ALANNA SMITH!

alan wake. 🌀

":3"

Hello! My name's Alanna and I'm the lead editor of LOVE UNLIMITED, Marvel Unlimited's romance comic line. This week we finished a story about Gwendolyn Poole, AKA Gwenpool, coming to the realization that she's aromantic and asexual--and though I usually prefer to let the stories speak for themselves, I wanted to talk a bit about this one.

There was basically no awareness of the asexual spectrum when I was growing up--I went through both high school and college secretly feeling like I was some kind of alien in a world that made no sense to me. Finding out that other people experienced the same thing, and that I wasn't weird or broken, was a big moment in my life.

I know how much it would have meant to me to see a character grappling with the same questions I was. I searched desperately for myself in stories as a kid even though I couldn't quite define what I was looking for yet. I'm so glad that there are more ace stories now, and honored that we were able to bring one more into the world.

I was inspired and emboldened to pitch this story by the work my friends Andrea Shea, Ro Stein and Ted Brandt did on Connor Hawke's story at DC, by Latoya Raveneau's ace advocacy within Disney, and by my erstwhile assistant editor and co-conspiritor Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, who, I discovered after a few months of working together, was also ace! We were helped and supported at every step by other aces at Marvel as well--there are more of us than you might think! It's also amazing that our EIC and Marvel greenlit this story and gave us the freedom to tell it the way we wanted.

I'm so grateful to @jeremywhitley, @bailiesartblog and Kelly Fitzpatrick for bringing this story to life. Working with an all-ace team has been so special--there's just something magic about knowing that even though our individual experiences differed, we had something fundamental and formative in common. There are pieces of all of us in this story, if you know where to look.

Anyway! Like many aces, this is something I get shy talking about, haha--so that's all I've got for you! (Unless you want to read more here!) Thank you all for reading and loving the story, and congrats to aroace icon Gwenpool!

Re-upping this for International Asexuality Day! 💜

Screenshot redraw with my first anime ever, it still holds a very special place in my heart

something a little different from my usual text posts 😌

You want me to write? The thing that put Alan Wake in the Dark Place?

lifehack: when you see a Take One candy bowl in a restaurant, wait until noones looking and shovel candy into your pockets. god may judge you but his sins outnumber your own

“God may judge you but his sins outnumber your own.” We really need to start collecting and sourcing these Potent Quotables.

I’ve been doing this for years

It’s all on a google doc of mine (x)

“Kill me. Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars that you won.” -fucking Warrior Cats

We live in a socie-

Wait wait you forgot the mushroom post “you can’t kill me in a way that matters” +the following uhhhh 1 sec

I find the mushroom post :)

sorry

sorry

Can we go ahead and add “one day you’ll decompose, and I’ll be there to watch it happen” to the list please

@imfunnydamit

“There is not enough time to make all the things one’s imagination can conjure” - @reyndesign

Every single one of these quotes is going in my next grimoire

Tumblr has reinvented the weirdest way to share quotes files.

better call saul: gritty 90s anime ova edition

Water for Gali was a sister, a second half, an extension. In the water she was whole, embraced, with nothing to fear.

Water for Nokama was an escape, a bubble of respite. Somewhere nobody could snag her, bother her, search for her.

Water for Hahli was a home and battle ground. She was invincible within it, untouchable, unbreakable, unreachable.

Air for Lewa was a safety net, a support; a pair of outstretched arms always ready to catch him before it was too late.

Air for Matau was a vehicle, another means of transport; something he had to master lest he break his bones upon it.

Air for Kongu was a second skin, a third limb; he knew better than anyone its shifting secrets, its so quiet language.

Fire for Tahu was an old rival. It curled on him, molded itself in his image, quipping amiably as they fought together.

Fire for Vakama was a tepid gaze. It reached out timidly, barely still burning, asking to be allowed in his hands again.

Fire for Jaller was a solemn promise. One he would need to hold tight, strengthened by discipline, to do right by it.

Ice for Kopaka was a taste of wilderness, carelessness, freedom; it was howling alone, dancing wildly in the silence.

Ice for Nuju was a breath of stillness, study, tranquillity; it was gazing in endless white to decode the world on his own.

Ice for Matoro was a scent of expectation, fear, tenderness; he entrusted to it his footprints, hoping they'd last.

Earth for Onua was peace and quiet. The songs it rumbled through him soothed him like kind hands easing his worries.

Earth for Whenua was reflection and wait. The stories it had written on its skin kept him company like many old friends.

Earth for Nuparu was knowledge and innovation. He heard in it his own voice as he mumbled during tireless workdays.

Stone for Pohatu was a rough comfort forced soft; when he wrapped it around himself like a blanket, he felt safe, warm.

Stone for Onewa was a tough tool forced smooth; when he shaped it according to his vision, he felt in control, certain.

Stone for Hewkii was a lean muscle forced strong; a part of himself that he exercised apart, to carve it into its zenith.

A trope that gets to me: 'guard dog' character and their partner who are both fully aware of it and honestly don't care/kind of like it. Someone says "call your guard dog off" and their partner does call them off. That person, their 'guard dog', is someone who is unreservedly, irrefutably loyal to them. Someone undoubtedly dangerous who is willing to kill, to maim, to obey, simply because of their love for one another. There's no manipulation involved— it is loyalty, brutal, dogged loyalty. And it goes both ways.

howl pendragon

no no. you don't get it. the reason I injure my blorbos until they can't walk is because that's the only way they'll ever let someone else carry them. the reason I curse them to be sick and feverish is so that they'll finally open up about their emotions while delirious. the reason I force them to overexert themselves to the point of exhaustion is so that when they pass out they can finally rest.

I'm doing this for their own good.

sorry to rant i’mjust saying i would hate to be a writer making queer media these days cause i’d be putting my characters through conflicts and story elements and my fellow queer 20somethings would start calling me homophobic just because they decided to make my story into their safe space

i made this awhile ago and yeah it’s still relevant

The worst part about this specific term is that it's perfect if you only ever apply it to media that's finished. Any show, game, or book you already know backwards and forwards is where your comfort is supposed to be! Familiarity! No uncertainty! Comfy cozy!!!

Literally any piece of ongoing media has the potential to go in a direction you don't want. That can be anything from like doing something legitimately awful to just being mean to your ~comfort character~ or not going in the direction you wanted or expected it to and depending on your tolerance for any of that and your Control Issues, it might fuck you up. Oh and of course sometimes they just up and get canceled.

And yeah it feels worse now because so many people who seem unwilling to accept that it's not literally Their Show will start yelling at the people who made it for doing whatever it was they were going to do with it. How dare you tell the story you wanted to tell instead of the story I, the main character of reality, wanted you to tell?

Yes! This is what I always thought a comfort show (or book, or movie, or whatever) was.

A piece of media that you return to because it’s cozy and you know every beat. You can revisit the parts that give the emotional outlet you need in any given moment.

Something that is ongoing? That you are experiencing for the First! Time! Ever! is not comforting, because you don’t know what is coming. It will give you emotions, but they may not be the emotion you want or need in that moment.

everyone to scully, any time mulder wanders off somewhere: