#polly: answered meme

[miss-polly]

what kind of symphony are you?

The Elegy: The Blooming of the Rose. You are the crescendo, a never-ending strength which arouses great power and love within. You feel immensely, intensely, and every surface you touch is laiden with love-- but beware, one must not cross you. Your ardor knows no bounds and your symphony echoes on. You bring tears to one's eyes when they look at you too long and you inflict hope within tragedy. You are the end-all-be-all, but you are not to be mistaken in fear-- people cannot help feeling everything at once when they meet you, for you are the cosmos which blinds the oblivious and gifts the shadows light. Your song: Elegies of Thule No. 3 by Tonu Korvits

tagged by: @vigilantdesert

tagging: @mxdam @monstriiss @beautiful-mischief @viciousgold @polarean (for jameson and andrei) @moedich3 @eritvita and you!

[vigilantdesert]

ooo if they had a kid meme for urbolly tho

Kiddos

send me a pair name and I’ll tell you what I think it would be like if they had a child.

Name: Ninna

Gender: Femme

General Appearance: An adopted Hylian girl with red-brown hair, olive skin, and amber brown eyes. She's always a little tall for her age, and her hair curls up with the barest hint of humidity

Personality: Mischievous, playful, extroverted, and a little boisterous

Special Talents: Luckily she inherited Polly's talent in the kitchen and she's picked up great talent with a spear

Who they like better: Polly, who she spends more time with and feels like she can trust with anything

Who they take after more: Urbosa, because of her love of pranks and headstrong attitudes

Personal Head canon: She talks a big game about going out on traveling expiditions with Urbosa, but when the time comes she always finds a reason to stay home so Polly isn't alone

Face Claim: Audrey Tautou

[flcralist]

❛ secrets are the favourite food of the heart. ❜ ( Varric @ Polly // sharp-teeth-and-wide-grins )

deathless ; accepting ; @sharp-teeth-and-wide-grins

Polly knits her brows together, trying to figure out whether or not it's wisdom or cynicism this time. Secrets, she'd fast learned, were valuable things in political and societal machinations, but they hardly seemed to have any other upsides. She'd rather everyone be honest, or at least upfront with their intentions.

"They might be the favorite," she says slowly, trying to make sure she's worded this properly. "But they're hardly nourishing, I think."

[novashelby]

100 Things Evie would have loved if she was thriving in her prime today~

A proper ADHD diagnosis.

Fidgets-especially the rainbow colored POP ITS.

Bubble wrap.

Bubbles....

Cat cafes

90's pop

7/11 slushies

7/11 Taquitos

Timothee Chalamet

XL Woopie Cushions

Try not to laugh challenges

Converse sneakers and normal trousers...for girls.

Shake and bake chicken

Food delivery apps

Frozen fish sticks

Disney World (Tommy: I'm not standing in those lines to go down a hill and say 'weee').

Fuzzy socks

slip n' slides (Grace: please don't hurt yourself....)

Beer pong....(Tommy: I didn't send you to UNI for this...)

Winning at beer pong (Tommy: At least you won...)

Karaoke nights at the bar (Ada: Oh no....)

male strip clubs (Polly: You need a chaperone...)

The electric slide....

The YMCA (Finn: Does she ever realize she's the only one dancing!? Evie: BUT LOOK AT ME GO!)

Dance, Dance revolution (Evie: TAKE THAT MOTHA FUCKA'! Finn: It's a...machine)

ROCK n ROLL

Dance offs

SUPER SIZE McDONALDS FRIES

Bottomless wings

Eating challenges

BOTTOMLESS MARGARITAS

Pride Month

Pogo sticks

90 Day Fiance (Finn: Stop making me watch these things, please.)

My 600ib Life

Squishmallows (Tommy: HOW THE FUCK DO YOU SLEEP WITH ALL THIS SHITE ON YOUR BED!?)

Getting her nose pierced (Tommy: fuckin' ell).

Her and Martha piercing each other's belly buttons (Tommy: Imma fuckin' kill you...)

