#most interesting parts were definitely focused on blair

[taus-inc]

i think in an ideal world, if dan humphrey wasn't a manipulative piece of shit who couldn't decide if he hated the people he was surrounded by or wanted to be them, he and blair would've been the otp. like he would bring her down a healthy bit and she would elevate him a healthy bit. they were good together until dan started humphreying. im pissed off bc i wanted to see blair win and dan would've been good for her especially if she hadn't lost her child or they had another tgt like come on !!

all blair needed was someone who would've brought out her best parts and nurtured her worst parts in a way that she would feel proud of herself no matter what she did. that person was blair herself lbr

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

So not to be dramatic, but if you could get a degree in discourse-ology, the topic of my master’s thesis would definitely be “Which political candidates did the characters of the CW’s Gossip Girl (2007-2012) support?” I’m doing this in order from most to least obvious, and considering both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

[ little ivy interjection here: i haven’t changed ANYTHING, except adding a screencap of the title + the submission, because that made me laugh & more people deserve to see it, and putting this under a read more because that’s how i generally try & organise stuff on this blog. so this submission is exactly as it was when i received it! also while we’re at it, anon, this MADE my day.]

Blair Waldorf: “Hillary Clinton is one of my role models. I do not break treaties, you ass!” (04x13) There’s no question that Blair would go hard for Hillary in 2016, she praised her on multiple occasions throughout the series. Blair’s a classic American neoliberal, third wave Democrat-type: she’s decently progressive when it comes to social policies, and would be decidedly supportive of causes like gay marriage, racial equity, and women’s reproductive rights, but she’s still very much in favor of maintaining the status quo when it comes to capitalism and the hegemonic structure of power that, lets face it, heavily favors her own class interests. To use the American healthcare system as an example: Blair would have been all for the Affordable Care Act, and is largely supportive of the idea of creating a public option - but single payer, nationalized health care? It just wouldn't work in a country like the United States for “X” reason (although the real reason, deep down, is that she doesn’t want to see her tax rate go up in any meaningful way). So she’s thoroughly for Clinton in both the 2016 primaries and the general election, she maybe even comes out with a line of high-end “I’m With Her” merchandise if she’s still CEO of Waldorf Designs, and is personally heartbroken when Clinton loses.

Flash forward to the 2020 primaries. Blairhates Donald Trump, like emotionally, viscerally hates him - his misogyny, his incompetence, and his blatant tackiness are a direct repudiation of her beliefs, and the fact that he’s representing Manhattan society and the Upper East Side to the world in such a godawful way is frankly embarrassing. So in a certain sense, her strategy, like frankly many Americans at the time going into the 2020 Democratic primaries is, “Which one of these candidates has the greatest chance at beating Donald Trump?” I see Blair being rather conflicted at first, but ultimately going for either Amy Klobuchar or Kamala Harris. She has a certain admiration for Elizabeth Warren given her professional background, but her policies are a bit too progressive for someone like Blair. Buttigeg is fine, but not especially thrilling. Biden, quite frankly, doesn’t seem like he has any real chance at winning, although I think he’d be Blair’s third choice after Harris and Klobuchar. I can see her leaning more towards Harris ultimately - although, after the “Amy Klobuchar throws staplers at her interns!!” rumors start spreading, Blair cannot help but, at a personal level, kind of respect her for that. When Biden unexpectedly takes South Carolina and then the Democratic nomination, Blair is a bit disappointed, but not overly so, and quickly marshals her financial resources into supporting and fundraising for him for the remainder of the election. At least it’s not Sanders - or Bloomberg. As a New Yorker, of course Blair’s opinion is “Fuck Michael Bloomberg”.

Chuck Bass: Now here’s where it gets interesting. Chuck, as you said, isn’t stupid - there’s no way he falls for the “build the wall” crap or any of Trump’s rhetoric, he knows it’s a bullshit farce and sees right through it. But you know what he definitely is? Deeply greedy and deeply selfish. I’m hardly the first person to point this out, but Chuck Bass is, in many ways, the fictional equivalent of the Donald Trumps and Michael Bloombergs and Brett Kavanaughs of the world - new money billionaire who inherited his wealth from his father working in the real estate industry, who despite his lack of business acumen and deeply problematic history with women, has managed to coast through life failing upwards with absolutely no social or legal accountability? I mean, back in 2010, Forbes Magazine actually did a real interview with the fictional Chuck Bass in which they outright compare him to Donald Trump. I couldn’t tell you if the Gossip Girl writers meant to write Chuck as their Trump analogue - I mean, they did invite Jared and Ivanka onto the show, after all - but the parallels are just too strong to ignore. All of which is to say, not only did Chuck Bass vote for Donald Trump, he held exclusive political fundraisers for him and was probably a substantial donor to his campaign. Now, did Chuck distance himself publicly over time as the political climate became increasingly caustic and public sentiment towards Trump plummeted even further? Perhaps, perhaps not. It really depends on if the board of Bass Industries felt like being connected to Trump was a liability or an asset - but privately, I imagine Chuck once again voted for him in 2020, because the one policy Donald Trump did effectively execute during his tenure in office was massive tax cuts for billionaires, and for someone like Chuck Bass, that’s the only political policy that really matters. He wouldn’t wear a red hat and wouldn’t be caught dead within sniffing distance of a MAGA rally and the hoi polloi, but dude is basically the image of what the kind of rich conservatives backing the Trump administration for personal gain look like. On the off chance that the distastefulness of it all got to be a little much for even Chuck post-2016, perhaps he might switch his vote to Bloomberg. But I highly doubt Chuck would be politically invested in anything other than his own wallet to such an extent that he wouldn’t vote for Trump, no matter how much it would no doubt completely infuriate Blair.

Dan Humphrey: As the unofficial king of the hipsters, Dan has been a Sanders supporter since before it was cool. Seriously, Bernie Sanders appeals to Dan intrinsically on every level - his policies, his rhetoric, even his aesthetic - the rumpled old man with wild hair wearing mittens and railing against the upper class is the sort of thing that’s basically political catnip for someone like Dan Humphrey. Not only would Dan vote for Sanders in both the 2016 and 2020 primaries, he’d go out and be one of the celebrities campaigning for him. This would definitely lead to him butting heads with Blair, and she would no doubt call him out on supporting someone like Sanders when Dan himself is now a millionaire, who made his money from writing stories about the upper class. The fact that in 2017 he apparently gets married to Serena, a billionaire heiress, and may or may not have been engaged to her back in 2016 when the Democratic primaries were happening might cause him a bit of cognitive dissonance, but really, just because he’s climbed up the socio-economic ladder now doesn’t mean his values have really changed, have they? (Debatable.) In any case, in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections, Dan would definitely vote for Clinton and Biden respectively - although he’d be significantly more disgruntled about it than Blair would be switching from Harris to Biden. I don’t think Dan would be a “Bernie bro” in the way that term is used, but he’d definitely chafe against Clinton’s past policy decisions, and would probably make some snippy Tweets about her during the election. Nevertheless, once it became clear that Trump was going to be the Republican nominee and was a serious threat, I think Dan would change his tone and start encouraging his fans and followers to vote for Clinton. Likewise, in 2020, Dan would probably become one of the Sanders supporters doing outreach for Biden, having become more politically pragmatic following the experience of living under the Trump administration.

Vanessa Abrams: Much like Dan, Vanessa is a progressive, although unlike Dan, Vanessa’s activism is more focused around specific issues and less around specific politicians. I can see Dan and Vanessa being in roughly the same place in 2016, and given that the only real choices were between Sanders and Clinton in the primaries (RIP to Martin O'Malley), Vanessa would no doubt go for Sanders. Whereas Dan might campaign for Sanders directly however, Vanessa would instead focus her time and resources around advocacy for specific causes that are important to her, like climate change and racial justice, and would probably use her platform as a filmmaker and documentarian to advance those causes. I could very much see her getting involved with movements like Black Lives Matter and organizations like the Sunrise Movement, and taking part in protests, marches, and sit-ins. When the 2020 Democratic primaries come around, I could see her possibly switching from Sanders to Warren for a while (and Dan would definitely argue with her about it if she did), but I can also see her switching back to Sanders after Warren amended her support for single-payer, “Medicare for All”. She’d definitely vote for Clinton and Biden in the generals, but not enthusiastically.

Nate Archibald: For someone whose family business is politics and who, in 2017, is apparently a candidate in the New York City mayoral election, Nate seems to be rather removed from politics. As Vanessa puts it in 02x19, “The only thing Nate’s ever voted for is American Idol.” Still, as Editor-in-Chief of The Spectator, Nate kind of has to have an opinion, and in that respect, I see him gravitating towards the type of center-left “establishment” candidates that he and his family would no doubt have close ties with. In the Gossip Girl universe, the Vanderbilts are portrayed as being a lot like the Kennedys, and I think Nate’s policies as a mayoral candidate would really reflect that. In 2016, he would vote for Hillary Clinton in both the primaries and the generals without much of a second thought - after all, she’s the obvious choice, and there’s no way a candidate like Donald Trump could actually beat her, right? Actually, optimistically, maybe that’s why Nate decides to jump into the mayoral race in 2017 - previously, he had been for all intents and purposes politically apathetic, but seeing someone as genuinely vile as Donald Trump ascend to the office of the presidency stirs him out of that apathy, and he wants to make a positive difference in the only way an incredibly privileged white man from a politically prominent family knows how. So he runs as a Kennedy-esque center left candidate, further left of someone like Hillary Clinton, but more moderate than someone like Elizabeth Warren - sort of like Kamala Harris, now that I think about it. I have no idea if he would actually be able to beat Bill de Blasio given the major incumbency advantage de Blasio would have, but who knows. Come the 2020 Democratic primaries, I think Nate would probably just vote for whoever he believed was most likely to beat Donald Trump. I don’t see him having any sort of clear preference - maybe he would gravitate towards Biden on the basis of him being the most established candidate, or maybe he would gravitate towards Harris on the basis of her campaigning as the “moderate progressive” candidate. I could also seeing him liking Andrew Yang, come to think of it. In any case, he would most definitely support Joe Biden in the generals. How involved he’d be in supporting him really depends on whether or not Nate actually gets elected to mayor - if he was the mayor, he’d definitely endorse him and probably donate to him, but I think he’d be too wrapped up in his own political responsibilities to really do much more than that. If, however, he lost the election and was still the Editor-in-Chief of The Spectator, I can see Nate getting more involved alongside the rest of his family, officially endorsing him in The Spectator, hosting political fundraisers for him, and maybe even campaigning for him. The Vanderbilts in the Gossip Girl universe (I have no idea what the family’s actual political beliefs are in real life) definitely seem to me like they’d be Biden supporters, and I imagine they’d use their political clout to try and get Biden in, and more importantly, Trump out.

Serena van der Woodsen: Oh Serena. Look, she knows it’s important, okay? It’s just, she’s been really busy lately, and she doesn’t really like to think about politics, and hey, remember that fundraiser she did with her mom for last month’s philanthropic cause du jour? Serena’s a Democrat, vaguely, but if you tried to really pin her down on her political beliefs she’d probably just change the topic. So who does she vote for in 2016? The truth is, she doesn’t. Not in the primaries, not in the general, not at all. She meant to, okay, Blair’s definitely been pestering her to send in her mail-in-ballot for weeks, but she just got distracted and forgot. Serena really strikes me as the kind of person who doesn’t enjoy thinking or talking about politics, save for perhaps a few specific issues, and she has a sense that everything will work itself out eventually and she doesn’t really need to participate. And then the 2016 election happens, and holy shit, she didn’t vote. Blair and Dan might have spent early 2016 bickering with each other over Clinton versus Sanders, but the one thing they can definitely agree on is “What the fuck, Serena?!?!” They both reminded her like, a million times, how could she possibly forget?! Serena feels really bad about it - she didn’t think it was such a big deal, she didn’t think Donald Trump could actually win! - and so she starts overcompensating whenever the topic of politics comes up, maybe even joins Vanessa at a few protests and marches, even though she’s still sort of clueless about the actual issues at hand. She does vote in the 2018 midterms, although only in the general election - straight blue ticket, all the way down. She takes a picture of herself at the voting booth wearing an “I Voted!” sticker and posts it on Instagram, tagging both Dan and Blair in the post (who already voted weeks ago using mail-in ballots, but it’s the thought that counts). Flash forward to 2020, and she really needs to make a decision about who to vote for in the primaries… but there’s just so many choices. Everything seems so scary and stressful and real in a way now that it didn’t back in 2016, and she can’t just ignore it and assume things will work out for the best like she did back then. So who does she vote for? Well, Serena always wins, so she votes for Biden. Conspiratorially, both Dan and Blair privately wonder if her voting for Biden isn’t on some cosmic level the reason for his unexpected victory, even if they know there’s no logical way that’s possible, right? But it would be such a Serena thing to do… In any case, Serena’s just happy her candidate won, and would probably host political fundraisers for him with her mom’s circle of philanthropic friends. Assuming she and Dan are still married at this point, she offers to help him do political outreach to Sanders supporters to get them to vote for Biden, which he sweetly dissuades her from given that most Sanders supporters would probably dislike her on principle.

So that’s how, in my opinion, the main cast would vote, ordered roughly in how confident I am about that analysis. You could make the argument that perhaps some characters would vote or act differently based on whether or not they’re dating or married at the time - like, would Chuck openly fundraise for Trump when Blair is a dyed-in-the-wool Clinton supporter if they’re married? (He totally would.) But I tried to consider them purely on the merits of their personalities and values, and not on the particularities of their situations at the time (with the exception of Nate, just because him being in office or not would obviously make a huge difference in regards to how politically involved he’s going to be).

I wish I put as much effort into my actual university essays as I did on Gossip Girl political analysis.

[ashen-crest]

Romance Book Ref Thoughts

Ok, so I finally finished reading a few books I picked out as reference for Rival Potion Shops (basically, different flavors of recent rivals-to-lovers books). They were:

Kiss My Cupcake: rival bar owners compete for first place in a YouTube ‘best bars’ contest

Beach Read: rival authors suffering from writer’s block make a bet to swap genres for the summer

Red, White, & Royal Blue: the son of the President and the Prince of Wales fall in love during the President’s re-election cycle

After I read, I jotted down notes on how each book handled the following:

POV (single or dual?)

Relationship Pacing (when does the premise hit? when do they kiss?)

Side Characters (are they fleshed out, or just the best friend trope?)

Sub-Plots (what happens other than the romance?)

In case anyone is interested, I’ll list out my notes below the cut. These aren’t book reviews, just a really basic analysis to help myself out with my next Rival Potion Shops outline. 

Note: some spoilers below.

Kiss My Cupcake

POV: dual, but primary POV is Blaire

Relationship Pacing: Blaire and Ronan start collaborating on joint bar events and promos about halfway through the book, and get together about 3/4 of the way in.

Side Characters: very few, and none with their own arcs or goals

Sub-Plots: basically none (unless you want to consider Blaire’s relationship with her family a sub-plot, but there are very few events that impact the plot, and it doesn’t change much)

Thoughts: cute, but simplistic. The dual POV didn’t feel entirely necessary, as the Blaire chapters outweighed the Ronan chapters. For RPS, I’d like to flesh out the side characters more and give them their own goals/arcs.

Beach Read

POV: single (January)

Relationship Pacing: They make the bet about 1/4 of the way in. They kiss halfway through, then pretend it didn’t happen. They get together 3/4 of the way in.

Side Characters: certainly some friends and family members, but none with their own arcs/goals; maybe the closest would be Shadi, the best friend, but she’s more a sounding board, and doesn’t really influence the plot

Sub-Plots: Most of the plot points center on the relationship, but January’s emotional journey with her family is a major throughline and emotional backdrop. In terms of emotional weight, the family strife and the romance are extremely tied together.

Thoughts: Definitely less simplistic than Kiss My Cupcake (and a bit of a heavier tone, despite the title), and it’s great that the developing relationship intertwines with each author’s emotional struggles/backgrounds. Made me think more about how Ambrose and Eli’s backgrounds and relationships would/should collide. They don’t necessarily have the same family strife or tragic background, but they both help each other address their past as they come together as friends. 

Red, White, & Royal Blue

POV: single (Alex)

Relationship Pacing: They kiss 1/3 of the way in. Unlike the other two books, most of the book is about the secrecy of their relationship, then the international fallout/election ramifications when it comes to light. So not the sort of slow-burn you see in the other two books.

Side Characters: several, most of which have their goals and arcs tied to the presidential election.

Sub-Plots: 100% the presidential election, major major part of the book, hesitate to call it a sub-plot (but in this case, I’m looking at the sub-plots as anything other than the main ‘kiss kiss fall in love’ scenes)

Thoughts: This book handled side characters and non-romance plots the best of the three, in my opinion. That said, it was also structured differently than the others. It was less slow burn rivals to lovers, and focused more on- okay, they’re together, now what could go wrong? That’s not how I intend to structure RPS, but! I still learned a crap-ton from this book, and can only endeavor to flesh out the side characters and relationship dynamics as well as Casey did.

If you have any other rivals-to-lovers or enemies-to-lovers books I should read, let me know! I normally don’t specify my reading by trope, but this is specifically to help me write Rival Potion Shops.

[post-itpenny]

How would Blair and Chloe feel about everyone else?

Tagging @grodygabe since I decided to answer for EVERYONE.

