The Cheese Grates It: Ship What You Like, Just Don't Act Like An Entitled Ass About It

With the sudden passing of one of my favorite actors, Bill Paxton, I got to thinking about one of my favorite characters, Bill Hudson.

I also got to thinking about my tendency to make really crazy crossovers to make my sometimes difficult life a little better.

Probably the craziest crossover pairing I ever made was Hudson and Velma, as in Scooby Doo Velma. This didn’t happen when I was 13. I was 47. The idea struck me all of a sudden, and it made me laugh, and I needed to laugh. So yeah, in the Netherworld, Bill Hudson and Velma Dinkley are a thing.

Did I then go on to try and force this pairing on everyone else and threaten the creators of Aliens and Scooby Doo that if Hudson and Velma didn’t become Cannon 2KYesterday, I would have a huge shit fit?

No, because I seriously doubt anyone else sees it, but I do hope that the few people who read those fics were entertained by them.

Now I’ve revealed something about me that very few people know to illustrate a point.

Ship whatever the fuck you want. Ship Festus from Gunsmoke with a Xenomorph for all I care. It’s your fic, do what you wanna do. But there are a few things not to do, because, crazy though this may sound, not everyone ships your ship, especially the really wackadoodie crossover ones.

Don’t try to shove your ship down other people’s throats. Don’t browbeat the writers, producers and performers involved with a show/movie that they better make your ship canon or else. If you’re on Tumblr, keep your ship stuff out of the general tags. That’s what the ship tags are for. Non-shippers don’t want to see your ship related posts.

If you have an anti rant, use the anti tags. For instance, I could rave on until the end of time about how much I hate, hate, hate Alien 3. It was a massive pile of Xenomorph spoor. I despise it with a virulent passion. I am going to tag any of my Alien 3 wank “anti alien 3″.

It’s called common courtesy.

Also, if you’re one of those people who trolls the anti tags for your ship, why are you trolling the anti tags for your ship? Do you really enjoy being fired up that much? I know I don’t. I have hella plenty of real world problems. I don’t need fandumb drama.

I kind of doubt there’s an anti Hudson/Velma tag, as I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who’s ever shipped it. But guess what I’m not going to do? That’s right--search for a Hudson/Velma anti tag. Because if there is one, I don’t need that shit.

Added bonus Stuff Not To Do:

Don’t post schmoopy stuff like this and then put it in the main tags. Seriously, if I’m searching the Peter Steele tag (as an example) I want to see pictures of Peter Steele. I want to see Type O Negative, Fallout and Carnivore music videos. I want to see interviews with Peter Steele. I don’t want to see someone mooning over Peter Steele. Create your own tag for that.

For instance, if my Peter Steele obsessed pal Petra had a Tumblr, she could use “pet loves pete” or something of that nature if she were to post something like this. (She wouldn’t, but as an example.) She wouldn’t put it in the Peter Steele or Type O Negative tags, because the majority of fans don’t want to see that shit.

The upshot here is this:

Ship what you like, no matter how crazy. But be respectful.

Take a look at my tags on this post for an example of proper tagging on this kind of post. Note that I don’t put in in the general Aliens, Scooby Doo, or Bill Paxton tags. It doesn’t belong there.

(Some of these rules are particular to Tumblr.)

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

Rest in peace, Bill Paxton

A Revelation, and Further Defense of Fan Fiction

wincestshippingtrash:

samdeangirl84:

blueskies-butterflies-applepies:

bangingpatchouli:

Sam thought Dean was dead! And chill about it?

Stan: See, I find that hard to believe, ‘cause I got to say, Sam, you got the look.
Sam: The look?
Stan: The one a lot of guys get after they’ve been through the meat grinder – the one that lets you know they’ve seen a lot of crap they can’t forget. The second their feet hit solid ground, they start running, and they don’t stop – not till they find something to hold on to.
Sam: You think that’s what I’m doing here? Just holding on?
Stan: I think the two of you are holding on to each other, yeah. ‘Cause I know she’s scared. After what happened to Don, I don’t blame her for taking off. Needing to run away and hide – I know why she did it. The question is – what are you running from, Sam?…

Sam: Please, yeah. [STAN opens the beer and hands it to SAM.] Thanks. [STAN opens another beer for himself.] My, uh – my brother used to do that.
Stan: Yeah?
Sam: Yeah.
Stan: He a good guy?
Sam: Yeah. Yeah, uh, he – he was… the best. Uh, I, uh… I lost him, and, uh, I ran.

Sam was suffering PTSD. That’s what Amelia’s father was talking about. He’s soldier. He recognized it in Sam right away. Sam was hiding from his grief and his real life as a hunter because it had taken the most important person in his life.

Amelia: Is that why you’re here – to drag me back? This is my life.
Stan: This – it won’t last. You are living in a dream world.
SAM turns back to the sink.
Amelia: I like it here. I like this house. I like Sam.
Stan: Sam is a mess.
Amelia: I’m a mess. But when I’m with Sam, I’m happy, Dad. And I haven’t been happy in a really long time. So please, just… let us be messes together. Give us a chance.

