#satellite q

[thisonesatellite]

...so this morning i'm at the public pool, done with my laps, putting on makeup for work and there's a woman and a man -- both easily in their 70s -- who obviously don't know each other coming down the stairs, and she has a little trouble with her balance so he goes, "Can I help?" and holds out his hand and she takes it, navigates the steps while holding on to him and talking about the importance of exercise and he deadass breaks out the "Come here often?" to which she says, "Yes, but some mornings it would be nicer to stay in bed" while batting her lashes at him, and it was such God Tier Flirting that it reaffirmed my entire faith in humanity.

YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD FOR A MEET CUTE.

[thisonesatellite]

CATWS 10th ANNIVERSARY | APRIL 4

Theme: TO THE END OF THE LINE

Prompts: Like, all of them. 😂 (Helicarrier /1940s /Devotion /Identity Porn /Reunion)

Thank you to @catws-anniversary for putting on this amazing event, and most especially to @cable-knit-sweater, because this vid would NOT be what it is without her. Darling, you are amazing and i love you. 💕💕💕

It's my first fanvid. i hope you enjoy it.

[thisonesatellite]

Welcome to the X-odus. Have a great time on bluesky.

💕💕💕💕💕

[thisonesatellite]

@crisis-froggo 💕💕💕💕

[thisonesatellite]

Tagged by the always wonderful @fsbc-librarian -- thank you so much, darling! 💖💖💖

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

42 works

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

677,643 (how do i have so many?)

3. what fandoms do you write for?

MCU/Stucky -- this is my main focus and current sandbox. i love to play with these two. OUAT/CS -- that is where i started my fic writing journey and it still makes up the bulk of my works. i no longer write it, but it will always have a soft spot in my heart. Dramione -- i wrote one dramione fic a while back, and it is a ship dynamic i really enjoy. i still have one big, rather epic fic idea for it, too. Since this idea -- (and @mysteriouscatstellation) -- have been bugging me about it for over a year, i absolutely have to write it. Eventually. Obvi. (Actually, it's up next after i finish my East German Stucky Spy Lunacy, shhhhhhhhh.) Leverage -- i also have one Leverage fic. i have literally no idea how that happened. None. This fic basically walked out onto the page and said, my turn. 😂 It did give me a really good opportunity to create an original character though.

4. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

Always. ALWAYS. i love and appreciate each one, from a row of emojis to a page of analysis. i go back often and re-read them, just to motivate myself. People who leave comments are the real heroes. (Although i do understand that not everyone has the spoons to comment, and that's OK, too. Just know that if you leave me a single emoji i will love it no less than if you write a dissertation. 💖💖💖)

5. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that i know of. But i haven't checked either.

6. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes -- The Sword and The Heart, an epic rewrite of OUAT S5 i tackled with the amazing @ohmightydevviepuu. If you have never collaborated with another writer, i strongly urge you to try it. i learned things about myself and my writing that i am still benefiting from to this day and i am immensely proud of what we created together. However, that is pretty much due to dev being the best collaborator ever. (Get yourself someone you trust and love and yet challenges you at every turn, is what i'm saying.)

7. what’s your all-time favourite ship?

That's a hard question, because affinity does change -- and why wouldn't it. We change, become different people, and sometimes the things we used to bleed for no longer resonate quite as hard. Like - my OG ship was Buffy /Angel, and i have the absolute soft spot of all time for them, but also i'm (obviously) no longer in high school and so the urgency has subsided. There have been a few other ships i've sideswiped over the years, characters i absolutely loved but never quite got 'ship-invested' in. (Shipvested? 😂) Personally, one factor is definitely that i did not know what a fandom was, or even that there was 'fandom' (as a concept, a community, a Thing) until Captain Swan tore a hole in my heart five years ago. i didn't really know what fanfic was. Or AO3. Apparently i live under a rock. But currently, the tl;dr is a dead tie between Stucky, Captain Swan, and James Holden /Naomi Nagata from The Expanse. With lots of honorable mentions bringing up the rear. 😂

8. what are your writing strengths?

Plot, dialogue, world building, and having characters stay true to their nature even when seen through various AU lenses, i think. Also action and fights and sometimes even battles. And i think i have a knack for letting exposition bleed through action and dialogue, instead of writing it outright. (That last one is a hard-won skill and kills me dead at least once a chapter, you feel me.) i also put a ridiculous amount of research into everything. Seriously, it's a sickness. i once spent more than two hours looking up radio dramas from the 30s that had a supernatural bent and might appeal to teenagers. For half a throwayway line. Possibly i should not list this as a strength. 😂

9. what are your writing weaknesses?

