A Humble Peddler of Weres

I’m gonna go ahead and rant real quick. I’m a fanfiction author, and I’m constantly looking for ideas I like. A lot of those ideas come from prompts, or tumblr posts, or other fandoms, or existing tropes.

Sometimes, fics already exist in those tropes.

So here’s my apparently “unpopular” opinion: I like reading fics of the same trope. If there’s a fic where they’re famous actors and they fall in love that I enjoy, I want four more slightly different ones. If I’m writing a fic where one is catfishing, I want to read the trope in at least four other fics like???

I like to see other authors’ take and style on common tropes. Just because one fic in a trope exists doesn’t mean the trope is off limits for the fandom. Far from it - take a chance with that trope. If you’re worried you’re too similar, mark it inspired by. You’re not going to copy someone exactly, and you could have an interesting spin on it. I want that spin to exist.

If two fics of the same trope can’t exist, I might as well delete over half my fics, including some of my most popular. It’s discouraging to hear people drop ideas because something like it exists - or even maybe exists.

tldr; more than one fic can exist within a trope or prompt in a fandom and be good fics. Please write whatever you want, even if something similar exists. Someone (like me) will read them all and enjoy them all.

Pennyworth: The Daring Young Man

Chapter Twelve:

Turning on his heel, Alfred made his way toward the door. He hadn't meant to look back, but a sound just on the edge of hearing drew his attention. He turned just in time to find Jim Gordon leaning forward in an exhausted slouch; glasses held loosely between his fingers as he pinched the bridge of his nose, head hanging between his shoulders as Bullock leaned forward, a companionable hand resting between his shoulder blades as he gave Gordon a bracing shake, murmuring something too low for Alfred to hear. When he looked up and caught Alfred's eye, Bullock's expression was uncharacteristically grim, something foreboding in his face. Worse than that. Apologetic.

Alfred stared for a moment longer, feeling the hair rise on the back of his neck. Then strode back the way they'd come, mind racing a mile a minute.

Something had gone wrong. That much was evident. And it had gone wrong enough that Jim Gordon had felt the need to bring Bullock with him for moral support. Harvey Bullock, the man with as much tact and subtlety as a fork thrown into a microwave.

"Jesus wept," Alfred breathed.

Read more…

- - -

In the immortal words of the bard (Heller et al): they’ve only gone and fucked it.

Also, hi. I have been trying to edit this chapter since January 😭

Thank you for the love on this one. This chapter was a nightmare, so seeing people enjoy it(/cry profusely over baby Richard losing everything all over again) is a huge relief.

I’m trying to get better at posting things I’m not happy with so the fics just don’t stall and die. This whole training your brain out of dire perfectionism thing is not easy 😅

i like Ma & Pa Kent a lot bcos like, their whole thing is that they’re the normalest, nicest human parents in existence, but also, they are the people who found a baby inside a crashed spaceship and just took him home and told no-one.

dc comics heritage post

Given that patent attorneys, especially back then used to have hard science degree, it makes the one about how they know the weight limit on a bridge funnier.

For the uninitiated:

My preferred version:

Dad 100% studied physics or engineering, he's just also a troll, which is why he's a patent lawyer.

Me: I don't get it. I thought I was doing a lot better than I was a few years ago. I'm like 10 times more on top of things than I used to be. How does everything feel terrible now?

The Tiny Me in OSHA-approved Hi-Vis Gear Who lives in my brain and pulls all the levers: Boss, it's the fascism. You're completely gunked up with cortisol due to the fact that your entire daily life is now underscored with a haunting awareness of the rapid erosion of your rights, dignity, and any and all social safety nets, and you're also bearing witness to the most vulnerable people immediately being persecuted. This creates a natural stress response that basically means you're going to continue having memory and organizational problems, as well as emotional imbalances.

Me: BUT I HAVE A BULLET JOURNAL AND I MEDITATE NOW.

Tiny OSHA Me: BOSS, THE FASCISM.

I'm listening to Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites again, and, knowing there are parallels between Nathan's metal poisoning and @thebibliosphere's own experiences, I am now curious whether the experience of enthusiastically rushing out of a medical provider's office in a flush of newly treated good health while the doctor futilely attempts to enforce caution via holding the patient's footwear hostage is true to lived experience or wishful thinking. 🤣🤣🤣

it was more of an elated hobble, in my case 😂

What I love about this is seeing that he's clearly a hockey skater. Now, I don't know shit about fuck when it comes to cold slippy antics, but what I notice is different between hockey skaters and nearly all other skaters is that hockey skaters essentially run on the ice. Any other skater is trying to glide, perform, or be otherwise smooth. Create a new type of mobility, but on ice. But hockey skaters? The floor is slippery but that's why they've got knives on their feet, so it's running time. Run run run run.

So this is like playing tag on ice, except the one guy you're trying to get is magically not on ice. And I think that's pretty neat.

He’s also making really good use of the stoppers on the front of his skates. You can clearly see several times that when he starts juking and running he’s not actually running with the wheels in contact with the ground – he’s tipped forward to run on the rubber stoppers, which will give him more traction on the slippery surface. He can change direction faster because none of his kinetic energy is going into countering the inertia of spinning wheels.

I don’t know if the picks on the front of ice skates are used similarly (because ice hockey is not so much of a national pastime in Australia) but I wouldn’t be surprised. But I spent a bit of time with a roller derby team, and I recognised that particular stopper run :)

toe pick!

Born to don't wanna. Forced to gotta

-source: Batman (1940) #17-

Weapon of Choice: Bruce is voluntarily taking time off. Everyone screencap this to use as ammunition when people say there's no precedence of this. This is not a drill.

Ugh, of course the gifs are broken. Here’s the clip:

hurrying home to my castle when i see lightning and remember that i left the frankenstein plugged in on the slab

I love seeing list memes where someone makes a "le cool people vs le cringe" and they obviously skew it so they barely scrape by into the cool kids club

You just KNOW this dudes 5'11"

I'm 5'11, but in most casual conversations I'll say I'm 5'9. I do this purely for the chaos that it creates. Because everyone assumes that men only exaggerate their height up, it makes me look like the only person honestly describing their height and thus knocks at least 2 inches off everyone else's description. The panic that the 6'1 guys feel at the thought of being described as 5'11 is hard to understate. I have had people run back to their cars to grab tape measures. If I could get away with describing myself as 4'6 I would.

you are the diametrical opposite of the aforementioned guy. you are a demigod walking among mortals