It's the end of the world as we know it

Thanks for writing for me!

First of all, I like to read a lot of genres, tones, and kinks! I'm super easy to please. If something isn't in my DNWs, you can assume I consider it opt-out.

General likes: Humor, smut, character studies, backstory, friendship fic, unlikely friends, shipfic, darkfic, kink, canon divergence AUs, bittersweet or open-ended stories, all sorts of narrative styles (third person, second person, epistolary fiction...), ghosts, strong-willed or intelligent characters.

Smut likes: Seduction, fingering, kneeling, wearing anal plugs or other toys while clothed, BDSM (especially D/s), spanking, flogging, humiliation, non-con/dub-con, bondage.

DNWs: Underage under 14, animal cruelty, AUs other than canon divergence.

Some canon-specific likes/prompts:

Knives Out

- Marta being kind but smart and formidable.

- Dysfunctional family dynamics.

- Post-movie fic about what happens next.

- Canon divergence AUs--what if Harlan lived? What if Ransom didn't get caught?

X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)

- Telepathy, including kinky or morally questionable uses of it.

- Charles, Erik, or Emma as a mentor to Jean.

- Emma actually being alive after First Class.

- Erik and Jean bonding, either platonically or not.

- Jean topping Erik while in Phoenix mode.

- Erik and Hank bonding and overcoming their differences. Or, alternatively, having hatesex.

- Erik and Charles finding a way to be together despite their differences. Or, alternatively, not being together but remaining close.

Marvel Comics

- I love the complicated familial relationship between Jean and Rachel, and the idea of them bonding and getting to know each other.

- I adore both Kitty/Illyana and Kitty/Rachel.

- I enjoy time travel and alternate universes and how they can impact relationships.

- I also enjoy stories where the characters get a break from superhero business and spend time together.

White Collar

- Cons, heists, and undercover jobs.

- I love the dynamics between Mozzie and, well, pretty much everyone.

- June being involved in a con or scheme or some kind.

- Neal and Sara ending up together long-term and making it work.

- I really like Sara/Alex and would enjoy pretty much anything about them.

- Pre-canon fic about Neal, especially involving Keller or Adler.

- I love it when Neal and Peter are a little bit at odds with each other but also respect and trust each other.

Torchwood

- Aliens made them do it type scenarios.

- Jack and Ianto roleplaying in the bedroom.

- Cracky situations.

- Team interaction.

- Canon divergence where Owen, Tosh, and Ianto survive for longer, or the events of Children of Earth don't happen (or happen differently).

Spartacus series

- One of my favorite things about this series is Roman political and social intrigue and scheming.

- I love how Batiatus and Lucretia were terrible people sometimes but seemed to really love each other.

- I love the fluctuating power dynamics between Illithyia and Lucretia over the course of the series, and the way they end up tied to each other through circumstance and manipulation.

Uncharted

- Nadine and Chloe having adventures together and falling for each other.

- Pre-canon backstory about Nate having a relationship or fling with Harry or with both Harry and Chloe.

- Loyalty kink with Talbot and Marlowe.

The Alienist

-  I like the idea of Sara and Laszlo coming to respect each other as peers and maybe developing a friends with benefits type relationship (or something more).

- I enjoy how John tends to trust Laszlo and follow his lead, even when he has reservations.

- Sara and John finding a way to make a relationship work, with or without marriage.

- Sara, John, and Laszlo finding happiness in a triad relationship.

The Queen's Gambit

- Benny and Beth continuing their sexual relationship.

- Sexual roleplay involving chess.

- Beth masturbating or fantasizing while playing chess.

- Beth either continuing her friendship with Jolene or starting a relationship with her.

Spinning Silver

- What does Wanda do after the events of the novel?

- I really like the idea of Irina and Mirnatius growing to respect and care for each other more. I'm also interested in what their political relationship looks like.

- Wanda shows a lot of strength and determination when she demands that the Staryk king release Miryem--I would love to see that explored in a Wanda/Miryem context.

Just watched the first episode of The L Word: Generation Q. Because of course it was a foregone conclusion that I would. I have a big love/hate relationship with the original show. It was airing when I was between the ages of 16-21, which was a time when I was figuring out my sexuality a lot, and I was old enough to be aware of it and wanted to see it but young enough that maybe I put too many expectations on what was ultimately a batshit soap opera. I've rewatched it a couple times, but I still remember feeling burned by the crazy final season with its "murder mystery" that didn't go anywhere. I also remember the weird webisodes they put online afterward that included things like random incest revelations.

So I was curious to see how the tone and content of Generation Q would compare, and I just finished watching the first episode. My thoughts, complete with some spoilers and speculation:

* The new characters are...fine. I don't dislike them, but they aren't grabbing me a whole lot yet.

* Of course Bette and Tina are divorced now. That was surprisingly satisfying for me, because I never believed their relationship could actually survive long-term.

* The fact that Angelica is 16 now makes me feel really old.

* Bette running for mayor feels very true to her character.

* I'm a little uneasy about the revelation they seem to be building up to about why Bette is running and why she's so passionate about the dangers of opioids. I'm worried they're going to reveal that Kit became addicted to opioids or something.

* I'm not crazy about Alice's hair.

* I'm surprisingly on board with Shane being mysteriously wealthy and married now. Yeah, it's kind of silly, but I'm on board with a certain level of silliness from The L Word.

Verdict: I'll keep watching. I'm curious about where things go, though I wish that the new characters felt like they had bigger plots.

Dear Trick or Treat Author,

Thank you for writing for me! I like a lot of genres, tropes, and kinks, so I'm pretty flexible. All optional details are very optional. Also, I like both happy/fluffy fic and some pretty dark stuff, so feel free to go in whichever direction you want. I don't mind unhappy endings. I have some favorite ships, which I've included, but I also enjoy gen and friendship fic just as much. As for content and things like narrative structure/POV, unless I've listed it in my DNWs, you can assume I'm okay with it (this includes things like character death, infidelity, unhappy endings, etc).

Also, I'm happy to receive both fic and art. I don't know if I'm very good at giving art-specific prompts, but I've tried to list some likes that could be interpreted in a visual medium.

General DNWs: Animal abuse/death--particularly involving pets (things like non-graphic references to farming or hunting are generally fine), readerfic, dental trauma.

Fandom-specific DNW exceptions: I'd prefer no non-powered AUs for X-Men Alternate Timeline Movies fandom. Also, I didn't list animal abuse/death as a DNW for Annihilation or Alien because I feel like animal-based horror is a big aspect of Annihilation and that there's some potential for that in Alien, and I'm okay with it.

General likes:

- Friendship fic
- Character studies and backstory
- Smut
- For porn, things I like include like anal sex/play, spanking, D/s and power play, slavefic, A/B/O, BDSM AUs, dub-con/non-con, humiliation, and watersports. I like both consensual and non-con/dub-con interpretations. Also, I'm cool with a lot of kinks written in a way that's not explicitly sexual, like spanking as non-sexualized punishment or A/B/O worldbuilding. I'm also happy with vanilla smut, though!
- Darkfic/art
- Humor and cracky premises
- Loyalty kink (one character is very loyal toward and cares for another. Recognition of that from the other character can be nice but isn't essential)
- Pining (mutual or non-mutual)
- Enemies becoming friends/lovers and maybe not completely trusting each other or completely moving past their prior conflicts
- Bonding and unexpected friendships
- Ghosts and ghost stories
- I love Halloween, so if you want to do something Halloween-themed, I'm definitely game!
- I also like all sorts of narrative structures and POVs--epistolary fiction, second person, you name it.

Some specific likes for tricks:

- Body horror
- Tentacle monsters
- Gaslighting/manipulation
- Mind control
- Frightening visions/hallucinations/apparitions (take of this what you will--could be ghosts, hallucinations, telepathy, etc.)
- Characters not trusting their own perceptions/questioning reality
- Hauntings/ghosts
- Stockholm syndrome/lima syndrome
- Imprisonment

( Prompts and fandom-specific info )

Unless my search skills have failed me, there doesn't seem to be any currently active community on DW for the X-Men movieverse. Would it be madness to consider starting one? Maaaybe, yeah. I'm not sure how much interest there would actually be. I'd also like to support the communities that have been started on Pillowfort. I'm not the greatest at self-promotion, and I'd really need to plan activities or something to spur any interest. I'd like to do it, but I don't want to half-ass it or get my hopes up.

elrhiarhodan startedt his, and I've seen it floating around my f-list a bit, so I decided to do it, as well.

Pick a passage from my stories, up to 500 words, from anything I've written in my LJ Masterlist and on AO3 (AO3 is more complete right now), and comment to this post with that selection (including a link to the story being excerpted). I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the story, awful puns [perhaps], and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

If you would like to ask about multiple stories, that's awesome. Please post the passages in separate comments so that I can respond coherently about each one. :)

Okay, so, I've managed to get really into the new Fox show Lucifer. And now I'm really nervous about whether it's going to be picked up for a second season or not.

It took a few weeks for the show to grow on me. I started with episode four, which I only watched on a whim because it was on after The X-Files, and it kind of annoyed me. But I decided to give it a try for a couple more weeks, and now it's grown on me so much.

