#i got a comment like this on a fic from the tiniest fandom ever and it just made me so sad

[sassybluee]

What the hell is going on with fandom in general?

So, I'm an MDZS fanfic writer. I'm no stranger to getting comments asking for quicker updates or demanding I write a sequel. It kind of sucks to get a comment like that instead of one pointing out things they liked, but I understand why it happens. It's a big fandom, there's a lot of stories being updated and churned out every day. It's easy to forget the people behind the stories.

On top of writing MDZS fics, I've also written fics for several smaller cdrama fandoms. I don't get as many comments or kudos, but I enjoy writing the fics, and the readers are kind and appreciative. It's a welcome break from the frenzy a larger fandom can be.

However, recently I've been getting more comments on my small fandom fics that are similar to ones I get on my MDZS fics. People asking for faster updates, making assumptions that a oneshot will be continued, even complaining about aspects of my fic. And it really sucks, even more than it did when I got those types of comments on MDZS fics. Because like I said, MDZS is huge, so you're bound to get comments now and again you don't like. But when this kind of attitude bleeds into fandoms that have less than 1k fics, less than 500, heck even less than 20... it really sucks. It really feels like people everywhere only see fic authors as content making machines. No matter where you go, no matter how small your fandom is, there's no escape, apparently.

ANYWAY please make sure to comment nice things on authors' fics. It really brightens our days!

[alchemistc]

Catie's Big Ass bucktommy fic rec (Part One)

So I'm not gonna lie, I have most of these fics priv. bookmarked because I HAVEN'T COMMENTED ON THEM YET AND I FEEL REALLY GUILTY ABOUT THAT. But more than one anon has asked for this and it tickles me pink that y'all like my writing enough to trust in my recs. So. Please, please, be better than I am and make sure to kudos and comment if you enjoy any of these works.

(Guys, there are SO MANY amazing writers in this fandom. So many truly breathtaking fics already. I got two hours into this and realized I was going to need to split this into parts because I have too many things to say about each of these and I want to do them all justice.)

Writers you can trust in:

@rcmclachlan /ao3 : I will sing RC's praises to the moon and back. There is something about the way RC injects humor into the tiniest of lines that makes me want to scream into a pillow until I pass out. You will see more than one of RC's fics in this list.

@kirkaut /ao3: kirkaut is the reason I jumped on this bandwagon. The unhinged spiral into LFJr obsession and the prevalence of well thought out meta and incredibly hot fic drew me in. If you are not following kirkaut, change that now.

@26-cats-in-a-trenchcoat / catfud_ohplease on ao3: Devastating prose. The ability to turn a theme on a dime and STAB YOU IN THE HEART with it. Mac owns my whole soul when it comes to really scratching that itch behind my eyelids for thematic imagery and really creative ideas for fic that aren't just run-of-the-mill smut/angst/fluff.

@devirnis / ao3: Ali only has one bucktommy fic up on ao3 but it is devine and I love it. Ali is also the only writer who has tempted me into reading buddie. This is not an indictment on buddie fandom or buddie fic writers in general, I just tend to be a one ship kinda gal and I don't really dive into fic for a ship I don't vibe with. Ali's writing has made me reconsider this position.

@beefcakekinard / thingbe on ao3: The domesticity. Literally just reread one of Rose's fics this morning and HAD to comment on it again because it made me want to fling myself to Jupiter.

(This is not a comprehensive list, but I just realized how many fics I have already bookmarked for bucktommy and I'm already under a readmore.)

Fics that make my brain go brrrr:

only fools rush in - somnum365 ( @firehose118)

Tommy lets Buck set the pace. Buck is ready for something.

Super hot and all about checking in. I've got a thing for discovering sex with a partner starting out with frottage and this delivers. The characterizations are so great.

Colin Firth Thinks You're Hot - IDontGoHereEither (@herrmannhalsteadproduction)

Buck is late for a special date night with Tommy, but he still stops to help a stranger stuck on the side of the road. Luckily, that stranger is about to help HIM.

Cute as fuck with a super fun guest star. Who doesn't want Mr. Darcy to think your boyfriend is hot?

sad girl poetic thursday night - screamlet

Date night menu: pasta primavera and emotional unpacking.

There's something about the pacing of this that sent me into a tailspin. The stream of consciousness that actually bleeds from the dialogue into the action and vice versa. Hng.

I Was Only Falling In Love - Princessfbi (@princessfbi)

Tommy in crisis mode.

There's a moment in this fic where Eddie has to pull Tommy back from the precipice of something and it lives entirely rent free in my head, forever and ever amen. The firefam taking care of Buck by taking care of Tommy.

let me count the ways - ashesandhalefire

Buck and Tommy in the aftermath of a good evening are chattier than they probably reasonably should be

There is something about this fic that feels like the witching hour is upon you, like you could live in this little pocket world Buck and Tommy have created for themselves forever. The dialogue is fantastic, and the way they communicate with each other is just *chefs kiss*

let's make it cinematic - kirkaut

Tommy helps Buck deal with some of his impotent rage in the face of the Gerrard of it all.

Listen, I do not have a praise kink. This kinda makes me wish I did.

"[...]Everything is.” He circles a finger around in the air. “It’s very spinny.” - this line of dialogue came for my fucking throat.

Sick with it - Mellow_Yellow

what if in an alternate universe babyslut Buck joined the 118 when Tommy was still in his closeted asshole era and they had a torrid affair??

The way this is a little fucked up. The way the characterizations aren't exactly familiar because they haven't aged into what we know them as in current canon. The way you can see in every broken line and every stutter step that Tommy is falling for Evan and has No Fucking Idea what to do with that. Ugh. Best Met Earlier AU I've ever read.

He blinked as Tommy walked by, eyes sliding closed again before he left. He felt a light touch on the top of his head but figured he was imagining it. He couldn’t think of anyone at the 118 who would touch him that carefully. - just absolutely fucking end me they're so good/bad for each other

A Full Body Workout - Persiflager

Tommy and Buck spend a day trying to distract Eddie from the *gestures vaguely* all of it.

The way this is so quiet in the way it shows you how Tommy and Buck care for each other. The way they are down bad but still so hyperaware of the pace they've set, the things they've talked about. The way they take care of their friend here. I'm obsessed with the tone of this one. Also, as a general theme, nothing draws me in more than well thought out dialogue, and this one has some fucking GREAT dialogue.

Your love is better than ice cream - Cecily_v, liminalmemories

An alternative meet-cute, where-in Tommy doesn’t know the 118 and decides Buck is worth it anyway. Buck is confused but figures some things out.

There is so much I love about this AU. How they meet. How their relationship progresses. How it feels glacially slow in comparison to the canon storyline but also how in character they both are. The foundation of their love in this fic is downright eatable.

just couldn't fall til we met - thingbe (@beefcakekinard)

Buck and Tommy spend a quiet morning in together.

This is the one that crossed my dash earlier today and made me eat fucking glass on reread. The closeness. The way they're both so tactile. The blink and you'll miss it hints at a life being built together. Eating this UP every time I read it.

The Premium Twunk Appreciation Society, President: Tommy Kinard - everythingremainsconnected

5 times Tommy almost faints like a Victorian maiden at the sight of Buck’s flesh, and 1 time he can do something about it.

“Hey,” Evan said, shoving Eddie out of the way and filling the screen with his playful glare, “organise bro time on your own time, I’m on the phone with– with Tommy.”

“With who?” Eddie repeated. Tommy didn’t need to see his face to hear the fondness in the mocking. “Who’s on the phone? I didn’t quite catch that.”

- They are so stupid about each other in this fic, please read it and watch steam blow out your ears at how sweet and hot and down bad for each other they are.

desire (i want to turn into you) - chthonicheart

The first time Buck’s really able to bury his face between a man’s tits, he nearly cries.

pwp but with a whole heaping of character study. HOT.

rule four (you were only waiting for this moment to arise) - middyblue (daisyblaine) [@middyblue]

Tommy has doubts.

There is a general mood to this piece that feels heavy in a way I can't quite explain. There was a weight on my chest all the way through this in the BEST way possible. The way Tommy navigates his mind and struggles to trust the little slice of peace he and Buck have carved out is just mindbogglingly beautiful.

Come Fly The Friendly Skies - RC_McLachlan (@rcmclachlan)

Buck meets their rescue mission's would-be pilot and is extremely normal about it.

"Throttling is what I'm gonna do to you if you don't shut up and let the nice man steal a helicopter for us,"

WHEN I TELL YOU I AM INCANDESCENT WITH RAGE over how funny and insightful this fic is.

Every characterization is picture perfect.

Maddie gives great hugs, but she's so small; if she had this guy's build and could basically fold Buck into her like an old blanket, they'd have to pry him out of her arms with the jaws of life.

In the back of Buck's mind, in a place he hasn't discovered, he's already picked out a venue and chosen his centerpieces. He's mentally putting together seating arrangements. This line of Buck's thoughts on Tommy Kinard told me so.

