mcbangle

Thank you so much for considering my auction! I'm sure I'll be delighted by any gifts you make for me, as long as they don't hit my DNWs. I've included some pretty detailed general likes and DNWs in my requests, so I'll just list my fandom-specific likes here, in no particular order. 

Carry On | Simon Snow Series - Rainbow Rowell
I love Baz's snarkiness, Simon's dopey goodness, Simon’s and Penny’s friendship, and just about everything about Shep. I’d love to see Simon and Baz’s messy relationship, Baz’s POV on their years as roommates at Watford, Shep teaching Penny and Simon about American magical creatures, or an AU or canon divergence (the Soulmate Goose chasing Simon and Baz toward each other, perhaps?)

Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
I love Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship, whether queerplatonic, romantic, or platonic. I love post-canon South Downs cottage works, Arrangement works about A and C in other times and places (particularly time and places we haven't already seen on the show), and wing grooming. Please avoid plot points specific to the TV show (especially season 2 and post-s2 settings).

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
I adore Murderbot’s snarkiness, love of media, and desire to avoid messy emotions (not that I’m projecting, but…). Would love a solo fic from Murderbot’s POV, practically anything with Murderbot & ART as long as it’s platonic or QPR, SecUnit 3’s perspective on Murderbot and what it’s like to be a newly hacked security unit, or an exploration of Murderbot’s relationship with the PresAux team, especially Mensah, Ratthi, and Amena. Please note: I haven’t watched the Apple TV show yet, so avoid anything in the show that might be spoilers for a book-only fan.

Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
I’d love some Crows found family, banter, or heists. I'm opting in for canon-typical violence but no graphic violence beyond what is canon-typical. I’d love Jesper causing chaos for Kaz’s carefully-thought-out plans, or Kaz and Inez finding each other as soulmates.

DCU (Comics)
I love my female DCU characters, and I especially lovelovelove Bea/Tora. I’d love any of my listed characters as DC Bombshells (whether they’ve had canonical Bombshells designs or not), off-duty antics, no-cape AUs or other AU settings.

Questionable Content (Webcomic)
I adore Sam and Emmett, and I’d love to hear more about their goth phase, or whatever new phase they’re in now, or them just hanging out. I’d love Iris’s POV on hanging out with Willow and Yemisi, and I’m curious whether Iris has any self-awareness about their crush on Willow (I’m guessing not, but what’s your take?)

Dimension 20 (Web Series)
My D20 request is specifically on the Starstruck campaign; nothing against the Bad Kids, but I’m more interested in the Gunner Channel’s found family at the moment. Will they enter the Battle of the Brands the next year? Or show me a visit back to Rec 97, Baustin, or Fantanimalland, especially if you can fit in a visit with the Junkmother. Or send the whole Wurst through a Time Quangle to any other D20 setting!

Gilmore Girls (TV 2000)
Luke/Lorelai and Paris/Rory are some of my oldest OTPs! I love the classic Gilmore Girls banter, Paris's sharp tongue (but soft interior), Luke's grumpiness (but soft interior), and Lane’s independence.

The Good Place (TV)
I love Eleanor the Arizona trash bag with surprising depth (give this girl some shrampies!), Jason’s earnest clueless Florida Man-ness, Chidi’s neuroticism, Janet’s cheery brilliance, and Vicky’s pettiness.

Original Work
I love superheroes and supervillains who secretly (and/or reluctantly) like each other (whether platonically or romantically), clueless but kind dudebros, found family, and BAMFs.

Hello, hello!

This year I think I was fairly specific about my fandom-specific likes and DNWs in my requests, so this letter is focused mainly on general likes, dislikes and vibes. This is my first time participating in Fic in a Box, so apologies in advance if I miss anything important!

In general, I like fluff, humor, found family, misunderstood grumps finding community, sweet romance, and tropes tropes tropes. I have enough angst in my own life, so I'd prefer to minimize the angst in fanfic or to give it a happy ending or fix-it.

Medium: I'm open to any of the offered media. If you have some creative idea, feel free to go with it as long as its within the rules! Most of my comments below focus on art, fic, and podfic, but other media are welcome and appreciated.

