Mellpen's Corner

I am a lover of all beautiful and well made art, whether it be music, literature, or cinematic art. As a Christian, I especially love it when this art reflects the wonderful nature of our benevolent Creator. I made this page as a home for my own creative meanderings, which are, in themselves, often tribute to beautiful things that other people have made.

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A Brief Guide

Hello! If you came here looking for a particular type of post, here are the most common tags that I use:

#editsbymellpen - visual creations usually using screenshots from my favorite shows and movies. This can be further divided into #songs and #quotes

#textpostsbymellpen - posts that are mostly just me rambling

#memesbymellpen - what it says on the tin

#a great campaign of sabotage - a home for my more theological stuff, or stuff that's just generally good for the soul

#mellpen's hidden gems - brief reviews of good or great movies that I think may be flying under the radar

Otherwise, most of my posts pertain to Marvel, Star Wars, Tolkien, Person of Interest, classic hollywood movies, Bucky Barnes, Natasha romanoff, WinterWidow, or RebelCaptain. Film scores make an appearance too, but if you like those, you should check out @filmscorememes!

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What did they first notice about each other? Who is the introvert, and who is the extrovert? Who picks the annoying tracks on Mario Kart? Some questions just have to be answered. Little snippets of time in a universe where Steve and Peggy get to build a life together in the 21st century.

I wrote this and posted it on FFN in 2019 before Endgame came out, so it only seems fitting that I'm reposting it on AO3 in 2026 before Doomsday comes out. All chapters are written, and it updates once a week (Lord willing)! Chapter 1/21 now up!

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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

A messenger-dragon with no message; a ship ripped to shreds. Astrid was missing, and gods help anyone who stood in Hiccup's way of finding her.

It has come to my attention that FFN is dying. I've already migrated some of my stories over to AO3, but now I'm going AAALLL the way back and moving my oldest ones over as well.

If you want to take a trip back to 2015 with me, right after season 1 of RtTE came out, now is your chance! Dragon Wings was the first fic I ever published. I did this cover art on MS Paint back then too, and honestly? It kinda holds up. I haven't touched the story itself since I was a sophomore in high school though, so... keep that in mind.

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Trying to stay casual by calling him "Grace" when talking about him to other people so no one knows Ryland and I are on first name terms

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It's my WHAT

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I try and hide it, not let it show But deep down inside me I just don't know Am I a man if I feel like a host? The stranger in the mirror is wearing my clothes

- "Thrive" from Vice Verses (2011) by Switchfoot

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And we've been fighting SO HARD to get the migrants from other platforms to reblog instead of like, and now likes (or reblogs with only tags) are going to be the more valuable thing to OPs bcause that will be what lets them actually see the engagement their post is getting. DIABOLICAL

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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Eliot makes a mistake, and they all lose more than they even knew that they had. Eliot is gutted, Hardison seethes, and Parker feels like she's been abandoned... again. How can they pick up the pieces when they're so broken themselves?

Chapter 3/5 now up!

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I think the worst AI offenders are the innocuous cute animal videos or the generated behind-the-scenes images of movie co-stars having fun.

Why must you conjure up fake imitations of joyful times that never happened?

You already prey on our human tendency to be shocked and drawn to atrocities, must you also infect our desire to seek for pleasant things?

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Oh hi I think I've read some of your Leverage fics before :)

!!!!!

That makes me very happy, of course. 😂

On the off chance that you're someone who's waiting for another chapter on "the beauty of seeing things through", it's coming! I promise! I'm just terrible at finishing things in a timely manner.

Thanks for the note though! And for reading! ^_^

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GUESS WHO GOT ART FROM THE INCREDIBLE @gracefuldisasters

I commissioned her to draw something, and she picked out this soft scene from my story "The Retrieval Job", and I've stared at it for hours.

They've had a bit of a rough week, but they're on their way home now.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

A job goes wrong, and Parker disappears into the deeps of the Brazilian rainforest. Eliot tries to hunt her down with help from the team, but the jungle is a dangerous place at the best of times.

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Something that never ever gets old for me is how PoI consistently redirects Reese's violence from the normal, crueler things we're used to seeing from action protagonists. The most obvious thing is him kneecapping people instead of killing them, of course, but it's a constant bit throughout the show.

You see him with blowtorch and someone he needs to get information out of, but then he starts burning the guy's money instead and it's just as effective. He tells people that he has a dangerous substance (acid, nitroglycerin, etc.) and then takes advantage of their panic when he throws what's actually water or corn syrup or something on them. He got kidnapped by a dirty cop? He shoots the cop only AFTER making sure the cop is wearing his bulletproof vest. He's in a life or death struggle with an agent sent to kill him? He intentionally stabs the guy in such a way that he can get to the hospital for treatment *if* he leaves Reese alone, and he tells the agent this. He has a disgusting abusive US Marshal tied up in his trunk. Does this mean murder is inevitable?? Nope! He's gonna dump him in a Mexican prison!

It's so refreshing to see these exercises in restraint, because so often the Dark Brooding Hero has no mercy and leaves a wake of death and torture that we just choose not to think about. Yeah, John Reese leaves a wake of chaos and property damage and business for orthopedic surgeons, but he's not a murderer anymore, and that's the whole point.

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Trying to write when you're coming out of a bout of depression is just a constant back and forth between "this emotional scene is an authentic representation of what I've been going through and to change it or add any levity would cheapen my experiences" and "geeze LOUISE can you please lighten this up you EMO"

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Which is Worse?

Awesome compelling character that you are doomed to only see maybe twice

Awesome compelling character that you are doomed to see terribly mishandled

Voting ended onJan 11

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I now present for your enjoyment: "Mom and Dad"

i.e., my friend's and my conclusion about Locklyle

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Joe and Anthony, I love you, I really do, but I fear that this is Not The Thing to do.

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