Chloe

Mary- Immediate new friend. Chloe thrives off building connections with others and Mary is so nice and cool! And gosh the roller skates, Chloe loves that. Plus Mary understands a little of what Chloe has gone through, which is something she hasn’t had before and… that’s a very bittersweet thing, especially in a place like this.

Cora- Also cool. Chloe gets the sense she has to prove herself to Cora though and she doesn’t know how. It’s not that Chloe needs to be friends but that she knows in a place like this it will be better if they can work together. So, it’s Chloe’s own personal mission to get Cora to trust her.

Pandora- just seems to have her own wisdom about her in- in her own way that is. Plus she’s also traveled a lot. I can imagine Chloe would love swapping stories with her.

Bastion- He seems so nice, and she really appreciates does appreciate him trying to look out for her. She accepts his help because it doesn’t seem like he’s doing it out of pity- she can’t stand when people think she needs their pity- Chloe is capable. She clearly is or she wouldn’t be here! Something tells her this place, whatever the heck it is, does not take those who can’t survive for long. Anyways, she likes Bastion and I can see these two becoming good friends very fast, she’ll want to watch out for him as well.

Kiyoko- Chloe would be surprised to realize this one is nervous around her but that’s ok! There is never anything wrong with being shy. Chloe would give her space and respect that’s what Kiyoko needs. If they’re hanging out in the same space between trials Chloe would just whip out the old guitar and play because that always seems to loosen anyone up. If it doesn’t work, then that’s ok too.

Thomas- He is also closed off, but it’s like he wants to trust her and be friends but something holds him back. She wonders why…

Johnny- His arms! She would honestly want to cry the first time she gets a good look at him. To see someone’s prosthetics look just that amazing, to see all the cool things he can do, and he built those himself?! She really would find it a little inspiring. Don’t get me wrong, she’ll still find him terrifying. But just- just wow. Calls him amputee buddy behind his back.

Thaddeus-Is it weird that in some ways he reminds her of her own grandfather? Very no-nonsense and gruff but she has a suspicion he can be nice if he really, reeeeaaaaally wants to. Plus she would find his treatment of Cora a little funny.

Gisela- Is beautiful in a very creepy way. I think Chloe would enjoy visiting her realm the most just because she likes the aesthetic of the different maps. She would be cautious around Gisela however. Chloe gets the vibe that upsetting her would be a very bad idea.

Akane- Is probably going to get the guitar treatment often X3. It’s really nothing personal, it’s just Chloe has a particular fight or flight response and if something that angry and scary is coming after her you know what you’re going to get. She would actually be rather intimidated by Akane since running isn’t her strongest suit.

Apophis-Chloe has never had a problem with snakes… until now. She normally feels a little bad when she has no choice but to get aggressive with the other killers. Chloe is determined to survive but she doesn’t really want to hurt anyone. But Apophis makes her actually feel like she’s being hunted, not just chased. He would put her on edge almost as much as Blair does.

Irene- She’s so rude and bitter! Just…. why?! Chloe will honestly love Irene’s map, but I think what will be most interesting is that Chloe will insist on being nice to Irene no matter what. Perhaps it’s a bit of a “kill them with kindness” approach.

Blair- she’s so afraid to run into him again. But she knows it’s going to happen eventually so the best she can hope for is to prep her fellow survivors for what will be coming.

Blair

Mary- This one has spirit, he’ll see her as a challenge in matches and enjoy it. Her cleverness, her quick remarks, it will all be fun banter for Blair. He’s more likely to avoid focusing on just her in a chase however. Blair plays the long game, relying on patience and strategy rather than just barreling after a survivor. He knows this would do better to throw off her game anyways if he won’t give in to any of her baiting.

Cora- He’ll see a lot of her ancestor in her, that independence and stubbornness; honestly he can respect that. I hate to say it, but Blair will mess with her in matches from time to time just to annoy Thaddeus. Purely because Thaddeus being angry is funny to him.

Pandora- Another fighter, he’s learned from Chloe it's best to watch the feisty ones. Pandora would probably be able to get in a swing but that’s it. He would switch to getting her from a distance with flash powder or fumes. If that doesn’t work then shepherd her into an area like the funhouse or animal tent instead of simply trying to corner her.

Bastion- Sorry to say it, but the moment Blair learns Bastion is afraid of clowns he’s going to go ham finding all the ways he can scare the poor guy.

Kiyoko- A bit of a mouse yes? How timid this one is, let’s see if there is a lion in her yet.

Thomas- In some ways he pities the boy for having to deal with Irene. Buuuut, not that much pity. Again, like Cora, Blair would mess with Thomas during matches because it would make Irene angry. His newfound favorite hobby.

Chloe- Here’s the thing, Blair actually respects Chloe. The entity interfered with the match which he considers cheating. But he knows that wasn’t her doing, plus it was at a minute left on the clock. Meaning there was a very real chance she could have held him off just long enough to win. So in Blair’s opinion she did win, something no one has done and walked away from with their sanity intact. All the others were assimilated into the circus, so he decided Chloe is now a member as well, regardless if she wants to be or not. Her role is a unique one at that but she is one of them nonetheless. He’ll take to quietly keeping an eye on her for now.

Johnny- Will thank him for the compliment of being called a clown, every single time. He’s definitely going to want to tease Johnny from time to time but the gentleman minds his own business and for the most part Blair will respect that. He is very curious about Johnny’s technical creations though. Blair was just a boy when the idea of “modern electric lights” and other marvels were first made available to the public. To see how far technology has come is astounding.

Thaddeus- Will also thank him for the clown compliment. Blair really doesn’t have much interest in the old man except that it’s fun to annoy him. Otherwise, like Johnny Blair will respect Thaddeus’ space.

Gisela- Now Blair has a pretty decent connection with the entity they serve, but he takes one look at Gisela and immediately will understand “that… don’t mess with that.” He will however be so amazed at the idea of real magic. One of Blair’s earliest lessons was that there is always someone better at your job, you just have to perfect your craft to yourself. He is proud of his talents but would want to learn real magic so badly. He knows however, she would not be a willing teacher. But Blair is patient, he knows when she’s visiting his realm and lets her explore freely, perhaps it is a start.

Akane- After just one meeting Blair would get the sense to just leave this one alone. He’s not afraid of her and her anger. But, something about this one and the way she acts. He just gets the feeling he should leave her be.

Apophis- While Blair finds Apophis’ appearance and abilities to be fascinating, Blair is not intimidated, definitely a lot of banter between these to. Both are proud and while Blair never has trouble sharing the spotlight Apophis will irritate him. Also, the snake is not allowed to visit his circus unsupervised for the safety of his people.

Irene- Hehe, they can’t stand each other. Blair will take a lot of enjoyment riling Irene up into a full on tantrum. He actually remembers seeing a much younger Irene in newspapers back in the old days. He thought she looked arrogant even then. You can imagine Irene’s thoughts on circus performers so these two are always going at each other.

[nightwingshero]

😊😱🤗💕 I'm throwing this right back at you for Blair, Amikel, Veronica, and Gabriel!! Love you!!

Thank you, love!!!! Love you too! 💓😘 Sorry it took me so long!!! Gabriel and Veronica really made me think...(actually a few of them did.)

😊 - something that makes your character smile?

Blair: Honestly, it’s rather easy to make her smile. Bringing her a fresh cup of coffee is a good way to go. She’s always up for one and those who know her, know her coffee order like the back of their hand. And it’s usually H.R. Wells, Cisco, or Caitlin that’s grabbing her some. Iris will when she’s around (or needs help on something she’s working on--bribes are sometimes legal, okay?), or Barry will be thoughtful and grab one if he knows he’s going to see her. Being around Leonard and Mick makes her smile too, she’s grown fond of those guys.

Amikel: Can you guess? Alcohol! That’s right, that girl smiles when yo bring her a good bottle or glass, because that means you’re trying to be in her good graces, and she can never say no to a free bottle of booze. Grogu doing shenanigans is also a thing that makes her smile, because it’s so damn amusing to her. She’s a bad influence. I’m not sure who makes Din sigh more.

Veronica: Music and stealing. There are a few things, but hanging out with friends is a go-to. She enjoys her time with Dick and Jason at the manor when she’s younger (and older, let’s be honest here). Alice also amuses the hell out of her, because she’s not at all like Harley, and it’s just...V can’t help but be mildly amused. Something that really did make her smile was helping Jason work on his bike in the Cave. Dick trying to make her smile with his light teasing will do it too, no matter how hard she fights it. 

Gabriel: Playing on his guitar or going for drives(either in his Mustang or on his bike.) He smiles slightly to himself when he does that, especially if he’s alone or thinks no one is looking. He does little light chuckle and small smirk thing, and then looks down at his feet when someone makes a joke or says something he just finds funny. But seeing other people smile usually does it, especially if he really cares about that person. 

😱 - something that makes your character afraid?

Blair: It terrifies the hell out of her when the people close to her are in immediate and serious danger, where their lives are very much in the balance. Her losing control of her powers scares her too, because she can become the very thing that hurts, or even kills, her friends. Both of those things have kept her up at night, mostly because she’s witnessed them firsthand. And let me just tell you, Blair doesn’t handle either of those things very well.

Amikel: At first, despite finding it a bit amusing, it’s Grogu’s gift or powers. It’s easy to assume Amikel is nothing but a washed up bounty hunter/assassin who drinks constantly...but she’s a smart person, calculating, and she doesn’t know what it is; she just knows that it’s got to be something bigger. And that terrifies her. Bigger means more trouble, and the last thing she wants is more trouble for herself, Din, or Grogu. Later of course, that fear only grows as they learn more.

Veronica: She will obviously say she’s not afraid of anything. But honestly, she’s scared that she won’t work past her anger or be any better than where she came from. She loves Selina dearly, and is thankful for everything she’s ever done. But she doesn’t want the Catwoman mantle when that time comes, she doesn’t want to be known as a Rogue, or to be a criminal. Is she an antihero? For most of her teen years and some of her young adult years, yes. But she almost kills Scarecrow...it shook her enough to realize that if she didn’t leave...she was doomed to be nothing but a criminal eventually. Veronica is terrified she won’t overcome that.

Gabriel: So...he’s afraid that all he’ll ever be good at is being a criminal, and once he gets his powers, he’s afraid that he’s also only meant to hurt people. There’s a lowkey belief that if he uses it, that it means that he’s meant for bad things because fire is so destructive...he’s seen that first hand. It’s all he’s good at. And add that to the fear of his sister never accepting him again: whether it’s because of the life of crime he had chosen or the meta powers he had gained. That bridge is burned severely (pun somewhat intended--its late, please don’t judge.) Gabriel worries that there’s no redemption for him (but we all know that Wally won’t let that happen, don’t we?)

🤗 - something that makes your character feel warm and fuzzy?

Blair: Literal fuzzy socks and warm sweaters...I’m not even kidding. You will find her (well, she surely hopes you won’t) in her underwear (pajama bottoms--shorts or pants alike) with a warm sweater and thick fuzzy socks. Most of the time with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa in her hands. But honestly, it’s when Leonard does things to show affection. He has a habit of uh...tapping her nose quickly with the tip of his finger. And that actually started out as something taunting, sarcastic, and somewhat patronizing, because Leonard is Leonard. But it grew to something he’ll do when she’s troubled or too focused on something and frustrated. It’s also words of affirmation. Especially from Leonard, Wells, Martin, Oliver, and Barry. Even Mick, if I’m being honest. It’s a nice reminder that she’s cared for and it always makes her feel good.

Amikel: The moments where Din is being a soft dad with Grogu or when Grogu is being absolutely adorable (when isn’t he, though?) She won’t admit it at all, and she might shoot you (or throw a bottle at your head) if you dare say a word about it. But Amikel hasn’t had family in a long time, that’s the closest thing she’s had and having her childhood friend back? They make her feel like she’s part of a family and is cared for. 

Veronica: There are moments that she gets with Dick when they’re younger where they would just hang out on the rooftops of buildings in Gotham. It was like they were in their own little world back then, it made her feel like she had a friend that understood at least some of what she went through. They would often sit on the edge and eat from one of their favorite pizza spots in Gotham, and every time she passes it, it makes her remember it fondly. So, usually going out for pizza is a go-to with her other friends when she’s older, and she will actually take some pizza and sit on a rooftop on her own, too, on a good night on patrol. 

Gabriel: His mother’s homemade meals and positive reinforcement. He’s definitely rough on the outside, but he’s soft on the inside and appreciates affection from the people close to him. Blair rustling his hair (which he moans about--but secretly likes it) or pulling him into a hug, Mick giving him a rare slap on the shoulder, or anything of that nature will make him feel a bit warm because that’s validation he wants. But celebrating his culture (with or without his family) is something that always makes him feel like a kid again, and if he’s not with his family, it makes it feel like he’s with them anyway. 

💞 - something that makes your character feel loved?

Blair: When people pay attention to the little things. Most people don’t really catch most of the things she rambles about when it comes to her work, sometimes it can be hard to understand, but when people remember little details (even if they don’t understand), it makes her feel they care about her and her passions. Like how Leonard throws in how he’s paying attention or when her parents were always supportive of her scientific endeavors. Even having her science nerd friends get on board and show interest in her work means a lot to her. Actions are a big thing too, because that girl is oblivious at times, but actions speak louder than words (so Leonard can be as smooth and sarcastic as he wants, what she notices is him saving her ass on missions.)

Amikel: It’s really hard to explain, so I hope this comes out making sense, but it’s a bit complicated with her, so bear with me. Obviously you have the moments with Grogu where his attachment to her is apparent--that’s the easy answer. With Din, it’s different, and I know this might sound weird, but its his trust in her and treats her like a partner. Amikel doesn’t have the best reputation, and honestly, she’s not a very trustworthy person with the line of work she usually does. She’s not one to be fully without honor, but she’s also...well, she’s had a bounty on her head once or twice herself. So his trust in her as a partner and to trust her with the kid? Yeah, that hits a certain way.

Veronica: It’s when someone makes her feel seen. Veronica is perceived as a lot of things, some true, some not so much. There’s more to her than that, though, and it’s overseen, or she hides it more often than not. So when someone sees her despite all of that? It makes her heart race. And let me tell you, Dick Grayson sees right through her and always has (listen, he’s a damn good detective, alright? Give the boy some credit.) It makes her feel vulnerable, but in a good way when it’s with someone she trusts and loves in return, bot from friends and significant others. Alice and others making it a thing where they

Gabriel: He’s a pretty affectionate person past the hard exterior, so kisses on his cheek or forehead, and hugs (any of these could be platonic or romantic) are something that really hits him in the feels. But it’s when you make him feel...like something more, and you show that you’re not ashamed of him. It makes him feel truly loved when people can look past the criminal piece (because boy is trying to turn a new leaf--to show he’s more than the self destructive nature he’s seen as) and see him as someone worth something. Someone that cares for him for who he is and doesn’t try to make him be something he’s not, and just being there for him and believing in him. As for the affectionate piece, he loves it when you show it openly, unafraid of expressing that you care about him, despite what others feel (he’s got a bit of a rep for you know...being a criminal: thief, arsonist, hired muscle, and he dabbles in illegal street racing...he has a resume apparently...)

[fanfictionaries]

Where the Green Grass Grows - Part 1. A Real Fine Place to Start

@imanuglywombat​ credit for the moodboard/art! 

Summary: After leaving town in 2001, Marianne Grace Barnes swore she’d never step foot in Texas again. She was happy with her life in San Francisco. She had great friends, a great job, and a loving boyfriend. But when her mother insists she come home after six long years away, Marianne comes face to face with someone she vowed to never lay eyes on again. Now the questions arise: Is he so different from the man who broke her heart? Is she so different from the girl she used to be?

And most importantly, is she as happy as she really thinks she is?

A story of love, heartache, and that special feeling of being home.

MASTERLIST

Pairing: AU Cowboy!Steve Rogers x OFC

Warnings: Swearing 

Author’s note: This is my entry for  @arrowsandmixtapes​ ‘s RomCom Writing Challenge! So sorry for the late entry, Covid has been a whirlwind of a time.

Prompt: Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

***

The streets of San Francisco were their normal, misty grey as Marianne Barnes rushed down the sidewalk. Scrubbing at the technicolor specks of paint that covered her arms, she wondered why that day of all days she had decided to introduce the splatter paint portion of her student’s curriculum. The current semester was focused on abstract and modern art. Slowly she’d been introducing them to all of the history and techniques behind the different styles before allowing them to try it out for themselves. While initially it seemed like a fantastic idea, she soon realized that allowing a group of middle schoolers the freedom to literally throw paint was a recipe for disaster. Luckily, she had her art smock to cover the entirety of her clothes, but that had not saved her arms and legs from the ricochet of paint as the over enthusiastic kids hurled globs of color as hard as they could at blank canvases. Continuing to rake her nails against the skin of her arms, she sighed in frustration. She really should have taken a few more minutes to wash up one more time.

It was important that she look nice tonight. Tony, her boyfriend, had invited her to dinner stating he had some “big news”. Marianne assumed that it probably had to do with the big business deal he’d been working on for his company. Tony was a visionary of sorts. Having come from family money, his future was always to be well off. However, he had taken the extra steps to truly make something of himself and slowly over the years of his career he had come to own the single leading company in clean energy technology. She was proud of him – even if his job did take up a large amount of his life. However, without his job she probably wouldn’t have met him. She thought back to the embarrassing moment in which they had met nearly a year ago.

