#meta is probably not the right word although I hope it will inspire some ideas :)

[breitzbachbea]

A Rec For All The Hetalia History Nerds Out Here

Hello my fellow enthusiasts of the five minute comedy anime. I actually decided I should do even more unpaid PR for my favourite BBC4 Podcast.

Anyways, if you are a fan of Hetalia and already a history nerd/would like to get into history, do I have the thing for you:

You're Dead To Me is a Podcast for "people who don't like history, people who do like history and those who forgot to learn any at school". Each episode, the host Greg Jenner (Public Historian & "Chief Nerd to the TV show Horrible Histories") sits down with a comedian and a historical expert, to deliver nearly an hour of a funny history lesson. While you can't cite a podcast for a term paper (as my Dozent pointed out again today), it is still genuine, university lecture level knowledge! And to make sure your head won't explode from all the facts or that the academics won't get lost in ivory tower vocabulary, the class clown is there to ask clever questions and make silly jokes. So it is super factual and super accessible at the same time.

Often, you will get a glimpse at how historians work & how they access the past, too! I know the Anti-Intellectualism is rampant these days, but making academia more transparent and shed light on why certain stories haven't been in the spotlight until recently due to all kinds of bigotry is a much better start than people making shit up on tiktok.

Tomorrow (June 10th), the new series starts, but you can start to listen to the podcast right now with a backlog of over 80 Episodes!

Over 80 Episodes on what, you ask? Everything!

You want to learn about Black History? You will love the episodes on The Notting Hill Carnival, Paul Robeson, the Haitian Revolution, the Harlem Renaissance & many more!

You like your royal history, full of politicking, personal drama and intrigue? We've got The Borgias, King James IV. of Scotland, Saladin and The Mughal Empire for you!

Love the ladies, past and present? Let me introduce you to Eleanor of Aquitane, Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman, Josephine Baker, Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft!

Sick of hearing about Western (European) history? Sure thing, find something more to your tastes with The Asante Empire, Mansa Musa, The Tang Dynasty, Genghis Khan, Ivan The Terrible or The Ancient Babylonians.

I could make so many more categories and I'd still not cover every single episode, I am sure. You're Dead To Me is avaible online, on the BBC Sounds App, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

If you could check out the podcast & share this post/the podcast itself, it would mean a lot to me. As a history student who is currently working on getting her BA, it's immensely important for me that people learn how to recognize the past in the present. That they look around the world and see how we got here a little more clearly; that they look at remnants or depictions of the past and see its context better. If you think that sounds marvellous, if you always wanted to get into history beyond the googleable hard facts, then I invite you to start your journey here with me.

Also, the jokes are often really funny, I swear to God, there are so many bangers that live in my head rentfree.

"So I'm a Dutch-Brit?" "You're a Dutch-Brit." "So I'm Brutch -"

"I have a few silk shirts, every single one of them a mistake. I bought one of them in Italy and I don't know what I was thinking, I look flat-out divorced."

"They found 400.000 [clay] tablets, mate? That's amazing, that's more than at Glastonbury!"

#aph #hetalia #hws #historical hetalia #hetalia meta #meta is probably not the right word although I hope it will inspire some ideas :) #beablabbers #ydtm #you're dead to me podcast #the jokes are from. wouldn't you like to know hehehehe hohoho #jk they are from the mayflower episode with alex edelmann #the genghis khan episode with phil wang #and the the ancient babylonians episode with kae kurd #god I hope desperately we are getting stu goldsmith AND kae kurd back on this series #i know phil wang and desiree burch are returning which is !!!!! :)

[callivich]

Gallavich Writing Challenge!

This is a little challenge for everyone who wants to try writing fanfic or headcanons or meta.

You might think - “But, but, I’m probably shit at writing? Why bother?” Ok, I thought that kinda thing for a long time. I just didn’t see the point in even trying. I looked around and saw so many talented people and it seemed impossible. And then I realised that everyone has to start somewhere and writing in fandom doesn’t have to be a serious, scary thing. It’s not writing a dissertation (although you’re free to see it that way, if that’s your thing!), it’s a fun hobby where you share your ideas. I started off small - just drabbles and ficlets - and over time, I’ve written a whole bunch of fics, mostly for another fandom. I’m not the most talented writer, but the more I write, the more I improve. (And the lovely comments and kudos are also great!) Writing for a fandom, whether it’s fanfics, headcanons, or meta, can be so much fun and the best thing about fandom? Anyone can be a writer if they want to try and you don’t have to be the best right away. And the more you write? The better you’ll get. 🙂

Anyway, I wish I’d started writing sooner than I did, so I just wanna share some encouragement for anyone out there who wants to try! (And if any writers out there want to reblog and add some words of encouragement or tips, please do!)

I know it can feel like you don’t know how to start. So, here are some things I think about when I’m writing. (This is just the way I do things, and I’m sure other writers have different ways they go about writing.)

What if? (What if x happened instead of y? What if Ian and Mickey did x instead of y? What if x didn’t happen? etc) This is a good way to brainstorm and often when you’re watching the show, you’re probably thinking of a “what if” scenario at some point.

Dialogue. Sometimes I just come up with a line or two of dialogue and build a fic from there. Could be dialogue from the show or simply just something I can imagine Ian and Mickey saying.

Genres or tropes. There are so many classic genres and tropes that you could play around with and write about. (It’s tempting to think “but there’s already loads of hurt/comfort fics”, but let’s be real, as a reader, have you ever thought “oh no, not another fic with my favourite trope?” Probably not.😂 Everybody is different, so when they write, they will bring something different and new.

Think about how you felt watching a scene in the show and if you have any questions or thoughts about the scene. Was there something you wish had been said or shown? Or was there something you particularly loved and want to know more about? Try exploring those sorts of ideas.

Now, for the challenge! Pick one of the prompts, and try to write something short inspired by it. Don’t overthink it, just start writing (maybe the first thing that comes to mind when you see the prompt?) and see where you go with it. You don’t have to post anything publicly, you can just leave it in your drafts. Maybe leave it for a few days, read it back, add to it or change things, and then think about posting it. If I can be a writer, then so can you! ❤️

Ian and Mickey waking up together

Ian and Mickey apologising after an argument

Ian and Mickey making each other laugh

Ian and Mickey getting into trouble

Ian and Mickey + one other character

I hope this inspires people to try writing. Even if just one person decides to try, I’ll consider that a win!

#gallavich #shameless #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #gallavich fic #prompts #fic writing challenge

[felassan]

Thoughts on Dark Fortress #2

(This post is under a cut due to spoilers.)

So late with this one! some stuff irl was keeping me really busy and hyper-distracting me lately, but it’s finally over now so I’m back on my bioware bullshit. :D

Overall there were a lot of beautiful or awe-inspiring scenes in this issue, and a lot of great, meaningful / poignant character interactions and moments between characters. It’s pretty impressive actually how much was able to be packed in. I posted some of my favorite panels here. also omg! the action sequences! the big reveal! the ending!! woww

cool scene-setting, panned out shot of Neromenian and behind it, the Dark Fortress, to immediately pull you back into the world and ‘where we left off’. the combination of ruined dead trees, red lights, lightning and fire/smoke is very atmospheric and hints at what’s ahead

“From this... city, if we can call it that” is a sick burn and reminds you that the Qunari are technologically more advanced than most of the rest of Thedas, from their cannons to their aqueducts

more individually distinct Qunari soldiers, sth I again appreciate

! last issue there were big ‘You haven’t seen the last of Tractus!’ vibes, naturally, but I didn’t expect him to escape by stabbing and killing the Qunari using a chair-leg..!!

the last panel on the first page of Karasten is really good. the way it’s colored, the way it’s lit, the light and shadow, the fiery backdrop, cinders floating, the details of his expression.. 👌 it also makes me think to the possible future, to DA4 when mainland Thedas may be continuing to face the entirety of the Antaam

in Vaea’s acrobatics scene on the bridge, I know rationally that she’ll be fine but couldn’t help but worry for her. again I like how they don’t shy away from showcasing Vaea’s specific abilities. also the attention to detail - you’d think some rocks are just some rocks, but it highlights the risk she’s undertaking that if she falls it’s into rough seas which could dash her against the jagged rocks :’S. Vaea, gooooo!

Fenris’ “Enterprising girl” line has big “Clever girl” meme energy :D

my heart can’t take Fran and Autumn leaning over the edge after Vaea in worry ;; or Aaron looking back in concern over his shoulder ;; or Fran’s tender reassurance ;; or Autumn’s Worried expression ;; the care and bonds which have grown between this group of characters ;;

notice Aaron starts drinking when Vaea’s away from them and they’re beginning to grow worried about her safety. the poor man’s nerves and stress levels

Fran touching the vegetation while she’s considering if she could use her magic to open the entrance from the outside is a nice touch

did Marius leap in front of Fenris and Fran there when the entrance opened?? damn, he’s quick. and the three of them look all scary and formidable here ready for combat. notice how the curve of the door and the spikes that go into the ground, and the composition of this panel, make it look like they’re standing in front of an opened dragon’s maw? ‘teeth’, a rumbling ‘roar’.. some nice foreshadowing here.

the reunion panels are so cute. Autumn’s lil tum as she jumps and Fran and Fenris’ lil smiles of relief and at Autumn’s reaction to seeing Vaea, then a rare happy beam from Aaron.. feel.. the love ;__;

red lighting in the tunnel sets a dangerous, dramatic build-up mood

👀 more info on Fenris’ past, on the specifics of the process which gave him his markings. in the panel where he says that it took a long time, his shadow on the wall behind him reminds me of the shadow of his past that has dogged him for so long :(

Fenris and Marius height difference

discussion of the process shows the power difference between blue and red lyrium. blue lyrium took a long time, red lyrium is almost instant

Autumn is such an intrepid little explorer and alert scout, tail and ears up, head forward. good girl!

