#drake writes

[wickedsirdrake]

"Show me who hurt you, I'll take care of them."

At midnight: "do you know what a blood eagle is?" "I'll show you"

[mazarinedrake]

Inquisitor,

While I do not pretend to understand the finer points of your craft, I must ask you to please confine your disagreements with Solas to behind closed doors. Preferably very thick ones. Perhaps you might try the wine cellar? Hearing their leader announce, right in the middle of the outer courtyard, that any mage with the use of blood magic might bind a human mind was..

<The ink seems to trail off for a moment, before continuing in thicker, darker letters.>

Disquieting. Especially after the events of Adamant. There have been questions, not all of them spoken openly. If you please, Inquisitor, perhaps show a little more restraint in the future?

Josephine

[mazarinedrake]

I should be working on the middle sections of the story, the desert road trip and the ways Valkyrie and Libby (the Vuvalini with white hair who was knocked off the War Rig) get through to the surviving War Boys and basically turn them aside from the path of attacking the Citadel, but instead I keep mentally writing and re-writing the climactic confrontation between Ripper and Furiosa. The particulars keep changing (the original draft had them shouting at each other from opposite (vertical) ends of one of the Citadel bluffs, while the most recent draft is set in one of the Citadel garages) but a couple things stay the same. 

First, Ripper resents Furiosa for retaining the markers of her “old” life as a woman (her name, her breasts...). For him, living as a man and living as a warrior were inextricably linked. Cutting off his breasts wasn’t a sacrifice he made to fit in, or a symbol of failure to reproduce; it was a symbol of freedom, of casting off the old life he’d been forced into and embracing the role he was *truly* born to fill. Furiosa, as far as he’s concerned, wanted it both ways, to fight and be a woman -- and then she had the nerve to actually make it work for her! From Joe’s rarified perspective, Ripper was just another War Boy, but Furiosa was special, a warrior both strong and unique enough to make him look even stronger through the act of commanding her. Ripper was lost in the crowd, while Furiosa was historic. He hates her for showing him up, and making the lengths he went to to prove himself seem pointless by comparison.

(Note that this doesn’t invalidate what’s been said about Furiosa’s character design. While Ripper was brooding on Furiosa’s differences, she was trying to make herself blend into the crowd, to be accepted as one of the guys for her own safety. And she pulled it off -- from a certain point of view. The War Boys forgot how to think of her as a sexual object, but that doesn’t mean she stopped being a woman. And as a cis woman, it might not even have occurred to Furiosa to mutilate herself in order to complete the facade.

And meanwhile Ripper would consider even the suggestion that he cut off his breasts to blend in to be a mortal insult.) 

Secondly, the confrontation seems to want to happen in a public space, with an audience, and I actually find this part more interesting than the gender politics I just outlined, because it wasn’t a conscious decision I made. They just seem to need an audience for this. Which makes sense, on one level; as the man who kept the survivors of Joe’s war party together and got them (mostly) across the desert, Ripper is the most likely internal challenger to Furiosa and the Sisters’ authority, even though he actually owes her his life at this point in the story. Furiosa needs to face him publicly and establish her pre-eminence, so there will be no doubt surrounding her strength and authority. She’s not another Joe, but if the Sisters want the surviving, healthy War Boys on their side, there needs to be at least a transitional period where they’re kept in line by the ways that make the most sense to them: showmanship and power. A shouting match in the garage isn’t quite the same kind of show that Joe used to put on, but it’s close, and if Ripper (who, remember, is pretty scary in his own right) submits to her, it will make the other Boys less willing to take on Furiosa themselves.

But the more I think about it, the more I think there’s another element too, partially (like many aspects of Ripper’s character) a reaction to flaws I see in the most common portrayals of trans men in fandom, and partially a continuation of themes in the movie. Gender issues tend to be handled in a very internal, private manner in fandom, whether that’s through fanart of a trans boy looking sad while hiding his chest or stories about a trans boy privately coming out to one or two trusted people, because he’s scared of how people would treat him if the truth were widely known. Keeping secrets is frequently a part of life for trans people, but open defiance has a place in our lives too! Look at Stonewall (the actual historical events, not the white-washed movie). There comes a time when you get sick of hiding and dare the world to throw a punch at you.