Marianne pulled at the neckline of her dress, the Peter Pan collar currently feeling as though it was going to choke her as she shifted uncomfortably by the food and drink table. As much as she liked being there for her best friend, she really wished Natasha would stop inviting her to these kinds of events. While Nat insisted that she’d stay right by Marianne’s side, she always ended up alone at some point in the night, twiddling her thumbs in a room filled with strangers. Having met in art school, Marianne always found it incredibly interesting how drastically different her and Natasha’s careers were. While Marianne had opted for teaching the youths of America about Monet, Dali, van Gogh, and Matisse, Natasha had settled on the curation of art, a field that suited her much more appropriately. The rubbing of elbows with the hoity toity rich was a perfect fit for Nat’s easy, sophisticated, and, for lack of a better word, sexy personality. With her naturally fire-red hair, knockout curves, and perfect smile, Natasha was the type of woman that when she walked into a room, every person either wanted to be her or to fuck her. There was no in-between. Even for Marianne, who supposed in some ways, she’d like to be a bit more like Natasha.

That’s why she was so surprised to be approached as she clung to her glass of champagne and pretended to stare contemplatively at the same painting of a flat tire for the fifth time that night.

“What do you think?” asked a smooth and timbred voice from beside her.

Marianne chuckled slightly to herself continued to trace the thick brushstrokes of the painting with her eyes. “Well, considering the artist’s theme of stagnation, I think they’ve gone a bit too on the nose with this one. It’s…unimaginative,” she commented, before turning to see the handsome man beside her. If she’d actually been drinking the champagne in her hand, she might have choked on it. Luckily for her, she hadn’t.

The man continued to stare at the painting in front of them, a contemplative expression that brought his thick, dark brows together, before he turned his gaze to her, “So you don’t think it will sell tonight then?”

“Oh no, it will definitely sell. I’ve been to enough of these things to know that it’s not really about taste, so much as it is status. If the artist seems important enough, then so is their art,” smirked Marianne, this time actually taking a sip from her champagne flute to avoid focusing on the intriguing way in which the stranger was staring at her.

“Ah, yes. The snobbish elites’ inability to see past their own social status,” he commented dryly, taking a sip from his own flute.

“Hey, you said it, not me,” Marianne laughed, feeling as though she might have made a connection with a reasonable person just yet.

“And who do I have the pleasure of giving me all the inside critique?”

She extended her free hand out to the man, “Marianne Barnes—art teacher, friend of the curator, and overall critic of the snobbish elite.”

He took her hand in his own, his grasp soft, yet strong as he shook her hand and stared her directly in the eye, “Tony Stark – member of the snobbish elite.”

Marianne blanched at the words, the overwhelming feeling of embarrassment taking over her as she realized her mistake. She was just beginning to open her mouth to apologize when Tony held up a hand.

“No need to apologize—” he inhaled deeply, looking around the room and the people that inhabited it “—Truth be told, I don’t think I can stand a single person in here. You excluded of course, but who knows that may change.”

Marianne wrestled with the smile that fought to match Tony’s own wry grin. He was too charming for his own good. Taking a second to look over his expensive suit, Italian leather shoes, and $200 haircut, she reckoned he was much too handsome and successful for her own good. Still, she figured there was no harm in a little conversation.

“Say, I like your accent. Where’s that from? Georgia? Alabama?” asked Tony, stepping in to close the distance between them and making the interaction feel so much more intimate than it should.

Marianne gasped in mock offense, “Excuse you sir, but I am Texas born through and through.”

“My apologies ma’am,” Tony said, holding a hand to his heart in sincerity. “It’s never my intention to offend beautiful women. But for some reason, it just, well, happens.”

That comment made Marianne pause, “You think I’m beautiful?”

He took a moment to assess her, raking his eyes over her from head to toe. Not in a predatory way, but more like he was assessing another painting on the wall. Then he answered, voice heavy in sincerity, “Most beautiful piece of art I’ve seen tonight.”

The sharp tone of Marianne’s ringtone brought her out of her musing and back to the present as she waited at a crosswalk for the light to change. Digging into the deep contents of her purse, she cursed under her breath, pushing aside pens, pencils, scrunchies, lotions, and general clutter before her fingers closed around the buzzing device.

“Hello?”

“I just really don’t understand why Serena and Nate just don’t get together! I mean, he basically broke up with Blair for her, the least she could do is date him,” groaned Natasha from the other end, before Marianne heard the distinct crunch of popcorn being chewed.

“Hey! Spoilers, I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet! Besides, I really don’t have time to talk about Gossip Girl right now,” she huffed, glancing at the time on her watch and realizing she was even later than she thought.

“Well hurry up and watch it! I want to talk about what Chuck did. You’ll never believe it—”

“Seriously Nat, no spoilers!” Marianne exclaimed, now picking up her speed as she crossed the street, trying not to catch the heel of her stilettos on the cracks in the pavement. “And I meant it, I’m running late for my dinner with Tony. He’s taking me to my favorite restaurant to celebrate the contract with Pym Technologies.”

“Wow. I never would have expected Tony to slum it all the way to the Mission District,” Natasha snorted.

“What? No, I’m in SoMa right now. We’re going to Omakase,” Marianne said, jumping back when a bicyclist zoomed past her, nearly knocking her into a dirty puddle.

“Oh…”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just that I have a distinct memory of you saying you’d rather lick an L.A. sidewalk than eat raw fish, but I have seen you scarf down more burritos from Taqueria Cancun than I can count.”

Marianne bristled at the comment; she always did this. “My tastes are allowed to change Nat,” she bit back, seeing the sign for the sushi restaurant her and Tony frequented in sight.

Natasha was quiet for a moment on the other end of the line before she responded, “Yea, yea, you’re right. I’m sorry. Well, have fun at dinner and tell Tony I say congratulation.”

Sighing, Marianne immediately felt guilty for the harsh way in which she spoke, “Thanks Nat, I’ll tell him. And don’t worry, I’ve got the episode queued up first on Tony’s TiVo. I’ll watch it tonight and then I’ll call you tomorrow and we can gab all about why Serena needs to pull her head out.”

The comment earned Marianne a small laugh from Natasha, alleviating some of her guilt, “I’m holding you to that. Talk to you later hun, love you.”

“Love you too.”

Marianne closed her phone just as she was approaching the front doors to Omakase. Throwing her phone back into her purse she pushed the glass door open, knowing that Tony was probably already waiting for her at their favorite table. The first thing she noticed upon entering the restaurant was the distinct lack of the normal bustling sounds of other people, the second thing was the presence of orchestral music, and the third were roses. Hundreds and hundreds of red roses. Stacked on every available surface, the flowers littered the restaurant in large arrangements placed in beautiful crystal vases.

Silently, her heeled feet padded across the rose petal covered floor as she tentatively stepped further into the building, wondering for a just a second if she was in the right place. However, as she rounded the corner to see Tony dressed impeccably, string quartet situation behind him as he stood next to the only table in the dining room, she knew this was exactly where she was supposed to be.

“Tony…” she approached him cautiously, unable to stop from looking around the room and all its grandeur.

“There she is. For a second, I thought you found something better to do,” joked Tony, closing the distance between them and kissing her lightly on the lips.

“Sorry, I got out of class a bit late and then Nat called. What’s going on?” Marianne asked, still unsure what the big romantic gesture was for. 

“What? A man can’t treat his girlfriend to a romantic night?”

“Well yes, but I thought we were celebrating your deal.”

“Well, I mean that’s part of it, but we’ll get to that later. Here, why don’t you set your things down? I have something I want to ask you.” Tony slipped Marianne’s purse from her shoulder and placed it gently down onto her chair before turning to her and taking both of her hands in his. “So, a little precursor, I closed the deal with Pym Technologies.”

“Oh my god, Tony that’s amazing! I knew you were going to get it,” Marianne exclaimed, smiling widely at her boyfriend. She moved in to give him a congratulatory hug, but Tony stopped her, holding her away from him at arm’s length.

“Oh, hold on, let’s not celebrate too soon. At least let me finish my little speech and then we can jump up and down like teenage girls,” responded Tony. His tone, while its usual joking manner, held a tense and clipped edge to it that Marianne didn’t hear often. Nervously she shifted her weight, wondering what he could possibly have to ask her. Then slowly things started to click into place. Secluded restaurant. Red roses. String quartet. Tony’s favorite red wine on the table. Big important question. Oh.

“Well, once this deal goes through, I’m going to be spending a lot of time traveling internationally. Things are going to pick up at Stark Industries and I realized that life is about to get a lot more hectic and messier. Then of course, this brought on a whirlwind of existential questions about life and its meaning and purpose and what I really want out of it and…and I’m rambling aren’t I?”

“Yea, just a bit,” Marianne answered with a small smile.

“I had a point—”

“Did you?”

“I did—” Tony released his hold on her hands to dig into the pocket of his suit pants “—and I think it sounded a bit like this.” Marianne gasped lightly as Tony dropped to one knee. “Basically, to make a long, drawn-out story short, I realized that no matter how messy and crazy the future scenarios of my life, one thing remained a constant. You. You by my side as my wife. So…” Producing a small, black box from within his hands, he opened it slowly to reveal a large, sparkling engagement ring. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Marianne stood speechless for a moment, consumed by the surprise turn of events. For a second the musing thought that she would have definitely forgone splatter paint today if she had known she was getting proposed to, flashed through her mind before she nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, yes I will marry you.”

That’s how one month later Marianne found herself entering Natasha’s apartment, arms completely stuffed with nothing but wedding magazines, samples, and binders. Dropping her things into a large pile on the carpet of Natasha’s living room floor, Marianne breathed in deep before turning her attention to an open portfolio on the coffee table. The bright splashes of reds and blues of oversized poppies amidst a large, open sky caught her attention, drawing her in.

“Hey Nat, are you looking to take in a new collection at the gallery?” she called towards the kitchen, unable to pull her eyes away from the beautiful and almost impressionistic take on the flowers.

“Yea, one of my boss’s associates is crazy about these giant oil paintings of poppies. He wants us to consider doing a whole show of them. We’re equally as enthusiastic, but I guess the artist is hesitant about selling their work,” answered Natasha from across the apartment.

“Don’t most artists want to sell their art?”

“You’d think, but judging from the California poppies, they’re probably some west coast artist that doesn’t want to ‘sell out’ and ruin the integrity of their work.” Marianne could almost hear Natasha rolling her eyes through the walls.

Staring even harder at the small collection of paintings as she flipped through the portfolio, Marianne asked, “Are you sure they’re California poppies?”

Just as she asked the question, Natasha came around the corner, two large glasses of prosecco in hand. “Of course. We’re in California. They’re poppies. California poppies,” Natasha shrugged, placing the glasses on the coffee table.

“Yea, I guess you’re right,” Marianne said, sharply closing the portfolio and shaking off the strange sense of melancholy that the paintings evoked.  

“Jesus, when you said you wanted to come over and talk about wedding stuff while we watched Gossip Girl, I thought you meant something like looking at a couple of magazines, not planning the whole thing in one night!” Natasha said, eyes growing wide as she took in the sheer amount of materials Marianne had arrived with.

“Yea, well that’s pretty much all the time I actually have to plan this thing. Tony wants to get married soon so that we can go on our honeymoon before he has to start traveling for work. Once things pick up, we’re not really sure when he’ll get another free moment,” sighed Marianne, sitting down on the floor and beginning to organize her mess.

“I’m surprised he’s letting you plan this and it’s not him making all the decisions,” remarked Natasha, sitting down across from her, and picking up a magazine.

“What do you mean?” asked Marianne, looking up quizzically at her best friend.

“Well…” began Natasha, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “I just mean that Tony tends to have a habit of making decisions for you.”

“What? No, he doesn’t,” Marianne scoffed.

“Uhuh…okay. Well then, who decided shortly after meeting you that your car, your first car, your baby, wasn’t good enough and that you needed a new one?” Natasha asked challengingly.

“It was old Natasha. People get new cars every day. Tony was just kind enough to buy me a new one,” Marianne reasoned with her, picking up her glass of prosecco from the coffee table.

“Okay, what about your job? You were working at that cute little public, elementary school that you always said you loved so much. Next thing I know, you’ve got this new job at a private middle school.”

“Tony had some connections and there’s nothing wrong with moving up in your career. I’m pretty sure that’s the whole point of a career, Nat.”

“Your apartment then? A week after he saw your apartment for the first time, he insisted that you move in with him.”

“That apartment was a rat-infested shit-hole and you know it. Things were going well, and he had the space. I took a leap of faith and moved in with him. I think it went alright considering the fact that I’m marrying the man. Just- what are you getting at Nat?”

“I guess I’m just worried that these major life decisions aren’t what you want, but instead what Tony wants. I mean, you’ve been together barely a year and already you’re more like him than you are you. You dress posher, you act posher, your accent’s fading…I want you to be happy Marianne, but I don’t want you to lose yourself along the way,” Natasha ended her small rant by taking a large gulp of her drink.

Marianne placed a hand on her friends arm reassuringly, “Hey. It’s alright. I’m happy, I promise. And it’s still me! I’m still the same Marianne Barnes you met in art school – just a little fancier is all.” She laid her southern accent on thick near the end of her sentence, lifting up her left hand to waggle the large engagement ring in her friend’s face. Natasha laughed, knocking her hand out of the way, and rolling her eyes at Marianne’s blatant bragging.

“Shut up, now let’s work on your guest list and invitations first while we let the drama of Manhattan’s Upper East Side consume us,” said Natasha, exchanging the magazine for a binder as she turned her TV on with the press of a button.

Taglist: 

@hidden-behind-the-fourth-wall​

@caffiend-queen​

@grincheveryday​

[parabcllums]

 ⧼   tati gabrielle, cis female, she & her   /   overprotected by britney spears   +   an endless stretch of white sand beaches and the overwhelming smell of the ocean.  glossy lips and trademark pout, faux fur jackets over white denim jeans and a set of freshly done baby pink stiletto heels, making your daily life more difficult than it needs to be. an expensive bunch of flowers delivered early every morning and left inside a crystal vase.    ⧽   ━━   let me tell you a thing or two about CHARLOTTE “LOTTIE” OLIVIA BLAIRE. the TWENTY THREE year old daughter of ALISON BLAIRE & WARREN WORTHINGTON III is an UNDERGRAD student at paragon academy and CELEBRITY YOGA INSTRUCTOR in town, and has sometimes been referred to as THE BRAINLESS BEAUTY. they’ve always seemed very WHIMSICAL & VIVACIOUS, though i’ve heard that they can be pretty SCATTERBRAINED & CONCEITED too. it’s common knowledge that they have the powers of ( UNDEVELOPED ) LIGHT MANIPULATION [ CAPABILITIES: EMOTION BASED LUMINESCENCE ( SHE GLOWS ) & PHOTOKINETIC FLIGHT ] ; guess we shouldn’t get on their bad side, huh? redirect to her stats page HERE and her pinterest board HERE.

 she’s like a DREAM GIRL ;             and i think a dream girl should live in a dream world.

SECTION ONE OF THREE : BULLET POINT HISTORY.

charlotte olivia blaire, soon to be known more widely as LOTTIE, was born on october 5th, 1996, in new york city. she’s the eldest of four children born to alison blaire & warren worthington iii, her younger siblings being madeleine eliza, gabrielle louisa and sebastian warren. 

for several years, lottie didn’t have to be exceptional to be her parents favorite. they didn’t have any other KIDS for a while, so she really only ever had to be herself ; and that was enough. she got used to being spoiled rotten ( both her parents were rich in their own right, so it wasn’t as if she ever had to worry for anything ), but there wasn’t REALLY an alternative to that. when you only have one kid to focus all your attention on and go all out for during birthdays and the holidays... they end up a little spoiled. 

alison and warren largely kept lottie out of the public eye, for the first six years of her life. they’d go so far as to throw a towel over her head when they were carrying her across the tarmac to a private jet, even ; and it was all in the name of good. they didn’t want her to be torn apart by GOSSIP magazines before she was old enough to really comprehend them, and aside from a few pictures ( one toddler breakdown was caught in full by a member of the paparazzi, and the family got a nice settlement when legal action was taken against the magazine that published the photos ), she was pretty well sheltered. i’d go so far as to call that lottie as a whole ; SHELTERED.

all bets were not completely off with the births of madeleine and gabrielle, per say ; but alison and warren DID mellow out some, taking the kids for days out to disneyland, etc, and only keeping them all covered up as long as they were push chair bound. lottie very quickly became something of a little darling. she had always been the sort of kid who got distracted doing something as mundane as talking to her mom by catching her own reflection over alison’s shoulder and having to really look at herself ; she LOVED having cameras pointed in her direction, and she played up to them quite well. the media circus went wild the very first time she looked directly at them and did a little twirl, her smile huge and gap toothed, her ending a cutesy wave. if she knew she had an AUDIENCE, she did the most to make it worth their while.

lottie was definitely the one most obsessed with the idea of following in her mothers footsteps. unfortunately, it was very obvious from a time she was very young that she couldn’t hold a tune to save her LIFE, but nothing was more sure to her as she grew than the fact that if she had gotten nothing else, she had gotten ALL the looks. it didn’t take very much twisting of their arms to allow her pursue a child model career, something that was obviously going to bring her joy ( in turn, something they wouldn’t deny her ). lottie was a natural. she had her own tween clothing brand. she had offers from across the globe to shoot pictures for different products. once in a while, you might get the jingle from one such advertisement that she was the face of stuck in your head, even today.

she was fifteen when all bets really WERE off, for good, and wingin’ it with the worthingtons became reality tv’s new trump card. her parents really did not need the money, but... after much discussion, they couldn’t argue the fact that it would give mutants as a whole the kind of media exposure that they’d never really HAD before. through wiwtw, they were able to show themselves as a family. sure, it was dramatic at times ; but they were able to be a really positive influence on the public’s opinion of mutants, and they really did feel as if they were having a direct hand in forming a new, humanized VIEW of their kind in the minds of people who had never really had such a thing, before.

lottie LOVED it, and that should really come as zero surprise. she loved the attention, mostly, and was an active part of social media from then onwards - live tweeting their episodes, doing instagram advertisements for the newest fads, interacting with people on her level. she was not the smartest of people, and that shone through on the families show regardless of whatever script guide they had ( sure they’d deny it, but... that didn’t stop it from existing ), but... lottie wasn’t offended when people turned something she had said or something she had done into a viral meme. she wasn’t hurt when a row of comments beneath something she had tweeted were largely rude. she really was the sort of person who thought ‘all attention is good attention’.

wingin’ it with the worthingtons ( a very ironic title for a show comprised mostly of blaire’s ) took up a lot of time, but nothing REALLY changed in terms of how their lives were lead. the families time had always been largely split between wherever either parent had to be for BUSINESS, and their home in gardendale. really, it just meant they got to spend even more time together, and even more time closer to the school for gifted youngsters that was somewhat a home to all of them. lottie loved traveling when she was a child, far more than she enjoyed being in one place ; but she was not a history buff, per say, or even largely interested in the TOURIST side of new cities. it wasn’t a huge loss to her, not to be in a new city each month.

really ; lottie’s life has been quite ordinary, in the sense of... it’s entirely ordinary in HER eyes, and probably the least bit so for everybody else. she’s never faced all too much, and counts winning celebrity love island season 9 as her greatest achievement. 