“I just... worry about you, my girl”  ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚  I’ll be so sad if these are death flags for Aaron and he doesn’t make it out of here. also note Fran in this panel, who recently had to kill her own father and is still dealing with that, watching the strongly paternal moment between Aaron and Vaea :(

love Vaea’s faith in Aaron and her sense of humor. also I don’t know why, maybe it’s because Vaea met Sebastian, but her “Maker, no!”, although in a completely different and light-hearted context, reminds me of Sebastian’s “Maker nooo!” at the end of DA2 hh

the reference again to Hawke, who Fenris saw haunted by what they tried to do - save their mother - and couldn’t :’(. also with the shadow in this panel, here’s another person struggling with the shadow of his past qq. this is later emphasized again in Aaron when he continues to talk about his past and in the panel is a chain and manacle. smart visual metaphors, a must in the comic medium with limited space

mushroom skull 💀🍄

“It isn’t about what I’ve done. It isn’t about my failures. Or my choices. It’s about their impact” - he’s misty-eyed here as he thinks back to Ostagar.. does this line btw seem almost meta to anyone else btw? :D it feels like a meta reference to the experience of DA players and PCs, who are always having to deal with the impacts of their choices

I wanna point out that I was right on reading issue #1, when I said “I’m positive that in panel 2 here, it’s the exact moment when he sees Cailan die” ;;

So Aaron is also a veteran of the Battle of Denerim

reference to the Hero of Ferelden - “Those were someone else’s battles”. I’m being captain obvious here but I can’t help but [heart pitter-patter] at any and all references to the HoF

I like the.. parallel? is that the word? Aaron’s stories were him trying to inspire people to make a change, or him trying to convince himself of that. and now here’s Vaea, inspiring Aaron with her words in these panels. the little guys can make a difference! in the world of Thedas, you don’t need to be a big bombastic hero or a Player Character to have an impact 

lmao Fenris right on cue. the moments of humor/light-heartedness are nice because they break up the tension and are sprinkled throughout without derailing build-up or taking away from dramatic story impact. yknow?

yeah Aaron!! leave it behind. leave it to rot with mr mushroom skull (and hey the mushroom skull was there for a reason). again tho if this is a death flag i 

Fenris straight down to business with the tactics

its cute how close Autumn has been sticking to Fran

Tessa checking in on Fran again, as she did in issue 1

Could Vaea’s “Well, shit” be an homage to Varric? :D they have met

I also wanna point out that I was right on reading issue #1, when I said “My guess is that the thing Tractus shows Marquette and Nenealeus is probably a chained up dragon or similar”

the poor dragon :’( big dragon the Qunari had in Trespasser vibes

the sword has a really cool design, kind of reminds me of something a samurai might be depicted wielding

👀 lore-drop! so ancient elven arcane warriors used lyrium-infused swords. this seems to confirm the sarcophagus is an ancient elven artifact, no? makes sense, wasn’t it said that the sarcophagus’ design was based on the architecture/outfit-design type elements of a specific faction, and that this was done intentionally? it looks kinda ancient elfy in make, right? also about the lyrium-infused swords of the arcane warriors, well well well.. remember that the Evanuris and the ancient elves mined the bodies of Titans for lyrium, for power and to use as a resource. here’s an example of that use

as I read through this portion I became increasingly concerned for my boy Shirallas.. we really are in it now aren’t we 😭

the Qunari are launching STRAIGHT-UP ROCKETS ohhhh

pretty ‘lightshow’ over the wall in the “Let’s hope the fortress is as secure as Danarius boasted” panel hh

protective older brother Fenris, impish younger sister Vaea. love that dynamic, we love to see it. sheepish and exasperated Fenris is so cute

the Bone Pit dragon fight with Hawke and co reference!

I wonder how long the dragon has been captive here, and how Danarius/Tractus was able to capture it

lore-wise what are the implications here? when Fenris’ ritual was being undertaken, the sword and the sarcophagus were bombarded with magic, fire spells. in this one they aim to have the dragon bombard it with fire-breathing. is it just fire that makes it work/powers it, or is there magic in dragonfire, in dragons? it reminds me of “Your heart beats with the old blood, as well. Where do you think it comes from? It sings of a time when dragons ruled the skies. A time before the Veil, before the mysteries were forgotten. Can you hear it?”

purple color for the dragon’s growling sounds/typeset is a great idea

lets.. goooo!!!!

Marquette is such a nerd. later on when he activates the sarcophagus he has mad scientist vibes

the dramatic reunion face-offs begin!! as the prophecy foretold!!!!1

true to form, Marius DOES have nothing to say ahahaha, even at this, his personal climax. maybe Marius dies in the next issue, but Tessa lives and gets to go back to Charter

these Venatori look almost Star Wars

Shirallas my boyy.. nooo... don’t do it 😭

ah ah ah! try casting magic with no ARMS

Francesca a beacon of blue light and goodness

the splash combat page is masterful. everyone playing a part, so much going on, everything happening at once. a thing that sticks out to me about it is Aaron’s outstretched hand and alarm as he watches Fran fall 

Autumn with her lil hackles raised

“The Venatori have returned” dun dun dunn

goodbye Shirallas 😭😭😭

the composition of the second to last page with triangle/diamond-shaped panels and the framing of dragon wings is awesome

the Dread Wolf rises, “the Tevinter Imperium will rise again”.. on-point on-point cohesion

there he is, the red wraith

Super Saiyan Shirallas

what a note to end an issue on

wow wow wow!!

and separate to the above, some speculation based on the cover of Issue 3: the piece of metal looks like a broken collar coming off Shirallas, like the one there was on the cover of Issue 2 coming off the dragon. also he’s all bulky now with draconic talons/claws (reminds me of in-world legends of Reavers who dug too deep of their own power after drinking dragon blood and whose bodies consequently began to manifest subtle reptilian traits actually). I’ll be interested to see what results of this allusion between Shirallas and the dragon!!

#dragon age #BioWare #dark fortress spoilers #dark fortress spoiler #spoilers #spoiler #dragon age: dark fortress spoilers #dragon age: dark fortress spoiler #video games #gore cw #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #feels #fenris #the Fenaissance #long post #longpost #alcohol cw

[letusmeetagain]

Hi, I hope you're having a good day ^^. I would like to know your opinion about cap 137, because I saw that many hated it, although for me it is one of my favorites even though at first I was afraid of the idea of the dead helping the alliance. I suspect that ymir noticed armin and for that reason, she allowed him and zeke to have that help.

Hi anon!!

I’m doing well! I hope you too! <3

Sorry for the delay! As I said in the previous ask, I took a day to digest the new information we got last chapter.

Well... I loved the chapter... I cried and this doesn’t happen since long ago. It felt again like the old SnK I used to read. I was somehow a little salty about Zeke’s death but I came to understand why it happened like that. I even appreciate that Zeke didn’t really change his mind about the euthanasia as a strategy because it makes it both realistic (because there’s no time) and a highlight on his true nature and will so it reaffirms his character.

Levi had a not so big role but I WANT to know about his thoughts after finally killing Zeke. I guess everything gained another meaning for him now since Zeke accepted his crimes and the disregard for people fighting to survive.

That was a wink to the chapter where he killed the SC at Shiganshina while arrogantly mocked their intents to survive. It was the moment where all the unsolved traumas he had started to let him alone facing the fact that he wasted his life ignoring the beauty he lived despite the pain he endured.

What I feel salty about this too: on a personal level... I wanted Levi to give up on the bow because revenge as driving force isn’t right for him (I know his face mean something else than that but well... it was rushed). I wanted Zeke to have time to redeem himself while working with the alliance actively. I wanted Zeke to talk to Mikasa about Eren’s lies. I wanted him to do more for Eren as his big bro. I wanted that his death wasn’t instrumentalized for the plot like it was. This is exactly what Eren’s stans criticize about “Eren’s death as the way to stop the rumbling”. It happened to Zeke... probably to Eren too, I fear.

Hopefully, if paths aren’t yet destroyed... I hope he is there doing something more for the story.

Armin’s talk no jutsu couldn’t be deeper. It reminded me of those two stories I mentioned in one of my metas, The poisonwood Bible and The story of your life. It reached the core of human pain. The fear of death, the regrets, the importance of trivial moments, the meaning of existence. I’m a person that enjoys to read about death and the meaning of life. My approach of death is very different from the common feelings everyone has so reading thoughts like Armin’s that aim to dignify life and relieve existential pain are special to me.

It was precious and one of my favourite moments of the whole manga by KO.

I expected this.

That much have I expected it that before the release I wrote about this topic in that meta about the existential pain. I’m proud of Isayama going this path. I’m glad he had such beautiful inspirations like The arrival (Story of your life) and Soul and that he decided to discuss the idea of loving our story and every decision we took despite of the pain that might come with it. It’s a very dignifying idea to look back to your life and finding something that’s even capable to make you say “even if it’s to meet you, I’ll accept all the pain and mistakes I have lived”. It encourages and spreads the will to live. It also relieves you from the illusion that a life means something only because of a great deed (like Carla’s words).

Now I expect this topic to be displayed with Eren too. How he deals with his actions, what kind of concerns he has when he looks back to his life... Such questions that involve Eren as individual regarding his own life and the rumbling.

About the deads helping. Well... It’s complicated. A friend of mine didn’t like the idea because of personal taste but admitted that it wasn’t an asspull. Isayama left enough hints of someone helping the alliance and actually... it wasn’t some ramdom deads... It was very intended if you look back the stories of those shifters... everyone reached a sort of enlightenment. Marcel saved his brother and Reiner because of love and compassion. Porco understood his brother’s decision and sacrificed for Reiner. Ymir taught Historia to live with pride and helped Bert and Reiner because she couldn’t ignore Bert’s pleading for someone to help them. Xaver understood the true meaning of love towards a son and wanted to end the cycle of suffering. Krüger had a deep understanding about the truth of the world and the importance of the mission to stop this all. Grisha finally got the importance of love and forgiveness... that he didn’t want to kill. Pick all those messages and you have the big truth of this story:

                                        Dignity, love and respect.

Those who are complaining... about what are they exactly complaining? That they didn’t get and edgy ending or that the rumbling was stopped too easily?

We knew violence is not the answer. SnK is just exposing our sick culture in which we expect friends to kill each other while clinging to hatred.

I agree with those who said it was too rushed. That’s the feeling I have... but the direction Isayama is heading to is the right one to me.

Now about Ymir’s role... I think she could be trying to help Eren to be stopped. The whole situation is a test for humanity. But I think it could be possible that, as well as Eren helped her to wake up, she recognized Eren’s suffering and that he would be trapped by his own wish in paths, so she is doing something for him too. Maybe. I’m not sure.

Thanks for the question!

[captain-of-the-historicfuture]

~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

#thou canst not then be false to any man #ask game #invictusmaneo #to write and read comes by nature

[paintedrecs]

@mad-madam-m​ tagged me in the “list 5 OTPs from 5 fandoms” meme a couple days ago, which I laughed at her for because (a) she knows my otps FULL WELL (b) our lists are very nearly an exact match (which i am by the way delighted about because half my list right now is full of rare pairs, and I have never before known the hell of treading that landscape alone)

but!

I’m gonna do the meme and double it up as an announcement of what I am currently into and what you’re likely to see on this blog if I start picking up my activity levels a little.

I honestly have no idea how active tumblr is at this point - how many of you are still around, and how many of you I might lose if I start reblogging my other fandoms in addition to Sterek - but after doing a Pillowfort experiment for a while, I think I’ve finally figured out how to use social media again in a way that works better for me.

My old method, before tumblr kinda imploded and fandom got weird (filled with antis and ship hate and constant infighting, ugh why), was to create a separate blog for everything I was into, which is why I have appreciatederek, appreciateshiro, appreciatejack, and...is that it? See, this is why I need to stop scattering myself into a zillion different pieces.

So I’m going to consolidate more (like I do on twitter and now Pillowfort), and also hopefully get back to my fandom roots: digging into more meta, like I did 8 years ago when I first fell in love with Sterek, and posting fic recs, like I also did thanks to Sterek. (And sharing my own fics as I write them. Guess which fandom pushed me down that path, too.)

So it’s fitting that the first ship on this list is...well, an obvious one.

1. STEREK (Teen Wolf)

Y’all know this one. Sterek will always, always be the OTP of my heart. I love their dynamic. I love the creativity and passion of the fandom. I love that they brought my writing back to me and introduced me to so many of you.

I still have dozens of Sterek fic ideas; quite a few of them are partially written or have significant outlines, so at some point I will still be writing them. Life is just, as you know, very busy and very tiring and it’s so hard to fit everything into my days. I’m working on it, I promise. 

I’d like to start doing more updates with snippets of my upcoming fics, maybe a lil Q&A if anyone wants to chat about what I’m working on/my thought process behind what I’ve already written/what you’d like to see from me, etc. Interactive fun stuff! Sterek fandom is still the best and most supportive fandom I’ve ever been a part of, and it makes me happy every time I’m reminded we’re all still around and thriving.

And here’s some of the other stuff I’m into right now...

