#persie writes

[persiesposts]

So I am typically very Hopecore with a lot of of my writings, but I do enjoy putting characters in a Situation.

I recently watched both Iron Lung and Project Hail Mary and a thought that keeps reoccurring to me how they keep saying in Iron Lung that Simon was sent down to atone for what he did. They say it multiple times throughout the film. I know it’s a typical thing to say of someone going through a prison sentence but it’s really stuck out to me. 

We know that it’s a common enough occurrence, since Simon is not the first convict to be sent down into the blood ocean.

Naturally this got me thinking of bloodymary because of course it did.

So now I just have this idea in my head of Ryland rescuing Simon from the sub, and the two of them are still trying to figure out how to coexist together, as there is obviously a very big gap in understanding between the two of them.

Somehow, Simon figures out that Ryland is not on the Mary by choice and with his limited understanding believes that Ryland is another convict/individual the COI put into a ship for atonement. 

Another factor to consider is the recordings that Ryland is constantly logging to send back to earth. Simon could perceive this as a different form of COI monitoring since he had the radio communication in the submarine. 

I think there’s a bunch of different ways a fic writer could go with this from making it a character study of Simon’s paranoia/belief that he’s never truly get away from the COI and getting his freedom to potentially making it something equally parts whumpy and hilarious as Simon tries to figure out what the hell this geeky but earnest dude that he can’t quite understand could have possibly done to have to “atone for his sins“

Meanwhile Ryland is just extremely confused as to why the man that he just rescued out of a literal ocean of blood keeps staring at him like he’s trying to sense his darkest secrets and innermost thoughts.

I’m also not sure where Rocky would fit into all of this, but that is completely up to writer interpretation!

Also, I just want to give all the credit for any of my characterization/perception of Simon to @ctrl-shift-alt-9 who had me watch Iron Lung with them and has given me a front row seat to their thoughts and knowledge of all things Simon 

[thequeenofcarvenstone]

and if i could choose, i would be a ghost for you

chapter 4: this is no summer's dream

Buck gets Bobby's help, has a breakthrough, and Death comes into focus for the newlywed Buckley and Diaz family | 3k, 14k total | rated t

Bobby does not grow up like Buck. He does not grow up haunted in that way. He is haunted by different things. An alcoholic father, a legacy to be upheld. He is haunted by the abandonment of his mother, of his older brothers. He is haunted into the bottom of a bottle, into a career he loves. But he does not grow up seeing lost souls. After he meets Buck, he wonders. Maybe he was just too busy to notice the ghosts, for the ghosts to notice him. He worries often, in the middle of the night, when the house is quiet and Athena is asleep next to him and the ring on his finger feels like something too good for a man like him and the charred bodies surround their bed, silent and watchful. He worries for Buck. Worries that Buck is stretching himself too thin, laying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Bobby doesn't grow up seeing the ghosts. They appear one night in December. Fully formed, awful, and silent. They just stand there, watching. They do not ask for help the way Buck's ghosts do but eventually Bobby starts to help them move on too. One name at a time. Sometimes he sees ghosts around LA. He's helped Buck with ghostly issues a few times, but he suspects that the host of spirits that follow him like ripples in the current, unblinking shadows, are a deterrent for the other ghosts in the area. The ghosts disappear as he makes his way through his book, and it's a relief when he turns around and sees one less face staring back. But there are three faces he has never seen, three victims of the fire that don't linger in Bobby's shadow. He looks for them, but they're not among the rest. He hopes that means they've passed on, that they're in Heaven. He misses them all the same. He wishes he could tell them how much he loves them. He wishes he could tell him how sorry he is.

read on ao3

[inventorsdaughter-a]

everything is a blur. adrenaline kicked in before she could process exactly what was happening. she saw gaston with his knife, ready to stab the beast. next thing she knew, she was between man & beast screaming for gaston to stop before he killed someone. but it was too late, by the time he registered what she had said, the blade had gone through her.

stumbling back in horror, gaston lost his footing & fell to his death while the woman he had claimed to love lay dying in the beast’s arms. hot tears flooded her cheeks while whispering “it’s okay, we’re together now.” to the beast in an attempt to soothe him, knowing there wasn’t much time. “at least i got to see you one last time.” she half smiled through her tears before her final words tumbled from her lips “i love you”

[persiesposts]

This is gonna be a bit of a character exploration/analysis for Ryland Grace both in movie and book canon since I find him so interesting and multilayered:

I think making Rylan Grace an eighth grade science teacher was one of the smartest choices made for his character. I think it adds so much more than if he were some jaded professor or something. It gives him so many more connections outside of the traditional scope that we would expect from a person (family, spouse, pet, children of his own).