Smut. SMUT ALL THE WAY. i cannot write it, i don't know how. People who read my fic will always get shortchanged in the E department and for that i am sorry. But i really am completely useless on the smut front. And fluff. i can do soft scenes, but i cannot write pure fluff. i don't know how to do that either. i'll write a fucking coffee shop oneshot, or a thieves AU that doesn't even crack 5K, or even a BARTENDER fic, and yet complex back story and plot and action will still burst out from between the lines. All you people out there who can just tear off a sex scene or a fluff piece, i salute you. Also all you people who have multiple WIPs. i don't know how you do it. i can only ever write one fic at a time. You are all wizards, aren't you.

10. first fandom you wrote for?

OUAT /Captain Swan, back in 2019.

Zero pressure tags: @sparkagrace @cable-knit-sweater @bittersweet-in-boston @late-to-the-party-81 @metalbvcky @voylitscope

[thisonesatellite]

...the way nanowrimo is waffling around on the topic of AI, couching their arguments in woke language while somehow painting themselves as the victims of bullying not backlash, the way they keep doubling down and digging in their heels with increasingly flimsy straw man virtue signaling arguments, instead of taking a step back and admitting that they messed up and looking at the issue again with clear eyes and making room to be wrong about something, is like watching JKR do the --initial-- anti-trans dance all over again.

i have neither the time nor inclination to take apart all of their absolutely bonkers justifications, but---- racist and ableist? Really? That's the brush you want to tar us with, the hill you want to die on?

i don't draw. Can't, for the life of me. i WISH i could, but the fact is i suck. And it is hard for me to not be able to bring out into the world what is so vibrant and fully-formed in my imagination. But i would sooner die than use AI to generate the art i cannot produce myself, even though it is so clear in my head. No, really.

It's OK that art is not my medium. i still draw for myself, and i make peace with the fact that my art will always fall short of what i want it to be, and so i write and cook and use a dozen other creative outlets, and drawing just isn't one of them because even if i used AI, IT STILL WOULDN'T BE MY FUCKING ART.

It would be a soulless, empty piece of meaningless plagiary, frankensteined together from the shredded remains of ACTUAL PEOPLE'S ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, and the world would be worse for having it in it.

Worse.

So, dear @nanowrimo , go on defending the use of supercharged code data mining other people's creative output, and label the people calling you out on it racist and ableist, and paint yourself the fucking victim. Oh, and also, get fucked.

[thisonesatellite]

Word search tag game

i was tagged by the absolutely fabulous @sparkagrace -- whose snippets left me wanting more, you feel me. 😘

RULES: Search for the words given to you by the person who tagged you in your wips and then post a snippet containing said words. My words are: Body, palms, and pair.

Here's the thing: i am a horribly linear writer. i only ever have one wip at a time. And while i do have a current wip, not one of the above words is mentioned in the unpublished chapter. What am i even doing. 😂

But. Like.

i do have a (finished) fic that i am dropping tomorrow, which means it's still technically a wip (right? RIGHT?) and it does feature two of the words, so i say it counts.

Here you are. 💕

Body:

“He has minimal social interaction. His landlady probably thinks he’s a myth who sends checks. You use him as a reference, chances are, you really do know him.” He smiles. “But just to be sure, tell me which body parts he’s missing.”

Palms:

So sorry. No palms in that fic anywhere. Clearly it's not worth reading. 😂

Pair:

He pulls out a pair of handcuffs and then looks straight at Bucky and says, “Do you trust me?”

THANK YOU FOR THIS, darling @sparkagrace! 💕💕💕

Tagging: @fsbc-librarian, @bittersweet-in-boston, @hanitrash, @succulent-hyena, Your words are: Sharp, interesting, eyeroll (in any form).

[thisonesatellite]

@anxioussquirrel 😂

[thisonesatellite]

The poor did not invent poverty.

--- Muhammad Yunus ---

(Yunus founded the Grameen Bank and pioneered microcredit, among other things.)

[icy-saturday]

Polar Express with Icy at 4am

We can’t sleep :’)

[thisonesatellite]

@wistfulcynic

this is so amazing

[july-19th-club]

always makes me so bummed and sad when new patrons come in and they ask like "how many are we allowed to get" like. because i know some libraries actually do have a borrowing limit but the only time i ever was subjected to one myself was in elementary school. at the school library. and none of the public libraries in my county system have one or ever have and it's like. these people have been to places where the free book distributor set a cap on distributing free books. and they don't know that at our house you can take home as many as you're willing to return! they don't know! they think we're stingy!!

