#vimes as moral compass

[klinefelterrible]

What I love about Terry Pratchett's good characters is that they never fail you. Sam Vimes might push you towards the piss puddle for fun, or put a farting pillow under your chair, maybe tie your shoelaces while you're asleep - but he would never fuck your wife or piss into your shoes or make you miserable for no reason other than sheer "fun".

Granny Weatherwax would never say "no" to a crying for help or "please". She wouldn't betray her morals for money, some sort of respect gain or power.

So wouldn't Angua. Or Susan. Or Adora Belle. Or Carrot. Or Luggage.

[rincewinds-hat]

When faced with a dilemma or just general turbulence in my life, i have 0 (none) idea what to do. Or i have too many ideas of what to do, and i get stuck.

So, i always had a sort of system for this (if im capable in the moment, that is) and it always came down to some character or person i like.

I might want to off someone - that's not a very LDShadowlady thing to do (or is it???jk).

Oh, you want to just give up? Bobby would be disappointed if ya did (maybe even call you an idjit and slap the back of your head, telling you to stop being a little whiny princess)

You allow yourself to be late/doing something when you know it leads to nothing good? What would Vimes say? I don't think he would like that one.

Cussing someone out? Carrot wouldn't do that.

Making bad life decisions with good intentions? Oh well, i am a Cas girlie after all.

Not doing something because you're scared? Rincewind did it multiple times, when the stakes were higher.

And it's such a good way of manually making your moral compass. Also, it gives me some sort of pride that I'm more like them.

[friendly-books]

Dresden files Fool's Moon live blog

Fool’s Moon 

Ugh male gaze already

You’ve never mentioned Kim Delaney in your fic so I don’t have high hopes in her survival especially when she’s looking into summoning or binding circle

Sometime apprentice? Eh? How does one become a sometime apprentice

Harry drives a Beetle but he’s so tall and a beetle is so small ha

I’m absolutely blaming you for my love of Marcone and how unreasonably happy I got at the mere mention of his name in chapter two I might have a problem 

“He was one of Johnny Marcone bodyguards” pg. 18 Geez Marcone’s men can’t catch a break. First Tommy Tomm, then “Gimpy” Lawrence, and now “Spike” 

Ahh!! What was that agent Benn thinking? Pulling out her gun?!? I know Harry and Murph were going to live but still. I’m horrified by this lack of gun control 

Murph and Harry are fighting:(

I like Harry being a detective 

Who’s Justin? Why did Harry burn him to death? I’m reserving my decision if Justin is good or bad because while Harry is a good guy Bob doesn't have a moral compass.

Who’s Elaine? What happened to her?

Alphas really that’s the name they chose?

Susan you’re back!

Harry’s talking to himself again 

“What could possibly go wrong?” pg. 102 Harry sweetie you didn’t just say that. I can’t believe what I just read. Harry, you should know better than to say that. Every time someone says that things will always go wrong you’re supposed to be genre savvy. 

How is Harry still alive? He went to a hideout of possible murder happy werewolves with minimal tools and or weapons and no backup?

Marcone has arrived yay! It only took 10 chapters 

“Ah Mr. Dresden” pg. 114 Why did I think of Verinari when Marcone said Ah Mr. Dresden? Maybe because Verinari says Ah Vimes 

I love chapter 10 it’s all Marcone and Harry

Why does a demon know Harry’s mom?

“What was left of Kim Delaney lay naked and sublime on the bloodstained floor a few feet from the circle” pg. 143 I didn’t want to be right :(

“Middle-aged, starkly handsome man” pg. 145 Bi Harry counter 3

Why does a demon know Harry’s mother?

“Good-looking detective” pg. 231 Bi Harry 4 counter 

Wait did Harry call Rudolph the person who kills Murph good-looking??? What did I just read?? WHAT?!? 

It’s cool that Harry fights a werewolf 

I’ve now met ID Harry weird that whole bit was weird 

The FBI was in on it?!? 

Marcone to the rescue! 

“A man in his mature prime, his hair immaculately graying at the temples, his custom-made suit displaying a body kept fit in spite of the advancing years” pg. 293 Bi Harry 5

Really Marcone, you're really trying to get Harry to sign a contract now? 

“Marcone looked good in his gray suit and perfect hair and his manicured hands, but he wasn’t” pg. 295 Bi Harry 6

I find it amusing that Marcone and Parker are fighting over Harry for different reasons but fighting over him nonetheless :)

“He won’t accept my offer. He’d rather die.” pg. 297 Marcone knows Harry

“Marcone’s mouth dropped open, and it was an intense pleasure to see the surprise on his face” pg. 297 I love that Harry can get a reaction out of Marcone 

Loving chapter 23 with all its Marconeness 

How old are the characters? Harry calls the alphas kids, Billy calls Harry Mr. Dresden, and Harry talks about Marcone’s gray hair. I’m picturing Harry and Marcone as a mesh of @drawsdenfiles and @kaphkas fanart.

