites.

Leo as a shooter. He would most definitely build his own gear and make tweaks to his weapon. Which would get him immediately disqualified.

Jason in discus. Jason as a basketball player. Golf is just… fitting. 😂

Other Characters I’ve been thinking about

(that may have art in the works… and may not actually be athletes!)

Clarisse

Meg

Grover

Rachel

Lester / Apollo

Mr. D

Chiron

[callsign-relic]

TRUE... i CAN talk ideas too...

im having a hard time drawing Rodimus (CURSE HIS WEIRD SHOULDERS.) but i have So Many thoughts abt him in titan au.

i love love love the concept of him leaving literal trails of colour in titan au due to his warmth... rodimus realising that he can use that to doodle all along the walls and floors, to create a mass of pulsating patterns... tracing nice words into Megatrons walls and watching as Megs' sparkrate picks up in real time ;D

Rodimus laying/sitting down somewhere and colour bleeding out into the metal surrounding him as heat radiates out of him. a spot of brilliant colour in the dark...

also, we talk a lot about how lonely Megatron would feel in Titan AU, but i can imagine it'd be be pretty similar for his cityspeaker(s), especially in scenarios where they're the sole inhabitant. Rodimus talking to Megatron, tracing patterns idly as he chatters about nothing in particular. drawing a half-remembered figure of Megatron on the wall so he can direct his words and gestures somewhere. (that way it feels less like he's talking to himself.)

- init

AARHDGSJDHD IM GOING CRAZYYY I love these,,, Megatron just being astounded that someone so tiny can make his spark race like this. I’m just imagining Rodimus lying down on his back in a dark room, facing an unkempt ceiling— enough cracks on it so that the light from the massive energon vein above seeps through. Rodimus smiling to himself as he sees the light burn brighter whenever he says something particularly silly or stupid. Ouugh Rodimus saying something stupid and a tiny portion of the floor where he’s resting his head shoots up to bonk him, and he flings himself forward, exaggeratedly rubbing the back of his helm EHHDHEEH

Ouughhh this part too I’m going insane… Rodimus doodling his inaccurate sketch of Megatron to talk to and he’s like “eh?? Ehhhh??? Whaddaya think, huh?” And the whole space rumbles as Megatron actually audibly hums in discontent. After the tremors stop, Rodimus recovers his balance, placing his hands on his hips. “Hey, I never said I was an artist! But woah— you actually used your voice this time! Finally gettin’ tired of the cityspeaking and wanna warm up the old voice box, big guy?”

Only for him to not receive a response. Well, no one said this would be easy…

[raisedbythetv89]

Rob Thomas:

Duncan wouldn’t sleep with Kendall because he’s a good guy! Veronica trusts him so she never needed to ask him about it!

Me:

First of all accusing people of doing bad things is basically like Veronica saying I love you because the more she cares about you the more scared she is you’ll disappoint her so it’s not that she actually trusted Duncan she just don’t give a fuck about that boy😹

Second…. Rob is giving major “I can excuse racism but I draw the line at animal cruelty” like Duncan IS the type of man who ghosts his girlfriend who’s best friends with his sister and who he still see’s every day because he’s too much of a coward to just be honest and face hard truths or rather FIND OUT hard truths. SA’s the girl he thinks is his SISTER (like having Duncan on drugs too doesn’t absolve him of anything when he had JUST said Veronica could barely stand and had a perfectly fine recollection of that night) like Duncan still having romantic feelings towards Veronica after being told she’s his sister is beyond gross and creepy like it literally made Veronica puke immediately upon realizing which is the only appropriate reaction to that news 😹 he hulk smashes a car because Logan is dating the girl he thinks is his sister and who he dumped over a year ago at this point - like EW YIKES GROSS WHY WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU BRO. Also just how he vs Logan react to Veronica’s accusations aka her insecurities and fears that she needs reassurance about - Duncan always freaks out and yells at her or completely ices her out which is not very “good guy” of him at all like innocent people don’t react like that 😭

But no he would neeeevvvveeerrr cheat but he WILL hide that he’s gonna be a dad with his ex girlfriend who he’s basically been feeling conflicted about their entire relationship and literally viewing Veronica as the “bad girl girlfriend” option and Meg as the precious perfect angel.