[leukagbl]

Why do we seek knowledge in space (James Webb telescope) ?

Humans have a certain need to feel a greater purpose, to feel a sense of belonging; thus by learning about the universe we subconsciously seek for a reason to exist, to feel whole. Perhaps if we would discover other life forms we would feel a sense of belonging (it is a human tendency to anthropomorphize other life forms because we are used to relating to another person, we want to understand their motives, reasons and meaning).

If you look at the history of scientific discoveries and philosophical knowledge in general, we come to see that the more we learn the less rational the universe appears— as well as our existence. It is the paradoxical human nature; we are conscious creatures in an unconscious universe. So when we consider the universe as greater than us (therefore being meaningless in it), we alienate ourselves with the concept of othering. The concept of othering is related to ouf self-awareness and consciousness. We are becoming alienated from the universe, or from other humans even, as we try to find something similar to us (creating god, science, philosophy and many other fields to understand ourselves in the process).

However, ultimately, everything is part of the universe. In my opinion, this dichotomy results from the fact that maybe we are the universe becoming self aware of itself. Again, we are seeking knowledge with the James-Webb satellite to understand ourselves and were we belong.

[darlinhutchence]

michael hutchence on the set of max q's trippy monday night by satellite music video circa 1990

📸: kendall casey

[thisonesatellite]

Cis hetero first world person: Have you ever met anyone gay in Iran /Brunei /Saudi Arabia /Nigeria /Mauritania /Somalia (and 58 other countries)? Me neither.

I graduated high school in 99.

There was a student at our school named Wayne.

Wayne was gay. It was obvious. He was unable to stay in the closet even if he wanted to. To make matters worse, he was also Black. From a bullying standpoint, that was not a great combo. Both Black and white students made fun of him relentlessly. He was ostracized from the only community that may have given him protection. Only us theater kids stuck up for him, but not to significant effect.

Wayne was bullied so much that at one point he finally snapped and attacked his bullies with a lunch tray. I was actually seated in perfect line of sight and just sat there chewing my soggy fries in stunned silence. It didn't even seem real as I was witnessing it. The image of him wailing on his main bully as the food on his tray flew off is permanently logged into my long term memory.

The bully he attacked had blood all over his face and went straight to the nurse. Other than superficial cuts, he was not injured.

Before the attack, Wayne went to teachers for help. He went to guidance counselors for help. He went to the principals for help.

He did all of the things you were supposed to do. No one helped him. They wagged a finger at the bullies and warned them to stop.

Wayne's lunch tray melee was the only thing that worked. His bullies stayed far away from him. But a week later Wayne was expelled and the bullies were given no punishment.

So... no.

No one in my school talked about being trans.

Because the only way to survive being openly queer was to bash people with a lunch tray.

[thisonesatellite]

writing patterns

i was tagged by the bamf-ness that is @wistfulcynic - thank you! (Do not @ me, bamf-ness is totally a word.)

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern!

“What have we here,” a mocking voice says from behind him, and the blade of a knife presses into the skin of his jugular.   (Praetorian)

“Smyrna.”   (Tempus Fugit)

“I can do this all day.”  Steve wipes blood from his nose and grips the bat tighter. (Closing Time)

The soup kitchen is a soup kitchen like any other.   (a sort of homecoming)

They are going to kill him.   (despite all my rage)

In hindsight it was simply a series of truly unfortunate events which started the whole mess.  (Burn to Shine)

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” (Nearly Lost You)

The day Marshal Steven Grant Rogers rides into Truth Or Consequences in the New Mexico Territory, the town is still called Fortune Gulch – a rather grand and prosperous name for a small western town whose gulch, a tributary trickle of the Rio Grande, has never made anyone a fortune.   (Truth or Consequences, New Mexico)

It starts – as so many things do – with guilt. (we build our lives out of chaos and hope)

All he ever does is look. (a handful of dust)

i don't know about pattern, but i do seem to love a catchy first line. Occasionally involving dialogue. 🤣

Zero pressure tags: @ohmightydevviepuu, @bittersweet-in-boston, @cable-knit-sweater, @voylitscope, @sparkagrace, and everyone else who wants in! 💕