Please read this and join me in trying to destroy RC with my mind (lovingly).

little by little - MediaWhore

Buck & Tommy, during and after the wedding.

There is something so soft and gentle about this fic. The way Tommy just gives in to the exhaustion and props himself up against Buck because he knows he'll be able to take the weight (he wants to take the weight and Tommy knows it). The quiet flirting, the way they take care of one another. The jumpscare of Marge and Phil and how this fic is right at the edges of exploring that but Buck has me important priorities.

“It was badly done,” - the way this is so in character for Ma Buckley and the way it made me want to SHAKE HER TIL HER TENDONS SHATTERED AND SHE CRUMBLED LIKE A SATISFYING CASINO IMPLOSION

Soft and heartbreaking and mending all at once.

while you arranged flowers - newtkelly

Buck’s got a wedding date, but as far as today goes, he’s also got a regular one.

The way I want to wrap this Buck up tenderly and hide him from the people in his life who DON'T DESERVE HIS AFFECTION, HIS LOVE, HIS JOY.

The non-urgency of this, the absolute too-much-too-soon he's dealing with in his own mind while he grapples with the reality of seizing a second chance with both hands and getting to explore himself within the confines of a very lovely, very sweet and kind, VERY HOT man he wants to get on his knees for.

Beautiful prose, excellent dialogue, an insightful character study.

[fairy-writes]

I would like a medium mocha with sugar and Edward Elric please!!!!!

-🪐

WITHOUT YOU

Reblogs and Comments are greatly appreciated!!

__________________________________________________________________________

Prompt: Paranormal pirate AU scenario with Edward Elric

Word Count: 0.9k (so close to 1k rip)

Fandom(s): Fullmetal Alchemist

Pairing(s): Edward Elric x Reader

Genre(s)/Tag(s): Female!Reader, Pirate!Edward, 

Notes: You guys love giving me difficult requests lmao

This is also a female reader as opposed to my typical gender neutral :)

Trigger warning for death and drowning in this fic!

__________________________________________________________________________

You were awoken in the night by hands roughly grabbing your arms and hauling you from your hammock. You let out a scream, and someone shoved a wadded-up ball of cloth in your mouth as you struggled. 

It was your fellow crewmates. You recognized their stink. 

You were dragged, kicking, and muffled screaming up to the deck where the rain was coming down in torrents like knives. Your hands were bound, your legs tied together. A cannonball is tied to your ankles, and you are heaved to the ship’s side. 

They’re going to throw you overboard. That much is obvious. 

“STOP!”

Until…

You see him.

Edward Elric. 

The captain of the ship. One of the youngest in pirate history. 

And the love of your life.

He shoves his way through the growing crowd of pirates. His bright crimson coat had already darkened to a deep maroon in the hurricane of rain. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” He demands, shrugging someone’s hand off his shoulder and smacking someone else’s away as they try to pull him back.

“‘s bad luck to have a lady aboard, Cap'n.” At this, he scoffs,

“And I thought we didn’t put much stock into fairy tales.” He snaps, and you can see his metal hand curling into a fist.

You begin to struggle again, trying to wriggle toward your savior’s side.

That ends up being your downfall.

Seeing as you’re perched on the edge of the ship, only your crewmate’s hands holding you aboard, you begin to teeter over the side.

Right as a massive wave hits and sucks you overboard.

It feels like you are being pulled down for miles and miles by the cannonball at your feet and the waves pulling at your skin. Dragged down and down and down until you can’t see the bottom of the boat or Edward’s grief-stricken face. 

You feel as if your lungs are about to pop. The pressure from the water builds and builds. Behind your eyes, in your nose, under your tongue. You claw at your throat with bound hands, try to swim up, try to stop the sinking, but the cannonball is too heavy, and you are growing weak.

You hit something. Maybe a rock. Maybe a whale. You can’t tell. But you inhale out of reflex, coughing and inhaling more water as it invades your mouth, your nose, your lungs, your entire being. It feels thick like tar as your throat burns and constricts. Your lungs balloon and feel like they are bursting at the seams. Your body convulses. You couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t—

And everything goes black.

Edward sits with his head in his hands at his desk. The ship rocked back and forth. Usually, it would’ve put him to sleep, but not anymore.

You were gone. Drowned. Dead. Never to come back.

He had always prided himself on being a man of reason. A man of science. Ever since he was a boy and his mother passed away, his father lost at sea, leaving him to raise Alphonse with little help. 

But now?

He thought about putting the tiniest bit of thought into the same superstitions that killed you. Wasn’t there one about the Elixir of Life at the end of the world? He had no idea. After all, he wasn’t supposed to believe in that stuff.

It was only then that he realized something.

His room was illuminated by a bluish-green glow.

He got up, turned, and felt his jaw go slack.

Was this a prank?

You were in front of him!

You were glowing blue and green with your hair floating as if you were still in the water and water running in rivulets down your body. But it was you!

He whispers your name like a prayer to a god he didn’t believe in, and your eyes open.

You were crying.

“Eddie?” You murmur, and he feels his knees go weak at the nickname. You were the only one who could call him that. Not even Alphonse could call him that. 

“Wh—How are you here right now?” He barely manages over his thundering heartbeat. You take a shaky step forward, and he rushes to catch you before your knees buckle.

You’re cold. Freezing even. His hands are soaked instantly by your tears and the mysterious water that’s dripping down your body. But you're here and now. 

Edward gathers you in his arms and presses his nose to your soaked, floating hair. He doesn’t care that his clothes—which were drying slowly—are now wet again. All that matters is the fact that you're here.

“I don’t—I don’t understand… how—how am I here?!” You whimper, and his heart cracks at the sound. It’s like you can’t stop crying.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m—” 

Sorry?

Sorry for what?

Sorry for failing you?

For bringing you aboard when he knew his crewmate's superstitions?

For watching you sink instead of diving in to pull you out?

He realizes he’s crying. And your hand is on his cheek, looking at him with red-rimmed eyes and tears streaming your cheeks and dripping down your chin.

“Don’t cry.” You weep silently, and he smiles. 

“How can I not?” He asks, voice cracking, and you shake your head,

“Because you are still alive.” His smile drops,

“But without you.”

You begin to disappear, but not before you press a chaste kiss to his lips.

“I’m never too far away.” Your whisper is but a butterfly on the wind, and he’s left alone in the dark of his quarters.

[brynnmclean]

twenty questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @stitchingatthecircuitboard! Thanks, friend! This was fun! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

54! Though some of them are ficlet collections that I might separate out, if I could do it all over again.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

180,644

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, Rings of Power / the Tolkien Legendarium (including Silm, LotR, The Hobbit).

Previously, Rogue One, Star Wars sequel trilogy, broke ground writing fic for a m/m Viking romance novel Brothers of the Wild North Sea (it made me so happy), and the tiniest bit of Black Sails.

Before that, a LOT of Supernatural fic, some Being Human US, and LOST.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

cast some light & you'll be all right, 4.5k Explicit Rogue One Rebelcaptain fic where Cassian doesn't like one-sided sex and Jyn isn't used to having a partner who wants to make time for her. They figure it out!

waiting to step forward, 3k Explicit Rogue One Rebelcaptain fic, the direct sequel to cast some light featuring Cassian Andor: Cunnilingus Addict again

I waited for the crash to come, 17k Rogue One Rebelcaptain ficlet collection -- one of those ones that I suppose I could have separated out, but it feels way too late to do it now! There are a lot of ficlets that I love in there though.

beneath the stars, 4k Kíli/Tauriel Hobbit AU where Thranduil hosts a party and Kíli and Tauriel get to dance together and smooch :)

I wanna hurry home to you, 2k Explicit Rogue One Rebelcaptain fic, ALSO part of the cast some light 'verse, sex interrupted by a stand-up meeting, sex continued after the meeting, lol

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to them as they come, but I have DEFINITELY run into the problem where I haven't responded to some of them and the more time passes, the worse I feel about not responding, and then it just-- anyway, if you've ever sent me a very nice comment that I haven't responded to, please know that I saw it, cried about how nice it was and how good it made me feel, got slammed by something in life, and now remember you with helpless, wordless gratitude.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write a lot of angst! But an old old old episode-related fic called exercise in futility for Being Human US, featuring season 1 Aidan who was a MESS, might fit the bill.