OH YES ROB WHAT A GREAT GUY

*sigh* 99% of men, especially in tv and movie writing truly have NO IDEA what an actual good guy looks like 😭and I’m TIRED. Tired of them blaming women loving “bad boys” and having “bad taste” when actually the bad boys are almost always the better men and the “good guys” basically have the personality of narcissistic abusers or serial killers. He seems nice but if you pay even a little bit of attention it’s obvious it’s all an act.

[writterings]

family guy fandom from an alternate reality:

-main ships are peter/quagmire and peter/joe. huge ship wars over them in 2015. nowadays though the fandom is more progressive and cool and a lot of people ship peter/quagmire/joe or peter/lois/quagmire or peter/lois/joe/bonnie or even peter/lois/joe/bonnie/quagmire.

-these are all shorted to p+l+j+b+q or whatever. or just like pljbq. lots of jokes about fandom newbies not understanding all the ship abbreviations.

-cleveland is the token straight friend or is forgotten entirely from the fandom.

-genuine discourse defending brian x stewie.

-people calling the actual liberal takes in the show "so progressive and subversive"

-surprisingly there is a relatively large amount of ship art of lisa simpson x meg that everyone claims to ship so hard but then you go on ao3 and there are like. 3 fics.

-(your own attempt to write one never gets posted)

-(this is not me saying i would ship them or anything, but i feel like i'm also just making a whole analogy of the fandom experience with this)

-heavy celebration of that bart simpson x chris fan comic where they're adults in couple's counseling (with bobby hill as their therapist). so much so that there is an entire smaller fandom for this crossover au of the simpsons/family guy and sometimes other shows are included like king of the hill or american dad or even bob's burgers (who's usually featured as a cameo or smth in fics, like if the characters stop in a restaurant and it's bob's restaurant). it's called "simpsons guy" or "simpsons guy of the hill" OR "simpsons guy of the hill's burgers"

-or SGOtHB

-blogs dedicated to pointing out the animation errors

-quagmire x reader fanfics being popular, but there is so much discourse around whether it's right or if a lot of stuff is in-character with quagmire or if it's even ethical to like quagmire at a character at all

-meg and chris are a lot closer and nicer to each other in fanfics and fan art. more supportive to each other against their abusive parents.

-like three genuine fanfics and one piece of fan art depicting the evil monkey as chris' real emotional father.

-several fanfics written in a star wars au (both genuine and in the same universe as the show's star wars parody)

-lots of ironic fan art about brian being a stoner

-more serious aspects that are usually played for gags in the show are treated so so so seriously. like how meg is treated and her depression. or like how joe probably has trauma (and so does his son).

-people saying that they would want peter and lois as their parents. then people pointing out why that would be bad and a then a lot of discourse happens.

-joe cop discourse

-discourse on the morality of shipping brian with humans

-popular tag on ao3 that says "Brian Griffin Only Dates Dogs" or "Universe Altercation: Brain Griffin Only Dates Dogs" or "Dog!Jillian"

-sub part of the fandom dedicated to celebrating mayor west (and a surprising amount of love for the ship of him and his wife)

-drawing the characters in different outfits. (i personally want to see meg in a yellow sunflower dress and peter in an 80s disco man outfit)

-SO MUCH fan art of peter x the chicken but it's not as popular now as it used to be.

-and in 2012, more of whatever else this is:

[transingthoseformers]

Continuity soup Gladiator AU

Miner to gladiators backstory but less bugnuts Megatron and which ever version of Optimus who was a dockworker that the Matrix fell on being forced to fight against each other as gladiators.

The two got captured because they were brawling buying time for their respective factions.

They're literally the only two cybertronians in the pits and they aren't alowed to kill each other in and out of the ring. They're a big money making draw. Damn inhibition chips. They're cooped up togeather and they're just floundering because they're only alowed to damage eachother in the ring duringbtheir fights. Sometimes they're sent out as a tag team.

Megatron grumpily teaching OP how to make a fight look good. Or how to fix a fight. Convincingly pretend an opponent has you on the ropes to give the audience their money's worth. Cause if his partner frags up he's in the same soup. And more importantly on the same quarter rations. You have plenty of other gladiators watching the lessons and practically taking notes. It's a gods damned master class.

OP's finding this helish and Megatron's finding this much less shitty that the Pits of Koan. Like a gladiatorial equivalent of a vacation if it wasn't for the forced proximity with Optimus.