We got a title drop 

Awww Susan got Harry his duster

Why is Marcone’s house so big? Why does he need a big house? 

“If he truly offered you a challenge, he’s here,” Marcone said, his tone completely confident, “I’m certain of it.” pg. 365 Marcone really knows Harry huh 

I like that Marcone’s never underestimated Harry 

“Please remember that I want Dresden, alive if possible.” pg. 375 Wow Marcone really wants to hire Harry. 

Nooo the FBI kidnapped Murph :(

What did Denton see in Harry’s soulgaze? 

Marcone to the rescue again or not, honestly Marcone you should listen to Harry more often

“I guess it could be worse” pg. 394 Why would you say that Murph? Why???

“Mr. Dresden, Marcone said crossly. I’ve asked you not to call me that.” pg. 398 You should let Harry call you John, Marcone 

I love Harry and Marcone’s banter

Marcone’s throwing knives bit was cool

Harry using the belt was interesting. Glad Susan calmed him down. 

“Dresden! The pit!” pg. 417 Nice of Marcone to warn Harry

Harry using his necklace is cool! 

No Murph trust Harry, why did you shoot him?

Yay Murph was shooting Denton 

“Of course,” Marcone said, with a note of disappointment in his voice “I’d just hoped you hadn’t realized it. Nonetheless, Harry-“ 

“Don’t call me Harry,” I said, and hung up on him” pg. 428 I love this entire bit. How come Harry gets to call Marcone John but when Marcone calls Harry by his first name he gets upset? You should just call each other by your first names 

I hope we see more of the Alphas 

Oh Harry’s making connections with the ongoing mystery yay! 

Final thoughts 

Loved all the Marcone we got. I like that we’re getting more on the ongoing mystery. I hope we see more of the Alphas. I liked the fights and Harry’s detective work. More Bi Harry the counter is going up! We’re up to 6. As with the previous book, I'm not a big fan of the male gaze but I think that’s more to do with the length and descriptions used. Harry (or Jim) will go on for a solid paragraph describing women using words I don’t think anyone would use while with Bi Harry it’s not as long and I can see people using words like good looking or handsome. I mostly glazed over the male gaze bits. I don’t know if my predisposition to Bi Harry and a Harry/Marcone shipper is making those parts stand out or if it’s because I’m actively looking for them to add to the counter. Speaking of Marcone I don’t recall if it’s said why Marcone wants Harry to work for him. Yeah having a wizard on staff is cool he can do magic but surely Marcone knows that there’s more magic people and some are more likely to work for him than Harry. So why does he specifically want Harry to work for him? He tried to get him to work for him three times in this book and once in the previous book. There’s trying to hire someone and then there’s whatever this is. I enjoyed this book. Good book for Harry/Marcone moments. Looking forward to the next book!

[morporkian-cryptid]

✨Lupin III Discworld AU✨

What happens when you drop Earth's greatest thief in a world with werewolves, a Thieve's Guild, a postmaster who's a former conman, and Commander Sam Vimes? Chaos. Chaos is what happens.

Characters introductions here!

.

Headcanons and random ideas!

Lupin III and Moist Von Lipwig

They get along like a house on fire, both figuratively and literally. They're both adrenaline junkies and Lipwig (pronounced Lip-vig) hasn't completely shed his kleptomaniac tendencies. Lupin regularly attemps to rob the Post Office, the Royal Bank and the Royal Mint (all under Lipwig's responsibility). One of the reasons Lord Vetinari tolerates Lupin's presence in Ankh-Morpork is because he gives Lipwig enrichment.

They also sometimes challenge each other to thieving competitions. One of the contests’ goal was to steal Vetinari’s manuscript, The Servant. Fujiko won. She wasn’t even in the race.

When they're not busy competing, Lupin and Lipwig are actually great friends. Lipwig infected Lupin with his pencil-stealing tendencies, to Yata's great despair as he finds his pencils disappearing every time Lupin is brought to Pseudopolis Yard.

Fujiko ended up befriending Adora-Belle Dearheart (Lipwig's rather explosive wife), they get together to lovingly trash-talk their respective S/O. Completely unrelatedly, Fujiko acquired a horse golem (which Adora-Belle swears she didn't give to her).

.

