#◊ — ｢ Strength of a Hundred // Writer Speaking ｣ 。

[little-diable]

Little Lamb - Priest!Tom Riddle (smut)

There's just something about priest!Riddle, I love writing for him. This is a very tame Tom imagine, not nearly as dark as my others. Please like and reblog if you enjoyed reading this, your comments keep us writers motivated. Enjoy my loves. xxx

Summary: The reader helps Priest Riddle with his summer camp, guiding young children through prayers, through talks about God, and religion. She had been tied to him for years, he held her heart and soul hostage, taking her whenever he desires her.

Warnings: 18+, smut, unprotected piv, sex in a church, oral (m), wrong use of rosary prayers, power play, dom!Tom, religious connotations

Pairing: Priest!Tom Riddle x fem!reader (about 3k words)

Incense, a smell so biting, (y/n) had a hard time breathing, hand darting out to grab onto the nearest wooden bench. The smell wandered up her nostrils, clinging to her like the smell of petrichor, so distinct she’d always recognise it. Water filled her eyes, begging her to turn around, to leave this church and the camp she had been forced to join. 

Slowly she took another step, and another, till she finally came to halt in front of the altar. (Y/n) couldn’t remember the last time she had visited this church, nothing more than a hazy memory, a fever dream she had woken from all too suddenly, breaking through the blanket of sweat clinging to her like a veil. 

Her heart was pounding, racing in her chest trying to fight against what she had been forced into. God, how she wanted to take off, running away before her parents could catch up with her plans, and yet she couldn’t, very well knowing that there was no way out. 

“There you are, I was wondering where you were hiding.” His voice echoed through the church as if the Lord himself was speaking to her, booming like thunder rippling through the night, heavy like bricks weighing her drowning frame down. The sound of his shoes meeting the stone ground rang in her ears, one by one, reminiscent of the lives he was praying for. 

(Y/n) didn’t dare look at him, eyes directed forwards, staring at the cross that must weigh a few hundred pounds, heavier than any weight she’d be able to lift. She felt him come to a halt next to her, hands clasped together in front of him, shoulders pulled back to appear even taller.

“Look at me.” It was a soft command, and yet he didn’t offer her any room to pull back. But (y/n) couldn’t move, glassy eyes not daring to blink not even once, scared that she’d mess up on her first day, not ready to face her parents' wrath. “(Y/n).”

Priest Riddle singsang her name, cold fingers finding her chin. Slowly he turned her face towards him, moving as slow as somebody exploring a new piece of art, unsure what to expect, taking their time to admire every inch of the masterpiece. Their eyes met, bound together by the strength he emanated, forcing (y/n) closer and closer. 

“There’s nothing to fear, you’re safe here, with me.” Before she could reply, choking on the quiet gasp leaving her, the door to the church was pushed open, exposing a crowd of excited children. (Y/n)’s insides churned at the sound of laughter, of excitement echoing through the morning, a sound she had once been all too familiar with. 

Years ago she had been one of them, an excited child allowed to spend a weekend at church, learning more about God, about his son, and the fallen angels. She had grown within time, and even as a teenager she had joined the yearly get together, even though her weekends had taken a few unforeseen turns, making her end up with her back pressed against the priest’s mattress, choking on Tom’s name. 

He was a few years older than her, had left the town to study theology, till he finally returned years later. The second he had rejoined the church, taking over from the priest he and (y/n) had been all too familiar with, he had pulled her closer, toying with her body and soul. He was a mysterious man, a man with a soul so dark even Lucifer wouldn’t dare cross paths with him, but he was good at playing this charade, faking the smiles he shot those that were too oblivious for their own good, a facade only (y/n) could see through. 

“C’mon, it’s time for our morning prayer.” 

…… 

“You’ve been here for only a few hours and you already have something to confess?” He clicked his tongue, towering over her sitting frame with a sinister smirk tugging on his lips. The cold floor pressed against her feet, biting through the fabric of her shoes all too easily like poison burning its way through her flesh. She was trembling, not daring to speak up as she got lost in his darkening eyes, wondering if this is how sinners standing in front of Lucifer must feel, forced to spend eternity trapped in the blackest kind of darkness. “Little lamb, what shall I do with you?”

Both knew the answer to that, both knew that he’d do as he pleases, making her body tremble like Noah’s arch had, trapped in a thunderstorm that could rip her body apart. She heavily swallowed as she watched the priest take a step back, eyes ranking over her frame. 

“Kneel, (y/n).” She dropped to her knees without speaking a single word, staring up at the man that held as much power over her as God once had. Oh, how disappointed her parents were, feeling her slip from their and from God’s grasp, forcing her to rejoin this camp as the priest’s helping hand. (Y/n) couldn’t help but wonder how they’d react to seeing this very scene playing out, watching the man undo his black trousers, freeing his hardening cock with skilled movements. “You know what to do, or have you already forgotten your place in this game?”

“Of course not.” (Y/n) felt anger simmering inside of her, how dare he play with her like that, how dare he think that she’d ever forget how to please him. Her desire for him urged her on, wanting to prove to the smirking man that only she could make him feel good, that only she knew how to please him. 

With trembling hands she grasped his cock, spitting into her palm to soften the touch, coaxing a satisfied groan out of him. She swallowed him down all too easily, eyes not daring to break contact, not even as he jerked his hips, making her choke on him. Her tears fell like the ones Mary had cried for her son, for Christ Crucified, one with the sadness his death forced through those that had dared to believe in him and his mission. 

“See, only a sinning woman like you could touch me like this. I should punish you, should fuck you till you pass out, over and over again, till Lucifer loosens his grip on your soul. But, where would be the fun in that, right?” His ringed hand tugged on her hair, forcing her even closer with his tight grip, making another wave of tears well up in her glistening eyes. 

(Y/n) could only hum around his cock, letting the sound vibrate on his skin, making goosebumps rise on his forearms. It was a beautiful sight, the pleasure drunken expression she’d think of whenever her nights felt lonely, needing to take care of the heat flaring up inside of her. 

She’d forever remember the feel of his soft skin pressed against her quick moving tongue, every inch had burned itself into her mind, allowing her to find him even in the darkest nights. He was hers, as much as she was his, a silent promise that kept the two blemished souls tied together, forever, even for the time following the last judgement. 

He kept jerking his hips, fucking her mouth with more pressure, making the corners of her mouth burn. She didn’t dare protest, didn’t even whine as she walked along the line of pleasure and pain, and yet her cunt kept fluttering around nothing, begging to be filled by him. Curses rolled off the priest’s tongue, the cross chain around his neck rested peacefully on his chest, rising and falling with every deep exhale. 

Once again their eyes met as he came down her throat, forcing her to swallow every drop as if he was pouring consecrated wine into her mouth. Her moans left the man smirking, stepping away from her to tug his cock back into his trousers. For a few more seconds he studied her before his eyes flickered to his watch, “Be a good girl for me today, and you’ll be rewarded.” 

……

The fabric of her dress kept stroking her knees with every hurried step (y/n) took, trying to find the still missing kids, calling them to Priest Riddle’s evening prayer. They had just finished their dinner, able to relax after a day filled with summer activities, with a swim (y/n) had gladly joined – simply to tease the man with wandering eyes, taking in her wet appearance, drenched from the cold water. 

“Guys, come on, we don’t want to miss our prayer, do we?” (Y/n) could still remember all these weekends she had spent here, how she had made new friends, how she had shared her first kiss with the man that now fucked her ruthlessly whenever he was dreaming of her, the sweetest kind of relief. 

Priest Riddle towered over the altar, eyes taking in the crowd of excited children, before his eyes finally found hers. He watched her close the door, giving him a small nod to give him the signal, starting the prayer with a satisfied hum. The words he spoke rolled off his tongue all too effortlessly, filling the church with the kind of magic the children found themselves amazed by. 

But (y/n) couldn’t pay any attention to his words, to his prayers, mind set on the things he’d hopefully do to her. She had decided against wearing any panties, begging whoever dared to pick up on her sinful thoughts that Tom would fuck her till she forgets her own name. 

