Attempting to edit that prohibition era Jack Tale in time for the WisCon writers’ workshop hmm we’ll see. Anyway, I’m probably cutting the scene where everyone starts talking like my roommates, so I thought I’d throw it online. It makes me smile.

As a favor to his only sister, he pulled Jack aside. “Want to put you a nickel down on Tom going home alone at the end of the night?”

Jack scrunched her nose up at him. “Awful unkind betting against your baby brother, ain’t it?”

He shrugged without a lick of remorse, and give her a little smile. “Safest bet.”

Jack snorted and was fishing in her pocket when Tom come up on her other side. He announced: “I’m gonna get Polly Presnell to kiss me.”

Jack froze. “You’re crazy,” she says. It was almost dazzling, how crazy he was.

“You’re gonna help me,” Tom added.

She raised her eyebrows. “Am not.”

“You’re good at this!” He gripped her shoulders like that would make a difference, his eyes sparkling with how brilliant he thought he was. “You’re a girl, go make friends with her.”

“What?”

“No, listen,” he insisted. “Get her to come over here and play cards with us.”

Will leaned over to stare at him. “Oh, Tom,” he says, his voice full of Christian pity.

“Shut it Will, no one asked you.”

Jack rubbed at her eyes.

“You know how this goes!” Tom barreled on. “We have fun at cards, and then someone—not me—says why not let’s play Suck and Blow.”

“Tom,” she says, “that is the worst game.”

“No, Jack, it’s the best game. You know why?”

Jack just crossed her arms.

“I’ll tell you. It’s ‘cause we pass the card round the circle, with our mouths, right? And I’m sitting next to her, right, and when she tries to pass me the card I drop it and then,” he finished in triumph, “we are accidentally kissing!”

Will and Jack was silent for a moment, feeling sort of hollow.

“You know that plan ain’t never worked for you, Tom,” Jack says after a spell.

He squared his jaw up. “If you love me you’ll do this for me.”

“No.”

“If you want a nickel you’ll do this for me?”

Jack squared her jaw right back. “No!”

Tom’s voice was getting closer to squeaky every word he said. “A quarter. Come on, Jack.” His hair was mussed, and his lip quivered in a way he couldn’t’ve faked. It was this stupid game or he had to go on thinking on Jenna Lee.

Jack guessed she was worse than the both of her brothers put together: a greedy drunk and a friendly drunk.

“Pay me up front,” she says with a big sigh. Will groaned like she had just failed him personal.

Smut Peddler got a write-up on ComicsAlliance! I feel so famous! You guys should too! :D

YOU GUYS. GET EXCITED.

So tonight when I was supposed to be doing transcription, I instead had a Media Thoughts jam with hatalie! Also a good use of my time: I may fail school, but at least I will have analyzed the shit out of every episode of every TV show I have ever seen.

Anyway, we revisited an earlier discussion about Buttons, or Narrative Kinks, or, “I don’t know why I love this element of this story so much but get in my brain, you!” And we started talking about Anti-Buttons, or pet peeves, or “I don’t even know why I hate this so much, but please knock that shit off!” This was hardest for me, because I will sometimes bend over backwards to read something the way I want to, all “but if you look at it this way it’s totally subversive or something!” Even if it means I’m giving the creators way too much credit, sometimes I get the most enjoyment out of a story by inventing elaborate ways in which it secretly does not suck. (Death of the Author, okay you guys?)

Also, just as it was hard to for me to keep sexually appealing concepts out of my Narrative Kinks, it turned out hard to keep politically reprehensible concepts out of my turn-offs. But we’ll see how closely I can keep to “it just bothers me!” (Hint: just like I’m into dancing/fighting ambiguity mostly because it is totally hot, I am against catty lady competition plots mostly because they are totally sexist. So, not neutral at all!) Here goes:

• Catty lady competition plots
• First person present tense (often)
• Flat villains
• Romanticization of war
• Action scenes that don’t contribute to the narrative symbolically or to characterization concretely
• Disingenuous cliffhangers (as in, there actually was never any danger, five seconds into the next chapter/episode it’s all “Haha just kidding, this is a plastic gun and I was teasing!”)
• “Most humans only use ten percent of their brains.” Yeah I’m going to just stop you right there.
• Political intrigue that focuses only on the rich and powerful, never touching on the citizenry/commoners/home front
• Bringing the dead back to life, unless that’s already been firmly established as a Thing in-universe
• Worldbuilding that looks cool, but makes no functional sense
• Mechas. Sorry.

What pet peeves do y’all have in your media? What bores you? I’m curious to see what Lists people come up with for this.

acertainpavane:

Cosmo Ohana and R. Kosmos (aka Toasty) sketches. Gogglesque’s characters.

One time Cosmo ran away with government funding and built a robot in a shack in the woods. He modeled it after himself because there was no one else around, but he kept growing and it never did. He named it Toasty and from him it learned to smile (though not precisely when it ought) and to sing the call to prayer.

Also, let’s be honest here, sex.

acertainpavane:

Captain Song Bao and Cosmo Ohana

Quickly sketched these for gogglesque! She’s been writing me a lovely, pulpy story to keep me going while I ink. Tried to emulate Herge’s style because the prompt I gave her was “gay space tintin” sob (Cosmo Ohana is much older than he looks!)

Aaaah, oh my goodness! These two are so adorable, look how charming and earnest and retro-futurist they are ububububu.

I’m pretty sure Tintin was already pretty “gay” and “space,” so I make no claims of innovation, but this has been delightful to write and I hope it’s keeping acertainpavane’s smut peddlin’ spirits up! :D