Jigen, sharpshooting, and Archchancellor Ridcully

Jigen is a self-taught sharpshooter, proficient in anything from a slingshot to the infamous gonne (DW's first and only firearm, with a regretful tendency to possess its user and send them into a murderous rage). Jigen religiously reads every issue of Bow and Ammo, and knows by heart the entire crossbow catalogue of Burleigh & Stronginthearm.

Jigen is crossbow-hunting-buddies with Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully of the Unseen University. They bonded over their love of shooting anything that moves, and Mustrum brok- hum hum, circumvented the University's rules to teach a non-wizard a spell. Jigen can now shoot fireballs, to Lupin's endless delight and the Watch's horror. At Jigen's demand, Mustrum also enchanted the Gang's bright-ass yellow carriage to make it go supernaturally fast, in exchange for the opportunity to take a ride in it.

The Gang also had the misfortune of stealing the aforementioned gonne (we're going to ignore that there's no canonical window allowing this to happen). Jigen had heard of it, and Lupin decided to steal it as a gift for his partner. The second he got his hands on the gonne, his moral compass evaporated. He would have even shot his friends, if Jigen hadn't taken the gonne from him... and immediately gotten possessed himself. In the end, Goemon managed to take the gonne from them. He was completely unaffected, a phenomenon he later explained as "being confident in the blade's superiority to filthy morporkian artifacts".

(The gonne doesn't so much "possess" people as by-pass their moral restraints to unearth whatever urges for violence, power and destruction they have. Which I think would be a very interesting thing to happen to Lupin.)

.

Lupin and dragons

The Gang owns a swamp dragon (very small and pathetic creatures with a tendency to explode at the slightest inconvenience). Lupin uses it to melt safes open, and to light his and Jigen's cigarettes.

Aside from this blatant mis-use of an endangered creature, the dragon is actually very well treated, and in time has become a sort of mascot of the Gang. His name is Sir Arson Burp-A-Lot Lupin.

Lupin (the human) is a regular at the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons, and has a false identity entirely dedicated to visiting the Sanctuary. He managed to befriend Lady Sybil Ramkin, owner of the Sanctuary and wife of Commander Vimes of the City Watch. Goemon disapproves of the whole situation, and Jigen finds it hilarious, regularly joking that Lupin is playing with fire.

.

The Gang and lycanthropy

It is common knowledge that Lupin's Gang includes a werewolf. Lupin thinks that everyone thinks he is the werewolf (because he's posh and has a wolf-related name), but actually everyone knows it's Jigen. It's a bit baffling as there are no werewolves in the Agatean Empire, and Jigen has no known Überwaldian ancestors.

Thanks to Jigen's lycanthropy, the Gang is fully aware that the Watch's resident werewolf is Angua Von Überwald (and not Nobby Nobbs as is the common belief). They unfortunately can't use scent bombs to ward her off as it would hurt Jigen, but following these stinky thieves is just as bad for her nose. They smell like a tobacco factory that has caught on fire.

It took a lot of time for Jigen to tell Lupin about his "condition", and Lupin (who easily put two and two together after seeing Jigen leave to gods-know-where every full moon and growl when he's angry) didn't press him and waited for him to open up about it. Growing up, Jigen had always seen his lycanthropy as monstrous, but Lupin's delight at having 1) a big fluffy cuddlable boyfriend and 2) someone who can smell the police coming, eventually made Jigen feel more comfortable with his gift. Lupin and Goemon both adore Jigen's wolf form (although Goemon would rather die than admit it out loud). Jigen almost bit off Fujiko's hand the only time she tried to pet him.

.

More miscellaneous headcanons here!

If you have ideas, headcanons, or even just vague vibes for this AU, please do reblog, comment or send me an ask!

[somath-cegem]

I don't know why I even bothered to get my hopes up even the smallest amount in relation to The Watch, no other TV adaptation seemed to get it right at all, why the hell would this one be different.

[klinefelterrible]

I once read an interview with STP and he referred to one of his reader's letter to him where she said that she's mortally ill and awaits Death and she hopes it would be like His Death (character) and he said that everytime someone writes that to him, he stared blankly at a wall, impossible to comprehend that feeling, uneasy about it.

My saviour is (are) The Watch. Of course I'd like to be 100% Vimes but I am more of Angua, sometimes (more than I'm ready to admit) like Nobby, but I guess what I'm trying to be is Carrot trying to be the best version of myself in order to have a place in me for Vimes, Angua, Nobby and others. Or Cheery Littlebottom.

Vimes is my moral compass as to always do what's right. A lot of shit is not right, but I still try.

