Date of Birth!

[stunt_muppet]

Two days after it, technically. I don't feel any older, but then I said that last year.

My family (and M and J, the next day) did take me out to dinner and the waiter didn't ask for my ID when I ordered a glass of sangria, though, which considering I tend to get mistaken for a sixteen-year-old was rather nice. And I got to go to one of my favorite tapas places and have my favorite Spanish omelet ever. Good times all around. :)

I really think that Americans should take up the practice of eating tapas-style. Cycling through different dishes allows you to experience a variety of tastes throughout a meal without offering too much of any one thing; you never lose the sense of novelty and pleasure in the new flavor. Plus, you eat slower, which makes you less likely to overeat. Meals become occasions, inextricably social and linked to your dining partners.

Granted, it's pretty much impossible to make a tapas course for home consumption, especially if you're trying to feed a family - think of all the different dishes you'd have to prepare ahead of time. You'd pretty much spend your whole day cooking dinner unless you were super-coordinated. But as far as eating out goes, I definitely prefer it.

Also, as a belated birthday present, Mom took me and my brother to see Toy Story 3 yesterday morning, for which I am grateful because I adored it.

1. I found the opening sequence very touching, in that it recreates the playtime scenes from the first two movies from the point of view of the toys - as if, now that Pixar has the money and technology to create these lush sequences, they're showing them off to the kids who grew up with the first two movies and Pixar in general. Like saying "look how far we've come, look how everything has changed". On a meta level, it was really heartwarming.

2. SPANISH BUZZ . Everything about Spanish Buzz is wonderful. And Jessie's expression while Spanish Buzz is trying to seduce her with flamenco dancing makes my life better. Also it's a tribute to the Pixar writing staff that this is the third time "Buzz thinks he's really an agent of Star Command" has shown up as a joke and it's still funny.

3. So did anyone else find Big Baby kind of upsetting? Especially near the end when Lotso broke his pendant with Daisy's name on it? HE JUST WANTED HIS MAMA. *cry*

4. Other things that make my life better: Timothy Dalton as a tiny stuffed hedgehog and Very Committed Thespian. "I'm trying to stay in character!" Eeee. Also, Bonnie has a Totoro. I don't know why that makes me so happy but it does.

5. Speaking of which, Bonnie is so cute it makes my teeth hurt. And she is such a perfect mirror to young Andy during her playtime that every scene with her made me all warm and fuzzy. And the scene with Andy playing with her at the end and him spending all that time with her and the toys, playing with them one last time...and how he finally puts them away and gets ready to go to college and then Bonnie makes Woody wave at him and he just stops and looks like he's about to cry...*sniffle* Yeah, the ending might not have been the emotional punch in the stomach that Up or Wall-E was, but I still cried like a baby. Like I said, I grew up with these movies, and now that I'm older that feeling of saying goodbye and having to grow up and move on, characters that you've loved and followed for years waving goodbye after one last adventure. It's making me well up a little just typing this, because I'm a baby.

6. Speaking of endings, OH DEAR LORD THE INCINERATOR. I don't get it; Pixar movies consistently have a happy ending. How do they keep on making me believe, for one awful second, that they really are going to send everyone off to a horrible death while they hold hands and accept it? They did the same thing with WALL-E losing his memory and I have no idea how they keep on doing it. Dammit I should know better by now.

7. Is it bad if I missed Bo and the little pair of binoculars and the Army Men and everything? Especially Bo. I liked Bo. :(

8. So before I saw this movie the Toy Story series was much too connected to my childhood for me to even consider being fannish about it in any fashion, and it still kind of is, but now...I kind of like the whole Woody/Buzz/Jessie OT3 they've got working there. I like it in a completely wholesome and G-rated fashion of course, but, still. I'd go look for fic but I'm scared of what I'd find.


So, yes. Good show, Pixar. Good show.


Requisite Writing Blather:



Yeah, I knew this was a mistake. *grumbly discontented noises* *pokes at five total sentences of her springkink  fics*

Why is it, she said sullenly, that I can't seem to write anything without it turning into a Big Huge Exploration of the characters and their ~problems and their ~feelings? Why do I require so much buildup? Why does everything have to proceed so slowly? Why can't I just write effing porn? Gah.

And then because I do get into this mindset that I have to write a long, in-depth piece that's about the characters and logically gets them to a place where the sex scene makes sense, I end up not writing at all because I get so nervous over getting it wrong, or somehow not doing justice to the characters. And then I make no progress.

And then for the one fic that is supposed to be meta and crap I haven't watched the episodes in question yet. And also when I'm supposed to be writing I get distracted and Wiki Walk all over the place.

