#metamonday

So I’ve taken the quiz a million times but I decided to take it again since Reza has had a lot of developments. He used to be a Rawenclaw but now, he’s a Hufflepuff, most likely since his will to study, read, write etc. has been crushed by his relationship. But Reza definitely is Loyal to the people he chooses, as well as Hardworking.

I was completely lost on his patronus but Immo actually gave me the great suggestion of a fox. So yeah, a fox.

[meta] So out of the people Reza actually knows, he gets along well with Izel (ahem), Fiona, Miles, Lainie and Bridget. For people he hasn’t really spoken to much:

Dave. He might be kind of a malicious guy but he’s down to earth and doesn’t really give a shit. Reza can admire that.

Hayden. Same as the above. He needs (or thinks he needs) friends that don’t worry so much and have that ‘devil may care’ attitude. Also someone to help him up his badass factor.

Jolyon. I don’t know, I’m just attracted to the idea of two awkward people coming together and being awkward. Also vampire. Same goes for Boone, I guess.

As for dislikes:

Roger. Not a lot of love lost for that guy. Reza’s not a big fan of stoic people that make emotions and emotional connections seem like a bad thing.

Hunter and Owen. Wardens and Slayers that kill even innocent people are a big no-no.

Alright, for the starter, it’s a tie between Mudkip and Cyndaquil because they’re both adorable and Reza is a sucker for cute things no matter what he says. Reza is definitely the type of person to get overly attached to their starter and keep it on their team forever so let’s pick the other five.

Crobat: A poison/flying type that evolves from Golbat, who is pretty much the bat form of a vampire. So it’s a tag along vampire. And it evolves through friendship, I mean come on. 

Persian: I feel like Reza is not above having normal types on his team, especially if the Pokemon is a giant cat. 

Cubone: He’s literally called the lonely Pokemon, which is very fitting, and Reza would definitely take pity on a little guy who’s constantly mourning his mother. Not to mention that he looks hardcore as heck.

Houndoom: It’s basically the Grim Reaper in dog form and Reza’s team wouldn’t be complete without a morbid dark type. 

The last one would depend on whether or not Reza picked a fire type or water type as his starter. If he picked a water type, Ninetales would be the last pick to get a fire type on his team. Let’s be real, he’d totally fall in love with a tiny Vulpix and have trouble deciding whether or not to evolve it.

If he picked the fire starter, I feel like Steelix would get chosen, as like the ultimate protection. Reza is smol and insecure and having a giant steel snake on your team would up your confidence. 

[meta] I feel like me and Reza are similar on the basis of liking things really intensely and becoming completely blind to everything else. We both have a knack for writing, obviously. I feel like he’s slightly more awkward than me but I have my moments of becoming completely flustered and just losing the ability to properly communicate, much like Reza. I’m very protective over my siblings, both older and younger, like he is over Nadia and I’m a completely hopeless romantic at heart, like the poor cinnamon roll. Also cats and the same awful, emo taste in music. Feeling like an outsider is also something I can relate to.

[meta] I can’t really listen to music while writing but the only instances I do, I listen to club-esque music, but that was mostly during the Dance Macabre times. 

Reza has a lot of songs I like for him, some of them I even reblog on his account. Currently, I think these are the ones I’d pick:

Young Gods by Halsey

Poisoned With Love by Neon Hitch

This Is How I Disappear by My Chemical Romance

In honor of the leap year, I thought that we might talk about making the leap of faith when it comes to enjoying fiction. It’s a principle called suspension of disbelief.

“Suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres.” - wikipedia.org

Now, I am not a literary scholar and there are many different takes and interpretations on the multiple aspects involved in this principle that I cannot even begin to cover here. But I would like to talk about how this principle can be applied to the world of Alternate Universes in the fanfiction world and a fandom in general.

I am a multiverse lover. There I said it. I enjoy many incarnations of TMNT. Movies past and present, the different cartoon incarnations and even though I don’t have many of the comics I can see the appeal of their story arcs, on the dark and the light side. So why is it that when the turtles themselves have been through so many commercial interpretations, do we sometimes cling to the idea of ‘cannon’ to the exclusion of the many other interpretations of the characters offered to us by the fandom through fanfiction, fanart and roleplays?

Now this is not to say that you have to like all or even ANY of the ‘headcannons’ that are out there. Everyone has different tastes. However I would propose that loosening your idea of how a character should act, or in other words, suspend your belief in your own interpretation of them, will allow you to enjoy a broader range of content.

My own benchmark for reading a story is that I start from a position of giving the author the benefit of the doubt. You say that 2k14!Raph is secretly a songwriter and dreams of performing to an audience in central park. Well ok then. Make me buy into it. Cite the hip hop album he and Mikey are making as something he really enjoys doing. Tell me about how he nervously dons his trench coat to do a street performance. Tell me how he uses music to deal with his feelings of inadequacy. Expound on how he does everything possible to make sure none of his brothers know how much it really means to him. (spoiler: they all know) Tell me about how they hijack a stage in the middle of the night and Don rigs the A/V controls and they all pitch in to give a rocking show for all their friends so Raph can live his dream. AWESOME!! If you write it well, give me reasons and make me fall in love with your idea, then I will sing your praises and write you pages and pages of happy reviews.

If it is just a poorly done rewrite on the “Out of Our Shells Tour” or even worse, the “Christmas Special” I will burn it with fire.

You see we are talking about mutated talking turtles who practice ninjutsu and have been known to travel through time and fight aliens. We have already suspended the belief of what should be plausible and stepped into the world of fantasy. To claim that such a fantasy cannot be further distorted because of an arbitrary set of limitations we impose, that it is impossible for them to act a certain way or be put into an outrageous situation, is just a little silly. Will the choices an artist or writer makes lead to the scenario being more appealing? Absolutely!! Suspending belief doesn’t mean ignoring quality.

We could speculate and debate on the finer points of this principle for ages. But February 29th is too rare of a day to be spent on such pursuits. My overall point is you might find something you really love if you take the time think outside the box and give it a chance. And there is no time like the present! So, go out and read, write or draw your favorite AU today.