GNU Terry Pratchett

there’s a bit in pratchett’s going postal where someone accuses the protagonist of indirectly causing 2.338 statistical deaths. recently it’s made me wonder, did pterry ever think about the lives he saved, himself? the people pulled out of the dark by his writing, in the same kind of fractions and possibilities? the people who survived by kindness that was only offered because he made each of us a little bit better?

he saved a piece of my life. without discworld, i would have been a little less likely to have made it this far. we talk about how he’s not really dead while his name’s still spoken, and a lot of the time we reference that same book when we do. but he’s alive in so much more than that. there’s a bit of his voice in every breath i take, because i don’t know for certain i’d be taking it if not for him.

and i think… don’t we all have that power? maybe the world would be a better place if we all understood that one well-placed kindness is all it takes to save a piece of a life.

[sandersgrey]

Juno Steel and Sam Vimes are the same person

Well, no. Not actually. That's what I want to talk about.

They do have a lot of similarities: both have an intense relationship with their city, which they understand to be corrupted down to its core but which they nevertheless couldn't see themselves leaving even after it repeatedly almost killed them; both were raised (a generous word when applied to Sarah, but still) by their mothers with no input from a father; both are or had been cops in a failing, corrupted system; both have a moral core of, if you'll forgive the wordplay, steel, to the point where their moral outrage is seen as a defining trait; both are very smart, but tend to rush in; both have had symbolic eye injuries at one point; both were manipulated by the ruler of their city.

Same person, except their arcs end in incredibly different places, don't they? Why is that?

That's because The Penumbra Podcast and The Watch have different themes at their core.

Let's tackle their arcs individually, shall we? Spoiler alert.

We meet Sam Vimes at the absolute bottom, in a ditch, raving about Ankh-Morpork in a monologue that is similar in meaning, if not in articulation, to Juno's monologues about Hyperion City. He's an alcoholic. The Watch is a joke and has next to no actual power, consisting of only Sam, Nobby, and Colon. Their fourth man's funeral had just happened.

Yet, at the end of The Watch series, Sam Vimes is the richest man in the city, a Duke, with a loving wife and a son, extremely respected and having reformed the Watch to a point where it is efficient and the most diverse organization in the city. The cops he trained are in high demand in the country and are called sammies. He has shaken hands with kings and is highly respected by the Patrician.

How did he get there?

That's where The Watch's theme comes in: Sam Vimes is a very smart man, but he's only ever able to make actual change in the city due to the support and help of other people. In Guards! Guards!, those people are able to be counted in one hand, but some of them are also powerful: Sybil is the richest woman in the city, and one of the noblest; Vetinari, who impeded Vimes' investigation at first, ends up helping him out of the dungeon and rewarding the Watch at the end of the book; Carrot is the king by all rights, except for the fact that he doesn't want to be. Vimes'd go spare.

They are just people. But they're people who, at least at times, actively try to make the city better. And Vimes' support only grows with time.

Powerful people listen to Vimes. Most of them are even trying to do good independently of him, to make things better one step at a time. Goodness is something that is built slowly in places like Ankh-Morpork.

Sam Vimes tries, again and again, to do things on his own, only to be thwarted when people keep going with him. This isn't just his fight. He only gets to grow when relying on other people.

And he does grow. He stops drinking, and finds purpose in reforming the Watch with Carrot and Sybil's help, and then with the help of a dozen other people. He unlearns his prejudice.

There is a case to be made that, in staying in Ankh-Morpork and dedicating so much of himself to it, to the point where it more than once endangers his family, Sam never gets to stop overworking himself. He doesn't know how to take a holiday or a break. He canonically leaves Sybil alone for longer than she'd like.

It's impossible to imagine Sam Vimes retiring out of his own free will. That is not a good thing.

But, on the whole, he's in a much better place than at the beginning- and not only him, but the city; and not only the city, but the world. The Watch is a love letter to collectivism, even if it doesn't seem like that at times.

It says if enough people get up and do the job that's in front of them, the world gets better for it.

That is not the core of The Penumbra Podcast.

Now that we've seen what happens to Vimes, it's pretty easy to spot the difference when it comes to Juno's arc. While The Watch believes in organizations and communities, the junoverse believes in families and friends. While it does touch on the whole, it puts its faith on those small human connections.

Hyperion doesn't get better because a lot of people decide to work hard on it. Hyperion gets better because of a manipulator who could have ended humanity as we understand it and who believed Good meant taking people's lives off their hands. The result is almost collateral to Ramses' plan. And that's what drives Juno off world.

We don't actually see Juno at his worse. We know he drinks, that he's depressed and passively suicidal, that he drives almost everyone away, but his time in ditches is only referred to. When we meet him, Juno is mostly functional.