Art: I love receiving art as a gift! Make art of one of my prompts, or inspired by one of my fics, or something original you dreamed up for one of my requests (that doesn't hit one of my DNWs). But, I do not want to get a redraw or art inspired by one of my own artworks. My internal self-critic speaks loudly and often, and I fear I'd take that as an insult of my own abilities or negatively compare my work to yours, no matter how kindly you may intend it.

DNW nudity, depictions of sex acts, graphic violence, rape/non-con, underage sex, or bestiality.

Fic and other written works: Unless otherwise specified in my requests, please avoid all major Archive Warnings. I'd also prefer not to be gifted smut unless you know me and my tastes well. I love character studies, gen friendship-focused fics, crack and humor, swoony romance, feelings realizations, first kiss/first date, or old-married-couple established relationship domestic fics. I'm generally more interested in character dynamics than plottier stuff unless the plot is character dynamics. I've also tried to propose a few prompts for non-traditional written works if that's what you're interested in writing.

Feel free to write fic inspired by any of my artworks, but I do not want to be gifted remixes of or sequels to my own fic, for the same reasons why I prefer not to receive redraws of my art.

Podfic: I have a blanket statement allowing podfic of my works, but please do use an "Inspired by" link to my fic.

Favorite tropes: Soulmates, fake relationship, there was only one bed, trapped together, huddling for warmth, found family, practically any AU.

General DNWs: Any of the major Archive Warnings (unless otherwise specified in a prompt) but particularly not rape/non-con, gore, omegaverse, BDSM, miscarriage, stillbirth, child death, graphic depictions of trichotillomania or skin picking, significant focus on COVID-19 or other similar pandemics, significant focus on IRL world tragedies, character bashing (even that character who you really really hate and your friends hate too!)

or did I have to learn about it in an article about the Super Bowl?

Amazing. Iconic. Glorious. That is all.

Confession: several years ago, I started reading The Lightning Thief but I never finished it. I remember getting very annoyed by the book, and at some point I decided to stop reading it but I can't recall why. 

Recently, not by my choice, my family listened to the audiobooks of The Lightning Thief and the first quarter or so of Sea of Monsters during road trips, so I had a chance to revisit what exactly it was that I disliked about it.

Even now, I can't quite put my finger on it. I could identify the rough cut-off point between "I've already read this" and "this part is new to me", but nothing particularly annoying happened at that point. All I can think of is that there may have been another book I wanted to read, and it may have reached the point that the pros of reading a different book outweighed the cons of not finishing The Lightning Thief.

That being said, yeah, it still annoyed me on the second read-through, just not "stop the book in fury" levels of annoyance.

( Rants and some mild spoilers below )

Buuuuuuuut, The Lightning Thief had a legitimately exciting plot that kept us guessing until nearly the end, and both books had extremely cinematic moments. So I guess I'll finish Sea of Monsters and check out the Disney+ series, but I can't see myself reading any of the other books unless the family decides to listen to more PJO books during future road trips.

On a non-annoying note, for years I thought his last name was pronounced "Rear-don", but the audiobook pronounces it like "Rye-or-dan", and my Google searches seem to confirm the audiobook pronunciation, so huh.

Maybe I've been living in a bubble (see what I did there?) but the first few reviews I read of The Bubble were positive, and the cast looked (mostly) great, so I spent 2-plus hours watching this dumb, boring movie when I could have taken a nap. : /

Many of the negative reviews I've subsequently read said that lockdown jokes are no longer timely, but I can't say that was the major flaw of the film. I couldn't watch more than a few minutes of Bo Burnham: Inside and I only got through half an episode of Social Distance because both were much, much too soon for me to bear. Watching quarantine and lockdown jokes in 2022 felt like just the right balance of neither too soon to be retraumatizing but still recent enough that viewers would understand what the characters were feeling without needing it explained to them the way some historical dramas over-explain their context. Overall, I think that aspect was fine, and some of the early quarantine jokes hit well.

The problem was, that was just about all they had: a handful of quarantine jokes, the general premise of being stuck with people you don't particularly like for far too long, and a couple of generic "actors are shallow and Hollywood people are weird" jokes. I doubt there was even 1 hours' worth of content, yet somehow they stuffed it to 2 hours 5 minutes.