SECTION TWO OF THREE : HEADCANONS

lottie isn’t really very intelligent, at least in terms of... book smarts and street knowledge. she’s been very sheltered in her life, and she’s never really had to try very hard - her looks have gotten her far, and she scraps by in school enough that it’s never been too much of an issue. she’s quite self aware, but she isn’t very bothered by the fact. in lottie’s eyes, making fun of her for such a thing ( which is something she’s no stranger to ) is more a cheap shot than anything else, and she’s never been the kind to think too deeply on it.

she attended xavier’s school for gifted youngsters... fairly sporadically, really. it was where her parents thought she BELONGED, and she never argued the fact with them - it was certainly easier than many of the alternatives - but... she also never went there with any real desire to be a future member of the x-men, and she’s always felt that’s pretty much the only reason to ATTEND xavier’s. she switched to private education for a few years while she was focusing on her own career, but she’s attending paragon academy now as a kind of ‘break’ following last years love island win, mostly to regroup and decide what she wants to pursue next. 

she has a very interesting mutation, with a lot of potential - but she’s never really cared to... develop it, much. lottie has light manipulation, and all that REALLY gives her is the ability to fly ( through the manipulation of light ) and, tragically - emotion based luminescence. in layman's terms, lottie involuntarily glows based on the strong emotions that she’s feeling at any one time. if she’s good and angry, she glows literal red. passionate, purple. happy? green. maybe she’d have more desire to learn how to use her gift if she didn’t feel like a mood ring 70% of the time. 

madeleine "ellie” eliza blaire is fifteen years old and the smartest of all the worthinton-blaire children, by a LONGSHOT. when she’s older, she’s gonna do something incredible, like... cure cancer, or reinstate pluto as a planet. she and lottie have a complicated dynamic, in that... they love each other, greatly, but are huge sources of frustration to the other. ellie finds lottie to be quite dense ( no arguments ), and though on the flip side, lottie is always REALLY impressed by her sisters intelligence... she also finds her to be kind of a know it all. it’s a classic case of neither of them really understanding one another. lottie loves to play up to the cameras, and ellie mostly lurks in the background ( one time taking a stand and wearing a hoodie she had made herself saying she didn’t consent to the use of her image on tv ). while they’d absolutely go to the ends of the earth for one another, they have no interest in BEING like the other, and they aren’t the sort of sisters who share everything and get along 100% of the time. ellie is the only child to have the actual worthington wings - they’re as tall as she is and feathered, though rather than being white, they have a distinct baby blue tint. 

gabrielle “abbie” louisa blaire is twelve, and has more ambition than anyone lottie’s ever met - and the intelligence to get herself where she wants to be. while she’s far more like charlotte than anyone else is ( they’re both far too invested in their looks, for one, and have a GENUINE interest in what the gossip magazines are saying most days ), she’s also sharp as a tack and incredibly driven. she and lottie get along the best, and there’s little that lottie loves more than helping her little sister do her makeup or choose an outfit ; she doesn’t feel threatened by her in the least, but she does kind of understand why their parents were so reluctant to allow her get started at the offset. she’s definitely not the type to try and dissuade abbie from doing anything she wants to, but she does think it would have been nice for her to be young for a little bit longer. as the only child to INHERIT their mothers voice, her goal is to find stardom before she turns fourteen ; she’ll probably get there, given that she’s currently competing on ‘the voice kids’. 

sebastian “bash” warren blaire is seven, and alison and warren’s only son. given that there’s the LARGEST gap between him and lottie, they wouldn’t be classed as the closest of siblings - but lottie loved when he was a baby, and taking care of him was where she found her love of babysitting, in general. it’s not a very noble job, but what about it, right? bash is definitely the child where all the rules and regulations that the other three had lived through went out the window. his birth announcement ( including a picture of his sleeping self ) was the most liked picture on instagram the year that he was born ( though it lost its crown not too far into the new year ), and he’s had his own youtube channel since he was five - reviewing toys, mostly, but it’ll eventually evolve into video games at the rate he’s going. he boasts the LARGEST collection of funko pop toys out of anyone he knows, and has two whole rooms dedicated to his things. he’s probably the most spoiled out of all four of the siblings, but they all sort of willfully allow it. his mutation hasn’t shown itself, yet, but he’ll probably work out a way to make himself tik tok relevant using it when it does.

SECTION THREE OF THREE : WANTED CONNECTIONS 

i don’t have many wrote up yet so please... stick w me.

she definitely has friends from xavier’s, given that she attended the school - but i imagine they vary in terms of... closeness and also, vibe. there’s probably people who find her endearing, but there’s also definitely people who aren’t really her friend and can’t be classed it. any and all xavier’s connects u can think of, including close friends, mutuals, enemies and exes, are open ! 

give me two people who r like... her gretchen weiners and regina george. they’re definitely not real friends, but they’re as rich as one another and as used to a life of comfort as one another, so they FEEL like shared life experience dictates what they shld be. it’s very surface level and they probably talk shit abt each other ( or at the very least abt lottie, but i don’t take that personal ) all the time.

one person who’s genuinely... nothing like her. think AIMEE & MAEVE from sex education, as the insp. lottie is quite shallow and naive, but they’re much more gritty and knowledgeable. their friendship is genuine and they care about her a lot and vice versa, but maybe they don’t spend much time together in public for whatever reason.

exes! flings! etc. lottie has quite a few, i imagine

LOTTIE BLAIRE, our TATI GABRIELLE fc, is looking for her EX FIANCÉ connection who looks like LUCIEN LAVISCOUNT, GEORGE MACKAY, SANTIAGO SEGURA, ANY MALE / MALE ALIGNED FC who is 22+. you DO have to contact prior to applying at PARABCLLUMS or DISCORD. ( just over a year ago, lottie won celebrity love island season nine [ winter edition ] with her partner, after a highly dramatic season full of both... wicked betrayals and widely memed moments. they both coupled up and uncoupled a few times with other islanders, before they became a fan favorite pair about... midway through the show. definitely had a 'sex outside of the hideaway' scandal. definitely talked at length about how the other was the 'ONE', for them. when they were announced the winners, one of them proposed live on air and they seemed set to be the next it couple born from the reality tv show. they did some joint interviews, they were pictured together all of the time, their social medias were absolutely FULL of one another... and then, just after it was announced in a gossip mag that lottie was set to do celebrity say yes to the dress [ and yes, probably don't tell the bride ], they announced their split and broke hearts all over the world. don't confuse this with the level of emotionally charged connect we are all used to. i think it could be really fun ! very diff ! lots of headcanon possibility and lots of drama openings ! but definitely... so funny. ideas for parents wld be... emma frost & namor, patricia walker, bruce wayne, ryoko sabuki, janet van dyne & hank pym, tony stark & pepper potts, t'challa, shuri... anyone p influential / rich tbh! )

[littlemissvincentvega]

hello... Can I request Mr Brown x reader........ Smutty but also in love .... Talking bout movies and shit.... And fucking....... Please i'm starved for Quentin fic ..... No one else is attracted to him

of course! i definitely agree that quentin needs more love ♥ thank you for the request, i hope you like it :D

You sit cross-legged on the foot of your bed, looking down at your dorky boyfriend. He’s on the floor flicking through his VHS collection, mumbling to himself, trying to figure out which movie to put on. The ten minutes of him fumbling through each one and shaking his head had resulted in the tapes scattered all over the carpet, but he had finally decided on ‘Carrie’.

Jumping onto the bed as the movie starts, the excited man-child that is your boyfriend drags you beside him, fidgeting and smiling. Mr. Brown had caught your eye as soon as the two of you were involved in some organised heists together, and you’d been inseparable ever since. It really was rather sweet. The two of you were so stupidly enthusiastic about movies (much to the rest of the criminals’ disappointments– they had to listen to you two rave on about them pretty much constantly) that it was obvious to anyone you’d strike up a relationship. And that’s exactly what had happened.

You cuddle up to him, and he pulls the duvet over you both when he notices you shiver a little. It’s winter, and you’re wearing his ‘Gremlins’ t-shirt and underwear. It may not be conventional for keeping warm, but it’s comfy for you and it means you have more of an excuse to snuggle up with Brown– something neither of you object to.  “You know Linda Blair auditioned for Carrie?”

He looks down at you, eyes twinkling with fascination. “I didn’t!”

“Well, she did.”

“Glad I got a girl that can educate me on movies,” he sighs, kissing your temple and resting his lips there for a few seconds, appreciating your company. You smile and fiddle with the material on his shirt mindlessly, head resting on his chest.

Twenty pleasantly silent minutes pass as you both watch the film, Brown’s chest moving up and down, his heartbeat gently thudding beneath your head. “(Y/N).”

“Hm?” you ask, looking up at him.

“What’s your favourite Stephen King movie?”

You push yourself up, draping his arm around your waist instead. “I dunno, I’ll have to think about it.”

“‘Cause I can’t decide– I mean, they’re all different types of horror. Like ‘The Shining’ is full of terror, claustrophobia and panic of ‘will they be able to escape’ ‘cause of the weather conditions and the supernatural beings within the hotel… but then there’s ‘Christine’, and he gets just absolutely infatuated with the car, and she essentially possesses him– there’s just no escape from that, it’s like some Michael Myers kinda shit!”

“I like ‘IT’,” you smile. “I could watch that over and over. I mean, I know it’s kinda cheesy in parts, but isn’t that part of the fun?”

He looks at you in awe. “Definitely, baby. We gotta watch that one tomorrow.”

“Sure,” you grin, pecking him on the lips. “And ‘The Shining’!” We need to rewatch that at Christmas!”

“‘Cause it’s a Christmas movie?”

“Duh.”

“You’re a genius, baby, you know that?”

“I know,” you smile, shifting to his lap. The two of you sit there, the movie playing quietly in the background, just marvelling at each other– you really were just head over heels. 

Brown has suddenly lost interest in the film (which hardly ever happens, if that wasn’t already obvious) and leans in, kissing you– it’s soft but passionate. It doesn’t take long till the two of you are slowly making out, one of his hands cupping your cheek, the other caressing your ass. He smiles against your lips, giggling a little as he squeezes your ass a few times, and you grind against his hardening cock, both of you letting out quiet moans.

You clutch his shoulders as you grind against each other, giggling into each other’s lips like schoolkids. “Oh, angel, you’re so fuckin’ gorgeous you know?” he groans, rubbing his hands over your ass, pulling you down a little. He’s in his pyjamas, and feeling him fill them out beneath you is making your clit pulsate. Brown may seem skittish and excitable, but he’s the most passionate lover in the world– he bites your bottom lip gently, rolling his hips up and moaning, fully hard by now. “Why’d you gotta do this to me, baby?”

“I didn’t mean to,” you pout– you both always try to be serious, but it never works. Your pout soon grows into a cheeky grin, and you help him lift his shirt off, kissing him again afterwards and pushing him down into the pillows. He moves his warm hands up your shirt, clutching your waist and losing himself in the kiss. You pull away, rubbing your nose against his. 

“Are– are we gonna have sex then, angel?”

“Well what d’you think?” you ask, pulling your shirt off and laughing as he zones out looking at your chest.

“I wanna be on top, I wanna be on top!” he insists, giving you puppy eyes.

You giggle. “I won’t object.”

Excited, he kicks off his pyjama bottoms and you grasp at his erection through his boxers, giggling as he gasps. You pull them down, exposing his stiff cock and, still in your panties, grind your pussy against it. You both let out uncontrollable groans– he can hardly string a sentence together. “O-oh, angel… I-your-it’s– oh, Christ…” he stutters, not being able to keep his eyes open.

Satisfied with how crazy you’ve driven him, you hop off of the bed. “Sex is against the rules, isn’t it?” you snicker, wiggling out of your panties with him watching. 

“Babe– look at me. No, look at me! Do I look like I give a fuck anymore?”

“I think you would if Jason Voorhees strutted in here and machete’d us,” you giggle, joining him in bed again. He crawls on top of you, pulling the duvet over you both, and you wrap your legs around him.

“I’d be pissed that he’d be interrupting us bangin’, sweetie,” he smiles, kissing you and slowly sliding into you. You dig your fingers into his shoulders, barely audible moans slipping from your lips. “O-oh angel, you’re so fuckin’ tight, I–” he croaks, stroking your hair as he begins to gently fuck you.

“I-I’d kick his ass,” you breathe, whining and pulling him in for a deep kiss.

His thrusts become quicker and more determined, and you wrap your arms around him, a mix of moaning and giggling filling the room. “God, you’re so fuckin’ beautiful, angel,” he sighs, mesmerised by you. He stops for a second to grope your tits, making you groan more, and leans down, trailing kisses around your neck.

“Please carry on, I need you,” you beg him.

Brown likes to tease you– and he knows exactly how to. He pushes himself inside of you again as slow as he possibly can. You whine, squirming beneath him, your pussy aching for his deep fucks, but he just chuckles, knowing full well what he’s doing to you. “You’re a little shit, babe,” you breathe, giggling with him.

“Okay, okay, I’ll fuck you real good now, angel, I’m good at this, I read an article while you were out with your mom–”

“Don’t bring her up now!” you grin, rolling your eyes and shutting him up with another kiss.

He retaliates by (without warning) thrusting quickly inside of you, and you let out a squeal. You feel him grow harder from this, and again clutch his shoulders– the two of you make out while he fucks you. The giggling subsides slightly a few minutes later and the two of you are fully focused on each other, the sound of the TV muffled by your mingling groans. 

“Christ, baby, I-I think–” he stammers, struggling to utter anything intelligible, “oh, I’m close–”

You titter at his stuttering. “Me too, babe…”

“I’m so not gonna last, oh Jesus Christ–” he groans, and he slams his lips onto yours, thrusting determinedly. You feel him fill you as he buries his face into your neck, growling your name quietly. Unable to handle it, your toes begin to curl and you tighten around him, digging your fingers into his skin slightly and whining.

“I-I’m coming– we-we’re so dead, baby–” you squeak, your eyes squeezed shut as he fucks you gently through your climax.

Puffing and blowing, Brown collapses beside you. Both of your cheeks are flushed and you sit in silence, watching each other intently, your hand resting on his chest. He watches your finger drawing circles over his skin and a smile grows on his face. “You’re so pretty,” he sighs. He’s looking at you like you’re the most beautiful thing in the world.

“So’re you.”

Chuckling, he places a hand over yours. “We’re badasses, angel.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause we–” he pauses, giggling like a child, “–we had sex!”

You cant help it– his giggles are contagious. “You’re a fucking idiot.”

He twirls your hair round his finger. “No, I’m a badass. Also, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

[isharkseo]

Top 7 eCommerce Web Design Trends You Must Be Aware Of

What is the trending trend to evolve with time? It is rightly said, "Change is the only constant". Hence web design trends are constantly changing and evolving with time.

Web designs for eCommerce sites are set in such a way that they extract more clients and study deeply about the client pattern and online shopping habits. It has become easy for people to get their needs fulfilled on their fingertips.

Every business should invest in making its business digital which can cater to the right target audience.

Due to massive digitalization, eCommerce sites have to be competent enough to sustain.

