@major-trouble replied to your photo “did i mention that i baked fig newtons from scratch?”
HOLY SHIT. Those look amazing. I am Extremely Impressed. Please mail me some <3
@evilasiangenius replied to your photo “did i mention that i baked fig newtons from scratch?”
omg how? this looks beautiful. are you sure you don't secretly have a factory in your kitchen? @_@
thank you! the secret is the angle -- end-on, it’s harder to see how lopsided they are ;) they’re pretty good, although in the future i want to adjust the cookie-to-filling ratio in favor of the filling, which might mean rolling the dough thinner and then having scraps left over? i also used dried mission figs as the recipe suggested for this round, but i’d like to try it with fresh green figs when they’re in season (we get them from a neighbor’s tree), because i prefer the flavor. not sure what i’d have to do to get the correct texture from those, though...
@kirkypet replied to your post “no blocking no lining we die like men knitted with more enthusiasm...”
AMAYYYYZING
@hedwig-dordt reblogged your post and added:
WOW! Good job!
thank youuuu! it was a fool’s errand to be sure but i like how it came out, and it has definitely improved my chair.
Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirkyPet/works
Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?
A: I was actually quite fixated on Fury Road after watching it on DVD. I didn’t expect to particularly like it - I’d never seen the previous Mad Max movies (I finally have!) - but I was transfixed. And I didn’t particularly ship Furiosa and Max until the haemothorax/transfusion scene (although then I very much did). There were just so many layers of detail and backstory there waiting to be explored, because so little was actually said or explained. It’s like a neutron star of fic-fodder. And I didn’t discover ao3 til summer 2016 so I spent a full year wandering around like a lost soul. So, yeah. Quite a huge deal for me really.
Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?
A: Music. Minor characters looking on and commenting on the protagonists (big fan of Thomas Hardy’s more comedic efforts, where this happens a lot). Reasonably happy endings.
Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?
A: Maybe the small town modern AU (Ordinary People), because it was a nice change from the Wasteland setting. I’m not very Wasteland-minded at all. But the Bladerunner AU (Do Androids Dream etc) and the new Firefly AU are lots of fun because the two sets of movie worlds mesh together way better than I’d expected.
The most difficult? - My Wasteland headcanon stuff. It’s too fluffy and not remotely violent which doesn’t really ring true. I’m very aware that my Furiosa is hardly ever violent, or my Max particularly mad. But that’s the great thing about fanfiction - the infinite versions of characters and scenarios. Surprisingly the Blues Brothers AU is quite tricky. I can’t quite make Jake Blues and Furiosa the same person. But it’s an excuse to listen to great tunes. And Jessie will make a comeback in that one though (she’s not dead, I should make that clear).
On the old kudos-to-hits ratio, the Firefly AU is taking off surprisingly well, but it’s quite smut-focused so that might well account for it ;) early days yet. Bladerunner AU is doing well for a multi-chapter. Up Around The Bend (an oldie, the escape from the Citadel) is hanging in there.
Most successful? I’m happy enough with all of them, except maybe I Kissed A Girl. Please don’t read that. Favourite overall - It’s a toss-up between Ordinary People (a chance to explore my headcanon in a modern small town setting) and the Bladerunner AU (it makes me weep).
Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?
A: Hopeful and silly and everyone has access to a record player somehow. This is why I stick to writing AUs these days. But I’ll happily read all of the above!!! And entirely intend to!
Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?
A: Watch a film, browse tumblr, listen to music, get an idea. Have a good think about it, think about it some more, find a starting point, write it down, go from there. Maybe stick a draft on tumblr if I’m not sure if it’s going to fly. Write it anyway.
For OCs, figure out what someone looks like. That’s weirdly essential for me. Zal (Furiosa’s Dad) is Ed Harris, Young Val (Furiosa and Max’s grownup daughter) is Alicia Vikander and Toots (rescued-kid-turned-Wasteland-son-in-law) is Didier Drogba (bit of a blast from the past but hey). I was getting nowhere with Blues Mothers Jessie until I recast her as Sofia Boutella (because if Max is getting a generational update, she needs one too). And Firefly AU’s Mister Jobassa is Jakob Oftebro. All very pretty people, but what are you gonna do? But they’re only these people in MY head - they can be whoever the reader wants them to be. Oh, and Pin from Ordinary People was 100% an actual real tour guide I met on holiday once.