There were simultaneously too many characters and not enough for them to do. Characters would come and go, then reappear again near the end, nearly forgotten (twice I had to rewind because I literally could not recall callbacks to minor characters who hadn't appeared in the past hour). The fact that apparently some people could just leave the bubble made it a lot harder to sympathize with Karen Gillam's character's insistence that they were all trapped.

Pedro Pascal had practically nothing to do. David Duchovny and Leslie Mann had an okay-but-predictable plot that ended abruptly long before the movie did, leaving Duchovny just kind of there for the remainder of the film. Keegan-Michael Key did the best he could with what he was given, which was not much. Guz Khan was by far the most likeable character and he did not get anywhere near enough screen time. Iris Apatow was pretty funny and her character had some potential but I ultimately felt like I didn't know anything about her other than "she's a TikTok influencer". There were way too many cameos, most of them apparently done over Zoom by bored actors with nothing better to spend their time on.

Just yawn. Don't waste your time.

I'm only 2 episodes into Bridgerton season 2 and I'm loving it so far! I read so many negative Nancies these last few days, saying "Bridgerton wasn't as good as you remembered" or whatever but it's just so fun.

I am a bit biased here: I've only read 2 Bridgerton books, and The Viscount Who Loved Me was the first and my favorite. I cannot wait for a certain scene - will it be in episode 3??? Here's hoping!!

I love me a smart-mouthed lady so of course I've adored Kate from her very first appearance. And Anthony is so much more interesting this season than last! (I mean, if he wasn't, it would be a pretty big problem...)

I wasn't expecting Colin to return to town so soon, but I am loving it. That scene where he told Pen he was conversing with someone very important... himself! And told her he's sworn off women but she doesn't count because she's just a friend! Oh, kill me! Romancing Mister Bridgerton for season 3, please????

ETA after watching episode 3: ( Spoilers for episode 3 and for the book )

ETA after watching episode 5: This... is not going the way I remember it from the book at all. 🤔

I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoyed Save the City, the song the Barton family watches at "Rogers: the Musical" on Hawkeye episode 1. When I saw the musical in the previews, I worried it would be an intentionally-cringey unfunny musical "parody" a la "Stars Hollow: the Musical". But as much as Clint hated it, based on that one scene alone it looks like a musical that would legitimately be a hit, not because "ha ha, musical theater fans have no taste" but because it looks damn fun and that song is beyond catchy.

"Save the city, help us win! / Save us all from the state we're in" and "I can do this all daaaaaaaaay" have been living rent-free in my head ever since I saw it.

As soon as I heard it, I was sure that "Save the City" was written by someone from the musical theater world, so it was no surprise to me at all that it was written by the same composer-lyricist duo who wrote "Hairspray". It has that same mix of parody, earnestness and parody-of-earnestness and it's damn smart.

So with no further ado, my favorite lyrics from "Save the City":

The opening verses sung by (it sounds like) Adam Pascal and Ty Taylor. I assume it's sung by them, because (a) I definitely recognize Adam Pascal's voice, (b) they're credited as "Lead New Yorkers" and (c) from the context the opening verses sound like they're sung by everymen rather than Captain America, but Genius credits those verses to Captain America. Then again, Genius also credits the lyrics to Adam Pascal, which is isn't accurate either. I like to imagine that the "Lead New Yorkers" are the Greek Chorus of the musical, and that both of them and the actor who plays Captain America would be nominated for the Tony Award for Lead Actor - Musical, splitting the fandom into intense debate, but that Adam Pascal would ultimately win the Tony.

"The day looks tough, but we're New York strong / And eight million people just can't be wrong" and all of the New York-pandering lyrics, because you know that Broadway musicals love pandering to NYC audiences.

OK, one more because this entire verse is brilliant both in its parody of Broadway NYC-pandering as well as its presumable sincerity given it was written during the COVID shutdown, when an awful lot of New Yorkers were feeling exactly this:
"We love all kinds, but Loki you don't belong": LMAO

"While Hawkeye seems cool, like a really nice guy" after praising all of the rest of the Avengers' powers. Again, LMAO. Perfect both because it was written with the intention of being annoying to Clint but also, eh, I'm not a fan of MCU Hawkeye so it made me laugh. Too bad the sound cut out just before that line, WTF.

