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apparitionism · 4 years ago

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Adventitious 4

Oh, look, it’s April, and this Christmas story is still not done. Previously in Adventitious: part 1 saw Myka wondering what Christmas gift to give Helena (recently returned to the S4-ish Warehouse after her dagger errand for Mrs. F, with no Boone detour polluting this version of history), in order to make her as-yet-unarticulated feelings clear. A ping intervened, sending Myka, Helena, Pete, and Steve to the Mall of America. In part 2, in order to deal with the artifact, Helena hypnotized Pete so as to make him fall asleep upon hearing a particular word. Part 3 delivered artifact neutralization and a lot of literal black eyes. It also delivered Myka and Helena to their hotel room, alone, on the verge of some confessions... and now those will be revealed! In a very talky fashion, of course.

Adventitious 4

It did take a moment. Looking, not moving. For once, Myka was not telling herself how anything would go, and Helena was neither encroaching nor retreating. Marking the moment instead, because “before” was one state, and “after” would be a different, unknown condition.

I don’t touch people just to touch them, Myka thought. She shook hands, of course, and she punched Pete. She had grabbed Helena, this very day, by her arms, pulling with strength, feeling superhuman as she did so.

But now they both moved at once, touching each other just to touch: hands and arms colliding, not superhuman but human, points of connection arbitrary, touching just to touch—and then their lips were meeting for a first time, for a kiss but not a kiss, more a push, a pressured question: Are you really there?

The answer was too overwhelming to make any sense. Myka pulled away, and Helena seemed to do the same.

“Was that wrong?” Myka choked.

“I can’t believe it,” was Helena’s response: like she had got something she wanted after having fully convinced herself it was impossible. This feeling now permeating Myka’s heart? It was there to be heard in Helena’s voice.

Her voice. Myka had never imagined Helena’s voice like this, and that she herself was the cause of it? Add it to all the “never before” of this day—put it in place of the first kiss, in fact, which was always going to be, always going to have been, too much to process. Which still did not seem at all real. At all material.

They sat together, angled slightly away from each other, jaws aslack, as if similarly stunned.

Myka spoke first. Because someone had to. “For so long, I wished I could have this back again.”

“This?” Helena said, like the word came from no dictionary. “You—we—haven’t had this. Or do you mean, have this back again with anyone?” There Myka heard a little lace of hurt, a fear that Helena herself might be only an interchangeable “anyone.”

The idea that Helena could ever be so generic was of course laughable... but Myka knew better than to laugh. Instead, she defined “this”: “I mean you being so close to me. You used to move so close, all the time.” Their arms—Myka’s left, Helena’s right—were ghosting against each other, an echo of that so-close, not-quite.

“I did do that. Before. When my purposes were... sullied. I haven’t wanted to remind you. I’ve been attempting to present a better version of myself.”

“I don’t want a better version.”

“I’m terribly sorry, but that is unconvincing.”

At that, Myka did feel free to laugh, quiet in the dark, against Helena’s starchy little reassertion of her daytime self. “Whatever, Steve.”

Helena smiled, then settled her face down. “Even the better version fails to... fit. With your teams. I feel the strain.”

“I’m just going to say ‘Steve’ again. Both ways.” How could Helena be insecure about Steve? Steve, who clearly adored her? But of course Myka knew how Helena could be insecure, about Steve and everything else. Because none of it could ever be fully fixed—just managed.

“He is gracious,” Helena said. “You all are.”

Myka laughed again, happy in the moment to be able to do so. “No we’re not. Pete can’t even spell ‘gracious.’”

“You are.”

“I’m not gracious at all,” Myka said, even as she thought on grace and motives—whether she had been in fact trying to bestow something that wasn’t hers to give. “Not at all,” she concluded. “What do you think this is?” She meant it as, How could you or I or anyone mistake this for graciousness when it is painfully clear that it is stark, stark want. It had always been, in response to every version of Helena she’d seen. Every single one.

She should have said that part out loud, for Helena cocked her head, that turn and twist that said We are not on the same page. “What do I think this is? The most astonishing gift. I thought my life but instead this.”

“This isn’t instead of anything. Besides, your life is more important.”

“Don’t quibble. What is more important now?” Weirdly, endearingly testy.

“I’m not quibbling,” Myka objected, responding to the testy. But then: “Never mind,” she said, low, because she had turned a bit more toward Helena to answer, and they were so close now, so humanly close, and Myka could not resist leaning for more of a kiss—the second, on their so-new continuum, but the first that she intended. Her prior efforts at the art of kissing, over the course of her life, were now revealed as amateurish, but then again they didn’t matter; she and Helena were sudden animals, wanting and taking, no hesitation, no negotiation.

The unmagnificent view with its lumping of snow was a memory—in sharp contrast, they were heat, edges, nothing cold, nothing smooth. Myka surprised herself: she was precise, decisive. But of course she had honed herself for this; for years she had wanted, waited, whetted.

Awkward, glorious. Scapulae. Ribs. Hipbones. Friction. The rough joy of abrasion.

But abrasion and its cousins had their downside. Myka, too overcome to be gentle, ran her hand over Helena��s face, and Helena flinched; Myka took her hand away. “This beautiful face of yours. I’m hurting you.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do. I mean I would, if you did, or I mean I do, even if you—”

Helena stopped her, and now Myka could process a kiss, this one, and more...

“I’m yours,” Helena said, from below Myka. From below Myka. “Yours to damage as you wish.”

Myka protested, as coherently as she could, “No, no, no, I don’t want to hurt you. I want to heal you.”

In response, Helena pressed her mouth to Myka’s ear, and in a hum that seemed to penetrate directly into its inner bony labyrinth, said, “They are the same.”

That spoke to a deep, deep well, one that Myka didn’t know whether or how to try to plumb. She lost her focus, shook her head, managed only a weak, “The implications of that...”

“We can chase those down later,” Helena said. “Much, much later.”

So for now: careful, careful. In all Myka’s imaginings of how she might touch Helena, in the deepest of lonely nighttime wishes, she had thought “reverently,” she had thought “heatedly,” she had even thought “desperately,” but she had never, would never have, predicted any need to be so physically careful.

But careful she was, and careful she was rewarded. She had never before been intimate with someone who gasped “perfect,” in simultaneous abandon and self-possession, and it was so striking she said it back, in barely voluntary agreement. Helena turned her head away. Myka did not grasp, for a breath of a moment, that Helena had turned to hide tears. When she did grasp it, she ran her own face soft against that salt.

The skin-to-skin moments before sleep were a gift all their own: this at-last relaxing from years, years, years of tension. A universe of new issues had been raised, but how vast the ways in which they might fork and branch... Myka couldn’t even begin to formulate how things would go.