The latest eCommerce development has lead edge technology like the latest GUI, chatbots, micro-interactions, web animations, and a strong security system. Web designers really need to put in a lot of effort to make good shopping experience for the clients in this competitive world. Statistics show that global sales are expected to cross $3.9 trillion USD in 2020. There are a lot of eCommerce web design companies in Delhi which have set a trend for others to follow. What we all want to know is the latest trends, be it in any aspect

1. Dynamic Animated Shopping Strategy and Video Content

Every year we see new trends being showcased. The eCommerce website is designed in a very interactive way. The static images are outdated. Animations, dynamic pictures, GIFS are new trendsetters. As an eCommerce web designer, our main goal should be to drag the user's attention towards some good style buttons, animated loading options, and much more. Ecommerce websites tend to have more interactive elements these days.

We can also see more of:

Cinemagraph, images with small and repeating animations, they are a more subtle form of GIFS.

Video is also one of the most powerful tools in the world full of Youtube and Instagram lovers. According to a survey, people are more inclined towards watching videos and creating a great impact on the viewer's mind, which is more beneficial for people who are practicing video as a part of their eCommerce website. You can promote any product by adding an interactive full-screen video on your website.

2. Let the Story of Your Brand Speak for Itself

You can connect to your customer by telling them the real story about your brand. It adds to the sentimental value of the client. Your story can bring connection, credibility, and trust from the consumers.

It's being rightly said, "There is no greater power on this earth than a story". A good story can always add some light into darkness, it can add life to a lifeless brand. It is important to highlight the beginning of your brand. Your passion would reap good fruits for the product you want to sell. The solution to the client's problem should be your goal.

3. Mobile-Friendly Web Designing Approach

Every individual is more comfortable to use mobile phones for each and everything. As technology is evolving so are the choices of the people. Customers are happy to shop for things at their fingertips. Hence for the eCommerce web development , our designer focuses on designing web pages for mobiles also. A huge percentage of people are inclined towards using phones/tablets/IPADS for shopping. The main focus is being shifted to gain more profits. The results were very evident that designers focused on making eCommerce websites for mobiles first and the same was being adapted on a large screen.

Even if people like to shop using their desktops, they find mobile features more interactive.

4. Micro-Interactions

Micro-interactions are a series of events that are present all over your device and in a lot of mobile applications. The main purpose is to create an engaging and welcoming moment for a person making it easier for a user to interact with your website or application. More eCommerce websites are designing and updating their website with micro-interactions. Micro-interactions would help the retailer to reward its client on the basis of reviewing a product, adding a product to a shopping cart, or subscription to the newsletter. It is basically used to engage users and create habit loops. Micro-interactions turn out to be a powerful trendsetter.

5. Voice Search

With Google voice search and Siri in Apple, people have shown great interest in the voice search features. Many eCommerce websites are making a unique and easy way for clients to search and explore products and information. Adding a voice search would not only be time-saving but also easy for the user to search for their desired product without entering into a long list of items. It would definitely shoot up the sales due to ease of choice for customers. This latest feature shopping feature should be incorporated for a great shopping experience.

6. Chatbots and Striking Colors

A chatbot is basically an artificial intelligence software that helps in a conversation with a use/customer in a normal language through the application, message application, website, etc.

This feature is helpful not only for answering a query but also offering discount codes, helping in customers' decision making, delivery options, etc.

Striking colors for a website are in fashion. People tend to love the eye-catchy websites with bold colors and a colorful homepage. Bright colors are a sign of positivity. Colors help in connecting with customers., conveying messages, and bringing positivity in shopping.

7. Grid Layout and Original Photography

The eCommerce websites are adopting grids as they turn out to be a very effective form of design. They utilize space effectively. They are easy to navigate. It creates a good user interface and improves the website overall.

Its rightly said "A picture speaks for itself "

Applying this logic to your website would bring great profits. It would definitely be a win-win situation. It would make your website attractive. Original, high quality of pictures should be used to do justice to your brand. This helps a shopper to understand the product clearly and leads to more sales and helps in gaining the trust of your customers.

Bottom Line

There are a lot of eCommerce website development companies in Delhi who have evolved themselves using these trends and many companies turn out to be the trendsetter. If you have created a very attractive, color-oriented, interactive website, there is no limit to your success.

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[mrs-nate-humphrey]

This is totally cool, lol! That's why I tagged you, I like different perspectives 🥰 and I adore lesbian Jenny

I've been thinking a lot about Jenny's character and sexuality lately since I'm in the middle of rewatching the show. I totally agree that she's attracted to women and most times she pursues guys it's mainly to increase social status and not because of genuine interest. Nate always felt different to me, though. Like, the two times she really pursues him is in season 2, when she's being homeschooled and trying to make it as a designer, and the end of season 3, which is after the whole Damien drama and she's just looking for someone who cares about her and respects her (I know you said once that it doesn't even feel romantic here, which I also agree with, poor girl just needs a connection). I do really see how it can be interrupted as comphet, though. Like she feels like she's supposed to be attracted to Nate because who wouldn't be?

I think the reason why I lean the other way is probably just projection. Jenny's been my favourite GG character since I first watched the show when I was 12, partly because I relate a lot to her, and since I'm bisexual... Add that plus the fact that I totally have had a crush on Nate and of course I'm gonna ship them. I've been relating to Jenny even more this time around cause I dropped out of school this year, so her season 2 arc really hit close to me. So this made my jenate feelings come back tenfold and also made me that much madder at Rufus, lol. I just wanted to go through the screen and shake his shoulders like "There are other paths than the one you want your daughter to have, not everyone has to go through life like society expects you to let your daughter carve out her own unconventional path you fucking idiot!" Luckily my parents have been way more supportive.

Mainly I just see Jenny as bi with a strong lean towards women, but I like to think about lesbian Jenny, too. It wouldn't exactly be the first time I had contradicting headcanons.

I don't know I just think it's really cool that different people can have such different interpretations of the same character. I think that's what's so interesting about fiction, to see how we view things differently depending on how we view and relate to things based on our own experiences. Tumblr can be so focused on hating people who disagree with you, but I like following people with different opinions, it helps me understand people better.

Yeah, I'm glad you tagged me!! back in November, some anons were mean to me about shipping Jenate (me??? who literally does not even - anyway) and ever since then I've been trying extra to ensure that Jenate shippers feel welcome on my blog - you may already know this, because I've brought it up before, but I'm saying it here to let you know that every time you tag me in your Jenate edits I get so happy that you're sharing something you're so passionate about with me!! I'm also a big believer of like........ making the content you want to see (a big part of why I even learnt to gif is because nobody was giffing Dan & Nate, and I was like...... that's the content I need, so if it's not already existing, I'm gonna make it happen!) so regardless of my feelings it's always so cool to see the way you conceptualise JN + their feelings re: each other, and your choice of scenes + lyrics (??? I'm not actually familiar with where you got the words for your edits, they're likely songs I haven't heard, haha) is just so interesting & good!

OH my full Jenny & Nate feelings are a lot more complicated than just comphet on Jenny's part. I feel like..... neither of them was romantically/sexually into each other? and that is kind of the appeal to me? I've always interpreted Nate's interest in Jenny during the s2 arc as sort of like - everything in his life is so unstable and undetermined, and here is Jenny who is so clear on who she is and what she wants, and he admires and respects that, and he wants to be there for her and support her, so when she kisses him he just sort of lets her take their dynamic wherever she wants to? that is very much the vibe I got. You already know how I feel about lesbian Jenny, I mean, you quoted my meta right back at me :'))

but I DO agree with you that Nate is different from the other guys to Jenny. JN have this really specific kind of honesty to them - well, when Jenny wasn't spiralling and trying to get power and acting out, and when the writers actually cared? I still think that NJ had the potential to be a SOLID dynamic but the writers made it sorta unhealthy on the show :(( - but I've spoken abt moments like in seventeen candles and the empire strikes jack before, where they're both able to be emotionally vulnerable around each other in ways we don't see them be with anyone else. I've even compared that to what I like about Derena, whom everyone knows I ship in every possible way, haha. But there's something about characters who trust each other and allow themselves to be honest with each other in ways that they wouldn't otherwise EVER be - especially with characters like Jenny & Nate who have spent so long trying to seem fine and okay even when they're really not.

I honestly really like the idea of queerplatonic Jenate - they're life partners, they're each other's rock, they're each other's person - but it's not romantic OR sexual - and for Nate & Jenny, whose adolescence has involved navigating other people sexualising them so much + not having the best track record with romantic relationships - for them, I feel being qpps gets REALLY interesting, because you get all the perks of a relationship without the romantic/sexual obligations? (obligations isn't the best word, but i don't know what else to use here? LOL) and that's something i love to explore.

I feel like book Jenny was bi! The way she gushed about Nate, whom she canonically had a crush on, and the way she gushed about Serena were EXACTLY the same. Also YES I love multiple headcanons always, it's a lot of fun seeing people explore that!!! I know people who have aroace readings of Jenny, or aro lesbian / ace lesbian readings of her, and I find that really cool, too!

I also definitely get you about relating to Jenny a lot, and feeling that kind of connection. It's similar to how I feel about Dan, and .... explains a lot of my contradicting dair views, actually. A few years ago I had a seriously intense crush on a girl who was... a lot like Blair, in many ways. I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing poetry about her, etc etc, but I never actually acted on it. If she'd fabricated schemes that involved us kissing, though..... I don't know. I don't think I would've denied it if I'd felt like I actually had a chance. I think we just had a case of bad timing, & I like to think in another universe, maybe we were actually together for a bit. I'm glad that your parents are supportive of you and better than Rufus! <3

I think that's what's so interesting about fiction, to see how we view things differently depending on how we view and relate to things based on our own experiences <- THIS exactly! this is a big part of why that "proship" is in my bio. like this is exactly what it means to me and how I conceptualise & understand it!!! Like you, I also like engaging with people who have different understandings and opinions of the characters -> it definitely helps you make new friends you would otherwise not meet by staying in your bubble, & from a fandom point of view, it also helps you develop a more nuanced understanding of a character. Some of the best written Jenny Humphrey I've read was in Jenate fics - and I've had people who don't even ship Blenny tell me they liked the way I wrote Jenny in my post canon blennyfic, so... idk. it's loving Jenny hours - each and every single iteration of Jenny!!!

[oceanbanjo57-blog]

Collecting Orwell: A Kind of Compulsion*

*Originally published in George Orwell Studies

There are few 20th century writers as collectable as George Orwell. Rare book auctions regularly fetch extraordinary prices, especially for his works published in the 1930s. Even secondhand bookshops have a paucity of battered paperbacks on display. Orwell sells and readers hold on to their copies. Darcy Moore reflects on what he has learnt about finding first editions, translations and books of interest for the Orwell enthusiast, scholar or dilettante.

‘Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind.’ Jeanette Winterson (2013)

From seven years of age, I collected books. The sensation of seeing them lined-up on the shelf, in order, was deeply rewarding to my young mind. Knowing you could delve into the worlds they contained, at any time, even more so. Coming from a humble home, each birthday or Christmas presented my main opportunity to add to my collection and I certainly preferred books to Easter Eggs. I never, not once, thought of it as collecting. I needed to have the books to read and re-read. It was my library.

My first Orwell was a battered copy of Down and Out in Paris and London found in a secondhand bookstore for a dollar when I started university. It is still on my shelf. Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays, Homage to Catalonia and a favourite, Inside the Whale, have been with me from this time at university too. I had been enamoured with Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four at school and bought my own copies for re-reading. Over the years, I steadily added to my library, increasingly buying books inexpensively online. In more recent years, I have relished the procurement of quality first editions, often from far afield, some in much sought-after dust jackets. At first, I purchased books I had not read and am not exactly certain at what point in time this motivation changed and genuine collecting began. Now, I have many different editions of the same book, sometimes, in languages I cannot read. Winterson may have a point.

Orwell, besides being an author and avid reader, was a working journalist, essayist and book reviewer. His output was extraordinary by any measure and this provides the collector with incredible scope. Journals, like The Adelphi, Horizon, Partisan Review and World Review, are particularly interesting as one can see what else was being published alongside his essays, poetry and reviews. Finding a copy of ‘A Hanging’ by E. A. Blair, in a well-worn 1931 edition of The Adelphi, was particularly special. Orwell’s opinion of contemporary novels, poetry and nonfiction is enhanced by collecting and reading the books he reviewed, too. Lesser-known, if not exactly esoteric texts include the prefaces he wrote to anthologies and novels, including for his literary hero, Jack London. Orwell – obsessive collector of pamphlets – edited British Pamphleteers Vol. 1: From the 16th Century the 18th Century. My bookshelves also include translations of Orwell’s fiction and nonfiction in French, German, Chinese, Hungarian and Danish, many of them first editions.

Orwell fantasised – when he was a teenager and dreaming of being a FAMOUS AUTHOR – about having ‘uniform editions’ of his books in dark blue jackets, He never managed to get that desired colour but was, in the last years of his life, focused on having the works he wished to remain in print standardised. Burmese Days and Coming Up for Air were published in this uniform edition while he lived but it took until 1959 for The Road to Wigan Pier to appear. There is nothing particularly uniform about the appearance of the books and a number of challenges often prevented the text being reprinted as Orwell wished. One imagines that The Complete Works of George Orwell, the twenty-volume collection edited by Peter Davison that includes Orwell’s standard published library and eleven chronological volumes of nonfiction with a further supplementary book of lost works published a decade later, would have net with Orwell’s approval. They look great on the shelf.

Collecting First Editions

Recent auctions at Sotheby’s suggest George Orwell will continue to be an extraordinarily important writer to collectors of first editions for the foreseeable future. A genuine first edition is the first printing of a book anywhere. For example, Down and Out in Paris and London was first printed in the UK by Victor Gollancz, in January 1933. A second, and then a third impression followed in the same month. Technically, all three of these print runs are first editions but collectors will value the first impression much more highly. In June of the same year, Harper and Brothers published the first American edition of this book. It is interesting to note that Burmese Days was the only one of Orwell’s books to be published in the USA first. Orwell’s publisher in the UK was concerned over potential legal action and it seemed safer to test the waters with an American distributor. This novel is unique in having ‘Copyright, 1934, Eric Blair’ rather than the expected pseudonym. As such, it is a genuine first edition of considerable interest to collectors.

The avid collector may have a number of first editions of the same book. There is the first edition published in a particular country, including translations. There is also the first paperback edition. When a different publisher gains the rights to the book, there is a new opportunity to have a first edition. There may be a first illustrated edition or other printings that are of interest, for example, early editions in Braille. A samizdat edition is one illegally printed, usually in an Eastern European country pre-1989. These editions were produced in unknown numbers using a variety of methods: mimeograph, carbon copies from typescripts or, in later years, photocopiers. There are some unique illustrations to be found in these samizdat editions, including comic versions, especially of Animal Farm. For example, I am currently negotiating a price on a Hungarian samizdat, Allati Gazdasag (Animal Economy). It has uncredited original illustrations on most pages. Collecting always leads to learning and I now have a reasonable idea about the history of samizdat publishing generally, and in relation to Orwell.

The general reading public know that a bibliography is the list of works referenced by an author while writing their book. Collectors have a different definition. Orwell’s best bibliographer, Gillian Fenwick, provides an invaluable guide to understanding Orwell’s publishing history. Her George Orwell: A Bibliography (1998) is essential for discovering all kinds of important and esoteric facts about the author’s printed output. One wonders how the American publisher managed to misprint the title of Orwell’s second novel. The rather than A Clergyman’s Daughter must have made more sense to them or maybe it was simply a typographical error. Either way, it seems incredibly careless. Orwell’s childhood ambition to have a uniform edition of his works grew more urgent in the last few years of his life. One can see why – with such errors from his publishers. Unfortunately, this uniform edition also suffered problems that were only really corrected when Peter Davison’s project to publish Orwell’s Complete Works resulted in his books being published as intended.

Dust jackets are important to collectors and add immensely to the value of first editions. My understanding is that dust jackets were often abandoned by owners and that libraries routinely removed them. During World War Two the jackets were considered to make the books more flammable and endangered the entire collection held by any institution during bombing raids. There are online businesses that sell facsimile dust jackets. This is particularly useful for the collector who cannot afford the high prices requested for first editions with dust jackets. All of my first editions have facsimile or genuine dust jackets except Down and Out in London and Paris. My UK first edition of Burmese Days has a photocopy made by a very generous bookseller. One can only imagine that taking this dust jacket off a book, on the market for almost £33 000, to photocopy at the library, was one of a calm and very generous soul who understood the nature and needs of the bibliophile. If you have money to invest in first editions, I recommend West Hull Rare Books for all your Orwell needs.

Finding Good Booksellers

For decades, scanning the shelves for anything about or by Orwell every time I was in a secondhand bookshop has been my habit. It is rare to find much. A quick search online confirms little is readily available ‘used’ in Australia. You are unlikely to find any first editions at all. I have discovered many treasures over the years, though, most recently an immaculate first Penguin paperback edition of A Clergyman’s Daughter for $5.00 at a book sale in the Masonic Hall, a kilometre from my front door. There are several very useful strategies for finding books at affordable, often bargain prices, that will assist the collector endeavouring to add to their collection. Luck certainly plays a part, too. Dennis Glover, author of The Last Man in Europe (2017) – a novel about Orwell writing Nineteen Eighty-Four on a remote Scottish island –  gave me the tip that a bookseller in Melbourne had purchased a number of interesting books about Orwell from a deceased estate. It was a goldmine.