For example: I've been trying to write that Optimus/Ironhide fic, which I want to be set pre-series during the war, at some point where they're both isolated and surviving on their own (the idea that I had was that they'd been taken prisoner and escaped). That allows for the "cowboys" prompt, but I can't just have them wandering around the wastelands on their own
having awkward physical contact until the "kink" part of "Springkink" comes in. They need something to talk about, something to do until then.

So I start looking for things for them to talk about, and I end up going off on two separate tangents that tie back to the theme of Optimus as commander/superior officer versus Optimus as Ironhide's friend, and how Ironhide has never known Optimus without knowing Optimus The Autobot Leader. And, because sparks are a rather handy device for robot sex but the whole "Matrix vs Spark" problem from Beast Wars has never, to my knowledge, been resolved, I ended up on yet another diversion about where the Matrix (and its influence on Optimus) began and Optimus's spark began, so there was talk about that, but then there are three more problems. One, that leads to a lot of sideways and meandering conversations that don't go anywhere until the two robots in question reaffirm their relationship or whatever, which is (two) the exact same damn thing I did in Connections. And three, I really should save these ruminations on the Matrix and Sparks and whatnot for the Primal/Prime fic, because it's bad enough I'm reusing story structure; re-using subject matter is just too much. But I don't know where to go with those topics in the Primal/Prime fic, and I've got not clue what Optimus and Ironhide are going to talk about without that particular topic of conversation and aaaugh.

This is what I get for writing three different fics about three different Optimuses. Did I mention I haven't even started the Animated!Optimus/Blackarachnia one and I haven't even decided if I want it to be angsty or straight-up porn? Yeah.

Oh, and I should probably study for the GRE and apply for jobs and stuff, there's that too. Sigh




And once again it is incredibly late and I must go to bed. Hopefully by the time I wake up I will no longer have the Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan theme song stuck in my head.

Comments

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

I love reading people talk about their writing processes and their stories. Seriously, it's wonderful. And I was going to make my comment primarily about the loveliness that is Optimus/Ironhide and how I can totally understand why your brain wants to go in all of those different directions for them - but then I got to the end of your post and was like YAY OMG SOMEONE IS WRITING TFA OPTIMUS/BLACKARACHNIA.

It is one of my new secret loves. I am highly biased towards porn but angst between them is fabulous too :3 What would you do in either case? *is so nosy~*

Edited to add: Happy Belated Birthday!! :D

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the birthday wishes! And I'm just glad to hear that all these ramblings are entertaining someone besides me. :D

This post is bringing out so much Optimus/Ironhide love and that makes me very happy. I didn't think that many other people shipped it, since the fic is kind of thin on the ground, but after the whole bit in "The Immobilizer" where Ironhide decides he's retiring and Optimus is all "But I'll miss you! :("? How could I not ship it after that. And then "Fire on the Mountain" happened and they spend about a solid minute holding hands or clinging to each other or somesuch. How is a show about giant robots shooting each other so consistently cute, I don't get it.

On that note, SOMEONE ELSE SHIPS TFA!OPTIMUS/BLACKARACHNIA, YOU HAVE JUST MADE MY DAY. *squeezes you* I have not managed to be very secret about my love for it because I, um, *cough* have kind of always had a thing for aggressive, toppish ladies and Blackarachnia does get up in Optimus' face and knock him around with some frequency, so it was sort of a foregone conclusion that I was going to be all over this pairing, but you throw in all the history between them and the distrust and hurt and hesitation and and and. Yeah. Kind of very fond of them.

The prompt for the springkink fic was "collar and leash/wicked queen", which presented two possibilities. The "proper" angst-fic would, I think, be set post-series finale, with Optimus (somehow) seeking out Blackarachnia on wherever it is she's supposed to have landed (I can't call it prehistoric Earth because that just makes no sense with the Animated timeline, and as such am choosing to just pretend it's on another planet and sleep easier at night). She feigns helpless in order to stir his sympathies but manages to turn the tables and collar him before they get back to his ship, refusing to go back and wondering why he bothered to come looking for her and...I don't really know where it's going to go from there, but I'm sure there will Conversations and Airing of Issues.

The flat-out porn idea is somewhat simpler, and would take place in between "Black Friday" and "Predacons Rising". Optimus would go on his own to "visit" Blackarachnia on the island, with the implication that they might have done this before and come to some sort of arrangement (thus explaining why she doesn't kill him). For one night, he serves her, obeys her, worships her, takes whatever punishment she feels like giving because he's convinced he deserves it, and because placing that much faith in her to not kill him is a kind of sideways way to make her trust him again. And she obliges, because forcing her old friend to touch and acknowledge the body that repulses her makes her feel less like a freak for a moment. Sexing ensues.

