Sometimes you just need to stand on a rock and howl.
The Budgerigar Burglars
"A little birdie told me something..."
@professorcalculusstanaccount, thank you for doing the promotional/cover art of the story!! I would also like to thank them for bouncing ideas with me and subsequently proof/beta reading chapter 1 ― they’ve been very supportive and encouraging.
While I was unable to post on the actual dates I set up due to some personal reasons on my end, I will *hopefully* have it out sooner or later.
As a sort of teaser 2, here’s the first 101 words of The Budgerigar Burglars by @professorcalculusstanaccount and me, Jo :> !
Tintin was Bobbie’s most expensive drunken purchase.
He can’t remember much from the night he got the cockatiel, much less how he got his name― he just woke up with a pounding headache one morning, to a bird singing showtunes in his ear, in the dilapidated state of their (once shared) apartment.
Recalling past events, it was the night they’d finally settled for the divorce; his then wife was packing her belongings, planning to head off to who knows where and Bobbie was drinking enough spirits that could turn him into a spirit, if he kept at it for too long.
When the full thing does come out, I plan post it on to AO3 and post a link to the fic here on Tumblr.
For slightly more info on what the story and AU is about, click on to here to visit teaser 1 which is also the current pinned post of my blog!
image so majestic I had to study it
original from mr John Newblood!
new animation preview :)
learned how to use blenders film making tools
the reason is that the reboot's writers were so obsessed with catering to fans which, apparently, included dumbing down the villains and making them softer because they were fan favorites and making Abe intentionally unlikable due to the writers' personal bias and hatred of the fans, because they never understood what his character was even a parody of
im glad they made cleo meaner in the third season, but im still so pissed that they made jfk dumber. every time he says something i just go "he would not fucking say that" in my head. its like they forgot why people liked them in the first place. they like characters who are assholes (topher is an example) and while jfk was clearly not smart or anything in the og show, he wasnt as braindead as he is in the reboot
it just hurts to see the way they wrote abe, because he was genuinely such a hilarious and goofy character. they made his crush on joan his whole personality in season 2 and in season 3 he was incredibly sex driven which ?? he never was??
Forever unhappy about how they treated the whole main cast. Don't get me wrong Abe probably got it the WORST but everyone else in the og cast feels like a worse fanfic-esq version of themselves. ( Not dissing fanfic, they can be good. ) In the kinda way we're characters they like are babied and watered down, and characters they don't like are tourmented and villianized. They lost everything that made them unique or funny. Abe is now a scapegoat for everything and is just punched down for comedy ( I don't like this approach with Topher either but that's for another day. ) Cleo is a stereotypical " dumb mean girl " even though she was smart in the og series. JFK is so babied he can't do anything wrong he is extremely BORING. And Joan so mischaraterized she is so boring now.
Hey. Minors following me. Internet safety is key!! NEVER include these in your bio/byf:
Medical diagnoses - this is nobody's business but yours. You don't owe anyone an explanation for why you are the way that you are
Trauma - same reason as above
Triggers - people can use these against you! Don't give people tools to hurt you. No one has to know what tags you block. Just block tags to stay safe!
Age - age is okay for adults to include but is iffy when you're a teen. Predators want this information, don't give people more than they need. Just state that you're a minor, that's all that anyone needs to know.
In general: stay safe. If you're not comfortable with every stranger out there having access to this information, you shouldn't post it on the internet.
Play devil's advocate and ask yourself about what would happen if someone searched for your information with intent to hurt you. You do NOT owe anyone an explanation!
Some ramblings I had but decided to make it its own post
"But you were never broken, Viktor."
This line is about Viktor's self-esteem and worth as an individual.
While a confident character (especially in Act 1 of Season 1), Viktor lets himself be weighted down by people's negative perceptions of him.
When introducing himself to Jayce and talking him down from jumping, Viktor uses extremely negative words to describe himself (and literally "crippled").