His voice was softer than silk, wrapping itself around her, cradling her closer like a drug blurring out her surroundings. She couldn’t stop watching him, couldn’t stop admiring him as if she was staring at something her human eyes haven’t been fortunate enough to take in before. It was easy, almost too easy, to love him, a sick, toxic relationship she couldn’t flee from, no matter how hard she’d try, he’d always lure her back into his trap. 

“You see, I wonder what goes on inside your pretty little head while you stare at me like that, little lamb.” His voice rang in her ears, breath hitching in her chest as she felt his hands on her waist, toying with the fabric. She couldn’t reply, forced away by the call of her name, eyes flickering back to him before she crouched down to the child begging for her attention. The seconds faded by, and yet (y/n)’s mind was still stuck on his words, on the roughness of his voice, wondering how much longer he’d drag out their back and forth. 

(Y/n) found her way back to the church the second the kids were in bed, finding rest in their rooms, sharing stories of this very day, full of excitement for the days to come. She had stumbled out of the building as fast as she could, called back to him like a lost lamb searching for its flock. He guided her closer, back pressed against the altar he was leaning against with his arms crossed, with his fingers holding onto his wooden rosary and his bible. 

No words were spoken as she came to a halt in front of the man, allowing her eyes to take in his features, wondering how much time God had invested into the man’s creation, sparing extra time on the details she easily picked up on. He reached one hand out for her to take, feeling the wooden pearls pressing into her palm before he pushed the rosary over her head, letting it dangle from her neck. 

Their lips met for a kiss, a kiss so heated (y/n) had to grasp his collar, scared that she’d tumble from his grasp. Their moans filled the church like soft music made to lure those that needed some extra guidance closer, but tonight nobody would dare to interrupt them, unable to open the locked doors. She was turned around, small of her back pressed against the altar as his fingers began moving, disappearing underneath her dress, momentarily freezing as he felt her naked cunt. 

No warning was spoken as he plunged two fingers into her tightness, expectedly curling them against her swollen spot. (Y/n) couldn’t swallow her moans, giving room to the sounds that rumbled through her as her head rolled back, allowing Tom to kiss her throat, teeth grazing her skin. He fucked her with his fingers for a few moments, thumb circling her pulsing clit to push the sweetest feeling of anticipation through her veins. 

“I should punish you for walking around like this, I should punish you for whoring yourself out to me. But you’ve got me bound to you, addicted to the feeling of your cunt clenching my cock.” His words forced another moan to leave her, eyes rolling back as he added more pressure to his touch. Tom pulled away all too quickly, flipping her around to press her front against the top of the altar. She could barely breathe through the excitement filling her, listening to the sounds of Tom undoing his trousers, freeing the cock she had choked on hours ago. 

“Start praying, may He grant you his forgiveness.” His rough voice shot shudders down her spine, momentarily distracting her from the feeling of his cock brushing through her slit, lubing himself up with her arousal. 

“I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” Her voice trembled, eyes squeezed shut as he pushed into her, taking his time to sink deeper into her tightness. A rough “Keep on” left the priest, forcing a shaky inhale of thin air into (y/n)’s lungs as she kept speaking the Apostles’ Creed, speaking the words she knew by heart. 

(Y/n)’s trembling fingers toyed with the wooden pearls, mind unable to focus on anything but the feeling of Priest Riddle fucking her from behind, sure to leave marks with the way he pushed her hips against the edge of the altar. She struggled to keep on breathing, nails digging into the thin flesh of her sweaty palms, marks so clear as if she had been to one nailed to the cross, letting the rusty metal pierce her flesh. A pain so distinct she’d forever carry it around with her, sticking to her body the way the priest was clinging to her, not daring to let her go. 

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The prayer left her in pieces, interrupted by her moans and sighs, supported by his own sounds. It was so sinful, and yet it felt so right, bodies made for one another, made to fit their touch like wax copying their frames.  

One pearl after another was touched by her, followed by the fitting prayers, urged on to keep on speaking as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge. Soon they’d let go, leaving their stains on one another, hoping that the walls surrounding them would never learn to share their secrets. 

“Tell me, little lamb, how close are you?” Both knew the answer to his question, very well aware of the way she clenched around his cock, how her aching clit pulsed against his thumb. (Y/n) stumbled over her words, eyes squeezed shut in a desperate try to work through the fog of pleasure filling her mind. 

“So close, ‘m so close.” She kept repeating the words, begging that he’d give in, allowing her to cum with his name burning on the tip of her tongue. Priest Riddle gave it a few more thrusts, before he let go of a simple “Cum”, easily pushing (y/n) over the edge. The rosary fell to the ground as she grasped onto the edge of the altar, eyes squeezed shut, teeth buried in her lip, allowing her orgasm to rock through her. 

Was God watching them? Staring down on her with an unfamiliar kind of apathy? Did he remind the sins she has committed numerous times in His holy walls? 

She felt him fill her up, painting her walls white with his relief. Both were heavily panting, needing to give one another a few moments before they parted, taking a few steps away from the altar. No words were spoken as he tucked himself back into his trousers, staring at her with a smirk on his lips and a satisfied gaze filling his dark pupils. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning to take your confessions. Be aware, I won’t hold back on the punishment.” 

And with his release dripping down her thighs, (y/n) was forced to leave the holy halls, stumbling back to her room with her heart racing on.

[sprintingowl]

Positioning, Market Dominance, And Having A Conversation In A Loud Room

So I'm reading Middle Earth Roleplaying 2nd ed. It's part of giant stack of tabletop I got from a publishing friend---and one of many systems I probably wouldn't be reading if I hadn't gotten it as part of a giant stack of tabletop from a publishing friend.

MERP 2e was released in '93, by Tolkein Enterprises, and is a pretty thorough book. It's packed full of nice B&W art. It lets you play as everything from a hobbit to an olag-hai. It uses a d100 system that allows for success with a complication. It's a book that feels intensely and simultaneously like it's ahead of and behind its time.

But that's not what I want to talk about.

MERP 2e has an alignment system, much like dnd at the time, but with twelve axis instead of two. Everything from whether your character is a metaphorical thinker to whether they're a literal thinker to whether they're a socialist or a libertarian is tracked.

Similarly, MERP has a classic six stat spread, but the explanations of the stats are all like "Strength(ST): Not brute musculature, but your ability to use your muscles to your greatest advantage."

And MERP has classes, called Professions, that each come with a little parenthetical explanation after their title. The Warrior's is (Fighter). The Scout's is (Thief). The Animist's is (Cleric).

What you might notice is that this is an officially licensed Middle Earth game *aggressively* defining and contextualizing itself vis a vis DnD. "Here's how our stats are different. Here's why our skill rolls are more granular. But don't worry, you can still play the same party roles. We promise we're not unfamiliar, just different."

Now, I don't know how intentionally-as-a-market-strategy the designers and writers were doing this---DnD's headlock on the industry was certainly less intense then than now---but it's reflective of a kind of design pressure that not only hasn't gone away. It's gotten way more intense.

DnD is roleplaying games. Anything that's not DnD might not be roleplaying games. Or at least, it's suspicious, it might taste weird, it might ruin your ability to have fun or speak english forever.

So in order to be a roleplaying game, you have to ask yourself "how do I fit into DnD?"

A critique I've seen leveled at indie systems sometimes is that they don't properly represent all of the three pillars of DnD. The three pillars is a modern creation. It's a 5e thing. It's specific to DnD. But DnD is roleplaying games, and to be a roleplaying game you need to be DnD.

So you get games as chameleons. You get endless "DnD killers" hoping that what people like about DnD isn't the name but the mechanics, and if you can just do the mechanics *more*, people will like you better. You get five hundred 5e splats. Power Rangers and GI Joe and Stargate all trying to fit into the same engine about swinging at and then missing a large rat. You get Adventure Time throwing out its original system and self-converting into a 5e hack because the market doesn't want things that don't look like DnD---even things that already look like DnD.

And back in '93 you get MERP 2e telling you don't worry, we still have the Thief, we just call it something different in our house.