Optimus finaly loses it at Megatron because how can he stand the inhibition chips. Megatron just matter-of-factly tells him compared to the slave coding he onlined with in the mines this is nothing. It's not in his processor. Just an inconvenient tazer. Optimus is so confused. This not the data he had on the Teleran. Finding out that the "drones" were 'Cons hacked to fight early in the war were actually sentients given antivirus to root out malicious code has OP in a tailspin. Megatron going from taunting and cynical to being generally shocked OP didn't actually know. Optimus is practically blue screened, while Megatron is laughing hystericaly that Optimus is a true believer in the "Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings," shtick. And Optimus dose have a patern that's been consistant since the begining: crackdown hard on corruption as soon as he realizes it's there. This is the point where Megatron decides to seduce Optimus to the Deceptacons and Optimus's "I Can Fix Him"-itis kicks in. It starts platonic but soon their fights have even more weird sexual tension. And philosophical debates instead of weird taunts.

The bookies are taking bets on whether or not cybertronians can bump uglies to make babies.

Meanwhile both factions are trying to get their leaders back. By the time they work out where they are they show up to discover OP and Megatron have secussfuly lead a slave revolt, escaped the planet and are co-captians of a ship full crewed by gladiators and their dependents.

Ooooo on the backstories and them being got because they were so focused on each other and ended up playing the distraction

EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING, in this case they're worth too much to have one of them die during a fight or otherwise.

I've been thinking a lot about gladiators teaching each other how to rig some fights, owo yes???

Interesting dichotomy for Optimus and Megatron, Megs is not only used to this sort of rhythm but finds it easier than the first time, while Optimus feels like he's being pulled under the waves by it

The shock Optimus got is a-m-a-z-i-n-g, oh dude have you been living in blissful ignorance to the horrors of Cybertron

Because yeah

Optimus here is 100% here for freedom of all sentient beings, and this most certainly includes decepticons

SEDUCTION 100 AND OPTIMUS FALLING FOR IT HOOK LINE AND SINKER

See you get the vibe of this style of Megop!!!!

sdghjds oh the bets, hmmmm I wonder which way we're more inclined towards🤔

I feel like this was a situation where Prowl, Jazz, and Ultra Magnus were somewhat forced to work with Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave to track them down because yes please the respective high commands working together without their leaders

Of all the things that could've happened at least some mecha anticipated that those two would figure their way out of it

They just didn't anticipate the tagalongs

[cybertron-after-dark]

Tweaking the og tfa sona a little bit. Flashbang is back and ever so slightly pointier

(and probably stoned)

Character info under the cut if anyone wants to see (a little nsfw, there's a lot of talk about porn, but no actual sex happening)

Flashbang is the Decepticons' #1 plug for all things just a bit skeezy. From hardcore porn to softcore drugs, if it's not gonna kill ya but the Autobots really dont want it circulating, there's a pretty good chance Flashbang's gotten her claws on it, no matter how niche.

Looking for pre-war dirty bootleg holovids? She has a whole alphabetized rack of them. Banned interface mods? Available for nearly all frame types. Weird drugs from off-planet that invert your color vision and let you taste sound? You know it. Spiked engex so strong it'll have you seeing visions of other realities? She blends it herself!

She's also pretty notorious for taking custom erotica commissions for just about anything under the sun. Vanilla, bondage, s&m, cross-faction, cross-species, sticky, Plug'n'Play, spark bonding, wireplay, humiliation, medical kink, excessive weapons, excessive kibble, breeding, biting, tentacles, vore, even super specific things only a handful of bots would ever be into. There's not really a whole lot she draws a hard line in the sand for, which is unthinkable in stuffy autobot society with their silly little porn ban.

That level of variety (and her knack for finding pre-ban titles especially) caught the attention of some mechs with very particular tastes. Namely, Decepticon high command. Megatron is mostly interested in tracking down old holovids he used to have stashed in his gladiator days that he thought were lost to time. Lugnut takes full advantage of her custom commissions and keeps asking for incredibly detailed Megatron x Reader fics. Blitzwing just a habit of picking up odd little fascinations out of nowhere that most places just wouldn't carry content for.