Preferred environment? Usually while half asleep in bed, or walking, or In the gym, or watching tv - world building seems to be something that happens away from the keyboard. Writing itself is exclusively on my phone so can and does happen anywhere at all. Rough patches are usually caused by guilt that I’m not spending enough time on the day job :P
Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?
A: I listen to music all the time anyway, mainly upbeat pre-90s tunes. Disco, funk, ska, motown, anything like that. And it always find its way into the writing. Sometimes artificially (where I’m on a song-lyrics-as-title theme - it took ages for some of the Wasteland fics) but most times it can help shape the story in a BIG way. I can’t listen to certain songs now without reliving a chapter or a whole fic - Dionne Warwick’s Do You Know The Way To San José is Bladerunner!Furiosa’s Green Place song, and Ash’s Angel Interceptor is StarTrek!Max’s flying music - it’s noisy enough but also speaks to me about a longing to not be alone in the universe. Concrete and Clay is smalltown!Max’s bittersweet lament for Jessie and Twistin’ The Night Away is the final party scene in Cheedo’s update of The Rivals. Some fics wouldn’t have been written at all if it wasn’t for a particular song. The Black Keys’ Heavy Soul was my original Wasteland Furiosa/Max ship theme back in 2015, before I’d even heard of ao3 - that’s the closest I’ve come to a song fic. Caleb was only Caleb because of a line in Symarip’s Skinhead Moonstomp, and I was so desperate to write a fic with Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing In it that it was the final excuse for a whole modern mirrorverse to my Wasteland headcanon series. Bet you’re sorry you asked now. But I’ll have to go and put together a Kirkyverse OST list.
Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?
A: To put the damn thing down and walk away. To not assume it’s awful if I don’t get a kudos in the first thirty hits. Thumb cramp from phone-typing.
Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?
A: I didn’t write at all before the Mad Max fandom. Apart from a ghost story when I was about seven (it did win a prize tbh) and a truly god awful Stephen King rip-off when I was fourteen (which makes me nauseous from embarrassment when I think of it). So a fair bit, it’d probably be fair to say. It would be impossible not to, you know, from zero :) My work has changed from spinoffs of inspirational fics (thanks Squid!) to ‘well, I suppose I’ve got a head canon, let’s see if I can make this work’ to ‘goddammit I’ll finish this if it kills me’. Then I missed my exit on the Roundabout of Fic Endings and had to go round again in a modern AU mirror verse. Now it’s all movie mashups, which is lots of fun and probably never-ending. During which time I have learned that crossovers are my favourite to write. And that writing fanfic is probably not a temporary fad :)
Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?
A: I don’t really have a favourite tbh. They’re all their own people and do their own thing. Writing them is very dependent on their environment, and it’s often surprising how they behave and where they end up. It feels a bit like they’re on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?
A: Hah yes. The first one was Zephyr the annoying visitor in Witches and Ogres. Young Val’s social awkwardness in As was very much on loan from me.
Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?Furiosa and Max are pretty much always there - sometimes it’s probably platonic, and sometimes there’s a third person involved (nothing posted yet but but but). It depends on the fic.
Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?
A: One big long chronology for the headcanon series (childhood to old age), then a whole bunch of little universes for everything else.
Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?
A: Not to break, as much as I can. But it depends.
Q: Share some headcanons.
A: Furiosa was never actually a wife - she was captured but dodged the whole Vault experience. Max is the original Max, of Jessie and Sprog fame. Toecutter was Joe’s younger self - he scooted around on motorbikes and raised hell before deciding to settle down and take the Citadel. AU Toast and Dag are twins (from a shady mob family). Furiosa’s Dad is a friendly Wasteland bandit.
Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?
A: They’re supplementary characters who make the plots fit together, and sources of conflict or humour (usually both). I think I like Ordinary People’s Alexa and Mallory best. Although the Irish War Boy crew in Beyond the Pale were fun to write. Ace’s trio of love interests (Brick, Big Dave and Caleb/Pin) are a consistent theme. Sometimes I steal characters from other sources (stand up Christopher Brookmyre) when it’s convenient.
