Tag: anon asks

Hey Doc is Arcadia your Tom Stoppard reference in the new chapter? Is Lexa supposed to be a bit like Tomasina? I think I get the way your writing all the jumps in time like Arcadia does back and forth with the past giving us some info about the present. I think thats kind of cool so I dont think it’s confusing if people are it’s just a way of telling the story. I’m also scared for Raven it doesn’t look good for her at all but I also hope next chapter is all Clexa. It’s time!

Yes, Arcadia is an inspiration of sorts, and there are ways to compare the two girls, but it’s nothing overt, I think. 

Poor Raven, yes, but she is very clever.  

While I started on the next chapter (and it is Clexa-centric), I don’t know if I will continue with it.  I’m not feeling terribly connected to any of it right now and I’m not sure others are, either, so.  Sorry I don’t have a good reply for you.  Thank you for reading and writing though, I do appreciate it.  

Pop Quiz: You’ve got one day left to live. How do you spend it?

Well, first off, this is not at all creepy – realistically? I suppose I’d look up a book like How to Live an Entire Lifetime in One Day for Dummies or find some medical authorities who could help me with a cure or something. Or be with my family and my dogs. Watch something that makes me laugh so hard I don’t mind dying in the middle of it.  

EAT WHATEVER I WANT. 

Do you notice the kudos on your fic? I hate to see you walk away from that.

I really don’t understand the kudo system so I don’t pay attention to it.  Feedback is more practical as it tells me what might be good or not so – many of the messages I’ve received have been confused about the story’s plot or things I thought were obvious. There’s a disconnect.  Without that feedback, I wouldn’t know this and could take no real steps toward improving.  

Hi yeah i’m in the east Portland area and it is so thick with smoke they’re warning poeple not to go outside. We have ash falling and its been so hot so its like an oven constantly. I’m pretty scare we’ll be asked to evacuate because its so close and there is ZERO containment like theyre just letting it all burn and working on saving buildings but not stopping the fire. Its really bad. I hope your family is in a safer place.

2 we’re really angry about the lack of containment b/c it is SO close to major residential areas now that would be a nightmare to evacuate. It’s over 10,000 acres right now and there’s no containment. The heat and winds haven’t helped but its so suspciious how the news doesn’t really report on what the fire crews are supposedly doing other than saving buildings that don’t need to be saved. the fire needs to be stopped and thats not happening.

I’ve seen some of the images and this sounds so horrifying. I’m so sorry this is happening to you.  I know nothing about fighting fires so I don’t know about the response, perhaps they are doing what they can do, this fire seems enormous. I hope there is relief soon.  Be safe.  

i’m sad your not gonna finish The Flame.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit – and in a much broader context, so it does go beyond your comment (which I appreciate very much) to something I’ve noticed in the past year or so of reading fan fiction, watching artists, doing my best to interact when I can and sharing what I’ve found worthwhile, and watching others do the same.

The alleged purpose of sharing ourselves is to make a connection. If you put out X energy and there is little to no connection made as a result, that is energy lost, not to be regained.  It’s foolish to continue a project that isn’t connecting with anyone, so you move on and work on something new.  

When I read people upset that their favourite story or writer up and disappeared on them, I have to wonder what energy was expended in support of that work.  If nothing, if you only have indifference, and this applies in all areas of life – you’re not going to have things you enjoy.  Your experiences will be negated by not being fully involved with them.  Lives and all that they are made of – relationships, businesses, schools, holidays, democracies – fail for this very reason.  

You have to participate or it goes away.  That’s fair play, really.  

And then there’s the whole conspicuous over-consumption that the abundance of fan fiction / art (and the fact that it is free) allows.  I’ve read posts from people who claim to have twenty different browser tabs open reading one story after another.  Is this the way fiction is enjoyed now, like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet you gorge yourself on then walk away from?  There’s always a negative side effect.  

It’s wonderful that there are so many creators out there with a story they want to tell and it’s wonderful that we have platforms that allow us to offer them for free, but there is a lot we have to weed through to find the things we might love and cherish a little. When you do find them, share them.  Through sharing, we build discernment and understanding and, hopefully, real community.  

It’s also well to keep in mind that so many of these creators are people who might be experiencing a lot of negativity in their everyday lives – just for being who they are or who others think they are.  People who suffer with mental illness, developmental disorders, sensory processing issues, physical disabilities. Queer people.  People of colour.  Young people.  Women. All the nationalities and languages. All the intersections.  

When we take all of this in, we can give something back, too.  It isn’t difficult. We can make the world a little easier and kinder for one another just by taking part in what we have to share – and no, it isn’t always easy or simple.  I find it very difficult at times, too.  I deeply appreciate the support that is sometimes offered to me – even by total strangers.  

If we take all of this for granted – and it is easy to, because there is so much of it and it’s easy to forget to respect what it takes to give it – we won’t have it long. It will disappear.  

Are there aliens from space doc? are we alone in the universe?

I find it highly unlikely that we could ever find a species similar to our own – we developed under very specific circumstances and the likelihood of that very same process being replicated elsewhere has to be close to nil.  Could there be intelligent life under another form? Of course. We have it on this planet, too. Are we likely to be able to know of it or communicate with it?  No idea.  I’m going to lean toward No.  Could there be intelligent life that utilises technology similar to our own?  No idea.  Again, we evolved under specific circumstances and I don’t think there is much hope that what evolved with us – our technology – could be replicated, either. 

But who knows?  Perhaps our universe is much like described in that ST:TNG episode where all bipedal life forms evolved from one primary species that ‘seeded’ various worlds with their DNA.  

Or perhaps there is a ‘god’ and it has created all sorts of variations of ‘humankind’ or other intelligent species elsewhere and it’s just a matter of time before we collide with them.  

Whatever the case, I hope our own species can evolve a little further intelligence before we start interacting with others (the film Arrival gave an interesting depiction of what this might look like).