Aside from her whole x-rated reputation, Flashbang isn't much of a fighter, but she is one hell of a scavenger, which comes in handy when Blitzwing decides to drag her to Earth with him. She's not much for making tech, but if she knows what she's looking for, she can usually track down the materials. And if she has to go about it by stealing, well, getting caught isn't much of a problem when she's lightweight, quick, stealthy, and equipped with disorienting strobe light mods that live up to her name in case she's cornered.

Most encounters she has with team prime are awkward ones. When they do find her milling about, she's not usually doing anything wrong, per se. Earth isn't Autobot territory after all and Cybertronian laws don't extend there. But they know what she's infamous for, and none of them know exactly what to do with that information (barring ratchet, who is trying to scope out the pre-ban holovids while the others aren't looking, Autobot law be damned)

Overall, flashbang is just happy to hang out in the cons' cave base, cook up some funky engex blends from whatever she can find on Earth, and watch human TV with Blitzwing in between scavenging for whatever megs needs and drafting freaky erotica commissions from whatever bot, con, or morbidly curious organic may throw some cash her way. It's not a bad gig given she's not taking any of the war stuff super seriously.

[mayhemlovesenvy]

Testing scenes 🕯💜🤍 (and also me yapping (wayyy too much) under the cut) (you've been warned)

Fixing the arc camp has proven to be harder than I thought,,, it's really damn hard to write 5 parallel stories at the same time in comic(?) Format, bc in the series it's a bit of each group per chapter (except the funtimes part but fuck them)

My idea is to just. Finish each group story and tie them up in the end. Shape of you time and they sing so bad cami dies. But since I want to give them more to do I confuse myself,,,, and also owynn didn't exist so I have to stick him somewhere, and also eak and ttrap do smth else, and also Margo is a whole thing

And Im going crazy BUT IM ENJOYING THE CRAZY. It's like suffering with math but instead of numbers it's just text and I do it for fun bc crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me into a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. The rats drove me crazy.

So. What are you seeing in the drawings?? Those orange/red blobs are fire thingies, and the bighead kids are around them :3

- bonnie, freddy, ann, aiden (who would be looking away from the fire lol)

- Meg, joy, bon and spring (but they're not by the fire)

- The nightmares (+ toddy)

' And then probably the funtimes + pup and mai

Where golden? Well with his dad + other rich parents + jeffrey and he's looking sadly bc damn. He wants to be there :( or maybe be just really likes looking at fire and wants to be closer who knows

is jeffrey who lets her go with her friendos !!!¡! Hoorrray jeffrey. Also gives him the lighter

Then golden fucking dies

And jeffrey is on a date with vincent :)) bc he can and he wants and I want them to, too

And . And this is where i go crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once

Bc yes this is about golden BUT ALSO it IS jeffrey's big moment as fucking well. The fire both from the lighter and the candle representing literally how he's warming up to the idea of forming actual, meaningful relationships with people. He WORRIES so he starts to CARE which means he starts to DO .

HE STOPS BEING A BITCHHHH AND WE LOVE THAT FOR HIM AND IIIII AMMMM GOING CRAZY. oh also Golden in that time decides to escape once they get back home but that will be a s2 problem that def wont develop Golden's father and jeffrey a bit more and realize how fucked up they actually are (maybe). And def wont end with golden left as homeless and pathetic for the joke I PROMISE I DOOOOOOOO

Okay. So. Um. The fire represents the want to have relationships (any type). Golden longs for fire (a family) Jeffrey lights it for him (show that maybe he can give him one);

but Jeffrey is the one asking for a deeper relationship to Vincent represented throught a candle (and asking for/having a date), or smth like that. Needs more work. Maybe. What matters is that Jeffrey wants more *with* vin (not of, with) while vincent thinks he overstepped wayyy to much and is in this weird attempt to gain control over it by sabotaging himself. The fire IS THERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM BUT IT WILL DIE IF HE WAITS TOO LONG OR IF HE BLOWS IT .. AAAAAGHHHHHHHHH. The chance is there and he has to take it. And yes Golden takes the lighter aka golden acepts the chance while vin... lets it drip..lets the wax burn him, but he will run out of time

[microsuedemouse]

I think I’ve figured out what’s bugging me about season two of vmars, which I’m a little over halfway through

(as a disclaimer - I am spoiled for most of, if not all, the major plot beats. I know who the big bad of the season will be and why, I know the timeline of Veronica and Logan’s ons and offs, I knew what was coming with Duncan… I genuinely don’t know if the suspense would have me more engaged if that weren’t the case. it’s hard to say!)

