#buginateacup

[qqueenofhades]

I just wanted to say thank you for your last couple of posts (and your words on the current fuckery in general). It's been tough watching the fallout from across the globe and dreading the inevitable impact on our own elections this year.

I know this isn't the timeline either of us wanted to be in but your posts give me that but of necessary hope to keep going and fighting for better.

PS: I offer a picture of my cat Maya for comfort in these trying but will be endured times

FLUFFY. WHAT A GOOD FLUFFY. I WANT TO SNUGGLE THE FLUFFY (I AM ALLERGIC TO CATS WHICH IS WHY I MUST DO THIS VIRTUALLY, IT IS A GREAT SOURCE OF WOE AND INJUSTICE IN MY LIFE.)

....ahem.

Thanks, m'dear, and you're welcome. I am so sorry for the blizzard of bullshit that the Trumpsters are raining not just on America but the world, and it totally escapes me as to why half the country shrugged and went "eh we should elect him again." But that being as it is, Etc Etc Gandalf Nobody Wants To See These Times But We Must Decide What To Do With Them. So there is that.

Nobody DID want this timeline and it is existentially crushing to be back in it again, but... well. I am trying to limit my political posts to only the ones where I can offer a constructive action item or reassuring insight, because I don't see the point in just repeating all the no good very bad generally terrible things that are going on and which we already know about. I don't want to make light of anything or say that it's not bad, when we can see that it is very bad, but we've gotta keep our heads and a little perspective as best we can. So yeah.

My one important point for every single [insert bullshit fuckery fascist action du jour] is that we can't live and die on every 24-hour news cycle and immediately jump on every single bad thing they do, because as I keep saying, they want to wear us out and burn out our spirit to resist. So when we get obvious insane bullshit like "Elon Musk seized the financial data of every US citizen," well, we can immediately call our elected officials and so forth, but we must also pace ourselves and take the long view. This is flagrantly illegal. Everyone knows it. It will be sued and very probably enjoined. We do not need to hang onto every minute-by-minute update and traumatize ourselves into inaction, when our direct ability to influence it is limited.

We need to look at cat pictures, read books, enjoy our hobbies, look at the beautiful world, love our friends and family, make dinner, do chores, get up and keep going. If we are constantly reading or viewing content that upsets us, even when we agree with it or it comes from our friends, we need to take steps to curate it. It will not happen differently whether or not we stare at it all the time. So yes. We will get through this, but we cannot burn ourselves out in the first few weeks when they will obviously be front-loading all the most insane BS.

Courage.

[dalniente]

For the fic asks: 12 a trope you’re really into right now, and 18 if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

12: a trope you're really into right now

Oh lord, probably either road trips or...idk what the term would be. One-sided permabonding? "Mating" for life? I hesitate to use "mate for life" because in my head, copulation isn't actually necessary. I've got like, three of these scenarios rattling around in my head, even though only one of them has actually made it onto my AO3.

18: deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

From Life Left Behind, the very end of chapter 31, after the Big Conversation and before the Hot Bath. If memory serves, I was editing and I thought it might be nice for Roxanne to offer an 'out,' but then this happened:

---

Roxanne hesitates. "Do you need to use the bathroom first?"

And then she splutters into peals of shocked laughter at the expression of absolute, total befuddlement Megamind sends her. 

"I'm—oh, no—" 

"I BEG your pardon?"

"I was trying to give you an out," she manages. "Oh, god. Sorry, just—your face!—no, sorry, that was," struggling to compose herself, "that was code for do you maybe want a moment alone?"

"Aha," he exclaims, brows rocketing up his forehead in comprehension. "Aha! I see! Yes that DOES make more sense than, I note you were crying; do you perhaps need to shit as well?" 

Roxanne dissolves all over again. Gripping his shoulder and dropping her forehead onto her knuckles.

"No, I do not need a moment," Megamind says, a grin in his voice. "I might have, a minute ago, but then I suppose you threw me far enough into left field to restore my factory settings. I do not know how you do it," he continues when she just laughs harder. "Truly! I do not! I mean, I was CRYING-crying, do you have ANY IDEA how bent out of shape I have to get before some of those noises happen? And then you said, what, eight words, and"—he lets out a pitch-perfect record-scratch and Roxanne wheezes—"voila! I am talking in full sentences! AND: being funny while doing so. Apparently. Ha HA."

