Post Bop, Helena goes with Dinah (they are not dating) as her plus one to a cousins wedding where they run into Dinahs dad and her family on that side
How do you picture Dinahs family? I need some head canon insights for brainstorming
(First of all, how did you manage a paragraph break in an inbox message? What the)
(Second of all, YES! More brilliance in this world! Fantastic! I’m so happy already, ready to leave all the kudos!!)
So, ummmm.
The first thought that came to mind was maybe they’re not very accepting of the vigilante business. It got Dinah’s mom killed, so they frown upon it now — it’s a mixture of grief and jealousy, as they were not metahuman, like this side of the family.
They mourn Dinah’s tragic passing, of course, but they use a bit of anger to cope with it, wishing she had never leaned into her metahuman side, or “heard her calling” or tried to make a difference. They firmly believe that if Dinah’s mom had hidden in the crowd and lived a normal life, she’d still be alive today.
Dinah’s dad is part of the reason she has a hard time accepting her gift and... “fighting for the weak”, as they put it. Her dad is part of the reason she smokes, in an unconscious attempt at numbing her power and muting her voice. Dinah’s dad is part of the reason she’s not so comfortable around men.
There’s still love, though. They love each other in that distant, scarred kind of way — that way a family torn apart by violence and death does. They love each other because they loved each other before and during that, so they kind of have to love each other after it. It’s complicated. They don’t click anymore. Her jokes don’t land with her father, and her father’s obscure references go over her head. The conversation is stiff and awkward. (And Dinah thought Helena was bad at talking; she’s afraid to watch her father and Helena try to talk, what a mess that would be)
It doesn’t help that her cousins don’t see Dinah’s honest attempt at living independently, alone, looking after her own self. They silently judge her isolation to deal with grief, but they offer sincere condolences in their tones. They are sorry. They understand her pain. They just wished she hadn’t drifted away from them. They don’t understand her reasons very well. They assume she’s living out her artist/musician/singer fantasy, until she’s ready to move on to something better. Those conversations are artificially adequate; masked averse reaction and forced smiles. It’s better than nothing, at least they care enough to pretend they care.
It’s not all bad, though. She has a few truly understanding cousins she could rely on, if she was desperate enough, and the fact that they know she would hardly ask for their help adds to that trust.
A few of them know why she distanced herself, why she felt out-of-place, why she disappeared, why she put up new walls. Those few that understand her... look at Helena a little bit differently. Their eyes linger a little bit longer, their smile a little bit kinder, their tones barely masking their hopefulness. They look at Dinah — the Dinah of now, not the Dinah of before —, then they look at Helena, then back at Dinah. They know the signs, the details, the gestures. They say nothing of it, because they know Dinah a little bit better than the others.
Oh gosh, those fics were adorable! You have great taste :) I was wondering if you could recommend any others (I'm rubbish at finding good ones)? Any setting is fine.
Boi, you just unleashed the beast lmao I have soooo many recs. This should definitely be more than enough, but if you want more recs, feel free to ask lol
***
Super Long (150k+):
Battlesong (first bc i’m re-reading it rn 😁) by chaoticspaces
White Shadows by Good Afternoon
(I’ve Never Reached An Answer) I’m Only Given Clues by thefooliam
Wherever the Dandelion Falls by Lingering Lillies
Influence by Sappho’s Ghost
The Best Trick (inc) by dance-tilyou'redead
The Knife Thrower’s Daughter by themostrandomfandom
Find Me Another Life by chaoticspaces
Freaking Super (inc) by LateInLifeTiburon
Sirens / A Sirens Halloween by Cactusgirl329
Love, and Other Drugs by sailormoon19
Furthest from the Truth (inc) by spiercemint
‘Long’ (100k-150k):
You Gave Me the Word, I Finally Heard by LeighKelly
Flowers of the Bowery by Lingering Lillies
A New Friendship by slaves4hemo
Heartwood by jerzeyredhead
1663 Days by HeMoIsBoss
That Awkward Moment When / That Awkward Moment When 2 (inc) by gurj14
Completions and Connections / Completions and Connections: Baby New Year / Completions and Connections: My Funny Valentine by LeighKelly
‘Short’ (you get the idea):
Cops and Drugs by Fever-Induced
Grill the Heart to Medium Rare by cr0wznest
My Girlfriend’s Sister’s Keeper by bodybroke
Baby It’s Cold by bohemianyc
The Score by gurj14
I Learned A Little Bit About The Good Stuff by heyho
By The Light Of The Moon by thefooliam
Small Town by BeyondCanon
Screwing The Milkman by StraightShark
Don’t Know Why (Just Do) by thefooliam
Now I Know / Love Tomorrow by Kairos27
Angsty AF (get the tissues ready):
Pas de Deux / The Only True Paradises by la rose carnation
Goodnight, Baby / Goodnight, San / Goodnight, Girls (DON’T read these in one sitting, just trust me) by PoppieJoy
Memento Vitae by 0atis
Dance On Our Graves by pleasanthell
ZDay by bohemianyc
Afterimage by Perfectly Censored
The Only Voices Are Me and You by themostrandomfandom
Amnesia Helena prompt but with a Helena who refuses to admit she has Amnesia... What would that look like lol
But I want the cute version of it, where Helena forgets most words in english that don’t involve her vengeance plot. Blood, death, kill, bolt, hurt -- those are most of her vocabulary. But pants? Tea? Excuse me? Shower? She cannot remember how to say those in english, so Dinah has to deal with a lot of frustrated italian, sicilian, some thai, some chinese, some german, some french, BUT surprisingly no english.