As someone who has many teacher friends, especially middle school teacher friends, it tells me two things about Grace right away. 

1. He’s a very empathetic person.

This seems kind of obvious at first based on everything that we learn about Ryland through both the book and movie. He’s a person who cares fundamentally to his core even if he is afraid he does have that level of care and humanity to him.

I think his background takes it a step further.

Being a teacher, for a lot of people becomes very personal because you spend so much time with those students forging bonds and connections, which adds another level of altruism outside of the baseline of any individual person.

Being a middle school teacher, in my personal opinion, requires a certain level of empathy, because you are dealing with young people who aren’t even young adults yet and are just exiting childhood. It’s a new and terrifying experience of trying to learn who they are and where they belong in the world, not to mention the beginnings of puberty. 

Grace as a person who, for many years was in a more rigorous academic environment around peers his own age and likely older, would’ve had to have adapted his teaching style to fit a younger group of individuals. Because at the end of the day, teaching isn’t just about the content. It’s also about your students.

Teachers, especially in a public school setting, wear a lot of different hats on top of teaching and a lot of that pertains to a students well-being and health. I think learning to juggle that newfound responsibility is something that Grace would’ve had to have gone through. 

This to me shows that while Grace absolutely has a very strong baseline of empathy. There is also the additional aspect of growing and developing from a rather harsh and egocentric academic to somebody who had to learn to soften his approach and methodologies for younger minds to be able to absorb and engage with. 

Bouncing off of that I also believe that (and this one may be a little bit more headcanon, but I’m using his canon background to jump off of):

2. Grace is someone with a low tolerance for bullshit. 

I don’t think this is something that gets explored a lot outside of his former status as an academic, which don’t get me wrong, I think that definitely adds an additional layer to it. However, and I say this with nothing but love in my heart.

Middle schoolers are assholes

It’s not always their fault, they’re dealing with the changes in their body and hormones that come along with puberty as well as learning how to handle a whole new emotional range for themselves and how to face a newfound sense of maturity.

But middle schoolers are absolutely assholes.

To be a teacher at any level, I think one definitely has to develop a rather thick skin when it comes to dealing with administration, parents, other teachers and especially students. We know Grace partially has that already from being in the world of science and academia and having to deal with the rejection of his theories and his paper (whether or not he truly handled that well is more up to whether you subscribe to the book canon versus the movie canon, since in one instance he was fired and in the other one he quit).

We also know he’s worked hard to curate his persona amongst his students as the “cool teacher” that would come with a lot of failures and cringeworthy moments as not everything you do with students is going to land. 

There is a quote where we do see a little bit of his low tolerance for bullshit but specifically related to the parents of his students:

This to me demonstrates both his empathy and his low tolerance for bullshit when it comes to others so I don’t think it’s a wrong take to view Grace as both highly empathetic and somebody who’s not afraid to pop off when his bullshit meter starts pinging 

All of this to say: fic writers, don’t be afraid to add these dimensions to Grace as a character! I’ve seen a lot of great fics that do this, and I want to see more. I absolutely love when people explore Grace as a multifaceted character as it relates to different aspects of his teaching and personal identity

[persiesposts]

I have many many thoughts on Project Hail Mary (and I will post a lengthy review of both the book and movie very soon!) but what I think is so indicative of Ryland Grace as a character and his development prior to the main plot is the intentional choice of him not swearing.

To me it demonstrates how much he’s changed from the ego-driven, academia focused doctor and into the fun middle school teacher that he was/still is prior to and during the events of the book. It shows that even when lacking his memories he is fundamentally that softer, kinder person, even if he does definitely still have that ego. It also acts as a bit of a plot device/foreshadowing, showing that he doesn’t necessarily belong in the situation he was put in but still rose to the occasion anyways.

Obviously swearing or not isn’t automatically indicative of whether or not someone is a good person, but I love the use of it as a narrative device to show the dorky school teacher side of Ryland even when he doesn’t know who he is. It’s an automatic insight into who this person is without having to do an extreme deep dive and lends itself well to the non sequential nature of the narrative.

Oh Ryland Grace, my beloved.

[persiesposts]

Me? A writer? Talking about writing?

It’s less likely than you think, but here we go anyways.

This may seem a little fatalist, but I love corruption arcs and I wish more writers didn’t shy away from its narrative use. Whether it’s in the long-term or in the short term in a story, I feel like it adds an additional layer to character exploration because it gives you time to truly sit with a character and look at them as a whole. Not just their virtues and not just their flaws, but how those can come together to create the downward spiral that may have always been inevitable.