Give up the habit, she told herself as her shoulder began to numb under the weight of a solid head, as her skin wavered between exultant and uncomfortably warm due to the presence of a solid body against hers.

The next morning, another sight new to Myka: Helena asleep, only inches away.

Irresistible. Of all the never-before-seens, this the most.

But Myka spent that early morning, with Helena beside her, resisting: she reflected on want—reflected on whether it would be all right to wake Helena up, based on that want, then concluded that it would be impolite, given the day she’d had yesterday. Want, though... Myka understood, now, that she’d been distracting herself from its immensity by concentrating on the “perfect present” idea, keeping physical hunger at bay, minute on minute. Easier to think about what to give Helena than to be forced by her body to focus on what she wanted from Helena.

The vision of Helena asleep merited a lyric poem, but the world would have to be deprived of such a document: Myka herself couldn’t scribe it into art, yet she knew quite clearly that she wanted no other witness to this fine sight. Stay away, poets. This is mine.

Helena’s lips moved, shifting the shadows on her face. A talking dream? What would Helena say in her dreams? A passage from a research rabbit-hole about the Greek Magical Papyri materialized unbidden in front of Myka’s eyes: “to know the secrets of a certain woman’s dreams, the petitioner ‘takes a strip of hieratic papyrus, inscribes it with powerful names and characters, wraps it around a hoopoe’s heart that has been marinated in myrrh,’ and then tucks it in next to her sleeping body.” Myka considered the possibility of laying hands on hieratic papyrus, a hoopoe’s heart, and myrrh... surely the Warehouse database could give her a line on such things... and that couldn’t possibly be the same thing as using an artifact for personal gain...

As if intending to interrupt Myka’s dream-wondering, Helena woke then, quickly, evincing no transition from deep into lighter sleep; her eyes sprang open.

Or you could just ask, Myka told herself against those sudden-focus eyes. If only to spare the poor hoopoe. And: Now you should be able to ask. Bodies together. Be brave. Thus pushed, she murmured, “Were you dreaming?”

Helena said, “I’m dreaming now. I must be.” Quiet. Low.

Myka wanted to fly. “Beautiful answer.”

“Beautiful questioner.”

Flying higher. “Maybe we’re both dreaming.”

Those lips moved again, a little moue, correct for the moment. “Would we both dream this particular hotel room? With its ‘view’?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what hotel room you’re talking about. I’m in paradise.” Too much? It was probably too much, even if Myka was being brave enough to—

“So am I. But I didn’t want to assume.”

Satisfying. But: “I don’t want to assume either,” Myka said, because she had just had a troubling thought, one that demanded airing. “What if this was just once, to find out? Because if you wait for something long enough, you just desperately need to find out. So now we’ve found out. Is that it?” Helena didn’t speak, so Myka chose to soldier on, “Finding out isn’t enough for me. It’ll have to be, if you say that’s all, but I want more.”

“More,” Helena said, at her most single-word inscrutable. But then she said, “For the life of me—the literal life of me—I can’t imagine our not doing this again. And again and again. And all that those agains entail. I know you don’t take this lightly.”

Weak with relief, Myka said, “I didn’t know, not for sure, that you wouldn’t either.”

“I didn’t know what I took lightly or heavily or otherwise, when I was showing that worse version of myself.”

“Those days are really gone? Mostly gone?” They had never had this conversation out loud.

Helena shifted her body. “A reasonable question. I’m trying very hard. My purposes... they may not be completely unsullied, but they are less sullied.” She paused. “Or not. Where do my attempts to persuade you to think better of me fall on a dirty-purpose scale?”

“All I know is that I think of you. Better, worse... it’s probably going to fluctuate. So you don’t have to work so hard. For example, you can do the I-don’t-understand-personal-space thing. If you want.” It was a proffer, but also a wish: to touch the forbidden-charm livewire of earlier, headier days.

“If you want,” Helena said, in a return to that soft politesse.

“I might pretend I don’t.” Pretending back to those earlier days... so as not to relinquish them entirely.

“I like that we could have secrets between us.” That was soft, too, but rich, thickening on the word “like.”

That put Myka in mind of the past as well. “I think we always have.”

“Others do think they know how to read. How to make meaning. But we’ve done differently.”

Myka said, “We have. And speaking of reading, sort of”—a little feint of nonchalance regarding her so-long preoccupation—“there’ll be a present under the tree for you. Maybe a book? I’m not sure. But there’ll be one.”

“I haven’t put a gift out for you either.”

Myka refrained from noting that she was already hyper-aware of that. “You really don’t have to. Especially now.”

“Especially now, I do. But I had hoped something brilliant would occur to me.”

“Something in that vein generally does.”

“However, you flummox me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Thank heaven, you are revealed to be not Steve,” Helena said, with drama. Myka kissed her temple in rebuke, and Helena responded with a similarly rebuking push of that temple against Myka’s cheekbone. “Don’t interrupt my narration. Like you, I told myself ‘I could buy her a book.’ But what book? I had no sufficiently meaningful ideas. My next thought was ‘I could buy her some expensive bauble.’ But you said it: you aren’t materialistic. I know that. Knew that. And yet there I was, thinking to buy you something rather than give you something. Fully wrong. I then tried to research what I might appropriately give you. Gift-giving comes to signify differently over time, you know.”

“Does it,” Myka said, falling a little drowsy at the lull of Helena’s voice, feeling that nodding allowable now that some (not all) things seemed resolved; she had the luxury of not needing to care what Helena might have given her, not after what she had this night given. Time and strength for curiosity later. Time and strength for everything later. Thank god.

Helena nodded, clearly not respecting the drowse... but at least her movement came against Myka’s neck. “Jewelry highly recommended. Were I a man, that is. I found very little help for what a woman should give to a woman. Nothing seems to speak so directly. So meaningfully.”

“No one’s ever wanted to give me anything meaningful before.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“No one that I knew about.” And certainly no one like you.

“Those other potential givers, of whom I’m sure there were many, should have informed you of their intentions. So that you would know. As I’m doing now.”

“It’s very weird to know about it,” Myka said. It was even weirder that she could, or would, say that out loud.

“As Claudia would ask: bad weird or good weird?” Helena asked, putting a surprisingly correct pin in it.

“All the weird.” And in that moment Myka couldn’t hold back a spring of the tears she had, earlier, managed to work her way around.

Helena didn’t try to console her, not directly. Instead, she said, “Speaking, perhaps, of the weird: I did have an idea. Very early on. Of something I could myself make, to give to you.”

The words gave Myka time to clear her eyes, clear her emotions. “What was your idea?”

“You’ll laugh.”

“At the weird?”

“At the irony.”

“Okay.”

Helena sighed. “An advent calendar.”