So, if you thought Helena had a hard communicating before.................
Dinah finds it cute, though. Like most things Helena.
Helena and Dinah prompt: What if... they fuck. That's it. That's the prompt. Please add.
WHAT IF???
Oh my. Imagine the world.
But, wait, are they fucking or are they making love, (or god forbid, having intercourse?).
Because Dinah is a gentlewoman who knows how inexperienced Helena is, when it comes to that side of life. Dinah was her softest, most romantic self, when they had their first kiss, because she knew how nervous Helena was, and she didn’t want push her further than she was comfortable and safe with.
And, when she finally was okay with having sex, Dinah knew she had to be careful. Helena’s body had never been touched that way before. Every nerve was exposed. Every scar hid a somber story, every bullet wound could be from that day. The muscles were tense and her hands, once so firm and precise, were cold and trembling. Dinah didn’t want to hurt -- scare -- Helena, Dinah wanted Helena to feel loved. Not exposed, but honest, open and willing. And she was willing to wait, no matter how long it took. Helena was worth it.
Now, when they fucked? Oh, that’s another story. When Helena was more secure and knowledgeable. When those skills were added to her long list of impressive masteries. When she felt as comfortable in bed as she felt in the battlefield, when she knew Dinah’s body as well as she knew her crossbow? Well, that was another thing entirely. Gone was the precious, but hesitant softness. Gone were the gentle slow touches and reassuring pauses. Gone was the sweet melody that played in their heads, as their first time unfolded. Oh, they were changed.
The touches were hungrier, leaving bruises. The Canary Cry almost escaped for the first time. The scars got lost along the fingernail scratches Dinah left along the hard muscles. The melody turned faster, deeper -- drums and bass. Urgent, shaking, and commanding their very heartbeats. They were left exhausted. Fighting wasn’t as tiring and as consuming as this. Knife wounds and gut punches stirred up less adrenaline than this.
They fuck and they make love. It varies. Their particular line of work brings out intense emotions, that culminate in different outcomes, at the end of the day. After a specially grand victory, or a cathartic retribution, they celebrate with hunger and need. After a scary day or a close-call, they may take a moment to remember their luck in being alive, and remind each other of their love and appreciation, seizing the blessed opportunity of being on this earth at the same time, together.
these muscle and jealousy head canons are hilarious! omg lol love them. plot twist: Harley hiding Helena's shirts after the full sleeve rule is enforced so she has not shirts?
That’s perfectly Harley!!
And Dinah is simultaneously rejoiced and fucking pissed.
Because, sure, she’s wanted to see a “full picture” for a while now (and it’s everything she imagined and more! Blessed be the sicilian assassin training), but if she can see it, it means Harley can see it, and Harley doesn’t seem to share the same concern for “taking it slow” with Helena. Not in the slightest.
Dinah is trying subtlety, flattery, building a genuine bond, a nice rapport, becoming friends, before becoming anything else -- Harley would soon jump Helena’s bones then and there, than waste time with pleasantries. If her lewd jokes and comments are any indication, Harley would spare no time for decency.