And at the same time, communication and community are vital themes in Fury Road. Max can only begin to heal from the trauma of his past when he joins a community (in this case a small, temporary one), and touches the lives of other people, while simultaneously allowing them to touch his own. Living only for survival is no protection from being hurt; it couldn’t protect him from his past, and definitely didn’t protect him from being enslaved. Living for others also leaves you vulnerable to pain -- but at the same time, it offers a path to healing and redemption. Through the risk of further pain lies the path to healing. 

So I think it’s necessary for Ripper to bare himself to Furiosa, confess his hate for her and give her the chance to destroy him, before his psychological wounds can begin to heal and he can even BEGIN to conceptualize a role for himself that doesn’t revolve around Joe’s brand of toxic masculinity. He needs to give voice to and let go of his hate for her before he can let go of his hate for himself, and placing that event at the metaphorical center of the community feels very, very right to me. 

[mazarinedrake]

storyboarding this comic is an exercise in thinking of as many different ways to focus on the dag’s eyes as i can. just because she doesn’t try to fight nux and slit doesn’t mean she isn’t an active participant in this story, damn it. she’s observing and thinking and weighing her options the entire time, and when she smiles at the end it’s *not* because she’s trying to put a brave face on things, it’s because nux and slit, in their own blind devotion to joe, managed to convince her that her life really was about to improve. THAT’S why she calls slit a liar in the final panel. they tricked her, and it stings all the more because SHE DARED TO HOPE.

i just hope that all comes through in the finished comic

[mazarinedrake]

so in this post-movie fic I’m working on, the Ace and Valkyrie and one of the unnamed Vuvalini survive, and the latter two are taken prisoner by the War Boys who survived the crash in the canyon. I’m deliberately leaving out Nux because 1) His presence in the story was honestly a distraction from the things I want to do with the Vuvalini, and 2) In the secret parts of my brain this fic co-exists with ceruleancynic‘s post-movie fic, Under the Curve. Which is probably a terrible idea on my part, but I’m just so satisfied with the things she’s doing with the Sisters and Nux that I just can’t seem to come up with anything along those lines myself, at least not right now. XD

I MIGHT not get jossed. It’ll take the War Boys weeks to get around the mountains, they said so in the movie! 

[mazarinedrake]

Original story, working title: Over Her Head

A treasure hunter at last completes a lengthy and difficult job for a wealthy noblewoman with mysterious motives. She expects to be richly rewarded and sent on her way, but when the unthinkable happens, will she be able to get to the bottom of things, or simply count herself lucky to escape with her life?

Part 1/???

It was hard not to feel relieved as she crested the final hill and looked down at Lady Favereau’s estate. With this final delivery, the contract with her ladyship would be complete, and who knew when she’d find a job this reliably lucrative again? The little idols Favereau had sent her to retrieve – with the brightly glittering gems and delicate, yet well-preserved carvings that adorned their surfaces – would have fetched a high price in any collector’s market in Ceredin. But Favereau had promised her three times the market value for each idol, with bonuses for exceptional hardship and injury.

And she’d certainly earned those bonuses. Andragail sighed and leaned down to adjust the brace she wore on one leg, the legacy of a nasty fall into a crypt of nastier undead while retrieving idol number four; but that had seemed like a pleasure cruise compared to the lung-rot she’d picked up on the trail of the seventh. She’d had to hire a cart and driver to deliver her to Favereau’s gates, and though the gold in her bonus purse had made a very pretty sound as her ladyship set it down on the table between them, it had still stung to see two new idols in the glass cabinet across the room, without a doubt retrieved by rival hunters while she lay sick in bed.