“Seriously?”

“Ironically.”

Myka chuckled. “Only if it had to do with discounts. Otherwise really just a coincidence.”

“It did not have to do with discounts.”

“What did it have to do with?” This conversation was turning out to involve a lot of tooth-pulling, which Myka found in itself sort of ironic, given what they had spent the night doing. Though she should have understood physical intimacy would be no overarching fix for communication roadblocks.

“It was intended to be...” Helena sighed again. “Incrementally revelatory.”

“Of?”

“This.”

The difficulties of defining that word. “This? This romantic ‘this’?”

“Yes. That I... wanted this.”

“You were going to draw it out over a month?” Myka barely, raggedly held back an enormous bark of laughter. As it was, she was afraid Helena would misread the shudder the holdback caused.

“I thought perhaps such progression could be symbolic.”

“Of?” Myka strangled out.

“I hadn’t entirely thought that through.”

“Liar.” This conversation they might have had across a room, but it was happening in bed, body against body. Unbelievable.

“I truly do need only one Steve, thank you,” Helena said, reinforcing body on body, moving her legs against Myka’s, making Myka think strongly again on want. Unbelievable—yet here was the evidence. “Symbolic of? The passage of anticipatory time, I suppose. The future: there being one, toward which you might anticipate your way?”

“See, just a coincidence. Advent-calendar-wise, I don’t think those people at the mall cared much about the passage of anticipatory time.”

“I disagree. They seemed to care very much indeed, if only to reduce its length.”

“But you wanted to draw it out.”

“But as you see, I lost my nerve.”

“You. Lost your nerve.” Preposterous. Helena was nerve.

“Well, the proof: are you at present in possession of an advent calendar?” Helena asked.

“Yes. It’s in a static bag over on the desk there. Steve gave it to me.”

“Funny,” Helena said, and Myka felt her lips move, most likely only a little smirky curve, but the movement.

That move of lips recalled all the moves of lips, and Myka had to breathe, very carefully, before she could speak. She eventually said, “See, Steve’s wrong; you do know a thing or two about jokes. So what would I have opened a window of an H.G. Wells–created calendar to reveal today, if not a deep discount on those mocha truffles Pete wanted so bad?”

Helena shifted a bit away, then turned her body, up and onto her elbow, to regard Myka. “I hadn’t worked it all the way through, but.” She moved her mouth, tilted her head, shifted her shoulders—all very familiar to Myka as Helena-speak for the discomfort of self-judgment. “Given how little simple time we’ve spent together, I had thought to suggest”—now a throat-clear—“activities for the two of us. Or perhaps topics we might discuss. Today, for example, the directive might have been to prepare a meal of our mutual choosing. Or to speak of our childhood Christmases. As you see, my creativity was somewhat impaired. By.” A little shrug. “Sentimentality.”

And you think I wouldn’t have jumped you, December the first, offered any such thing. Or wanted to, desperately. “I would have been... delighted by that,” Myka said. “By any of those.”

“That pleases me more than you can imagine.” Helena emphasized this with a press of her lips to Myka’s, one that they both seemed to understand should stay calm. “But the start of December seemed too early to initiate such things. I’d been back for so short a time. And to try, or to appear to try, to push you in any way struck me as not etiquette.”

“Whatever happened to ‘change the rules’?” Myka asked, intending it as a tease.

Helena clearly didn’t hear it that way: “A better version of myself,” she reproved.

With no tease at all, Myka said, “A rule-following version isn’t better. Just different.”

“You adore rules.”

Myka knew that Helena knew this, but there was still some pleasure in hearing her say it out loud. Out loud and as a justification for what Helena had been trying to perform into being. “I do,” she affirmed. And I adore you, you rule-changer. “I’m complicated. And also incompetent. My present for you—that currently nonexistent present—was supposed to be symbolic too: ‘Oh, here’s what will make all these ungovernable feelings clear.’ Because I couldn’t find a way to say the word ‘love.’”

“Wait,” Helena said.

TBC

Note: I took Myka’s dream-passage from the July 2, 2020 issue of The New York Review of Books: Marina Warner is reviewing Radcliffe G. Edmonds III’s Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World, and she’s quoting from another book, Richard Kieckhefer’s Magic in the Middle Ages, to describe that spell from the Greek Magical Papyri. The actual translation from the Papyri is more explicit: “Spell for causing talk while asleep: Take the heart of a hoopoe and place it in myrrh. And write on a strip of hieratic papyrus the names and the characters and roll up the heart in the strip of papyrus and place it upon her pudenda and ask your questions. And she will confess every/thing to you” (from The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, edited by Hans Dieter Betz). Anyway Myka couldn’t, in this vaguely season-4 time frame, have seen Warner’s 2020 review, but I liked the hoopoe’s-heart business and was too lazy to work out having her find it another way. (Edmonds’s book is captivating, in any case.)

#bering and wells #Warehouse 13 #fanfic #Adventitious #part 4 #I find it a little funny to be posting something Christmas-y on Easter #even though it's obviously not a joke #I have a lot of respect for people who can write (and tell!) jokes #particular setup-punchline ones #the philosophy of jokes and humor and comedy demands such careful thinking #and laughter is so complicated

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sunnydaleherald · 3 years ago

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, October 8

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

God Save the Prom Queen (Cordelia, PG-13) by an0ther_dreamer

Magic Man (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by touchstoneaf

A Blissful Reprise (Angel/Spike, R) by Gabriel_Is_My_Guardian_Angel89

Recreational Reunion (Darla/Spike, PG-13) by Gabriel_Is_My_Guardian_Angel89

Surrogate Vampire (Lindsey/Spike, NC-17) by Gabriel_Is_My_Guardian_Angel89

The braggart trumped by honor (Ensemble, PG-13) by Bl4ckHunter

What Should Have Been (Buffy/Tara, R) by Susan19

after all this time I'm still (into you) (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by

Iron Work (Xander, NCU xover, G) by MelTodd

Cookies Redo: Take 1 (Buffy/Spike, R) by bruskiboo

[Chaptered Fiction]

Xander's Wedding Gift Chapter 1 (Buffy/Xander, NC-17) by drchemist

Lemon Giles Chapter 3 (Buffy/Giles, NC-17) by froxyn, Skyson. Complete story

Marmelade Skies Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Popsy

(wishing only) wounds the heart Chapter 17 (Giles/Jenny, PG-13) by summers-maclay-lehane (ofstormsandwolves)

Kinktober Drabbles Chapter 8 (Buffy/Giles, NC-17) by Skyson

Runaway Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, Not Rated) by 19BBY