And later Sam tells Fred:

Look, it can be nice living in a dream world. It can be great. I know that. And you can hide, and you can pretend … all the crap out there doesn’t exist, but you can’t do it forever because… eventually, whatever it is you’re running from – it’ll find you. It’ll come along, and it’ll punch you in the gut. And then… then you got to wake up, because if you don’t, then trying to keep that dream alive will destroy you! It’ll destroy everything!

Look, I know that Sam’s story wasn’t told well, but it’s there in the text if you look. Sam didn’t just not look for Dean. He abandoned Kevin and didn’t hunt down the remaining leviathan. He was traumatized, and he went AWOL.

I’ve said this kind of thing over and over and OVER and it makes me a little sad that nobody is listening. People ask for explanations and then promptly ignore anything that doesn’t make Sam a horrible person.

I agree that Sam’s story wasn’t told very well at all, but it’s STILL THERE if anybody either bothers to look or actually listen to someone who has.

I didn’t think it was stupid or pointless, I thought it built character and I thought it’d be a good chance for us to see Sam dealing with trauma. It just makes me a little sad (again) that people either can’t or won’t see it that way and instead view it as Sam “being chill” about it.

That was the opposite of Sam being chill. Sam was so not chill that he wasn’t even Sam at that point. He had vacated the building. When Dean disappeared, so did the Sam we know. That is in no way surprising. He was so traumatized that he just shut down. He would not have needed to run away if the pain hadn’t been so great that even Sam was afraid to face it. That right there says a lot. People who think Sam didn’t care that Dean was gone have obviously never dealt with that level of grief and pain and have no understanding of the fact that everyone expresses it differently. No, Sam wasn’t “chill”. Sam wasn’t even Sam. That’s what PTSD is all about.

I wanted to say that this conversation helped me realize something that’s been going on with me for years now. After years of being told to “just get over” things, I started shutting down my emotions. This is an accumulation of things that have happened in my life, including being sexually assaulted 20 years ago this October 31, an incident which, by the way, I was advised “you got over this when it happened to you before” (when I was 18.) “You’ll get over it this time.”

I don’t think I ever got over it, I just realized that no one would listen to me so I internalized it and kept going. I still had multiple daily panic attacks for a year.

My father died after a long period of decline in 2010. I was very stoic about it. I kept going. It’s not like there was anything I could do to change things.

November 4 2014 is the day that I learned that someone who was a personal hero to me was having his mind stolen from him by dementia. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t do either. I filed it away. I think about this person multiple times every day, and I feel awful and helpless, but I never cry.

July 17 2015 should have been a wonderful day but it was one of the worst in my entire life. It was my best friend Lafayette’s birthday. People will say of Lafayette “oh, he was just a cat, you should get over it,” but learning that his kidneys had shut down and I had no choice but to have him put to sleep, I felt like I’d been hit by a fucking asteroid. I didn’t know why I was still alive. I didn’t cry, though. I went numb and I got angry. Over the weekend, that day kept replaying itself in my mind repeatedly and I literally wanted to kill myself just so that fucking memory would stop. I always wonder what I could have done differently, if there was any way I could have saved him. He loved me, he believed in me, and I let him down.

November 9 2016 was a banner shitbag day. Not only did the Electoral College inflict Lord Dampnut on our country, but I lost my dear friend Trinity to lung and brain cancer. Trinity was another one of my cats. She was an 11 year old Calico cat with the loudest purr. I did cry when I said goodbye to her, but when I walked out of the vet’s office, I went stoic.

People accuse me of being cold inside, but if I let myself feel the pain, I couldn’t function. I often wonder what the hell is wrong with me because these things make me so sad. I want to cry, but I literally can’t. Also, I’m afraid if I were to start crying, I’d break down completely.

I know this was long winded and I’m sorry if it’s hijacking the original post. It’s just that I wanted people to know their words helped me understand something. It also helps me understand why I’ve had a hard time writing. I don’t feel like I deserve to. I feel like the worst fucking person in the world.

I guess I feel better in a way, because I feel like if Sam had a similar problem, then maybe I’m not such an awful person after all.

Sam is a hero. He is also one of my alternate universe friends. I don’t care how stupid anyone thinks that is.

I just wanted to put this here to help people understand one of the reasons why I defend fan fiction so staunchly. Fan fiction is not just a medium for “horny teenage girls and frustrated unhappy women” to get their rocks off. It can literally save lives. Not everyone’s life is wonderful and not everyone has a healthy support system. 

A discussion about a fictional show (Supernatural) helped me to be able to find a little peace with myself about something I’ve been struggling with for quite a while now. That isn’t a small thing.

I’m 52 years old as of today. I am certainly not a horny teenage girl. I may be a “frustrated, unhappy woman,” but it isn’t in the sense that most people think of. I don’t expect to have Prince Charming ride in and save me, nor do I even want that. I just want to get things paid off and not leave a huge mess behind for my son. I want to leave something behind to help my son out when I’m gone. I want to be able to find some peace when my time comes. Those are the things I want, not some fairy tale romance.