I think the corruption arcs work especially when you have an FMC who is lauded as morally good and are paired with an MMC who is considered “morally gray.” Pairings like those make me look especially hard at the FMC because it should be important to see if we’re going to keep the same moral standards or if she’s just going to agree with whatever the MMC thinks and feels without objection or protest. 

 I’m gonna bring up ACOTAR because I never know how to leave a dead horse. 

 I wish Feyre had a corruption arc.

I feel as though it would have made Feysand as a romantic plot device more plausible based on how the first book was written, and would’ve explained a lot of contradictory behavior from Rhysand.

Here’s some thoughts on a Feyre corruption arc.

First, if it was done as an exploration of Feyre losing her humanity when she’s turned into a Fae. The first book talks a lot about Feyre‘s humanity and her human heart and how that is one of her best qualities due to her compassion. I would’ve loved to have seen her grapple more with the reality that she’s no longer human once she was turned. She’s no longer being held to human standards, what would happen to her morality when she now lives by the rules of her new world? How do Fae standards differ from human ones?

This is more world building than character study, though the two do go hand-in-hand as you can really shift the dynamics of human versus non-human interactions. How do interactions with people like Tamlin change when she’s no longer the human girl he fell in love with? I wish they had gone more that route as opposed to the “abuse” route they went with with Tamlin’s character.

To me this shift would play into the idea of the two of them clinging to normalcy that no longer exists anymore between the two of them after such extreme trauma. Leading to Feyre feeling out of sync with the man she’s supposed to love as he clings to a version of her that no longer exists.

This is where Rhysand can then swoop in and shape a newly turned Feyre to work for his agenda. When you have someone who’s completely out of their depth in a new reality, they will cling to any guiding hands they can find. 

To give Feyre some backbone, having Feyre battle with what she knows of morality from being a human conflicting with Rhysand’s teachings can make it so that way she’s not automatically swooning into Rhysand’s arms and be a nice foil to Rhysand’s mental manipulations as well.

The nice thing is you also don’t have to keep her with Rhysand, having her forge her own path with conflicting teachings and manipulations messing with her head can lead into either an ending where she rises above despite her own conflicts or spirals down deeper and carves her own bloody path into the world.

Point being, exploring with corruption arcs in the short or long term creates more narrative fun and allows for a lot of exploration of both character and story :)

[persiesposts]

Working on Blessed Be the Wicked: My Experience

So this is going to be a bit of a long winded post, I understand that not everyone is going to understand where I’m coming from or agree with what I have to say but that’s why this is MY personal views and opinions. You have a right to your thoughts and feelings but I feel that an insider’s perspective on production is really important too.

So, I have known @goblinwithgame-official for quite some time, roughly 7 years. I was one of the first actors he recruited for the project so I’ve seen first hand how things have shifted and evolved in the story. The majority of the cast are AFAB, disabled, and have differing perspectives on quite a lot of topics. One of Anton’s strengths is he is willing to take our views into consideration, ultimately there’s the understanding that this is HIS story but he has been more than willing to hear perspectives and feedback from every member of the cast and crew. Another great part of working for this production is accommodations are taken seriously, he has been willing to work with each member of the cast and crew to ensure every member is safe and comfortable.

Our other two creators @lxcke and @w4ikr have worked so hard on their own characters and creative processes. Anytime Anton works with either of them, he consults with them (I’ve been in the room as it happens) and asks questions as to what would work best for THEIR CHARACTERS. Ultimately they have the final say on their own characters and the choices that go into the story. They may not be the most vocal on social media but that does not mean that Anton is the one making those decisions for them.

I honestly didn’t want to get super personal on this but I myself am an SA victim and Anton has been nothing but considerate about my triggers and has ensured that I will be in a safe and healthy mindset for any scenes that could potentially be an issue to me. He’s asked me questions and gained my perspective on things that I was willing to share. I know that everyone’s experiences are different and that’s totally valid, but speaking for my own experiences I feel seen and heard in a lot of the pieces Anton posts.

TLDR; sometimes content in a fandom isn’t made for you!! That’s okay! Don’t speak for everyone when you make grand sweeping statements about a creator, especially when you don’t see the work that goes on behind closed doors.

[persiesposts]

Fun fact, purposefully misinterpreting other people’s points doesn’t make your argument stronger, it just shows that you’re willfully ignorant and don’t know how to make your own case properly <3