"Oh my god," Roxanne squeaks out, "oh god my abs, help—"

"You are a miracle, Roxanne. Best of all possible humans, on this best of all possible worlds. Now," gently tugging her hand, jostling her up from him, "this has been a magnificent success of a conversation, but il faut cultiver notre jardin. Come on. Hot tub."

---

I didn't want to cheapen the sincere moment by making it funny, and I wasn't totally enamoured of the Voltaire reference out of nowhere at the end there, so I switched it back to the more serious ending the chapter had originally.

(from this list of questions!)

[butterricebooty]

"Crawl into you"

Inspired by "Please break me gently" by @buginateacup on AO3

Blue pencil on black photographed under both white and blue light.

[harrietvane]

I just want you to know I went and watched Saving Grace tonight thanks to your post and it was absolutely delightful. The music, the town, the surprise Bill Bailey, the best pair of sproingy fake glasses ever put on screen. I loved every minute of it. I want to make a double feature evening and watch it again with Greenfingers immediately

OK so I just want YOU to know that this ask a) made me realise Saving Grace and Greenfingers were both released in the same year?? What a year for Gardening & Crime movies! There was something in the water!

and b) it made me go and rewatch Greenfingers just now, what a great double feature idea. Absolutely prime early-career Clive Owen. Post those breakout British TV roles, pre-Gosford Park, working that classic Clive Owen vibe of 'the less he says, the more magnetic he is'. He's 50% legs, 50% wordless intensity, and the suggestion (though rarely demonstration) of violence. Also Helen Mirren is there! And lots of shots of high summer Cotswold gardens.

Saving Grace though - absolutely everyone, every side character, every bit part, literally everyone on screen is TOP SHELF. Watch Craig Ferguson (also writer!) go off on some spectacular high speed scottish rants! Watch Phyllida Law get absolutely shitfaced! Watch Diana Quick be Diana Quick! Martin Clunes literally launching an entire 'doctor in Cornwall' TV franchise with the strength of his scenery eating! Technically sold as a comedy but like all great British ones it's a little bit sad, and there's a bittersweet shadow sort of creeping in at the edges, which just makes it more lovely.

[megamindfandombookclub]

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

The discussion has opened up in the Book Club channel of Evil Lair discord server! Come on in, the water is FINE!

Towards the end of the month, I will check with Bug to see if she wants to do the Q&A and that will wrap up April's Book Club!

[lid-the-kid]

Just finished @buginateacup’s fanfic “Rings” and my heart is just a puddle of mush with how adorable these two were. ;3; <3333

[aoitsuru]

@buginateacup

Your Megamind post totally got me thinking about Roxanne calling out Wayne for not considering Megamind's situation, and I wanted to doodle a little fanart for your drabble. Regardless if you continue on with the fic, thank you for the inspiration! I'm looking forward to reading anything and everything you write!

[mothgender]

🌟

Fanfic Director’s Cut :3

send in a ⭐star⭐  to have the author select a section they’ve been dying to talk about!

bug thank you so much for this you absolute legend.

I’ve been absolutely dying for like a month to share what I feel is the best thing I’ve ever written, which is also really late game in Atomized so it won’t be posted for sooooo loonnnggg. and I need an excuse to talk about my things

under the cut because it’s real late game but it doesn’t really give any plot away so like

She watches through the two-way viewing window and it hits her that this is not a side of Megamind she’s ever seen. She’s seen him angry, sure. He was plenty angry when she was hiding her injury, when she told him about her unfortunately gained powers but this was a whole other level.

Rage is something Roxanne knows intimately. It’s just another similarity between them. Where Roxanne’s rage is a forest fire, his rage is a thunderstorm rolling in; a frothing, unforgiving sea. It’s in the way his muscles move beneath his skin, longing for the fight. Had she ever seen his bare arms before?

It’s the sound of his hitched breath as he takes an unexpected hit and the lightning in his eyes as he slams his aggressor to the ground. Has he always been so strong?

In this moment, Megamind is rage made physical, and Roxanne longs for a taste.

Wait.

Roxanne, now is not the time.

Y’all I love waxing poetic about emotions, but I’m only good at the negative ones