Tag: fun

Terrible Superpowers

Terrible Superpowers

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 

magic

That’s what we’re trying to figure out.

Why? In honor of my novel The Frost or The Bite where the main character must choose between ice and earth magic. We’re deciding which element is better for ourselves. 

 In case you forgot, here’s the score after round one:

Ice: 0 Earth: 1

When comparing the elements, a natural step is to wonder which one is stronger. 

I did briefly approach this as if it were a real topic of research and try to answer this question intellectually. I found an encyclopedia to look up powers and everything.  (I should never approach things intellectually. Never goes well.)

My research went off course pretty fast. I found myself just clicking on the fun sounding ones instead. Which brings us to the next category in this contest.

Not which is stronger but which has the better most useless power. I tried to find two of the most nonsense powers, one in earth, one in ice, and let’s look at which has the most ridiculous one. (I had fun with this and I hope you do too, but if not, we’re looking at who has the hottest characters next time.)

Ice’s Most Useless Power: Ice Cream Mimicry

icecream

Ice cream mimicry is defined as ‘transforming into or having a physical body made of ice cream.’ The power is mostly used by characters who look like or are ice cream cones, like a character on the Amazing World of Gumball  or certain Pokemon like Vanillish.

(There are over a dozen characters with this power, but those are the two examples I was even remotely familiar with.)

 My favorite way to think of this power is by someone pretending to be ice cream. Why? No clue! Maybe they want to know what it’s like to be a bowl of rocky road. Or maybe when trying to hide from a lactose intolerant person and so being ice cream makes you safe from them.

There’s just something so sweet and innocent about pretending to be ice cream. No pun intended. It’s useless in a fight but undeniably awesome, in a useless way. 

And this is less sweet, but I found it hilarious that under limitations in the encyclopedia it says ‘user may simply be eaten.’ 

 

Earth’s Most Useless Power: Earth Swimming

guyOkay, I picked powers that sound ridiculous, but earth swimming is actually pretty useful.  It gives the user the ability to swim through the ground and earth like it was water. Since the real world isn’t Minecraft, going deep into the ground just by doing the backstroke must be pretty useful.   

So earth swimming has uses, except in the way I’m imagining it. Earth swimming makes me think of somebody swimming in a big pile of dirt, which someone with this ability could also do. 

I’m picturing a person being like, “I’m not going to the pool today. I’m just gonna do laps around the sandbox in the backyard.” And the power to swim in a sandbox is undeniably lame. 

The only known user I was vaguely familiar with from the list is a white defender like this from Hollow Knight.

The Winner

dessert

Calling it earth swimming makes it sound lame and silly as hell. More useful, yes, but come on, ice cream mimicry! Gotta give the win to ice cream mimicry. 

This brings the total for our ice vs. earth competition to… a tie!

Ice: 1 Earth: 1

Next time, we’ll get into the real stuff. Like who has the hotter men. No, sexier. Because ice characters aren’t hot because they’re cold. 

Since this is an M/M romance blog, all characters will be of the M variety. 

5 Superheroes Who Should Come Out Already

5 Superheroes Who Should Come Out Already

by fnmanning ♥ 1 Comment

I’m not a huge comic book person, so I had no idea about the newest version of the Superman character until I heard a stray comment on TV from a critical pundit. He said something like, “Superman is bi now but nobody cares.”

Well unfortunately, homophobes gonna homophobe (slightly less catchy but just as true as haters gonna hate) so somebody always cares and has a problem when our world gets publicly gayer. But people mostly seem to be reacting well, which is awesome. And perhaps by ‘nobody cares’, he meant ‘an angry mob isn’t freaking out and clutching their pearls’ and this is just being treated as a regular thing humans experience, which is even more awesome. I originally assumed this meant Clark Kent was bisexual but apparently his son is the new Superman and likes his friend with pink hair.

More bi representation is awesome, though my only experience with Superman is the ooooold show with Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher. I’d eventually like to watch the newer program with Tyler Hoechlin because he looks very Superman-y and I adore almost everything about him as a person and beautiful human being.

So incredibly pretty, right?

So seeing as I don’t have a big interest in Superman, the comment about nobody caring got me thinking. Which other heroes could come out and generate more excitement? I came up with 5 heroes that the whole world… or at least fans… or at least me would care about extremely if they were gay.

5 Superheroes who should come out already

1. Spiderman (Peter Parker)

Come on, Spidey! Deadpool is already canonically pansexual and he’s waiting for you!

2. Captain America (Steve Rogers)

Despite only seeing a handful of Marvel superhero movies, I caught onto support for bi Steve Rogers being a thing and am wholeheartedly in favor of this development.

3. The Falcon (Sam Wilson)

Not having Disney+, I can’t say how gay the series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is, so this isn’t the reason I think he should be queer. It’s more because… I got confused somehow and definitely believed he was already canonically gay? I’m not sure what happened but the only thing I (thought) I knew about him when Anthony Mackie first started appearing in the movies was that The Falcon was one of the earliest black gay superheroes. I even remember an interview where Mackie said he wanted his character to hook up with Black Widow and everybody laughed uproariously as if this was hilarious and impossible, and I have literally no idea what the joke was if he wasn’t being comically ignorant about his character’s sexuality. I only realized Sam Wilson wasn’t gay like a year ago and it’s still slightly weird he’s apparently straight.

