Niall Kennedy: broke, unemployed, liar, cheater, deadbeat dad, multiple STIs, on crack and meth and every other subtance, unshowered, sweating and shaking like a leaf looking like he's at death's door
Every person in the vicinity: i need to fuck this man immediately or i will die
Niall says that Ruben and him are basically the same person, because that's how Ruben treats him, as an extention of himself.
He both hates and guards Niall's vulnerability; he hates and guards Niall's homosexuality. He engineers horrible situations that Niall will need saving from so that he can save him because Ruban was never saved. Ruban sets up a situation where Niall can lose his virginity in a way he believes is easier and less traumatic than his, but his need for control over everything inadvertently just makes it another rape. Niall is a conduit for Ruban to both save and punish himself. Niall can't extract himself from Ruban because the years of codependance have made it so that losing Ruban feels like losing the only worthwhile parts of himself.
When a was a baby gay new in LA in the 2010s, I took one scriptwriting class and proceeded never to do anything with it. But I've been inspired recently so sharing this snippet from a Half Man AU I've excised from my mind. Heavy on the AU. Not formatted properly bc idk how to do that here.
GLASGOW 1991ย
EXT. PARK โ SUMMER EVENING
The football has finished, though youโd never know it from the noise still drifting across the city.
Itโs one of those Scottish summer evenings where the sun seems reluctant to leave. The light hangs low over the park, turning everything gold.
Niall (20) and Ruben (21) wander along the path, pleasantly drunk after an afternoon at a beer garden. Neither is in any hurry to get home.
NIALL
โฆIโm telling ye, if theyโd started McStayโ
RUBEN
Yeโve been telling me that since pint number three.
NIALL
Because Iโm right.
RUBEN
Because youโre pished.
Niall laughs.
They walk a little further.
NIALL
Hang on.
RUBEN
No.
NIALL
Aye.
RUBEN
Weโre nearly home.
NIALL
Shouldโve reminded me before the last pint then.
Ruben snorts.
Niall veers off the path towards a clump of bushes.
RUBEN
Pure class.
He wanders over to a park bench and climbs onto the back of it, balancing there without thinking.
He waits.
A dog tears across the grass after a tennis ball.
Somewhere nearby, someone is trying to sing Flower of Scotland. Poorly.
Niall emerges from behind the bushes, fastening his shorts as he walks back, entirely unselfconscious.
Ruben looks. Then keeps looking.
Itโs his shirt.
Niall nicked it months ago and, somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling borrowed.
The sleeves are rolled to his forearms. It hangs loosely over his frame. The rugby shorts heโs wearing are slightly too small.
Ruben realises, a fraction too late, that heโs staring.
Niall catches him.
NIALL
What?
Ruben nods towards the shirt.
RUBEN
Thatโs mine.
Niall glances down, as though heโs genuinely checking.
NIALL
โฆIs it?
RUBEN
Aye.
Niall smiles almost flirtatiously.
NIALL
HonestlyโฆI donโt know anymore.
Ruben hops down from the bench.
Falls into step beside him.
A small smile creeps across his face.
RUBEN
Aye.
Ye donโt.
They carry on through the park, shoulder to shoulder.
The conversation picks up exactly where they left it. The path narrows as they leave the city centre. The noise from the football crowd has softened into a distant hum.
For a while, neither of them says anything. Theyโre too pleasantly drunk for silence to feel awkward.
RUBEN
Still think Scotland were robbed?
NIALL
Aye.
RUBEN
Even after seven pints?
NIALL
Especially after seven pints.
Ruben laughs.
RUBEN
Yeโre hopeless.
Niall bumps him with his shoulder.
NIALL
You still came out with me.
RUBEN
Somebody had to stop ye arguing football wiโ strangers.
They walk on.
Ruben stuffs his hands into his pockets.
Almost as an afterthoughtโ
RUBEN
Whereโsโฆ whatโs-his-face?
Niall glances over.
NIALL
Who?
RUBEN
Martin.
NIALL
Oh. We broke things off.
Ruben nods.
They keep walking.
RUBEN
Shame. He seemed alright.
NIALL
He was.
Justโฆwanted a lot.
RUBEN
Oh did he, aye?
Niall lets the comment pass.
RUBEN
I noticed ye stopped bringing blokes over.
NIALL
Ayeโฆ
RUBEN
Why?
Niall shrugs.
NIALL
Dunno, just wasnโt working out.
They walk another few paces.
RUBEN
He was yourโฆ
Fifth boyfriend? In about four months?
Niall stops and turns to face him.
NIALL
Rubenโฆ
RUBEN
Iโm noโ judging.
ย Just observing.
NIALL
Iโm not a tart.
A smile flickers across Rubenโs face.
RUBEN
Didnโt say ye were.
NIALL
Then why mention it?
Ruben doesnโt answer.
Insteadโ
RUBEN
Did ye sleep wiโ all of them? I know you did with Martin and that posh prick, Barnabyโฆ
Niall blinks.
NIALL
Why does that matter?
RUBEN
Just answer me, Bambi. Did ye?
Niall studies him intently. In no rush to answer.
Ruben begins to regret asking.
NIALL
Why?
Are ye jealous?
Ruben stops.
For a split second, instinct takes over and he squares up to Niall.
Then his bravado disappears but he doesnโt look away.
He looks Niall straight in the eye.
Certain. Certain enough that it almost frightens him.
RUBEN
Jealous? Why would I be jealous?ย
I knowโฆ
โฆnone of them are me.