Or out of storms comes strength for tomorrow which is a Tauriel-centric, grief processing fic...? but I feel like the ending for that one is more hopeful than not? That's a little more where I like to land. There's light in there somewhere, always.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Either sanctuary (Rogue One crew beach vacation for @eisoj5!) or I used to be a king alone (a May the Fourth Rebelcaptain Date-Shaped Mission or a Mission-Shaped Date).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got a couple unpleasant anons during the SPN days over some meta re: fandom reaction to a very large fic project, but otherwise my fandom experience has been kind. I can't remember ever getting hate on my fics in particular, but I have gotten some odd comments before, ranging from "why is [male character] randomly a girl" for a genderqueer / rule 63 fic to "when are [m/f couple] going to have Real Sex" for a smut series.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! Not as much lately, but the majority of my Rebelcaptain fics were non-PIV (out of spite :D) explicit fics. The first smut fic I wrote was a SPN OT3 with Dean/Castiel/Lisa so... I have a little experience writing threesomes (looking at Galadriel/Celeborn/Halbrand eventually)!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written the beginnings of crossover AUs-- I was kicking around a Rogue One Black Sails AU (was going to be Saw Gerrera-centric, as he's the Flint analog), I have an outline for a Rebelcaptain Bourne Identity AU (Jyn as the GFFA Jason Bourne -- one day I SWEAR I'll give this one a fair shot because I actually do have the rare PLOT OUTLINE), and I wrote a ficlet for a Rogue One Grey Company LotR AU.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I did have a Rebelcaptain ficlet plagiarized once. Many thanks to the anon who alerted me to the situation so I could make a successful removal request.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! I have had some fics podficced which were wonderful. :)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven't formally co-written a fic with anyone, but I am enjoying the hell out of playing around in the sandbox @rain-sleet-snow and I are hanging out in for the Uncorrupted Mairon AU.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

WOW, I absolutely cannot choose ONE out of ALL of them... If I have to choose... Right now I'm positively feral over Galadriel/Celeborn/Halbrand, but I wrote and will love Jyn/Cassian forever.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Alas... I am not good at finishing fics and I don't often have the discipline to write long-form fic. One of these days I would love to get back to safe house in the hurricane or out of grief joy.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Considering like, 95% of my fics are conversations / dialogue, I think we can consider that a strength!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

PLOT. I'm a pantser. I never know where I'm going next. Also action scenes are extremely difficult!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Thoughts? Cold-sweat terror. Thank you to much smarter people than I am for Elvish translations. Anyone who writes in multiple languages, whether real-world or conlangs, leaves me in awe.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

... LOST, maybe??? @ladytharen helped run a 108 word drabble challenge on LJ that I THINK got me into my first forays of writing fic that wasn't, uh, childhood handwritten scrawling in notebooks for LotR.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh!!!! I'm taking a leaf from @stitchingatthecircuitboard's book and going to list three:

I still think out of storms (the Tauriel grief fic) is one of my best

There's so much of my heart in blessed, the Éomer & Éowyn late night conversation fic that also features genderqueer / genderfluid!Éowyn fic-- though damn it, I wish I'd titled the fic better, but it feels too late to change it, lol

and honestly, as rusty as I felt writing it, I really love first flush of hope to carry the grey away, 1k Rebelcaptain not-a-kiss in an alley

tagging: @rain-sleet-snow, @ladytharen, @eisoj5, @heymacareyna, @ichabodjane, and whoever else is reading this and would like to. Consider yourself tagged!

[alrightbuckaroo]

20 questions for fic writers!

Thanks for the tags @jesuisici33 and @welcometololaland :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

36! I'm hoping to hit 50 by the end of next year. I've got plans >:)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

161,211 (and 150k of that is from THIS YEAR(ish))

3. What fandoms do you write for?

911 Lone Star

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

sugar, spice and everything nice (tarlos fans really love food as a love language and with this story it shows lol)

you've made me so very happy (a high school reunion one off that might get a sequel, you know, never say never)

wedding bell blues (thinking about this story makes me want to write more of the 126)

you drive me wild (passenger princess tk spilling iced coffee in carlos' car, what more could you ask for?)

will you bee mine? (the teeniest, tiniest au where carlos is a teacher and tk is a school nurse)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to! It's funny, I'm writer but sometimes I'm absolutely stalled at what to say. If you've commented and I haven't replied, it's not a slight against you; I'm either thinking of what to say, or just haven't gotten around to it yet.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have some that haven't been published that end a little open-ended or ambigious, but if we're talking published, part ii of summer slipped us underneath our tongue felt kind of evil lmao (I kept saying, "I'm such an asshole" when I was writing it.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my one-shots have happy endings, but I think the sequel to summer slipped us underneath her tongue will have one that's so sweet it'll leave you with a cavity.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten one comment recently but it seemed like the person was more upset with the show rather than the story itself lmao

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nothing that's published, but I have quite a bit planned for future works. I feel like the tone needs to be fitting for it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No, but I'm not against it. Though, if I were, it would most likely be a 911 x 911 Lone Star one, and it would most definitely be a bit of an AU.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

God, I hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I'm always down if someone wants to; just let me know!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven't, but I'm not opposed to it! That said, I don't know if I want to subject someone to my ridiculous writing schedule lmao

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

It's gotta be Louis and Lestat from AMC's Interview With the Vampire; that's a love story that'll always be crossing through my mind.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I'm not sure; I hate to say goodbye to anything, but I'm sure there's a couple of one-shot prompt fills that'll probably never see the light of day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like think my world-building is pretty good because I'm very focused on imagery. I took a screenwriting class in college and we mainly focused on action and setting so I think that lends itself to my writing. I also think my angst can be very poetic without being too kitschy.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Honestly, I think it's just trusting myself. I've talked at length with @heartstringsduet about how I'm slowly unlearning being a perfectionist and just writing what comes to mind and then fixing it later. It's been freeing lol

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'm terrified to do it at risk of sounding absolutely ridiculous to people that speak the native language so I try my best to write around it, if I can.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh, it was [redacted] :)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

If we're talking finished, it might be summer slipped us underneath her tongue, but that might be recency bias. come and take a walk on the wild side is still very much in progress, but the scenes between TK and Sam are, without a doubt, my favorite dialogue I've ever written.

tagging: @heartstringsduet, @carlos-in-glasses, @reyesstrand, @bonheur-cafe, @lemonlyman-dotcom and anyone else who wants to play :)

[bereft-of-frogs]

@aurorawest tagged me in 20 questions and I am doing them expediently to make up for all the other tag memes I've forgotten about (sorry)

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 91

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 807,565

3. What fandoms do you write for? Right now pretty exclusively Star Wars, but I had a solid MCU phase there, and have dabbled in Six of Crows, this show Into the Night (tiniest fandom I've ever written for, I think I make up about half of the fics in the tag even now), and I wrote exactly 3 Locked Tomb fics one time.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? 1. pain and other human sensations 2. bone and broth 3. like a tear on a cheek 4. never never quite touch anything 5. the undoing

(I'm starting to feel weird about those five because I...don't really think they represent my best work anymore but I also know due to a combination of luck and good timing (and unhinged persistence in one case), nothing else I write will ever touch them so...there they remain at the top perpetually...)

5. Do you respond to comments? I do! I try at least, during lulls in posting I'm usually not checking as much, and my current policy for the MCU fics is not to respond unless I feel like there's something productive to say.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I think it's a tie but one of them probably doesn't count. 1) apocalyptic appellations, also discussed below, basically ends with the darkest ending for one set of characters and 2) this one probably doesn't count because this isn't the last chronological scene, the narrative ends happily BUT because I chose to literal roll the dice and write the scenes out of order 'I feel like I'm borrowing all my time' ends on the angiest scene, which ironically got me stuck in a time loop because I'd get to the end in editing and be like 'hm. I'm sad now. Back to 1 to make myself feel better!'

Oh, also my first high republic fic - banishing the chill - ended PRETTY angsty if I do say so myself.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? This was really hard to pick because I feel like my MO is either to gently nudge characters back onto their canon plot, where terrible things happen, or leave them with even more trauma. Idk, I guess the dark ocean duology ended fairly well? There was a hug?? It only took like 40k to get there????? That counts maybe?????

8. Do you get hate on fics? Occasionally haha, I think I got a couple of the '#problematic' comments on old smut but it was more likely to be character hate mingled with hate comments? Which can be annoying like even with controversial characters I'm usually writing because I find something compelling about them, so it can be frustrating when people either flatten them down to 'they're the worst' or get mad at me for giving them motives other than 'cackling evil'.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Used to, sort of lost the ability to...

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Once. apocalyptic appellations. And it is pretty crazy. God, I love this crossover. I didn't write a lot in 2022, but I really like what I did write. Almost certainly my final MCU fic, it really felt like I went out on a bang. Loki series crossed over with the tiniest fandom I've ever participated in, for the television show Into the Night. Into the Night is about an apocalypse where the sun is killing people (#sun's fucked up cinematic universe) and a small group of survivors circling the globe on an airliner. One of the main characters is a helicopter pilot named Sylvie, whom I LOVE, and for months after the Loki series premiered I'd do a bit of a double take on any sufficiently vague posts about that-other-Sylvie. But then I thought it would be kind of interesting if her name was perhaps just another thing she acquired from one of the many apocalypses she lived in...

For real, I really do love this crossover, and I'm glad it was my last MCU fic.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of, lmk tho I guess!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Also not that I'm aware of!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? In a past life...yes. But that was a long time ago.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? I feel like...I don't really 'ship'. Idk, I have the occasional ship I'm into for a brief moment, but I'm really a Gen person so ships don't really stick with me, I can't really name an 'all-time favorite' because it feels so dependent on mood/story...