4. & 5. Old Married Mutants

I ended up seeing First Class randomly in theaters because friends wanted to watch it. I had no idea what to expect and was surprised how good, and gay, the movie was. I remember turning to my friend twice when Professor X and Magneto seemed really in love and saying ‘is it just me…’ and each time she told me I wasn’t crazy, they were acting hella gay (blog title!) Seeing as she is straight and more objective than me, this is totally proof.

Life Advice I’ve Never Taken: You need to calm down

Life Advice I’ve Never Taken: You need to calm down

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This song is life, according to a friend of mine. If you disagree, take it up with Megan.

Every famous gay person in the world is in this video, so I’m posting it. There will be enough times when I’m off topic, but as every famous gay person in the world is in this video, this doesn’t count. I’m barely even exaggerating.

Once, I saw something where Taylor Swift was called Gaylor Swift. In an affectionate way, naturally. That’s maybe not that clever, but I remembered it.

About the Author: Two Truths and a Lie

About the Author: Two Truths and a Lie

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Oh, you’d like to know more about me? Well, whether the answer is year or no, I’m trying to make this blog more… you know, bloggy, with like, posts about stuff. Blogs have posts. If you somehow didn’t know that, now you do, so there I go providing knowledge already.

index
Not the kind of icebreaker I’m talking about, but I wanted to add an image.

If I were being vain, I’d say something along the lines of why not talk about my favorite subject: myself. But I’m probably not my favorite topic. That list definitely goes: nephews, pets, TV, queer culture, chocolate, and then myself somewhere down the line. Hey, maybe I should talk about all that other stuff instead… eh, might as well do this since I already decided.

Have you ever played the icebreaker two truths and a lie? Well, it doesn’t really matter whether you have or not because the name of the game kind of explains it all, but I’m going to explain it anyway. I tell you three things and then you guess which one the lie is and then a good time is had by all and we become BFFs forever. Yep, that’s totally how it works. No take backs, you’re already playing.

Two Truths and One (1) Lie
But which is which? Can’t say, that’s literally the game.

  • I’ve gone streaking and skinny dipping more than once because I’m a total badass. (that’s right, alluding to nudity and ~illicit activities~, I’m hip and you want to follow my blog now)
  • I don’t know how to ride a bike because I’m a total badass who is also lame. (And now I’m also admitting to my deep, dark secret shame! What trilling content I write!)
  • Once upon a time, I could roller-skate, but the last time I tried I almost broke my leg.

dont-break-the-ice-450x317
Also not what I’m talking about, but this game is rad.

So, which one is fake? You can’t see me right now, but I’m making an inscrutable poker fake. I threw in a bonus lie just for you! I don’t have a poker face; my trick is I just make ridiculous faces the entire time instead of trying to be cool and nonchalant because those are two things I’m not great at, but I do love winning stuff and am fairly competent at distracting people with inane chatter and ridiculous faces.

Anyway. *drum roll*

The lie is….

~Dramatic tension~

Number three!

I was in California sight seeing at a beach and we decided to rent skates and bikes. As one of my truths explains, I never learned how to ride a bike, so I went with the skates. I had skated before, a lot actually, though only indoors at skating parties in middle school. I rented the skates, tried to move, and immediately fell down hard on the pavement, injuring my arm and not my leg.

So there you go… two truths and a lie. I am terrible at knowing how to end things. Hit that like and subscribe button? Isn’t that what youtubers say? Is that applicable here? Anyway, bye…

Bye!

 

The Five W’s

The Five W’s

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Here’s what you need to know about my book What Love Means using the five W’s: who, what, when, where, and why.

whatluvmeansred

Who: Finn Manning. Me! That one was easy enough. And I’m not an egomaniac by putting that one first, it’s just how the list goes.

If you want to know a little more about me: I’m a queer author who writes queer fiction. I’m in my early 20’s and I live on the West Coast in North Carolina. I have two nephews I adore, a dog I spoil, and my interests include Zumba, going to the beach, and working my way through a giant queue of books and TV shows. I’m currently reading Reasons to Love a Nerd Like Me by Becky Jerams and just got done watching the latest season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I planned on watching season five of Arrow next but started Wild, Wild Country instead because Netflix told me to.

What: What Love Means is a gay YA romance. Without falling back on my fancy synopsis, it’s about two old friends who parted on bad terms. Max and Cal are about as opposite as can be. One is rich and the other is poor, one is an uptight academic and the other is a bad boy with a motorcycle, one is brunette and the other is blonde. You get the idea. Aside from mutual lust, the only other thing they have in common is that they both have younger siblings. When the kids both start competing in spelling bees, Max and Cal must confront their past and find out whether they could have a future together.

When: It’s contemporary, so it takes place now. The main characters are beginning their senior year of high school.

Where: New Jersey. Let’s see, the action takes place in many locations. There’s a party at an abandoned warehouse where our heroes have a chance encounter that makes sparks fly. There’s one tiny apartment and one fancy ass mansion. Max has two uncomfortable conversations in two coffee shops. A sexy scenario happens in the least appealing place Cal can think of: his old middle school. An emotional conversation happens in what Max considers the worst place for a serious discussion: the parking lot behind the auto shop where he works.

 Why: My previous work, One Little Word, involves the classic jock-nerd dynamic. I wanted a similar opposites attract scenario without doing the same thing, and I love spelling bees. That led to the concept of two old friends meeting again years after their last bee. One of them is the studious, hardworking teen one might expect would come from the spelling bee (i.e. an uptight nerd for those who aren’t familiar with spelling bees) and the other has gone through a complete transformation and become the dangerous, carefree rebel that first character really shouldn’t be attracted to, but dammit, he is anyway.

What Love Means is available now on Amazon.