And with the beginning of Viktor's health decline from then on so do his confidence and relationship with others.
Viktor refuses to be on stage with Jayce when they first present Hextech. (And Jayce respects his decision and doesn't force his hand!) He doesn't want to be publically acknowledged as Jayce's partner.
We don't actually see Viktor being close to anyone but Jayce. Especially during the more dire breakouts of his disease coinciding with his research on the Hexcore. He becomes so obsessed that he pushes everyone away. While I don't think he has ever loved Sky romantically, she was still a colleague of his with a good opinion of him. And yet we see him reject her companionship (which could have been kept perfectly friendly and platonic!) and lose himself in his work, quite literally.
It is shown to us explicitly that Jayce cares about Viktor's health (he leaves Mel to come to Viktor's bedside). And yet Viktor lies to him about potential treatments, in fear of what Jayce would think. What he wouldn't understand. Without even knowing what Jayce would think (and as season 2 has proven us, Jayce did in fact support the augmented hextech solution) he immediately comes to the conclusion that Jayce would reject him. This is a sign of low self-esteem.
What happened to Sky was extremely traumatic and he clearly feels an overwhelming amount of guilt. However we don't really see him confide in anyone, don't see him relying on anyone for moral support. He bottles it up and keeps his worries and guilt to himself, which doesn't work well.
When Viktor attempts and literally toes the line about suicide, this time Jayce is the one preventing him from jumping. And it is because of these circumstances I believe that Viktor finally admits a part of his wories and guilt about Hextech to someone. And still he doesn't tell the full story (Jayce only learns about Sky in season 2)
Viktor's confidence comes back in full bloom in season 2, once he becomes fused with the Hexcore and gains access to a perfect body. (Note that I use perfect here because this is what the Herald of the Arcane believes).
Fuck, he catwalked into the council room vhen he confronted Jayce in episode 8. We have literally never seen this character do that before. He is cocky, he is literaly the one on top of Jayce. He oozes confidence and charisma.
During the various scenes in the astral plane, Viktor is often depicted as this grand, majestic and huge figure. He towers over everyone, looks down on people. He is confident in himself and his abilities. But when Jayce rejects his vision ("my partner died in this room") and defeats him with Mel, we see Viktor become physically smaller. Cuddled and small on the floor, rejecting Astral Sky's touch.
Once again, his physical appearance reflects his own inner worth. He believes that Jayce doesn't want him = he shifts back to a ""weaker"" state and immediately rejects others' comfort.
This rejection is also what directly links to him shedding all his humanity to achieve this "perfection."
And when the mask comes down (literally) after Ekko threw him time in a bottle at the end of episode 9, and a part of his real, human face is revealed, Viktor once again becomes smaller.
Here the shift is radical. He goes from being meters tall to smaller than Jayce's height. Viktor tries to protect, to shield himself. He doesn't want to be perceived in this weak state.
This is why it is such a pivotal point that Viktor reverts back to his own body after Jayce showed him the truth, that he turns to face Jayce as equals in their human forms. This is Viktor finally accepting himself as who he is, accepting his worth as a human being.
When Jayce tells Viktor "you were never broken," he means that Viktor was always a whole person, not lesser than. That he was always worthy of compassion, love and respect just like everyone else. That there was nothing "broken" about him that could justify a negative perception of him.
No parts of him are broken because every part of him can be loved,
Viktor's disability and disease are a part of him but that does not mean Viktor himself is broken.
Jayce's confession is essentially a love letter to the person Viktor is ("a part of everything I admired about you"). It is not a comment about how Viktor shouldn't care about his health. It is a comment about Viktor's own worth and how he is deserving of love, truly and fully just as he is. That a perfect body doesn't make him worthier.
”don’t be mad at Jorge about the stream cancelling” BRO THIS IS SO FUNNY I COULD NEVER BE ANGRY, THE ODYSSEY MUSICAL BEING AFFECTED BY A STORM? Beautiful