Going in an airplane

Haunted houses (Finn: Stop making me do these things....)

Family Therapy (All of them: Probably advisable)

Therapy

Being able to sleep until noon (Tommy: Are you going to sleep all day? //7:00am)

Conga lines

Birth control

Pizza for breakfast (Polly: why are you eating it cold!?)

All you can eat Chinese buffets (Tommy: where are you putting it all? Evie: Right here...*pats tummy*)

Smut

gay smut

Socially acceptable fart jokes (Tommy: Wasn't very funny the first time. John: I thought it was...)

Hawaiin dinner rolls

Frozen pizza

Among Us

Family movie nights

Trivia night at the bar

Putting a Furby in Finn's room (Finn: eeeww)

Putting her family members on Tinder (Arthur: Why did I bump into five women who knew me!?)

Stupid TikTok challenges

Magic Mike

Eating a whole can of whipped cream

Dong Chim up all her family's butt cracks (John: 🫨🫨🫨🫨)

Cat memes (Tommy: Evie, what does it mean when it says on Facebook...you been tagged? Oh, hey, look at that...ha-ha).

Trampoline parks

Arcades

Air hockey...

Kick Finn's ass at air hockey (Finn: 🖕🖕🖕)

Sliding across the wooden floors in fuzzy socks

Trick or Treating

Obnoxious unicorn fleece onsies

Being in control of her own reproductive health

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Oogly eye stickers (Tommy: My poor portrait... Grace: Don't you think it's a little...obnoxious to have a self portrait in the family room? Shouldn't you have a family portrait?)

Scrunchies

Butterfly clips (Tommy: *steps on one* 🤬🤬🤬🤬)

Loud music while she drives (Tommy: *Uses Evie's Car* EVIE! My fuckin' ear drums!)

Raw Pillsbury cookie dough (Ada: You're suppose to bake it...)

Netflix...Disney Plus

Peter Kavinsky

Packaged ramen

Lactaid

Bongs

Crowd surfing at concerts

Mash pits

Jumping on hotel beds

Rock walls

Dying her hair stupid colors (Tommy: At least you look like a clown now)

Fart spray (Tommy: Why does my office smell?)

Fake IDs

Spotify wrapped

Gray sweats on men

Wearing shorts (Tommy: Evie, go put something else on, eh?)

Social acceptance of being a little chonky

Nerf guys (Finn: OW! WTF)

Limbo (how low can you go!?)

Going to a 24/7 store in her PJs (Polly: How classy...)

Fist bumps

Burping the ABCs (Polly: Very classy....

Sending stupid Snaps to the family group chat...(Tommy: Evie, where did it go?! The picture....)

Answering 'who dis?' every time Finn texts her (Finn: I'm done...)

24/7 drive throughs

[hellofromthehallowoods]

Hi Mx. Wellman! I just finished episode 132, and it was absolutely incredible. I cried for Riot, I cheered for Jacob, and I could listen to Polly and Yaretzi buy groceries and still love it. A bit nervous for episode 133, but mostly excited!

Sort of not podcast related question: do some of the fan interactions on tumblr (or the rest of the general internet) ever make you uncomfortable? I know that "parasocial relationship" is the buzzword (buzz phrase?) of the day, but it seems like people will vent their feelings about an episode directly into your ask box. Especially these recent episodes that have been more emotionally intense. Not trying to call anyone out or anything, I was just genuinely wondering. Thanks for the great show and wish me luck for 133 :)

They rarely make me uncomfortable; I'm very happy to see the buzz and uproar of a new episode, it's nice to know that it landed!

However, as one or two recent posts from fans said so succinctly, sometimes the enthusiasm, live reactions and theoryposting would be best posted for everyone to see, that way other fans can start interacting and having conversations in their own right without me being included.

I think fans having conversations about the show that don't involve the creator personally is a big step when it comes to the growth of a fandom. Especially since some of the theories and reactions that enter my inbox are too spoilery for me to answer, or just not really my place to say something about.