Careful What You Wish For Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by JWS1993

what you make Chapter 11 (Giles/Jenny, PG-13) by The_Eclectic_Bookworm

The Three of Us Chapter 31 (Buffy/Cordelia/Faith, NC-17) by Crash

Damaged at Best Chapter 10 (Faith/Tara, PG-13) by BuffyBot3000

we're on a road to nowhere (come along and take that ride) Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, R) by alittlemoretime

Kill Me Now Chapter 3 (Tara/Willow, Gilmore Girls xover, G) by Buffyworldbuilder

let me take you by the hand (and drag you through the streets of london) Chapter 10 (Spike/John Constantine, Hellblazer xover, NC-17) by JupiterMelichios

Older and Farther Away Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, R) by untouchable

Boon Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Soulburnt

A weapon of victory Chapter 4 (Buffy, Lord of the Rings xover, G) by fpb

Buffy Lands in Fangtasia Chapter 5 (Buffy, True Blood xover, NC-17) by NihilAsara

Ultra Awful Chapter 1 (Xander, MCU xover, PG-13) by Nycorson

Echoes of Beljoxa Chapter 47 (Buffy/Spike, R) by myrabeth

[Images, Audio & Video]

Fanvid: What You Waiting For? (Buffy) by StainedRedFlowers

Artwork: Vampire Buffy drawing by GWhizKatlifa

[Reviews & Recaps]

BuffyForums: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? - One of Angel's Finest Episodes by PuckRobin

[Fandom Discussions]

The Chosen Two (What’s My Line) by herinsectreflection

How do the BtVS S6 Buffy/Spike haters explain BtVS S7 and Season 8-12? by beeemkcl

BtVS S4 Highlights by PuckRobin

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

ScreenRant: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: One Quote From Each Character That Perfectly Sums Up Their Personality

CBR.com: Buffy The Vampire Slayer's New Big Bad Already Took Down Two Major Heroes

ScreenRant: What Buffy’s Michelle Trachtenberg Would’ve Done Differently On The Show

#btvs #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy #ats #angel the series

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shatinn · 1 year ago

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Sims 4 game play (baby bum with christmas tree shots)

pose @cassandragrusel86

mod lie on lap @mercuryfoam

#Sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4 game play #bub going to be a Christmas present #kind of love it #fallout in sims 4 #my s4 courier #my s4 Boone #s4/fo polaroid series #shatinn plays sims 4

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eldian-siren · 4 years ago

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New Verse Introduction!

Holy shit. Okay. This might get long, y'all, the inspiration struck HARD with this one. So for SOME weird-ass reason, I hadn't gotten around to playing Territory Recovery Mode yet in AOT2. Just focused on the Story Mode and some Another Mode missions from time to time. But I finally started playing it today and BOY oh boy, lemme tell you ... I shoulda been on this shit a LOT sooner. Okay. So the in-game lore for this game mode is that a new regiment is being founded for the sole purpose of slowly but surely recovering EVERY inch of territory lost to the titans from Wall Rose to Wall Maria in a long-ass military campaign. You literally DESIGN your own regiment, from the ground up--name, insignia, and who commands it (which sadly doesn't come with any new/unique symbol designs, it's just the Scout/Garrison/MP/Cadet logos reused). So right away, the gears in my little head are turning ... and this is what I came up with...

Meet ... the Slayer Regiment. In this verse, Cyrica's true nature as a half-shifter is uncovered during the mission in Stohess to "apprehend" Annie as dire circumstances force her to have to change of the battle in front of her comrades in order to protect lives (either theirs, civilians, or possibly both). Though not thrilled that she had kept it hidden, it leads to the birth of a entirely new regiment to give Paradis the combat edge that would have once instead gone to Marley--the Pseudo-Titan. With Hange's help, they manage to use Cyrica's spinal fluid to reverse-engineer an injectable serum that subjects any Eldian human it's given to ... to the same awakening process that she, herself, went through. However, said process has a HIGH mortality rate, as it's not guaranteed to work every time. To use another franchise as an example, it's a very similar concept to the Grey Wardens in Dragon Age--taking a highly dangerous substance into themselves that will either flat-out kill them ... or imbue them with power. Those that survive this process and acquire access to a Pseudo-Titan form become members of the Slayers--a highly-specialized military force comprised entirely of half-shifters employing modified ODM gear that is small and compact enough to remain on their person even between shifting forms. Out in the field, Slayers are assigned partners. At all times, one of them will be in half-titan form while the other remains human, switching roles as needed to support one another. This is for two main reasons. The first is that rather than using horses for fast ground travel, Pseudo-Titans are used as land mounts that also happen to be able to scale vertical surfaces at full-speed. Secondly, one of the strongest perks of the Pseudo-Titan is the ability to scent enemy titans for miles, much like a giant bloodhound, which makes for easier coordination of attack and defense. During missions where the Slayers are working in tandem with other regiments, this rule is temporarily suspended and ALL Slayers instead have clearance to remain in half-titan form so that their human allies can reap the same benefits. As the "patient zero", so to speak, Cyrica becomes the Commander of this highly unorthodox regiment and is also designated the 'Alpha' of all other Pseudo-Titans within the Slayers. The uniform used by the Slayers employs a similar color scheme to the S4 version of the Scouts, only without all the technological advancements. Rather than using standard-issue swords, which would be lost during the shifting of forms, Slayers instead wear retractable blades upon their forearms that come preloaded with four replacement blades each. The ODM equipment they use is about half the size of that used by standard soldiers. While not as fast and powerful as the traditional model, and also possessing a smaller gas capacity, the boon of not being lost between transformations remains its strongest benefit. Expect the future appearance of additional OCs on this blog for this specific verse, in the form of Cyri's own personal squad, because I can. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

#SubjectDossier (Headcanons)#LeaderOfThePack (Slayer AU)#as usual i put waaaaaaay too much thought into this shit XD #AND THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING #lol why do i do this to myself?

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papermoonloveslucy · 4 years ago

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THE BOB HOPE SHOW

May 3, 1949

“The Bob Hope Show” ~ After a dozen years as “The Pepsodent Show”, Pepsodent pulled its sponsorship in June 1948. Despite cancellation, Hope still continued on radio. Lever Brothers' Swan soap began sponsoring the show, which premiered on September 14, 1948 on NBC. Doris Day was the only one of Hope's former co-stars to continued to perform on the new show. Airing Tuesdays at 9, the program was at direct competition with the new sitcom “Life with Luigi”, which aired at the same time on CBS. “Life with Luigi” proved to be the season's new hit, crushing “The Bob Hope Show” in the ratings. Like Pepsodent before, due to the poor ratings, Swan pulled its sponsorship in 1950. The last Swan-sponsored episode of the program aired on June 13. On October 3, 1950 “The Bob Hope Show” premiered under the sponsorship of Chesterfield cigarettes. Over the next five years, it aired under various sponsors, including Jell-O and General Foods, in various timeslots until its final episode aired on April 21, 1955.

