Introduction Thread

[isi]

Because I feel like I need one.

So, I'm Isi, and apparently the only one not using a sockpuppet name, for a couple reasons. For one, I guess I didn't get the memo that it's almost expected here (at least, it's kind of the norm?), and I'm terrible at coming up with new names for myself anyway. Also, I'm always pleasantly surprised when a website allows me to just be Isi, so I couldn't pass that up. Usually the name's already taken, or the website doesn't allow for names that short. Plus I'd feel like I'd need to obscure who I am elsewhere to protect my fakey-fake identity here, and I guess I don't feel any need to do that (but I get why other people might want to), and I don't want to have to censor myself by not saying anything that might connect me to my reddit name. So I am who I am. *shrug*

Anyway, this is a community I was told I might like, so I'll give it a try. This place seems pretty friendly and casual, which I like. The reddit's great and all, but there's always that underlying pressure to only say something if it's clever or insightful, lest you attract the dreaded downvoters. There's not always freedom to just chat about whatever, so this could be a nice change of pace.

Confession time: I've never been into fanfic, like, at all. I don't know why. If I try to read some, even if the source material is something I really enjoy, my eyes immediately glaze over and I never get more than a few lines in before I start skimming. What's funny is that fan art does a lot of the same things, just in visual form, and I love fan art. I never felt the need to ever write fanfic either... Well. There's a few caveats there. What happens is sometimes something will inspire me, and where normal people will just write their fanfic in that situation, I'll go to great lengths to convince myself it's not really fanfiction. I'll integrate it with my own personal spin on the characters and events until I've turned it into an original idea. In fact a lot of what I'm writing now was originally inspired by Mindcrack in some way.

I think that's enough blabbing for now. Maybe tell me a bit about yourselves or the kind of stuff you like? Also, I'm making up a new tag for this. I couldn't figure out what else to put. I hope it's okay.

Comments

[placeblocks]

Yeah, and the thing is sometimes I don't think he's playing it for laughs or "playing up a character." I don't think he realizes he's doing it sometimes, or just how over-the-top it gets. (And I think that's part of the reason too why he's so upset when people do call him out on it. If he was doing it on purpose I don't think it'd "hurt" him so much.) The podcast where he muted himself was really awkward because it was a much better podcast after he shut up, but I feel bad about the fact that I enjoyed it more that he wasn't there. I really do like Pause, but in small doses and in certain situations. But my overall growing dislike of him is part of the reason why I just can't ship Beef/Pause even though it's such an obvious, basically "canon" ship. I ship them on the surface but I can't get shippy about them because ... I dunno, I feel like Beef deserves better, and plus Pause/Millbee seem to just click better. (I sometimes wonder if Pause annoys Beef as much as Pause annoys me and Beef is just an infinitely patient, wonderful guy who somehow just puts up with it. I mean, I DO drink alcohol and Pause's drinking antics sometimes annoy me. I can't imagine how that much be for Beef...)

[isi]

I've already said I'm not one for fanfic or shipping, but that post gives me fic ideas that I will now proceed to never write. I've been here less than 24 hours and you people are already corrupting me. I don't know what's going on in my brain anymore. :P

[placeblocks]

You don't have to WRITE the fic ideas, just share them so that the others who DO write them can write them. :D :D

[isi]

Well basically just going from what you said about Beef being secretly annoyed by Pause and deserving better but still putting up with it for some reason. Beef would slowly start to question their relationship, how Pause is always traipsing around with Millbee and how they don't seem to click as well anymore. He'll do a lot of contemplation alone, perhaps drowning his sorrows in chocolate milk, and remember back to his half hearted appeal to Guude to be his new bestie in the first podcast. Is he better off trying to move on, or continue putting up with the hyperactive, neglectful Pause?

[placeblocks]

Mwahahahaha yes. I think we recently discussed in depth the whole Millbee-Pause-Beef threesome fiasco, and how it seems like Millbee and Pause are fairly open and content to have a poly relationship, Beef doesn't seem as comfortable with it, but is perhaps too nice (and perhaps genuinely too in love with Pause) to end it. It's a whole big conundrum for me with regards to shipping them. I'm trying to find the discussion, it was only a few days ago, but I can't seem to locate it, lol. I'll link you if I do, though.

[placeblocks]

Of course seconds later I found it:
http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/4755.html?thread=43923#cmt43923

Edit to link back up one comment thread.