[kiwiana-writes]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

A big ol' fuck you to @rmd-writes for the tag xoxo

1. How many works do you have an AO3? Lol. Lmao even. 289.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 914,620 on AO3, but that includes co-writes as well as things I've podficced where the fic and pod are in the same work. My actual personally-written wordcount, per my Batshit Spreadsheet, is 771,819.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Mostly RWRB these days, though most of my back catalogue is Schitt's Creek. Also The Pairing and various other things scattered about.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Kinda think that I might be his type aka Alex and Bea fake date coming in at the top spot, which will never not bewilder me. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely fic!! But I am always surprised that it was a few hundred more kudos than:

With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest), the Much Ado actors AU. My magnum opus, my beloved.

We were supposed to find this - baby's first soulmate AU and my first RWRB fic. The brainrot really took hold with this one lmao.

All the Lonely Starbucks Lovers, in which Henry takes 'open mouth insert foot' to a whole new level.

Warm like the glow that you feel head to toe, the age gap fic with older Senator Alex and younger Prince Henry. This is probably the only one in my top five that really surprises me, considering age gaps are... divisive.

5. Do you respond to comments? Always always always.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I mean I did write that one MCD fic in Schitt's Creek, though I maintain the other five parts in that 5+1 are in fact angstier than the MCD ending.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uhhhhhhh, the rest? The Doylist answer is any of my fics where the HEA is literally forever rather than 'till death do us part'; so, the Schitt's Creek afterlife AU and the RWRB zombie!Alex AU. (Is that all? Am I forgetting one?)

8. Do you get hate on fics? Yeah, sometimes. Weirdly, more through tumblr anons than on the fics themselves? A lot of them I just delete, sometimes I'll give them a bit of a public scolding etc. Frankly at this point if you come into my ask box to be a cunt on anon I'm going to assume you have a public humiliation kink and will indulge you accordingly.

9. Do you write smut? Who's to say.

10. Do you write crossovers? I'm more inclined towards a fusion than a crossover (love a good media fusion) but I did write a short RWRB/The Pairing crossover for VoiceTeam.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. Someone did ask recently, so we'll see!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? HEAPS. @ships-to-sail is an ongoing collaborator, but I also did a bunch of "each write a chapter" type collabs in Schitt's Creek. Currently co-writing something truly fucking incredible with @indestructibleheart.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? IDK if it's a WIP by the strictest definition, but every day the likelihood of the SC kink!verse series being completed slips further away lol.

16. What are your writing strengths? Rae, you're the worst.

Smut, I guess? Giving people new kinks, apparently. Character voice. Also a very specific type of world-building where I explain nothing because the characters already live in that world and let y'all infer how it works, which came up a LOT on one of this year's Kinktober fics in particular and led to my spouse saying "okay so you're basically the Brennan Lee Mulligan of tree fucking", which is sure not a sentence I expected to ever be directed towards me, but here we are.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Anything original, apparently. Good thing I didn't quit my job to be a writer or anything OH WAIT.

(In all seriousness, though, I am genuinely shit at, like, plotting. And action sequences.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If it makes sense for the character, sure! I'm enlisting someone who speaks it for anything more complicated than, like, a pet name - I've seen what Google Translate tries to spit out for my second language and therefore don't trust it lmao.

19. First fandom you wrote for? terf queen mcgee's property.

20. Favourite fics you've written? The RWRB fic specifically based on the episode The Husbands of River Song from Doctor Who. Hands down the best thing I've ever written.

I also fucking LOVED the Much Ado actor AU. My love letter to Shakespeare and theatre and queer joy.

-

Tagging @blueeyedgrlwrites @cactusdragon517 @cricketnationrise @firenati0n @getmehighonmagic

@hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @inexplicablymine @notspecialbabe @orchidscript

@piratefalls @sherryvalli @sparklepocalypse @stereopticons @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play! 

[cecilyv]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @screamlet

1. How many works do you have an AO3? 14 (and, full disclosure, all but some of the tumblr fics are with @liminalmemories21)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 151,628

3. What fandoms do you write for? 9-1-1

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? In order: Awful quiet here since love fell asleep (9-1-1, the break up, make up fic), Atlas (bound) (9-1-1, the Buckley parents are trash fic), Baggage that goes with mine (9-1-1, Tommy begins), (I'm in love) but I do not speak the language (9-1-1, the relationship discovery one), and I'll cover you (9-1-1, part II after Baggage, when Buck and Tommy get a dog).

5. Do you respond to comments? I really try. @liminalmemories21 is much better at it than I am, but I do always intend to because each comment is my best beloved.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Erm, we don't really write angsty things? Awful quiet, Atlas and Inside, You've Got Heaven and Earth all start angsty, but don't end there?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Oh, god, uh, probably What's with today, today? Mostly just because making them all librarians on Stuffie Day itself was an indulgent turducken of a dessert.

8. Do you get hate on fics? not so far, thankfully

9. Do you write smut? a hundred percent more than I ever imagined

10. Do you write crossovers? I drop them in Lim's chat all the time but one has never stuck. Like, the one from this week was Wolfram and Heart is based in LA and reopens and... I don't know, Lindsey sticks around with his evil hand? THNK OF BUCK AND FREAKING OUT WITH THE CURSES AND THE RESEARCH SPIRALS AND...

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Err, all of the recent ones because I am nothing (fandom-wise) without Lim

14. What's your all time favorite ship? I have no answer for this. I read like, a decade's worth of Stiles/Derek and literally never watched an episode of the show, but I watched SO MUCH Stargate because John/Rodney, my beloveds. I am still a sucker for a good Arthur/Eames. I would bow down if people brought back silver foxes Fraser/RayK. It's hard to have favorites after over 30 years in fandom.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Lim and I poke things to death, and definitely don't post a lot of them because we can't imagine things not being done before we put them out in the world -- see the Merlin fic of epicness that we started way over a decade ago and still sits in our google docs.

16. What are your writing strengths? I also think this is a thing best answered by others, like hi, Lim, how do I help? I honestly think I'm a better editor than writer? I'm not good about setting scenes, but I'm pretty good about taking drafts and massaging them?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I always want things to feel more lived in than I feel I can accomplish on my own.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I speak english and bad english, so I am terrible about this, but I totally understand that sometimes its warranted.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Popslash and Smallville, and hi, yes, I disappeared for two decades.

20. Favorite fics you've written?

Awful quiet did exactly what I wanted that fic to when we set out to write it, and while maybe I wish some of the OCs were handled better/differently, I'm still happy with how we got from the beginning to end.

The What Binds series definitely put Tommy in a place and time, and there's a reason there's four stories worth of it (hi, I'm super proud of the detail about Tommy losing his virginity to Dave Matthew Band because, come on, people).

I know that Inside, You've Got Heaven and Earth didn't really hit with people, but it addressed something I wanted to fiddle with for Buck and Tommy, and Lim was a trooper for going there with me.

[thesongistheriver]

20 questions: fanfic writers edition

Thank's @guiltyscarlet for the tag <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 16

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 536,304

3. What fandoms do you write for? BBC Merlin

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Feel It In My Fists | Merthur, magic reveal, getting together (rated E)

One Hundred Forty-Three Point Five Degrees | Merthur, modern AU, literature professor, maths professor, enemies to lovers (rated M)

Maybe Probably Definitely | Merthur (are you seeing a pattern? LOL), modern AU, humor, smut, fluff, seriously so fluffy (rated E)

Everything I've Dreamed About Is Coming On | Merthur, social media/Discord AU, getting together, fandom/geek references (rated E)

Just to Feel with You | Merthur, roommates, asexual character, demisexual character, queer themes (rated T)

5. Do you respond to comments? I try to get to them all!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Hahahahahaha. I don't write angsty endings.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Pretty much all of them? Although probably my series, Out of Yourself Into a Delirious Place is the happiest because it's like happy endings all around (you get a happy ending! you get a happy ending! and you get a happy ending!) -- merthur, gwencelot, perwaine, mithleon, morgdred, even hunith ends up with a date

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not a lot (hope it stays that way!)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yeeeeeah that's my jam. Merthur smut galore. I guess you might consider it vanilla, as I don't really write BDSM or any specific kinks.