While Vimes' Watch was powerless, the police force in junoverse is very much powerful, if intensely corrupt, which is why Juno couldn't stay as a cop and still be a likable protagonist.

Whille powerful people do help him, it's often in their own interest: Vicky wants him to solve a case for her; Ramses wants him to assuage his guilt. Most often, the people who do help him with little to no ulterior motive are Rita, who's an incredible hacker, but in no way powerful beyond that as far as we know; Peter Nureyev, who does not want a whole planet to be wiped but really doesn't want to stay and work on its other problems; and Jet and Buddy, who do have the ulterior motive of wanting him to work for them but deserve a honorable mention for actually coming to care about him as a person later on.

Juno is not a person to Ramses. He's a tool, and a moral compass Ramses refuses to actually look at, and a victim he feels the need to recompense.

Is it any wonder, then, that Juno's arc leads him off Hyperion? That his epiphany is that he cannot, should not, pour himself into the city until it drains him dry? (There can be some symbolism in the test of generosity, if you look.) Juno grows by prioritizing himself and the people he cares about (Rita, at that point it's mostly Rita) above the city that has given him nothing.

Neither narrative is worth more or less than the other. Stay and help- a purpose can give you reason to work on yourself, and it is possible to make things better and Go, make sure you won't die here, the only reason you need is that other people care about you, and that you can learn to care about yourself are both very important messages.

Junoverse is far from over, though. Who knows what it will say when everything done with?

[vorkin]

The City Watch members themselves are what make the show so much fun. Vimes is a well-meaning goof who grows more likable as you get to know him and see him in action. His memory isn’t very good, but his moral compass never wavers, even when his mind does. Without Dormer’s endearing buffoonery, the series wouldn’t work. His fully formed, fully committed performance is exactly the anchor the show needs.

- The Nerdist review of The Watch

Um. Excuse me, WHAT???

[itsmultifandommadness]

Vimes’ moral compass is as strong as duct tape 

[jadedamber]

Ahem, so, on the subject of best coworkers… We were having a conversation and I mentioned that at some point I had a mad crush on Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird solely because of his actions (as he's not meant or written to be sexy or alluring), and the term "moral compass" was bandied about. So apparently that's my "type", as my devotion to Cap is well-known (and to Sam Vimes, Frodo, Sam Gamgee, etc.) Next thing I know - a drawing lands on my desk, and my week is made.

[klinefelterrible]

I don't know if anyone wants or needs to see it but it is my first tattoo I ever done with a handpoke needle on myself. V is for Vimes. It's rough, it's not ideal but so is he.

[noldorinwa]

Chocolate Box Letter

Dear Chocolate Box writer, 

Thank you for checking this out, and sorry about the delay! 

Here are a bunch of fandom and pairing-specific likes and prompts. All my requests are for fic, and I’m open to all ratings. I’m very excited for just about anything I might receive for any of these pairings, and so long as you stick to something related to my general likes, feel free to follow specific prompts as much or as little as you wish, depending on where inspiration takes you!

 I’m lunavagant on AO3.

General Likes

Worldbuilding

Casefic

Banter and humor

Canon divergence

Emotional vulnerability / repressed feelings / pining

Character study

Codependency 

Characters being possessive or jealous 

Loyalty

Hurt/comfort

Open endings / hopeful endings

Enemies to lovers / friends (especially childhood friends) to lovers

Smut specific likes: frottage; penetration; clothed sex; begging; orgasm delay/denial; emotional sex; power dynamics; overstimulation; fingering; oral sex 

DNWs

Unrequested death of requested characters

Unrequested tragic endings

Unrequested gender headcanons 

Pregnancy 

A/B/O

Bi Richie or Bi Eddie for IT 

 DISCWORLD

There isn't enough Discworld fic in the world, and I would be ecstatic to read just about anything for any combination of characters, really. Some that I am especially fond of but haven't nominated are Sybil, Nobby, William de Worde, Moist, Adora Belle, Polly Perks, and Maladict. 

Anything from a plotty fic to something humorous and dialogue-heavy would be the best thing ever. Footnotes are more than welcome if inspiration strikes. 

 Angua von Uberwald & Samuel Vimes

I would give just about anything for Sam and Angua buddy cop adventures in Ankh-Morpork and beyond. These cynical bastards are two of the characters in the Watch books that most closely resemble each other personality-wise, and anything involving them interacting would be a delight. 

Casefic of any kind, even just a snippet of an ongoing investigation, or everyday Watch shenanigans. 