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I did leave one series dangling in the MCU that I will never go back to finish and I do feel bad about that. Sryy...

16. What are your writing strengths? I feel like I get a lot of positive comments about tension building?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I think I get too caught up in dialogue that I forget to describe what people are doing. Also repetition.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Eh, I probably wouldn't honestly, just keep it as like, narration. I'm not Tolstoy. My French is probably not good enough to write dialogue, I definitely don't speak any other languages well enough, and I don't personally thinks it adds to what I specifically write.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Ever, it was for something I don't want to admit to in the 90s, incoherent scribbles in a diary. Previous posting life was [redacted for teenage embarrassment]. Oldest fic on current account....is a crossover. I swear, I really don't usually write crossovers, but it was a kind of weird American Gods/Supernatural crossover. (I also NEVER wrote Supernatural fanfic, that was not the redacted one above, but I have always wanted to write this ONE Supernatural fic that's basically just about Dean learning to accept the inevitability of death through an exploration of death gods/afterlives. There are going to be footnotes. It will be so obnoxious but I WILL finish it some day.)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? I couldn't pick just one but I have a lot of love/often reread: spare me over (also proof/comfort that I've often had an inverse relationship between *my* personal faves and what gets the most kudos/comments, this is one of my lower kudos'd MCU fics, but it's one of my favorites), dark underground // violent sky (I'm real proud of that twist), apocalyptic appellations (and I'll KEEP talking about it--), I feel like I'm borrowing all my time (my one and only time travel fic), always proud of longer things that are plot-heavy (dark ocean duology, alone amidst the ruins, the current fic I'm posting: the station)

I'm too awkward to tag others because even though I LOVE being tagged I'm convinced I'm bothering people, but as usual: open tag! you want to answer 20 questions, please answer 20 questions!

[anonofseasons]

The reason the rest of Seasons went up is that I figured I'd better just do it before I lost all drive to share ever again and didn't at least complete Seasons for the remaining readers. It's the only thing I've written (outside of fandom) that has gotten much attention. It was nice, and I really appreciate that anyone would read it. But outside of that, I cannot get more than the tiniest handful of people to care about what I write, and it has been that way for years. It's discouraging, I'll be honest. My already-low confidence keeps taking beatings. I used to be more active with fandoms and posting fics, but one fandom/ship soured the experience for me. (Long story short, a lot of that ship's writers were bullied out by much more prominent writers. One of those popular writers mocked content from my fics in vaguetweets every time I posted, and I couldn't keep calling it a coincidence after a while.) I'd hear "you only write manbabies" (yeah more than once) and "you write too much of this" or be told my characterization wasn't realistic. But mostly? It just goes ignored. So I think, "I have to work harder and be better so people will be interested in reading it."

I don't know how other people manage to get word out about their writing. AO3 is great for sharing what I don't plan to publish/what can't be published, but what about what I do want published? I want to be a career author. And I struggle bc I'm dealing with problems that have a hand in worsening each other: financial struggles, living with my shitty parents, and bad health/disabilities. I need something in my life to work out for once. The pressure is on to be successful at something, but I just keep getting older and physically worse. My friend is willing to take me in when they find a place, we hope that's this year, but I can't live off of them, and I can't just sometimes cook and clean when I have spoons to make up for that. I need an income. I want writing to work out. But it just dies on my social media, with very few interactions, if any at all. I had a ton of stuff I wanted to finish for Seasons this month and into October to share with everyone in my excitement. But I'm losing my will to share anything. I only feel foolish when I try. Everything I do only proves my critics right, so it's embarrassing. Why even bother to try? It's been fourteen years of trying to get anything I write seen. I don't plan to stop writing btw, it's the sharing that's so difficult. I've been told countless times to write for myself when I express my despair, and guess what? That's good advice I've been taking this entire time! Who else could I be trying to please at this point? I have no one to please lmao, it's just me doing stuff I wanna do! The reaction to the ending of Seasons has me hesitant to give up on sharing, bc clearly lots of people connected to it in different ways, and that's wonderful. It makes me think sharing isn't so bad! But I just don't know if - at my age and health - if I can keep trying. I have two books I want to self-publish soon, and they feel like they'll just end up like everything else I post over at @mcalhenwrites - 6 notes and 5 of them are my reblogs! (And it's the same across all social media platforms - or it's even worse.) I'm really thankful that sharing Seasons gave me a taste of what it was like to connect with people through my writing, though. I don't think any of the people who commented or sent me asks realize how much it really helped me through this year, but it did. I started to have a little hope that maybe it wasn't a skill issue on my part, at least? ;A; And here's the thing: I don't really hate my writing all that much. I just fear it's got things wrong with it that I can't recognize, and that's what's putting potential readers off. I do believe my hard work shows, but hard work =/= good enough. My style is getting closer to the skill level I dreamed of having. I'm proud of my characters. But what's missing? I know that being a creator of any kind - even professional - is extremely tough, especially right now. I know this is a struggle for a lot of authors, artists, etc. :'( I just... I want to write as a career so I can keep doing more of it. I rarely have the spoons to keep up with anything. Writing is flexible. I love doing it! I just want to explain how I feel and what I'm dealing with, and why I'm so desperate. If you read this, know that it really helps creators to have our work recommended, boosted, etc. Authors matter as much as artists. I've been trying to train myself for the nth time to not be online and talk about my writing in any capacity. It hasn't worked before - I'm always too stupid to commit to giving up - but at what point in 14 years of complete failure with a side of humiliation does one just learn to give up? And to give some further insight into my thinking process: when I uploaded the remaining chapters, I put Seasons in my private collection (which holds 87 of my works out-of-bounds to anyone but me) so I could upload all the chapters without risking annoying my subscribers. Since 11 chapters in one night is a bit much, eh? :') Ugh, idk why tumblr won't let me edit anything or post long stuff. So I'm cutting this short I guess!

[asteria-argo]

Tag Game

I was tagged by @abubblingcandle

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

13

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

213,258

3. What fandoms do you write for?

most frequently Ted Lasso, but I also write for Batman though I don’t post those fics very often and I have recently started writing for Outlander as well!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

To All The Better Places

Counting Sheep

I can take care of myself (denial is all I have)

If I just keep saying I’m fine (maybe I’ll start to believe it)

Oh, The Horrors

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used too! And then I started getting a lot more than normal and I got overwhelmed, panicked and stopped! I would like to start again but there’s like 200 unanswered comments in my inbox and it intimidates me! It will plague me for the rest of my life no doubt.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

none of them, I don’t write angst! I’d probably say Can’t You See (I’m where I’ve always wanted to be) if I had to pick one just because I left it a bit open ended. Or What If? only because it’s like,, an apocolypse au so there’s not really any room for a happy ending

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh, The Horrors OR All The Kings Horses, in the sense that the ending of those two made ME the happiest. My stories are all pretty equal in terms of happy endings otherwise.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yeah! I actually get a decent amount of hate on my fics which is not something I was expecting. I got a hate comment in a bookmark once, which was so fucking funny I couldn’t even be upset they were dragging my fic like it was a bad goodreads review.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do not! I’m aroace and also a virgin so I don’t know how it works. I’d like too, I want to write a platonic friends with benefits fic at some point but I don’t understand the logistics of sex to any degree and until I do I will not be writing any smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No I don’t! Crossovers annoy me for reasons unknown to even myself. Unless the two shows or books or whatever are set in the same universe and have a logical reason to overlap I cannot get behind the idea of a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, I’m not popular or prolific enough for that!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also no!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, and I don’t think I ever would because I am a control freak with very specific ideas who does not work well in group settings. That was on my report card once.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Dickkory specifically from the marv wolfman new teen titans run.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

My DC universe rewrite that is ever evolving and constantly changing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

From what I’ve been told, characterization and dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I can’t write emotions to save my fucking life, I fall back into telling over showing every time because I just don’t get facial expressions and body language. I’m working on it though.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I can only speak english and the tiniest bit of Auslan, so if I can get away with not having someone speak another language I will, but if I can’t I will admit I usually try to find a “To English” dictionary and hope for the best.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Powerpuff girls or carebear bears when I was a tiny child who didn’t know what fanfiction was, and when I was writing for fandom with intention later on in my early teens, Batman.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

my favoruite fic I’ve ever written is not a published one, it’s my rewrite of the Death In The Family storyline in my DC rewrite universe. It’s my baby, I’ve revised it about 20 times since I first wrote it when I was 13, and I am in the process of revising it again right now. My favoruite published fic is probably Oh, The Horrors.

I'm going to tag the lovely lovely @jamtartandsunshine and also @jamiesfootball though I have no idea if they have been tagged yet or not.