I kind of like that second idea better because it'd be a little easier for me to write - I know pretty much every topic I want to cover and point I want to make, and the actual "kink" part would be much more organic to the story; I wouldn't have to just stick it in at the end. But I'm worried it stretches the limits of in-characterness or story plausability to have Optimus and Blackarachnia come to such an arrangement, and I'm pretty sure fandom at large would look askance at Optimus being that subby, even if it was because of his Issues. So that's kind of up in the air.

More long comments, hurrah.

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

_{I love long comments! Here is my longish reply:}

Oh totally! I wish I could ramble about my story woes more often but I'm always afraid that once I share an idea, I won't be interested in writing it anymore :((( Hell maybe I should anyway, just to get my thoughts in order...

ANYWAY HI. I felt the same way about Optimus/Ironhide - well, I could see people were shipping it but I didn't really understand why until I started watching G1 and then it was like: oh. my. god. Their love feels so canon. They trust each other and they have so much history! They are so totally boyfriends.

I TOTALLY DO. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I liked her, I liked him, and they obviously still had chemistry - but I didn't completely fall head over heels until Sentinel shows up and sees what happened to her, and then his xenophobia, his revulsion over what she had become, made me realize that Optimus would still totally tap that. He doesn't care about her being a Decepticon, her organic body, nothing.

Yeah the thing with prehistoric Earth doesn't really make any sense. I get that it was supposed to be a HUR HUR BEAST WARS thing, maybe implying she had something to do with the creation of the Maximals? But that makes even less sense, because the Maximals aren't from Earth... So let's go with your idea: different planet. Has to be.

Mmmm. I'm liking this collar thing. I say go with the second one since you seem to have a more concrete idea of what you'd do with it. And I love this:

because forcing her old friend to touch and acknowledge the body that repulses her makes her feel less like a freak for a moment.

Just, yes. I wanted to do something similar, if I ever wrote them, where basically she's trying to get him to admit he finds her body disgusting and he absolutely will not, because it is hers, therefore he loves it. Er, just telling you that as proof that I love the concept :3

Hmmm, I agree with you on the plausibility of them having a workable sexual arrangement. However, I can see him knowing where she is, but leaving her mostly to her own devices if she's not yet causing trouble. Would them not having that arrangement preclude the possibility of it being a one-time thing? "If this is going to happen, it's going to happen in exactly this way"? It would be quite kinky.

That leads me to my next point: I have no problem, none whatsoever, with Optimus being subby to her. That's just me though :3

_{eeee, your ideas are making me plotty. :D}

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

I sometimes have that problem - once I talk about a story and plan it out in detail, I don't feel any impulse to work on it anymore. I tend to have an easier time talking out my ideas and describing them than I do writing them - ideas are the easy part and making them sound pretty and not didactic is the hard part, you know? So after I put them down on paper I have nothing left to do. But sometimes writing ideas down helps them crystallize and sort out what fits and what doesn't. Kind of like it just did with the stories I talked about in the previous comment, actually, so thanks. :)

I KNOW RIGHT. They are the kind of pairing that gives me the urge to right stupid fluffy domestic fic where they just kind of hang out and get overenergized and go for races and stuff. Except I'm pretty sure that'd only be interesting to me, but whatever. Wanting to write it at all is a good sign, I guess?

There was this whole convoluted theory I had where the planet Blackarachnia ended up on at the end of "Predacons Rising" was actually Cybertron in the distant past, and thus it would all somehow lead to an Animated-verse re-enactment of the end of Beast Machines except that between then and the start of the series all the organic bits of Cybertron got paved over or something and...um...stuff. The point is the explanations for it shouldn't have to be this complicated, okay, and I shouldn't have to be the one making them up.

if I ever wrote them, where basically she's trying to get him to admit he finds her body disgusting and he absolutely will not, because it is hers, therefore he loves it.

Ooh! Oh, would it be okay if I borrowed that concept? Not the whole thing wholesale, of course, but before I had been thinking more that Optimus would be a little uncomfortable with her organic parts, but now that you've pointed that out it makes so much more sense that he wouldn't (he's spent so much time on Earth, after all) and I like that idea a whole lot better. Like I said, I wouldn't base the whole fic around it or anything, but would it be okay if I wrote it in a paragraph there somewhere?

As far as actually setting this up, I'm not sure how they'd arrange it if it was a one-time thing - how to make the sex seem like something they actually decided to do instead of "okay now here's your porn". The one thought I had was that, maybe at some point after "Black Friday" Optimus figures that he probably shouldn't just leave Blackarachnia out there alone if he knows where she is and what she might be up to, so he heads back to the island - alone, to avoid putting any more of his teammates in danger - without really being sure what he plans to do once he's there. Blackarachnia (or the Dinobots, idk) catches up to him and there's some banter traded about how he came to visit her, how cute. But eventually the conversation turns a bit more serious, and she challenges that, if he really wants him to trust her, he'll come back the next night, alone. That gives me a bit more of a plausible setup, but also means that I'll have to write a big chunk of conversation in maybe two days, eeeek. Why do I always wait this long to start on my springkink fics, it's stupid of me.