CAST

Bob Hope made his radio debut on NBC in May 1937. He became a top-rated fixture on Tuesday nights with his theme song, "Thanks for the Memories". His legendary broadcasts from military bases around the world helped boost American morale during the dark days of World War II. Over the years, his radio regulars included Jerry Colonna, Brenda and Cobina, Vera Vague, Wendall Niles, and orchestras led by Skinnay Ennis and Les Brown. Featured singers on the show included Judy Garland, Frances Langford, Doris Day, and Gloria Jean. Hope's radio career lasted well into the mid-1950s. By then, he had become a major movie and television star doing four films, and numerous television programs with Lucille Ball. He died on July 29, 2003, at the age of 100.

Lucille Ball was then a film star with her own weekly radio show, “My Favorite Husband”, which had just aired “Vacation Time” on April 29, 1949. Her new film with Bob Hope, Sorrowful Jones, would premiere in June 1949. In February 1949 she had made her first national TV appearance on “Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall”, quickly followed by an episode of “The Milton Berle Show.”

Doris Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" with Les Brown & His Band of Renown. She left Brown to embark on a solo career and recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967. Day was one of the biggest film stars in the 1950s and '60s. Surprisingly, Lucille Ball never acted opposite Doris Day in films or television, but she did interview her for her CBS radio show “Let’s Talk To Lucy” #144 on March 22, 1965. She died in 2019 at age 97.

Irene Ryan is the least remembered of Bob Hope’s female stooges. Her mousy Miss Ryan character told Hope week after week that she was, “Feeling about as well as could be expected,” before launching into a string of hypochondriac jokes. Irene Noblette and husband Tim Ryan went into radio in 1933 after a vaudeville and minor movie career. They kept busy in radio for ten years, four of them as stars of their own shows, including 1937's Royal Crown Revue. After their divorce in 1943, Irene kept the Ryan name and worked in some 20 low budget movie comedies and shorts plus occasional radio roles. While with Hope’s troupe she continued her screen work and drifted into occasional television roles in the 1950's. In 1962, at age 60 and ready to retire as a relative unknown, Irene Ryan was cast as “Granny” Daisy Mae Moses in a new television sitcom, “The Beverly Hillbillies”. The show was an immediate hit that endured for nine seasons on CBS-TV. In 1972, when she was 70, she co-starred on Broadway in the musical hit Pippin. She collapsed on stage a year later and died of a stroke, leaving a million dollars to the Irene Ryan Foundation which provides scholarships to collegiate acting students.

Bill Farrell was first spotted by Bob Hope in a night club in Buffalo, New York in 1947. Hope was impressed with Farrell's powerful baritone voice and smooth delivery and he invited Farrell to Hollywood. Hope featured him on his weekly radio show. In 1949 Farrell enjoyed a minor hit with his recording of "Circus" which reached #26 in the Billboard charts.

The Four Hits and A Miss consisted of four male singers and one female (thus the word "miss" in their name has a double meaning). They were variously known as Three Hits and A Miss, and even Six Hits and a Miss, as members came and went, mainly due to wartime service. They performed musical numbers in several Hollywood films of the 1940s.

The New Les Brown Band performed with Bob Hope on radio, stage and television for almost fifty years. They did 18 USO Tours, and entertained over three million people. The first film that Brown and the band appeared in was Seven Days' Leave (1942) starring Victor Mature and Lucille Ball.

Hy Averback (Announcer) played Charlie Appleby on “I Love Lucy” in “Baby Pictures” (ILL S3;E5), although the character would be re-cast with George O'Hanlon in season six. He played another Charlie, Charlie Pomerantz, in “The Hedda Hopper Story” (ILL S4;E21) on March 14, 1955. Averback transitioned from acting to directing, becoming Emmy nominated for “M*A*S*H.”

EPISODE

Bob Hope’s opening monologue includes top news of the day, including:

Russia starting to advertise on billboards.

Bob Hope’s return from his whirlwind tour.

Hope and Averback promote the “Swan CARE Campaign” delivering Swan Soap to needy children in Europe.

Doris Day sings “Havin’ a Wonderful Wish” from Sorrowful Jones.

Doris Day and Hope reminisce about a party at Bob's house, given for the crew of the flight that shuttled Hope on his whirlwind tour. They talk about the food and Hope’s serving small portions. Miss Ryan interrupts their chat. She was also at the party, briefly. She had to leave early due to her bad back. She talks about the fundraising efforts of her club and why she has remained single for so long.

Averback and Hope make another pitch for the “Swan CARE Campaign”.

Bill Farrell sings “Careless Hands”.

Hope introduces “his favorite redhead” - Lucille Ball - and they discuss their new movie, Sorrowful Jones. He admires her hair.

BOB: “If you get together with ‘The Boy with Green Hair’ you’d make a terrific traffic signal!”

He thanks her for not making a crack about his nose. She says she appreciated it.

LUCY: “It was such an easy place to hang my coat every morning.”

Lucy says she loved working at Paramount and hopes that they make another picture together soon. He asks her about “My Favorite Husband” on ‘that other network’. She says that her show has great ratings. She tells him the premise of the show.

He compares her domestic situation on radio with the couples he he has seen in films, like Kentucky (1938), a Romeo and Juliet story set amidst horse racing in Kentucky. They launch into a sketch playing Ma and Pa.

PA: “A-Okay, Ma. Get the children in the house and we’ll eat.” MA: “Alright, I’ll get Elam, Rufus, Walter, Albert, Effie Mae, Janie, Betty Lou, Charles, Si, Jack, Fred, George, Ellie, Billy, Clarence, Hiram, Helen, and Jean.” PA: “And I’ll get John, Harvey, Cletus, Zeke, Daniel Boone, Judy, Joan, Nancy, Carolyn, Birdie, Eleanor, Little Daisy, Sam, Kate, Tom, Abner, and Teddy.” MA: “Well, that takes care of the twins. Who’ll get the single ones?”

Hope says another interesting husband and wife is a Brooklyn cab driver and his wife. The band plays “The Sidewalks of New York”. Hope and Ball do Brooklyn accents for their characters.

In closing, as usual, Hope sings “Thank for the Memory” with special lyrics about the episode, including the Swan Soap CARE Campaign.