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

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but I'm more than open to it!

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

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? If you haven't fathomed me out by now (😂) it's Merthur.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? don't have one

16. What are your writing strengths? I like writing banter and also including Easter eggs in my fics.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Probably descriptions. And I can occasionally get carried away with stage directions, although I try to catch that when editing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I've written a little bit (Merlin in my musician/actor series speaks French fluently, and I've also done some Welsh dialogue). I put the translations in the end notes though, as I don't want it to be incomprehensible to anyone, and I'm not skilled enough at HTML to do the mouseover text thing.

19. First fandom you wrote for? BBC Merlin (that's right, folks, I'm a one-and-done fandom writer)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? This is like asking me to choose a fave child. I don't think I can do it!

no pressure tags <3 : @citharaposts @mayapleiades @ravenwilds @eachpeachpearplume

[lovenonymously]

My good people of Tumblr! You know when you love something so much, you just have to share it?

Niché fandom fanfic rant incoming, you've been warned:

Writing fanfics for a smaller fandom is 100% self indulgence, but despite how small it is an it's been since the show came out, the Love Like the Galaxy fandom is pretty active on AO3!

Recently, Infinity by the talented MoodyScorpio got completed. It's a fix-it sort of fic that enhances the canon in ways I didn't think were possible despite the many hours I've dwelled over LLTG. I was surprised in the best way!! Speaking of which, they started a new fic today called Splendid Stars which I'm very excited to read!

One of my all time favourite LLTG fics is Just a Dream by the amazing raileypink. This is probably my most favourite fic on AO3. It offers themes of time-travel and chances of do-overs yet doesn't make the story a repetition of canon. Instead, the sweet moments are sweeter, the tense moments are filled with twists. Every time this fic updates, I leave everything I'm doing to go read it!

Then we have KimberlyA's reimagining of LLTG called Reverse Love Like the Galaxy. Apart from the writer being one of the biggest supporters for anyone who writes for the LLTG fandom, they've crafted quite the intriguing story! It's not just a gender-swap, the characters are more than just put into gender-defying roles that would make a mess of the time period the show is set in. No, it offers a refreshing take with a "what if?" factor where the characters keep their strengths and depict their flaws; both known and original plots entwining quite well. I'm looking forward to seeing where this fic goes!

And lastly, if you're still here, I too am writing a fic that's a crossover between Love Like the Galaxy and Who Rules the World. Cheng Shaoshang and Bai Fengxi are two characters so brilliantly played by Zhao Lusi are two of my all-time favourite female leads. When the time called for it, Shaoshang chose to put herself before the volatile nature of Huo Buyi. Her saying "He is my most beloved person in the world. But I am still me." both surprised me and changed my perspective fundamentally. It explained so easily how selfish and self-preservation are not the same.

But I needed something more. I needed her to get a chance to grow up, to know what freedom tasted like, to know what it is like to love herself before she loves others or is loved by others.

And so, The Wind of Fire was born, where Cheng Shaoshang becomes Bai Fengxi. Shaoshang is certainly younger and more faminine than Bai Fengxi, who has a regal aura about her while holding up as one of the most powerful people in the Martial Arts World. But in essence, they're the same. They're both courageous and mischievous, stubborn and steadfast, both very capable young women.

It's ongoing and updating, you can find me on AO3 as aprilrayne. Below are some edits I made for the fic!

Apart from the fics I've shared, which are all ongoing there are a hundred more fics to go through. Some with happy endings, some with characters going their own ways. Whatever your preference, there is something for everyone!

[frasier-crane-style]

Have watched Twisted Metal, the loose adaptation of Sony's perennial car combat franchise. It's more in the Deadpool Lite cottage industry than (I assume) anything to do with the video games. I've never played them, so I can't speak to accuracy except in a Wikipedia sense (you know, that thing MCU writers look at before they adapt years of storytelling), only I know they're car combat games and this Twisted Metal looks to any excuse to get the characters out of the cars so they can get into fistfights, shoot-em-ups, or just gab. Mainly gab.

Nothing against Anthony Mackie--he's far more convincing as a wisecracking scoundrel here than as a brooding antihero or inspirational patriot in other projects--but the straight-to-video Death Race movies featured big names Luke Goss and Tanit Phoenix and managed some actual death races.

And in the seventies, shows like The A-Team and Dukes of Hazzard managed a few car chases every episode. Twisted Metal looks like a fanfilm in comparison. It's painfully obvious there's no actual pyrotechnics going off, just CGI muzzle flashes and the odd shattered window. The cars look to have not been modified at all and rarely take a scratch, much less any of the hundreds of bullets that are fired at them.

The writing, as you'd expect from Deadpool Lite, is fitfully amusing banter and 'emotional' scenes swiped from other, fairly recent media. There's a character who seems mute until she bursts out into verbiage, like Laura in Logan. There's one episode that pauses the narrative to focus on a gay romance, like in The Last Of Us.

Weirdly, Mackie himself plays a fast-talking rogue--sort of like Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours--but he never actually manages to fast-talk anyone. According to the show, he's such a good 'milkman' (is that such a widely known term in 2002 that it'd become future slang after an apocalypse? I guess they can't spend eight episodes calling a black man "Pizzaboy.") that he's recruited for an important mission, but his attempts to actually con people either fail--in which case his obligatory modern-day Hypercompetent Sidekick Who Is The Real Badass actually does the conning--or he tries to con someone who maybe half-buys it and Hypercompetent Sidekick ruins his persuasion check by going aggro. He also can't tell when he's being flim-flammed by Neve Campbell. Dude, you're a conman and you're getting conned? What are you, the bad guy in an episode of Leverage?

Why is this guy our protagonist if his specialty is talking people into doing things and he's no good at it? Yeah, Fast-Talker and Real Badass is a time-tested buddy-movie dynamic... look at Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon... but the Fast-Talker has to be good at fast-talk and the Real Badass has to be a Real Badass. What they do here is have him and his sidekick Stephanie Beatriz both be kinda okay at fast-talking and kinda okay at fighting.

So they don't really have different strengths and weaknesses, they're just banter delivery vehicles and stuff happens and they make quips. It's weak writing, basically.

On the bright side, it keeps its episodes to thirty-odd minutes instead of straining to be an hour-long, which is a relief in this day and age. The Twisted Metal games have been rebooted so many times that every character has multiple iterations, so I'll cut it some slack on the 'adaptation,' although it feels a lot like the modern IP sin of coming up with a bunch of characters, then thinking up canon characters they vaguely fit to and giving them that name. Agent Stone, for instance, goes from a heroic black man trying to undo an accidental shooting to white mall cop who becomes a fascist warlord. Okay...? I guess they're both law enforcement themed so... great adaptation, guys.

I'd give them more credit if this iteration of the cast didn't align so neatly with "white men bad, browns and women good."

And it Surf Draculas hard.

Points for the "crazed religious faction" being a bunch of hedonistic atheists who have used the Apocalypse as an excuse to chimp out. That's novel, at least. We should encourage post-apocalyptic media to go beyond the usual neo-Nazi, biker gang, radfem factions.

[slippinmickeys]

Twenty questions for fanfic writers

I was tagged by @agent-troi and @randomfoggytiger Thanks for the tag, guys!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

53

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

712,000 exactly, which is sort of creepy?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The X-Files mainly, though a million years ago I wrote two fics for JAG, and technically, I have a His Dark Materials fic (but it's an XF crossover)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Mesas of Deuteronilus Mensae

Prompt Drabble Collection

The Annapolis Grant

Three Part Harmony

A Companion Unobtrusive

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! Comments are the only payment fanfic writers get, and it's an incredibly valuable and underrated currency. Fanfiction as a community is one of the most generous you'll find, and I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this particular one.

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

Oh man, probably La Comtesse de Saint-Germain.

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

In this day and age I feel like we deal with enough shit, so I try to end most of my fics happily. I think A Gem-Like Flame probably has the most uplifting happy ending, but then, I'm a sports nerd.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet.