Plotty you say? Do share, please. :D

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

Just to get back to your request: yes, go ahead and borrow away! I really like it but I have no idea when, if ever, I'll get a chance to implement myself anyway.

I will get back to the rest of your comment but I didn't want to make you wait around for a simple yes or no answer :D

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

Exactly :( I've gotten a little better - I used to not even be able to tell my friends about the stories I was working on, that was the only way I could work on them, but now I can! So maybe someday, *gasp* talk about my ideas on my journal?? WE SHALL SEE. Aw, I'm glad I could help a little <3

You are so so not the only one interested in fluffy domesticity. I love reading porn as much as the next fangirl on the interwub, but there's something kind of refreshing about mundane activities - specifically, mundane activities committed by characters who are full time bad ass.

That is interesting, but yeah, I love how it's always the fans who have to put that kind of thought into it, fill in all the little plot holes in canon. You shouldn't have to be the one to make them up, but it's awesome you want to :D

re: fic idea: I am really looking forward to see how you apply it to the story! I'd love to get around to using it myself, and maybe someday I will, but we'll see :\ There probably wouldn't even be any plot to it. Mmmm, Optimus and Blackarachnia <3

if he really wants him to trust her, he'll come back the next night, alone.

I like this a lot, and I think it could work well :D I'd go on about it more but it's been a few days since I got your reply, so instead: how's the story going? What'd you decide to go with, and is it working out like you'd hoped? *nosyyyyy* I totally can't judge starting late on your fic, since I've never tried to write for a ficathon or anything close.

_{lordy, I wouldn't even know where to begin - I've completed one thing for this fandom, but I am actively working on at least ten others, all of which pull my brain in different directions. Talking about writing does get the little wheels spinning though~~ *pleased*}

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Talking it out still mostly works with things that I'm on a deadline for and thus have some obligation to finish, too - long fics or things I have no outside impetus to finish, I tend to forget about or fall behind on if I talk about them too much. But that might just be that I'm really bad at writing longfic anyway...anyway, I do encourage you to give it a try, at least with an idea that you're not terribly attached to or urgent about writing (so that way it's not as discouraging if you lose impetus to work on it). There was some study done somewhere demonstrating that the way we best learn and memorize information is by explaining it to someone else, because then we have to know how to rephrase and re-conceptualize it; same thing, I find, goes for stories. You have to know more about them and structure them a bit more to explain them to someone else.

I hope you don't find this creepy but there are so many different points in this conversation where I just want to jump up and down and squee because you have so many of the same tastes in fic that I do! Domestic fic involving characters that we usually see being badass is my favorite, because I just love imagining what they'd do in their offtime and extrapolating bits of their personality into hobbies and interests and guilty-pleasure TV programs. Or the equivalent thereof for robots, in this case. I suppose it's also a handy way of world-building, now that I think of it.

I'd love to get around to using it myself, and maybe someday I will, but we'll see.

*nudges you*

so instead: how's the story going?

Er. It's kind of like the story that wouldn't end, at this point. >__> I've got 1400 words thus far, and only about 200 of them are porny in any fashion - the rest are all setup, and I can't even do that thing that some writers do where even the setup sounds sexy. I've got the bit where they first meet and she "invites" him back, part of the second night (I have Blackarachnia collar him from the trees before he sees her and then negotiating what they're going to do from there, though what she suggests is more that he be willing to be led around on a leash rather than sex in particular - though I figure if she's already got him by the throat I can start turning up the temperature a few degrees so the progression from not-sex scene to sex scene doesn't feel jarring), and a tiny bit of actual kink in there, but it's just not getting written and I'm worried it's way too long and my readers will lose patience midway through and aaaaah. WRITING IS HARD.

And I have no idea if this comment made any sense or not, it is 2 a.m. here and I'm rambling all over the place.

hmmm. Let me give you a place to start - you have any more Blurr fic you're thinking about writing? Which reminds me, I must go and leave a review for your Longarm/Blurr fic, which I've read and adored but I've been a terrible commenter these past few weeks...

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, actually! If you have that obligation to finish it, talking helps to stay focused on the story. Sometimes, when my friend and I are stuck on our respective projects, we'll take turns asking each other what happens next, sort of dissecting it, and it has worked on occasion. Man - when I think about it, I know so many tricks to get myself writing, and get myself motivated, but, when it comes down to getting it done - poof, I never remember any of that stuff when I need to.