and I think it’s. hm. to put it all under one descriptor, I feel like this season is all just… waiting to earn back the payoff we got from season one.

there are a few parts to that. for one, I feel like a major theme in s1 is that Veronica starts out as an outcast and pariah, with people she likes well enough (see: her pilot interaction with Corny), but no actual friends. and throughout the season we get to see her grow closer with several people. she’s still guarded, and for good reason, but she’s connecting with people! she and Wallace become best friends, she and Weevil develop a very fun dynamic, she and Mac become friends, she and Meg develop some really wonderful sisterhood. she and Duncan slowly return to speaking terms and start to trust each other again. and, obviously, she and Logan go from former-friends-now-bitter-enemies to cautiously-allies to stupid-in-love. a lot of those relationships have serious bumps, largely due to who Veronica is as a person, but by the end she has several great friends and a deeply adoring boyfriend (though that last bit is admittedly complicated in the last episode).

and that’s a great payoff for the season. The Veronica/Logan especially so, since their chemistry clearly became a huge focal point for the show, and their romance a big draw for viewers. season two puts them… back to square one. she and Logan have broken up and clearly both are bitter about it. she returns to Duncan and their romance is very sweet - and, arguably, important for Veronica’s personal development, because she gets closure on their relationship this time - but it also lacks a lot of what makes her and Logan compelling. (so much so that Duncan soon leaves the show!) meanwhile her friendship with Weevil is strained, Meg hates her then falls into a coma and they only barely make up before she dies, and Wallace straight up bails out of the entire show for several episodes. in general I feel like there’s a lot less of the great character dynamic work the first season had, whether for Veronica or even amongst the other characters. (season one saw some great Logan + Duncan and Logan + Weevil, for instance.) even Veronica’s relationship with her father, which is major in s1 and was one of my favourite elements of the show when I started it, feels like it’s fallen to the wayside by mid-s2.

it makes sense, in some ways. especially, again, with Veronica and Logan - two thoroughly damaged, extremely headstrong teenagers. no matter how in love they are, yeah, of course they’d have issues. but breaking them up between seasons and taking the whole of s2 to get them back to where they were in the last few eps of s1? when the build-up of their relationship was so well-paced and so effective the first time? it feels rude! in s1 it was payoff; now it feels like I’m just waiting to get back the thing I waited so long for in the first place. and even friendship ups and downs make perfect sense in this kind of character-driven work, especially when - again - it’s about teenagers, but sending Veronica back to being lonely and ostracized (if to a slightly lesser extent) is just… mean. we’ve done this before. let’s move forward, not just repeat.

the other thing is in relation to the season’s overarching mystery. in s1, Veronica is trying to solve her best friend’s murder - obviously extremely personal. as a secondary running plotline, we have her searching for her missing mother, which is also really personal. and eventually she also investigates her own rape, which… jesus. it’s easy to get invested, because she’s invested. she’s connected. every secret she uncovers, every step closer she gets to the answer, is a revelation that affects her directly: secrets kept by Lilly, by Lianne, those have real impacts on Veronica. on how she understands her life and the people around her.

the s2 mystery is a lot less personal. yes, Veronica should have been on that bus, and yes, it’s heartbreaking what happens to Meg… but the bus crash is much less intrinsically linked to Veronica than the big plots from s1. she doesn’t get her foundations rocked with every new discovery. now, again, because of the spoilers I’ve seen, I know that the endgame of this mystery does link back to her in a very personal way, but there’s no real suggestion of that throughout the season as a whole. a couple times she worries that there is, that she was the target, but they find out before long that that’s not necessarily the case. so like… I am kind of waiting for the character-level payoff she’ll get at the end of the season, which will be gratifying, but I wouldn’t know it was coming if I hadn’t been spoiled.

to be clear: I’m still enjoying the show. there’s a lot to love. but I think all of its greatest strengths are lacking in s2, and I suspect I was right when I guessed, upon finishing s1, that that would be its best season. season one really tells an entire story, in a way that’s difficult to effectively replicate a second time around.