[lanistas]

glued on tight to this carousel

My first (and hopefully not last) attempt to write fics for this fandom. Inspired by this post by @sarcasticsciencefictionwriter. Time-wise this is supposed to be not long after Helen found out the terrible truth about John and broke off their engagement. Hope you enjoy!

When Helen looks at her engagement ring, she feels like a shard of ice is growing inside of her, penetrating her lungs, breaking her ribcage, razor sharp and unyielding. She can’t breathe, and once again she berates herself for being so weak, for lacking courage to throw this damned ring into a nearest pond. But Helen is only human. So she just stares at it, trembles and closes the box, clenches it in her hands. She hides her heart in that box too, an organ so fragile, yet so stubborn, that it breaks, and breaks, and breaks, but refuses to stop completely.

Helen Magnus hates being fragile and weak. And the fact that Montague John Druitt managed to reduce her to someone who is afraid of shadows makes her hate herself even more. Hating herself is easy. Hating him… no matter how much Helen wants to, no matter the pain that he’s caused her, her treacherous heart breaks, and weeps, but still beats for him, and him alone.

John Druitt shredded her heart into the tiniest of pieces, and she’s not naive to think he’s ever going to change… but right now, sitting in front of the fireplace in her father’s library, she aches for the way things used to be. She remembers John’s smile, his laughter, and his touch, almost reverent at first. She was so happy back then. She can still recall the purest joy that she felt when he asked her to share a life with him, how she couldn’t stop smiling and giggling to herself for hours afterwards. Such radiant happiness, taken from her so soon. 

Helen hates her life. She hates herself. But not him. Oh, never him.

The sound of the library door opening distracts Helen from reminiscing. The room around her is dark, and the fireplace provides little light. Helen thinks she doesn’t care much.

“There you are. Why would you sit in almost complete darkness, Helen? You got eternal youth out of our little experiment, not eternally good eyesight.”

Nikola’s voice breaks the silence of the library, and Helen winces at the sound. She takes a sharp breath, feels tears leaving trails on her cheeks. She doesn’t know when she started crying, and she can’t stop now, her throat constricting with a burning pain that she’s kept inside of herself for weeks.

“Helen?” Nikola is at her side in an instant, concern and confusion evident on his face. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

She cannot reply. The heaviness in her chest is suddenly too much, and she keeps sobbing, her fingers fiddling with a tiny box in her hands. It doesn’t go unnoticed by the man kneeling in front of her, and Nikola frowns.

“Was John here?” he takes the box from her, throws it on the floor. “Helen, look at me. Was he here? Did he hurt you?”

“No,” Helen replies. “I’m alright. I just… I need a moment.”

She rubs her face with her palms, wipes tears from her chin. Some part of Helen expects Nikola to reach for her, but he doesn’t. Of course. Nikola is not James. Nikola Tesla is hardly someone who knows how to comfort other people. Helen doesn’t blame him. She lifts her head to meet his gaze and tries to give him a little smile, and the panic in his eyes subsides.

It’s bizarre to have Nikola near when she is at her lowest. It’s usually James who chases away her fears when her head and her heart are heavy. It seems that James Watson has always been a part of her life, her best friend and confidant for so long she feels they are joined at the hip. Nikola, however, is an acquired taste, still a novelty, even after years of friendly rivalry and sleepless nights at the laboratory. He’s never witnessed her weaknesses and her imperfections, and Helen expects Nikola to make an awkward comment and leave, too stunned and repulsed to see her perfect and spotless façade cracking, the pedestal that all of her friends put her on shattering beneath her feet. 

And yet Nikola Tesla is full of surprises.

“We need to warm you up,” he says quietly, his voice unexpectedly soft, even with the usual teasing undertones. “I can think of many ways, but for now tea would do just fine, don’t you think?”

Helen chuckles and nods. “Yes, tea would be lovely.”

Nikola rummages in his pockets for a handkerchief, and Helen gladly accepts a piece of fabric that he finally procures, no matter how rumpled it might be.

“I’ll be right back. You can… umm, stare at the fire for a while, if you’re so inclined.” Nikola stands up and rubs at his knees, shaking off dust. Helen dabs at her eyes, closes them for a second and opens them to the sight of Nikola picking up the ring box and twirling it in his hands. “And I believe it’s time to get rid of this.”

Helen’s heart fills with dread. “No,” she says sharply, sharper than she thought it would sound, “no, please. It’s not necessary.”

She feels silly, stupid, defeated, but she still meets Nikola’s sympathetic look with a defiant gaze. He sighs, gives the tiny box back to her, and lets the matter go.

Half an hour later, when Helen is wrapped up in a blanket with a cup of tea in her hands and Nikola is stirring the coals in the fireplace with a poker, she looks at him, registers the worry lines edged on his forehead. “Thank you,” she whispers into her cup, “for the tea.”

Nikola doesn’t reply.

“And for being here,” she adds. Nikola sighs, puts away the poker, and finally turns to her, looking her over.

“Does this happen often?” he asks, and Helen averts her eyes. Suddenly she feels small. How silly of her. She is six years Nikola’s senior, and yet at this instance she feels like an absolute child.

“Not often. Sometimes.”

“Helen, you can’t keep torturing yourself like that.”

“You sound like James,” she huffs.

“Well, for once I agree with your precious Watson. What happened to John is not your fault.”

Helen knows that. But knowing doesn’t make it easier. So she stays silent, understanding that whatever she says right now will sound wrong. 

“I know that John was dear to you,” Nikola continues, “but Helen, I -” 

He stops abruptly, collects his thoughts, rearranges whatever it is he wanted to say. “We admire and… love you, and it hurts us to see you like that.”

Helen looks at him, and the vulnerability in his eyes shakes her to her core. She’s never seen him like that before. Could it be…

“We?” she repeats the word he was so adamant to emphasize, and Nikola turns away from her to stare at one of her father’s bookshelves.

“Yes. We. You know how important you are to us.”

Helen might be grieving, but she is not blind, and even in the semi-darkness around her she sees Nikola’s face, can read his for once unguarded emotions, and what she sees scares her. 

She’s always known that Nikola feels a certain admiration for her. Yes, he often laughs at her, teases her, challenges her and drives her absolutely insane, making her wonder why they’re even friends, but he still respects her opinions and supports her craziest ideas, finding joy in exploring the unknown by her side. 

She’s never suspected he’s been in love with her all along.

“Thank you,” she finally utters, while Nikola is browsing books, trying to seem nonchalant. “I’m grateful to all of you for your concern.”

Nikola makes a humming sound in response, and Helen is glad that the conversation is over.

Nikola Tesla loves her, and the only emotion in Helen's heart is the deepest sadness. Because her love for John is a mark forever burned into her skin.

Helen can only hope that Nikola's love for her won't scorch his heart the same way John’s scorched hers.

[blankfairy]

thank you sm for the tag @thenn!! this was really fun!

1. How many works do you have on ao3 (or masterlist)? twelve total published!! but a hell of a lot more rotting in my google drive and three-ring binders haha

2. What’s your total ao3 word count? 23,456 including my fics from my nsfw account. (i can't believe it's all sequential??)

3. What fandoms do you write for? currently, resident evil and house of the dragon. in the past i've written for overwatch, fortnite, and warrior cats. i'd love to do some silent hill stuff, too!

4. Top five fics by kudos in his nature (nsfw) — 265 kudos afterglow (nsfw) — 212 kudos thunderclan's smallest warrior — 74 kudos a taste of home — 47 kudos i'd be lying if i said i wasn't wishing for an untimely death or demise — 45 kudos two of these are warrior cats fics from YEARS ago too :sob:

5. Do you respond to comments? ofc!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? all my fics are one-shots,, but.... published... this is how a girl becomes holy? and then my two wip longfics, folie a deux and all things devour are bound to have unhappy endings.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? afterglow probably?? just because it's just two dudes having fun. being silly. i generally quite enjoy angst, so...

8. Do you get hate on fics? luckily not! but i don't post a lot, either. i did get banned from a discord roleplay server once because of a fic i wrote tho lol

9. Do you write smut? yup!! i have an ao3 account specifically for it.

10. Craziest crossover? house of the dragon and resident evil, maybe? it's not 'legally' a crossover but i'm just asoiaf-ifying the umbrella corporation and the weskers.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? no, but i did have someone steal some ocs back on quotev, years ago.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? naur ...

14. All time favorite ship? canon/canon or oc/canon? let's see,, c/c, serrenedy (leon s. kennedy x luis serra). i mean, with a ship name like that, who can resist? i'd say willsker (william birkin x albert wesker) but. um. i've got other uses for william birkin. i also love weskennedy (albert wesker x leon s. kennedy) for. other reasons. oc/canon, i'm definitely biased but finn x will LMAOO not that they're good together or all that compatible but they're both awful and should never date anyone ever except for each other. exception being that time finn married larys strong in asoiaf and they were also perfectly awful for each other.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? not saying, crossing my fingers, doubting its completion will only bring that to fruition!!