2. XANATOWEN (Gargoyles)

I have been sailing this ship entirely by myself since January, recently joined by the aforementioned M, who also created this gif for me while she was still in the patient “I’m your friend, I will listen to you yelling about this show” stage. (ha ha ha look at her now, that’s what you get)

I’ve been genuinely holding myself back from spamming tumblr with my thoughts about this show and this ship, which I’m beginning to realize is...maybe silly. I’ll still try to keep it a little bit balanced, but you can definitely look forward to more Gargoyles on the horizon, including:

Fics - 30k so far, with another 4.6k that I’m hoping to post this afternoon, after I look over it and decide if I still like it (ha ha fic writing amirite). I also have a fairy tale AU that I’ve done a substantial outline for, so I’d really like to get that underway.

Episode recaps/meta posts - these are currently being posted over on Pillowfort. The goal is to get the last two episodes of Season 1 up there, then to start crossposting them here.

As long as it’s not a gigantic hassle to paste over all the screencaps, because I uh. I have a lot of them. And a lot of thoughts about the show as a whole, but particularly about the relationship between David Xanatos and Owen Burnett: the meta’s currently averaging from about 1.5k to 2.5k per episode, whoooops.

I love them. I love them a LOT. See my meta posts for very detailed explanations as to why.

3. TREVORCARD (Castlevania)

I honestly did not expect to get this deeply invested in this ship. I watched and liked the first two seasons of Castlevania and really enjoyed the dynamic between Trevor and Alucard, but it wasn’t until the lead-up to Season 3 (and then the devastation of how absolutely terrible that season was) that I realized how much I loved these two together.

So now I’m having a very Sterek Fandom moment of “eff you canon, they’re ours now” in regards to Trevorcard. 

I’ve written one fic for them - it’s a 20k coffee shop/modern/college/artist/musician AU because they deserve all the fandom tropes and so much happiness together..

I don’t currently have plans to write any more, although if I do, it’ll likely be some sort of neighbors AU with wolf!Alucard, since my vast experience with Sterek fandom has taught me the absolute joys of exploring characters who can canonically turn into a beautiful giant effing wolf. 

I’ve also been steadily reading my way through every single Trevorcard fic in the AO3 tag, which unfortunately is only ~200. (HOW is this a rare pair. I will never ever understand it, they’re perfect together, and the animators literally said they intentionally storyboarded moments like the one above with the knowledge that people would start shipping them.)

Once I’ve finished up my AO3 tour, I’m going to compile the ones I enjoyed into rec lists. There are some really wonderful fics in there, and I’m excited to see what the rest are like.

4. TAIBANI (Tiger & Bunny)

I really don’t talk about this ship much, but it’s so immensely close to my heart. I have...so much...official merch of Kotetsu and Barnaby; it makes me happy every single time I see it. If I used my Tiger & Bunny stuff as the standard for what sparks joy during a konmari, the rest of my apartment would probably wind up empty.

The show (which is finally getting a second season in 2022 - Kotetsu & Barnaby had better be getting married) is wonderful. I genuinely can’t recommend it enough. Great writing, wonderful character development, beautiful animation, and Kotetsu and Barnaby are absolutely perfect together. Here’s an old post where I talk about that a little bit.

I’ve only written one fic so far: a canon compliant established relationship future fic that focuses more on their family dynamic as Kotetsu’s daughter adapts to turning 18, becoming a hero, and living with her frustratingly affectionate dad & his new husband.

I have ideas for two AUs: a single dad mature student/young professor one and a sorta weird circus/steve irwin-inspired one. We’ll...we’ll see if I ever get around to either. What I end up writing always surprises me, so I sorta give up on planning what words will come out.

And oh wait! I totally forgot about the third idea, which will be roughly canon compliant, with “Kotetsu sets Barnaby up on a series of blind dates that Barnaby initially thinks will be with HIM” angsty/funny fic. Hrm. I should get back to that one, I’ve outlined part of it.

I haven’t actually read a ton of fic for this pairing, because the more I like canon material, the less I seek out fandom content to “fix” it, but I would like to start going through the AO3 tag after I finish my Trevorcard project. I did an initial rec list ages ago and would like to follow up with another.

5. SHEITH (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Here’s the last pairing I write fics for. I have several more in progress that I’d really like to finish - including a dragon AU that I wish someone else would just finish for me so I can read it, hahhhhhhh sigh. I wrote 15k, did a ton of research, and basically intimidated myself out of continuing, because it’s one of my Big Projects. Not gonna be like, PDIW length or anything, but it should be a pretty hefty fic once it’s done.

Then there’s the roommates AU, the burrito shop AU, the....wow. I really need to get back to these, don’t I. A couple of them are super close to being finished, too.

I’ve also compiled a few fic rec lists, although I haven’t updated those (or my Sheith blog) in a while.

This fandom has been...interesting. Rough sometimes. Sliding into some of the other pairings on this list has provided a good break for me, particularly since they’re all such small fandoms that they’re relatively free from drama and hate. Once I’m fully refreshed and re-inspired, I’d love to get back into writing Sheith. They’re such a perfect, feel-good, extraordinarily balanced and supportive ship, and I am disappointed every single day I remember that Voltron didn’t stick the landing with making them canon.

Look at that almost-kiss. Just...look at it. And tell me they aren’t in love.

#gargoyles #sterek #trevorcard #taibani #tiger and bunny #xanatowen #sheith #meme #about me #about my fics

[spartanguard]

crocodile skin

so this was entirely inspired by @bleebug‘s meta/commentary on the Dark Swan look (which was in response to her absolute gorgeous art). basically: what if Emma did look like a crocodile? just 1.3k of me rambling about it

Emma had expected the Darkness to be disorienting at the very least, agonizingly painful at the worst. She’d seen what it’d done to Gold, both superficially and to his soul (even though something told her he’d always been a bit of a bastard). So when she threw herself into its maw, she had a vague idea of what was going to happen.

She hadn’t expected it to itch, though.

After the anticipated discombobulation, and only a brief revisiting of some of her darkest memories (her parents sending her through the wardrobe, Lily’s betrayal, Neal’s abandonment, Henry’s birth), she found herself briefly engulfed it a warm, soft liquid, but then immediately felt the opposite—dry, like she’d been dumped back in the Arizona desert, though the foliage on the forest floor in front of her said anything else.

It was the Darkness, she knew, getting under her skin—literally. It was invading every pore and trying to seep out the surface and god, her skin was crawling.

She tried to scratch at it through the threadbare, rough-spun robes she was wearing (which weren’t helping at all) but it did nothing.

“You’ll get used to it.”

She jumped a mile when she heard the voice—Gold’s (well, Rumpelstiltskin's) voice. He was standing behind her, smirking, and giving her the type of once over with his eyes that used to make her shiver but her body was doing enough of that on its own right now.

“My, my—you might be the prettiest one yet?”

Oh, god—what did she look like? And why was Gold even here, talking to her? 

“Don’t mind me, dearie,” he continued, not acknowledging her lack of verbal response. “Consider me your guide—the voice of all the Dark Ones past to help you with your new power. So I speak for all of us when I say: welcome to the club.”

The apparition produced a mirror with barely a wave of his hands, and that’s when she finally got a good look at herself—and cringed.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, really; Killian had given Gold the nickname “crocodile” for a reason. It was just a shock to see her skin take on a similar texture and sheen, although she was probably more like a Twilight vampire than a reptile: her irritated skin was covered in ridges and bumps but glittered in the sun like a diamond, and her hair—now a platinum blonde compared to her usual golden—curled around her face. Even her eyes took on an unnatural neon glow.

Tentatively, she touched her face, as if she didn’t believe it—as if it was just a terrible dream. But she could feel the rough, hard epidermis of her cheek.

God, what would Killian say?

“That is a good question, isn’t it?” the force ghost taunted (she couldn’t really come up with a better way to describe him). “What will lover boy do now that you bear a resemblance to his greatest enemy?”

She couldn’t do that to him; not after everything they’d gone through in the past year.

Barely thinking about it, she magicked a thicker (softer) robe around her, with a deep hood. She had no idea if it was her magic or the Darkness, and probably should have given that some thought but couldn’t in her brief panic.

She just pulled the hood over her head, making sure it covered her face. “I just won’t let him see me. Now, how do I get rid of you?”

------------------------------------- 

How they found her, she had no idea. But thank god they did; she didn’t know what she’d have done without Killian’s intervention. The Darkness was...convincing, to put it mildly.

After she shoved Merida’s heart back into the girl’s chest, she instinctively collapsed against Killian, drawing strength from his solid warmth.

But where he usually reciprocated immediately, wrapping his arms around her to keep her close, he instead stiffened this time, despite how hard she was clinging to him.

It was about then that she realized her hood had fallen back upon impact, and she didn’t miss her mother’s gasp somewhere in the background. Shit.

Immediately, she stepped away and pulled the hood back up, hoping no one else got a good look. They may have come all this way to help her get rid of the Darkness, but what if they thought it was already too late? It probably looked like it was.

“Swan?” Killian asked tentatively, reaching for her. “What…?”

“Stop; you don’t want to see me like this.”

“Like what?” her dad asked; she could feel everyone’s gaze on her, even more aware of it now than she’d ever been in the past.

“Like...evil, I guess.”

“It can’t be that bad, love,” Killian tried to assure her, and took a step forward, though even he sounded unsure. So she still hesitated. Appearance wasn’t everything, but they were already about to fight an uphill battle; it’d just be worse if she was exposed.

“Just—trust me.”

Of course, a poorly timed wind (though, if the cackling she heard in the back of her mind was anything to go by, it was magical in origin) swept through the stone circle, pulling the voluminous hood off her face. Then she really heard the reactions. But there was only one she cared about.

Killian was uncharacteristically speechless, it seemed; his jaw hung open a bit, until he closed his mouth and clenched it as his eyes darted all over her. She could see the brief furrow in his brow as he no doubt was reminded of some unpleasant memories at the hands of her predecessor, but he was clearly trying to swallow them down for her sake. Which she kind of hated.

“Well,” he said hesitantly, finally moving closer. “You don’t look exactly like the Crocodile.” 

“May as well,” she mumbled, staring at the ground.

She watched as Killian’s boots came into her line of vision, and then his hand was on her cheek, gently lifting her face up.

His thumb traced her cheek, like it had done so many times before, but they were both aware that it was now rougher than his sea-worn hands. He was staring intently into her eyes, looking for something; she wasn’t sure what, but he gave her a little smile when he found it.

“You’re still you, Emma,” he said. “And we’re all here because of that. And,” he continued, leaning in a bit closer, “you know how pirates feel about shiny things.” He gave her a terrible wink, but it worked; for the first time, she couldn’t help but grin back at him.

Like always, he knew what to say to make her feel better.

But, as their stay in Camelot went on, she noticed that he was more and more reluctant to look at her.

------------------------------------

And then, she knew how he felt.

Giving herself over to the Darkness to save him wasn’t a difficult decision at all. But it wasn’t until that night in the diner that she realized just what she’d done.

He hadn’t looked all that different, at first; sleeker clothes, impossibly more disheveled hair. But she could see the way he was itching at his skin and twitching as the Darkness circled his heart—she could feel it.

And then they went to Granny’s.

And he pulled Merlin’s heart from the wizard’s chest.

And crushed it.

It was a cruel twist of fate that Merlin would die the way he lost Nimue—and that it would be at the hand of Emma’s lover. She felt a morbid sense of kinship, though, as she watched the change take place in Killian: first his hand, then his always-exposed chest, creeping up his neck and over all the other hidden parts of him until the grayish-blue scales covered his face, too.

