I can't believe Kintsugi has gone this long without a Motorcity thread (at least that I could find). Correcting this oversight right now. Anway lately I've been going over a what if in my head of "what if Jacob knew who Julie was?" This has persisted so much in not leaving me alone that I started writing even though the fandom is mostly dead and I have 500 other projects to finish. Spoiler: for Julie's identity if you haven't watched the show yet. “Ugh!” For lack of something close on hand to throw, Julie stripped off her own jacket and tossed it to the floor as hard as she could. The muffled fluph sound it made was less than satisfying. “Now, I’m not the most observant fella, but I think there’s something bothering you.” She jumped at Jacob’s voice behind her, then followed it up with snatching the jacket back and hastily brushing it off. “Sorry,” she said, embarrassed by her own childlike outburst. She could feel heat creeping up her cheeks, and she quickly resettled the jacket back into it’s usual place, hoping the high collar would hide her blush. Jacob shrugged, parked his scrawny butt on a stack of oil cans and patted the open space next to him. “You can talk about it if you’d like. My pepperwort cookie dough needs a couple hours to rise anyway.” “It’s nothing. Really,” Julie dismissed hastily. “It’s just...” Kane. It was always Kane these days. Her lips twisted down in a way that Claire would have tsked at and told her looked ugly. “How could he? There were kids in there, Jacob, they were... he could have...” He didn’t, but only because Mike had plowed Mutt straight into a collapsing support and substituted his own car long enough for them to move. Julie couldn’t sit. She started to pace the floor in short bursts instead. One, two, three, four, five steps, toe pivot, easy as a hairpin turn, fingers clenched and unclenched like she still had her hand on the gear shift. Months and months ago- it felt like entire geological eras, though she knew it had been less than a year- Julie had followed Mike Chilton down into the the strange, eternal night that was Old Detroit, bent on giving him a piece of her mind for the way he had hurt her father. Instead what she had found was the thriving, beating heart of a city who’s people lived in freedom. She found smiles on faces, and laughs that weren’t worn like costumes, polite pleasantries in a masquerade ball of fear and despair. She’d followed after one lie, and since then she’d unearthed them all, one after another, each one more painful than the last. “How could he?” she snapped suddenly, something bitter and burning crawling up her throat. “How can he sit there and talk about how much he cares about people when he doesn’t care at all! He doesn’t care about anything but his own power, and greed, and- uuugh!” “So it’s not nothing then,” Jacob said wryly, then sighed. “Look, Julie, you probably don’t want to hear this right now. But as bad as your dad is, he wasn’t always like this. He came from a place of caring once.” “My dad doesn’t- Wait what?” Please discuss/share your own fanworks/insert your own theories here, I need them.
For anyone interested in the show that hasn't seen it yet Kisscartoon has the whole series. It's (sadly) only 20 episodes long as Disney dropped the show like a hot potato relatively quickly, but it did actually get a finale, unlike most shows that end with this fate. The characters are great, the animation is hnnng, the stories tow that line between slightly campy and incredibly badass and all around I highly recommend a weekend binge for this one!
-sits up from my crying stupor- you're fucking right. YEAH, TEXAS!! I seriously love that dumb kid so much. And all the dumb kids he hangs out with. All of them. Especially the sad anxious heroic idiot and his dumb green car.
God Mike tho is just He really is a sad anxious idiot, and he covers it up with a lot of bravado and plays it off as lackadaisical. Then you get episodes where he's freaking out and trying to protect everybody because he thinks one of them might get hurt or that one episode where Kane went quiet and he started LEGIT exhibiting PTSD symptoms (shaky/jittery, jumping at everything, on constant alert, has to put his back to the wall in the corner so he can see everything without anyone sneaking up on him). This kid is so fucked up and he keeps pushing himself anyway, and I have FEELINGS!
As someone who's had PTSD, Mike Chilton has PTSD. It is law. I was feeling it before but that episode made me say 'yeah, yikes, ouch.' I just realized you wanted fanworks. I was just hit with the sads last night and neglected to share. Without digging in the trash (and I am fully willing to do that btw) this fic is my favorite thing written for this fandom. You've probably read it if you attacked AO3 with a voracious need for more like I did, but I want to talk about it anyway because it's really well written and full of delicious headcanon. Look at this image.