And Dinah can’t have that!! No, no! I mean, the sight of Helena confusedly walking around in just her sports bra, looking everywhere for her shirts, only to give up and go about her day all ripped and hard without a hint of self-consciousness is glorious and all--but it’s risking the inevitable Harley sneak attack. Dinah is afraid to turn corners in their own house. Is Harley hiding under the couch cushions again? Will she leap from behind the closet? They’re not safe. This is a red alert.
It’s a desperate attempt, but Dinah lends Helena some of her shirts. It makes things worse. Who knew tight shirts around well defined, bulging muscles are just as distracting as no shirts at all? Who knew 3/4 sleeves can call even more attention to the lines of triceps? Who knew the sound of tearing fabric at the strain of a movement (or a bicep or a back muscle) could be so loud and so hot? This backfired.
Dinah immediately begs Helena to let her take her out to shop for new shirts, because this can’t go on any longer. There’s a fine line between pleasure and madness and Dinah can’t walk straight.
We’re kicking off another week of Author Interviews with gurj14! If you haven’t read gurj14′s hilarious Brittana stories, do yourself a favor and do that immediately! Thank you so much for the great questions and for taking the time to answer them, gurj14!
1) What do you think are your particular strengths as a Brittana writer? What do you wish you did better? (Submitted by Lindsey via email)
Dope Question Lindsey!
One strength I think all Brittana writers share is uniqueness of literature. They have a voice and method for these two characters we love and share it – their perceptions are the strength. So on that note, my personal strengths as a Brittana writer are humour, characterization, and originality. I say humour because my favourite thing about them in the show as canon was that they amused me. Brittany and Santana to me are the coolest couple: they’re hot, seamlessly compatible, and accept each other for all faults. They were possibly most stable relationship on Glee and a well of humour waiting to be tapped. Their characterizations are my favourite tool in writing. There is no plot or excitement for me if I can’t reason out why one of them might do what they do. Santana is a unique bitch and Brittany is a Brittany. To me specifically, that means I have a continuity for them which I think is a strength i.e. I have drawn the line for some things Santana is and isn’t and for some things Brittany is and isn’t. These characterizations I perceived were basically stemmed from things I absolutely detested reading in fics, meaning I take ‘write what I would like to read’ very seriously. That’s even how I started fic writing – because I loved a couple in a fandom but the stories were rarely satisfying. What is satisfying is not only writing a story people enjoy, but writing a story that surprises them and excites them. So I always think a lot about what I want to happen and why before I write it instead of just ZOMG Brittana are in love and have babies. I want to achieve that, sure, but with something more profound that respects all fans of Brittana who love the relationship and read fic because they aren’t satisfied.
Now, what do I wish I was better at? Ooooh. I wish I was a little bit taller I wish I was a baller I wish I had a girl who looked good I would call her I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat and a six four Impala. Teehee I couldn’t resist. Loopholes are the death of me. I try really hard to make sure no questions go unanswered and that a story is whole. This is hard and I wish I was an all-knowing storyboard detective! Another thing I’m bad at is updating The Score. LOL. On a more serious note, I am terrible at writing sex scenes. Like, so bad. I am really working on it. Sometimes my mind has come up with every dialogue of greatness that I can’t wait to share and I open a word document only to find my idea is bland or has disappeared. And lastly, I have been sucked into a rut of repetitiveness where I feel my take on Brittana lacks freshness. But whatevs, my typing has gotten faster on account of all the writing… which is awesome.
2) What's a short piece of your writing that shows your Brittany is Brittany and your Santana is Santana (even if the circumstances of your fic make them different from canon Brittana)? (Submitted by a Tumblr Anon)
A) From my established fic It’s Brittany, Bitch this excerpt from Brittany’s POV (skipped one line to remove the plot-context):
I know people get uncomfortable around me. They don’t get my sense of funny, they don’t think I know what two plus two is even though I get The Braniacs a perfect score in the Math section every time we compete, and they don’t know that I pretend not to care when they laugh at me. Not Santana, she’s perfect. She treats me with respect and listens to me and can tell when I’m being serious.
B) Well, here we have Brittany and Santana as best friends who can’t keep their hands to themselves (and have been partying a little too hard). This is new and inspired by the Glee-Alcohol episode:
“Woah there,” Puck grabs Santana by the arm and steadies her, “where are you off to in such a drunken rush, Lezpez? It’s your birthday party. And you still owe me money for the kegs.”