His eyes flashed a terrifying, almost obnoxious blue as he turned on his heel to add the final ingredient to the curse. Which was good, because she couldn’t bear to see him like that.

Quickly, though, she modified the curse a bit, ensuring no one would remember what had happened.

And god, was she thankful that the effects of the curse were invisible in Storybrooke. 

--------------------------------------------------

just some nonsense. hope you liked it! tagging a few: @kat2609 @thesschesthair @optomisticgirl @xpumpkindumplingx @shipsxahoy @amortentia-on-the-rocks @mryddinwilt @cocohook38 @annytecture @wingedlioness @word-bug @distant-rose @wellhellotragic @welllpthisishappening @let-it-raines @pirateherokillian @its-imperator-furiosa @fergus80 @killianmesmalls @sherlockianwhovian @effulgentcolors @laschatzi @ive-always-been-a-pirate  @nfbagelperson @stubble-sandwich​ @killian-whump​ @lenfaz @phiralovesloki @athenascarlet @kmomof4 @ilovemesomekillianjones @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snowbellewells @idristardis

#cs ff #emma swan ff #dark swan #dark captain swan #my ff #ouat 5x01 #ouat 5x10

[bigskydreaming]

Would you make a soft batdad fanfic anytime soon? Idk, i just love your idea of batdad towarts all his kids, we need this kind of things in this fandom more often

I mean, absolutely, if the right idea hits me. Like I’m always saying, I’m not OPPOSED to soft Batdad at all, I just….don’t like pretending that all the not-soft stuff exists just because it makes it too hard to have fluff.

The thing it helps to understand about me, is the primary motivation for me to write - is an absence of having something to read that’s similar to what I’m picturing. This goes for posts, meta, fics, original works…..literally the one thing they all have in common is that they’re just what I wish was already out there for me to just lazily reblog, read, consume at my leisure, lol.

So conversely, I’m not usually super-inspired to write stuff that I feel there’s already a lot of material for, you know? And there’s a lot of soft Batdad fic out there, relatively speaking. But enough that, again, its not that I don’t like or appreciate that idea myself, I’m just kinda….not looking at it as an area that I feel a real need to add on to, if that makes sense?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very interested in stuff that takes into account some of the stuff I criticize about Bruce and his behavior with his kids, and like, makes it possible to have soft Batdad with them at some point after he’s faced that and put in the work to do better by them, has created an environment where it feels natural instead of like…one isolated patch job that on its own does not make up for all the crap that comes before.

Its just, that’s the sort of thing that IMO requires you ‘show your work’ and like, the steps it takes getting there, since they’re just as important to me as the end result. And personally, I’m mostly still in the ‘show your work’ stage of writing about what I think are some of the bigger flaws that need addressing before Bruce gets to that point. 

All that said, I DO have an AU series among my WIPs, called “Kings of the Sky” that diverges from canon right after the Garzonas incident when Jason was still Robin…basically the premise is Jason and Bruce are tense as hell and Jason calls Dick hoping that Dick will see his side of things given his own issues with Bruce, which Dick does…..which leads to Dick confronting Bruce on Jason’s behalf and accidentally following his train of thought into confronting Bruce about his OWN issues with him. 

(Because that’s generally how I see Dick most plausibly unloading his own issues….he’s reluctant to initiate on his own behalf, but get him rolling in defense of someone else and if he’s wound up enough, he’ll start digging through his own crap in search of more ammo before he realizes too late that oh shit, I’m being vulnerable and admitting to things that bother me personally, wtf, this was not in the script, Self).

But anyway, that’s my big canon divergence one that’s literally all about re-imagining the Batfam by tackling Bruce’s shit before it gets TOO bad, back when it was still largely limited to his handling of Robin, Dick’s estrangement from him and how I feel Bruce mishandled everything about the Felipe Garzonas story. With bonus!Jason-never-dies, other significant traumas for various family members never happen, Bruce never hits rock bottom, and although stilted at first in the ‘doing better’ aspect of things, eventually there’s meant to be soft Batdad galore, sooner rather than later. 

*Shrugs* Anyway, so forget everything I said at first, lol, the basic answer to your question (hah! Basic! Me! As if!) is yes, I do have aims to write soft Batdad, I just….due to real life drama, am unfortunately not remotely in a place to make any kind of reliable guesstimates on when that might be. Trust me, I’m as frustrated by that as anyone. 

For what its worth, the first two or three thousand words of the first installment of that series are around here in a post somewhere (if anyone knows where I put that post, lol, I’d be deeply grateful for a reblog so I can tag it). 

I mean, so far its literally just Dick and Jason talking in the bit I posted, Bruce hadn’t even appeared in that part yet, but like…..it exists, its out there, there is writing for this particular series rather than just vague ideas/outline. 

(Actually its probably the WIP that has the most progress so far, given that its also the series where Jason gets his own Titans lineup of teen heroes around his age, and the muse had a lot to say about them a few months ago so I got a lot written with them.) 

[naruhearts]

OKAY SO I've just spent the best part of an hour scrolling through your blog and reading a bunch of your destiel meta and I HAD to message you... I was one of the many people who STRONGLY believed destiel had a chance of being canon after season 8 (more like season gr8 am i right), but throughout the years I slowly lost all hope. However, S14 has made me 110% invested in the show again and YOUR META IS GIVING ME HOPE FOR DESTIEL, which is TERRIFYING. Your writing is wonderful and I'm STRESSED.

Got back from Washington late last night!

Oh my gosh @alovelikecas, your message really made my day and I’m SO glad you enjoy my meta xox (even when most of my meta looks like, to me, sloppy-ass writing, haha! I’ll probably make an end-season meta post after 14x20 — if I have the time — that touches upon SPN’s current and repeating themes since Season New Beginnings S12/Dabb Era, not to mention I have, like, some more unfinished meta in my drafts >.>)

Yeah I mean, I didn’t join Destiel land until Summer 2016, and before that, I was late to the Season 11 party, so I basically had no narrative context for anything, and I’ll copy-paste what I said here: 

Looking back, one significant thing I recall? S11 gave me a sense of Destiel’s true narrative validity (as not a ‘fanon’ ship but organically developed in the canon) when I perceived it as a season that was ‘missing something’. Keep in mind I had no idea about Destiel yet while watching S11 at the time.

I was literally asking myself — repeatedly — why Dean/Amara seemed to contain odd narrative holes, considering A. Dean explicitly said that the non-consensual attraction he felt for Amara was NOT love and “it scares him”, B. Amara told Dean that ‘something stops you - keeps you from having it all’, C. Djinn!Amara stated that she can: ‘feel the love [Dean] feels, except it’s cloaked in shame,’ and D. Mildred’s iconic ‘You’re pining for someone’ —> which did not logically correlate with A and C, meaning: since Dean doesn’t freely love Amara and thus isn’t possibly pining for her — with female love interests as currently non-existent (I remember crossing off the dead/gone girls on a piece of paper lol) — who the hell was he pining for, then?

Originally posted by elizabethrobertajones

Obviously, without writing long-ass paragraphs of meta about it again in this post, S11 made sense as soon as I watched it within the Destiel context (especially after I read up on some grandiose pieces of Destiel meta (@charlie-minion was the very first person who inspired me to write meta; I followed her once I joined the fandom Oh my god, here we go, holy crap this subtext – I’m invested in this godforsaken ship because they’re in love with each other and I’m not getting off any time soon. The rest is history.

I’m aware that I do come off as positive (and I’m still Destiel-positive; whatever happens in 14x20 this week may or may not change that), but I hope you don’t mind if I use your lovely ask as an additional opportunity to clarify my meta standpoint: no one’s saying Destiel WILL become text. 

The general Destiel meta community (all subfactions: Destiel-positive, -negative, -neutral, and in-between) is not the Most Holy Canon Word, and we aren’t SPN writers, and again, we can’t actually speak to the veracity of Destiel as guaranteed-gonna-go-textual, but we — a diverse pool of critical thinkers from all walks of life: particularly those who have some degree of experience in literary academia/English literature studies (fun fact: I was actually pursuing a Minor’s in English until I changed my mind - my first love’s Health Science/Biology, which I stuck with, but here I am doing lit-crit analysis on the side *wink*) — can speak to the veracity of Destiel as a real, palpable, and ever-substantial long-running romance narrative aka the love story between Dean and Cas IS THERE. I see it. We all see it. We didn’t pluck it out of the random ether one day. It naturally evolved across the show’s overarching narrative like some vast spiderweb, linked together by numerous character arc amalgamations of Dean Winchester and Castiel as separate individuals who were then brought together — who brought themselves together, by the sheer force of free will and choice — and are now inherent parts of the other’s story (and respective character progression).

I say this too many times to count: the entire point of writing meta? Personally, it enables me to appreciate the literary gorgeousness of Dean and Cas’ relationship as, first and foremost, a tentative alliance offset by the very moment Cas raised Dean from perdition (it’s a poetic beginning). Their alliance then inevitably proliferated into a rocky — at times, necessarily turbulent — friendship, then a deep profound bond…one that crossed platonic boundaries since S7/8 and is, ultimately, indelibly rooted in romance. Together, Dean and Cas build up each other’s strengths, complement each other’s flaws, and narratively motivate the other to self-introspect — to become the best version of themselves that they were always meant to be: self-actualized entities who let go of their painful, horrifying, psychologically/emotionally destitute pasts.

These above reasons and more are why I think Destiel belongs right up there on the shelf of Ye Olde Classics, similar to epics by John Milton, Shakespearian tragic dramas, Homeric characteristic cruxes, and the great Odyssey journey: a legendary journey, fraught with circumstance, that finally ended with Odysseus (now an enlightened man) returning to Penelope, the love of his life.

Channeling the scope of Homer’s Odyssey, Destiel is an incredible storytelling feat of obstacles, both internal and external, romance tropes, mirroring, foreshadowing, and visual cadence/emotion, enhancing SPN’s already character-driven main plot in that Dean and Cas try to make it back to one another; like Penelope, their love holds true despite everything. If Destiel were an M/F couple, we all know their love story would be absolutely undeniable to the GA.

I do understand the bitterness S14’s fostered in some viewers, though. I do understand that Dean and Cas seem distant (and yeah, it’s a noticeable difference compared to S12/S13), but I believe the Destiel subtext is still heavy and holds steady.

Right now, at this point, there remains multiple personal issues for the characters to solve, you know? Dean and Cas aren’t talking properly; their love languages stay mistranslated, although we’re persistently shown that they still understand each other on a certain level that no one else can, and the visual narrative keeps framing them as on-the-nose solid counterparts: a domestic-spousal romantic unit independent of Sam.

Originally posted by incatastrophicmind

They want to be there for the other. They need to quash the final remnants of their respective internal loathing (Dean’s self-worthiness, Cas’ self-expendability) before they’re able to give the other 100% of their time, efforts, attention, and love (as flawed and complicated but compellingly beautiful as it can possibly be). During the times Dean and Cas do try to talk shit out, extraneous issues continue to get between them.