#Bob Hope #Lucille Ball #Swan Soap #Irene Ryan #Doris Day #Sorrowful Jones #bill farrell #Hy Averback #Les Brown #radio #NBC

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jonnysinsectcatalogue · 4 years ago

Photo

Red-Legged Comb-Claw Beetle - Androchirus erythropus

Darkling Beetles are quite numerous, especially where vegetation is allowed to flourish. They resemble Ground Beetles somewhat, so careful inspection may be required to discern them. Fear not, like Ground Beetles, Darkling Beetles are a boon to any forest or garden. Reason being that they are commonly seen feeding on older plants,leaf litter, dung fungus and other decaying material. With a good amount of insects clearing away the clutter and dead material, they allow new life to flourish. Quite handy to have some helpers like this in the Royal Botanical Gardens. While their function is important to thriving nature, researching them has been quite a task as there are many of them to go through. Seriously, a lot of them! There are quite a handful that choose to call Ontario home. Researching for the identity of this individual was difficult, but the trail of nomenclature also allowed me to discover the identities of a few more species that will be presented in a future post (whose photos were also taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens). I’m not 100% certain, but I’ve narrowed the identification of this Beetle down to either A. erythropus or Pseudocistela brevis.

Both Beetles look remarkably similar to one another but after searching through all the imaging and papers I can, my gut says to go with the former. Who knows, I could be wrong. If anyone can help confirm or deny this, I’d appreciate it. Both have been observed in Ontario around this time, so anything is possible. Nevertheless, whichever Beetle specie this is, both belong to the same subfamily with the Darkling Beetle family. Specifically, the subfamily Alleculinae, or Comb-Clawed Beetles. They were given this name as the claws at the end of their legs (tarsi) are lined with small, but stiff hair-like structures that resemble a comb’s hairs, almost like spines. These pictures sadly don’t highlight this feature and unfortunately you may need macro lens or a dissection microscope to properly visualize these spines. All that can really be ascertained is this Beetle’s need to stay hidden in the shadow, red-colored legs, its resemblance is that of a large Click Beetle and that it towers over the mites it shares the concrete with! It’s an interesting specimen and there’s much more to learn from it. Hope to find one again next time I get the chance to visit the gardens. They’re lucky to have this insect and fellow Darklings there.

Pictures were taken on June 10, 2017 at the Royal Botanical Gardens with a Samsung Galaxy S4

#jonny’s insect catalogue #insect #beetle #red legged comb claw beetle #coleoptera #darkling beetle #Royal Botanical Gardens #june2017 #2017 #ontario insect #entomology #nature #invertebrates #arthropods #photography #animals

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janiedean · 5 years ago

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meme

tagged by @bluetheon ty!!!

rules: pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. don’t cheat. tag 10 (or however many) people.

1. deadwood

2. the wire

3. lost

4. sex ed

5. breaking bad

who is your favorite character in 2?

OMAR OMAR OMAR AND DID I SAY OMAR but mcnulty and stringer were a soldi 2 and 3

who is your least favorite character in 1?

cy tolliver and not just because he was an ass but because he was there to not have character development and who cares. team al for liifeeeeeeee

what is your favorite episode of 4?

HMMMMMMM THE SEASON 2 FINALE FOR OBVIOUS REASONS MY FRIEND

what is your favorite season of 5?

oh god it’s hard because they were all a banger but I think the last one counting 5a and 5b as one season T_T

who is your favorite couple in 3?

... jack/boone, to NO ONE’S SURPRISE most likely but talking about canon couples then desmond/penny

who is your favorite couple in 2?

the wire wasn’t really a show for shipping tbh but I kinda crackshipped mcnulty/omar ad stringer/mcnulty for the hatesex lmao

what is your favorite episode of 1?

AAAAAAAH OH GOD DEADWOOD IT’S SO HARD OUT OF THE REGULAR EPS DEFINITELY A CONSTANT THROB THOUGH NO OTHER SONS OR DAUGHTERS IS ALSO A BANGER AND THE S2 FINALE ALSO WAS AMAZINGBALLS but like... the movie counts as one? because... maybe... then it could be the movie for how good it was but if we’re only counting the regular series then a constant throb 100%

what is your favorite episode of 5?

oh god it’s been years and honestly I binged not counting the last season but if I had to pick I would probably be absolutely basic and go with ozymandias or fly, but also full measure

what is your favorite season of 2?

the wire? oh god. hahaha. tie between S4 and S1 like S4 is OBJECTIVELY the best of the show but S1 has stringer T__T that said of all of the wire is top tier uu

how long have you watched 1?

since I caught up with it in like 2010 and I lived in WHEN DO WE GET THE ENDING limbo ever since

how did you become interested in 3?

a fandom friend was VERY MUCH into it and said she think I’d like it when I was like... just out of high school, I tried it out, SHE WAS 100% RIGHT BECAUSE IT WAS MY SHIT

who is your favorite actor in 4?

eeeeee not counting gillian anderson because EASY ANSWER, honest i think they’re all great and I wasn’t into it FOR THE ACTORS but like sticking to acting I think emma mckay/ncuti gatwa/connor swindells but tbf I also like asa butterfield a lot (he starred in one of my comfort movies okay T_T) - sorry I cheated lmao

which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

DEADWOOD DEADWOOD ALWAYS DEADWOOD FOREVER DEADWOOD

which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3

... lost has more episodes than deadwood, so... basic maths xD

if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

from sex ed? jesus christ I don’t wanna be a teenager again ever and not a parent either but I guess jean if it means I get to bang hot swedish carpenter

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

lost and sex ed...?

I’m imagining jean stranded on the island giving everyone sex therapy including the smoke monster and now I physically need it to happen

pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple?

deadwood? everyone was shippable with everyone but I’mma go with my crack al/merrick for the cinnamon roll bathed in the blood of the beef potential

overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

... lost was my first fandom and I loved it but breaking bad hands down lmao

which has better theme music, 2 or 4?

THAT’S HARD bc sex ed has an excellent sdt BUT the wire had that banger tom waits opening, STEVE EARLE, introduced me to the pogues and was generally out of this world good when it comes to stuff that caters to my tastes and for the stuff that wasn’t it was still objectively very well-picked therefore the wire

aaaand hm tagging @lordhellebore @ghostlovesc0re @feanoriel @myrxellabaratheon @ivory--and--gold and whoever else wants to :)

#anyway: WATCH DEADWOOD

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mia-cooper · 5 years ago

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Fanfiction Questions

from here

Fandom Questions

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Involved as in ‘frantically read every book I could get my hands on, daydreamed about being part of that universe and wrote stories/made art inspired by the books, if not actual fanfiction’? Mm, probably The Chronicles of Narnia when I was six or seven. The next great obsession was The Silver Brumby when I went through my horse stage around age 12, and then Sweet Valley High when I was 15. Hahaha.

2. What is your latest fandom?

Marvel! I’m not into comics and I’m definitely not interested in consuming every last bit of canon material or memorising the variations of every universe, but I love (most of) the movies and Agents of SHIELD is pretty cool.