I really enjoyed Angua and Sam's cameos in Monstrous Regiment, and would love to see more of something of that kind - either set during/post MR canon or in a different setting altogether. 

Any and all interactions with William or Moist especially would be amazing. Especially with both of them being aware that there is a werewolf in the Watch, and both of them very much Not knowing that the werewolf is Angua.    

 Havelock Vetinari & Samuel Vimes

(The tag doesn’t require it, but I’m all for making their relationship shippy – either explicitly or implicitly by hinting at suppressed feelings.)

Feel free to integrate these prompts with the Sam & Angua ones if you're inspired to. 

Pre-series: Sam ends up saving Vetinari’s life much earlier than canon – back when he’s been just recently promoted to Captain of the Watch, and Vetinari is still consolidating his power as Patrician. For all that he's still having to work to make himself heard and respected, young Vetinari probably privately enjoys Sam's irreverence more than he lets on. How does their relationship evolve from there? 

Amnesia fic in which Vetinari has a magic-related accident of some kind (or maybe it's a failed assassination attempt) and ends up forgetting the past five or so years. Maybe he wakes up to Sam sitting by the bed and immediately calls Sam “Captain” instead of Commander? 

Casefic, again! Bickering over case reports! Vetinari messing with Sam by sending people like government inspectors over to the Watch whenever Sam does something annoying (for that matter, what IS the story behind Vetinari sending over A.E. Pessimal? I am Dying to know). Discussions on the need for a free press in Ankh-Morpork, in light of the fact that A) Sam considers William to be a public menace but unfortunately B) Vetinari finds Sam's exasperation hilarious.  

Time travelling shenanigans inspired by Night Watch. Memories, glimpses of parallel realities, Young Sam and Young Havelock interacting. I am also 100% here for Young Vetinari/Sam!Keel.

Any combination of the above ideas, or something new entirely that fits my general likes would be great!

 IT (MOVIES)

Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier

Fandom specific DNWs: Bi Richie; Bi Eddie; Kidfic; Nicknames that aren’t movie canon

Eddie lives! He just does, because I said so. Angst and temporary character death are more than fine, though. 

I’m here for it all, to be honest, from frantic we-almost-died sex back at the hotel in Derry, to Richie and Eddie attempting to get back to their lives and staying “just friends”, and failing spectacularly. 

Infidelity, angsty misunderstandings, and messy attempts at dealing with your marriage when you're gay and in love with your male best friend are all concepts that are right up my alley with these two. 

Maybe Richie manages to push Eddie out of the way just in time while fighting It in the sewers, and gets injured himself. How does Eddie act with their positions reversed?

I have the biggest soft spot for the two of them as teens, and I would love any exploration of their relationship then. 

Finding excuses to get in each other’s space – sitting close together on the couch, or at the movies, in the hammock, sleeping in the same bed. Richie teasing Eddie constantly just to have an excuse to touch him. Eddie constantly nagging Richie to have an excuse to do the same.  

Sleepovers! Pretending to be asleep to ‘accidentally’ cuddle up to one another. Cuddling turning into something else. 

Banter turning into flirting and both of them insisting it’s all a big joke until it doesn’t feel like a joke anymore, but never taking the final step for fear of being wrong or rejected. Richie dealing with internalized guilt over wanting to touch his best friend in ways he’s not supposed to want.  

Richie crushing on Eddie and being terrified of being found out, but unable to bring himself to stop making jokes, or taking every chance to be as close to Eddie as possible. Richie struggling with himself over his desire to be physically close to Eddie – he would never do anything, so surely he’s allowed this? But then again if Eddie knew about the way Richie feels he wouldn’t want Richie to touch him at all. 

Eddie crushing on Richie and not even realizing it until he doesn’t have Richie’s attention directly on him for more than one minute, then getting restless, or insanely jealous in case Richie is directing said attention elsewhere.

All kinds of awkward but earnest teen explorations of sexuality would be delightful.  

If you’re inspired to write smut, I vastly prefer Richie bottoming and/or being generally submissive in bed. Eddie, on the other hand, probably gets a rush from finding out that Richie likes being told what to do. I also believe that it’s much more likely for Richie to be the one to freak out about (or during!) sex. For all that he’s just as repressed, Eddie is also a stubborn bastard, and once he’s concluded that he wants to sleep with Richie he would be a man on a mission. 

 KNIVES OUT

Marta Cabrera/Ransom Drysdale

I watched this movie by myself and only distantly registered the fact that I found the idea of these two appealing. Then I watched it again with my friend and about halfway through she went, "you know what, I ship this," and I realised that she was right.  

Someone in a different letter referred to this ship as Marta accidentally collecting a pet sociopath, and that's so on point I'm going to quote it. 