It's kind of an odd show. I haven't really read the Lucifer comics much (I'm mainly familiar with the character from Sandman, which is one of my favorite series ever), but I can tell that this seems like an adaptation in name only. Turning the story into a police procedural and making Lucifer a freaking consultant seems like a silly and frankly lazy choice to me considering how common crime procedurals are. The procedural aspect isn't even all that great, to be honest. I haven't found any of the cases too interesting. The attempted UST between him and Detective Chloe Decker also feels really formulaic to me.

Considering how even network TV has gotten a lot darker and boundary-breaking than it used to be, and how it's tried to jump on the bandwagon of antihero shows like Breaking Bad, Lucifer is surprisingly tame and dorky so far. I mean, Hannibal really pushed the limits of what's acceptable for Network TV, and you would kind of expect a show about the literal Devil to do the same. But while Lucifer does have moments where he's genuinely creepy and actually seems dangerous, he's mostly played like a petulant party boy who does stuff like bribe his way out of speeding tickets and smoke pot. And as much as he talks about wanting to punish people, we never actually see him do anything very bad. He's pretty tame, which isn't a bad thing, but sometimes the show does seem like it doesn't quite know what tone it's going for. It reminds me a little of Torchwood in that respect. Like, are we supposed to see the half-assed demon face Lucifer sometimes flashes to scare people with as genuinely threatening? It looks like something out of a kid's show.

But the thing is, I really love the show so far. It's flawed, but I love it for the same reasons I loved Torchwood and love White Collar. It's fun. It's funny. There's banter and charm ridiculous situations. It's always this type of show, which I feel like I shouldn't necessarily like this much, that worms its way into my heart and puts down roots. I mean, I probably sound fairly critical of it, but I really do love it more than it probably deserves.

And Tom Ellis is so great as the main character. He does sell both the creepy and playful sides of Lucifer very well.

And this is why I hate getting into shows in their first season. I don't want it to be canceled. :/

I was very determined to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the theater. I saw Episodes II and III in theaters, and I wanted to continue the tradition.

This created a dilemma, however. I don't particularly enjoy going to the movies. I'm very easily distracted, and people moving/making noise near me while I'm trying to watch something bothers me. I'm not someone who enjoys being a part of an audience. Normally, I would have waited a few weeks for the crowds to die down more. But I'm working full-time now, and I'm on vacation at the moment, so I didn't want to wait too long.

As it so happened, I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning, and it was right across the street from the movie theater. So it seemed like a pretty convenient opportunity to go to the 10 AM showing.

I ended up getting in line for my ticket at around 9:40, and the place was already getting pretty busy. I was really disappointed that I didn't have time to get popcorn. The concession line was so long it was ridiculous. But I probably saved myself an extra $15. The theater was surprisingly busy for a weekday morning, and I had to sit closer to the front than I would have liked. Overall, it worked out pretty well since I had most of the row to myself.

As for the movie itself....

( Spoilers! )

So, I was pretty ambivalent about last week's premiere, but this week, I found myself starting to enjoy it more. My interest level has been raised from "not expecting much" to "cautiously optimistic."

So for anyone not watching who wants to play along, here's my recap:

( Click to read )

Brief thoughts:

- Donovan is fun and I'll be sad if anything really bad happens to him.
- I hope John properly investigates these Holden sightings soon because dude, if both you and your daughter have seen him in the creepy hotel, wouldn't you try to do something?
- Tristan is totally going to crash and burn. The guy can barely keep it together as a human, let alone a vampire.

I had intended to post this last night, since I like to post reactions as soon as possible. Honestly, I don't usually rewatch episodes until a while after they air, so I try to get anything I have to say out while it's still fresh in my head.

But there was just so much that happened in the finale, I knew I was going to have to rewatch it before really talking about it much.

( Spoilers )

I'll really miss the show. I'll miss the characters. I still plan to write fic for a while, but there's something really sad about their stories being "done" (even though I think the finale left a ton of room for interesting exploration in fic). Today at work, I kept seeing a display of cornish hens (one of Neal's favorites), and couldn't help but think of him.

I got into the show in the space between seasons 3 and 4, so I only started recapping episodes with season 4. I'm thinking of rewatching the first three seasons and doing recaps of those episodes, like I would have if I'd been watching as they aired. I've thought about that before, and I think it could be fun. Yeah, the eps aren't new to many people, but there's still some nostalgia value in it.

I really enjoyed this episode! I'm glad we got a Mozzie-centric episode. The stuff with the Pink Panthers felt a little shoe-horned in, but I get the feeling that they had to keep that plot moving a bit since there are so few episodes. Might have felt weird if there was no mention of it at all, I suppose.

More detailed breakdown:

( Spoilers )