Many individual bookshop owners have websites with the provision to create a list of ‘wants’ or ‘alerts’. This results in an automatically generated email being sent when the book you are after is catalogued at their site. AbeBooks lets the buyer create ‘wants’ that are very specific. You can search for particular editions, price ranges and even for signed copies using their system. The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America provides an excellent, automated alert service that recently led to me buying a very expensive first edition for about 15 per cent of the price usually charged. The key is responding quickly once the book is listed online. Professional booksellers will hold the book for you. An email received this year is a good case in point: ‘The book was only catalogued today. You got pretty lucky, as three other people have shown interest in it (you were the first so you had first call on it).’ Lurking at the Bibliophile and other mailing lists is a good source of information about books and booksellers too.

If you go to bookfinder.com and search for ‘George Orwell’, ‘first edition’ between ‘1933-39’ it quickly becomes evident that there are very few copies of his early books for this period available, at any price. Genuine first editions are extremely rare. It is rare to find any of these books from the thirties listed under £600 and it is more likely you will be requested to part with £1,000 for a flawed copy. In 2010, a signed copy of Orwell’s first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, with a dust jacket, sold for £101,050 (inclusive of the buyer’s premium). Newspaper reports at the time said it had been 27 years since an edition with a dust jacket had appeared on the market. It certainly was nowhere near that price, as listed just six years earlier by Quill and Brush, in George Orwell: First Edition and Price Guide (2004), which suggested the upper end to be about 10 per cent of that.

These prices are rarely fixed. Often the dealer has purchased the book for much less than advertised, especially if they have had the copy for some time. Contacting the bookseller, especially if there is more than one book you are after, and asking for their best price, often pays dividends. It is not unusual to receive 20 per cent discount immediately. I have certainly purchased books at half the price requested, especially when patient. There are many booksellers who do not have ‘bricks and mortar’ stores and, although highly professional, do it more as a hobby. Often they like chatting about books. One example of having a bit of luck with a book I really coveted was with Inside the Whale, which only had 1,000-copies printed (and some of those were destroyed during the Blitz). I procured one from an elderly collector in South Africa selling his library. He also sold me a doubleplusgood copy of Orwell’s, Homage to Catalonia at well-below market-price. Since then I have bought many other first editions from him that were not Orwell-related, as he clears his shelves.

Fittingly, the most recent Orwell I purchased was a first edition of Down and Out in Paris and London in surprisingly good condition. It certainly cost more than the $1.25 I paid in 1987 for his (and my) first book. I value them equally. My collection is quite complete with all first editions of the books first published – both in the USA and UK – during Orwell’s lifetime on the shelf. I am particularly pleased to have The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius and Critical Essays with very good, original covers. Many of my later American first editions have very good to fine original dust jackets. I really only have the very rare pamphlet, James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution (1946) along with Talking to India (1943) and Betrayal of the Left (1941) which I had ‘printed on demand’ in India, to collect as first editions.

*Originally published in George Orwell Studies

References and Further Reading

Basbanes, Nicholas (2012) A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, Fine Books Press, Kindle Edition

Blair, E. A. (1931) ‘A Hanging’, The Adelphi, Vol. 2, No. 5, August

Fenwick, Gillian (1998) George Orwell: A Bibliography, New Castle, Delaware and London: Oak Knoll Press & St. Paul’s Bibliographies

Glover, Dennis (2017) The Last Man in Europe, Melbourne: Black Inc.

Gollancz, Victor and Laski, Harold (1941) Betrayal of the Left: An Examination & Refutation of Communist Policy from October 1939 to January 1941: with Suggestions for an Alternative and an Epilogue on Political Morality, Left Book Club (print on demand book)

Meyers, Jeffrey and Meyers, Valerie (1977) George Orwell: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism, New York: Garland

Orwell, George and Reynolds, Reginald (1948) British Pamphleteers, Vol. 1: From the 16th Century the 18th Century, London: Allan Wingate

Quill and Brush (2004) George Orwell – First Edition and Price Guide, Quill and Brush

Telegraph.co.uk (2010) Rare signed first edition of George Orwell work sold for £86,000. Available online at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7519576/Rare-signed-first-edition-of-George-Orwell-work-sold-for-86000.html, accessed on 25 March 2018

Winterson, Jeanette (2013) Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery, New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

NOTE ON THE CONTRIBUTOR

Darcy Moore is a deputy principal at a secondary school in New South Wales. He has taught English and History and worked as an academic in post-graduate teacher education at the University of Wollongong. His interest in Orwell began at school, thirty-five years ago, when he was enamoured by Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four. He is currently researching diaries (1876-1905) written by a sub-deputy opium agent who worked with Orwell’s father, Richard Blair, in Bengal and intends to publish insights into this period. He is also working on a book about Orwell for a general readership. He blogs at darcymoore.net and his Twitter handle is @Darcy1968. His Orwell collection can be accessed here.

Source: http://www.darcymoore.net/2018/08/23/collecting-orwell-kind-compulsion/

[dippedanddripped]

WITH MERCEDES-BENZ FASHION WEEK (MBFWA) IMMINENT, GQ SPOKE TO THE CEO OF THE AUSTRALIAN FASHION COUNCIL (AFC) DAVID GILES-KAYE ABOUT WHY MENSWEAR IS HAVING ITS MOMENT DOWN UNDER, AND THE IMPACT IT’S HAVING ACROSS THE BOARD.

Double Rainbouu, ExInfinitas, SSS World Corp, Bassike, MNdatory, MJ Bale, Christian Kimber, Chris Ran Lin, Blair Archibald, Homie, Jac + Jack, Strateas Carlucci, Trenery, Song for the Mute, Daniel Patrick, The People Vs, The Critical Slide Society, Calibre, Assembly Label, Venroy, Zanerobe, Commas, Ten Pieces, Non-Type, Academy Brand, Barney Cools, Ksubi, Jack London, Joe Farage, P Johnson, RM Williams, AMXANDER.

These are just some of the Australian menswear brands that spring to mind thriving at the moment. Together with department stores like Harrolds, David Jones, Marais and Masons, you have all the evidence you need that men’s fashion in Australia is booming.

MBFWA is about to kick off and with more menswear set to walk the runways than ever before, we decided to catch up with David Giles-Kaye – a man who’s flying the flag for fashion and menswear from a more business-focused position in Australia.

Yes, a more vested interest in fashion means more options for the Australian gent to get enthused by and greater opportunities to fill your wardrobes with. But this is serious business we are talking about.

The fashion industry brings in billions of dollars to Australia’s economy, and it’s also leading the way in the sustainability stakes too.

So while the two candidates to be our next prime minister may struggle to grasp the importance of personal style, we’re here to dig deeper into one of the fastest growing industries in this country. And Scott Morrison or Bill Shorten, if you’re reading, feel free to get in touch for some election-day tips.

In the meantime, here’s to a fantastic Fashion Week.

GQ: Let’s start off by discussing the growing importance of Sydney’s Fashion Week.

David Giles-Kaye: From AFC’s point of view, it is really important that it’s growing and is healthy. It’s also important for labels as a way of entering the international buying system, indeed we’re seeing MBFWA feature more prominently on international buyers’ schedules.

Indeed, we have buyers from the likes of MatchesFashion.com, Neiman Marcus, Lane Crawford, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue attending, which is great. But what improvements are there to make?

We’re supportive of IMG’s efforts to make it attractive for more international buyers to come here – so they find something interesting, different and unique. We also see MBFWA as a place where we can educate labels around how to sell internationally, understand what buyers are looking for, and how they can best prepare to do business on a global scale.

This year, there are a couple of seminars on the schedule focusing on just this. McKinsey & Company are presenting their State of Fashion Report, which is connecting labels to the key global trends impacting the world’s fashion businesses and engaging around that. Lambert + Associates are also hosting a Sales Seminar for brands on how to best establish themselves in the international market.

While we have people together we want to help them, not just for fashion week but for the future, to build that business capability.

How can MBFWA become more relevant to the Australian gent?

Well, men’s fashion is really on the agenda like it’s never been before. It’s a strong trend globally and is going from strength to strength here.

Although there are several local labels making waves internationally, we’re not showcasing enough menswear at home, and setting the agenda for more to come. We still don’t have that pathway established.

Emerging labels, like MNDATORY, Ex Infinitas, Chris Ran Lin, Blair Archibald, and AMXANDER are coming through strongly. So the more we can showcase these labels, and demonstrate that they are developing strongly as designers and as brands, then the more that pathway will start filling up with people, designers, starting labels.

MBFWA have a great line-up of menswear designers this year and we need to keep building on this.

Why are menswear trends increasing on a global scale, and how is that starting to translate in Australia?

Similar to other markets, Aussie men are more style conscious, we’re not as inhibited as we once were, and we’re engaging with fashion in a more authentic way.

As men embrace personal style more strongly, we need more options for them, where they can buy what they like. From a commercial point of view, more men’s labels may take a while to come, as people slowly start to trust in these trends. And that ties in with the significance of fashion week – engaging men so we can help that ecosystem evolve more quickly.

Fashion week happens to collide with election week, and I know Julie Bishop was a huge backer of the industry, who is now taking over that to show how valuable the fashion industry is to the Australian economy?

We’re yet to see someone take over from Julie Bishop. She has been a fantastic advocate for the industry both here and overseas for many years.

Engagement with all levels of government is really important to building the health of our 25 billion dollar industry. And it’s not just about building economic value and employment, but recognising that fashion is important for reflecting our many cultural identities and our expression of our creativity as a nation. Julie Bishop really got this and we miss her.

How do you feel about cultural representation and what needs to be done to support more Indigenous brands in the industry?

There are fantastic Indigenous artists and designers working in textiles and fashion. But there are way too few of them, and, as an industry we really haven’t done enough to help them develop in the past. We have a focus on this now

. It’s a collaborative focus, connecting with Indigenous designers and their communities and bringing them together with established fashion designers and industry mentors to figure out how we can help them grow.

It’s so important that our Indigenous culture is strongly represented in our industry, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

A couple of weeks ago was Fashion Revolution Week – what’s the AFC’s stance on that?

Yeah that’s such a huge area. We’re very supportive of Fashion Revolution and think it is fantastic how the Australian fashion industry have embraced it, there are over 60 events that have been organised around the country this year.

Protecting workers’ rights and ensuring a living wage is just so critical to the future of the industry. Fashion has an undeniable social and environmental footprint, second only to the oil industry it’s one of the largest polluters. And with so many touch-points from fibre to the consumer, it’s also a huge employer.

There are a lot of problems in the supply chain and we’re working very hard to fix them. Fashion Revolution is one of the bodies that is really helping and pushing us.

This year MBFWA has put in place its first steps to reduce event waste and increase energy efficiency, which is great. But are we doing enough to enable brands to be more sustainable?

It’s fundamentally about building transparency within the industry so that consumers can make informed decisions where they buy products and be part of making that change happen.

Sustainability and ethical practice are absolutely critical. They are arguably the two most important issues of our time. So trying to bring people together and get projects going about this topic is key.

A lot of companies in Australia are highly engaged and actively investing in building transparency in their businesses – publishing reports and factory names and really digging deep into their supply chains to understand what’s happening and then fixing it if there’s a problem. We also have technology companies developing new fibre recycling processes, which we might even see in place by the end of this year.

We can definitely see a future with a truly circular economy and where we can be assured that workers are treated properly in our supply chain. We would like Australia to be one of the leaders in the world in this area and I think we are starting on the way to being that.

The other thing I’ll say is that our emerging designers are leading the way; labels like A.BCH have really set the bar high. They’re putting a huge amount of effort into knowing absolutely everything that’s going into their products and then communicating that to their customers.

That’s great. Is it more difficult for established brands to completely change their methods and turn things around?

Yeah, it’s about the more established brands having to adapt to it. The recent Baptist World Aid fashion report scored some of our more established fashion labels quite low. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are actually poor in this area, it just means that they don’t have the documentation in place to demonstrate how they’re making their clothes. These companies now need to invest in new systems for building transparency.

[anzwrites]

ive been tagged in so many tag games that i haven’t gotten around to doing them so i’m just gonna do them all in one post

5 Facts Tag Game

The aim of the game is simple; list at least 5 lesser known facts about your WIP and/or the OC of your choosing!

1. As of right now all of my wips are in the same universe. So there will probably be subtle nods to the bands of The Reckless in Chaos.

2. In the very first version of Chaos I decided to include a battle of the bands storyline for some reason?? but it’s been scraped since. 

3. Originally Chaos was going to be a long series but I shortened it to one book and now two (the second being more focused on Kelsey’s younger brother and his friend group.) The series was going to follow Ryker and Kelsey into adulthood while Ryker pursued a career as a cop.

4. I chose San Francisco as the setting because I’ve always wanted to go to San Francisco/move there. 

5. Chaos is basically a mix of all of my favorite parts of my favorite movies & tv shows. Examples are, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Skins, The Breakfast Club, etc.

WIP Questions Tag Game

1. Describe the plot in one sentence.

Shane writes letters to Kelsey to cope with the things he’s done.

2. Pick one sight, smell, sound, feel and taste to describe the aesthetic for your novel.

this was hard cause theres so many different aspects?? to this story

Sight - seeing people who were once your closest friends seemingly better off without you. 

Smell - cigarette smoke??

Sound - crackling fire

Feel - hugging someone you love after not seeing them for a long time

Taste - pizza

3. Which 3+ songs would make up a playlist for the novel?

i have an entire playlist here but heres three of the songs from that playlist

popular - nada surf

reaper - have mercy

ghost - sky ferreira 

4. What’s the time period and location in which the novel takes place?

it takes place in san francisco, a fictional suburb called “ridgeview” and some of the surrounding area, in 2013 and up to september 2018

5. Are there any former titles you’ve considered but discarded?

originally it was titled “oh kelsey” but after major changes in the plot i realized the name didn’t fit the feel of the story anymore so i changed it 

6. What’s the first line of your novel?

im most likely going to change it later but for right now its, “In the mailbox there was a manila envelope with letters inside.”

7. What’s a line of dialogue you’re particularly proud of?

so far in this draft nothing super interesting has happened so i don’t have any lines in proud of yet 

8. Which line from the novel most represents it as a whole?

uhhh maybe, “...she had to know what became of the boy she cared for so deeply and how he became the monster who did such heinous things.“

9. Who are you character faceclaims?

for the main three

Kelsey York - Kaya Scodelario

Ryker Kennedy - Devon Bostick

Shane Blanchard - Ezra Miller

the rest are on the character page if you’re curious

10. Sort your characters into Hogwarts houses.

i know very little about harry potter but from what i know Ryker gives me hufflepuff vibes, Magnolia is probably a griffindor, Odessa would be a ravenclaw and Hunter, Meredith & Shane might be slytherin. im too lazy to try and think of anyone else’s.  

11. Which character’s name do you like the most?

Probably Magnolia

12. Describe each character’s daily outfit.

Kelsey: plain tee, cardigan, skinny jeans & converse.

Ryker: emo band tee, blue hoodie, skinny jeans, & red converse.

Shane: punk band tee, leather jacket, black ripped skinny jeans & boots.

13. Do any characters have distinctive birthmarks/scars?

During the novel Kelsey gets a scar on her cheek, Shane probably has various scars from abuse and fights, Felix’s nose is crooked from all the times he’s been punched in the face, Myranda has self harm scars, & Blair has cigarette burns.

14. Which character most fits a character trope?

I feel like Meredith fits the mean girl trope pretty well.

15. Which character is the best writer? Worst?

Josie is the best and Pierce is the worst.

16. Which character is the best liar? Worst?

Nigel is the best and Alan is the worst.

17. Which character swears the most? Least?

Felix swears the most and Josie swears the least.

18. Which character has the best handwriting? Worst?

Best is Melaina and worst is Jared. 

19. Which character is most like you? Least like you?

I think maybe Kelsey is the most like me?? i dunno, Least like me is probably Shane.

20. Which character would you most like to be?

Tiffany, objectively I think she suffers the least trauma. 

Oc Tag Game

i’ll do this one for shane

1. What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)? it was his style. i always knew he was gonna dress a bit edgy, when i first created him he was a little bit more emo though.

2. Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind? no, he was very different from the characters i created before.

3. How did you choose their name? at first his name was jason, i think? i honestly don’t know why i named him that??? eventually i changed to to shane because it felt more like him. there was a period in time when his name was seth but i changed it back.

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? because the story is set in san francisco which is known for their large punk scene, i decided he was going to spend a lot of his time in that scene so i created “nigel’s tavern” and the staff of said club.  this really played a huge part in the rest of his development.

5.6.7) Is there any significance behind their hair colour/eye colour/height? not really. but originally he had red patches in his hair because edgy but i scrapped that.