As other friends/meta pals discussed with me, S14 is like S10 in that it’s confusing the cast/audiences. And exactly: S8, besides S11/S12/early S13, also belongs in the close-to-canon serious Destiel narrative transition! I can discuss the showrunning/writer problem of SBL (Singer + Bucklemming; @occamshipper hits the nail on the head) that tugs subtext – especially subtext linked to Destiel – back and forth, sometimes in the weirdest nonsensical ways, but I won’t go too far into it here. I agree, however, with the recent idea that Jensen does seem a bit confused as to where he should bring Dean emotionally this season (don’t get me wrong, I do NOT believe Dean is OOC; OOC is a completely different concept vs expected character behaviour). And if Dean’s consistently romance-coded past interactions with Cas are any indication, Jensen would also — in the same vein as all of us — want Dean and Cas to start getting their shit together. Long-running fictional characters like Dean and Cas, conceived over 10 years, are so well-written to the point where you, the author, can predict what they’ll do even if you just plop both of them inside a room and give them no direction, and I personally feel that nowadays Jensen is prevented from achieving Dean’s further internal growth/unsure how to act in the moment because of some dumb SBL scripts saying one thing while his character’s heart says another. Wank aside—

Season 15 should hopefully convey a much more logical subtextual perspective e.g. unbelievably amazingly cohesive Season Destiel 11 that aired after choppy S10. Not all hope is lost!! I also want to clarify that I personally LOVED Season 14 in general. It’s been mostly Emotion-centric constant, with Yockey, Berens, Perez, and Dabb usually making my top-rank SPN writer list.

Currently the narrative’s still allowing pretty significant (imho) wiggle room for the lovers to fracture apart and get back together, where their miscommunication comes to a dramatic head. We just saw Dean and Cas argue over Jack’s well-being in 14x18 and 19. Dean — besides putting Cas at the top of his You’re-Dead-to-Me-Because-You-Lied-but-I-Still-Love-You-Goddammit hitlist (for clear spousal-coded reasons) and taking Cas’ actions to heart (he’s the person he trusted the most who lied to him) — no doubt blamed himself for what happened, and Sam was, like I said, the mouthpiece of truth. TFW were all culpable. They all failed Jack in some way, shape, or form.

I’m not expecting anything for 14x20, but I’m nervous either way! Thanks for sticking with my long answer

#ask #alovelikecas #destiel positive #my stuff #my meta #spn s14 speculation #spn s15 #season who am 14 #supernatural #destiel #narrative #character development #wank for ts #ish #spn s14 #spn s11 #deancas #the greatest love story ever told #14x18 #14x19

[officialmaleclibrary]

This month we’re showcasing an author in the fandom who has written popular works such as Quite magical and A promise of forever. Pat is on ao3 as WendigoBaby and on tumblr as @maghnvsbane, and we’d like to thank her once again for taking part in the OML author showcase! 

1. When did you start writing fics? Tell us a little of your journey as a fic writer.

I believe I was 13 when I wrote my first ever piece of fiction (a really bad story about a lady assassin able to turn into a panther, don’t even ask) and it snowballed from there. For two or three years I used to do fics for this French cartoon called Code Lyoko, before moving to original stuff - it was a great exercise for keeping personalities and plot consistent, while also dabbling in character design. Then forth came Shadowhunters and I fell so hard for this show, that I’ve been stuck writing for it almost exclusively since the end of season one, with a small phase dedicated to The Raven Cycle.

2. What fic of yours are you most proud of and why?

My Simple blessings piece holds a special place in my heart, as I’ve poured a lot of emotion into it; the relief related to being able to love and be loved in return, the joy of domesticity and the intrinsic beauty of the world (or maybe I just love waxing poetic). The other one I’m proud of from a more practical standpoint is fire & gasoline; describing fighting is always a bit of a challenge, because you have to imagine all of the movements and stitch them all together into something that flows and reads comfortably, allowing the reader to imagine it all in their head. With that fic I feel like managed that quite decently and I'm proud of it.

3. Who is your favorite character to write and why? Which character do you find the most challenging to write?

My favourite is definitely Alec, since I relate to him in many aspects, both life and personality-wise: we’re both perfectionists, a little closed off and wary of newcomers, but tender and with a lot of love to give beneath a hard shell. Also we both love Magnus Bane, so there’s that. On the other hand, I feel like Simon is the most challenging one and it may be a strange answer, but his kindness and his specific kind of rambling, pop culture-related humour is hard to capture for someone more quiet like me.

4. What is the hardest part about being a fic author? The easiest?

Starting the fic and then bringing it to the finish line, definitely - the longer I work on a piece, the more doubts I get whether the idea is even worth the effort. Probably because the more I read over the same sentences, the more predictable they get and start to feel like boring writing, even when it’s only in my own head. I also get distracted fairly frequently by new concepts, which ends with me surrounded by half-finished fics that gather dust on my desktop. The easiest? Getting an idea - inspiration comes from anywhere and with time I start to hoard these little thoughts that one day may be born into full blown pieces - sometimes all it takes is half a sentence heard in a grocery store two aisles over.

5. What inspires you? Where do you find your muse?

Anywhere and everywhere, but most often from songs and aesthetic pictures I come across on tumblr. Other than that, it's movies, tv shows, video games, real-life conversations or even random things I dreamed about (although those tend to get a little strange and I don’t think should be turned into fanfiction).

6. How do you power through writer’s block?

I cry. No, to be honest, I just try to keep going. I write the most awful, kitschy sentences imagined and yell (complain and whine, more like) about them to my friends until it gets easier and my creativity flows again. If that doesn’t work, then I let myself take a day off, go outside, do something with my family or friends, or just start something new because pushing too hard for will just make everything  worse. Consuming new media also helps - going to the cinema, reading poetry or books, listening to music you'd never think you'd enjoy, anything to widen the horizon of your imagination and get yourself out of your comfort zone.

7. Do you have a favorite fic from another author?

Oh gosh, so many! Some Kind of Wonderful by magnusragnor/@magnusragnor (the best lifeguard au i’ve read ever, well-paced and characterized, I fell in love immediately and it’s one of the first fics that comes to my mind when someone asks for recommendations), and my heart is set on you, plus all of the single parent aus by @lightwoodlesbians /ohprongs (Charley has one of the most incredible styles with great natural humour and in-character writing; she is also one of the only people who can make me like children in fics), hold on to me (cause i’m a little unsteady) by ceciwrites/@daddariossmile (this just stuck with me, the soft way they interact, the whole concept of skating the way it’s used here, 10/10) and Appassionato by Chonideno (this moved me on a deeper level, the love of music included in this, passion written into every word, the original take on the concept of a first meeting, I love it all).

8. What’s something you’re looking forward to in season three of Shadowhunters?

As for Magnus and Alec, I’d love to see them have more conversations about the differences between them without death in the form of Valentine looming over their heads, as well as more casual intimacy and domesticity (hand holding, hello kisses, more hugs, a training scene, I’ll take anything). We’ve got a taste of Battle Couple, which I hope is just an introduction to more great scenes with them as a team. In general, I’m looking forward to Luke’s conflict with nosy Ollie (plus his hot date with Maryse) and more backstory on our favorite Downworlders - Simon and how he’ll get out of the Seelie Queen’s grasp, Maia’s and Bat’s growing connection. I miss this show already, I want to know everything!

9. Can you give us a sneak peek to what you’re writing next? Or at least any hints to what’s to come?

I tend to jump between ideas quite a lot and I like keeping them under wraps, so no sneak peeks from me! But as I’m looking at my to-write list, I can tell you to expect more domesticity, more canon fics with a sprinkle of aus and/or meet-cutes. The one I’m working on right now involves immortal husbands, pretty countrysides and a title inspired by one specific French song, maybe you can even guess which one it is?

10. Do you have advice for anyone who might be interested in writing fan fiction?

First - don't be afraid to start and second - keep going even if you don't feel like it. Writing good fan fiction takes a lot of trial and error as well as practice. My first fics were all around awkwardly written and as I continued with different ideas, I did get better. When it comes to finding the right balance for characters, it's good to read well-characterized fic from other writers plus meta posts as those tend to give an explained look into the character's personality. And if you're not sure about something, don't hesitate to ask others, just don't give up.

11. Does having English as a second language challenge you as a writer?

In some ways, yes. Although since I’ve been using English for about sixteen years of my life, it’s become almost like an extension of my thoughts. That doesn’t mean I don’t get things wrong, because I do, mostly in the department of grammar (all those pesky rules). Some words or expressions don’t translate well (or even don’t exist) in both languages, so as someone bilingual I have to maneuver my way around those obstacles either by looking through a thesaurus or a dictionary (I always have those two open when I write). Yet, beside grammatical nuances, strange expressions that make no sense when translated from Polish, and confusing words, the worst thing about being bilingual is forgetting the word I want to use in both languages at once. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!

#author showcase #malec fic #malec #shadowhunters #maghnvsbane

[cutesilyo]

On Love: Anxiety (A Yuuri Katsuki Analysis)

The thing about Yuuri is that he's such a relatable character to me. Even more so now that he's in a relationship with Victor, so I can honestly say that YOI is the anime that I've always needed.

Because:

Yuuri has anxiety.

Yuuri is in a relationship.

Yuuri is in a relationship with someone he thinks is too good for him.

Yuuri has a low opinion of himself.

Yuuri is an unreliable narrator.

Yuuri hates losing.

...and etc.

These are all things that I can relate to! So, forgive me, but I absolutely hate how this anime ended. And although I loathed Episode 12 to death, the ending of Episode 11 was something I didn't expect and yet it was something I didn't know I needed — mainly because Yuuri’s anxiety reared its ugly head in a way that I am all too familiar with.

[Pictured: Yuuri Katsuki clenching his fists in an attempt to gather up the courage to ruin his own life for Victor's sake]

i.e. Cutting your own losses before you lose them.

So from the perspective of someone who also has low self-esteem and is in a relationship with someone who I think deserves much better, here's why I believe Episode 11 was necessary in a way that Episode 12 did not give justice to. Here we go!

You see, I have this tiny theory here about what Yuuri was thinking when he said those words that ultimately broke everybody's hearts. Everybody's been talking about it since the episode aired. But here I am, regardless, because I need to deposit these two cents of mine even though the account is already positively overflowing.

There's this belief I have, and I have no idea if this is just something that I have because I've been raised with an Oriental mindset or something specific to just me, but I'm afraid of being too happy. I believe I can only achieve a particular level of happiness; if I experience more happiness that I deserve, bad things happen. If I have too much, you bet your ass at least some of that will get taken away.

There needs to be balance in this world, or so I and many others believe — there is no shadow without light, and the moon has no meaning if she is not opposite the sun. Suffering and happiness? They go hand in hand. And in the same vein, there is no success without strife —  and that's widely preached. But the opposite is also true; because there is no strife without success, and I'm willing to bet my non-existent balls that Yuuri and Victor are kind of the epitome of the latter.

[Pictured: Victor Nikiforov before he met Yuuri Katsuki, i.e. incredibly lonely and trusting only a dog for providing him constant companionship]

And while Victor's end of the spectrum — his gold medals were the fruits of labor that his loss to life and love bore — were given their high-key focus in Episode 10, Yuuri's end of the spectrum was a low-key theme throughout the entire series. Yuuri's talents were paid with leaving his hometown and family to pursue an incredibly unconventional career choice, having the press hound him for every anxiety attack that he can't control, and bearing that enormous pressure of representing his entire nation on his shoulders — and his poor anxiety-ridden heart can't deal with that most of the time.

[Pictured: Yuuri Katsuki's mouth giving an involuntary wobble before he forces himself to smile for his parents' sake, also known as a frame that deserves more attention]

There's a stereotype for Asian parents: that if their child gets less than an A, it's a failure. It's a joke most of the time; for Yuuri, he applies that to his entire career as a competitive figure skater. Add the fact that he's representing the whole of Japan for one of the highest titles a figure skater can get, and the anxiety he's developed over the years, and you get a bundle of nerves on the best days — complete breakdowns at the worst.