16. What are your writing strengths? my partner tells me he likes my dialogue and that it feels realistic, and i like to think that i'm good with descriptions, setting scenes, etc. there's a particular action scene in my resident evil longfic that i'm very proud of, and lots of visceral descriptions of gore that i think are done really well!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? i'm not sure,, i definitely procrastinate a lot, and i'm really bad at taking criticism. trying to do better but i'm just so sensitive akjbsdkjbfksdj

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language? i mean, sure!! i'm a little iffy sometimes because translators can be whacky, but i'll either around, check reddit, etc. little phrases i don't mind. usually i just put the phrase in italics and mention them saying it in said language.

19. First fandom you wrote in? it was either warrior cats or supernatural! i think it was maybe even a supernatural/elder scrolls crossover? i remember toiling away in my digital art class, writing in the tiniest text i could because i was embarrassed haha

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? of the ones published? woof. um. i honestly have no idea. that's like picking a favorite child lol.

tagging: anyone who wants to do it!! i get embarrassed tagging people :sob: i don't want to be annoying

[chanbig]

1, 10, 13! 👀

for this fic author ask game!

thank u anna!!

1. What is your favorite trope to write?

i really wasnt sure about this 🤔 but i looked through my fics and wips and i realized its probably bringing characters back from the dead to reunite with their friends and heal, since ive done it like 3 times for reddie and i am working on an anderperry fic where neil survives and now LMAO okay well i got my work cut out for me with chanbig 🫡. my brain is just like: no one dies!!!!! get back here, youve got a life to live baby

10. Best/funniest comment you’ve ever gotten on a fic?

this made me look at my inbox on ao3 and i realized i havent responded to like half of the comments ive gotten. please know that i read them all!!! i am just terrible at replies. theyre all so sweet though, i love any comment at all. one that sticks out to me is the person that commented on a fic for a fandom tag i had to start on ao3. its just us in the tiniest fandom known to mankind. hand in tiny fandom hand 🤝 another that stuck out to me was someone who recently reread my block b fic from like 2015 🫣 they said they had read it when i originally posted it to lj and had been searching for it 🥹 i cant believe someone remembered my fic!!!!

13. Latest fic written/latest WIP?

istg ive added like 5 wips to my list since watching kinnporsche LMAO (and yes theyre like all chanbig, one kimchay) but the one i was working on most recently was chanbig, where porsche has been assigned extra training to escape ropes underwater but maybe starts to drown a little bit. chan, who is supervising, has to dive in to save him and big, who was there to watch porsche struggle, helps, even though hes like well maybe he should drown if he cant do it right 🙄 and since its set at the beginning of kp when big is injured, big pulls on/rips his stitches while helping porsche and chan helps him rewrap the wounds etc etc. big being cared for, thats the fic 💕

thanks for asking!!!

[nonbinarv]

3 linked universe characters of your choosing + 2, 12, 21, 22, 24? (for the ask game) :3c

under the cut bc these got kinda long!!!

wind

2: i love his dynamic with the others in general tbh!!! he goes from being the older of two siblings to the youngest in a large group of them and there is somewhat of a struggle with the transition especially with the others' protectiveness but it's so obvious how much they care for each other- special shoutout to his dynamics with time (timeline talk 1) and wild (kings of hyrule)

12: i don't personally adopt the hc that he's four's descendant but all the fanwork i've read/seen incorporating it has been adorable so i do want to give it a nod here!!! otherwise i think he and wild would have a good cathartic conversation about their sisters if wild ever remembers his own

21: i haven't tried writing any of these three actually oops. if i were to write wind i think it'd be interesting getting into his perspective :o he's a very optimistic character but it's also important to consider all the trauma he's gone through both before and during lu and i think that'd be interesting to explore, though it may be difficult getting his age down in my writing

22: age swaps or de-aging aren't usually my thing in fics but lu is a fandom i make an exception for because of how different characterization is during their adventures vs the one shared with the others in the comic. ones where wind ends up not being the youngest anymore are interesting bc he can tap back into his older brother role and it can be fun to explore the what-if. i do think people overdo it on his swearing sometimes though; i do think he would (he's a pirate come on) but i don't think anyone would get onto him for it and i don't think it'd be every other sentence

24: bonnie!!! bonbon is a little younger than him but they share in being the kiddos of the group who hate being infantilized and are more capable than they may seem at first glance and have sisters they love dearly and would go through hell and back for

hyrule

2: his fairy form is so cool!!! the design is so pretty :o but regarding his actual character can i just say his sheer determination. there are so many little moments this is expressed in but probably the most prominent is his words to twilight, on the verge of death, encouraging him to not give up… it breaks my heart in all the right ways

12: i haven't actually played either of his games yet!!! except for the first the tiniest bit as a kid- so i'm not really sure… maybe. actually. just bc i think it'd be funny he's a really good cook it's just that he can't make stew which is the complete opposite of most of the cast where there's some sort of soup or stew they've made in their adventures. imagine it

21: i think it'd be harder getting a grasp on his personality without the exposure to his games; i wouldn't feel very confident and would be referring to the comic itself constantly- but i'd be interested in exploring his era more through writing centered around him :o the events that happen between legend's time and his own, his relationship with legend as his successor, how his era shapes him and his behavior with its inherent roughness yet his deep and inherent love for it

22: i love his dynamics with legend especially in fics!!! but i don't like how he's reduced to just the healer of the group sometimes. the fandom isn't always bad about it (thunder is pretty common with occasional fire from the ones i've read- outside of his fairy form of course) but he has other spells and a sword too!!!

24: hmm maybe emma (mikhaylov not woods). idk how to put it into words but there's the same drive there, the same passion, a shared dedication to the land and the people around them

legend

2: his little subtle moments of vulnerability… his reaction to twilight being alright ;w; but also when he's turned into a bunny and he's thanking twilight and sky (only to be interrupted by sky's "nice hair" comment sgfdkhlj); there's so much depth to his character and so much he hides. there's a reason he turns into a bunny

12: ough i have so many palace of the four sword thoughts. not sure how in-depth timeline talk is gonna get (life spoilers and all) but he would struggle so much with the realization that he killed four since all records would most likely have vanished or be extremely obscured by his era (after all there's like. no more mentions of the minish or vaati or the four sword or anything about four save for a couple of references on wild's map). he already deals with nightmares but they would get so much worse starting the adventure with the chain after meeting four

21: there are so many good potfs fics out there already and i want to add to that. but also i want to give him a fucking break bc please this man deserves it. hurt/comfort perhaps for a nice even mix of both. i think it might be difficult keeping track of his inventory though in anything i write; between all his adventures he has so much gear and so many items

22: i love when people acknowledge his own special relationship with the master sword!!! especially when he gets to know fi; i always find those so sweet- it's clear he holds the sword in high regard and people mostly focus on sky's relationship with fi instead (not that that's bad, it's completely understandable, but legend deserves some too imo). but i feel people do go a bit overboard with his behavior sometimes compared to canon y'know; he teases but there's no real malice behind his words and he loves his family

24: okay this is gonna be mean of me and maybe a bit hypocritical since i just talked about him not being as mean as some people make him out to be in fanwork but. jax gave me legend vibes. like jax is significantly meaner towards the people around him but two bunnies coping unhealthily with their respective traumatic experiences…

[jessepinwheel]

✨ 💝 🍭 for the fic asks

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

well I always think that dielectric breakdown is one of my better works but it's probably a bit much to say it should get more credit when it's already got over 2k kudos and 380 comments. like I know I feel like some small time obscure writer who just writes weird stuff about obi-wan because I don't ever interact with the star wars fandom in my tiniest corner but considering the metrics on my fics that's just. objectively not true

I guess a story I think could use more credit is breakpoint because I think it's really funny and because obi-wan hooking up with maul and bail at the same time is something that more people should consider

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

yeah, for some reason people keep commenting that off-by-one error is a sad story. I mean yeah obi-wan got deleted from the universe but also he unkilled them all and then saved the republic so I think it's a net positive

🍭why did you start writing?

because I liked reading stories a lot and had an active imagination and access to microsoft word and no high speed internet. I remember I was writing things in powerpoint with like pictures of mspaint edited neopets back in the day. oh how things have changed since then.

I had to go through a whole lot of unfinished and failed stories before I got to where I am now, so follow your dreams etc

send me fic writer asks

[borkthemork]

BorkMork’s Amphibia Fanfiction Recommendations

There are so many absolutely fantastic fics out there, so these will be generalized. They could be character studies, one-shots, anything that was able to pull in my interest and leave me an absolute mess.

I won’t be tagging the authors here because I don’t want to bother them, but if any of you do know them feel free to tell them that their creativity and works are lovely, and that they have made my day ever brighter.

Anyways, let us begin.

Any Work by MayDayGirl_Save_Our_Ships

Okay so I was part of the Amphibia fandom back when it first aired. And back then there weren’t that many fics even though I was craving to see more focus on the Plantar Family and how much they mean to Anne, and overall character studies. So when I read Two Truths and a Lie, the characterization pulled me and it still aged well regardless of the new info we got about these characters today.