Q: What sparks your many wonderful AUs?
A: Movies, tv, gifs, tumblr prompts and general chitchat (thankyou btw!!!)
Q: A lot of your fics are light-hearted and hopeful, which is great to see for the apocalyptic Mad Max world. Your thoughts on that? What is it about the characters that inspires you to reframe them?
A: I just really like comedy and am committed to winkling it into every fictional scenario whether it’s appropriate or not. Glad people don’t hate it!
Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?
A: Well, it was Squid’s ( @sacrificethemtothesquid )Length and Breadth of Fury Road that got me out of the starting blocks! Christopher Brookmyre’s The Sacred Art of Stealing was a big influence on my headcanon series, as was a particular Coronation Street storyline from some years back :)
Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.
A: Blues Brothers AU series (Sweet Home Chicago) -Wasteland Star Trek First Contact AU (Angel Interceptor) -Firefly AU (Our Mister Jobassa) -His Dark Materials AU (unnamed as yet, just brewing in my head, hope it just stays there for the meantime) -Will combine all the headcanon works into one long fic sometime. That’s everything from Witches and Ogres through to Ordinary People. Probably be called ‘All the Things that I’ve Done’ (basically the two lives of Furiosa: Wasteland and mirrorverse).
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 27/27
Fandom: Mad Max: Fury Road, Mad Max Series (Movies), Christopher Brookmyre
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Furiosa/Max Rockatansky
Characters: Max Rockatansky, Furiosa (Mad Max), Sid (OC), Big Dave (OC), Keeper of the Seeds (Mad Max), The Valkyrie (Mad Max), The Vuvalini, The Ace (Mad Max), Capable (Mad Max), Mary Jo Bassa, Katie Concannon, Miss Giddy (Mad Max), The Dag (Mad Max), Toast the Knowing, Cheedo the Fragile, Alexa (OC), Mallory the barista (OC), Dianne (OC), Dag’s baby, Capable’s baby, Toots (OC), Pin (OC), Jenny Dalziell, Zal Innez, Angelique de Xavia, Sarah Slaughter, Jack Parlabane, Australian Harry (OC kinda), Nux (deceased), Angharad (deceased)
Additional Tags: Homelessness, physiotherapy written badly, Inspired by Music, Modern AU, Fluff, vaguely farcical, Sad bits, bereavement, Death of a Parent, Cop Max, Reunion, More sad bits, max’s story, Some silliness thank god, Borderline stalkerishness?, I can’t decide, Disco Ace, Mutual therapy, more bereavement, Just good friends, general waffle, Ace’s thoughts on the matter, assumptions make an ass out of u and me, bluesy Max, Boo villain booo, Teenage Fury, Zal Innez is Furiosa’s dad, Fury is not okay, drunken frolics, still slow burn though, Obscure film references, Coping Mechanisms, Max meets the parents, hangovers, Embarrassment, Disclosure, Nightmares, Why Fury is not okay, Max meets the Wives, this is becoming angst tennis, How Toast got the name, How Nux (Nicks) comes into it, Many many crossed wires, Gossip, People mean well, Love Hurts, STILL slow burn, even i’m getting impatient here, finally shenanigans!, slightly embarrassing, but yay, Music has the power, Max moves in, Kinda, more shenanigans, More from the Wives, gift-giving, the morning after, lots and lots of fluff, Rape allusion, sex trafficking allusion, Developing Relationship, Ace gets lucky, How it all happened, Emotional Manipulation, plot theft by me, happy ever after
Summary:
Modern AU, small town physiotherapist clinic. Fury’s the physio, Max is a drifter with a gammy leg. Silly fluffy shippy nonsense with some sad bits and a pretty solid soundtrack. No car chases or shoot ‘em ups (all drama of that nature occurs off-stage).
Kind of a follow on from The Shipping Forecast, but no prior reading necessary.
Fic rec! Now completed, this is a delightful small town AU, sweet and funny and shippy.
Nooooo. Has the uk ever won? I know Ireland won it so often that dodging it became a father ted episode but not the uk…
I think it used to win back when everybody had to sing in their national language, so they had an advantage. But the relationship of the UK with the continent is... fraught, now more than ever
Recently, @kirkypet left the 100th kudos on Gloria, so I offered to write 100 words on her choice of topics. I may do this more regularly. There are two versions. The longer version can be found after the cut.