_{as a head's up, I'm about to give it a try at the end of this comment. *sheeps* Please forgive me XD}

HEEE. No, I don't find that creepy at all! Clearly the friending meme was kismet because I keep thinking that too :D I definitely want to explore more Badass Robot Domesticity while I'm in this fandom. The only part that I find challenging is figuring out, good lord, what do they do in their off-time? What makes sense for them, as a character? While they're on Earth there's a lot of good starting points, but occasionally when I write fic that involves them being on Cybertron, I get rather blocked because I don't know which Earth-equivalent entertainment they should have, or which would just be silly and fit at all.

...Although, I just caught myself thinking, why not just go crazy with it? Worldbuilding in fic has always been so much fun for me.

WRITING IS TOTALLY HARD ;_; That sounds frustrating, ahhh. 1400?? Damn, still, that's impressive. I don't know if this is helpful or harmful advice: I was trying to write a drabble for a prompt, and no matter what I did, the setup kept getting away from me. Eventually I just looked at it, determined what was relevant, and completely axed the rest. >_>

God, I love the idea that she's perfectly content to have him on a leash for a while, then sex comes up. That's - pretty hot, yeah. o_o

No worries, there was much sense to be had XD It was cool getting your comment so late because I work until 5am today.

Aww, thank you so much. That means a lot to me! And you're evil, because you've said the magic word: BLURR. I... write a lot for Blurr. Most of it involving Longarm/Shockwave, big surprise there. I have three in various stages of completion.

One of them is the first story I started for TF, and I really ought to get back to it at some point - I hit almost 4k and haven't touched it in months. It's roughly about Blurr damaged in space, and Longarm helping him find his way home. It sounds kinda cheesy for a pairing like theirs, but... I don't know, maybe I can pull it off.

The most recent one is nothing but pervy self-indulgence and the last... I don't even know how to make Disassembled sound not-insane. It's a collab with a friend (not an RP, I always feel like I need to make that distinction), it's already hit 11k, and it's maybe 2/3rds done. It hits a lot of the usual stuff you see with Shockwave/Blurr, where he's kept rather than cubed, Stockholm'd, etc - but honestly, I love this story probably above anything else I'm working on. I think the primary difference between Dis and other stories like it (that I've read, at least) is our Shockwave. I love a pervy Shockwave, oh yes, but in Disassembled, there was no intended sexual component to Blurr's capture. There's a lot more to it but, wow, I think I'll stop there or I'll be blabbing all night.

omg tl;dr XD I AM SO SORRY.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

A ha ha ha your icon is hilariously relevant.

Sometimes, when my friend and I are stuck on our respective projects, we'll take turns asking each other what happens next, sort of dissecting it, and it has worked on occasion.

This is exactly the kind of trick I'd use to get my homework done in college - I'd work with a friend, and we'd check on each other every so often, talk over our papers and vent our frustrations. Plus, that'd allow us to goof off in manageable doses; we could take time off and be silly but also check each other so we didn't futz around on the internet for too long. So I guess talking about fic on the internet is kind of the same principle? Only not really?


...Although, I just caught myself thinking, why not just go crazy with it? Worldbuilding in fic has always been so much fun for me.

If there's any venue where you can go crazy, fic for this big, open, nebulous canon would certainly be it. :) I tend to cheat and make Transformer society very humanlike because I'm lazy and rubbish at worldbuilding, even when I'm writing original fiction, but then I suppose there's enough humanization in the actual canon that I suppose a certain amount in fic is to be expected/can be overlooked.

See, this is why I end up writing so much wartime fic - it gives the robots something to do without making me think about what an all-robot society would actually do in its downtime. Whereas if I'm writing TFA!fic on Earth, I can just start asking all the boring grown-up questions that don't get addressed in the show itself, i.e. how are the Autobots paying the electric bill on that warehouse of theirs after Isaac Sumdac disappears, how are they feeding Sari if their grasp on what food is is tenuous, etc. And voila, instant fic potential.

That is good advice - maybe I can just roll with it and write as much intro as I feel like I need, and then, when I'm done, go through and cut out anything that seems unnecessary once the story finishes. No guarantees that I won't just post it by that point because I'm tired of looking at it, but I promise I'll at least try to take the editor's pen to it. Once I learn how to write again. Ahem. *looks shifty*

Heh, I figured Blackarachnia seems to love being worshiped - for all that she talks about the Dinobots' fawning over her "getting old" she never does anything to dissuade them. So collaring would be an aspect of that servitude and worship, not so far outside what actually happens in the show. And then there's her issue of that one TFA manga that ups the dominatrix imagery by kind of a lot, so...yeah, I don't think that's reaching much.