(And for those who don't already, consider checking or following the #hfth and #hello from the hallowoods hashtags sometime, maybe screening out '#hfth spoilers' if you're not caught up? It's a rare day where new fanart or memes don't grace those outlets at this point!)

[rxttenfish]

Now that you've answered the difficult one here's an interesting one: What about Miranda and Polly?

Shipping meme.

EXCELLENT, SOMETHING I CAN PROVIDE OPINIONS ON

this is! certainly a ship that i like a lot, but my relationship to it is a lot more fraught than some of my other miranda ships, for sure. it's one that i go back and forth on again and again, way less sure on how stable they'd be or how much this would work out in the long term.

in terms of positives - miranda and polly already get along very well! i always view the ROs as exceptionally close friends, and i think the friendship between miri and polly is much the same. polly chases experiences and good times, explores and pokes her fingers into anything she can reach just to say that she's done it, and miranda's a person who's also fundamentally curious, desperate to see and experience so many things that she's never been able to before and which come from an entirely different world to her, and so polly bringing miranda along feels natural. miranda's definitely more hesitant and less overt about experiencing things, often needing convincing or reassuring, but she wants her friends' approval and polly likes helping other people step outside of their comfort zones, especially when they just need a little encouragement.

polly loves leading other people to fun new experiences as much as she enjoys experiencing them herself, and she gets the feeling of being cool, mature, more experienced in a way with miri that fits very well with how polly is also an older sister, someone who just as much wants to be the cool older sibling that everyone can brag about. miranda, getting that positive reinforcement from polly and feeling like she's with someone she can safely experiment around and with, likewise makes her more confident in exploring new things and having new experiences, less hesitant and defensive when something new is presented to her.

the issue is that polly isn't always a good influence. polly has issues taking things seriously and this can mean she overlooks how uncomfortable miranda could be at any given moment and how much of her protests might be sincere, especially if something presents a unique danger to miranda that polly's less familiar with. polly's less confrontational, so she's less likely to call miranda out on something, at most providing smaller comments or leaving, neither or which would help miranda's reactiveness. i don't think anything polly has going on would prepare her to deal with the merkingdom and the crown, which would serve as a total blindside for her and, at worst, make her lash out at miranda in a lack of understanding for why miranda can't just not listen to the merkingdom. miranda's a character who very much needs commitment in the long term, and dedicated commitment at that, which is something that polly would have issues with and would want to shirk away from that much responsibility.

miranda, in comparison, would want to put polly up on a pedestal and imagine her as the coolest, the most fun, the best at navigating the land with all of its confusing social norms and culture and environment, and this means she would wholly miss whatever faults polly would have and be far too forgiving when it comes to polly's mistakes. at worst, miranda could very much end up believing that she deserves any hurt that polly accidentally causes, and this is an issue that doesn't have a good solution, since polly would want to avoid that confrontation and miranda would not even mention it at all, just assuming guilt and acting accordingly. neither of these characters are very good at talking about their feelings, and there's not really a catalyst to make them talk about their feelings to each other and to force them to open up.

ultimately, i see it as a fling, closer to something like friends with benefits. i often say that i see a lot of the ROs just passively dating each other at different times without making a big deal out of it, and this is one of those times. i could easily see them hooking up from time to time solely to enjoy themselves with each other, and then breaking it off with no hard feelings and going back to normal. not something long term, not something serious, just a good time dating friends.

[ask-marios-apprentice]

SMG5: Hey! Since you're asking us questions, I am curious to know a few things about your world. Like... how do Meme Guardians work there if they don't have an avatar to protect?

SMG5: Also... how's your whole apprenticeship under Mario going?

SMG6: It is so weird to hear that Mario is smart and married to Peach. It's so weird to me. I'm so used to our world that I just can't imagine it at all...

SMG6: Also... glad to know your SMG3 and SMG4 aren't a thing in your world. Although... they did get together a little over a year ago for us, and we're 5 years in the future, so... idk.

SMG3: Wait! I have a question too!