Plus his dog died just days before, or maybe even during, one of the most important competitions in his life.

Oh, and he is an unbelievably sore loser.

[Pictured: Yuuri Katsuki in that infamous shot of him breaking down in the bathroom; note that he only lets himself cry when he thinks that there is nobody around to see him]

And he's probably thinking i could have done better and he's probably thinking i guess i really should retire, but I propose that he's also thinking this is payment for all the other competitions i've won, isn't it? That he's thinking, this is payment for all the hardships i've put on everyone else. That he's thinking, oh well, i guess i deserve this after all.

It's like all the little bad things he's done over the years have finally come back to haunt him in one big smack of karmic retribution, right after the cruelties of fate have already given him a taste of what it felt like to be part of the winning team. Because don't tell me that Yuuri didn't feel this sense of pride, of fulfillment, of complete and utter joy when he was assigned to the GP Series and qualified for the Finals. That he didn't feel happy when he got the chance to train, abroad, with an actual coach and an actual rink despite just coming from small, seaside Hasetsu. That he didn't arrive at Detroit, wide-eyed and nervous but so young and hopeful, knowing that he was the JSF's certified top skater.

Then he lost at the GPF and he probably felt like all of that went moot. That all of a sudden, all his medals and trophies and successes didn't mean anything anymore. There's a reason why Minami was introduced, after all: to bring home the point that while Yuuri thinks he's an average skater, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily true.

It's further cemented by the fact that, when Minami says that his costume was inspired by one of Yuuri's older ones, he's mortified as he shrieks, "That's a costume from my dark past!"

Minami, bless him, talks back and says that Yuuri doesn't have a dark past to speak of. He's the actual cinnamon roll of YOI, guys. Imagine how happy he was when he cheered for Yuuri in the GPF in Yuuri's own house and saw, in person, all the trophies that Yuuri had been keeping in the background — and the fact that Yuuri even keeps them in the background speaks so much of his lack of self-worth that it deserves its own meta.

[Pictured: Kenjiro Minami, tears in his eyes as he screams out at his idol: You don't have a dark past! Don't make fun of me for looking up to you for so long and trying to catch up with you! — breaking our hearts in the process]

So, basically: if Yuuri had given all he had with skating, was rewarded with triumphs and successes only to feel like that had all been taken away when he was dead last at the GPF (and not to mention, he probably feels like all of this was justified); why wouldn't he feel that way about Victor?

Because Victor makes him happy. So happy, in fact, that his skating and confidence levels have reinvented themselves as a response to Victor's presence in Yuuri's personal life. Why wouldn't he think that Victor was too good to be true? Why wouldn't he be scared that the cruelties of fate would, once again, take away his source of happiness in a twisted form of giving balance to the world?

So he comes up with defense mechanisms. He blabbers in metaphor and dabbles in double-meanings (Episodes 1-3) and he feels so relieved that Victor seems to accept that it's just the way he prefers to express himself (Episode 4). But then he keeps falling and falling and he gathers up the courage to be more accepting of his past because of Victor (Episode 5), to be more bold for Victor (Episode 6), to be more couple-y with Victor. (Episode 8)

And ordinarily, that would be a good thing right? He's growing up! There's character development! He has more confidence now!

But YOI, god bless YOI, shows that anxiety doesn't just go away. It comes back to haunt you and when you're at your weakest, it strikes. This is best exemplified in Episodes 7 and 9, where it's glaringly obvious — but in Episode 11, it takes some understanding of the previous episodes to know that the entirety of the drama comes from Yuuri simply being an unreliable narrator again than from any actual basis.

[Pictured: Two similar shots of Yuuri Katsuki from Episode 4 and Episode 11 respectively — the former, a happy blush as he prays give me Victor's time, if only just for now; the latter, horror dawns as Yuuri comes to the conclusion that Victor wants to go back to the ice and that their time together is ending]

Because Yuuri is the epitome of unreliable narrator, and Episode 10 was the ultimate peak of the mountain that YOI has been building from the very first episode — in an anime that opens with the self-deprecating protagonist reading articles about his loss, which is intentionally and deliberately set up to overshadow the fact that despite his loss he's still competing in one of the biggest competitions in the figure skating world.

The other thing that YOI has chosen to keep from us until Episode 10 was that despite the entire world being clamorous for him to go back to the ice, Victor actually . . . doesn't want to do that at all. He literally calls it a shackle on his neck. He waxes poetic about the life and love that Yuuri has given him, that he has neglected for so long. He gets kicked in the back and declared as dead by Yurio, and the most he does is mockingly crouch down and ask, did you want to compete against me?

Having Episode 10 come right before the massive fuck-up in Episode 11 was both an explanation and a warning: yeah, yuuri did all that and victor fell in love with him first. now remember how different things looked back in episode 1. because we're gonna go back to that in the next episode and y'all need to know what's real and what's just what yuuri assumes.

And the thing about Episode 10 is that it triggers this impulse to rewatch the entire series from Victor's perspective and contrast that to how different we saw it when it was just Yuuri's perspective we knew about. Doing that brings more impact to Episode 11, I think — which also highlights that despite Yurio found a friend, he still has some humility to learn and his arc isn't finished yet just because he managed to perfect Agape. While I do think he was being too mean (to a point that I considered it OOC, after Episodes 9 and 10), that's a different post altogether.

[Pictured: Celestino Cialdini comforts a sullen Yuuri Katsuki during the Sochi GPF; comes with Yuuri's monologue of I could never openly say that I'd win gold, but I never skated with the thought in my mind that I'd lose anyway]

I think that the way that Yuuri reflects to himself during his FS in Episode 9 echoes how he feels toward Victor. That despite never really admitting out loud that he wanted a gold, he never actually believed he would ever lose either — Yuuri let himself stay stagnant while tiptoeing between having the potential to be a winner and actually being one. In the same vein, Yuuri found himself walking that same fine line between being Victor's future and being Victor's has-been; someone between everything and something, but never actually nothing.

Yuuri let his anxiety get the better of him and he decided that being Victor's past would be best outcome he could ever hope to get. The events of Episode 11 have led him to believe that he would never be Victor's future; or at least, he would never be the future that Victor actually wants. And in Yuuri's twisted justifications, it would be a good thing that they would end their relationship after the GPF; it gives Victor the freedom to do whatever he wants and it gives the Yuuri the relief of not having delved deeper into the idea of them being an actual concrete relationship.

[Pictured: Victor Nikiforov, part of a newly discovered evolved species of humans called homo superior]

Except Victor, unlike Yuuri, has already considered the prospects of having a relationship without a time stamp and jumped right into it. Victor has already established in Episode 10 that he wants Yuuri, and that he would definitely choose a life without competitive skating specifically because it meant getting the love of a lifetime. Screw the consequences, he's getting what he wants and he will put every fiber of his being into nurturing this relationship that gives him all of the happiness that he never thought he could have.

He just never verbalized it. So while Victor gets the concrete proof that Yuuri wants him in the form of giving him the rings (although he does so in a way that implies he doesn't want to admit it), Yuuri doesn't.

[Pictured: Yuuri Katsuki, in doubt of where Victor's happiness truly lies: in a life with skating or a life without it]

Yuuri gets soft and sweet and cuddly Victor and it's enough to make Yuuri hope but it's not enough to help Yuuri understand that Victor truly wants him — how much Yuuri changed him. He knows the Victor that is, as Minako says in Episode 1, free with his charms and winks at the cameras and is touchy-feely with a man he just met; a Victor who was bored and had an impulse decision to coach him and ended up liking him. But the viewers get more insight into who Victor really was before he met Yuuri, who was sad and lonely and hollow — a Victor that fell in love with the boy with the drunken flamenco dance and was looking for an excuse to meet him again.

Victor, like anyone, wants happiness. Winning doesn't give him that anymore, but Yuuri does . . . even though he doesn't even grasp the true gravitas of the love they share.

[Pictured: Yuuri Katsuki, in tears after an amazing Free Skate and the subsequent roar of triumph thereafter; a perfect representation of what we all felt in this scene]

Ultimately, what pissed me off about Episode 12 was that it seemed to betray its own protagonist. We had all the build-up to Yuuri winning gold and finally getting the concrete proof that Victor loves him back and that he is an incredible skater in his own right — because I wholeheartedly believe that the perfect ending to Yuri On Ice would be Yuuri getting gold and realizing that it doesn't matter. And for one moment he would look at all the people who have supported him endlessly and, instead of pushing them away in shame like he would have at the beginning of the show, he would thank them with a happy smile.

How Yuuri would learn not to equate his worth by his losses or wins was always a theme that I wanted the show to address in the Season 2 that I wanted to have, but for that to happen he had to win first in the S1 finale.

But he didn't, and the finale for one of the most popular animes of 2016 was done so cheap that it actually does render the entire anime into moot. So to say I'm disappointed? Yeah, well, that's kind of an understatement.

[Pictured: Yuuri Katsuki with the wrong medal]

#yoi #yuri on ice #meta #yoi meta #yuuri katsuki #i havent posted in tumblr for two years whoops #anyway have a meta about my precious boy because i love him dearly thank you #im having trouble uploading the screenshots hnggg what a shame #mine

[davidcampiti]

A LIFE WITHOUT STAN LEE? -- Part Two

Ever wonder what it must have been like to BE Stan Lee over the past decade or two as the Marvel movies soared to prominence?

At 90 years old, he was still vibrant and funny and in good health, and he seemed to be having the time of his life just BEING Stan Lee. His final couple of years, with his wife Joan’s passing and so much behind-the-scenes wrangling to control his assets and access, were an embarrassment of greed from so many.

His detractors spoke of karma, of freelancers who worked with him and did not fare as well as he did as Marvel's editor-in-chief and icon/corporate spokesman, either in credit or financially. His biggest mistakes and, perhaps, regrets were there for the world to see.

And he had to sue Marvel for the $10 million in movie merchandise royalties he was contractually guaranteed. Wait, what?

Yup, even Smilin’ Stan had some bumpy rides.

Remember when I mentioned first meeting him in '78? Stan reviewed my friend Scott's artwork, dated and autographed the backs of his pages and paintings "to prove I saw these," and recommended that Scott submit his work to Marvel. Scott did so. Marvel's editor at the time rejected the submission outright with a terse note, "Stan has no power here."

That was a bit sobering. I stumbled over that sour sentiment a number of times across the decades.

Probably the oddest example? One day in the ‘90s, Stan Lee called me to say that Marvel asked him to write The Hulk vs. Superman cross-over one-shot, and he wanted to work on it with artist Mike Deodato, Jr. "Can Mike draw from a loose outline? You know how I like to work." I explained to him that the Brazil-based Deodato -- who was still learning English at the time -- didn't see himself as a writer and preferred to work from a page-by-page, panel by panel plot, if not a full script. "What if you and I talk out the idea, Stan?" I suggested. "I can then develop it into the full plot that Mike can work from, you review it, and he draws it from there?" "That'd be great, Dave! We've been talking about working together for awhile now. Let me give you the editor's name and number at Marvel. Tell him Mike's available to start, and we can get to work."

I called the editor and left a message. Then another. Nothing....although Stan and I had several quick conversations about it over the next few weeks. Finally, Stan called me again to ask if I've heard anything from the editor. "Nothing yet, Stan," I told him. "Fortunately, Mike Deodato has other work keeping him busy, but I don't want him to lose this opportunity." "O.K.," Stan replied. "Call them again today and let me know as soon as you hear anything."