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story? i don’t think there’s really anything about him that i can relate to,, that’s probably for the best

9. Are they based off of you, in some way? ^^

10. Did you know what the OC’s sexuality would be at the time of their creation? no,, and i still don’t think it do. all i can concretely say is he definitely likes girls and has probably kissed a few guys. so maybe he’s bicurious 

11. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: Writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? his aesthetic comes very easily to me so edits and drawing him are easy-ish (i haven’t drawn something in like 2 years tho) so i guess writing him

12. How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all? no

13. If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?

how easily he’s feelings toward Kelsey (or anyone really) can switch and 

14. What is something about your OC that can make you laugh?

how far he’ll go to subtly piss someone off

15. What is something about your OC that can make you cry?

literally everything tbh

16. Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

not that i can think off

17. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

that he was raised catholic by his mother 

18. What is your favourite fact about your OC?

15 Questions, 15 Mutuals

1. Are you named after anyone?

not really but i have the same middle name as my grandma

2. When was the last time you cried?

maybe a few days ago

3. Do you have/want kids?

no

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

yeee boii

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

their hair

6. What’s your eye color?

hazel

7. Scary movie or happy ending?

happy ending!! i lowkey hate scary movies

8. Any special talents?

i literally don’t think i have any talents

9. Where were you born?

florida 

10. What are your hobbies?

i guess writing and making awful youtube videos

11. Do you have any pets?

yes! i have a dog named bella and she’s the love of my life

12. What sports do you/have you played?

im terrible at sports so none

13. How tall are you?

5′4 i think

14. Favorite subject in school?

umm none? lmao

15. Dream job?

i guess writer or youtuber cause im a basic bitchhh

[fandomsandfeminism]

Ever since President Annoying Orange von GrabbyHands came into office, there’s been a lot of chatter about Orwell, and 1984, and whether this or that is Orwellian. Amazon was actually sold out of copies of 1984 for a few days after Kellyanne Conway said that falsehoods being spread by the administration were “Alternative Facts.”

So today I want to talk about 1984, what “Orwellian” actually means, and how Orwell explores the impact of language on thought and dissent with NewSpeak in his novel. And, at the end, we will look at how these concepts do and don’t apply to today’s political climate

Transcript below:

Quick warning: This video is going to be...political. This is to be expected when discussing Orwell, but I think it bears saying. This will be a political video, and if you aren’t sure which way my politics lean right now, you are about to find out. I will try to keep my rage to a reasonable level, but this could get...kinda ranty. So...you’ve been warned.  Ok.So.Ever since President Annoying Orange von GrabbyHands came into office, there’s been a lot of chatter about Orwell, and 1984, and whether this or that is Orwellian. Amazon was actually sold out of copies of 1984 for a few days after Kellyanne Conway said that falsehoods being spread by the administration were “Alternative Facts.”So today I want to talk about 1984, what “Orwellian” actually means, and how Orwell explores the impact of language on thought and dissent with NewSpeak in his novel. And, at the end, we will look at how these concepts do and don’t apply to today’s political climate -

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell was born June 25th 1903. He was an English novelist who was particularly concerned with social injustice, totalitarianism, and was an outspoken advocate in favor of democratic socialism. My kinda guy. His most famous works are his allegorical novella, Animal Farm, which follows the rise and corruption of Stalinist Russia as told through farm animals, and 1984, our focus for today.  

I want to give a quick shout out to another dystopian novel that I love, and that is often taught as a pair with 1984. Huxley’s novel “Brave  New World” is an amazing book that focuses on how a dystopian government will seek to control the populace through the cultivation of apathy. Through escapism and drugs, sex and a carefully cultivated caste system, a totalitarian regime can carry on with little to no violence on its part simply because the citizens are too unaware to do anything about it. Huxley feared that the things we love will destroy us because we won’t care enough to stop them.

Orwell though? Orwell’s warning of the future is far more brutal- the things we fear will destroy us because when sufficiently powerful, they can not be stopped.

1984 is a dystopian novel published in 1949 that explores the extreme totalitarian regime of Oceania, specifically the province of Airstrip One (Formerly Great Britain) and the protagonist, Winston Smith’s failed attempt at breaking free of the grip of the government. The government is characterized by its hyper-surveillance, the dictator figure of Big Brother, the idea of thoughtcrime, the two minutes of hate where party members must express their hatred of the party enemies loudly and publically every day, the repeated revision of history in the government’s favor, and the repression, aggression, and anxiety that pervades such a political atmosphere.

Many aspects of the novel are based on the totalitarian governments that Orwell was familiar with. The revision of history for example, is a reference to Soviet Russia. There are many examples of people being seen clearly in official photographs of Soviet Russia, and later being removed when they fell out of favor with Stalin. - So what does Orwellian mean? It’s not just a synonym for dictatorial or authoritarian, though you’ll see people use it that way. Orwellian is meant to be more specific. Some characteristics of a situation  or government that are Orwellian include: Extreme and persistent government surveillance The emphasis on loyalty to the state above all else, even family. The advocation for “doublethink” where citizens must accept obvious contradictions-  like giving up liberties to achieve true freedom State revision of history The use of a contradictory euphemism to describe the function of an agency- the Ministry of Peace is responsible for the military and war for example The manipulation of language for the purpose of controlling the people

And this brings me to NewSpeak and Language. Within 1984, the government is working to create a new official state language- NewSpeak. The idea behind NewSpeak, on the surface, is fairly reasonable. English, as a language, is highly inefficient. We have many synonyms with many shades of connotation after all. So on the surface, NewSpeak aims at eliminating all redundancy. You don’t need the words phenomenal, wonderful, amazing, fantastic, and exceptional when just Good will do. And on that same note, you don’t need the words dreadful, terrible, horrible, awful, and horrendous when UnGood will do. Want to show emphasis? DoubleUnGood. Need even more emphasis? DoublePlus Ungood. Simple.

But the true purpose behind NewSpeak is far more sinister. The book says “ "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”

By controlling the way people talk, the government can control the way people think. It’s impossible to dissent or rebel if the words you need to dissent or rebel don’t exist. -

And while that sounds pretty far fetched, there really is some evidence that language can shape the way we think. Russian speakers are faster to distinguish shades of blue than English speakers, for example. Traditionally, Japan didn’t have separate words for blue and green, and didn’t develop a distinction between the two colors until after world war 2. Some aboriginal languages in Australia don’t have words for right and left- all directions are described in terms of North, south, East, and West. Many languages gender nouns and this affects the way native speakers will describe those objects. If you were asked to describe a "key" —a masculine word in German and a feminine word in Spanish — the German speakers are more likely to use words like "hard," "jagged," or "metal,"; while Spanish speakers are more likely to say "golden," "little," "lovely," and "shiny," The languages we speak seem to affect the way we see the world.

Even on a more basic note, you can’t identify with a group of people if there is no word to describe that group. The creation and definition of labels is important to community building. Create the word, make it possible to talk about that group.

Even something as simple as pushing a certain phrase or alternative name can affect how people feel about something. The current rise in stories of people who LOVE the Affordable Care Act, but HATE ObamaCare, failing to realize they are the same thing, is evidence of that.

Orwell uses this idea- that language itself shapes the kind of thoughts we can have, to suggest that if a government can control language, they can control the thoughts of the citizens. Going beyond even the most aggressive propaganda, leaving citizens unable to rebel because no thought of rebellion is possible because no word for rebellion exists. - Now.

Not everything that a politician does that you dislike is “Orwellian.” Trump’s executive order about banning immigrants from predominantly islamic countries and the mexican border wall are awful, but not Orwellian. When Betsy god damn Devos can stand in front of congress and admit to not knowing a god damn thing about public education, pedagogy, or current educational policy and still become the secretary of education: Not particularly Orwellian, but definitely incompetent and terrifying and infuriating. Not Orwellian. Millions of people losing their healthcare if the Affordable Care Act is gutted is heartless and evil, but not Orwellian. Trump having globe spanning conflicts of interest, when people made Jimmy Carter sell his goddamn peanut farm for be president, but apparently we’re just going to sit here and let Trump run his billion dollar businesses because who the hell cares and where are his tax returns?- ridiculously hypocritical and infuriating, but not Orwellian.

But-Thinking about Putting an Anti-Vaxxer in charge of the Vaccine Safety Committee? That’s Pretty Orwellian. Insisting again and again that his inauguration crowds were huge and shouting down any evidence that says otherwise as “fake news” and pressuring the park service to find photos that support his version of events- That’s Orwellian. When are people renaming Neo-Nazis as “the Alt Right”: Kinda Orwellian. When the House Science Committee chairman says that people should get their facts from the administration, and not the news….Orwellian. When Trump says he has “drained the swamp” and gotten money out of politics, and his appointed cabinet is richer than ⅓ of America combined? That’s some DoublePlus UnGood DoubleThink. And it makes me UnBellyFeel.

1984 is a bleak vision of the future, a future that suggests that resistance is futile if the government gains so much control that it can literally brainwash citizens.

And here is where I’m going to get...extra political. I know that the first two weeks and counting of SprayTan McBabyPaws’s presidency has been alarming and stressful for many, myself included. But we are not Airstrip 1. We are not Oceania. We do not have Big Brother looming over us, ever vigilant for ThoughtCrime. We are in a frightening situation as a country right now, but we will persist if we stick together. We preserve the past. We fight for what is true. We resist propaganda and fear mongering, revisionist history and scapegoating. We can’t allow ourselves to ever believe that 2 and 2 make 5 just because the party says so, we can’t allow ourselves to fall into fatigue and complacency.

We can do this. We can do this together. Call representatives. Go to marches. Speak out.

Stay strong.

Thank you for watching this video. I’ll see yall down in the comments. As always, if you’ve enjoyed listening to this queer millennial feminist with a BA in English, feel free to subscribe.

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: A Lack of Armor

Last week, we held our first AMA in the discord chat with @amberlehcar​, @peregr1ne​ and @thesockswhowearsfox​, where lots of people stopped in to ask about their work on A Lack of Armor! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: Amber, could you take me through your process of conceiving/planning out this fic? What inspired it originally?

AmberLehcar: Oh man okay, so there was a post floating around that was like "I headcanon Soul as trans and here's why" and I just really dug it. 

Peregrine: Wait, was it mine? 

AmberLehcar: I don't remember who it was, but they said things like him being hypermasculine to appear more "manly." 

Peregrine: I did say that in mine. That's crazy. 

AmberLehcar: This was supposed to be for last year's Resbang, so I've kinda forgotten exactly what was all there, but it probably was yours.

Q: So what you are saying is that you and Pere were destined to work together?

AmberLehcar: Pere claimed me last year too! I had to back out after fic claims because life was becoming too much. 

 Peregrine: I mean you did come to me before that. 

AmberLehcar: I did ask Pere a lot of questions. I'm cis/het, so I had a lot to learn and was really lucky that Pere was open and willing to teach me along with being an overall great partner. 

Peregrine: I tried my best ^^; It's not like it was hard, just talking about myself pfft.

AmberLehcar: It was helpful though! 

Peregrine: I'm glad it was. Was there more you wanted to say about the process? 

AmberLehcar: I did a ton of research and was really invested in it. I see a lot of posts about the lack of representation for the LGBT+ community and really felt like I wanted to add. 

Peregrine: Yeah, lack of representation really gets to me, especially because what representation there is is highly fetishized and honestly i'd rather have no rep than fetish rep.

Q: For all parties involved, where/how do you feel like you grew the most during this Resbang?

Peregrine: This was my first event where I did more than one fic, so working through that was hard, but I'm glad I did because I really wanted both. 

AmberLehcar: I think when I've written in the past, I've been really "this happened then this happened" etc. It was a lot more introspective this time around, so I focused a lot more on the feelings of the characters and evoking feelings in the reader. When I tried to enter this last year, I got to like 6k words but really struggled to get there. With a new direction, I got to 30k fairly easily. 

Sox: Well, it was my first Resbang and the first song I'd written since I was....18 I think. Just managing to write and record the song was a lot of growth for me.

Q: Amber, I am always interested in fic titles. Did you come up with the title of your fic beforehand, or did it develop as the story was created?

AmberLehcar: Okay, so I take all my chapter and fic titles from songs or lyrics. But A Lack of Armor made perfect sense to me because of my therapy. A few times in therapy we'd talked about putting on armor that was representative of support and good things in my life. The song "A Lack of Armor" has a line that says "like a knight without his armor I don't know who I am" and this all kinda spoke to me and fit really well with Soul and his depression/anxiety. I came up with the idea pretty much from the start and it's been with me since.

Q: You said it was a Motion City Soundtrack song, right?

AmberLehcar: All the chapter titles are from MCS songs, because I am trash lol. But they sorta go with the mood of each chapter if you go back and look at them. 

Sox: Can confirm Amber is MCS trash.

Q: There's a sick playlist somewhere right?

AmberLehcar: I do have a playlist! https://open.spotify.com/user/1266385830/playlist/3xN37XwvUGsVqZNuhpRtng

Q: Most of the time it seems the usual characterization for the Evans fam is for Soul's father to be the 'worse' parent, either that or both of them being equally bad. (At least that's my view.) So I am wondering: was your decision to make Soul's dad the more accepting one an intentional subversion or did it just happen? 

AmberLehcar: It just sorta happened? I am not a Mama Albarn fan. Aside from Marie, there are no good mamas in the series, so I just kinda went with that. 

Sox: Blair begs your pardon. 

[insert chorus of screaming about everyone's love for Blair] 

AmberLehcar: Blair takes such good care of her kittens. Okay I lied, Blair and Marie are good. But yeah, I didn't want him to have absolutely no support from parents, and someone had to have taught Wes to be a good person. So Papa Evans eventually came around. 

Q: For Pere: was there a scene that you knew immediately you wanted to illustrate and/or was it difficult to choose scenes to draw? 

Peregrine: I definitely wanted to draw the first hug scene when I read it, when Maka was accepting, because the feelies. And then later Amber had mentioned how there was going to be a scene where soul plays his song for Maka, and I knew I really wanted to draw that too, but it wasn't written yet, so I asked her to describe the scene more for me in advance so i could draw it. She didn't have a solid idea though, so some stuff I made up, and she wrote the scene to fit my picture later actually ^^; 

AmberLehcar: Your art definitely helped flesh out the scene there, thank you. 

Sox: I love when Pete draws things. 

Sox: *Pere 

[Lots of people yelling about Pete] 

Sox: God damn it. 

Peregrine: The first pic with the hair I also just thought would be cute to draw, and then just for visual concepts, I wanted to draw the different stages of Soul as a bonus even if they didn't actually ever appear in the story ^^; 

AmberLehcar: That first pic with the hair cutting is probably my favorite. I love them all, but that just made my heart flutter. 

Q: Sox I have sort of the same question for you, did certain scenes inspire certain lyrics? 

Sox: Uhhhh no not so much. I tried to write around the Mood of the fic and I talked to a local Atlanta musician about her experiences being trans with a bad family as a kid and tried to fit those to where Amber had Soul coming from. (Originally I was trying to write a SoMa Romance song but then... it came out as a Self Love Fuck you Mom song). 

AmberLehcar: I'm glad it changed. At some point when writing I realized the fic was more focused on their relationship than him, so I tried to change it up. I'm glad the song evolved that way too. After I got one of the last drafts of the song, I included it in chapter 8 in case people were wondering. 

Q: For Amber: what made you want to put Kim as Soul's neighbor out of any other character? What made you want to do the neighbor sub plot in the first place? 

AmberLehcar: Representation mostly. I love me some JacKim and thought that having a grump next door that Soul ends up kinda befriending and/or helping would be interesting. Kim was kinda a weird facet for me to write through. As someone who feels everything 110%, being in love can be kinda scary sometimes, so her thoughts on love are pretty darn close to my own: wanting to love someone wholeheartedly but being afraid of exactly how deeply you can really love someone. 

Sox: I FEEL. 

Q: There's a scene where they're watching a Youtube video. Is that video significant to you in some way, Amber? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wWBLbQInqk) 

AmberLehcar: Not at all. I was talking with Brian about assignments for the first day of class, and he mentioned he had to do that exact assignment and chose that exact video. The song's not bad and the video is... interesting? 

Q: For Pere: What program do you use and whats your general process for art? 

Peregrine: I use FireAlpaca because it's free lol. I usually do like, a base sketch that's really scribbly and focuses on like motion lines, if that makes sense. And then i decrease the opacity of that one and draw the actual lineart on a different layer on top, and then colour. Very rarely I'll keep drawing on the base sketch and just clean it a little but that's mostly for more actiony gestural stuff, or highly detailed things where I'm not bothered about solid lineart. 

Q: How long-ish did each of your drawings take? Do you tend to draw faster when you're feeling inspired, do you have a creative process or anything? 

Peregrine: Ah, I never know what to say when someone asks how long it takes, because it varies so much. But yeah, usually a drawing will take a few days if it's something average and not like the fricking Pacific Rim art I did way back when, which took like a month. I can do most pieces in a day if i'm properly inspired but it's like: yes, I can get this done in only a few hours, but those are completely straight drawing hours - no food or bathroom breaks or chit chats to be had. Honestly the longest part of the drawing process is actually the sketchy first part because I need to plan it out perfectly until i can see the end product in my head and then i can start actually working, and that can take weeks. 

[insert group yelling about how great Pere's art is] 

AmberLehcar: The boys brought me to literal tears every time they updated me. 

Sox: Lies. 

AmberLehcar: EVERY TIME. 

Peregrine: I spent 5 hours drawing Soul's hair even though I finished the entire rest of the picture in 2. 

Sox: I just had a mental image of Pere screaming the lyrics to Maroon 5's "Misery" while drawing. 

Peregrine: That's me. 

Q: For Amber: what were your easiest/hardest scenes to write & why?? Were there any that were easier/trickier to write than you expected? Bonus: favorite scene to write? 