SMG3: How would people react if I told you that SMG6 is SMG4's son?? Because knowing from experience, the idea of him becoming a dad is terrifying sometimes

SMG6: You married him-

SMG3: Oi! Shut up!

Meme guardians are more like guardians of media itself. In this case, memes.

Rather than being bound to a person. They utilize and protect memes. There's a lot of meme energy surrounding the Mushroom Kingdom due to how popular Mario is.

Actually once asked about why there isn't video game guardians considering Mario's nickname is literally Mister video.

Apparently there are some. They just live in an asteroid in the 40NG quadrant in the Centipede Galaxy

My apprenticeship is pretty well rounded. I am an apprentice platformer. So I know how to do things like triple jump or wall jumping. It took me awhile to learn how to stomp or how to spin jump. But I managed to get them down.

I'm also learning how to use tools. Since I'm a human I can't use power-ups. So I have to use stuff like fire flower gloves, the Polter-FLUDD, my Beanish shield and Honey Pike, my star bands, diplomatic immunity, rainbow stars, the unzapable hat.

Im even trying to learn how to fly. I have to collect a bunch of these Cape feathers in order to make a Liberace style cape. I'm even trying to see if I can substitute keep feathers for breagle feathers with how many of these things I have to collect.

Why exactly is it so hard to imagine that Mario is smart. I mean I guess Mario does some stupid stuff sometimes. Like going out into a storm angry, or partying too hard with Miyamoto, making him think that he could backwards long jump in real life.

Art by @buddy-boi-420

But he's also done great things.

He's a husband to Peach, a dad to Meggy, a brother to Luigi, a son to Polly and Jumpman.

He's a SUPER. A person sworn to protect the Mushroom Kingdom.

He's a Plumber who graduated from University

He's my mentor.

Even though you're five years in the future. Remember, we're not the exact same universe. It is still a possibility though that four and three could get together.

As for the son thing SMG6. I think people would be fine with it, people would just be a bit nervous that SMG4 might make a mistake heck smg4 would be nervous he would make a mistake.

But everyone makes mistakes.

I'm also assuming you'd be delivered by the stork rather than born.

Also there might be a chance that you don't even get meme powers.

Neither of SMG4's parents were meme guardians or guardians of any kind.

Also you forgot answer Alice's (left) question

Art by @sarahrsketches

I mean it's a picture of her in her prime in the 1950s but still.

I know the answer is probably "there isn't a version of you" or "she was arrested"

But we're currently defrosting my left foot after she shot a cavity frost fang into the rafter of her cabin and it fell where I was standing.

[j2zara]

also we can't underestimate the fact that j4 thinks j2 is so pretty. j4 can and should do his makeup all pretty and dress him up. j3 might be barbie but j2 is polly pocket bc he's SO cute.

Clone make-up day (as in making up for being assholes to each other not makeup as in doing makeup but they also are doing each others makeup) consists of them basically pretending they’re doing a sleepover in the basement where. J4 pins j2 to the bed and does his makeup like those girls in that meme everyone cites. And then j3 does one of those color match tests or something to find what colors go with him skintone (somehow the answer is different for all the clones). And. Sadly this is a lesson j2 does not abide by bc he will not stop wearing those pastel blues. And I do think they make j2 all cute (I think he would look SO GOOD with some blue hair clips and some face glitter). And j4 is like you are so cute I could eat you up! [buttercup voice] Aren’t you the prettiest girl at the party. And gives him a little kiss on the nose… which j3 is like. Hey! And she’s like oh so because we’re fucking i can’t give my best friend a little kiss and tell him how cute he is? Sex negative!

