#narrative fuckery

[rp-partnerfinder]

((re-submitting, forgot ages)) Hey y'all! I am a 33 y/o trans male searching for an X-Men RP, specifically Erik/Charles. I have a pretty huge over-arching plot that I'd love to do set in a modern Sentinel/Guide AU. I play Erik/Sentinel and I am searching for a Charles/Guide. Looking for RPers age 25+!

This AU is set in 2018. Sergeant Erik Lehnsherr is a baseline human medic who has just returned stateside from his tour in Afghanistan where he was injured by an IED. His best friend Magda got pregnant after they had a one night stand, and decided not to tell him since he was deployed. She died, and left him with two six-month old twin infants, Pietro and Wanda when he returned home. Professor Sebastian Shaw is Erik's "ex," as they were engaged in a scandalous secret "relationship" during his time at MIT. Sebastian is ultra-rich and hires a mega powerful legal team to go after Erik and take custody of his children. In this 'verse, Sentinels and Guides are pseudo-mythological figures. David/Jonathan, Achilles/Patroclus. They are hyper-powerful mutants who rely on a soul-bond (genetically, hormonally) to amp one another up. The Sentinel is the Destructive force and the Guide is the Reasoning force. When they meet, they immediately form this bond with one another. The Guide helps the Sentinel regulate, and directs the Sentinel's devastating powers. The CIA monitors any mutant who has the potential to manifest as a Sentinel, and so have been following Erik unbeknownst to him, his entire life. While Erik appears to be a baseline human, he is actually an Omega-level mutant capable of molecular/temporal/reality manipulation. Enter Charles Xavier, Erik's VA caseworker helping him navigate the legal battle and reintegrate into civilian life. When they meet, the Sentinel/Guide bond immediately flourishes to life.

I like a good mix of plot, action, intrigue and eventual smut. I enjoy both slow burn and insta-chemistry. We can hammer out the minutiae of the world, or allow it to unfold organically.

Erik is played by Adam Brody. He is a Lithuanian-American semi-observant Conservative Jew from Midwood, NYC. He is friendly, charming and talkative. ESTP, Leo-vibes, Enneagram 9w8.

He's the diplomat and the leader, knows several languages, and is a genuine, certified genius. This is the domestic fluff guy, always ready with a joke and a can-do attitude. His wit conceals a soft interior.

Keeps kosher and goes to his dad's house every Saturday for Shabbat. They keep asking him when he's going to Bring A Nice Young Man Home. It's a whole thing.

Word bank ; diplomacy / foreign language , CIA , military , college , teacher / student , teacher / parent , parenting , soldier / civilian , clinician / patient , TiMER , sentinel / guide , ds!verse , omega!verse , time travel , multiverse traversal , mind control , poetry , narrative fuckery , experimental , telepathy , soulmates , bonds , true love , trauma , recovery , abuse , WWII , modern historical , war , cultural discrepancy , fish out of water , sci - fi , star trek redux , blah la la la !

If this interests you, feel free to add me on Discord. I am Weemie.

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[magpie-trinkets]

continuing that "maya tries to contact claire" post, i present you the post-Spirit of Justice follow-up

[4mulaone]

so fascinating how different team dynamics played out via radio disagreements. alpine embarrassed over their recent events tried to forcefully take control and scold esteban into compliance but only served to make him finally snap and tell them to fuck off. the broken trust from terrible miscommunication and fucks ups resulting in charles literally begging for something he cant have whilst ferrari just let it wash over them. meanwhile red bull timidly but persistently ask max to give back a position get deadass ignored then told to never ask that again . f1 has so many rotten layers and im feasting on the innards of this bitch

[ariadne-mouse]

Oh man if Essek makes an appearance in the liveshow they're going to have to pause for a few minutes due to all the screaming 😂

[fruitageoforanges]

i think one of the things i find compelling about rhaegar is that he’s a very good example of how selfish and destructive a martyr complex is. from what we know, it doesn’t feel like his obsession with the prophecy was overtly egotistical — less ‘i’m great ergo i’m the prince that is promised’, more ‘oh fuck, if this is true then unless i do these very specific things everyone and everything i know is doomed’.

and yet. there’s still something selfish about that. about assuming you have to be the one to solve the world’s problems. even when it eats you up, even when it isn’t some glorious purpose but a terrible shadow hanging over you. to assume you’re the only person who can do something — and, ironically, in trying to fulfil the prophecy and prevent the destruction of everyone he lover, he doomed pretty much all of them.

[dandelionjack]

i believe that bootstrap paradoxes / stable time loops are inherently religious. if something exists as an effect without cause, if something has been there because it has always been there, if any surrounding events would shift around it to accomodate its always-being-there, if something sprung into existence out of the void because it always had to have sprung into existence, if something exists for no reason and with no apparent explanation once you begin to unravel the chain of events that supposedly lead to its arrival, then that something can be understood as none other than the work of God. God the writer; God that inserts a self-balancing perpetual motion engine into the narrative to resolve a plot hole. a bridge strung over the chasm of impossibility. it came to be because God-the-author decreed it so. because without it the story would grind to a halt, and that's the sound of the universe collapsing

nobody tell the doctor. they'd never get over it.