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

Um, probably pretty vanilla het MSR. No shame.

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

I've only written one, but it turned out really well, I thought. It's an X-Files/His Dark Materials novella-length crossover that takes place in Lyra's world, pre-Lyra, called Out of the Little Grove.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Anyone who steals my fic is going to catch these hands.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, a couple of years ago someone asked if they could translate one of my fics to Russian. It's out there somewhere.

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

I jumped in and helped @monikafilefan get Five Years and a Lifetime over the line for a fic exchange a couple of years ago. A fun, collaborative experience, that was like 85% Monika. It's a great fic, check it out if you haven't!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Mulder & Scully are my OTP. Always and forever.

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

I'd love to finish Madam Scully's Spiritual Services, Inc., it's an AU where Scully works for her sister's Psychic Boutique while prepping for med school. Scully ends up being actually psychic and she helps newly minted FBI agent Fox Mulder solve a series of murders. I have it almost completely plotted (except for the nitty-gritty hard stuff), but I don't think I'll ever get it done, sadly. It's just too big a story to tackle with where I am in my life. Though I never say never.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm decent at dialogue, have a pretty firm grasp on plotting, and, I hope characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My character work is probably my weak spot, which is why I have so much fun writing fanfic--the character work is already done, I just get to play around a world where everybody already knows the characters.

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

When I do it, I hope like hell that I'm doing it right. I think it's necessary for some stories and you just hope you're properly respecting a language you don't speak.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The X-Files, in the year of our lord nineteen hundred and ninety eight.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

It's a toss up between Proof of Life, an AU where CNN conflict reporter Dana Scully is kidnapped and imprisoned with fellow kidnap victim and photojournalist Fox Mulder, and they, you know, fall in love. And North of Zero, a post-col novel where Mulder and Scully get William back and have to save the world. The one I totally pantsed (made up as I went along), and it came together like alchemy. I love that story. If you don't like AU, you'd like Proof of Life. If you don't like post-colonization stories, you'd like North of Zero. I don't always like everything I've written after I'm done writing it (a writer's life), but I'm incredibly proud of both of those fics.

Tagging @monikafilefan because she's already tagged, and anyone else who wants to do this!

[mahi-wayy]

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐓? | ᴅᴀɴɪᴇʟ sʜᴇᴋʜᴀʀ

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ : Daniel Shekhar x Fem!Oc

ғᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ : Bheemla Nayak

ʟᴇɴɢᴛʜ : 2.08k

ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴs : Danny and his lack of patience, him being annoyed, women being MOTHERS, humiliation, ego war, strangling, tiny bit of violence, cursing, a almost (?) cat fight.

sᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ : 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 men start a quarrle, women announce a war.

ᴀ/ɴ : the writer in me isn't dead just yet :) also this is not proofread.

_________________

Daniel Shekhar was pissed off. It was god knows what hour of the night and here he was sitting on a bench of a police station of a village because he retaliated against his own disrespect.

The mere auras of the people around him was infuriatingly familiar, just the way they looked at him made him hundred percent sure he was being analysed.

How strong is he? Can he overpower most of them? Can he beat their SI in an out and out tussle? What gave him this attitude? Who does he think he is? He is no better than a small bandit or outlaw.

Yeah they weren't as subtle with the looks and thoughts as they thought. He grew up with a father whose only job was to either provoke him to do something or berate him or take out his anger on him, he knew better than anyone to read people.

That doesn't mean however that he is okay with this whole bullshit. He was swinging the whole bench back and forth, it wasn't that heavy anyways, he was sure even she could bench press it.

He stops when his phone rings and of course he is denied to have it, why did he even try, choosing to simply scoff and turn his head away as the police lose their mind over his contact list.

He is a little surprised she hasn't called him yet, they talked in the afternoon and she isn't the kind to not call and give him an earful for not calling or texting or ask Balaji to let her know about them especially when he is supposed to be travelling.

As if God heard him, his phone rang again.

“Ragini Nair?”

Think of the pretty devil, he relishes in the way the mere mention of her name seems to weigh down the whole room. God he loved her.

“Don't worry about that, that's my wife.”

He wants to laugh with the way the man in front of him reacts, eyes widening ever so slowly in realisation. He wonders if few of them would faint if his father was mentioned, maybe? he wasn't all that sure.

He decides to indulge in thinking of her as the people around him slowly realise just who they have disrespected.

Ragini Nair, currently his wife of two years and the second in line to take over his father's place in his party, no matter how much the old man didn't like it.

The reason for the sudden silence was probably because she was one of the most influential people in all of Telangana.

He remembers meeting her for the first time and almost chuckles out loud, he was home during a break from his duty when his father introduced him to her as his future secretary when he takes over the politics, yeah that was not happening anyways.

She was fascinating, the daughter of a former IG of the state and an ex-officer herself , she was just unlucky enough to suffer a shoulder injury which made her quit just after three years of service.

Falling for her wasn't that hard, he didn't even realise when he started loving her. She wrote to him or called him from time to time when he was on duty leading them to grow close. His father too wasn't against them, she brought a political strength and quite some influential connections with her.

They got married a year before he decided to stay home full time. The house needed a man, as his father said and he needed his love.

She was an interesting human to everyone, quiet most of the time but wasn't afraid to speak out when needed, had more smarts than the people present in a room at a given moment and an insanely good political mind.

The drawback in her according to many people and his father was the anger, her temper rivalled his own if not worse than his. She was impulsive and unpredictable for that time period going as far as having a violent streak in her just like he did.

In all she was not invented here, even by him because the riot she would cause, as entertaining as it would be, would be a bigger mess to clean up and he was in no mood for a lecture or taunts from his father.

His thoughts break when the SI walks out of station, calling someone and from what he hears most probably a senior. He really wants to snicker as he hears him talk about the contacts in his phone.

“Give him and his driver their phone back.”

He raises a brow taking his phone before speaking to the same constable the SI-Bheemla Nayak-spoke too.

“Don't give him his back, he will just call people and cause unnecessary drama for you all.”

“Sir, come and sit inside the cabin please.”

“Huh?”

He heard Nayak just fine. He was just petty.

“Please.” The police officer greeted and he agreed, standing up to his full height, towering over most of the people in the room as he followed the man in charge into his cabin.

The conversation that followed pissed him off more, what the fuck does he mean he would be in jail for ten days. He has to be home by tomorrow evening for his anniversary at any cost.

They quarrel again of course, with the kind of personalities they had it wasn't surprising neither was the gun he pulled out.

“Ok. Sit down, let's talk this out. Please.”

When he says that it wasn't out of fear of the weapon he means it, he has seen her use her toys like this before and he was in the army. They were pretty much normal stuff but what rattled him was the guts Nayak had.

He might have to take another route for this one.

For minutes he just thinks as the officer passes him his phone to call the lawyer. He has messages from her, expected enough.

It takes him a few minutes but he does get an idea, thanks to his alcoholic streak and the slow thumping headache he is able to act convincingly in pain for Nayak to open a bottle of sealed alcohol which of course he shoots on his phone.

He was sipping the drink, relishing in himself before a commotion was heard from outside. Like women arguing and he curses, why does no one listen to him here.

Bheemla and him both step out of the cabin together and he recognizes her at first glance. She was standing with her back to him, hair in a messy bun, dressed in a saree. Her bangle clad hand twisting the hand of a constable behind his back, the same man who stepped on his veshit.

Oh well, fuck around and find out he guess.

“You can't touch a hair on me according to the law so keep this hand to yourself.” She growls before pushing the constable away and turning to them.

A natural smile falls on his lips, his muscles loosening as she looks at him.

“You should've called me the moment you got your phone back.” She said.

“Well I know Balaji is a snitch.”

He replied, making her roll her eyes before she turned her glare to the man standing a foot in front of him, walking forward until she was face-to-face with the SI incharge.

“Arresting someone doesn't give you the right to rip apart their respect. If you can't keep your constables in check then take this uniform and burn it.” She says and he can sense the people tensing around him.

The SI glares past her to the constable before he nods his head.