[isi]

Oh yes, that is exactly it. And there may be no good way to resolve it, but that's what's so tragic about it, isn't it? If it were me writing it, it'd go on with Beef quietly giving up on Pause, trying his hardest to keep his heartbreak to himself, but never getting over it, but also not willing to go back. Eventually Pause will notice Beef's never around anymore when he gets back from partying with Millbee, and he'll try to approach him. Then there's this big, awful, tear filled confrontation, but Beef still wouldn't go back to how things were. If it still continued from there, it'd shift to Pause trying to sort his feelings out, probably feeling betrayed because he never perceived there to be much of a problem, and maybe Beef never really communicated what he wanted in the first place, and....

That kind of ran away from me. Um. Seriously, you people have corrupted me already.

[placeblocks]

Ahahahaha, right? :D It's just SO EASY with these guys. A lot of times fanfic writers have to really create elaborate back story to "hook up" the characters they want to ship, or risk making them very OOC/out of character. But it's basically canon here. You don't have to pretend Beef and Pause are dating, or that Pause and Millbee are lovers. They all joke about it. Whether or not they're serious, there's tons of "evidence" in their episodes, most of it fairly explicit and undeniable. So, there's no need for epic "Hook up" fic. For at least some of these pairings, they're already "together."

But yeah, you can definitely play the angst up a lot. I think Pause would probably rage and make the break up All About Him And How He Was Betrayed instead of thinking about how much it actually (quietly) hurts Beef. Because at the end of the day, Pause is gonna go to Millbee and rage about what a shitty boyfriend Beef was and FUCK HIM ANYWAY GO WATCH TOP GEAR ALONE AND NEVER GET LAID AGAIN SEE IF I CARE and Beef is just gonna sit in his big empty castle that doesn't have a roof and be sad, and wonder if this is really better. I mean, sure Pause was hurting him, but isn't it better to be with Pause 50% of the time than alone 100% of the time? (And that thinking is probably why Beef "put up with it" for as long as he did--well that and I think he really did/does love Pause.) But yeah.

I'd be easier if there was someone else obvious I could ship Beef with. I like Guude as an option, but Guude is pretty obviously OTP with BDoubleO, so that'd just lead to the same sort of poly situation. Etho is an option, but I don't get any especially obvious shippy vibes between Etho and Beef...

[isi]

Hehehe, all excellent developments. But then you know, when Pause is done being angry, he's going to really miss Beef even if he doesn't realize it, though his own confused feelings would probably make him angry all over again. But then Millbee has to keep hearing about it, and I don't even know him well enough to figure how he'd handle that.

Beef is something of a loose end. I don't think him and Guude would really work out. I like that bit from the first podcast I mentioned earlier with Beef adopting Guude out of nowhere, but I saw that mainly as stunt to make Pause jealous or just hide from his feelings, but maybe he'd be desperate enough to try it. But you're right. He probably still loves Pause but isn't willing to deal with it, so no one's going to be a good alternative for him either way.

Things are not going well for Beef in this scenario, are they? Not unless he learns to be alone and actually let go, or Pause changes somehow. Gosh, maybe suffering the daily tedium of quietly putting up with Pause is the only way out.

[placeblocks]

Yeah, I don't think Beef and Guude are a suitable solution, even if BDubs wasn't an issue. They're good friends and could watch Top Gear together, but I don't see any sort of shippy sparks between them. Same with Etho, Kurt, Bdubs, Baj, etc. Beef really only has the bromance with Pause.

In real life I'm totally fine with being alone and happy and waiting for someone else to come along, but in terms of fanfic, I love my angst, but I want to have a happy ending, so I'd hate to end a fic with Beef still alone. (I do agree that Pause would miss Beef terribly too once he got over his initial rage, but I'm not sure what difference that'd make. Obviously it'd be nice if they realize they're better off as friends vs. never talking again, but you still end up with Millbee/Pause and Beef alone. As for Millbee, I see him as pretty open minded, and so long as Pause's sadness over losing Beef isn't detrimental to THEIR relationship, I think he'd be fine/get it.)

[isi]

But hypothetically, could it get to the point where Pause lets it impact his relationship with Millbee? Does he miss Beef that much that he would let that happen? Then what would Millbee do? I just feel like I need to do something with him, but he's far too chill to be an easy source of conflict.