“Pay later… Haveyouseen,” Santana leans heavily on her friend, blinking through her serious case of drunkenness, “Britts?”
Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman shakes his head, amused and confused and super high on some seriously good weed. And then he sees Brittany in plain sight.
“I think she’s the one stripping up there.”
Santana stumbles away and heads to where a blonde is shaking her booty for a drunken crowd, swinging her tank top over her head and being seriously way too sexy with her booty-drops and polka-dot bra.
“Britt!”
The blonde whirls around and smiles brightly at the birthday girl, her best friend Santana, who from the tears in her eyes is classified wasted.
She jumps off the table in a second and hugs the weepy drunk Santana close, “shh sweetie what’s wrong?”
Santana hugs her tightly and starts sobbing. The birthday girl lets herself get manhandled up the stairs, stumbling but leaning on the half-nude blonde for support until Brittany just gives her a piggy-back ride. The thumping bass is quieter upstairs in the Lopez home and now Santana’s drunk sobbing can be heard fully when she’s left on her own two feet in her room.
“I was drinkin’ and then it waaa the end of-of ma’cup. J-just fucking EMPTY.”
Brittany squeaks when Santana almost collapses against her. Santana isn’t just wasted, she’s wasted.
Cue the waterworks.
“Why were you strippin’ for everybody Britts!” She starts sobbing harder.
“I’m drunk like you,” Brittany reasons, “you know I get hot when I’m drunk… I wanted to take it all off.”
“B-but,” Santana collapses on her bed and Brittany rolls her eyes at her best friend’s wracking sobs. “I stubbed my toes and Becca asked me to motorboat her boobies!”
Brittany giggles because ‘boobies’ coming out of a weeping Santana’s list ofcomplaints is something new.
“Wait, what?” Brittany looks around for Santana’s iPod, “Becca? Redhead on the squad Becca? Did you hook up with her?”
“No!” Santana pouts, wiping her eyes and managing to hold it together for a second until another sob rips through her throat, “maybe! I think I fucked her in the bathroom and then I threwup!”
Brittany is drunk but she still understands that Santana is being an idiot. “You did hook up with her!”
Santana stares at Brittany and looks absolutely desperate, “caaan youuu pleasegimme my birthday lapdance now?”
“Santana, we were supposed to hook up tonight. You can’t just fuck another girl the same night you’re supposed to fuck me! I’m wearing a pink thong for you!”
Santana’s lip quivers, “b-but I didn’ wannaaa Britts!”
Downstairs, Becca Adams is giggling with head cheerleader Quinn Fabray, “I’m so fucking drunk I can’t believe I finally had the courage to hit on her.”
“So how’d it go?” Quinn smiles in amusement.
“How’d what go?” Puck slings an arm over his girlfriend Quinn’s shoulder.
“Becca over here finally got enough courage to talk to Santana about something otherthan cheerleading routines.”
“No shit,” Puck leers at Becca, “Adams, you got it for Lopez? Seriously? Dude, she’s upstairs banging Brittany as we speak.”
“What?” Quinn shakes her head, “no, no! Brittany is over--”
They turn around to look at the kitchen table where Brittany was last seen strip dancing, only to find three blonde freshmen grinding to get some male attention.
“Oh.”
“What?” Becca looks furious, “We just hooked up in the bathroom! Like, hooked up.”
“Shit!” Puck covers his mouth and laughs, “and you guys used to call me a dog. Lopez and PIerce are hounds. I’m hungry.”
“Hey, have you guys seen the birthday girl?” Laura Ethans, leader of The Skanks and lead bullies at McKinley, buts into their conversation with an unlit cigarette between her delinquent lips.
“Hey Ethans,” Puck high-fives the other girl, “if you’re trying to get in your girl’s pants you’re too late, Brittany took her upstairs already.”
“That blonde bimbo slut!” Laura yells, “Imma go beat her up!”
Laura is on her way upstairs and Becca shoves some freshman out of her way before making a dramatic exit of the party, visibly upset.
“Santana is such a bitch,” Quinn is insulting her, but Puck can read the amusement in his girlfriend’s eyes. Personally, he’s in awe of his non-friend who manages to get around without any effort whatsoever, but if he says that out loud he’ll get slapped.