[ridiculoustrainsofthought]

Yes I am obsessed, but just some lingering thoughts as a follow up to this post. I know The Legend says a student (who we know now is Brian) found the script in the basement of the school, and in the true spirit of horror stories, it must have been cursed! The boy was consumed by it and showed it to his teacher, she then became obsessed with it and wouldn't take no for an answer until it was performed. But honestly? Even the legend brings up the question of if that's actually the beginning of the story. I wonder if the truth is Brian wrote the story himself, in that middle school starting fanfic writer type way where his story takes a lot from the media he enjoys, which seems to be a combination of classic literature references based mostly on Phantom of the Opera. Fitting for his character, especially since he has a wider vocabulary than the kids supposedly his own age, and while that could just be chalked up to him being at school for the last 70 years, I like the idea of him being like that in life too. But he's so awkward and tells Brooke how being a nervous rambler might be a good trait for an actor because that means when he's nervous on stage, he's just got words pouring out of him. And I've heard of that being real advice how sometimes kids with anxiety or speech problems might build confidence from acting lessons.

It's likely that Brian wrote the script and his teacher Ms. Walker was touched to see this normally shy kid want to trust her with his first attempt at art. And it's actually really good! So not only does she decide they can do it, but he should be The Phantom as it's only fair. But he's so shy and nervous, maybe she's the one who started the rumor that they just found the script because he didn't want the attention (or maybe if he was starring in it, she didn't want to make the other kids jealous.) It would also explain why she protected the script, perhaps even the original script, all these years because this was his. It would just add another layer of heartache and meaning to why saving THIS story was so important because it felt like destroying something so personal to him would be like destroying his memory. And if both were true, they must have been very close for him to want to show her the script first like he was proud of it but maybe not even his own family knew about it.

Which also makes me wonder since we realized the twist was that Brian wasn't the one pranking rehearsals and actually did want the show to go on, maybe all these years he's actually been protecting students during their shows. He did bring up he's "new which is rare" so he's definitely come out before. It's not like opening the trap door disturbed his resting place, he just refuses to go below stage despite knowing it can't hurt him anymore. I wonder what draws him out then. Just whenever someone proposes they try The Phantom again, only for it to be shot down? Was it to sometimes visit Ms. Walker with her being the "Madame Giry" equivalent until her passing and now we've got a "Meg" in her granddaughter having grown up with less fear and more fascination about The Legend? Was it whenever there was a threat like now with pranksters or bullies and Brian slips into the student body to fix things before supposedly moving away? He doesn't seem to make friends often, or maybe he means he doesn't normally get attached to students because he's afraid of being found out (he really only got close with Brooke because he fell hard and fast and felt a need to stay with her) but I wonder if he ever got lonely during the summer seasons when the place goes quiet. Or maybe he enjoys it because he has free reign of the school and that's when he got to practice his lines and act out the whole show as he kept dreaming? Maybe he just did a lot of reading. I don't think he ever went into hibernation since he actually tells Brooke later how all the lonely years were worth it since this bizarre phenomenon allowed him to meet her from decades apart.

Either way, my heart. 💔

[provincial-girl]

So, when I get really into a new show, I like to go ahead and look up the meaning of character’s names. Often there’s not much of interest there, or the name doesn’t say a whole lot. Then, every once in a while, I come across some neat stuff, which is what happens when you look into the meaning of names for A League of Their Own characters, particularly Greta and Meg's names. 

The first very first thing I found when I started down this specific rabbit hole is that Greta means “pearl,” which honestly makes so much sense for her. A pearl is this pretty, shiny object,  but it's created when a grain of sand or food particle gets stuck inside the shell of the oyster. To protect itself from the irritant, the oyster secretes a substance that will harden around the grain of sand and eventually become the pearl. Greta is exactly like the pearl in a lot of ways, because she’s shiny and charming, but her outward appearance is very much a product of all the things she does to protect herself from getting hurt. She has this secret that she knows is dangerous, and she constantly cloaks herself in this protective layer, putting on a performance to keep herself and those around her safe. The product is pretty to look at, made to be looked at even, but it is a hard outer shell meant to protect Greta from suffering any more pain than she already has.   

In an interesting twist, Meg means “pearl” as well, because both names appear to have roots that can be linked back to the name Margaret. We know so little about Meg, Carson’s sister,  that any attempt to draw parallels requires a certain amount of speculation. If the parallel is meant to be intentional though, it would suggest that there’s something similar about Carson’s sister and Greta that we don’t explicitly see.

