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There are five things Jamie Tartt knows to be true: 1) His mum loves him unconditionally 2) His dad will never change 3) His right foot was kissed by God 4) He loves Roy Kent desperately and is loved in return 5) He is the human personification of Viagra because last night Roy railed him four times.  FOUR

Headlines across the nation wonder why Jamie Tartt looks so fucking smug on the pitch of late.  What does he know that the public doesn’t? What does it mean for the England Team? Is he going to be announced the new Captain?

Meanwhile, if the Richmond dressing room hears “four times, lads. It weren’t even our anniverser-eh” one more time, someone is gonna die.

Beard keeps making cryptic comments at Roy every 3-5 business days and the team just stare in awed silence anytime he walks into a room.

He finally snaps

I hate it when people defend fic by insisting that it is, or can be, better than published fiction. Fic can be very good, but it is a whole different genre, and really good fic never tries to be like published, or even publishable fiction.

Case in point, I recently read a story that absolutely floored me with the strength of its characterisation, dialogue, and sheer vision. It was a deliberate riff on the concept of Omelas, fitting a new narrative into the imagery of darkness and light, of solitary suffering under a joyful city. It engaged with the problem of evil and the difficulty of not only building a just society, but also ensuring it actually remained just in the face of serious pressure over time. It made me feel things I haven’t felt since I was eighteen and heavily overidentified with Alyosha Karamazov.

But I can’t share this brilliant gem of a story with anyone I know irl because it also has three scenes of Optimus Prime getting vigorously dicked in the dorsal access port, whatever that is.

The Spy Kids movies have the exact vibe of when you and your friends are running around in the backyard creating an elaborate story based entirely around whatever random nonsense happens to be lying around.  This empty happy meal box is a computer.  If I spin this bop-it the right way it will unlock the secret door.  We have to get to the jets! (The jets are the swings).  My little sister says her pigtails spin around and let her fly and we all agree with that.  These swim goggles let me see through walls.  There are a series of stepping stones leading to a big rock in the middle of the garden.  The rock is the office of the Head Spy and the dirt is actually a bottomless pit, so you have to be careful when you jump across.  The bad guys have disabled all our weapons but my necklace is actually a secret super cool weapon that works anyway!  There’s logic and continuity but only as much as a bunch of five-to-twelve year olds can keep straight without bothering to keep notes or look up any science facts they don’t already happen to know.  This is not a complaint.

Thinking about how Jamie got his name (James) from his dad but in only ever going by Jamie it’s another indication of how he’s more reminiscent of his mother, Georgie and it’s really like the way that he’s the product of both of them influenced by both of them made up of both of them is reflected all over him right down to his name I’m—