AmberLehcar: All of chapter 4 is crap and I'll fight anyone who disagrees with me. For some reason writing just general happy, normal life was really hard. The pain though, that was kiddy stuff. The first full scene I wrote was Soul's accidental confession. The idea just messed me up and I couldn't stop writing until it was all done. It's probably my favorite scene too, followed closely by Maka's acceptance. 

Q: You super did not write linearly. That's so cool, I have to go in order. 

AmberLehcar: No, I rarely do. 

Peregrine: Man it was kind of tough reading your drafts, tbh. 

Sox: SAME PERE 

AmberLehcar: I'm so sorry!! 

Sox: "How am I gonna write a song none of this is in order" XD 

AmberLehcar: I need to give people an instruction manual for how to read my WIPs. 

Peregrine: There were so many scenes that were like, great scenes on their own, but then I'm like wait, how did we get from point A to point ? Also, reading updates was hard because everyone else I've fic'd with was like 'oh just scroll down to wear you last read' but in this fic it was like... I know something was added... but where tho... 

Sox: Slide to the left 

Sox: Slide to the right 

AmberLehcar: Never beta for me, it's a nightmare. 

AmberLehcar: (That's a lie, please always beta for me, I need all the help I can get.) 

Sox: Yeah but working with you is a dream tbh. 

AmberLehcar: The nice thing about not writing linearly is that I could really easily work with my partners to add in ideas they had. I don't know that it was easy for them, but making it more of a collab that way was really neat for me. 

Q: Do you outline everything out beforehand? 

AmberLehcar: As much as I can. I derail if I don't.

Q: AmberLehcar, how did you decided where to put scenes/order them? 

AmberLehcar: I have an outline template I wrote up based on a youtuber's outlining method! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eP73LMnphqEUn20mKd78_EB_qPlbXjklvkXLknxl5R0/edit?usp=sharing. This is the outline that I've been using recently, it's been really helpful. You guys are welcome to use it! 

Q: Amber, would you say this outlining method helped? Just in comparison to past fics etc. 

AmberLehcar: Definitely. I have so many incomplete fics simply because I didn't outline or didn't outline enough. 

Q: So was the end planned? That is the hardest part for me. 

AmberLehcar: More or less. It definitely changed a lot. I don't have any versions of the original ending, and there's still stuff from the finished product I don't remember because I literally finished at 3 a.m. the day of posting. I always have a very clear image of how the opening to any chapter or fic goes, but the end is always weird. 

Q: Do you remember anything from the first version? How'd they differ? 

AmberLehcar: I know the first half was a little different at the start of Resbang last year, but I have the worst memory... There was definitely supposed to be more NB Crona. Crona was supposed to be kinda the comic relief, making comments about their computer sciences classes that Soul does not understand. They named their laptop Nora and talk about it like it's a person. "Sometimes when Nora doesn't do what I want, I have to hit her" or something like that, make Soul concerned for this poor child. The "octagonal day" joke made it to the final cut. I think there was a scene at the end where Crona and Soul were supposed to be good friends after the "there's 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't." Because it's a math joke and a binary joke.

Sox: Amber Sox: Is Sox: A Sox: NERD 

Q: What was the funnest part of the fic for you to write, Amber? Or the part you were looking forward to the most? 

AmberLehcar: Writing Black Star was fun. There's a few one liners that I love. My favorite bit is when Maka asks for his name and the next bit is "Nervous. Stupid. Sweating." I needed that smooch like life itself. I played with them kissing when Maka apologizes and they made up, but it didn't feel right. So I saved a sweet normal smooch for the end scene. 

Sox: I literally cackled out loud on a train reading "no party like a floor meeting party because a floor meeting party is MANDATORY." 

AmberLehcar: That was one of my other fave lines. My goals for the fic were representation, make it as realistic as possible, and make people feel things. I like to think I did a good job? 

Sox: You accomplished all. 

Peregrine: Man the parents thing hit me so hard, you did a good job. 

Q: I'd love to hear about your process/writing rituals? 

AmberLehcar: When it was a scene I was particularly excited to write or just suddenly inspired, I can just sit and write. But most of the time it's me sitting at the computer with tea asking myself why I do this to myself and then I just make myself write. 

Q: Is there anything else you wanted to add other than more NB Crona, Amber? 

AmberLehcar: When Pere showed me art of Soul's physical progression, I kinda wanted an epilogue of Soul post surgery, but time and lack of confidence in writing it well... I don't think anyone understands exactly how nervous I was to write this. I waffled a while with "you have no business writing this, you are cis, please stop." 

Peregrine: Nooo it's cool because you asked. I definitely didn't think I could write trans Soul but I hoped someone would, if they asked and did it right. Which you did. 

Sox: One of my close friends is trans, and when I sent him Eden, I thought he was going to tell me he hated me. And then he didn't and I was v relieved. 

AmberLehcar: I definitely wanted to be as respectful and real as possible. Again, representation matters, and I wanted to help create a thing I hadn't seen done in our fandom. 

Sox: You did good. 

AmberLehcar: I'm really glad. I stalked the boys' tags on their work along with my own, and someone had reblogged Pere's art and was really grateful for trans Soul. I was glad to be a part of that. 

Q: Did you make any playlists or anything like that to get into the writing mood? Or headspace of a character? 

AmberLehcar: For headspace, Soul and I are very similar. I too am a bag of anxiety and depression trying to pass as a human. A lot of my college and therapy experience went into the fic. There's little bits of me in pretty much everyone. 

Peregrine: I have my trans boy song i listened to a lot pfft. It's from Treasure Planet. 

Q: Ooo which song Pere? 

Peregrine: I'm Still Here. If you look at it through a trans lens its super fitting. It's like my fave song ever.

Some additional post-AMA discussion: 

Q: Amber, I think that's a sign of a good writer, to take from one's own experiences and such. 

AmberLehcar: Write what you know, right? And what you don't know, you find out. The whole experience definitely gave me a new appreciation for the LGBT+ community, that's for sure. I knew some stuff, but I learned so much. 

AmberLehcar: To go back and slightly change my answer for difficult scene to write, while all of ch4 was like swimming in syrup to get written, Mama Evans outburst was so difficult to write. There was just so much anger and I felt icky writing a lot of that chapter in general. Writing Maka having to purposely misgender him hurt. 

Peregrine: I really liked the parents thing actually even though i hated it. It felt raw and real. 

AmberLehcar: So much pain, the whole time I'm just like "why would I hurt my son like this???" 

Q: Noticed you guys were still talking and guh I loved your collective art/story!!! I now know the gap between dimensions can't be breached because if it could I'd have reached through the screen and force-choked Mama Evans. I was kind of mad at Maka too though like... I can understand that Soul needed some time to himself, away from her, to really figure things out, but ;-; 

AmberLehcar: Yes! Maka was an interesting situation to figure out. 

Peregrine: Yeah I loved what you did there actually, because as much as I wanted her to be perfect, she wasn't perfect. 

AmberLehcar: I didn't want her to just immediately come back like "sorry you startled me, let's get married." 

Peregrine: As much as I want people to immediately accept me, they don't, even if they do eventually. It wasn't fantasy perfect world, it was real world. 

Q: I think... that's good. At first I thought Maka would be more likely to start off rough around the edges and then end the story gracefully. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if you're going to relate realistic stories about trans people/anyone in a similar situation, you probably have to... I don't want to say "break the reader's heart" because that would imply that those stories can't have happy endings, which they can and should at least as often as any other kind of story, but it put me in Soul's shoes and made me accept how likely it is that someone who is trans/lgbt/otherwise oppressed will be badly hurt by someone they think the world of, someone who's hard to leave behind. I dunno if I spoke out of turn there, but i think it was an empathically-written story. In my inexperienced opinion. 

AmberLehcar: That's definitely what I was going for. I wanted Maka to be his closest friend, for his sake and for my shipping heart's sake. But she was just too good to be true when I was writing her, so her running away happened. I was so stuck after I wrote his confession, I didn't know how to have her react. But when I thought about some of the internalized transphobia I know I've been guilty of, it made sense to add for her. It felt real. 

Look out for some more transcripts, coming soon!! Thanks again to Amber, Pere and Sox for their awesome AMA <3

[sending-the-message]

Case #2- Youtube's Most Mysterious Vlogger Part 2 by JacobMielke

(Note: this is an update to my second case. To read Part 1, click here )

For the first two days, Moxxy didn’t answer my texts. Unusual for her, because she is very much a phone in hand kind of gal, but I let it go. Everyone needs space sometimes, right? On the third day she didn’t show for our coffee date and I tried calling her phone. A recorded message told me the number was disconnected. Then I began to worry. On day seven, after spending every minute I could at her favorite hangouts in hopes of seeing her, I decided something was definitely wrong.

I went to the police station to file a missing person's report and ended up making a fool of myself. We’d only known each other for about a month and a half and I’d yet to learn her address or any of her family’s names or even her last name. All I had was a defunct phone number, first name (Molly, which she hated, hence why she went by Moxxy) and description. I hoped that would be enough as Moxxy’s red hair and distinctive tattoos (of things like pokemon and Linda Blair’s face) stood out in a crowd, but apparently not. Without more information, there was nothing the police could do, though the sergeant promised to keep an eye out for her.

It didn’t matter anyway because I realized that night this was something the police couldn’t solve. They dealt in the material and their monsters were flesh and blood villains who followed the strict rules of the physical world. My monsters were more unpredictable.

I’ve never been the type to pay attention to dates unless I need to, and when I got home that day, I looked at a calendar for the first time in about a week. Then it clicked. The day Moxxy stopped texting me was July 11th, 2015. The anniversary of Scott Eric Cranston’s murder. And we’d wrapped up the case of Opperyke, the ghostly Youtuber, the week before. Or so I thought.

It was a hell of a coincidence, and I was rapidly losing my belief in coincidences.

I did fret at first that maybe I was wasting time chasing a supernatural explanation but what else could I do? Though I called myself an investigator, I wasn’t trained in any way. If the cops couldn’t find her, how could I? But I was the only one who could put the supernatural clues together, and I had to do something, even if Moxxy’s disappearance turned out to be a horror more suited to the world of police and sex traffickers and psychotic murderers.

The first step was to comb through the data we’d collected and see if there was anything relevant. It was a long shot, but thoroughness is a virtue. I made a to-do list on a sheet of paper (yes, I know that’s ridiculous given the context. I have mild ADD and a physical list helps keep me focused) and at the top I wrote the name of Opperyke’s hometown. Maybe I could find his address or family.

Next I opened the copy of Opperyke’s last video to see if he’d mentioned anything that could lead me. I’m not ashamed to admit revisiting the video filled me with dread. The last time I watched it, I had disturbing nightmares that turned out to have real world implications.

And that was before I knew I was watching and listening to a dead man speak.

I played the video but something was wrong. The image distorted, breaking Opperyke’s face into dozens of different colored lines on the screen. The audio was completely shot as well, just sounds and tones. I was about to click away when I heard a more discernible voice. It was quiet, but it clearly wasn’t Opperyke’s. I rewound that part again and again at maximum volume, trying to make it out.

“...how did...where...you and...I...help me...me, please!...Jacob!”

It was a woman’s voice. With the distortion, I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure it was Moxxy… but come on. It was Moxxy. I think anyone would have known the same in my shoes.

I didn’t know how, but there wasn’t a shadow of doubt in my mind that Opperyke was responsible for Moxxy’s disappearance. What baffled me was the sheer scale of the act. As a rule, ghosts are mostly harmless. They can barely work up the energy needed to open a door. For one to kidnap Moxxy, even if it’d somehow been in her exact location when it happened, defied reason.

Of course, that led to a possibility I really didn’t want to consider: maybe Opperyke wasn’t a ghost at all.

It wasn’t difficult to track down Opperyke’s next of kin. There weren’t many people living in Marietta, Ohio with the surname Cranston and I tracked down the Facebook profile of Melinda Cranston, Opperyke’s mother, within minutes. She didn’t post much; most of what I saw on her timeline were memorial posts for her deceased son and husband (how horrible for her to lose her son and husband in so short a time) and the occasional shared pie recipe. She wasn’t very cautious with her personal information. Her “about me” section contained her address and phone number, among other things.

I called her number and she answered on the first ring, which wasn’t nearly enough time for me to overcome my social anxiety.

“Hello?” Her voice was raspy and I hazarded a guess that she was at least a two pack a day smoker. That, or she had laryngitis.

“Hello, Ms. Cranston. My name is Jacob Mielke, I’m an author and I’m researching your son for an article I’m writing. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions?”

There was silence on the other end of the line and I almost thought the call dropped before Ms. Cranston angrily retorted: “My son’s tragedy is not some piece of gossip for you vultures to jump on. He isn’t a gimmick, or an urban legend, or a true crime story. He was a person. Can’t his memory get any goddamn respect?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Cranston, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“This is the real world. What you mean doesn’t actually mean shit.”

“Please, this is important. Someone’s life is at stake and I think your son may be involved.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Please, I want to know your son’s secret!” I don’t know why I blurted that out. It was an even more inappropriate thing to say to a grieving mother than the rest of the conversation (which was poorly handled, in hindsight). But it worked. Ms. Cranston was silent for several moments and when she spoke again, the anger was gone from her voice.

“Why did you say that?”

Things started to piece together in my head. “I think you know why. You’ve heard your son say it before, haven’t you?”

“That thing is not my son!”

“I know. I think it took my friend. I need to know more about it. Maybe if I figure out what it is, I can stop it. Maybe I can get her back.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know. Do you know where I live? You have to come here. There’s things you need to see.”

She refused to give further information than that over the phone, so there was no choice. I bought a Greyhound bus ticket (which wiped out my savings due to the short notice) for the next day. I called off work and told everyone I was going on a fishing trip. It was a tense journey and the longest part of it, Chicago, IL to Cleveland, Ohio, was spent in the company of a young man who didn’t believe in showering more than twice a month and had spent the entire previous night at a rave (and if I had to wager a guess, I’d say they raved in a sauna).

I had to hike part of the way to the Cranston house once I’d exhausted every possible public transportation option. When I got there, I found the door had been marked off with police tape. I spotted a man walking his dog on the road and asked what happened.

“Melinda Cranston had a heart attack. She called 911 and when the ambulance got there she was already dead. Damn shame, she was a great lady.”

Ms. Cranston was getting on in her years. It wasn’t unusual for a woman her age to suffer a cardiac arrest. As for the timing, well… coincidence? You know, that circumstance that I was sure didn’t actually exist?

Someone knocked on my motel room door later that night. There was no one there when I answered but a book was left in the hallway. It was bound in purple faux-leather and the first page identified it as Melinda Cranston’s diary. Someone had scrawled on the page: DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MY SECRET?

Some of the pages were marked with post-it notes. I turned to the first one.

Dec. 20th, 2012 One day until the end of the world apparently! I’m so glad Scott doesn’t believe that nonsense. He still insists something major is going to happen but at least he’s not throwing away his savings or anything foolish like that. Misty from down the street said…

I skimmed through the rest of the entry, which read like a love letter to a neighbor from a closet lesbian. Interesting, but not what I needed. I turned to the next posted page.

Dec. 21st, 2012 The world didn’t end! What a surprise! Not a thing happened… though Scott doesn’t seem to think so. He says that on days like this one, different worlds are closer together and sometimes things can come through. Like Halloween, I guess? I don’t know. He’s watching too many weird movies or something.

Feb. 3rd, 2013 I thought Scott let his little fantasies go. He didn’t talk about them at all last month but today he said he found a place where something came through. Apparently he was in Noonan Park walking the trails earlier and he found some creepy stone house or something. I swear, I don’t know how his mind works anymore.

There was something in my room with me. Call it my sixth sense or whatever, but I could tell I wasn’t alone. It came with the diary, I was sure of it.

March 13th, 2013 I’m so worried about Scott. He doesn’t talk, he barely eats. He just stays in his room all day. Lately he’s been talking about doing all the things he always wanted to do, like skydiving or starting that video channel of his. Should I talk to a doctor about this? I’m so scared my baby’s going to take his own life. I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.

May 20th, 2013 There was someone in Scott’s room last night. I woke up and needed to pee and while I was walking down the hall I heard him crying. Someone was talking to him. They asked if he wanted to know a secret.

That was the last entry in the diary. It was enough to piece together a rough estimation of what happened. Scott had a fixation with finding entities from other dimensions and believed something would happen on Dec. 21st, 2012 that would allow those entities passage to our dimension. He also believed he tracked down a location where one of those entities crossed over, a house in a park. Smart money was on him being correct in his theory, only the entity he found followed him back. From the sound of it, it was malevolent enough and strong enough to kill him and perhaps others (like Ms. Cranston).

There were still things I didn’t understand, like why did the entity carry on Scott’s dream of having a Youtube channel? And why was it leading me to the house in the park (it was clear to me by now this was the case)? If it wanted to kill me or teach me it’s “secret”, why the convoluted plan? It was strong enough to kill a human being and abduct another (I refused to believe she dead. Her absence didn’t make sense unless she was alive). Couldn’t it just come to me?

I looked up directions to Noonan Park. It was about ten miles from the motel, easily reachable on foot. I’d follow the trails and find the house. Whatever came next, I’d deal with it and hopefully at the end of the tunnel, I’d find Moxxy. Alive and safe.

The story of Mielke Investigation’s second case will conclude in Part 3. Read about our first case here . If you’d like updates on when the next posts are up, follow my author page here .