Angry sex, power dynamics, enemies to lovers, the possibilities are endless. Ransom deserves to be pushed around a bit and he’d be into it way more than he’d like to openly admit.

Canon divergence in which Ransom is still a total dick but not the killer. Maybe Marta really did accidentally kill Harlan. Maybe it was somebody else. Basically I'd just like to see more of the reluctant partnership they struck during the movie, with both of them finding each other's moral compasses (or lack thereof) an absolute pain in the ass. 

Post-canon, Ransom gets out of jail and finds that the family is still plotting to take Marta down, and if they can't do that through legal means, well. They'll just have to get creative. Either he decides to side with her for reasons unclear even to him, or they are thrown together by the circumstances and have no choice but to collaborate and lean on each other if they want to survive. Ransom insisting that he's only trying to keep Marta alive because he plans on getting money out of her somehow, even when it becomes clear that there's something else at play. 

Banter, fights, bickering and insulting each other while working together surprisingly – and annoyingly – well. Ransom surprising Marta by making the right choice at a critical moment, and then immediately going back to being an asshole. Marta fighting dirty and Ransom being into it.

Thank you for reading this, and have fun!

[ambassadorquark]

Was Rom excited that Roz also went into engineering? Klingon/Vulcan is in interesting mix, what's her personality like? Also! What's the deal with 6/6 and mouse? Do Yefer and Mouse get along? (Also, I now have a Borgsona, along with my own alien species now so thanks!)

- i have no idea! and roz is a security officer she just specializes in tactical systems so she didn’t go into engineering at all. i’m sure if they met roz would be like so you’re the president... that’s pretty tight but can i meet your wife

- t’var is like... super smart and capable but misanthropic and disillusioned w/ starfleet in general, she kind of looks out for number one and has a drinking problem + a hard time with authority. she’s pretty apathetic and disagreeable, hates being diplomatic but is very perceptive and surprisingly charismatic. she has crazy strong emotions and she does meditate and regulate them but she’s a touch more expressive and i guess human-like than vulcans are. the only thing about her that’s particularly klingon is her strong moral compass. she’s space sam vimes!

- 6/6 and mouse are best friends! they’re minor characters so they’re not that important to the Story as a whole but six uses mouse as kind of her lab rat when she does weird technology shit. yenef is their boss and also doing his best to parent them bc he is a dad. mouse is very timid so he’s a bit nervous around ANY of his superior officers but he does accidentally call yenef dad on the regular

[starsailorstories]

Honestly I’d always aimed for the hopepunk aesthetic but I think my real turning point of achieving it was creating Shade. I’d had characters who were vice-filled and cynical before, but they were all idealists at heart. I admit a bit of influence from one Sam Vimes, but Shade was the first time I challenged myself to feel compassion for, and create growth in, a character who saw existence as a ruthless, life-or-death competition that could never become anything else because that was simply how it was. Of course, she lives under a system of institutional abuse that creates that impression, especially for those who have a disadvantage in the system, which she does. 

The two things she discovers that allow her to progress into being a steadfastly good and noble person are that 1. love is also a fact of the world, and it’s actually MUCH harder to change than the competition fact; and 2. her drive to survive doesn’t have to be a selfish trait--it’s furthered when she extends it to everyone, not hindered.

And I feel like those are probably core things of something or other.

EDIT: also it interested me that Shade didn’t need to be “gritty” to be a character broken by cynicism. She’s drunk on virtue as Baudelaire would say--well-mannered even at her meanest, completely straightedge, and an overachiever. She was kind of my final acceptance that sometimes moral decay looks more like following the rules than breaking them.

[groovycrusadeperson]

I'm not sure if anyone has already asked you! How and when did you start liking Steve?

It was after TWS released. But not because of TWS. I had just started dipping my toes in the MCU fandom then and had only seen the Avengers as a casual fan back in 2012 and didn’t really register Steve. I watched TWS and it was…good I guess..but my main takeaway from it was how likeable the supporting cast was and that Captain America was ~cool~ now. But then I decided to go back and watch all the solo movies (IM, Thor and Cap)

…and I really really liked how Steve was portrayed in TFA (and how completely different it was from what I remembered from the Avengers). And how NOT funny the ending of this movie is (also unlike what the Avengers told me). TFA has probably the most heartbreakingly bleak ending of all the MCU movies. Steve sacrificed his life to save the world and ended up having to keep his life and see the loss of his entire world. I mean…holy shit.  