"Hulk, you know the magic word is / Hulk, you know the magic word is / Hulk, you know the magic word is / Smash, smash, smash!" This is the one part that I assume would not be in an actual show; it's just a little too on-the-nose and if the entire song were like this I'd probably hate it, but coming 3 1/2 minutes into an incredibly smart song, it works for a laugh.

"If the city is trashed when you take your bow / We'll blame you then, but you're good for now": I see what you did there ;)

My only complaint is Hulk's costume as green hoodie and face makeup. Sure, some shows use that kind of minimalism, but nothing in the set design nor the rest of the characters' costumes suggested this to be a minimalist show. Plus, unless the hood is clipped to his hair, it would constantly be in danger of falling down during dancing and fight sequences. I have to assume they tried out a couple of other Hulk costumes that didn't work until they were nearly out of time and someone said "just throw a hoodie and some face paint on him!"

ETA other thoughts on Hawkeye episodes 1 and 2 so far: Hailee Steinfeld is incredibly charming, and so far is carrying the show for my Jeremy Renner-nonliking-self. Her hair color is putting me off a bit, the same way that Jennifer Lawrence's hair color put me off a bit in The Hunger Games. It's like 1 or 2 shades too dark to work.

Speaking of The Hunger Games, loved the shoutout to Katniss Everdeen. I have to assume the sorts of fanboys who think themselves to be experts without actually knowing or caring anything about female characters are unfavorably comparing Kate to Katniss, despite Kate predating Katniss by 3 years. 

Only 2 episodes in to date, and Kate is a serious fashion icon. That floral suit in episode 2? To die for.

Did I hear wrong, or is one of Kate's college friends named Greer? Hoping she'll show up more in the later episodes and it's not just a one-off Easter egg or worse, a coincidence.

The internets are telling me that Kate's mysterious secretly-skilled-at-fencing potential stepdad "Jack" is actually The Swordsman, a character I admittedly know very little about. Apparently he's bounced back and forth between villain and hero over the years, so I'm curious to see what direction they take him in. 

Lucky the Pizza Dog is clearly the true star of the show, though! Can they make a spin-off featuring Lucky, Goose and... IDK, are there any other pets in the MCU? If not, then they need to start introducing them so they can make an all-pet spinoff-stat! 

I hope you're having a happy and quiet day, whatever you celebrate. The immediate fam and I are at home, and we've Facetimed with my parents and in-laws. I'm hoping it will stay quiet through the weekend (knock on wood).

Have a nice day, whatever you're up to!

I finished 20020: The Future of College Football last night and wow, I can't believe I have to wait another... couple of months? year? to read the end of this story!

A few years ago, I was reading over the Yuletide fandoms and was struck by 17776: What football will look like in the future, probably primarily because it was at or near the top of the list, the title is 1 digit off from 1776, and I couldn't imagine what football would have to do with the founding of the United States (answer: nothing). All the same, I didn't rush to read it because... football? Eh...

(Of course, my primarily fandom for the last several years has been a webcomic about college and professional hockey players despite my not particularly liking hockey and knowing hardly anything about it, so I shouldn't have been so quick to brush it off.)

After seeing it mentioned in passing a bunch of times, my curiosity finally overtook me and I checked it out, and was quickly sucked into this amazing multi-media story. Still, a few years later only the name and a few memorable moments really stuck with me. So, when I heard there was a sequel released, I bookmarked it but I didn't rush to it.

I wish I had.

I absolutely adored 20020, moreso than 17776. I'd say the biggest flaw of 17776 to me, and I would only call it a flaw in retrospect, is that none of the humans were particularly interesting or developed. When 20020 opened with a conversation between two new humans, I felt very "meh" and didn't pick up interest until Nine, Ten and Juice re-entered the narrative.

But then.

The video at the end of Chapter 1 grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go.

And then Chapter 7 introduced a variable I hadn't even considered: ( Spoiler ) By the time I got to Chapter 7 could not put it down! Well, "it" being my laptop, I guess. And Chapter 12 ( Spoiler for Ch 12 ), along with another oh-my-God amazing pass.

And now. And now! And now I am so invested in these humans that I didn't care about 11 chapters ago, and their crazy football game and I can't believe I have to wait who-knows-how-long to read 20021 to find out how it all ends!!!