(I really really try not to Girl Smurfify j4 by giving her a bunch of secretly girly traits bc I do think she is kinda tomboyish but. I do think when her soft spot for j2 comes out she’s extremely not normal and can’t be held responsible for her actions)

(J2 tells j3 later that j4 has admitted to him that. She thinks j3 is the most arrestingly, devastatingly beautiful person she’s ever seen. In a like. “This is going to destroy me” way. She used the phrase “emotionally captivating” and j2 didn’t get what she meant at all until he was like. Oh. That’s how I feel when I look at the pantheon)

I do think for Fun they do have a day where they all try to swap aesthetics as like a makeover day. So j2 gets a grunge look. And j3 does j4’s look and it ends up looking about as horrifying and off putting as when Allison got her makeup done all preppy in The Breakfast Club. And for fun j4 made sure j2 had to do j3 which literally pained j3 so much bc j2 doesn’t know what he’s doing and he came out looking so clownish and j4 made him parade it around the house all day <3

[discet]

Hi, ❤️ for the ask game?

Fanfic Writing Ask Meme

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

Ugh this one stumped me for a bit! I have a lot that I really enjoyed writing, been spending over an hour just looking through old writing. Gonna just do a few with different characters

Spoilers obv.

awiw19: Sprig: "Don't worry Marcy," Sprig said, coming to stand next to her in solidarity, "Us girl-likers can stick together."

aAA03: Polly: "So the plan is arson?" Polly asked. “Sweet! Can I hold the torch?"

awiw10 Hop Pop: "But even if you hadn't done all that," Hop Pop added, "We would still want you around. You know why?" Marcy looked up, waiting for an answer. Hop Pop’s voice became gentle, fatherly, "because you are a sweet, earnest, and kind girl; who finds wonder in everything around her." He rubbed at her back in comfort.

aAA04 Sasha: Sasha could see it in his eyes. He wasn't lying. He was willing to die a martyr if it meant rallying the toads against her and her friends. However, there was one slight miscalculation he had made.  You needed witnesses to be a martyr.

awiw15 Anne: "That it was a phase and we'd soon go back to... to playing games and watching movies like we used to... but then you asked me to take the music box and..." her lip quivered, "and I thought, 'Oh... this is just what we do now...'" Anne's athletic frame, that always seemed so strong to Marcy, shook as she looked down to the ground. "This is what I was for now..." 

Marcy obviously has a lot but I don't think any were as important to her characterization in the AU than the following

awiw12 Marcy: "I'm sorry for what's about to happen."

[miss-polly]

POLLY & URBOSA || @vigilantdesert

Send me 🗣️ for incorrect quotes of our muses ;;

[cosmignon]

fandom ask meme round two: old gods of appalachia

The first character I first fell in love with: 

I do love JT Fields a whole lot like yes Jack the trickster you are a scamp and scoundrel but you're being very affiable about it and I like the paradise arc w/the lil lovebirds a whole lot. The next season coming up starting with Jack in peril has me going ooohohohoho

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

I didn't really expect to like Polly's little henchmen duo but they've grown on me they're like her sick and twisted uncles to me. Now if i could just remember their fuckin names!!

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

the railway man is cool hes spooky but i am not a huge fan, i like other antagonists more

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

idk enough abt the pulse of this fandom to get a good answer for this

The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

havent listened to it long enough to say boss

The character I would totally smooch: 

i know theyd both rip me to shreds and kill me and kill me and kill me but hey lavinia, hey polly barrow, hiiiii

The character I’d want to be like: 

melvin blevins is a kind soul and inspiration to all

The character I’d slap: 

i think i should be able to give old hornet head a little slappity slap without immediately dying

A pairing that I love:

I am so bad with names but the lil lovebirds from the paradise arc are in fact very cute and im rooting for them i hope that boy got to california safely

A pairing that I despise:

idk man this isnt rly a show i do shipping with bc im more concerned about going "ah spooky!"

[flcralist]

❛ oh, i will be cruel to you. ❜ ( Sera @ Polly but about pulling pranks // sharp-teeth-and-wide-grins )

deathless ; accepting ; @sharp-teeth-and-wide-grins

She felt a jolt run down her spine for a second, imagining manipulation and cold laughter and clever word games running in circles around her head, and... "Oh..." she gasped, brows rising, brown eyes widening at the idea of how easily Sera could make a plaything out of her, before realizing, almost foolishly ... "Oh -- you're. You're teasing again, aren't you?" She was going to have to get better at that. Maybe one day she'd be able to tease right back.