What we need now is some kind of external conflict to bring them back together to at least face each other again to possibly work something out. Something really cheesy, like Beef's life is in danger and Pause is the only one who can save him for some reason, and maybe that'll be the push to make him realize how much he needs Beef, and Beef realizes just how bad it was without Pause, or some other kind of life altering realizations are had, and they can all settle into whatever the resolution is to this sordid tale, for better or worse. I still don't know which.

If only Millbee had some secret dark side where, in a sudden plot twist, he reveals he purposefully engineered the love triangle to have Pause to himself and eventually murder Beef for good because of some kind of convoluted backstory wherein Beef taught Millbee everything he knew about villainy but didn't know at the time it would lead to this. Then Millbee gets thwarted so Pause and Beef live happily ever after. But obviously that doesn't fit. I just still feel like I need to do something with Millbee.

[placeblocks]

HAHAAHHAHAHA, that is amazing. I think Millbee is sort of over Pause's bullshit, too, though. I don't know if you watched their recent joint caving episode where they talk about how they met. The two definitely have chemistry/spark, but in the episode Pause starts raging and saying things like "I don't want to play with you anymore" and Millbee, very patiently, says, "This is why we broke up the first time." So, it's not hard to see Millbee also getting affected by Pause's rage/affection for Beef/whatever.

Clearly the solution here is for Millbee and Beef to hook up, right? XD To be fair, I think Millbee isn't going to be hurt breaking up with Pause the way Beef is. I think Millbee is much more poly and open relationships and would just move on to the next person, whereas Beef is like ~love~ and ~family~ and ~relationships~. (It might help that Beef is 31 to Pause and Millbee's early-20s. They're in different places in their lives.) But yeah, I think Millbee would be much more okay with Pause being monogamous with Beef than Beef is breaking up with Pause. PAUSE, on the other hand, I think would probably go stir-crazy if he had to be boring monogamous with Beef for eternity, and that'd either lead to resentment, or cheating. (Or both.)

[isi]

Hehe, Millbee and Beef hookup. Twist ending! XD

You're right, a Pause/Millbee breakup would just leave room for future conflict. There still isn't a clean way to resolve. The best I can think of right now is if everyone was willing to compromise a little. Kind of like how it was, but shifted so it's not too taxing on Beef or Pause. Mostly monogamous, but Pause is still allowed the occasional escapade with Millbee, just not as often. And maybe Beef and Millbee could kind of become friends as well, and Millbee could help explain some of Pause's behaviors to Beef. Maybe if they get along well enough they could do a full on closed three way. Beef would get the constant, exclusive relationship, but from two sources, and there's enough variety to keep Pause interested.

That's all I got! I'm not sure what we've created, and it was fun, but I need to bow out for a little bit.

[damnreddit]

There's a couple small things you could work with with Etho and Beef, but I'm talking really small, just a few comments from Beef here and there that you have to read into a lot. Even as much as I love to read into things way more than they deserve, it's a stretch.

Beef and GenerikB have amazingly good chemistry -- see the "port-a-potty" episode. There was nothing remotely shippy about it, but who knows what could happen in the future if they keep doing stuff.

I want to write about a hundred things in this thread -- no time! grrr.

[kissingpigmen]

This is some bad news for the fan art I'm drawing, then.

If anything, though, the only redeeming quality I can find about Pause is the persona he's created, I guess? Like, less Alex and more Pause, the combination of his little quirks and his character skin. And even then, it's still hard to appreciate.

Maybe I should've made the picture of OOG instead.

[placeblocks]

I am sure I will like whatever it is you're drawing. I do like Beef/Pause, I'm just not shippy about it? (Anything with Beef in it is A-OK by me, anyway.) And I do like Pause, I just don't like him the way I used to, and I'm not the biggest fan. But it's not like I hate him or even really dislike him. I dislike some of his stuff/personality, but I would still consider myself his fan.

But I certainly won't say no to future OOG stuff. Or anything, really. I just love fanart. Obviously I'm a big Beef fan, but I've flailed myself silly over fanart of MC, Nebris, Adlington, you name it.

[mindcrack_love]

Any and every piece of fan work is welcome here. Truuuuuuust me. <3

[damnreddit]

I like Pause a lot, even given his flaws, even when its' sometimes too much for me to actually watch some of the stuff he does. (I prefer to watch people who are enjoying what they're doing.) I can relate to the insecurity behind it all.