“We should probably stop Laura, last month she got angry and pulled Brittany’s hair in the hot tub during that superhot make out game, remember?”
Quinn does remember. It had been her hot tub, after all. And her boyfriend had gotten a huge boner (she was sitting on his lap) when Brittany shoved her tongue down Santana’s throat. He hadn’t gotten laid since, still apologising.
In her bedroom, Santana is enjoying how Brittany sings along to ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’ with ten times the sexiness, in her honest opinion, that Britney Spears had. Working them hips.
It brings her to more tears.
Especially those little ‘oh’s and get it, get it’s’ so then she’s begging her best friend, “I wanna have sex now.”
Brittany moans and pushes down on her shoulder so that her head hits the mattress. Hard.
So yeah, they were probably more than best friends since they could never keep their hands off of each other.
“Kay,” Brittany says with a smirk before she sits up on Santana’s thighs and proceeds to take off her bra.
Between Santana’s worshipping words of “you’re so fucking sexy fucking… yeah” and sobbing words of “I need you,” Brittany is enjoying their drunken hookup and totally into it until a loud banging interrupts.
The door handle is grabbed and throttled and Santana flips them over during her distraction and ignores it. She’s so far gone all she thinks of is Brittany and reaching orgasm so fuck the crazy people damaging her house. But for Brittany, that familiar angry voice (and reason she forethought to lock the door) kind of ruins her sexy mood.
Ugh, Ethans.
“Get off my woman you blonde slut!” Ethans yells through the door.
She grins as Santana looks at the door in confusion and yells quite audibly so that Laura Ethans can go and cry somewhere, “oh Santana! Harder!”
Santana, unfortunately, is forever cursed to be a hysterical-weeping drunk and she adds to the situation by crying all over again because she suddenly feels inadequate. Was that not hard enough? Seriously?
“Let me in!” Laura screams, “I’m going to beat you up!”
And with that kind of request, why does she think Brittany is going to let her in?
“Why doesn’t she justleaveme alooone, I just wanna fuck my bestfriieeen in th’ole wideworl’ and have swee’ lady kisses!”
“Shh,” Brittany cups Santana’s cheek and kisses her to soothe the sobs which works like a charm every time. Santana hiccups and then focuses on returning the kiss. “Just ignore her, she can be background music. Seriously, though. Harder.”
“Mmmm,” Santana tries to struggle out of her clothes but it’s futile at this point and Brittany just reaches down and tugs Santana’s dress up over her waist.
“You’re so smart,” Santana says at the gesture before lying fully between Brittany’s long legs.
Those words plus a sloppy kiss to her armpit, and Brittany is ready. This time when Laura hears her moan it won’t be fake (and okay, maybe she does add a little bit extra to taunt the other girl, but Laura should know how good Santana is in bed).
It never occurs to either of them that they’re so obviously in love.
//
C) And I can’t help but add the essence of all people: their inner child, let’s say Kindergarten? That sounds about right:
“Santana!” Mrs. Myers snatched the girl’s wrist and scolded her with a dramatically pointed finger. “Put those scissors away please, I am going to have to tell your mother about this!”
Five years old and not at all threatened, Santana just dropped the safety scissors in her hand so they clattered onto the table and frowned, narrowing her eyes at the crybaby Brittany who was clutching at her hair and wailing like Santana’s brother’s newborn baby did all the damn time.
It was just some hair sticking out, she didn’t get what the big deal was.
Brittany’s mom was speaking to Santana’s parents and Mrs. Myers. She was so in trouble.
Santana overheard Mrs. Myers say, “it seems she picks on Brittany every class somehow--”
And tunes it out. She might as well play while she still can because all roads point to being grounded.
Brittany was pretending to be an airplane nearby, so Santana approached her.
“I only did it cuz your hair was sticking out,” she said to Brittany. “I thought I was helping.”
Brittany paused and dropped her arms, “but last week you took my doll and-and you said I’m BLUE.”
Santana huffed, “you’re such a crybaby. I said your EYES are BLUE… and your doll was weird. It didn’t have a head.”
“What does weird mean?” Brittany asked her.
“I don’t know. It’s weird.”
“Hm. My brother says I’m weird but I have a head.”
“I have a brother too,” Santana said eagerly, “but he’s super old. He’s twenty… um, six?”
“Woahhhh,” Brittany looked shocked, “but my brother is only TEN.”