Years later and I am pleasantly surprised to see that the characterization once again swings and succeeds with the other fics MayDay has created. I laughed, I yelled, I felt numerous feelings for the Plantar family, and I would highly recommend their content.

bloom by dragondawdles

I haven’t been here when I saw the boom in Newtopia fics, but I had a massive craving to see Marcy fics when she first arrived in the city. Dragondawdles pulled me into this fic immediately with their prose, the characterization of Marcy and Lady Olivia, and also the really cute doodle that accompanied the story itself.

It gave me everything I wanted, and to see Marcy be curious over Lady Olivia made me ponder even more about how they acted toward each other. Overall, a cute one-shot!

Any Work by DeeTheTeaDrinkingDragon

There is something gentle about the tiniest touches, of well-done prose and filling in the potential blanks. I first read Constellations when I scoured around for some Marcanne content, and this one was the softest cuddling fic I had ever witnessed with my eyes.

It was vivid, very visually stimulating in its wholesome atmosphere, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Also, Dee’s Stay was able to check off everything I speculated for Marcanne in Season Three so me and my friend were yelling loudly over that. Would recommend them!

Any Work by feebop

I love character studies. I love authors who can pull me into the narrative through dialogue and description. Put it all together and you get feebop’s Starlit Review and Painted Yellow Lines.

Honestly, I reread them just because I feel so inspired by the attention to detail and the prose itself, they’re that good. And being able to see character studies between Marcy and Sasha always left me satisfied. I cannot recommend their stuff enough!

Any Work by mira_blue

That’s right, more character studies! Mira_blue has a few fics already but my absolute favorites would be her stuff on Marcy and Sasha, because those left me to speculate about those two more than anything, and it’s always lovely to see people’s takes while keeping the people in-character.

This Is Home is dear, because damn you can definitely get me emotionally wrecked in under 1,500 words and this is a great example.

Dance With Me by Hugh Jidiot

Long fics here we go. It took a bit to get me into Dance With Me, but when I finally had to time to read it I was absolutely pulled into Marcy and Anne being absolute disasters while trying to get ready for a massive social event. There are a lot of laughs, lots of events being filled in-between, and some study into Marcy’s thought process when it comes to socializing with people.

Few key comments on the fic itself. It took a while to get used to the newt ocs but they became absolutely enjoyable as things went on, and my favorite would be Fiona, just saying.

Also the practice dance scene was the hardest I’ve laughed in 2021 so thank you, Hugh, for this beautiful piece.

Any Work by Mighty_Ant

Fill-in-the-blank fics are always fun, but man Mighty_Ant knows how to write these so well, especially when it comes to what is basically the physical representation of emotional as heck music.

Reading the fics always flowed well to me when I narrated to myself, and you could tell the person is a professional writer with the amount of techniques used to emotionally fuck me up, especially Sasha’s story.

Thank you, Mighty_Ant, and I can’t wait for your Marcy fic!

Is She Really Your Daughter? by red_lensed_glasses

Do you ever just want to read a fic about Anne’s parents and their perspective of Marcy? And then cry? For hours? This fic is for you.

It’s such a really interesting take when it comes to how the Boonchuys perceive Marcy, and the ending got me very, and I mean very, upset for really good reasons. This fic is a recommendation, I love it!

Anne 2.0 by mandaree1

I always wondered if Anne ever got a scar from, y’know, breaking her arm, so this was a delight to read when it came to Marcy’s POV of the situation. You get Marcy being an analytical nerd in her writing style — in an intriguing second-person, no less — and it’s just really good!

Heron by TheDinosaurNerd

I stumbled upon this fic while I was looking for some Grime and Sasha one-shots, and I really liked the dialogue found in this! Very succinct, to-the-point, but in said succinctness you are able to form a really well-done fill-in-the-blanks story.

not delivered. by camomile_t

God. This is one of the big ole’ fics in this fandom that is keeping me alive throughout the hiatus, I love text fics when done well, especially when they utilize the features and limitations to basically do storytelling, and this is one of those examples. Cause holy shit.

This fic takes any theories about what could happen in Season Three and goes the limit. You get Marcanne, you get a well-done mix of comedy and angst, you get Sasha having her redemption, you get the Plantars/Boonchuys being a supportive family, and a lot more!

I binged the hell out of this and kept up with each update with much eager anticipation. You have no clue, my friend and I keep speculating and theorizing in DMs over this fic. It is so good.

There Will Be No Dancing by PartlyCloudySkies

I have read this fic so many times. Ten? Twenty? I don’t know, but I keep coming back to this just because of how well-written it is. When I tell you that this fic plays out like a legitimate Amphibia episode, I absolutely mean it.

This fic is an Amphibia episode from some alternate universe and is now given to us on a silver platter.

And for what????? We were given to this free and we’re supposed to take it with no complaints?????? Understandable, have a good day. I can’t.

You get amazing pacing, a writing style that fits Anne’s perspective to a T, dialogue and comedy logic that hits what Amphibia is all about, and you also get two girls being gay in Newtopia. What’s not to love?

Go read it. Do it. Put a comment. I don’t know what you do, but just acknowledge the fact that this fic has ruined the shit out of me and now I cannot recover, ever.

[mashnotesofthemythopoeic]

Fic Masterpost

So, in the spirit of full disclosure - all the X-Files fiction I’ve ever written, as memory serves. And some thoughts on how this fine fandom has taught me to write. 

Starbuck (circa 1998)

I’m not kidding, this is really embarrassing, absolute beginner stuff, but we all start somewhere and it’s interesting in an evolutionary sense. I found these on  Zuffy's X-Files Homepage.

Without The Bee  -  I couldn’t bring myself to look at this one. That title says it all. 

Agents of Change: Return from Antarctica  -  Obsessions—the Scott Expedition and the X-Files—collide. Rough early days, but probably with hints of potential. A legit turkey of a title! 

Penumbra 1998 - 2009

(I’m not going to bother with Gossamer links.) Learning the ropes as I went. Oblivious to so, oh so many things. Rickety, untrained writing, but mindlessly in love with creatively inspired by the churlish charms of our two razzle-dazzle creatures of the night. 

Contact High  -  The last line was plagiarized, pure and simple, from one of Gerald Durrell’s books about his childhood in Corfu. It’s bothered me ever since, so the big thing I took from this experience: by all means steal the rhythm of something, but at least change a word or two. 

Vespers  -  Very stoned ramblings. Inspired by John Leonard’s X-Files essay in The Nation that I’d managed to extract off a microfiche in a university library. I have a soft spot for this fic, probably because Khyber picked it very analytically apart, which was like having Jonathan Galassi or someone suddenly pay attention to you. He introduced me to 'show, don't tell', a paralyzing concept if ever there was one, which I yet only fitfully grasp.

Black Hole Season  -  Still breakin’ all the rules. This one was hugely popular, and amidst all the ballyhoo, Punk Maneuverability emailed me and quietly said: ‘Please pick a POV and a tense and stick with it’—vastly important advice that I was probably too full of myself to heed. This one won a Spooky award, one of the greatest moments of my life that I had to keep completely to myself (therein lies the painful crux of fanfiction.)

Parabiosis  -  I was eating cereal and flipping through the dictionary, and there it was: parabiosis. Who knows what it means. I didn’t have a computer, and was working in the mountains, so I wrote the whole thing out on paper several times, unimaginable now. It flowed through my brain as I scrambled through the woods in the evenings. Nothing will ever be that easy again.

Honeymoon Video  -  Promising title, not much there.

Blue-Sky Conjecture  -  unfinished Scully/Kresge

The Cretan Paradox  -  Americana. JET sent me an ear of corn from a corn maze, because she’s thoughtful like that. 

Free Beer Night at the Astrodome  -  Cut years ago in despair out of Heuvelmans’; I think part of it went back in. 

Fathoms Five  -  In one of Gerald Durrell’s books about his childhood in Corfu, his brother steps in a swamp and says that his shoe is ‘full of fathoms five’, so that’s where I got that Shakespearean misquote. I resisted writing this for a long time, but it would creep into my mind as I was falling asleep. I think this is a pretty good story, but it could have used one more draft, so since then, I’ve resolved never to rush to post. Events of this year kind of date this story now. However, it’s rather pleasant to read about a careless, joint-passing, COVID-free 2020.

Fathoms Five Outtakes and gag reels - Sorry about the glitchy old site and bad font.

A random smut biscuit  -  Uncharacteristic, I know!

Octopods  - I loved this one, but it never fit in anywhere.

Maundy Thursday  

Untitled Snippet 

World’s Tiniest Zombie Fic

∩dsᴉpɐᴉsᴉnɯ -  Very flawed, because it was written and posted under a fund-raiser time crunch. I really should overhaul it. The X-Files was ending and I was so depressed when I wrote it, and that’s an unfortunate tincture to saddle a story with. 