It may have been. I think so, since that would be why Mike literally jumps on the chance to transport a shitton of explosive nuclear waste across a rocky canyon because he is desperate for something to do. Yeah, probably the same episode. Good fucking episode.
It was that exact episode and yeah that was a great episode. I actually haven't explored Ao3 at all, mostly because I was deep into other fandoms at the time (*coughhomestuckcough*) I have been gearing up to take a poke around, but I want poly burners and am prepared to find a pile of disappointment in that aspect.
Yeah damn that is hard to find, actually. You will find Mike/Chuck enough to choke you (and I do appreciate that), and a handful of other ships, but I don't know if I remember anything that really leaned poly. Aside from like. The awesome fanart content your yourself made ( I really appreciate that stuff, btdubs.) It's the lack of Julie content that really gets to me. Come ON, fandom. Girls don't have cooties. We went over that years ago. ...Actually I do remember one small oneshot with the premise 'every Burner smooches Mike Chilton' and really enjoying the Texas part. Let's find that. Oh look, there it is. My manually saved fanfiction stores are both mighty and terrifying to behold. Man, speaking of your fanart, I really liked the Burnerswap AU you tossed at the internet a few weeks ago?... I think. Mike and Chuck being horrible middle aged men who embarrass tiny versions of the motorcity villains by making out a lot after being reunited. that AU. SPEAK MORE TO THAT PLEASE I have the right person right
I don't think those are mine, I haven't done any art or made any AUs myself (reblogged a whole ton of them though). Prooooobably Splickedylit and/or Toastyhat ahaha. But yes, hell yes, toast and splick keep me rolling in the poly burners, they are my saving grace. I kind of figured most of the fandom would be Mike/Chuck and/or Mike/Julie, of which I like both, but I'm so much more fond of Mike just.... really loving his friends. all his friends. and being casually intimate and open with them.
The names were similar, it was Splickedylit. I confuse names with similar vowel sounds, what can I say. Consider it a compliment >u< It is DISPROPORTIONATELY Mike/Chuck. Serious. It's actually hard to find Mike/Jules. This pisses me off on many levels, but I'm mostly pissed off because Julie is an amazing character that a lot of work was put into, a great Burner, someone with a lot of depth who is fun to think about and write about, and I know you motherfuckers are just avoiding her because girl. Have at you.
Wow yeah, I expected people to be ALL OVER Mike/Julie! What gives!? (also, I will most definitely take that as a compliment because Splicks art is hnnnnng!)
??????????? One of my favorite things to do for a fandom is to go into the Relationships section on AO3 and see what the dropdown gives me. It gives you this for MC. I uh... I uh? I have literally no explanation. My best guess is that it happened to be a hit with a young, queer audience (it was) and that, since active fandom is a hotbed for queer ships anyway, the tide latched onto one interesting, complicated canon relationship and not another just because m/m. It's... er, fucking embarrassing. I love Mike/Chuck. Seriously. It'll make me cry. The dynamic of Chuck's nervous self-hatred settled heavy over bubbling aggression and jealousy interacting with Mike's PTSD-fueled lack of self-care and obsessive need to keep everyone else safe can make a lot of good, weird things happen that usually ends in mushy, heartwarming goodness (see here for good example DO YOU WANT A LOT OF FIC). It's awesome. But hi, hello, do you have a minute to talk about our lady and savior Julia Kane, Ms. "I didn't know you could be so... intense" Kane who accepts the responsibility to rule a city that she really wants to take over in a coup d'etat without telling anyone, who carefully lives a double life and only lets the strain burst through her calm exterior when needled excessively, who faces her canonical worst fear (her father and him finding out she's a Burner) pretty much daily and never lets any of that stop her from being a good, caring, supportive friend who will still drop what she needs to help you? Hi where is the Julie
I would! Though I don't think I finished watching the series last time around... But GOD the found family feels, they are strong. Also polyburners y/y/VERY Y