[winnower-winnower]

Soooo, in advance of Xivu Arath potentially getting a bit more screen time/ mentions in the lore this upcoming season, I really wanted to take a stab at drafting a design for her!

I wanted to take some pre-existing hive aesthetics and like, arthropodify them even more. So when I was running through possible influences, I thought stag beetles fit well for her character.

Stag beetles are so fun in this context, mostly because they, like Xivu Arath, are constantly testing their strength. This is her path, from her start as a krill, to the godhood she fought for, died for, and fought for again. She is conflict, she is War, Dominant.

I definitely think she’d have beetle wings too btw

[sforzesco]

Cicero, say these, would have had a better old age if he had taken in sail after the affair of Catiline, and Scipio, too, if he had given himself pause after adding Numantia to Carthage; for a political cycle, too, has a sort of natural termination, and political no less than athletic contests are absurd, after the full vigour of life has departed. Crassus and Pompey, on the other hand, ridiculed Lucullus for giving himself up to pleasure and extravagance, as if a luxurious life were not even more unsuitable to men of his years than political and military activities.

-Plutarch's Life of Lucullus

absolutely fucking CACKLING at this mention of Crassus and Pompey here

society6 | ko-fi | twitter (pillowfort, cohost) | deviantart

[rosesradio]

i have finished season 1 of heartbreak high (yes i binged it all in a day)…what the fuck this show is so good, what an experience, why didn’t i hear about it sooner

[charmikarma]

ok but like. look at the end of this.

"The gentle breeze is all she can hear. It's louder than my voice, and in some understated way, makes my case for me more persuasively."

like i've been reading john in the epilogues as having a passive influence over the narrative and this is like. the final nail in the coffin. even after he fucking died he's still like. sayin shit. influencing the narrative. and i guess in this case he happens to agree with dirk. very cool

[whateverthedragonswant]

It always amazes me just how much Jensen's words get twisted by antis:

Here's the link they're referring to: https://www.tiktok.com/@mcuediths/video/7373416705038535968

When Jensen answered the question about clear text, he was referring to the lines of dialogue that were actually on the screen (including the "I love you"). He's not making a statement about the relationship, whether it's canon or not, or any of this nonsense you see up above. He is literally answering to the claim that it's subtext and confirming it is not. Because it is literally NOT. It is "clear text".

Now people can take that however you want to, pro-Destiel or anti-Destiel, that's your choice but to sit there and tell anyone one way or the other that they are wrong, to say so definitively what Jensen is "saying", acting as if you are an expert on the man's behaviors, speech patterns, intentions, and you alone govern his thoughts...no, YOU'RE wrong.

I am just so sick of seeing the guy's words get twisted one way or the other on any topic. I get it, he's an actor, a public figure, and that's always going to happen even if he just talks about Coca-Cola vs Pepsi or something, but come on already. And considering all of the gaslighting, harassment, and abuse I've seen enacted on fans by a very toxic fandom over one scene that actually happened in the show where it was clear text that Cas loves Dean romantically and it was clearly written and performed with that intention is just...I don't even know what the right words are to be honest. Disgusting? Gross? Oodles of negativity? Probably all of those.

Like whatever you think about Destiel or its canon status or even that scene, that's cool. But stop acting as if you are the superior expert when you weren't on that set, you don't know anyone who did work on that set, and you weren't in the writers' room when that scene was written or when it was discussed with the showrunner. You don't know what Misha was told, what Jensen was told, hell even what Jared was told (except for what they've shared publicly with us about it). Like, just. Stop.

Don't bring your gaslighting bullshit and attach it to the man's words and use it as an opportunity to weaponize them (when that's not even what the man was saying, literally) and launch them at a group of fans you don't like.

Stop with the twisting of his words to fit your personal agenda, your personal fandom narrative. Stop the bullshit.

Clear.

Text.

On the script page.

Literally.

[agentravensong]

something that struck me today while thinking about ragad (as i've been doing again recently): the way the players' ultimate fate parallels ros and guil's.

the players were tasked by hamlet to put on the murder of gonzago to get a reaction out of the king — something that the main player acknowledges in retrospect was "tactless, really". their performance so offended claudius that they had to flee and lost out on their payment. they did their job and were discarded (by the narrative), and, as such, are as good as dead.

to put it in simpler terms, they choose to fulfill hamlet's request at the expense of the king. they chose the side they thought would most benefit them. and if that's the game they were playing, they (the players) lost.

shortly before the players' return to the stage, ros and guil settled the matter of whose side *they're* on. the two of them chose to be loyal to claudius over hamlet. they don't know it yet, but they too have lost the game — in a much more drastic fashion.

r&g made the opposite choice of the players. and yet, here they all are, on the same boat. messengers facing down the barrel of a gun.

(if ros and guil had fessed up and warned hamlet, even if that had been enough to spur him to forgive them and try to get out this together... how long would they have had before the practical consequences of the king's vengeful wrath caught up with them? how long until hamlet decides they're more trouble than they're worth?)

it's a trap, being made to pick a side. when dealing with opposing higher powers, powers who view you as just a means to an end... there is no good choice.