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

Star Trek Voyager. No contest. I venture to suggest that the older fandoms, the ones that are all about defunct shows, are a hell of a lot more chilled. Maybe because we’ve come to terms with our shitty canon endings and learned that liking the ship you hate doesn’t make someone problematic, unlike some newer fandoms I could name (Yes I’m talking about you, Game of Thrones fans. What the fuck.)

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

I’ve dipped a toe into one or two fandoms for shows or books I’ve really enjoyed and backed the fuck out when the vibe gets weird (oh hey, it’s GoT again), but nope. No regrets.

5. Which fandoms have you written fanfiction for?

All the Star Treks except TOS, and a Trek/MCU crossover. I’d like to write more for MCU someday. Plus I’ve written longhand entire notebooks full of teen romance shit that bore an uncanny similarity to SVH, and my first short story was a fantasy fic that featured a girl whose guardian was a wise talking lion who led her into mystical secret worlds, which is kind of familiar.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Wow. I’m going to define ‘involved in’ as ‘cared enough about to have an OTP’, but I’m guaranteed to forget a ton. In no particular order:

Voyager: Janeway x anyone who can get her off

Discovery: Lorca x Cornwell or Pike x Tyler x Burnham (or any combination of)

DS9: Kira x Jadzia Dax

TNG: Picard x Vash, I guess? I don’t really have any TNG ships

ENT: T’Pol x Trip x Hoshi (or any variation therein)

MCU: Cap x Widow

AoS: Coulson x Skye... no May... no Skye... I don’t know

CAOS: Madam Satan x Zelda

Timeless: Garcy

The Good Place: Eleanor x Tahani

The 100 (shut up): toss up between Clarke x Bellamy and Kane x Abby

Veronica Mars: Veronica x Leo (first run), Veronica x Logan (s4)

Orphan Black: Cosima x Delphine

BSG: Apollo x Starbuck

SG1: Sam x Jack

Arrow: Olicity (so over the show now though)

This Life: Milly x Egg

Yeah you know what... I’m drawing a blank. I can’t think of any other shows where I’ve been invested in The Romance that much.

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

I’m too tired to do every fandom, and besides, I can come around to almost any ship if the headcanons (or fics) are convincing enough. I do have a few hard no-gos, but they might be someone else’s OTP so I’ll shut up about them.

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

Reluctantly. The MCU movies are not something I ever thought I’d enjoy beyond a dull evening’s entertainment. I never expected to get attached to the characters. And yet.

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

Voyager is my forever fandom and the only one where I’ve really interacted with other fans. The best things about it? In general, everyone is just cool, accepting, open and basically awesome. And talented. I love my Party Bus people.

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Sure. The 100, Veronica Mars and Agents of SHIELD are the ones I’d dip into more frequently. I really enjoy crossovers between Trek and BSG or the Stargate variants, too.

Ship Questions for your Current Fandom

11. Who is your current OTP?

Janeway x Chakotay.

12. Who is your current OT3?

Janeway x Chakotay x Paris.

13. Any NoTPs?

A few.

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

Janeway & Tuvok! Also Torres & Chakotay, and I’d have killed for more Janeway & Torres in canon. (If they kissed sometimes that would be okay too)

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Yeah. Paris x Seven. There are like two fics in existence, and yet ... the potential! (Sorry, B’Elanna)

16. Are there any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Nope.

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Janeway x Paris. And they’re still way up there, but not quite at the top.

18. What ship have you written the most about?

84% of my fics feature Janeway x Chakotay as either the primary or secondary pairing... holy shit.

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Paris x Torres. I mean, I feel them. I just don’t generally feel the need to write about them.

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Chakotay x Seven. In another universe, it could’ve been beautiful.

Author Questions

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Actual story that was clearly fanfic? A farcical drunken romp told in the 24th century equivalent of email format called PADDemonium (see what I did there?)

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Lol, a few things that should probably have never seen the light of day for various reasons, some of them leola related. But I’ve only deleted two fics that I can recall.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Relieved. It’s a 30k AU Chakotay moral dilemma backstory that brings in DS9 characters, Section 31 and his longstanding history with AU Janeway. I did so much research for it (way back in the days before memory alpha and chakoteya.net) and I’m really proud of how I wound in canon stuff across series but changed a few key bits and pieces. Only problem is, it’s a sequel to ...

24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

... Pressure, which I can’t even read without cringing. My characterisation of Janeway, even Angry Maquis AU Janeway, is way over the top and there are moments that verge on Mills and Boon and give me first, second and third hand embarrassment. God, I’d love to rewrite it. Actually, that’s a lie. I want someone else to rewrite it so I can read it without covering my eyes and moaning.

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

Desperate Measures, by about 70,000 light years, lol. Although Fragile Things beats it on bookmarks.

26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

You know what? A fair percentage of the time, I think of the title first and come up with a plot second. Aside from that, I prefer shorter, punchier titles that clearly tie into the story (Flight Risk, Speechless), though sometimes it’s song lyrics (Burn Our Horizons, your body like a searchlight) or a literary quote (Required to Bear, All the Devils are Here) or a turn of phrase from the story itself (The Prisons You Inhabit). Hey that was fun. Thanks for letting me pimp the shit out of my stories.

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

Ugh, it depends on the day. Summaries are harder, I think. I never want to give away too much of the plot, but there has to be enough there for people to know whether they’ll bother clicking. Funny story: I actually ran the stats on this a few months back. Here they are for your edification:

Fics with a one line plot summary = 54%

With two or three line plot summary = 18%

With a short snippet directly from the fic = 16%

With a snippet + a one line explanation = 3%

With a one line plot summary plus a line to date the fic (eg "set in season 3", “episode tag to Worst Case Scenario") or the fic prompt = 7%

And finally, a quote from something other than the fic = 2% (that's only 3 fics).

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

Ooh. I’ll say the final scene in Explosive.

29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?

I used to regularly ask @jhelenoftrek and @littleobsessions90 to beta for me, and both of them are brilliant at it. Lately I’ve been posting without sending my stuff off for editing. This is partly because I’m impatient to get stuff out there, partly because I don’t have as much time to write/edit, and partly because I’m a little less focused on improving my writing and more on enjoying it for its own sake.

30. What inspires you to write?

Little bits of episode dialogue I haven’t noticed before, other people’s fanfiction, stray conversations, fic prompts, song lyrics, random headcanons, fever dreams, dares ...