“Right, my fault in that but your husband started hitting officers and he was carrying liquor. It's not a bailable crime. He was to take the sentence.”

“Whoever asked you about the bail and if I snatch a pillow from under your head and throw you on the ground then we will see who you hit and who you respect.”

There was a silence as either of the parties refused to back out, in the end Nayak backed away, turning on his heels and going back into the cabin. Danny moves to the side to give him space, a mock gesture before he looks up and his eyes meet with his wife who clearly knew that he has something up his sleeve.

–

A ten day fast was a little more than what he signed up for but oh well he was petty little shit and he would rather die than give up.

The first person he noticed after stepping out was the woman sitting in the passenger seat of the car, dressed if she was coming directly from a meeting with some news channel or something and he widened in realisation as a devilish grin spread on his lips.

“So how's the breaking news headlines?” He asks as he gets in the car.

“Like someone gave out a video of Nayak's doom.” She said with a matching smirk as they drove off. God he loved her so much.

—

“Even I'm sad you're getting suspended lady but kings at war often cause collateral damage.” He spoke and genuinely that was exactly what that lady constable was, a collateral damage. He had no personal grudge with her, in fact she was probably the only one he was neutral about in that police station.

The shirt-pant clad female sitting on the bonnet, which he was standing on by the way, of his car with legs crossed didn't seem to think anything about the constable. Well until the said officer spat in his direction.

Bad move.

“Ayeee!”

He has to act fast and grab Ragini, pulling her making her claw-like hand stop just a inch away from the female constable's neck.

“Hey!! What are you looking to get going before she kills her!” He says to the constable who tugs away the lady officer.

“Why on the ground? Spit on his face.”

This time she slipped away and he turned his face away for a second as she kicked the man in the guts before grabbing him by his neck and choking him.

“What did you just say?” She growls and before he can think of anything another feminine voice speaks up.

“He said your husband deserves to be spat at.”

His jaw sets in place as he and she both turn to the source of sound to find Nayak's wife-Sugna was standing there with her hands crossed over her chest.

Danny rolls his eyes leaning back against the roof of the car as Ragini lets the man go and steps towards the woman in the saree.

“And you would be?”

“Sugna.”

Wow this is about to get so messy.

The ladies engage in a glare contest as he watches that was until Nayak stepped out and that made him straighten up. Jumping down from the bonnet to go stand beside his wife just like the officer did.

Look, they were so immersed in this that neither of them noticed a rock thrown his way which was thankfully caught by the police officer.

While he was still processing the man saving him, Ragini acted much faster, snatching the rock from the SI herself and hurling it back at the boy who threw it his way.

It almost hits the young man if not for the people around him pulling him away.

“Hey!!”

Ragini stumbles a bit as Sugna turns her around with a jerk to slap her only for his woman to grab her hand and twist it down. The ex officer goes to hit the officer's wife but the woman grabs her hand.

“Let her go.” He raises his brow as Nayak keeps a hand on his wife's shoulder.

“Let go darling, you'll end up hurting her.”

He says pressing a hand to his love's lower back, the women both stubborn than their male counterparts stay locked for a solid minute more before they let each other go.

She grabs his hand, Sugna hands Nayak the keys, both the women still locked in a heated stare before they tug their men and turn in opposite directions.

“Danny…”

“Nayak…”

“It's an all out war.”

“The battle is done, it's time for war.”

The heated gazes of the ladies find each other again as Ragini opens the passenger door and Sugna climbs on the back behind her husband.

“Don't you dare loose.”

______

tags : @mayakimayahai @warnermeadowsgirl @vijayasena @voidsteffy @jkdaddy01 @rambheem-is-real @allari-ammayi @mellaga-karagani @ulaganayagi @ahamasmiyodhah @toomanyfanficsbruh

[writingwell]

20 13 fanfic questions

Thanks to @randomfoggytiger for the tag. I didn’t do all of them, just the pertinent ones, and I modified those just to include ffnet as well. 

1. How many works do you have? 26 on AO3 (for my mature rated Spy Castle stuff); fanfiction.net has 278 Castle fics;and about 300ish archived at Gossamer for X-Files.

4. What are your top fics by kudos/reviews? The Return of Vulcan Simmons, Tempest (not a spy work!) on AO3; ffnet would be One Hundred Days of Summer (co-authored with SandianeCarter) and Dash It All.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yeah, I think if you take the time to contact me, you deserve the respect of hearing from me. It might not be a full-blown conversation, but I’ll do what I can with a full-time profession and a writing one as well. Also, suuuuper sorry, just discovered AO3 has an inbox. 300 days ago, some of you messaged me and I am just now seeing those. Lol. 

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I have a spy fic where the two of them are just so at odds, so grieving with and over each other… okay that’s most of them. But I try not to end on angst, as it’s supposed to be the journey not the destination. (Angst is a twisting of the heart, not a place where you stay. According to me.)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Dash series has the ‘happiest’ endings. Not because life is happy, but because they figured out how to create contentment within what they’d been given/dealt in life. And in ways other versions of the Castle characters hadn’t accomplished. They did the work.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Oh definitely. A while back, I turned off comments on tumblr for about a year as I processed and healed from some targeted attacks, and I can say that I came out more certain of myself and my writing. But I was also an adult who had not been forced to weather these attacks as a vulnerable 13 y-o on social media (as so many of you are unfortunately dealing with). I was able to detach, center myself once more, and rise above because I’d grown up IRL, so to speak. I have a faith in something bigger than me which, while it doesn’t look like what it did, has sustained me and given me the confidence to know my worth even as it spurs me to be/do better. 

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind? Oh definitely, lol. It’s on AO3. Usually I like to explore M/F with a third in there for kicks, as the concept of generosity and giving within the sexual relationship/experience is intriguing to me.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I objected to the term ‘stolen.’ I’ve had my fics, without my knowledge, posted elsewhere, translated without my knowledge, and changed to other fandom characters to be posted elsewhere. However! I’ve had loads of people ask me too, and I really appreciate being able to go visit them. (Stolen would indicate I somehow own these fanfictions, and I do not, as that would be a legally difficult hill to stand on. I also do not perceive collective fan art in this manner, because the world is all of ours.)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Oh there’s a co-written story that me, carto, and muppet47 started and have NEVER finished. We all know Castle has to go to jail, but we can’t write it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Writing it the first time. Correctly. As in, it comes out the way it should or ought to or how I am seeing it in the moment. I have the right rhythm, I can spell and I have the grammar skills. My first draft is fast and good enough for submission. Of course, I go back and edit, and I have to, but I’m very blessed in not ever going through anything like writer’s block.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Secondary characters. I have a tendency for tunnel vision, where all I want to do is talk about and to and for the main characters. If they have friends or family, I barely include them. I can’t manage to care that they exist. But all of us live in a complex web of relationships and community; no one is alone. My last novel, Taste of Salt, was an concentrated effort to include as many other perspectives as possible, so it was told through the POVs of the two main characters and interspersed with flashback chapters from the POVs of their friends, family, coworkers, chance encounters, medical personnel, kids, support networks… there you go.You have to do the thing that’s hard. Write it out, over and over, keep practicing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Yeah, sometimes it becomes necessary for the character. But please keep it to a minimum (imo) as it detracts from the reader’s understanding and experience of reading. It ought to be rather easy to understand what the person is saying due to context or just the flow of the scene. If you’re writing in English, and you have a character visiting France, then obviously some of that ought to be in French, but after a while, you can indicate that the language is being used while writing it in English. I say this because most of you are fandom writers who are not writing for literary audiences; therefore, don’t ruin everyone’s fun my making it incomprehensible or inaccessible. Please.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Don’t ask me to choose between my children! I can tell you that Dash holds a special place in my heart due to the amount of readers who said it gave them understanding of their own sensory issues or their child’s autism, etc. Spy gave me one of my greatest friends, carto, who continues to love and support me and my writing. 

I won't tag anyone, because I deleted so many of these questions, but feel free to answer or share or talk with me about them!