I will always defend fan fiction and will never ridicule someone who takes comfort in an alternate world. 

Fan Fiction Support: Frozen AU Fan Made Videos

This set of fan-made videos is a "Frozen" AU where Elsa starts a job babysitting for a young boy named Jamie, and the boy's older brother, Jack, becomes enamored with Elsa.

The videos are not professional quality and the story line reflects the youth of the creator. However, we fully support the creation of such stories, whether or not they lead to "real" writing. They are real writing and stand on their own merit.

Fan fiction is not lesser writing. It is real writing. 

These fan-made videos are enjoyable to watch, and we hope the creator continues to express herself through the worlds she finds enjoyable, whether those worlds are of her own making or were originally created by others.

Cie and Wanda

for 

Team Netherworld

and

Crazy Creatives Cheerleading Camp

Fan Fiction: We Writes It

Written by Blooming Psycho, posted on our now defunct Wordpress blog.

The topic of anti-fan fiction snobbery is actually covered far better than I can do in these posts: http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/2009/01/on-the-term-fan-fiction/ http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/2010/05/fan-fiction-is-fiction/ This is an excellent blog, and I highly recommend it, although the author of the blog makes me super duper uber jealous with their big brain and sleek, sensible writing style! 

 We of Team Netherworld have run onto anti-fan fiction snobbery on more than one occasion. What we write both is and isn't fan fiction. We do use borrowed characters and borrowed universes. We create our own characters which belong with those characters. We use characters like Dr. Who and Harry Potter, who can pretty much dance in and out of any multiverse. 

 Why do we do this? The reason is simple. BECAUSE WE LIKE IT! 

 We don't think that anything we write is going to sell and be turned into a book or movie. Anyone who saw said book or movie would be saying "what nut wrote this?" 

The answer is a resounding TEAM NETHERWORLD! But you won't ever see that happening. Why? Because that's not what we're about. 

 We're about having fun, but we find ourselves constantly having to defend our right to do so. It's like we've got to fight for our right to party. This is ridiculous, given the fact that everyone involved in this blog graduated high school an average of 25 plus years ago.

 Prior to creating the (now mostly defunct) Undead in the Netherworld blog, The Cheesy One was advised that if she would stop writing "shell characters," her writing would be more interesting. The person delivering this criticism went on to say that psychologically wounded people often choose to write "shell characters" in an attempt to fill in the missing parts of their personality. 

In other words, if one is ever to become a "real" writer, one must not write fan fiction. This person did not take into account the fact that our sometimes not so fearless leader was having a psychological breakdown, and that anything she could do to keep herself from landing firmly in the pit was a positive. 

 Another place where one encounters anti fanfic snobbery is from self-proclaimed academics. I will say right now that this is not true of everyone with an advanced degree. However, I have found that on many occasions people who have a degree, particularly in the literary arts, tend to act like they're "too good for the likes of fan fiction."

 I'm not going to try to separate the sort of things that we write from the sort of stuff sometimes written by people who are just starting out. These are often teenage girls, and they tend to place themselves in the position of the heroine. They are often just starting to find their voice, and the quality of their writing tends, overall, to be less than stellar. 

 As the author of the Fandoms and Feminism Tumblr has pointed out, many of these young writers are exploring their sexuality. While we, from our jaded adult vantage points, may find some of what they write to be cringe-worthy, we should be praising their efforts, not ridiculing them into silencing their developing voices. Their work may not be as polished as that of an adult. It may not be something that could ever earn them a living. But it does have a right to exist, and it plays an important role. 

 When it comes to adult fanfic geeks such as we here at Team Netherworld, our reasons for choosing fan fiction tend to be different. In the case of this erstwhile group, we are individuals who live with and sometimes suffer from various mental illnesses. 

To put it bluntly, this shit is catharsis. It will never sell. It will never gain a vast audience. And, as we have discovered, most people stare at it agog and say "Huh? I don't geddit."

 I personally swear to never again let anyone's belief that my tales are the crotch rot of the writing world get me down. Maybe fan fiction is the dive bar of the writing world. Dive bars have their place. Some of us don't feel at home in a high-fallutin' Martini and Sushi night spot. 

 Peace Out, 

Bloomy 

The Cheese Grates It: Real People Fics

I’m not in the camp that feels that writing fics involving real people makes you complete and utter scum. Obviously, one has to be more thoughtful when involving real people in their writing than they do working with fictional characters. At least I hope this would be obvious. However, the better fics involving real people are generally hyperbolic and involve a “what if” component.

For instance, I once saw a graphic where a person had listed their choices for a zombie apocalypse fic involving their favorite musicians. While I’m pretty sure Angus Young doesn’t have any medical training, I don’t think he’d be offended by being this writer’s choice for the medic character in their zombie apocalypse story.

I try to keep any fics involving a Real People Character component pretty gen and generally over the top ridiculous if I’m going to be making them public. Any AU involving more serious (generally metaphysical) thoughts I keep on the down-low.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~