Arms sore, Furiosa rested her head against the Valkyrie's shoulder. It felt good to press her cheek to the rough-woven dress, coarse cotton cloth from her first weaving.
Moonlight. Women swayed dancing as they passed through the fields.
“My child, wake up,” her mother's voice and-
And her eyes opened. Musty scent of dried grains in coarse woven bags, and the support of the shoulder was no more than a sack of beans, stirring brittle as she pulled away.
She stood, buckling her metal hand on, tightening belts, brushing off chaff and dust.
No more hiding. Back to work.
“Look. A shooting star.” Sore, her arms tired from the harvest, so the Valkyrie drew Furiosa's head down against her shoulder. She rubbed her cheek against the Valkyrie's rough-woven dress. It felt good, the coarse cotton cloth that she had woven herself, the first work of a growing girl.
“A good omen to go with a good harvest.” The Valkyrie smiled, pressing a soft kiss to Furiosa's forehead, brushing back her dark curling hair. “Sister, you did hard work today in the threshing. We'll have lots to eat come the dry season.”
In the light of the moon, the women swayed as they walked through the fields, dancing to the tune of a distant song.
“My girl, it's time for us to-”
Her mother called for her, and she felt herself sitting up and
And her eyes opened. The sweet, musty scent of dried grain, of pulses and seeds all stored in coarse woven bags, and the support of the shoulder holding her head up was no more than a bag of beans, stirring like the sigh of the wasteland wind as she pulled away, as it settled back into place.
She stood up slowly, and buckled her metal hand back on, brushing off the chaff and dust of the past as she looked around the granary storage room. The wealth of the Citadel, and how many rooms were there like this?
Time enough for dreaming, she thought, and the thought of tears were driven back as she tightened the belts around her waist. Back to work.
”So, how have you been? What have you been doing all these years?”
Furiosa took a deep breath. She didn’t really want to have to tell her life story, not right now, with the Witness over there messing with his boot and the girls probably within earshot too.
But this Val was too easy to tell things to, she WANTED to tell. Ace was still a raw wound and Angharad…Furiosa had a nauseous feeling that her confidences were a curse, that whoever she unburdened herself to would die. But that was stupid. Besides, they all should know what they were dealing with.
“There’s this man, we’ve got to…” she gritted her teeth “…end him. He’s…Head of Resources at Tyrell. But he’s a fucking psychopath. He’s killed people, and he’s after us.” Furiosa’s words were stumbling over each other in their haste to get out. “Okay…” Val narrowed her eyes and looked sideways.
“Say the word and we’ll keep driving.” Furiosa wondered why she said that. They needed these people. She shouldn’t be talking them out of helping her.
Val looked up at Furiosa. There was a steely look in her eye, and a mirthless smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “He’ll have to come through us first.”
The look on Val’s face certainly inspired confidence. Finally, had they reached their destination? She sagged with relief but murmured, with a sad smile “That’s what I’m afraid of.” “Don’t be afraid.”
Val rested her forehead against Furiosa’s for a moment. “We take care of our own.”
Part 25
“I was in a kind of school…for kids with no family. Mum was gone by then, I must’ve been very young when she died…We had lots of scrap metal, we would rebuild whatever we could. There were school hours too, but I liked the mechanical work. It was fine. Useful, really. Built this…” she held up her left arm, wiggled the fingers of her prosthetic.
Val’s brow furrowed with concern, and Furiosa went on hurriedly. She wanted to get to the point, but it all seemed to come to her through a fog. When had she slept last?
“Then, when I was nearly sixteen, Tyrell came looking for interns. Not himself, of course, his Procurement people. Moore was Head of Procurement back then, so it wasn’t long before I got to meet him. The school were more than happy…I’d be leaving in a few months…this way they’d get a tidy fee from Tyrell. “I was put in Organic Recycling...which is exactly what it sounds like. So, I pushed for promotion to Security. Got that after about three years. This was just after the crash, LAPD had just been privatised, so that’s how I got my badge.”