“I also have a sister. She’s twenty,” Santana bragged. “They’re only half of my brother and sister though.”
“Where are the rest of them?”
“I don’t know… the other half must be somewhere else. My daddy had another wife before who hates my mommy and me... I heard her said it at Christmas, they were yelling and she called me a slutsbaby.”
“I don’t get it,” Brittany said. “Did you asked your mom?”
“No.”
“My mom knows everything so maybe your mom does too!”
“Girls!” Mrs. Myers got their attention and they immediately ran over.
“Santana, sweetie,” her mother pushed Santana’s hair back soothingly and softly said with reprimand, “what do you say to Brittany for cutting her hair?”
Santana gulped, looking at her mother and father in fear of saying the wrong thing. “Um… I say to her that she’s a crybaby--”
“Santana,” her father said sternly to stop her. She frowned.
“Izz okay,” Brittany said happily, “Santana was trying to be nice and cut my hair for me.”
“Yeah it was sticking out,” Santana said, looking down at her feet.
“Don’t get in trouble Santana,” Brittany said, her lip trembling now.
“Oh dear,” Brittany’s mother said in exasperation before lifting Brittany up into her arms and patting her back. It was obvious she was used to Brittany’s tears. “Hush sweetie. Santana won’t get in trouble… Thank you for talking with us Mrs. Myers but I think it’ll be okay, right Britt?”
Brittany nodded into her mother’s shoulder and then waved her hand at Santana as they walked towards the door, “BYE SANTANA! BYE!”
Santana ducked shyly into her mother’s shins, causing her mother’s eyes to widen in alarm.
“What’s wrong sweetie?” Her dad picked her up this time as her mother bid Mrs. Myers a goodbye.
“She makes me feel weird,” Santana said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Santana never responded, she just pressed her face into his shoulder.
“Daphne left me a voicemail, Qassim,” her mother said to her father as they made it to the car.
Qassim Lopez opened the back door and buckled Santana into her car seat.
“What did she say?”
“She doesn’t want me rubbing our happiness into her face, what do you think?” Maribel said stiffly. “This is getting tiring. I don’t want her near Santana anymore--”
“She’s the mother of my children, Mari,” he says apologetically, “there is only so much I can forbid. I’ll keep an eye on her--”
“Why don’t we move? Start somewhere new where I’m not victimized by your psycho ex-wife?”
“What’s a slutsbaby?” Santana asked as her dad started the car, causing both of her parents to turn their attention onto her instantly.
“What?” Qassim narrowed his eyes. “Why do you ask?”
“I heard…” Santana felt anxious under her parents eyes, “that’s what I am.”
“Santana,” her mother said her name with such hurt that Santana got afraid of being trouble.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.
Her mother looked away and then got out of the car, only to get back in a second later in the backseat with Santana and gently kiss her cheek.
“You listen to mama, my darling. You are not a… that. You’re simply wonderful.”
Santana didn’t quite understand, but she understood her mother needed her to listen.
“Okay, Mama. I’m a simpzywonderfill.”
Her mother laughed and then pulled her in for a tight hug and kiss.
Then the window was knocked on, and it was Brittany’s mom looking apologetic with Brittany in her arms.
“Brittany wants to know if Santana can play with her sometime?”
“YES!” Santana shouts, already over whatever her parents were doing because Brittany was back.
“I have a cat, we can pet it.”
“Can I pet Brittany’s cat?”
(Insert Flash Forward into their adult years and immature pussy joke here!)
//
I hope that in all those the fact that they are compatible souls is clued in, be it dating or sexing or grade school!
3) Writing comedy, good comedy is hard. As an author, are there any hilarious situations you would like to put Brittany and Santana into but haven't had the right opportunity? (Submitted by Whitney)
Totes Whitney! Some of them I’ve got saved up for the That Awkward Moment When sequel so I don’t necessarily want to spoil themhowever it’s not really spoiling if I discuss basics, right? So yeah, both of them as parents equal tons of situations I think give them comedy gold! Santana isn’t very fond of kids but her and Britt make a bond with Sepp, which leads to Santana doing something very out of her comfort zone that I can’t wait to write. AMW aside though, there are some general ideas I haven’t’ explored yet. I wanted to write another sports story where Britt was a volleyball team captain but her coach was Santana’s mom and Santana was in chess club. I think that situation would be pretty funny, but I suppose that is more of a synopsis than a situation! Totally not hilarious situation but there is a bad situation coming up in ProfPierce that I’m anxious to finish because it involves The Arm Thing…
Wow this question is hard to answer fully. I have thought the most on this one! It’s been a day and after more thinking guess what happened? The first chapter of the interim wedding sequel to AMW. It involves Brittany in a driver’s safety class. Girl, I have failed your question because I just wrote out what I meant to say I haven’t had the opportunity to!