The Inscrutable Pair  -  How The X-Files taught me to embrace ambiguity. Goreyesque nonsense à la Gashlycrumb Tinies that also troubles itself to rip off Eliot and Homer. 

(7-Year Cold-Turkey Hiatus From the X-Files)

Gave away DVDs, got some perspective, did a little growing up, tried and failed to write a screenplay, two novels, etc. Then they put The X-Files on Netflix. One lonely night, I thought: what could it hurt to watch Darkness Falls? 44 minutes later, with shaking hands, going for the hard stuff—Redux II. Lol, the hard stuff of ancient philes. 

The Mythopoeic*  2016  - 

Heuvelmans’ On the Track - The nearly suicidal heartbreak that surrounds this story—it was the first X-Files fic I got bogged down in and couldn’t finish, and it left me with a huge mental stigma—sweetens its completion. Under its shadow I tried to become a Real Writer, without success. Give things time, I learned. Just keep working hard. The initial failure of this story taught me stuff that I now wouldn’t trade for anything. 

*I came back just intending to hang out with Philes, and didn’t want to make a big deal, and had no intention of posting fic, so I gave little thought to the name. But, characteristically ostentatious name, check. Still keepin’ it real, pure and self-taught, a bit closer to what Chuck Palahniuk calls a ‘kitchen-table MFA’. Check.

But what I really want to say is this. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to try writing if I hadn’t been in this marvelous fandom, having the method and the means demonstrated all around me by wonderfully competent and encouraging writers for whom I felt such reverence that having them reach out or comment on stuff was earth-shaking. They showed the way, and I followed. Hands on my heart, friends, I owe you everything.

[missroserose]

Fic Writer Question Meme!

Thanks for the tag, @venhedish—I love stuff like this! I'd apologize in advance for how long this is likely to be, but I suspect we share that tendency, haha.

How many works do you have on AO3?

20 total. I've been publishing there since late 2018, so about three years now. That sounds right for me—I'm way too perfectionist to ever be prolific.

What's your total AO3 word count?

125,744! Apparently it takes me three years to write a novel's worth of words I feel are worth publishing...which also sounds right.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Three, primarily: The Lost Boys, Stranger Things, and Supernatural. Mostly Stranger Things, since I was pretty enmeshed in the Harringrove community for about a year and a half, though these days I'm hanging out more with the SPN crowd. We'll see if that translates to more fics.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1.) Sunflower (524) 2.) Quickly, look away (506) 3.) We'll Become Who We Meant To Be (383) 4.) Too Young To Fall In Love (333) 5.) When the Waters Start to Cross (283)

First, what's not surprising: all are Stranger Things/Harringrove works. I'm a little surprised to see that "Sunflower" had edged out "Quickly" as my most-kudosed story, for years it was the other way around—but maybe that's actually not that surprising—part of the reason I haven't been as active in the fandom is that I really love the darker and more complex renditions of Billy Hargrove's character (a la "Quickly") and since S3 aired it seems like the fashion has moved more towards more lighthearted fluff (a la "Sunflower"). Still, both are pretty undemanding smut, so it makes sense that they're on top; similarly, I'm not surprised to see "Too Young To Fall In Love" in the top five either.

I am a little surprised that "We'll Become Who We Meant To Be" is #3—it's honestly close to genfic, there's only the tiniest moment of hinted-at attraction in there. I'm not mad about it, I honestly feel like it's one of my better efforts; on the other hand, "Wake Me Up" was in a similar vein and it's close to the bottom. I guess there's just no telling what's going to catch on...in fairness, a 25K outsider POV novella is a much bigger ask than a 3K short story.

Honestly, I'm probably most surprised at "When the Waters Start to Cross" cracking the top five—it's a 52K+ WIP and a profoundly complex atmospheric existential horror/romance, which is, like, five strikes against it. I'm not mad about it, though—I love that fic, even if it is a huge time and energy suck, and it definitely contains some of my best writing.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do! Sometimes it takes me a while, but I genuinely appreciate people taking the time to leave feedback (even if it's just a string of emoji!). And every once in a while I'll get really thoughtful or incisive comments that spark whole conversations—that's one of the best reasons to write fic!

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Hmm...to be honest, nothing immediately comes to mind; I love angst but tend to want it to serve a purpose, i.e. it gets a character closer to who they want to be. So most of my endings are at least hopeful. *checks list* It looks like probably my angstiest ending is also my first fic posted, "Blue Masquerade". Poor Michael.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

I don't currently write crossovers; I wouldn't rule it out, but frankly I haven't come across an idea that appeals to me. Waaaaaay back in the mists of time I had a Daria/Harry Potter crossover that I was actually pretty proud of, but I got about as far as getting them to Hogwarts and then kinda ran out of ideas, so I never posted it.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not that I can think of? I'm not big-time enough to get hate, haha. Worst I ever got was some rando asking for top or bottom tags, which I just ignored, and one person on "We'll Become" who was like "I don't like this pairing but you did a good job", which kinda had me like ??? thanks, I guess? I did get one comment on "Quickly, look away" from someone who felt like it was in a different headspace from the fic I wrote it as a sequel to, but that didn't strike me as hate, it's a perfectly fair observation.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

So first off, yes, and second...I recently came across this great Garth Greenwell quote that really gets at what I'm trying to do when I write smut:

In America in 2019 we are inundated with images of bodies to an absolutely unprecedented degree—images of eroticized bodies, images of sexual bodies; the Internet makes all our fantasies visible, and it trains us in new fantasies. And yet it also seems to me that our culture suffers from a dearth of representations of embodiedness, by which I mean of bodies imbued with consciousness. I’m not at all antiporn, but sometimes pornography (maybe especially Internet pornography, with its arms race of extremity) seems to want to evacuate bodies of personhood, to present them as objects. I think literature is the best technology we have for representing consciousness, and so I think there’s a kind of intervention that literature can perform in representing sex explicitly: it can reclaim the sexual body as a site of consciousness.

"Embodied porn" is probably the best description I can come up with—I love writing sex precisely because it's such a charged form of communication (Greenwell's words again), because there are things a character can do and say in that context that they never would normally. Like, sex acts are great and all, but what really does it for me is what's going on in their head, what's the history that brought the character to this point, how're they handling the inherent vulnerability and intimacy of this incredibly risky but potentially rewarding moment. Kink (whether through roleplaying, props, costumes, or whatever) is really just another way of adding to that personal meaning, since without the characters' reactions any trappings are meaningless.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, although I'd love to work with a translator someday (whether with fic or another context)—I'm fascinated by the inherent puzzles in translating between languages, especially with informal speech and its many idioms and cultural references.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet! I'd be open to the idea, but it definitely has to be with the right person...

What's your all time favorite ship?

Isn't that basically like asking a mom to choose her favorite kid? Seriously, I like different things about all of them...which one's getting the most attention depends entirely on mood and headspace and other effectively random variables.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I don't have any I've given up on entirely, yet. Even Waters, as beastly complicated as it is, I've been ruminating on and adding to and arranging in my head lately...

What are your writing strengths?

Atmosphere, character, dialogue. I've said it before, I'm a capital-R Romantic at heart: I love writing settings that reflect and reinforce a character's headspace—while also implying what said character might be missing in their viewpoint.

Something I've noticed—my husband worked for years as a penetration tester, which meant he would regularly have to talk his way past people on a moment's notice. So, unsurprisingly, we both notice people, but he tends to observe their presentation (clothing, accessories, especially ones that're markers of social class and group belonging that allow him to tailor his approach), whereas I notice what they say and how they say it—and, often, what they don't say.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I suddenly feel like I'm in a job interview, haha. Perfectionism is a big one—I have a tendency to feel hopeless and quit if something's taking too long, rather than persisting until I get it sorted, even though some of my best work is stuff where I persisted. Also, I'm big on emotional intensity—which isn't a bad thing, necessarily, but I sometimes read back over my stuff and I'm like "geez, Ambrosia, ease up a bit"...I could definitely use some comic relief in my writing sometimes, but I think I'm often too insecure to try it.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't have any in particular—I rarely do it myself, because I don't trust myself to do it properly. (Perfectionism again!)

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Daria, way back in the day. My work is still up on FF.net...sometimes I wonder if anyone's ever going to dig it up and confront me with it, haha. (I doubt anyone will ever care that much...I guess I'm more just curious if my style from twenty years ago is recognizably me.)

What's your favorite fic you've written?

If we're talking about finished fics, probably either "Wake Me Up" or "Young At Heart"—they're both pretty oddball, but both required a fuckton of work and both came out pretty close to what I wanted. But "Waters" is my biggest baby...maybe I'll open up Act III to work on today...

Thanks again for the tag, Ven! I'm going to tag @ihni, @redmyeyes, @twobrokenwyngs, @skybound2, @sambrosia, @shewritesdirty, @introvertia, @coffeeandchemicals, and @anarchist-billy—if you're up for some rumination, I'd love to hear your thoughts on your writing!