[chronotopes]

memed by @eiqhties ! thank youuuuu i appreciate it . i miss these things we should bring it back :3 

Nickname: Katia is already the usual shortened form of my given full name (which i emphatically don’t go by). I don’t think anybody is calling me by a nickname at this particular moment

Sign: Leo

Height: Just over 5′4″

Last Google search: “tammy fox wartburg college” because i have to factcheck names and places for my job lol. other highlights from today include “kansas city chiefs cheerleaders,” “washington-baltimore area,” “new orleans jazz,” and “gorilla monsoon wrestling.” 

Number of followers: just over a thousand, half of which are porn bots are inactive

Amount of sleep: On average probably about six to eight

Lucky number: 27

Favorite colour: Orange red and green :)

Dream job: Literature and/or writing professor, or (more complicatedly) writing center director. I realllllly know how to pick them. OR head editor of a literary magazine actually but that’s even worse

Movie/book that summarizes me: Hmmmm. Honestly i still think tiffany aching is the most #just like me fr character i can think of, so that subseries of discworld + monstrous regiment (fantasy-eastern european gender havers, you see. polly is the other discworld protagonist i kin too). For movies: little women 2019 is still the best answer i have even though i’ve moved past that a little

Poem that summarises me: Man. I will take a few that have resonated with me, selected more or less at random: Introduction to Quantum Theory, Bach, Winter, A Meeting, Little Crazy Love Song, most of all: Telemachus’ Detachment, AND EVEN MORE MOST OF ALL THAN THAT: Deconstruction. 

Favourite song: Completely insane question. I’m going to narrow it down to my two favorite songs of the year and say, once again, “Curse of the Blackened Eye” by Orville Peck and “Incandescent Ruins” by The Mountain Goats

Favourite instrument: I feel like i very loudly declare the feelings about the flute that being in a relationship with a very talented flute player have given me, but i liked winds in general even before that.

Aesthetic: PREVIOUS ANSWER RESONATES DEEPLY, everyone I love has functionally outgrown the word aesthetic. The visual things that matter to me are: the sky, the sea, mountains and rivers, the faces of those I love.

Favourite author: A big list. Narrowed down to one person, deceptively: Virginia Woolf.

Favorite animal noise: I don’t have pets of my own so i will simply say All Cat Meows Are So Beautiful To Me. soft contenting purring also...

Wearing: Oversized men’s turtleneck sweater, jeans, and two pairs of socks because it is COLD

Song stuck in my head: Nothing, because i have my playlist of Flute Music I’ve Heard Gabe Play on in the background. Right now it’s the second movement of Bohuslav Martinu’s Sonata for Flute, Violin, and Piano in C Major.

i am tagging anyone who wants to do it because i get nervous about tagging people in these after all these years :’)

[wowowwild]

I was wondering if you would do Polly's Paper Bag for the fic ask meme questions? I would specify questions but I know you love to talk about it so just pick what ever ones you want.

I love doing whatever I want, how did you know?!

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

It just happened. It came out the mind womb that way. Tbh it was all vibes. Kind of wish I had done any sort of outline but it is what it is.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I actually wrote this fic in order but the first chapter was done long before I started working on the rest.

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?/4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

I can't answer either of these. This is a crack fic so everything is funny. I love funny lines.

5: What part was hardest to write?

The arcade whole thing. Atrocious. So many things. The popsicle scene in particular was hard but the idea was so funny I couldn't not do it.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It is different from my other AA fics in that it is a chaptered fic that I did not map out first. I had no idea how the rest of the story was going to look when I started. I've done this before in one other fandom with a couple of fics. Not ideal, but it is how I write my crack fics. Can I really call it that when it's getting a whole fleshed out AU? Yes, bc while I've never done a cocaine, I do write this AU exclusively in the middle of the night when I am in a state I imagine taking drugs feels like. I'm just tired though. Don't do drugs, kids.

7: Where did the title come from?

It is of course from the inciting incident when Trucy and Maya are riling Polly up to get him to place a bet.