Five more messages, an Email or two, and I forget how many days later, the editor finally called me back. "You must've misunderstood," the editor said, condescension in his voice. "Stan didn't mean to say he wanted Mike Deodato for The Hulk vs. Superman. He meant, in general, that he'd like to work with Deodato some day on something like that. You must've misunderstood." So I explained that I couldn't have misunderstood and, grabbing my notes, I began to quote Stan's exact words. The editor interrupted, "No, you must've misunderstood." And he hung up.

So I called Stan's office, and his assistant gave me Stan's cell number. Stan was in his car when I recounted that conversation with the editor. "What? I didn't 'misunderstand,'" said Stan, in a voice that went cold. "I'm going to Marvel in two days, and we are going to talk about a lot of things." He sounded sick of this. "Call me at Marvel's offices in the afternoon."

So I did. The gal who answered at Marvel told me, "Stan is still in his meeting. I can hear him yelling. I'll tell him you called like he asked." A few days later, Stan called me back, sorry that Deodato and I had been treated that way by Marvel. I sighed and said, "Well, I'm surprised and sorry they treated you that way, Stan." "Ahh, don't worry," he answered. "I'm fine." I later heard that this may have been the same visit to Marvel where Stan's contract got re-negotiated for a million bucks a year, an assistant and driver and he would only be responsible to Marvel for one day per week and could launch his own ventures. Soon he launched Stan Lee Media and, later, POW! Entertainment; Mike Deodato moved to DC and Dark Horse and Chaos! before spending the next decade back exclusively at Marvel, and The Hulk vs. Superman was eventually published with a very talented, very different creative team.

For Christmas that year, Mike Deodato created a drawing of The Hulk vs. Superman, and we gave the original art to Stan to commemorate the book that almost happened.

Stan has always put on a great face for the comics biz, endlessly energetic and upbeat about its potential. He's even been its apologist at times, such as when a comic book store owner, writing in CBG, demanded that Marvel apologize for destroying the direct sales market with its '90s era machinations and hurting his business -- and Stan called that store to apologize.

I remember walking down a Convention aisle at normal speed, and Stan and Max Anderson cut around me, one on each side, walking at twice my speed and out of sight before I knew it -- Stan being 88 at the time. I mentioned my surprised to Max the next day, and Max told me, "Stan saw me drinking a Red Bull, asked me what it was, and I told him it was to boost my energy. Stan said he ought to drink a few, and I said, 'NO! I drink these to keep up with you!'" We both chuckled over that.

So a few years later, I was certainly pleased to greet Stan at New York Comic Con so soon after his pacemaker was put in, walking and talking as fast as ever. It was amazing to see people crowding the aisles just to get a glimpse of him.

HIs life had certainly become meta, with a Fake Stan Lee on the payroll (I think) running around Conventions doing a riff on the '80s version of Stan. It certainly was fun for me to pose with the fake Stan Lee while holding a picture I'd just taken with the real Stan Lee.

Because of my decades of working with artists and teaching Creating Comics Seminars all over the world, Stan was happy that I accepted the assignment to write Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics based on those Seminars.

I wrote, assigned new art, and produced the entire 228-page book over a three-week span in the Philippines over Christmas. Stan reviewed the chapters, writing back comments like, "This is grrreeeeat!" and taking time at the end to send me a note about how well he thought it turned out.

He seemed quite pleased with what I did with it. And to his credit, even on a late-night talk show interview, he never claimed that he wrote it.

Tina Francisco, Katrina Mae Hao, and I came up with a whole pile of Stan caricatures for that book that didn't get used!  I hope to put them to good use someday.

Oddly, nobody told Stan how well the Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics book was selling.  He wrote me --

I had to admit nobody told me how it was selling, either.  (I later picked up copies of the book in Italian, so that was interesting!)

When Stan remembered that I was in the process of writing a How To Create Comics book under my own name, he wrote me a terse --

So I have his intro in my files.  I need to finish that book, and you know who I'll dedicate it.

Later on, I ghosted some introductions for Stan, on such books as JAPAN NEEDS HEROES.

I found it funny -- the editor of the JAPAN NEEDS HEROES book inserted two paragraphs of his own text into my introduction; not knowing someone else had penned them, Stan deleted those paragraphs entirely because they seemed unnecessary and simply didn't sound like him. Stan ended up changing just one word of mine, "harried" to "hassled," and the intro ran otherwise as I wrote it.  I later found that editor claiming, to anyone who would listen, that HE wrote that intro.

Just experiencing him BEING Stan Lee could be an inspiration, a learning experience.

Most telling might be a several years back when my sister-in-law's baby died in the hospital at only a month old, and Stan Lee was the FIRST person to contribute to a fund launched to help her with expenses. What’s more, he wrote her about how he and his wife had lost a child in childbirth, so they both understood her pain.

Or how about this one? It’s a Saturday in 2009 at Pittsburgh ComiCon, and something had gone wrong. Since we’d worked with Stan Lee on Who Wants To Be a Superhero? for his POW! Entertainment and we were about to start work on Stan Lee's How To Draw Comics, Stan suggested that I ask the Con to schedule us together for a few minutes, since he was booked wall-to-wall. The scheduled Friday night meet-up I’d arranged with the Con's owner for some reason didn’t happen. And by Saturday afternoon, it appeared as though Stan would finish his meet-and-greets upstairs in the Green Room, wrap his autograph session, and be whisked away two hours later for the airport without me saying so much as “Hello.”

Then: From our Glass House Graphics booth on the convention floor, my wife saw the Green Room door open at the top of the stairs, and she nudged me in its direction. “Go there!” she said. I did so, and she followed with our daughter Jasmine in tow and my photographer friend Paul Brittain right behind. Down came a couple of Security, then Stan, then the Con people. As Stan hit the bottom stairs, I stepped out, extending my hand. “Stan! David Campiti, Glass House Graphics!”

He looked up and, in true Stan Lee fashion, his face lit up while shaking my hand firmly. “Dave! Glad you made it! I was hoping to see you!”

The security guard stepped in to push me away. “Ya gotta go, keep moving.”

Throwing his arms wide, Stan said, “Wait — Dave’s a friend!” The guard glared at me, looked at Stan, back at me, then waved. “C’mon, then.”

Stan put his arm around my shoulder as we walked — briskly — toward his signing area in the next room. “Sorry it’s so crazy. How ya been?” he asked.

“We’re doing well. Glad you could spare me a moment, Stan,” I replied. “My artist Fabio Laguna and I did this up to give you, a nod to Disney buying Marvel.” The yellow package contained a 13” x 19” color print, a cartoon depicting Walt Disney wearing a Thor hat and costume and Stan Lee wearing a Mickey Mouse hat and costume, with a Disney logo emblazoned atop Marvel’s own logo. “This is CUTE!” he said. “Can I have this?”

“Of course!” I said. “There’s two of them. One signed by Fabio and me, and a smaller one unsigned. Hey, can we get a picture?”

“SURE!” Stan said. As we stopped in our tracks so Paul could take a shot, Stan turned to my wife. “Jinky! How ya doin'?” he asked, shaking her hand. Then he bent down to my daughter. “Jasmine! Nice to meet you. Are you four now?”

"Uh-huh. Are you Stan Lee?"

He beamed a high-wattage small at her, posed for the pic, then the guard pulled him away.

Carrying off the package, he said, “Thanks to much for this! Sorry we don’t have more time!” He waved, then he was off to sign for another line full of autograph seekers before racing to the airport.

Think about it: Despite a hectic schedule, Stan “The Man” Lee not only made me feel welcome, he had even recalled my wife’s name, my daughter’s name, and how old she was. (This from the guy people say has no memory!)

When I’m at a Con and flustered or crazy busy and someone wants to talk, this gave me something to aspire to. I'm much more concerned these days about giving each fan, each artist, his/her moment and my full attention.

Oh -- and that Walt Disney/Stan Lee piece we gave him that day?

Stan kept it displayed in his office.

So let me wrap this up by saying:  Everything in life builds on everything else. I ran into Al Williamson in a Boston bar back in 1982, struck up a conversation, and he suggested that I submit scripts to David Scroggy at Pacific Comics. That led to my first professional comics script sales.

When something as simple as a chance conversation in a bar with can affect one's life, you can only imagine how decades of Stan Lee affected my life without him ever knowing.

Without Stan Lee's "You're in the club" Mighty Marvel Manner version of Marvel Comics, I'd never have become such a comics fan. I never would have had the goal to work with him in comics and would likely have ended up a pharmacist like my Dad wanted.

I wouldn't have been inspired to read so much, get a communications degree in college, sell my first comics scripts, write for magazines and books, create multiple comics series, work in animation, become an editor and publisher, or become an international comics agent and meet thousands of wonderful creative people all over the world, many of who have become my friends.

That also means I wouldn't have gone to the Philippines to teach Creating Comics Seminars and wouldn't have met budding artist Meryl Calanog. So we never would've gotten married and had Jasmine.

Without the inspiration of Stan Lee, my life would be completely different and certainly not one filled with such joy.

Thank you, Stan Lee.

For everything.

-- David Campiti GLASS HOUSE GRAPHICS 12/28/18

[jasonmcgathey]

This has already been a fun, if sprawling and chaotic, section to tackle. Expect frequent changes as I continue to add to and revise the sections. It’s probably going to take a while to get a handle on this page – so just maybe, if you can, try and avoid these orange construction cones and blinking arrows straight out of the Spring-Sandusky interchange mess. If it looks a little skeletal, know that I am working on this as my current main project, and continue hoping some brilliant idea will help me organize it a little better. Until that lightning flash of inspiration arrives, maybe a series of alphabetized districts (with a couple I’m making up just now) and/or major roads is the best way to go:

Arena District (north of Spring, west of High)

Brewery District (south of the interstates, west of High)

E. Broad Street

W. Broad Street

Downtown Proper (area with most of the government buildings, etc, between Broad, the Scioto River, the interstates, and S. 4th Street)

German Village

N. High Street

S. High Street

Uptown District (everything north of Broad that isn’t covered elsewhere)

    -Arena District-

Nationwide Arena

North Market

  -Brewery District-

Though downtown as a whole has been plagued by this to some extent, the Brewery District is unique in that I feel like for 20 plus years now, there’s been this trend of bars blowing into here with a ton of hype, and being packed to the gills in what has always been a happening district – in other words, a theoretically sustainable business – but then the masses stop showing up overnight, a few months down the road, and the place is toast before you know it.

Banana Joe’s – an early lesson in how the night of the week is everything. We came here on a Friday and it was one of the most insane crowds I’ve ever witnessed; a Thursday journey maybe two weeks later had more in common with a funeral home.

Brewmasters Gate (485 S. Front St.) – this would be an excellent example of what I’m talking about. This opened as a positively cavernous club in the early 2000s, and had to be just about the most popular place in town for a good six months. A bunch of us drove down here often during the summer of its heyday, during which time it was unfailingly jam packed with young people throwing down, spilling out to the spacious patio and even the sidewalks. By the following summer, nobody came here, and you were looked at kind of strangely if mentioning it. I’m not sure exactly when it closed, but it didn’t seem to stick around very long after this. Strangely enough, the place survives and has maintained the same name, though it appears this is now just a hall people rent out for events.

Tommy Keegan’s – stumbling across this entry in my journal, from early 1998, is an especially striking example of why I’m glad to have taken so many notes. I actually forgot all about this enterprise and haven’t heard mention of it since.