“In the beginning, I was placed with a mentor” Furiosa’s eyes stung as she spoke “He was a genetic engineer. And he kept a kind of hostel for new interns. Just a few rooms, there were never that many of us at a time. I was the only one staying there when he died.” She cleared her throat. “Was killed.” She was surprised at how numb she felt in the telling.
Val put a hand on hers, tipped her head enquiringly.
Furiosa went on. “He was my friend, and I’m pretty sure I got him killed.”
Now she felt arms around her, she rested her head on the woman’s shoulder, and squeezed her eyes shut. Just for a moment though. She wasn’t done. “Long story short…” she gripped Val’s arm “we’re running from a man with an private army of replicants, who keeps women locked up, who kills people who get in his way. And, I might be going crazy here, but…” she looked up at her new friend “…I think he’s the one who killed my mother.”
“This Moore guy?” Furiosa nodded. She was so tired. “Right”
Val put her hand on Furiosa’s shoulder. “We’re gonna fix this, okay? But first you need to sleep. You look like you’re about to to drop.”
She gave her a pull up and look her into a freight container that looked much less comfortable outside than it did in.
“Magda’s made you up beds in here. It’s kinda rough but” she waved a hand around “you see how it is. Probably changed some from what you remember.”
“Yeah” Furiosa laughed. She didn’t know what she was saying anymore. Sleep.
Part 25
“Phew”
“Some crazy shit.” Val and Keep exchanged glances, spoke in low voices.
“What we gonna do?”
“Stand and fight. What else can we do?”
“This Moore guy sounds like the worst.”
“Fixated on power and pussy.” Keep nodded sagely.
“Hm?”
“The girls tell me he’s got this weird thing about childbirth, and making an heir to prove he’s human. Or some shit. No-one’s valid unless they’ve passed ‘the sacred portal’”
“Oh no…” Val groaned. “Not those girls?”
“And Furiosa, maybe.” Keep tightened her lips, resigned to the worst.
“I hope not. She didn’t mention it…” Val recollected the conversation. “Mainly talked about how much of a murdering bastard he is. She thinks he killed Mary.”
Keep seized her shotgun. “There you go then. We look after our own” Raising her voice, “Y’hear that girls? We look after our own. And that goes for you too, Silent Bob!”
She pointed at the man who now sat by the door of the container where Furiosa slept. Good line of sight to the road there, she noted. Reliable seemed fair.
“Let’s get to work!”
“Where’s Furi?” the red-haired one asked.
“Sleeping, I hope.”
“Good. She’s been driving us two days straight. Trying to find somewhere safe.”
“This is as good a place as any.”
By the morning, they were ready. Any uninvited guests would meet with a cool welcome.
kirkypet replied to your post “kirkypet replied to your photoset “itsboundtobetragic: You’re a...”
Alright, you've sold me. What else you got? :)
well, since you ask: The Expanse aka the best scifi series I have seen since Babylon 5 (Star Trek not counted because Trek is the BEST). Great actors, great world building and amazing special effects. Take a look at the intro:
And because it’s my favourite vampire novel: Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula. Actually, the whole series, but the first one is special to me because it takes place in Victorian times and it’s the era I know best of all the periods the novels are set in. Pretty much every single name mentioned in those novels is a character from fiction or someone from actual history. The books are fun even when you don’t get the references, but I always get a kick out of recognising the names (and I started reading this well pre-google). The starting point is the question: what if the fearless vampire hunters around van Helsing really, really messed up pretty early in the story?
For #ficrecdays I would like to recommend a few under-the-radar Mad Max fics, including some older ones that have stuck with me:
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by KirkyPet because it is abominably cute while staying true to the Mad Max universe, and future people discover and enjoy current and recent past pop-cultural relics is one of my favorite tropes.
Release by Splinter aka @lurkinghistoric because I learned to massage from this fic, not that it’s exceptionally technical; it just finally clicked for me.
Scar Maps by Battle_Cat aka @fuckyeahisawthat because scars are sexy.
Together by redcoatfollower because my little gothic heart loves me some death fic.
Not-so-under-the-radar: A Broken Wheel by SingleWhiteCatLady because I’m such a nerd for quality Wasteland surgery. The medical research for this one shows.
Apologies if I missed mentioning your Tumblr name. I’m still trying to map out everyone’s identities across platforms. Please let me know, and I will fix.