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

"So the weather today, huh?" is an awkward conversation starter straight from my freshman high school self. I was in an awkward relationship where we straight up didn't talk to each other. We did before and after we dated but not during. Idk what that was about but I did get this fantastic non starter.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Do you know how many times I pitched and scrapped ideas? I don't. Probably a lot. There were so many potentially vastly different versions of this fic. And honestly, it might be superior as a stand alone. Not that I'm not excited for writing part two, I just think people should know part two is asking a different question than part one, and while I don't think part two will undermine part one, I think you should take what see at the end of part one at face value. Mostly I'm talking about the friendships that will turn into romances. I don't want the way these friendships are viewed to be tainted by a romantic future. As someone who is aspec, friendships as they are, are very important to me and they tend to get overshadowed, especially if those friends eventually enter into a committed partnership. I don't want that. Especially for Claypollo, terminally co-dependent besties. I'm afraid people will look at how I've written them and decide I always planned for the Pollycule. I didn't. I just wrote them how me and my best friends act. I'm not dating any of my besties and I never will, this is just how we choose to show our affection, bc we love each other. Love isn't only for romance. So yeah.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

It was always going to be a klapollo story. I wanted to try it out and this is the concept I chose to go with it, bc I'm always a sucker for stupid shenanigans.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

I actually finished it. That's a huge achievement for me. Also I made a friend! Tbh that's probably why I'm so gun-ho about the whole thing. Having someone constantly comment when I updated made me look forward to writing the fic and hold it in a high regard. Even though technically speaking it's atrocious. It's about the fun I have with it. Also I'm hilarious and I love reading back my jokes. It's all about the bits.

12: What do you like least about this fic?

So many things. I have changed opinions on certain things since then. I learned that aa6 exists since then (honestly my greatest regret, can you imagine Nahyuta in this fic? Fantastic.). And the ending feels a little clunky, like how they say 'I love you' but it came like super quick. I've already started re-editing some of it, but I'm saving the rest for my re-read before I finish the spin offs that are set during part one and prepare for part two. This might be a trilogy tbh. Unclear. All I know is Ema and Clay are main characters for part two and I haven't really gotten farther than that. And despite 'so many things' being 'wrong' with it, I still really like it.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

Ways to avoid using 'anyways' as a transition. Now I'm very good at that and I feel like my writing flows better bc of it. Still haven't figured out conversations with more than two people despite constantly putting three or more people in a room, though.

[denimbex1986]

'When we told people we were writing a sci-fi novel together during lockdown, they’d ask us what it was about. A reasonable question, but very hard to answer. “A love letter to genre fiction” felt insufficient, and “a military spy adventure mystery horror sci-fi queer romance thriller” too much. But now, in this glorious summer of Barbenheimer, a time of proliferating memes and T-shirts printed with hot-pink mushroom clouds, we usually answer the question with “It’s Barbie meets Oppenheimer”.

Set in 2010 in a universe just one perilous step from our own, Prophet was intended to be as comedic and subversive as Barbie and as darkly philosophical as Oppenheimer – and it also has scenes set in nuclear test towns in the Nevada desert overrun with animate plastic dolls. But the deepest connection between Prophet, Barbie and Oppenheimer is that all, in different ways, are shaped by nostalgia. Greta Gerwig’s film playfully interrogates the candy-lit utopia of a consumerist childhood, and Christopher Nolan’s complex response to the terrifying romance of the cold war nuclear desert reminds us of a time when the apocalypse was easier to comprehend because it only came in nuclear flavour.

Our subject, in Prophet, is the literal weaponisation of nostalgia. The plot is about a covert American military project that’s experimenting with a mysterious substance that causes those exposed to it to spontaneously create beloved childhood objects out of thin air – to quote Walter Benjamin, they literally “seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger”.