4) In a couple of your fics, you explore Brittany's family and their acceptance of both her sexuality and her relationship with Santana, and vice-versa, Santana's opinions on Brittany's family and her struggle to achieve acceptance (or not). Subjects that are usually written in complete angst. How difficult was it to tailor your writing style of adding humor to stories and situations, but not lose those underlying emotional aspects of Brittana's developing relationship?
Really not that hard. Literally the ultimate reason why using humour appeals to me is because of what you have said – those subjects are usually written in total angst. Angst is a good read, but it can also make something feel ten times worse than it is and it’s impossible not to relate myself into stories. In the past, I’ve found one of the best ways for me to cope with tragedy is to find a way to laugh again and so I like to acknowledge the struggles in life and give them importance but have the underlying message that you can still smile when you’ve been kicked down.
I’ve tried to do the whole scale in exploring the fics, giving both girls a taste of acceptance and a taste of rejection for their sexuality but I have been harsher with Santana’s situation because I think she has the most to learn about herself out of the two of them so I enjoy challenging her character. Back on track with the original question though, adding humour to stories and situation without losing the emotions and I guess romance of it all is apparently ingrained in me so I barely think about it. Like, I recently put up a chapter in Pigeon Love where Santana is accused of attempted murder and Brittany gets amnesia and all this angst soap opera drama shit. I thought it was dark and the readers feedback is ‘LOL President Hilary Clinton.’ Basically, if I could pick a genre for a Brittana TV-show it would sitcom. Thanks for the question, I hope I answered it adequately :)
5) In parts of AMW, it seems as though Brittany doesn't take into full consideration of her actions with her family and how it affects Santana, i.e. bringing her family to stay with no notice. Do you feel like it's almost her way of giving Santana "tough love" and putting her in a situation that is inevitable but she'd drag her feet when given the opportunity to put herself out there?
To answer your question properly, I have skimmed AMW over before answering and yes, I agree it seems Brittany doesn’t seem entirely considerate. She takes her family there impulsively and lets things play out before requesting Santana to try harder.
But to be honest I never thought of it that way when I was writing it. I only briefly touched on the explanation that Brittany tried to contact Santana and expected her to have received the notice they were coming, and from Brittany’s perspective I assumed if anyone was getting the ‘this is an inevitable situation, deal with it’ treatment it was her parents at that point. She convinced them that Santana was The One for her and they should get to know her, and then took them over there for a proper introduction. But, but, but there is a line I wrote in one of the chapters that also carries over what I wanted the most about Santana’s thoughts. At that point in AMW, Santana was certain she loved Brittany and therefore couldn’t care less that Brittany’s parents didn’t approve of her. In her mind, that isn’t an obstacle to dating Brittany. It’s only when she realizes that Brittany wants her to get along with them that she starts to thaw and relent to the idea of getting to know them. You know what? I kind of want to delve into this in the sequel more on account of your question!
Furthermore, there’s the distinction between Brittany’s experience with family and Santana’s experience with family. Santana has none while Brittany has a loving one. It’s harsh for her character’s experience, but I made Santana lonely and guarded because of her Grandmother kicking her out. Of course the only person in the world that could make Santana complete is Brittany! Brittany has two parents that are still faithfully and successfully married and a younger sister she’s tight with (and she has friends, too whish Santana is still working on). But I had to give Brittany’s family their faults: her sister is a sex-addict and this is kept secret from their parents, her parents are conscious of status and prestige, and all the while Brittany keeps her space and does her own thing.
All of this blah blah I’m writing essentially means YES it is almost Brittany’s way of giving ‘tough love’ because she saw an opportunity to make Santana bond with her family and took it.
Thanks for all the questions everybody! I feel like I’m being graded as if this is a test. Hope the Con is a blast and shoutout once again to the lovely people who put all this together, especially MamaU for contacting everybody with questions and Alex for coordinating – gurj14