 One possibility is that perhaps Meg’s fixation on behaving acceptably in the eyes of those around her comes from the fact that she thinks it will offer a layer of protection from censure. That’s why she marries and has kids right away, and bakes the pie that Carson promises the woman at the train station to save face (Greta’s end of the phone conversation with Meg suggests as much). That behavior and her insistence that Carson conform is a defense mechanism, a hurtful, damaging, deeply misguided attempt to protect herself and her family from the same sort of pain that comes from their mother failing to conform when she leaves them behind. She might actually be more concerned about protecting the family than herself, as she specifically mentions their father having to answer questions, as he probably had to when their mother left. She even says she wishes their mother was around so Carson wasn’t her problem, which suggests that Meg wouldn’t be reacting in this way if their mother had never left. Is Meg simply suggesting that their mother might’ve made this call instead? Maybe, but the fact remains that Meg behaves in the way she does, calls and yells at Carson for running away because their mother isn’t around, and she feels it’s her duty to do it to maintain an acceptable image of their family. It's a misguided attempt to protect them from censure and the same pain that comes from their mother leaving. 

The natural reaction may be to say, well, Greta and Meg are nothing alike, because there are a lot of ways in which they’re not alike at all. To start, the repercussions of not performing properly are so much higher for Greta than Meg. Meg doesn’t face the threat of physical harm that Greta does, and the censure she faces is much less intense than what Greta faces if she’s discovered. The fact, however, remains that a lot of their behavior is a reaction to societal pressures to conform and an instinct to avoid pain. None of this is to say that Meg’s behavior is remotely acceptable, or that Meg could ever be as compelling and well-rounded as Greta. What we know of Meg isn’t even a little bit flattering, but I don’t think Meg has to be likable to be understood. This potential parallel  simply gives a bit more depth to Meg, makes the story as a whole a bit more interesting. It suggests that every female character, even the ones as minor and unlikeable as Meg, face some kind of societal pressure to perform in a certain way or face repercussions, and their behavior and treatment of others is often shaped by that pressure.

Again, this all involves a certain amount of conjecture, and may very well be a coincidence, but ALOTO is such a thoughtful show that I just can’t help thinking there’s a real possibility this was an entirely intentional choice. Greta’s name meaning and the Meg parallel were the most compelling ones I found, but there’s also a whole bunch of other name meanings that I’ve found that are actually perfect for the characters, which suggests to me that at least some of these character names are very intentionally chosen for their meaning, and I could definitely see more meta potential in that list. Whether the name choices are fully intentional or not, I enjoy thinking about the way that small details contribute to a story’s larger, overarching themes, and love that this show continues to offer up opportunities to do just that. 

[noblebs]

wip questionnaire tag

tagged by @fortunatetragedy here <3

I'll tag @writernopal @coarsely and whoever else wants to of course (blank questions below the cut!)

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

Orion lol. He was a ttrpg character who got out of hand... At the time, I was really struggling with shelving my Ashgrove wip so I was desperate for something else to write. I started with a short story about his background. then the story for EWT officially started with the climax scene I had no context for lol.

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

you'd think I would be better prepared for this question, but it's hard to pick just one song. probably "Desire" by Meg Myers

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

...I'm excluding Orion from this question.

Madrigal probably, we as a society need more fictional women unapologetically doing truly atrocious things. she's fun to write, and her story taps into some of my own fears/anxieties in a way that's been interesting to explore.

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

Interview with the Vampire, Hellboy, Hannibal, probably Supernatural I'm afraid lol. all the gooey old horror movies that used astounding amounts of fake blood and slime

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

oof, I'm a discovery writer so plotting is always a struggle; I know exactly where I'm going with it, but only the broad strokes of how I'm getting there.

achieving the tone I'm aiming for has been difficult as well, but that's something I can make a bigger priority in rewrites.

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

I don't know if Madrigal's brood count as animals....... they are semi-amorphous monsters of the primordial waters who want to achieve solid physical forms. idk how much to share about them without spoilers??

but there's one in particular in chapter 7 who ends up a little different from their siblings for Reasons, they're fun :) I um. I didn't plan to make them an actual Character but I might have to give them a name. maybe Orion will adopt them after they maim her.

How do your characters travel/get around?