And you're evil, because you've said the magic word: BLURR. I... write a lot for Blurr

A HA HA I KNEW THAT'D WORK. :D You know, up until I started reading your stuff I wasn't all that enthused about Longarm/Blurr because I can never get the impending cubification out of my head while reading it, but I'm finding that that can make a fic more interesting if it's written right, so I'm eager to hear what else you have planned for them. I'm especially excited about Disassembled, because I love the concept of Blurrbeing held captive instead of cubed, but, like you said, so many of the fics using that plotline have a sexual element to them, and while it's as often dubcon as straight-up noncon I have something of a noncon squick, so I'm wary of fics in that vein that I don't know anything about. And a whole long, epic fic about it that would really get into the process and consequences of it? Sign me up!

You are going to tell me more, right? :D

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

Man, I don't know if it's because I'm talking about writing so much lately, but something is jarring some shit loose up in my head and I have been writing every single day. This hasn't happened to me in ages. I don't want to jinx it, but I bring it up because I do think threads like this one have something to do with it, so thank you ♥

I tend to cheat and make Transformer society very humanlike

You and me both :( I tried, I did! I tried to think outside the box and whatnot but it never really worked. One of my final straws was reading one of the IDW comics where I saw, on Cybertron, what looked like a billboard with a sexy femmebot on it. I gave up after that. Their culture is different, of course, but there are enough Earth/human-equivalents that give us a place to start out.

I still have a hard time picturing what TV would look like on Cybertron, and yet I have no problem picturing, say, live performances. Not just gladiatorial combat, but there are so many types of bots and modifications that surely, some can be used solely for artistic/theatric purposes. (Hell, isn't Sunstreaker an artist in the Dreamwave comics?) Especially with a history spanning trillions of years. I keep wanting to go into this more. Hmm. I need to think of an awesome story to use it for.

I can just start asking all the boring grown-up questions that don't get addressed in the show itself

That's it. That's EXACTLY it. A huge chunk of my stories come from basically asking myself, "Wait, how does that work?" over something they imply through the show, and then I'll spend a whole story just making it make sense just for myself.

But yessss. All you can do is get the story out of your head, then you can determine what needs to stay. And hell, I'd even recommend keeping whatever you cut from the finished prompt, because you never know, maybe you can address those ideas again someday.

I can hardly blame her, wanting to be worshiped. Her body is an alien, organic thing, where the majority of Cybertronians *cough* Sentinel probably see her as an abomination. She could use a little sexy attention, and like you said a while back, if just to make her feel less like a freak for a while. Even being wanted by the Dinobots is a reprieve from the usual, but she's too badass to admit to such tiny vulnerabilities.

Aww, thank you so much. I completely understand though - when that TF pairing meme went around (*still needs to do it, heh*), a lot of dislike for Shockwave(Longarm)/Blurr came out into the open. I get it though, any reasonable person can see where that pairing is just fucked up. However~~~ Perfectly reasonable people can still be interested in exploring it. I like Longarm/Blurr because the audience knows what Blurr does not. Everything that Longarm does and says has a double meaning. That is genuinely fascinating to me.

Okay, I would love to tell you more about Disassembled, but I need to preface it by telling you it's absolutely id-candy for me. A lot happens that I find seriously interesting on a psychological level, and other things I just wrote because that's how I deal with stress. Those things are not pretty. I do like dubcon and even noncon when it's appropriate, which is why I'm going to make a hilarious author's note when we post Dis that will read "this story has an alarming amount of consensual sex, and by 'alarming amount' we mean all of it".

If I were to give you a basic run-down... It's told in three parts, where Blurr goes from being an object to be tinkered with (even if Shockwave doesn't have rape in mind, he's still a Decepticon), to being something like a pet that needs to be fed and kept watch over, to actually being allowed to be himself again. My favorite part is Shockwave, though. How he comes across in our story is like... He's ancient. He's so very ancient, and yet in some ways he's completely inexperienced, because his service to Megatron has dominated his entire existence. Blurr is something that needs him. He's never experienced that. He wouldn't have asked for it, but Blurr's dependence on him happens so gradually, he just gets caught up.

Okayyyyyyy comment got away from me again. I hope you like text! :D

[bodyline.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! ♥

OH MY GOD I WAS SO UPSET BO WAS GONE :(

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

ME TOO. During the scenes in the dump I kept feeling even sadder because what if that was where Bo Peep ended up? I CAN'T DEAL WITH THAT. Besides, the only thing that makes me happier than a Woody/Buzz/Jessie gennish OT3 would be a Woody/Bo/Buzz/Jessie gennish OT4, so, basically in an astonishing coincidence Bo got adopted by Bonnie and they lived happily ever after, lalala.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Happy belated birthday! :)

Toy Story was wonderful and I bawled like a baby by the end. Pixar nearly always manages to make me cry, heh. And I seriously need to watch this in English when the DVD comes out - they only show it dubbed on cinemas here, and it's a really really good dub, but... Timothy Dalton!