Tommy Keegan’s looks vaguely like one of those modern faux Irish pubs or something, with its painted cement floor, its dark and generally unfussy atmosphere. Being located underground doesn’t hurt, either. The front, larger room holds most of the bar’s occupants, including some annoying, talent-challenged goober playing acoustic guitar and singing near the door. It’s hard to imagine he would receive much encouragement or tip money even if warbling at the campus BW3. But apparently, they pay him to come here.

The back room is a bit more subdued and we make a bee line for it. They’ve got one of those giant hoppers dispensing free popcorn back here, and even while knowing in the back of your mind it’s only going to make your thirstier, desiring ever more beer, which is why they manipulate you such, in the moment you just don’t care and grab some anyway. Or at least this is what I do.

It’s Keisha’s birthday and we started out with a much larger posse, but the war of attrition has whittled us down to these seven survivors: the birthday girl and Pam, and then Damon, Paul, John H, this Mike guy who’s kind of cool, and me. But somehow there’s this random kid just hanging out by these pool tables, of which the bar has a couple back here, and by some convoluted turn of events he winds up being partners against Paul and me in a few games of standard billiards. Damon is absolutely on fire for some reason, and they totally smoke us from start to finish. But we’ve already exhausted what limited kicks are to be found at Keegan’s, and have agreed to strike off for Victory’s next.

“Stay and play a few games with me!” the kid begs Damon, “we’ll make some money!”

“Ah, we gotta go,” Damon returns with a laugh.

Victory’s – I’ve only actually set foot inside of Victory’s once prior to this, nearly a year ago, that night of Maria’s birthday bus. And while it feels impossible to have memories down here from a year ago, which were pretty crazy yet not really referenced at all since then – neither in my thoughts nor discussions with these guys – I guess it’s another example of how the proverbial moss is growing beneath us, and we’d best keep moving if wishing to avoid entrapment by it.

So the layout here is much different that I remember, but then again, I’d been pretty blasted that night, a singular experience thus far in my Columbus residency. There are two front rooms with one long, connected bar that runs in the middle of each. One side is basically a chill out zone, while the other is encumbered with a dance floor to boogie upon, and a stage for the band. In the back, which is kept much darker, there’s an elevated second dance floor, this time under the purview of a nearby DJ booth, while beyond here the pattern repeats with that exact same scenario out on an exterior patio. The patio is not presently open, however.

Damon and Paul sit off to one side which allows them the perfect vantage point for drinking, smoking, watching and critiquing the band all at once. They call themselves Jonesy, though I’m not exactly sure of the spelling, and these guys do a fantastic job mixing 80’s covers with a few more recent selections, from the likes of Nine Inch Nails. So good, in fact, that these two are debating whether this band isn’t just miming to a tape. Featuring keyboards and electric drums, both elements you don’t see a whole lot of in this city’s live scene, they also boast an impressive live show, although it might actually belong to the bar.

The rest of us are out on the dance floor, hopping around to the music, hoping for a cheap brush of fate with one of these ladies. John breaks away from us to scout the perimeter for any fresh prospects. During this interim I do enjoy the inevitable wayward interactions with Keisha.

“I thought that was so hilarious earlier when my friend got kicked out of the bar, and you were like, gee, that’s terrible!” she’s shouting into my ear at one point, laughing hysterically.

John returns with even better information than this. “There’s a couple outrageously hot chicks on the other dance floor,” he tells me. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

We stroll off to the back room and step up to the elevated floor, casually work our way toward these two honeys. And yes, they are quite exceptional in appearance. Just as we’re about to zero in on them, however, these two dudes swoop in and throw their arms around the girls, clearly some sort of flag panting move. Damn. So the ladies are claimed, but whatever. As more ammunition mounting in this war chest of whatever you want to call it, Keisha and Pam have actually followed us back here, with Mike in tow right behind them. So they climb onto this platform with us, and we continue dancing in this dingy corridor.

-E. Broad Street-

Columbus Dispatch

Columbus Dispatch (62 E. Broad) – Home of the city’s major daily newspaper. I don’t feel like Cleveland bests Columbus in very many categories at all, but this is one exception – The Plain Dealer has always been a better paper. A lot of people, including some of my friends and I, were vaguely horrified when the Dispatch bought up treasured weekly independents, The Other Paper and Alive! True to form, they soon axed The Other Paper, citing overkill. In fairness, however, I will say they didn’t really seem to tinker with Alive! much, far less than expected.

-W. Broad Street-

COSI

Center of Science and Industry. It’s an okay spot, though much less exciting than one might imagine. A trip to the zoo or the Ohio Historical Society easily offers you much more bang for your buck. Only recommended if you’ve never been and are burned out on all the other similar options in town.

Emma digging into chocolate cake at Spaghetti Warehouse

  Spaghetti Warehouse – Treasured destination over the years, mostly because my daughter Emma is somewhat of a spaghetti maniac. Our most notable visit here was probably her 4th birthday party, which featured a memorably random cast of family members. Up above are some photos of her attacking chocolate birthday cake at that party. Maddie appears to be enjoying herself considerably just watching her sister in action. As the name would imply, it’s a great old building with a warehouse vibe, the highlight being this train car with highly in-demand seating.

  -German Village-

The original Max & Erma’s was opened down here in 1958 (739 S. 3rd Street), before becoming a franchise in 1972. Sadly this spot went belly up in 2017 and an operation known as Wunderbar currently calls this address home. But as a consolation prize, there’s no shortage of great restaurants and taverns both, mostly within walking distance of one another, down in this district.

  -Uptown District-

Mitchell’s Steakhouse

    Downtown Columbus This has already been a fun, if sprawling and chaotic, section to tackle. Expect frequent changes as I continue to add to and revise the sections.

#Arena District #Brewery District #Columbus Dispatch #COSI #Dispatch #downtown Columbus #Mitchell&039;s #Mitchell&039;s Steakhouse #North Market #Victory&039;s

[thejohnlockgame]

The “Baker Street Chronicle Sherlock Special” about TJLC: “TJLC – 'The Johnlock Conspiracy' or: The search for truth” by Lorelai Lee (review)

My “Baker Street Chronicle Sherlock Special” has arrived! And there is a VERY SPECIAL gimmick that fell out of the oversized envelope: THE red balloon! (It scares me a bit with its sad face.) But I LOVE IT!!!

My first idea was to translate the four pages from German to English (smallprint) to let you take part in @lorelei-lee 's musings about TJLC. I had already started when I realised the copyright issues. Well well. It's something  you simply don't do. Someone owns that content. Even if not many people are going to read this, I can't just translate it and blast it all over the internet.

Sorry guys. The only thing I  can do is to give you an overview and cite a few paragraphs for analytical reasons. The article is quite OK! It is totally pro TJLC, thank you, @lorelei-lee! Still, German TJLClers, go buy it! It's really quite cool and not expensive since you get THE balloon!

“TJLC – 'The Johnlock Conspiracy' or: The search for truth” by Lorelai Lee says: “The World Wide Web is a wonderful place. Especially  fans of films, series and books find each other, get into contact and start an exchange about their fandom, their hopes, wishes and dreams. They discuss the past and try to predict the future. This applies – of course – also to the fans of the BBC series “Sherlock”. As creative and innovative as the series are its fans. “The Johnlock Conspiracy”, in short: TJLC, takes a prominent place.”

TJLC is then called a 'phenomenon' and the article gives an overview over its history, its  aims. It is said to have started on Tumblr. There is a short (but correct. I think) glossary for Fandom, ship, shipper, OTP, slash, Johnlock and TJLCler. Overall, Lorelai knows her subject well enough, and you can gather that she is an eager follower of what's happening in the TJLC world. (Have not read her blog.)

According to Lorelai  the first shippers go back to the seventies with “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”; the first mention though of slash fanfiction she cannot state exactly, but it might be in her opinion somewhere in the sixties with the first SH fanzine “Shades of Sherlock” (1966). The idea of pairing John and Sherlock, so the author, does not seem to be new, and in her opinion – finally coming to BBC's Sherlock - the series has heavily inspired and provoked this reading. She names all the people who consider Sherlock and John a couple, and especially the fact that: “It can be stated that in nearly every episode in one or the other way there are hints for a (probably) sexual tension of the characters, and they [Mofftiss] play with the idea that John and Sherlock might be a couple.”

It struck me that Lorelai did not write “might become a couple”, but “might be a couple”, as if they already are, but we are not shown.

She then points out all the gifs of “important” scenes and says: “Some pictures got nearly iconic status.” (She is right, isn't she!) There are some examples of those pictures: the first stare in AsiP during the drugs bust, Sherlock looking at John at the cemetery in ThoB.

Lee says the series uses clichés that the viewer will definitely read as romantic because they are familiar: “And, if we are honest – shipping Johnlock or not – didn't we all hold our breath when Sherlock and John were standing on the tarmac and Sherlock wanted to say something, something he always wanted to say and never had? Didn't we expect to hear  “I love you” instead of a lame joke, that Sherlock is a girl's name?” [SIC!]

In a very short passage the BBC study for more representation of LGBT people is mentioned, but from my memory it was more than just a side note in the TJLC history, because this was a main part of Loudest Subtext in Television's meta – as overall I am missing references to  famous TJLClers who have written or youtubed  most important meta. Lorelai mentions  jules joolabee, grace graceebooks and mia martinfreeman as “founders” of the term TJLC. One of the facts she mentions  were used as proof  of the fandom are Arwel's elephants, and that he now states that had  been kind of a coincidence because he likes elefants.

“Johnlock is endgame” as the mission and aim for TJLClers and the kind of meta that was written and how Gatiss and Moffat  became “Mofftiss” and “our dads” is not only something Lorelai mentions, but from this time she uses the term “Mofftiss” herself, and she describes their lying game as in “lying liars who lie”.

Lorelai follows events  in chronological order instead of importance or impact of certain aspects. So on page four we come to the heated discourse with 'anti's' and 'homophobes' (her words) and then on to series four.

“The disappointment was deep. In the days after the airing there were many cases on tumblr of fans who fell into deep depression because of the  lack of 'THE KISS' and there were even thoughts of suicide around. This may be ridiculous for outsiders... for these fans “Sherlock” and TJLC (for whatever reasons) had become one – or even THE – main focus in life... an anchor that made life more tolerable.”

The disappointment and fundraising for the Trevor project http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ for LGBTQ youths is a bit misleading in the article. I first thought she was of the opinion that the project was launched by TJLClers, although, according to their website: “Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people ages 13-24.” (Does anyone know the film? Why is it named after Victor Trevor?)

Finally the last straws of hope that ran through the fandom with Apple Tree Yard and “The Lost Special” are described, before Lee closes with: “Although their predictions have not come true yet, there are still fans out there who hold on to TJLC.”

The very last sentence, written in italic, seems to be  a caption to a small picture of Sherlock and John, the wedding picture. It says:

“And, who knows? Maybe in the very end, they are right, after all.”

[Im Original: Und, wer weiß? Vielleicht werden sie am Ende doch noch Recht behalten.”]

The magazine has 39 pages and features for example articles on episodes, background information (on H.H. Holmes for example), an article on the origins of “the game is afoot” (Shakespeare), a short story on Lady Bracknell, written by Lorelei , too. With parentlock and Mystrade hints. I definitely enjoyed reading the magazine.

Link Baker Street Chronicle.

@isitandwonder @miadifferent @missmuffin221 @waitedforgarridebs @simpleanddestructivechemistry @wssh-watson 

@heimishtheidealhusband @missmuffin221 @twocandle

#johnlock is endgame #TJLC thegameisafoot bakerstreetboys THEKISS