Commercial flights, public transit/taxis, and more walking than Orion ever wants to do. Annex refuses to reimburse him for rental cars.

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

I don't always write chronologically, so I'm sort of cobbling chapters 7 and 8 together at once because I'm not sure where I'll put the chapter break. (also because I was impatient to write the sex scene in 8)

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

apparently cannibalism as a metaphor for devotion is "cringy" now, but hopefully there's still some good honest freaks out there for it. monsterfucking never gets old though, and we're going to get there I promise

What are your hopes for your WIP?

I hope that I'll be able to finish it lmao.

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

How do your characters travel/get around?

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

What are your hopes for your WIP?

[yasartmeme]

Okay listen I know A Day Of Fallen Night came out in like January and I did buy it then but then life stuff happened but I’m finally sitting down to read it and I’m gonna put all my thoughts here and post it when I finish it

Okay that was just the PROLOGUE? It slaps but also that was like a story of its own

Okay so I’m like a quarter through now and I have thoughts

Kanifa is adorable and Samantha Shannon if you touch one hair on his head you will be hearing from my nonexistent lawyers

Is Wulf actually the child of Kalyba? That would be wild

Also, I genuinely have completely lost track of all the people in Wulf’s storyline apart from his Inys family and Regny I don’t know who the fuck the rest of these people are and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to

The conclusion I’ve come to is that Hroth is fantasy Iceland. Am I wrong?

Y’know I was expecting Dumai’s story to be a whole thing of the Emperor being evil and trying to kill her for being an illegitimate heir or something but my expectations have been subverted and now I love him

Update

Hot damn like half of this book’s side characters just bit the dust in about half a page

Listen I know their deaths were mentioned in Priory and I knew it’d happen but Glorian’s parents dying still hurts

Poor Glorian

Also where is Wulf? Is he dead? Lost at sea? Is he okay? I need him to be okay

Siyu’s run away again

That girl is a Grade A flight risk

I honestly did not see Nikeya as a love interest coming but its clearly heading in that direction and I think its gonna cause all kinds of chaos

Update

KANIFA NOOO Samantha Shannon what did I just say

This is almost as bad as when Kit died, all these poor loyal friends dying for dramatic effect

I love Wulf’s family so much. Mara gives me Meg vibes

Glorian is a badass and her and Wulf are suprisingly cute together

Okay I do not trust Canthe at all, I feel like she’s lying about everything

I’m trying to figure out who she is. I’ve got a running theory that she’s Kalyba (the Lady of the Woods) which I know is kind of insane but hear me out: who else do we know that’s seemingly immortal and ate from the hawthorne tree, who can also shapeshift into whatever form, who has been married and has lost a child? Plus they keep drawing attention to the loveknot ring (which is gold which Wulf said is for royal marriage) and I feel like that can’t be just a coincidence. The only question is why she’d be helping the priory. Maybe she wants to earn their trust so they’ll let her eat from the orange tree? That’s what she wanted from Ead in the first book.

I’m trying so hard to figure this out but I think I’m losing my mind

Aaaand the Emperor is dead

Someone should keep a kill count going on the number of dead leaders/royalty and authority figures in this book, if you took a shot every time like a drinking game you’d be hammered by this point

Or dead

I’ve said it before but I love Wulf, he’s so earnest and sweet and he’s just trying to be friends with everyone

He had every reason to refuse to believe in the priory or be suspicious but he just welcomed them as family with open arms

Y’know I wasn’t that invested in Nikeya and Dumai earlier but they’ve really grown on me, they’re super cute

I WAS RIGHT I WAS RIGHT OH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT MY PREDICTIONS ARE NEVER RIGHT SHE’S THE LADY OF THE WOODS!!!!!

AAAAAAAAHHH

I literally almost threw the book across the room in excitement 

I’ve never felt more alive that was insane

Should I become a detective?

I feel like a genius

Update

God these battles are brutal

SUZUMAI???? SHE’S NINE HOW COULD YOU

I’m distraught

That bit where Wulf is talking to baby Sabran is so cute I might die

Dumai better not be dead, I won’t cope

Okay well I’m interpreting that epilogue that she’s completely fine living her new life on the mountain and Nikeya can go and visit her and everything is fine

In conclusion, this was amazing and also I read about half of this book in the past few days reading as much as possible and now I think I need to like sit and stare at nothing for a bit

Or maybe a nap