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

I’ve been really lucky with comments on my fic. The least helpful comment I’ve ever received was on one of my early 30k fics and all it said was “Did you have to take the name of the lord in vain?” Which is kind of funny. The nicest thing anyone’s ever said? I’m very partial to the feedback that starts “I don’t even like this pairing/genre/trope/show but you made me love it”, and particularly “I’ll read anything you write, I don’t care what it’s about.” But all comments are gold. The little heart button is cool too.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

I’m not someone who can tune out music I love, or leave it in the background to inspire me. If it’s on, I’m fully invested in it. I’m that annoying person in the car who flips radio stations every three seconds until I find something I like and then it’s on 11 and I’m singing along to it. I’m also really picky but extremely eclectic, although there are genres I can’t stand (anything with autotune makes me stabby). That said, sometimes I find a song that I can’t stop listening to for weeks and often that perfect combination of music and lyrics will inspire me to write a fic. For example, I just plotted out an entire J/C story because of this song.

33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?

All of the above. Although I’m not sure if my longest epic is huuuuuge or just huuuge.

34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

101,467.

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

I have two drabble collections. One is all J/C, full of responses to random prompts and I add to it sporadically. The other is episode additions set on Kathryn Janeway’s birthday (May 20) and added to annually.

36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

Angst, definitely. Sometimes it’s smutty angst or fluffy angst or hurt/comfort angst, but often it’s just fucking unrelenting angst. And I’m okay with that.

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

I did the stats on this once, too, haha. Pretty sure I came out fairly even on first and third person with a smattering of second person in there. I’m probably even-ish on present vs past tense, too. I make it a point to mix it up to avoid my writing getting stale or same-y. And sometimes a fic doesn’t really click for me until I try it in a different POV or tense or from a different character’s perspective.

38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

I mostly write for canon characters - the fun is in all the different ways you can interpret and imagine them - but I’ve been known to throw in the odd OC, or focus on a character who only got a brief cameo appearance, or write about someone who only appears in beta canon, or who only rates a mention on screen.

39. What is your greatest strength as a writer?

Oh, wow. I’m not sure. I guess the thing I value most about my own writing is my willingness to try different styles, characters, pairings and so on. The thing I strive for most is characterisation that feels true, and I really love it when I get comments on that. Exploring a character in a way that rings true with a reader is the best thing ever.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Overly long sentences and adverb abuse, haha. No, truthfully, there comes a point in most of my fics, particularly the longer ones, when I really just want to scrap it because in my heart I know it’s dreadful. Usually that passes once I slog through the ‘I don’t wanna’ stage because I’m a bloody-minded bitch, but sometimes fics do get left in the dust half-written. Honestly, though, they’re the ones that probably should stay there.

Fanfiction Questions

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

This is hilarious because I was just talking on discord about my problematic ‘to read’ pile. My unread AO3 subscription emails currently number 29 and my phone browser has 71 tabs open. So here are 5 random picks from that list of exactly 100 fics I should be reading:

Sex on the Beach (E, Janeway/Chakotay) by @traccigaryn

The Ruby Ring (T, Janeway/Chakotay, Janeway/Tighe) by @trinfinity2001

Earth is But an Idea (T, Janeway/Chakotay, Carter/O’Neill) by @caladeniablue

Home (E, Janeway/Chakotay) by Cassatt

Wise Up (E, Janeway/Chakotay) by KimJ

42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who are amazing:

Only five? Shit. Okay. In no particular order, these are five of the writers I keep coming back to:

quantumsilver (also here)

northernexposure

LittleObsessions

Helen8462

Cheshire

But there are so many others. My chosen fandom is chock full of amazing talent.

43. Is there anyone in your fandom who really inspires you?

All of the authors above for various reasons, but also august because her writing is so spare and delicate and devastating, and runawaymetaphor because she writes the most delicious Janeway/Paris, and @seperis because I read In the Space of Seven Days literally 20 years ago and I still haven’t recovered, and I could be here all night raving on this topic but there are still many questions to get through.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

Janeway x Paris. I’m so happy there’s been a little bit of a resurgence in J/P fics lately. Thanks, @curator-on-ao3, you’re doing the lord’s work.

I’ll also take Janeway x Johnson content any day of the week.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

What the hell? I can’t pick just one! Ugh!

... but okay, here’s the first one that came to mind when I tried to think about this: if you came this way by tree. I’m not sure I’d call it my favourite, but it’s one I revisit often. Ugh, there are so many other fics I’m thinking of now that I really want to list.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

Oh, that’s hard. I should probably pick an angsty smutty J/C because that’s a fair proportion of what I write and it’s good to let a new reader know what they can expect. But honestly, I think the best fic I’ve written is The Uncharted Sea. (It’s safe for work. Maybe not for makeup.)

47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr - where do you prefer to post and why?

The Archive, of course. Where else can I find ad-free hosting on a stunningly user-friendly interface with absolutely no moralising content restrictions and the world’s best tagging system? That Hugo award is well deserved.

Tumblr is good for headcanons and meta and gifsets and a few other formats that I’m less likely to post on AO3 because I’d feel like I was pissing off people who subscribe to me by giving them some random garbage.

I also have my own website, but I’m not really sure why. Sometimes I post fic there that doesn’t make it to tumblr or AO3.

48. Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Why/Why not?

I try to. Honestly I do. I love it when I get reviews, so I figure paying it forward is the least I can do. I’m less scrupulous about leaving comments when I’m busy or reading on my phone.

49. Do you care if people comment/reblog your writing? Why/why not?

I mean, I love it when people reblog, but I certainly don’t expect it. @arcadia1995 is amazing for reblogging stuff *blows kisses*

Nobody owes fanfic writers shit, but I feel like there’s a tacit agreement that if you like what you just read for free and you’re on a platform that makes it easy to do so, you leave a review or at least a kudos, because I’m not gonna lie, posting a fic you’ve worked super hard on and seeing it get very few kudos or comments is a bit deflating. I’m sure a lot of us have been there.

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

During Voyager’s original run I was trawling the internet for Endgame spoilers (I don’t know why; I usually love surprises) and I guess I googled (or whatever the 2001 equivalent of googling was) something like “how does voyager get home” and somehow I stumbled across Revisionist History. At first I had no idea what I was reading - was this a lost story pitch that somehow got leaked? A professional novella commissioned by the showrunners?

Then I started following links and discovered yahoo groups and webrings and Trekiverse and fanfiction.net and all sorts of incredible things I’d never guessed at, including the now defunct ‘archipelago of angst’, a collection of Voyager writers who focused mainly on a darker Janeway than most of the other fic writers I was encountering, and I was hooked. So I wrote a few of my own pieces, and then I lost interest for 15 years. I’m still not sure how I got dragged back in.

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

Honestly, in what other way can I indulge my obsessions, hone my skills and talk about it endlessly with like-minded people? Where else can I instantly find a plethora of fiction about the exact topic I feel like reading about on my mobile device and for free? Fanfiction is fucking amazing and I’m so glad it exists in my life.

#miamemes #fanfiction #fanfic asks

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