...that's one way to read it, at least. as a matter of sides.

the other way is to say that the players and r&g both made the *same* choice: they were given orders, and they followed them, disregarding the impact it would have on the target.

and they made that choice for the same reason:

the players are desperate for patronage. r&g are desperate for, in varying amounts and ways between the two of them, direction/purpose/answers/favor with a higher power.

in other words: both the players and our pair of courtiers are desperate for an audience.

in other other words: they're all seeking validation of their existence from someone(s) external to themselves. validation in the form of monetary compensation and/or social standing, but also just the sensation of being Seen and Acknowledged.

because they're characters. actors. performers.

and how does that kind of "person" get validation? by following orders. a script.

(in their quest for that validation, their best effort to be seen as full people, ros and guil trade away their humanity. they reduce hamlet to their level: a tool for their ends. they forget their place, and so he (and through him the narrative) must remind them of it.)

something something "they're two sides of the same coin — or, let us say, being as there are so many of us, the same side of two coins".

[midnightfox450]

Fiarina slay the princess au. If you even care

[yellowocaballero]

hi! i know that i'm fated to read your every work despite not knowing the media half the time. this time i would like to finally be one step ahead. so uhh. where do i read orv? do i go for the webtoon or the novel? to clarify, i did try to search, but got confused by reddit. also i am going to watch trigun. i've been eyeing animorphs too but the 54 (?) books are making me go hmm. thank you for existing you're pretty great. you're like the spiderman of writing but instead you got asbestos rat'd.

THIS ASK IS INSANE. WE'RE REFERENCING MY LORE NOW?

But thank you, you're insane. People ask why I have stupid high standards for the fics i post on AO3 and it is because there are people like you who will just read whatever regardless of whether or not it's good. I have a responsibility.

This ask also made me wonder if I have good taste. Because every time somebody says this my first reaction is "oh god and the source materials aren't even good". I read a lot of trashy stuff (but, like, define trashy), and I consume too many bad things to be able to say I have discerning taste. If I enjoy something I almost never call it bad, because things were made to be enjoyed and I enjoyed them then they had value in at least one aspect. If you were to ask me if my favorite TV show of all time the Incredible Hulk 1974 was actually, unironically, good, then I'd break into a cold sweat. Is somebody bad because it's camp? Is something bad only if it's unintentional camp?

Regardless, I never write fic for something that isn't only like 80% good - there's a sweet spot of 'good enough for me to obsess over' and 'bad enough that I'm rewriting it in my head'. It's rare I write for anything I find completely good. Which is why I feel bad when people say that they're reading this thing I'm writing fic for jalksdf there's better things out there I SWEAR.

ORV is in the sweet spot of "this isn't high literature" and "this has given me brain worms". Definitely for sure start with the webtoon - the webnovel is clunkily translated, you don't read it for the writing at all, and it is also a literal million words. Don't read the webnovel unless you're like "I'm going insane and I need more of this". It starts off kind of slow ("This is a well executed very banal isekai") and you're like a frog in the pot of it slowly going more insane until you're a ways in and you are in a tangle of ridiculously complicated gambits and convoluted storytelling. There is literally no other way to describe it than the Homestuck of webnovels. If you're completely unfamiliar with isekai that's fine, but as a warning - ORV being your first webtoon/webnovel isekai is like your first shoujo manga being Ouran High Schol Host Club, or your first magical girl show being Madoka, or your first mecha anime to be Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's one of the best works in its genre but it's supposed to be viewed in context of the genre. Or maybe it's more like if Homura starred in Evangelion, which was Ouran. I'm just saying words.

Animorphs is kind of like Mother 3 in which everybody who has ever read/played it said that it changed them as a person, it changed their relationship with media and storytelling forever, if you read/play it you will be born again from the world's egg, etc. Works that genuinely become part of your personality. I also never recommend it to people because it is incredibly hit or miss. I remember using a spreadsheet of just "what books are skippable or not" because some of them are incredibly weird and some of them are incredibly weird in the bad way. The only Animorphs fic I've ever written is from 2019 so it's also not that great. Each book only takes an hour to read and the pdfs are free online, so it's incredibly accessible in terms of the reading experience, but it's kinda the Animorphs gestalt that changes you forever and not the individual books. I try not to recommend stuff that's like 25% bad.

Watch Trigun if you like what Trigun is - it's not going to deliver on something it's not. Also watch 98 first. Watch Stampede/read Trimax if you want more Trigun. The Trigun fic is based off Stampede but refer to my "I only write fic for smth that's 80% good and not 100% good" statement.

Also I think being bit by an asbestos rat just means that I probably have mold and drywall in my lungs, which would explain a lot about this blog. Thanks for the ask I love it.

[georgiaswarr]

there’s certain gay people where when they say they hated a piece of media because it has ~bad gay rep~ or ~harmful tropes~ you can bet your ass that it’s the best queer media you’ll ever consume

[dandelionjack]

it’s poorly made television all the way down