[crushribbons]

20 q's for fic writers

tagged by the incomparable @strangethings-everywhere ty sweetness 🤍

How many works do you have on AO3? i am one hundred years old and have never made an ao3 account so i'll answer these abt my tumblr LOL i have 8 works on my masterlist currently

What's your total AO3 word count? brother i've no idea FJLDJSFD

What fandoms do you write for? oh so many, obvs primarily HL and TBITB right now but i'd love to get into writing GOT, Dune, and some nichier ones hehe

Top five fics by kudos? no idea of the other four but my fic Birdie seems to be That Girl

Do you respond to comments? always try to!! they make my entire life!!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? errr maybe my ominis gaunt arranged marriage fic where she DOESN'T run away with him at the end mwahaha

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? all the other ones DJAFLDKSFJL i am a happy ending truther 😭

Do you get hate on fics? in the past probably...definitely have gotten demands and way-too-detailed suggestions about fics but i have never and will never give people who are too afraid to create something the power to critique it :/ #writeityaself

Do you write smut? severus snape voice obviouslyyyyy

Craziest crossover? does brainstorming a crack threesome w @seasidesandstarscapes count JFLKSJFLSJF

Have you ever had a fic stolen? soo many, people have definitely taken advantage of the fact that i'm not on ao3 by yanking my stuff and putting it on there but i have opps everywhere so people usually let me know when that happens LMAO

Have you ever had a fic translated? i do not think so but would love to!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? yesss back in the day me and my girls would ALL the time and i think it is such an excellent exercise to build on what someone else starts!!

All time favorite ship ugh impossible...probably something dorky like macdennis

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? i have a newt scamander /squib!fOC fic sitting in the drafts that i can't seem to crack but i love the beginning very dearly 🥺

What are your writing strengths? if i find any i'll let y'all know

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? perfection when done correctly!! usually if i don't speak any of the language i won't do more than a word or two, though, to be safe.

First fandom you wrote in? oh my godly goodness....maybe genuinely like one direction or something like that when i was TEENY TINY do NAHT hold it against me

Favorite fic you've written? oh i had some i really loved from old fandoms but currently, probably my silly little garreth weasley bridgertonesque fic...she was so pretty and fun to write <3 also very sweet spot in my heart for my bobby moch fic fair game 🥺

anna said there's no 20th question so i'l just say i love you :)

zerooo pressure tags for @wedonthaveawhile @pluviowriting @myokk mes enfants 🤍

[redbelles]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by: the wonderful @carry-the-sky 💖

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

51

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

245,595

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i don't ever really abandon old fandoms, but so far 2024 has been all berserk (nothing posted yet, unforch) and masters of the air

4. top five fics by kudos

like a heartbeat drives you mad

the dreadful need in the devotee

and my body found the wind

stuck in colder weather

all the love you need

5. do you respond to comments?

yes! it may take me a hundred million years, but i appreciate each and every comment i get, and i often go back to them for a little jolt of "hey, people actually like your writing!" motivation when i'm stuck

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

lmao uh. known angst goblin meg redbelles here, but i honestly didn't have to do much work to the canon endings of robert baratheon (the clouds will form a crown) or judas iscariot (in the violence of our dreams) to make them even more horrifically angsty, so. one of those, probably!

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

i don't tend to go for out and out happy endings—i prefer bittersweet—but i feel like the answer is either the mercy wheel, which fixes dany’s gabarge season eight character arc, or tongue’s talkin’ riddles (sticky sweet), which gives chrissy and eddie a mostly happy future together instead of horrible deaths in deeply cursed hawkins

and! for what it's worth! the chimneys hardly ever fall down is going to end on a happy note! they're just going to have to Suffer a lot to get there! it's fine!

8. do you get hate on fics?

nope

9. do you write smut?

me, currently 3k into a m/m/f threesome scene:

10. craziest crossover:

i enjoy spitballing about crossovers, but i doubt very seriously that i'll ever write one

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of, no

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had offers before, but i've declined every time; they all wanted to host the translations outside of AO3, which is not something i'm comfortable with

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

yep! keep calling me home is a really fun little round robin fic i wrote with three other authors a couple years ago

14. all time favorite ship?

i can't read suddenly.gif

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

shUT UP!!!!! I'M GONNA FINISH ALL MY WIPS!!!!!! SHUT UP!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!

16. what are your writing strengths?

imagery, emotion, themes, dialogue

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

plot? never heard of her. also, i feel like i still suck at writing humor

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

to crib from a previous answer: unless you speak the language, it gets real dicey real fast. i personally avoid it unless a) it’s a canonical term/phrase, like all the faux-russian bullshit in the grisha trilogy, or b) i can check the grammar/usage with a native speaker or someone who is solidly fluent

19. first fandom you wrote in?

[redacted] way back ages ago on [redacted]

20. favorite fic you've written?

recency bias talking here, but i am so, so, so fond of the chimneys hardly ever fall down; i challenged myself to write the first chapter as one continuous scene (i feel like i sometimes abuse scene breaks to heighten tension), and honestly i think i nailed it. also, this sequence:

Maybe he is drunk. That would make sense. He’s going to wake up and find himself alone at the bottom of a bottle. Back in the cold blue, Fort shot to shit and tumbling from the sky like a wounded bird, trailing fire and screaming as she falls. Maybe he won’t wake up at all��� maybe he’s dead in a potato field, a ghost who never made it back in the first place. His heart can’t fucking take it.

like, i'm sorry, but that's brutal! and i am so proud of it!

tagging: @sluttyhenley @littlelindentree @oatflatwhite @meyerlansky @ladywaffles

@charmtion @anthropologicalhands @jacyevans @thatworldinverted @thatgirlnevershutsup

and anyone elso who wants a go ✨

[bigassbowlingballhead]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by my hubby @jdeanmorgan and @eusuntgratie

How many works do you have on ao3?

Six! i'm still realtivley new to this whole writing thing

What's your total ao3 word count?

19,795

What fandoms do you write for?

rwrb, 911 and their rpf (I'm not immune to a hispanic man and his british costar he looks at a little too fondly)

Top five fics by kudos:

Two is better than one

saddle up and ride

testicoli del toro

i got you

cruising

Do you respond to comments?

I try to yes!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i don't write angst. most of my posted fics are just smut, there's no angst there.

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

two is better than one

Do you get hate on fics?

i have not... yet. which honestly is a little shocking i have rpf out there open to guests. (NOT AN INVITATION)

Do you write smut?

Almost exclusively.

Craziest crossover:

my only crossover two is better than one where i shoehorned shane brody from minx into working at the 126 in austin so he could meet alex and henry.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so

Have you ever had a fic translated?

not that i'm aware of but that would be super cool!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

co written? no. provided buckets of information to @eusuntgratie for disaster yes

All time favorite ship?

firstprince will always have a special place to me, they're what got me into reading and writing fic.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

any au i've started, thrown a few hundred words into a doc and then never touched it again.

What are your writing strengths?

pacing i think.

What are your writing weaknesses?

filler and description

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

in the right application, like eddie or alex speaking spanish it hits

First fandom you wrote in?

rwrb bayyybeeeee

Favorite fic you've written?

the throat fucking fic i got you

no pressure tags for: @captainjunglegym @dreamsinthewitchouse @onward--upward @taste-thewaste @heysweetheart-writes

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Scarlett Gale

We are sloooowly creeping up on being 2/3rds funded on the crowdfunding campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, an anthology of 17 stories by queer authors starring non-binary main characters in aetherpunk settings! It’ll definitely be a relief when we hit that wonderful 100%. Don’t forget to share Aether Beyond the Binary with friends who you think might be interested in the project!

Head on over to our Kickstarter Campaign page NOW to learn waaaay more about this project, and read on to get to know Scarlett Gale, read an interview with her, and check out an excerpt from her contribution!

