Glasses Stories
is a non-fiction piece written by gelefant.
As indicated by the title, "Glasses Stories" has a heavy emphasis and focus on eyeglasses.
Artwork for the story can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: Jermaine's seventh grade English classmate Stephen thought that Jermaine had "glassphobia."
- Berserk Button: Jermaine's biggest pet peeve is when people wear glasses that aren't theirs. "Glass Struggle" is all about his classmates and friends exploiting this to bully or tease him.
- Bespectacled Cutie:
- Invoked by basically every girl who wore the glasses of others.
- Played straight with the girls who actually do wear prescription glasses.
- Many of Jermaine's Original Characters are attractive young women who wear glasses.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Alecia, Alexia, Brandi, Breanna, Cristal, Ellie, Iris, Kendra, and Shon are all chubby but no less attractive because of it.
- Bitch Slap: Jermaine's father did this to Jermaine's mother during a big fight they had when he was a kid. The result is that her glasses flew off her face and skidded as they hit the floor.
- The Bully:
- "Glass Action" is about all of the times that Jermaine's bespectacled classmates and friends had their glasses stolen (and, in one case, broken) by bullies.
- "Glass Struggle" is about all of the times Jermaine's classmates and friends wore other people's glasses just to bully or tease him.
- Control Freak: Jermaine was obsessed with trying to prevent people from wearing the glasses of others. He even called them "rule breakers." This obsession lasted from third grade until his junior or senior year of high school.
- Domestic Abuse: The fight between Jermaine's parents definitely qualifies as it quickly went from verbal to physical.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: During fifth grade, Jermaine had a dream in which his classmate Myrna wore glasses. The very next day at school, she showed up wearing glasses that belonged to a friend of hers. As a result, Jermaine considered the dream prophetic/psychic in nature.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Jermaine's drawing of a pair of glasses being unbreakable includes extra shine and sparkles after the specs are bombarded with several things that would destroy them ten times over in Real Life.
- Girlish Pigtails: Alecia occasionally wears her hair like this.
- Glasses Are Sexy: Many of the people in Jermaine's life think, or used to think, that he finds glasses attractive.
- Glasses Curiosity: People wearing glasses that aren't theirs is the crux of the story.
- Hypocrite: Despite Jermaine going on and on about how people shouldn't share their glasses, there were times that he actively encouraged people to share their glasses with others. There were also times that he himself wore glasses that weren't his.
- I Hate Past Me: A variation. Jermaine regrets indulging in glasses sharing despite his Berserk Button about it. He also naturally feels guilty about stealing an old pair of glasses from his grandmother’s bathroom.
- Immune to Bullets: Jermaine's above-mentioned drawing of unbreakable glasses features bullets hitting said specs, only for them to remain unscathed.
- Not Helping Your Case: Jermaine has always claimed that he finds glasses neither attractive nor unattractive, but (as mentioned above) quite a few of his OCs are Bespectacled Cuties. He also openly shared his own glasses predominantly with his female friends and classmates. Heck, the entire story could be seen as him not helping his case and almost playing Devil's Advocate.
- Pun:
- "Specs Appeal" is a pun on the phrase "sex appeal."
- "Glass Action" is a pun on the phrase "class action."
- "Glass Diagram" is a pun on the phrase "class diagram."
- Raging Stiffie: Jermaine gets these whenever he sees or even just thinks about people wearing glasses that aren't theirs.
- Shout-Out: Several.
- The drawing that Jermaine did of him chasing a young woman through a desert is a reference to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
- "Dreamer View Specs," the title of the third chapter, is a reference to the eponymous character from Abby Hatcher frequently saying "Zoomer View Specs, activate!"
- A few to Pokémon:
- During middle school and high school, Jermaine frequently made doodles/drawings of eye doctors' offices being destroyed by Pokeémon attacks. Said attacks were Earthquake, Rock Slide, Energy Ball, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Shadow Ball, Solar Beam, Thunder, and Thunderbolt. He also occasionally threw in the bombs Team Rocket used in the earlier seasons of Pokémon: The Series.
- Jermaine's idea of glasses shocking people who try to take them with 100,000 volts of electricity is a reference to the above-mentioned Thunderbolt, whose Japanese name is "100,000 volts."
- Jermaine's above-mentioned drawing of unbreakable glasses includes dropping a large boulder on them that's reminiscent of the Rock-type Z-Move Continental Crush.
- Jermaine's idea of glasses being unmovable from a sitting position is a reference to the same property shared by Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Invoked by Myrna in "Lens Shares." When she wore Ricardo's glasses, she said "I feel smart."
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Diana, Myrna, and Trevor wear their hair like this. Alecia also sometimes wears her hair in a ponytail.
- Unwanted Glasses Plot: Jermaine originally didn't want to wear glasses for the following justifiable reasons: he didn't want to walk around with a piece of fragile plastic on his face all day every day, he didn't want to worry about adjusting or cleaning them every few minutes, and he didn't want them stolen. He eventually got accustomed to wearing them.
- Where da White Women At?: The people in Jermaine's life who think he likes girls with glasses take it a step further and assume he specifically likes white girls with glasses.