Once they create their object, they are trapped in a deadly trance clutching it, be it a doll, a teddy bear, a Scrabble set or rocking chair. This came partly from the notion of the “Valley of Lost Things”, a literary conceit discussed in Kathryn Schulz’s wonderful memoir Lost and Found that situates all the things we’ve lost in our lives in a far, inaccessible place. The idea can be found in works as various as Mary Poppins and the 1516 epic poem Orlando Furioso. But it also came from that strange, heady pang we all feel when we see a photo of something from our childhood on social media – a candy bar or a toy or the decor of a fast food restaurant. As the historian David Lowenthal maintained, we all crave evidence that the past endures in recoverable form – that some mechanism or faith will enable us not just to know it but to see and feel it.

It’s not hard to understand why nostalgia is everywhere in this era of pandemic and economic hardship. It feels as though the world is spiralling towards fascism in the midst of an accelerating environmental apocalypse, and a yearning for a lost past that seems safer and better than our present is an understandable reaction. Nostalgia flourishes in societies after wars and times of social dislocation.

In the 18th century, however, when the word nostalgia was coined by the medic Johannes Hofer (from the Greek nostos, meaning homecoming or home, and algos, meaning pain), it was to describe a military disease experienced by Swiss mercenaries on battlefields far from home; they became indifferent and haggard, heard voices and saw ghosts. Later, nostalgia was considered a vice, the consequence of not being manly enough, before shifting in the Romantic period to become a far more positive phenomenon, linked to a sense of national or cultural pride.

Today, nostalgia has become a viciously effective way to guarantee instant emotional engagement across advertising, television, movies and social media. Hollywood is so rife with it, it feels as if it’s entering a death spiral of recycled intellectual property. Following Barbie, there are Hot Wheels, Polly Pocket and Barney the Dinosaur movies all in the works. Across every sphere, late capitalism is eating itself, using nostalgia as a seasoning.

When we asked people on Twitter what single emotionally resonant object they would retrieve from their own past if they could, the responses were bewitching and often heartbreaking. Button boxes, parental jackets, grandparents’ lounge chairs, lampshades, childhood trees, pets. Some, chillingly, mentioned ex‑girlfriends. But because, as the critic Jean Starobinski explained, our longing for home increasingly shrank in the 20th century into a longing for one’s own childhood, mostly the objects were toys.

We built Prophet from nostalgic things, weaving it from tropes pulled from old spy movies: snowbound ski-chalet lairs, secret medical laboratories, shady government operatives. We gave it Bourne-style action scenes and B-movie horrors. On a different level, it’s about the legacy of trauma, dislocation and loss, all classic nostalgia triggers.

At its heart, our novel is a fable about how dangerous it is to venerate the past at the expense of the idea of a future. We’re living at a time where believing in a livable future feels increasingly difficult. The despair this belief evokes in us makes it easy to give up, stop fighting, turn to nostalgia for our refuge. As Rebecca Solnit and others have written, it takes hard work to trust that there is still uncertainty about the future. But we need that uncertainty. We need hope. We must recognise and believe that, even now, history can still be made and changed for the better by our actions.'

[dankovskys-beetle-collection]

Praemonitus praemunitus

call me marcus/meta (pronounced may-dah) she/her pronouns but he/him is hype too

my only regulations for the askbox are

-dont be an ass

-please

-this account is just archiving please dont bring drama here

tags:

strike if you will but hear asks + answers

dixi my silly words and things

still self-taught my silly arts and things

the town shifts general art tag

qui habet aures.. audiat infodumps and general text tag

you're just funny that's all memes and shitposts

the hooks links to stuff + resources

traces of the supernatural 1 screenshots

there's still hope 2 screenshots

paved with good intentions 3 screenshots + news

the Haruspex hears artemy burakh's silly adventures (termites for any of his bound)

the Bachelor sees daniil dankovsky's silly adventures (utopians for any of his bound)

the Changeling talks clara saburova's silly adventures (humbles for any of her bound)

the town's coherent structure ruling families + mistresses

the Law will prevail aglaya/army

specular tower miss polly(hedron)

blood from Olonngo abbatoir + termitary

one thousand eyes steppe and the kin misc

pestilence pestilence

your friend (hopefully) burakhovsky

meiri was right stakhpeter