Yes, it would be nice to put all that behind her, despite the loss of job security. And it wasn’t as though she’d be destitute once this contract was complete. She’d saved far more than she spent on this job, and now she was bringing home the final prize. Despite interference from undead, monsters, hedge wizards, and a few greedy rivals, she, Andragail, had finally found and retrieved the tenth and final statue, and she had a feeling that finally completing the set would put Lady Favereau in a generous mood.

With that heartening thought, Andragail twitched the reins and clucked at her horse, beginning the final stretch of her journey down the hill and onward to Favereau’s estate.

[mazarinedrake]

okay, so what if Capable’s mom was a TOTALLY AWESOME Polecat who powdered her face with soot and wore a big ol’ WOLF’S HEAD-SHAPED HELMET so when she attacked people they’d see this BIG SHINY WOLF WITH TWO SETS OF TEETH AND TWO GLITTERING EYES PEERING OUT OF THE DARKNESS OF ITS MOUTH

AND SHE’D HOWL AND SCREAM AT PEOPLE IN BATTLE AND IT WAS SCARY AS FUCK she totally made a bunch of war boys wet themselves and also she had this HUGE MANE of fiery red hair like Capable’s 

and she was killed in battle but rather than being consumed with vengeance Capable was consumed with the need to keep Gastown safe like her mother had died trying to do, and she was already like half-trained as an accountant so when the People-Eater managed to convince Immortan Joe to consider a treaty she begged to come along to help with the negotiations 

which is how Joe caught sight of her, UGH. That sick bastard ruins everything. >:( 

[mazarinedrake]

The last script I posted was pretty well-received, so here’s the first part of another one I’m working on, this one...well, I guess it’s not really an “origin story” for Nux and Slit, but it tells the story of how Nux became a driver. Or it will, anyway, I haven’t reached that point yet. XD Anyway, please let me know what you think! This one is titled “Self-Promotion.”

Opens at the altar of V8. A War Boy in his twenties (VIC) is making his obeisance. Two Boys in their early teens, NUX and SLIT, wait for him, Nux carrying two large jugs of water or guzzoline and Slit carrying some lances. They follow him out once he’s picked up his steering wheel.

Nux: Hey, hey Vic!

Vic: Hm? What?

Slit watches the entirety of the following conversation with a bored/disgruntled face.

Nux: Was wondering if you’d talked to any’ve of the Imperators yet. About getting me my own car, you know?

Vic sighs. They’ve had this conversation many times before.

Vic: I put your name forward, sure, but I doubt anything’ll come of it for a while yet. I told you not to get your hopes up. There just aren’t any cars free.

Nux is totally crestfallen.

Nux: I just thought…There were those road warriors got taken up three days ago…

Vic: Ugh, no. You don’t want to drive any of that shite, they were barely even good for spare parts. Look –

He turns and puts a hand on Nux’s shoulder, looking him in the eye.

Vic: We both know you’ve got what it takes, and that ain’t gonna change. If another car opens up you know I’ll make sure yours is one’ve the first names in the pot. But it’s doin’ no one any good for you to keep worrying at it.  It’s not helpin’ you get into a driver’s seat any faster, and it’s definitely not doin’ anything for my patience.

Nux looks sheepish.

Nux: Sorry, I just…

Vic: I know.

He claps Nux on the shoulder. Conversation over, if the younger boys know what’s good for them. All three of them rush over to Vic’s car (Volkswagen beetle, wink wonk), waiting on its platform to be winched out onto the desert floor below. Vic situates himself in the driver’s seat while Nux tosses the jugs into the back (okay, maybe he ties them down or something, idk) then goes to help Slit rack up the lancers or whatever it is they do to keep them in place before use.

Slit: Why do you want to be a driver so bad, anyway?

Nux: Why don’t you want to be one??

The car is lifted, then lowered. Immortan Joe gives his speech. Nux and Slit listen attentively, but the details aren’t too important to us. Just need to establish that relations between the Citadel and Gastown aren’t quite as congenial as they will be in the movie.

Maybe put in a montage of the cars and war rig? I am doomed to draw cars forever.