Then I watched the deleted footage from the Avengers and rewatched TWS and that finally cemented my love for this character mostly because of how little TWS really goes into what Steve’s going through after a loss of such incomprehensible magnitude. So it forced me to really look at Steve and fill in those blanks with the hints we got. And the credit for that goes to Evans and not the Russos because while they refuse to ever dwell on Steve’s emotions or psyche and mostly use him to push plots, Evans plays Steve with this…air of gentle melancholy? And that really makes you feel for Steve.

And I guess I’m really just drawn to characters like this - who suffer unbearable tragedy and still retain and exude goodness and kindness and decency (and this is why the ‘asshole with a heart of gold’ trope never appealed to me very much because well…they’re still an asshole no matter how golden their heart and I dislike those). And I’m particularly drawn to this kind of characters when they’re the type who don’t really linger on their own suffering even though it is immense or get too caught up in it and instead focus on making whatever difference they can in the world guided by a very sound internal moral compass (Sam Vimes is therefore also a favourite of mine). 

I think it helps that I can, if not relate to, then at least appreciate the magnitude of what Steve’s gone through and going through - the back breaking poverty and hunger? I’ve seen the trauma that leaves behind and how much it can change the way you interact with the world around you. The world he lived in in the 20s/30s in the US? The relatively better off in the third world were still feeling the ripples of in the 80s and 90s (complete with the polio) and the worse off are feeling to this day. And if you took those worse off from here and dumped them in the first world with no support or guidance and only their own wit to navigate the daily contempt and humiliation of being stumped by the littlest thing? That’s a little like Steve’s life once he wakes up. This is all stuff I can empathise with deeply because I’ve seen it. 

He’s dealing with it all with the added immense trauma that comes from fighting in the worst war in human history. He’s gone through all this and he’s barely thirty. And yet he retains his moral code and sense of honour as well as his empathy and kindness for the people around him. And he chooses to serve and protect simply because it’s the right thing to do even though it’s already cost him so much.

[marypsue]

Actually, no, that deserves to be in the body of the post. The idea that Sam Vimes’ love for Young Sam will somehow interfere with his ability to objectively deal Justice and uphold The Law is part and parcel with the idea that Sam Vimes is becoming a God of Coppering, and both are deeply antithetical to the whole of Sam Vimes’ story arc and the whole thesis of the Discworld. 

The gods of the Discworld are perfect. They are pure. They are unconcerned with questions of morality or of compassion, because they are perfect. And they’re the worst. They play games with human lives for fun and laugh about it or sulk over losing when they destroy their playing pieces. They’re a pack of overgrown Greek-pantheon reality TV stars, self-obsessed and incapable of seeing beyond their own nose. Sir Terry has nothing but disdain for them, and it shows. Because they assume they have no growing, no learning to do. Because, well, they’re gods! Clearly they’re, if not perfect, then better than humanity. They can’t do anything wrong, because it’s them doing it, so everything they do must be right, so questioning anything they do would be pointless, because it’s right, because it’s them doing it. And they are better than humans because everything they do is always right!

A concept like The Law is the same. It’s pure, objective, implacable. It’s rigid and immobile. It has no concern for pesky little things like ‘extenuating circumstances’ and ‘ingrained systems of sociopolitical disadvantage’ and ‘human compassion’. Because it’s The Law! It’s perfect.

The only heroes in the Discworld are ordinary, mortal people, not because people are inherently better than the gods or metaphysical concepts made flesh, not because there’s anything about people that gives them any kind of automatic advantage, not because they are capable of thinking or feeling anything that the gods or that an anthropomorphic personification wouldn’t be capable of thinking or feeling. It’s simply that the people scrabbling around on the Disc look at themselves and at their world, and ask, “Could this be better? Could I make this better? Should I? Could I be kinder? Could I make this world kinder? How?” They listen, to the best of their abilities without prejudice, and try to make necessary changes even when it’s painful or difficult. They look at themselves and their world, and are not afraid to face the flaws they see there. Neither are they afraid to try to remedy injustices when the gods or The Law would simply condemn. And for similar reasons, they are capable of seeing what is most good and beautiful in the world, and raising it up. 

The idea that any person on the Disc could be made better by becoming more like a god or adhering closer to a conceptual ideal, by becoming less like a person - less full of prejudice and flaws, but also less full of critical self-doubt and understanding and compassion and fiery, righteous demand for the world and the self to both be better than they are - is just antithetical to Sir Terry’s whole point. To borrow a line from Good Omens, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil are found within the human heart. All that the gods of the Discworld have to offer are self-satisfied mediocrity; all that the ideals have to offer are cold, implacable order. It takes something human to give them meaning, to give them purpose, to give them life. It takes people to make a better world for people; otherwise it’s just a cage.