Wish I could give any advice on the fics, but I consistently manage to write springkink fics with no porn at all. XD

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

I think there's been maybe one or two Pixar movies I haven't cried at. But the Toy Story movies? Up? Wall-E? Monsters Inc.? Get me every time. Even The Incredibles made me choke up a bit in the middle there.

I'm curious - does Spanish!Buzz speak something other than Spanish in the dub? Or does he just speak really over-the-top dramatic Spanish (which he still does in the English version)? My brother thought he might speak Italian in the dubs but then the attempted flamenco dancing wouldn't make any sense. And Timothy Dalton has a smaller role than I thought he would, but he does so much with it. It just made the whole movie better for me.

Normally that's what I'd go for since it's a lot easier, but some of the requests I took this round specifically request porn of some sort, so I kind of feel like I have to, whereas if it was a more general prompt I could get away with keeping the rating down.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

In the Latin American dub, at least, he does speak really over-the-top dramatic Spanish, with an accent from Spain. It's almost as foreign to us as it is to people in the US, really. XD They did that for the Puss in Boots in Shrek's dub, too.

Spain itself tends to have its own dubs for movies, though. I have no idea how they managed to translate the joke there.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

I thought it might be something like that, since the joke wasn't so much that he was speaking Spanish as that he'd become a Ricardo Montalban knockoff. :)

I kind of want to investigate the European dubs and see how they each played the joke now.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Happy belated!

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gorengal.livejournal.com]

You grew up with Toy Story....I watched my daughter grow up with it, so those scenes with Andy in TS3 made me cry. More than once. :/ Check this out: TS2 was the first movie we took the kid to see in a theater. Now she's going into 8th grade, and the day before we saw TS3 I received her school reg forms, including info on graduation gowns and diplomas. *wibble*

I found Big Baby creepy once we realized the day care toys were bad guys. The escape scene where Big Baby is on patrol by the swings and hears something? When the baby's head just turned around? *shudder* Possessed dolls squick me out...too many Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock reruns when I was a kid. :)

How awesome was it that the clawwwww saved them?! I thought it was a cool ending to have the toys at Bonnie's keep in touch with Barbie and the others at day care. Did you see the Army men parachuting into Bonnie's yard at the end? So, don't worry...they're together with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang. ;)

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

I couldn't see my Mom in the theater, but I think the scenes with Andy got to her too, especially since the first Toy Story was the first movie my little brother ever saw in theaters and now he's only one year away from heading off to college. Got to hand it to Pixar, they played exactly to their demographics.

I can see how Big Baby would be really creepy, but for some reason whenever he showed up - even when he was keeping watch on the swing and his head spun all the way around - I just felt really, really sad and sorry for him. I think it was the half-closed eye that tipped me in that direction, because it looked like it was permanently bruised, but really everything about him made me think of an abused child. Even when he was out on the swing I just thought he looked incredibly lonely and isolated.

That was maybe the biggest case of mood whiplash I've ever had. One second OH GOD THE CHARACTERS I'VE LOVED SINCE MY CHILDHOOD ARE ALL GOING TO DIE HORRIBLE DEATHS WHAT IS THIS PIXAR, next second CLAW MACHINE LOL. It was disorienting and strange and I kind of loved it. And I did see the Army Men parachuting in at the end, since my family and I stayed through the credits. It did make me a little bitter because we got no such confirmation that Bo Peep and the binoculars and RC and everyone else was okay, but at least we know they got out alive, so that did make the sadness a little easier to take.

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

Happy (belated) birthday!! :D

I pretty much agree with most of you points re: Toy Story 3, even though I really didn't care as much for it as I'd hoped. I don't agree with #2 (Spanish!Buzz actually kinda grated on me) and #5 (for reasons outlined here). I definitely don't regret watching it at all.

Also, I like your thinking process when writing fic! It really makes me want to start writing again, no matter what it is. And it's good food for thought too. ^_^; The Primal/Prime prompt looked interesting, but I kept on drawing blanks on how exactly I was going to go about doing it. And I'm definitely in anticipation for your Optimus/Ironhide fic, since that's one of my favorite pairings and it doesn't get enough love. (Also, I don't mind your resistance to PWP -- it has its place, but it doesn't always do anything for me. :P)

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm certainly not going to argue that there wasn't emotional manipulation going on in the movie, but, so far as the ending goes, I feel like because the characters that we've been following are the toys, rather than Andy himself, the movie is going to have the happiest ending possible for the toys, even if it means Andy has to give up Woody. And as far as the message of giving up everything from childhood, that particular truism is so inculcated into our culture and its idea of adulthood that I'm not surprised that's what the movie went with. Not saying that it's necessarily the best ending, but the cultural pressure to "put away childish things" is so strong that I'm not really sure how the film could have gotten around it.