They donโt know how to fuck you like I do.ย
Why else did ye go through them so fast?
Niall is completely taken aback. Processing Rubenโs words as if they were the most obvious thing in the world.ย
And because Ruben is right.
Neither of them knows what to do with that.
After a long moment, Ruben starts walking again.
Niall follows.
The rest of the walk home passes without another word.
ok but this unironically works. talk about how the working class is exploited and you can basically sell full-on marxism to your average republican if you do it right. all you have to do is avoid the words "Marx," "capitalism," "socialism," "communism," "means of production," etc - just use synonyms. say "big business" or "corporate shareholder interests" instead of "capitalists." say "a government that prioritizes the needs of the working people" instead of "socialism." it WORKS. I've DONE it. the hardest sell are usually things like social and racial equity, welfare, things like that, because people have been primed with the racist/classist idea that those things are somehow unfair - but you can get your foot in the door to getting them to buy into those too if you start with class issues. read up on your theory, make sure you REALLY understand your own ideology, because that will enable you to reword it and successfully sell it.
In my experience, you can often help sell 'welfare' stuff by appealing to self-interest with a touch of Aren't We Great.
Disability benefits: "I mean, sure, there are probably some sad sacks who are gaming the system, there always are, but hell, with the amount of taxes we pay, the government can afford a few freeloaders, right? I'd rather pay for a couple people who don't really need it than not have the system at all for if I need it, or my kids do, or whatever. I mean shit happens. What if some asshole drunk driver puts me in the hospital and it takes me a year to get back on my feet? Or Heaven forbid something permanent happens. I'll sure be glad that I can get disability then, won't I?"
UBI: "I dunno, the kind of guy who'll just sit on the couch playing Call of Duty all day if he doesn't have to work, I kinda don't want him on my job site anyway. That type is just taking up a place that you could fill with someone who'll actually get the job done, you know? You end up short-handed even though you technically have enough people because everyone else has to pick up his slack. And it'd mean that if your boss is a dick you can tell him to shove it and not worry your kids are gonna go hungry while you find a better place. We can sure as hell afford it."
Racial equity: "I've got a lot more in common with a Black guy who's just trying to get the job done than I do with some rich white asshole who thinks the sun shines out of his ass because of how much money mommy and daddy have."
liking a ship but disliking the distinct set of stock fanon that they have been assigned is like one of those punishments dante came up with when he wrote the worldbuilding for hell in inferno
hey real quick can anybody help me find this image that Iโve seen before here on tumblr. it looks like this
the button doesnโt necessarily sayย โElucidate the Raptureโ but it does say something thatโs kind of lengthy and has religious connotations. the woman pushing the button has an expression of indescribable smugness. there might be other buttons on the machine (?) she is pressing.
I cannot believe that this is a website where you can ask โhey i think i saw a weird image onceโ and put a bad stick figure drawing of it and someone will be like โoh yeah thatโs the first installment of a 12-part post-ironic apocalypse fever dream photoshop seriesโ and just hand you a dozen of the most unhinged images youโve ever seen in your life, that still have a better three act structure than most modern cinema
this is far more than โrandom person in 2005ish creates surreal visual narrativeโ - letโs go deeper down the rabbit hole, shall we?
toย Immanentize the Eschatonย means to bring about utopian conditions and create heaven on Earth
the phrase is first cited in the Discordian religious text, Principia Discordia (1963), for whom Discord (aka Eris) is goddess:
the first line ofย Robert Anton Wilsonย andย Robert Sheaโs 1975ย The Illuminatus! trilogy: โIt was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton.โ
in Frederik Pohlโs The Eschaton Sequence (1997 - 1999), the human race is caught up in a galactic war between two alien races attempting to immanentize the eschaton
inย Ken Macleod'sย The Stone Canal (1997), one of the chapters is โAnother crack at Immanentising the Eschatonโ
Crystal Thierryโs (aka the modern Discordia / Eris) narrative lives in esteemed company
hereโs what the warning in the image says btw because i wanted to read it but it was too blurry so i had to spend several minutes hunting for a version with better resolution, so Iโm posting it here so nobody else has to make that same journey
โDO NOT OPERATE THE ESCHATRON 9000 UNLESS YOUโRE REALLY, REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT DESTROYING THE WORLDโ
anon the other day made me think of a character thing I find interesting for Sadism Fanfiction Pornography is actually not a control thing as much as feeling โsafeโ while being โunkind,โ even being rewarded for it (with sex). This can be healing and good for a lot of reasons but specifically for someone who, say, feels they are inherently evil, as a random example, to have actions that are explicitly physically or emotionally harmful received enthusiastically is very compelling. Not that porn needs to be #healing to be emotionally compelling, but I do like it! Generally I find the Dom Top Perspective underexplored in fic as far as the ways in which it is very emotionally vulnerable too and I think thatโs partly bc having a perspective character be acted upon is a very sexy-feeling way to write, thereโs a well-established template for that that obviously owes also to published romance genre erotica as much as the ancient Star Trek slash texts. Nevertheless! Not sure if these ideas are reflected in my fic output even. Idk girl Iโm just talking.
Why take something beautiful and fascinating like an undefined impractical romance and describe it with some vape-esque word like situationship. A spiritually heterosexual word. Youโre supposed to write genre defining poetry about this kind of madness, and yet โsituationshipโ is the term weโre choosing to use these days. OKAY.
๐๐๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ @zykamiliah - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