For some reason talking about writing is much easier than writing, for me; I'd almost rather just put my ideas out there in plain language and let someone else make them sound pretty. :) So I spend a lot more time puzzling out ideas and stories than I do actually writing them.

I'm not really sure how I'm going to go about writing the Primal/Prime prompt myself, actually. Back when I claimed it I figured I'd have something figured out by now. >__> I am so glad this post is bringing out the Optimus/Ironhide love, because I was starting to think I was the only person (well, not the only person, but the only one I knew of) who shipped that, judging by the relative paucity of fic on the LJ side of things.

I think if the prompts (for the most part) didn't specifically request sex of some sort I'd probably write something PG-13 to get out of it, but even as it is I think I've written straight-up PWP only once. Even if I'm writing a sex scene, it still has to be *about* something, you know? Otherwise I sort of feel like I'm just going through motions. So while it seems like it'd be easier to just forget about story, I'm sure it'd be a lot less satisfying as well.

[morgeil.livejournal.com]

You know, I was going to do a post on Toy Story 3, but you pretty much summed up everything I had to say. :D BONNIE &hearts&hearts&hearts And Buzz/Jessie is too cute for words.

I am somewhat surprised that damned incinerator didn't bump the movie up to PG. WTF THAT WAS TRAUMATIZING.

and the waiter didn't ask for my ID when I ordered a glass of sangria, though, which considering I tend to get mistaken for a sixteen-year-old was rather nice

Argh, this. This happens to me all the time. And I'm 27. Granted, it happens a bit less now than it used to, but still. Guess it's the ponytail? I dunno.

ETA a bunch because I apparently can't type today: Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. WTF brain, priorities.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Bonnie was just precious. And she's so true to life as far as a young, imaginative kid goes - her spontaneity and energy and the whole worlds she created with her toys was just so sweet to watch. I need to go see that movie again.

I am somewhat surprised that damned incinerator didn't bump the movie up to PG. WTF THAT WAS TRAUMATIZING.

Seriously, I'm pretty sure Brave Little Toaster got bumped up to PG for pretty much the same kind of thing. Although the Toys in Toy Story didn't sing about how useless and broken they were, maybe that was what did it.

It has just occurred to me that, now that most of this generation is too young to know what The Brave Little Toaster is, TS3 nicely fills the niche of Movies that Make Children Scared of Landfills and Extremely Reluctant to Throw Anything Away Ever. I was a bit worried that this generation wouldn't have its paranoia-induced packrats!

I tend to get mistaken for sixteen less when I have on formal clothes or dresses, I find; if I've got on jeans and a comfy T-shirt, I generally have to show ID to get into an R-rated movie. Maybe it's because they're more form-fitting? Or maybe it's just that I tend to have makeup on when I'm wearing a dress, I'll bet that helps.

Still, I'm sure once I'm older I'll appreciate being mistaken for a teenager a lot more, so can't complain too much.

Thanks, hon! *hugs you*

[sterling-sky.livejournal.com]

Happy belated birthday, darl!!

Also, Toy Story 3 was SO MUCH FUN. OK, it made me tear up a little too (methinks it was very specifically geared to our age group, non? Ever since the trailers, I've gotten that feeling... it can't be just me, can it?) and my nieces had to hide behind me for portions of it so I couldn't properly hide behind them like I would've liked to during the scary parts BUT STILL. Also, my very own Fisher Price phone was in the movie and that made me squee. And I was torn between wanting to hug Big Baby and being terrified of him on the swing... it looked like a scene out of a horror movie, did it not?

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Thanks! *cuddles*

Oh, Pixar knew exactly the audience they were aiming at - the kids who were Andy's age when the first movie aired are all young adults now, trying at that whole "being an adult" thing, and Pixar played right to that. I'd be annoyed at being shamelessly manipulated but I'm too busy crying. COME HERE OLD TEDDY BEAR I WILL NEVER SHOVE YOU IN THE CLOSET EVER AGAIN. D:

One of my friends had the Fisher-Price phone too! I think it might have been a hand-me-down because I never heard it make any noise, but she did have one. I had the xylophone from the same set!

I feel like I should have been terrified of Big Baby, and the first time I saw him - when he opens the bathroom door - I found him really creepy. And the thing on the swing where he turns his head all the way around. Normally I would have been terrified of that, but up until that point in the movie all I could think about in relation to Big Baby was how much he called to mind an abuse victim, and his sitting all alone on the swing, just watching the playground, really drove that home to me for some reason. I felt too intensely sad for him for the scare to really hit me.