About Scarlett Gale: Scarlett Gale is the author of His Secret Illuminations and His Sacred Incantations. Long ago, under another name, she was the co-author of Needles and Artifice (Cooperative Press; 2012), featuring a rollicking romantic steampunk adventure novella and associated knitting patterns, of which she also designed several. She writes and produces fringe theatre plays based on B-movies, such as Bodacious Barbarian Babes vs. The Indigo Empress and Showgirls of Beast Island. She is a co-producer of the Alison-Bechdel-approved Bechdel Test Burlesque, which in 2017 was included in the Women and Gender Studies curriculum at the University of Oregon. She lives in Seattle with her wife where she gardens, knits, reads, and drinks warm beverages. Unsurprisingly, she also has cats.

Links: Personal Website | Tumblr | Bluesky

This is Scarlett’s second time contributing to a Duck Prints Press anthology. A short story by her was also included in our debut anthology Add Magic to Taste. Learn more about Scarlett’s other published works.

An Interview with Scarlett Gale

What motivates you to create?

Spite and love in equal measure.

What are your goals as a creator?

To make the world a kinder, hornier place one story at a time.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I suppose Planster is the best description, though I think that makes me sound more like someone who has a lot of plants (she says, sitting next to a glass cabinet full of houseplants). For my longer works I usually start with a vibe and a general idea of the arc and write with no real outline until I’m about two-thirds through the story, at which point I will sit down and roughly bullet point the scenes I still want to write, arrange them into story order, and use that as a reference to finish the piece. Why when I’m two-thirds through? Because at that point I’ve had enough Shower Ideas that if I don’t document them somewhere, I risk forgetting to put them in, and my Shower Ideas are the most inspired parts of my writing!

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

Wordcount. Good god, wordcount. I am the rare writer who can just sit down at a computer and bang out several hundred words in twenty minutes without second-guessing myself or worrying if the words are good enough. This makes me simultaneously the best and worst person to have in your writering group.

What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a creator?

Also wordcount. I think every story I’ve submitted to the Press has started out two thousand words above the limit, which means we have to do sooooo much editing. Goodbye, my beautiful words!

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

Yes! It makes writing feel less lonely, since I do a lot of it only accompanied by my cats. I listen to music at a medium to low volume that either has no lyrics, or lyrics in a language I don’t speak so I don’t get distracted by the words. I actually bought the cheapest Pandora subscription specifically for writing music. My favorite stations are:

Lofi Chill

Bonobo*

Mikel & Gamechops 

Radio Asian Kung-Fu Generation (a recent addition)

*Fun story about the group Bonobo: The morning after our wedding, my whole family crowded into our tiny house to watch us open our wedding gifts. I had given my siblings control over distributing the drink tickets, which meant that after they handed them out to the guests, they used the remaining tickets to get SPECTACULARLY plastered, and were thus deeply hungover. My wife made loads of coffee while everyone grazed on the catering leftovers, and in the interest of creating a calming atmosphere, we put on a Bonobo album. Everyone liked the music, to the point that they repeatedly asked the name of the group, which meant my wife and I kept repeating, with increasing exasperation, “BONOBO!! LIKE THE MONKEY!!!!” It is my primary memory of that morning.

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

Remember to eat? While I’m writing?? You think I’m sensible or something?! (I enjoy a cup of tea, either green, decaf black, or herbal, depending on the time of day.)

Tell us about your pet(s).

We currently have three cats: CeeCee, Matcha, and Gyoza. CeeCee (the Lady Catherine the Purr) is our most recent addition from March of 2023. She’s a fifteen year old scrungly tiny black goblin who knows exactly what she wants out of life: Food, sippies from the bathroom sink, belly rubs, and shoulder rides. If we are not providing any of these at the speed she would prefer, she screams at us. She’s PERFECT.

Matcha is an eight-pound calico brat with the sass of at least four cats crammed into her tiny body. Her favorite things in life are causing trouble and rubbing her face on my hands when I’m trying to write.

Gyoza is a sixteen pound gray tabby with the physical properties of a water balloon full of pudding. He loves to try to “play” with Matcha, which results in her screaming like she’s being murdered. His other favorite thing to do is play in the toilet and then come step on us with his wet toilet feet, because he’s the worst.

Please enjoy this festive photo of the three of them that I had to photoshop from three individual photos, since all of them hate each other.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Always take the opportunity to use the restroom when it’s available to you. Solid life advice applicable to any situation, really!

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

I had a Jimmy John’s delivery guy tell me I should lie to people and say my fire-engine-red hair was natural, does that count? (I stared him down blankly long enough that he spontaneously apologized.)

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

Just write it. You can fix the words once they’re on the page, but excessive planning and worrying and worldbuilding won’t help you if you don’t write the words. Just write it! Let it be bad! Fix it in post! Write the damn thing!!!

What’s one thing (style, genre, etc.) that you think you’ll never do, and why not?

Write the type of fantasy book that has a map in the front and a glossary of terms, only because I personally am not motivated to do that level of worldbuilding. I appreciate the people who want to do that, but I guarantee that as a reader I will skip the map and then probably the glossary in order to get to the STORY, which tells you where my priorities lie.

Scarlett’s Contribution to Aether Beyond The Binary

Title: N(ae)ghbours

Tags: attraction at first sight, bisexual, city mouse and country mouse, competence kink, didn’t know they were dating, f/nb, farmer, first kiss, genderfluid, getting together, humor, idiots to lovers, meet cute, misgendering (unintentional), omg they were neighbors, panic attacks (mentions of), present tense, self-esteem issues, third person limited pov

Excerpt:

“But you were going to tell me what you’re researching?”

Ah. Well. “This might be boring and hard to explain.”

Rin waves a fork at the breakfast spread between them. “You have at least five pancakes’ worth of time. Hit me.”

Dahlia takes a steadying sip of tea. She explains about greenhouses and other protected growing areas for delicate crops, and the advantages and disadvantages of using them on a large scale. She explains that her family has a small greenhouse for starts, but most of their land is open-air, which means they get the advantages that come with that, but also the issues—they’re at the mercy of the weather, insects, birds…

Or they would be if not for the aether tunnel.

“It’s like a hoop house,” Dahlia explains, pulling up a photo of a hoop house on her phone to show Rin. “Normally, you cover the frame with mesh, or clear bio-plastic if you’re trying to trap the heat and control the amount of water it gets, but…”

“That’d rip right off in a big storm, right? And how do you get in there when you need to do plant stuff?”

(don't forget to check out the campaign, now that you've read to the end!)

[aftergloom]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tag @thegreatwicked! This is my main — @thenightmarketofdathomir is my sideblog (and I usually do these tag games over here.)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?  Twenty one. Have deleted as many in as many years, probably. 

2. What's your total A03 word count?  740,975. I had this horrified moment as I was tallying… what if my current WIP (not live) has a bigger total than everything else that’s up as of today? (It’s not. I’m not sure if I’m relieved because this thing is shaping up to be a trilogy.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?  Stah Wahs

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Kudos in ratio to chapter, orrrr just the volume? Some of them are shit and I pretend they don’t exist anymore so I’m not going to list them. They’re like bad dreams. That shit never happened I don’t care if it took 38 chapters. And I’m not counting the Nightmarket because it’s a hundred and eighty one-shots lumped together. 

Somebody's gonna have a bad time by nxctuary (Opress Bros x Reader)

Drown Me in You by nxctuary (Mermaid!Maul x Reader)

The myriad applications and multiple uses for a Corellian HWY-280 class fresher. Article 342: One locking door. by nxctuary (Feral x Reader)

The Collector by nxctuary (Maul x Reader)

The Ritual by nxctuary (Maul x Reader)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?  Depends on a couple of things that aren’t always consistent, and often if I don’t reply it’s because the comment broke me. (I often will reply, but I’m like a cryptid — expect me to pop-up without warning six months after you’ve left a note.) It’s often someone saying something nice, my inner self-hatred seeing it and going, “LIAR!” And then taking six months to convince myself that I just can’t take a compliment when negotiating my own imposter syndrome.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?  Ah that’s… hm. I don’t think I’ve killed anyone lately.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?  Everyone gets a happy ending. Even if it’s a little twisted. I like horror endings, you know? The kind that, on the surface, appear as if everything’s actually going to work out for the better but there’s a single drop of darkness left on the page that implies everything can be lost at a moment’s notice.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Narp.

9. Do you write smut?  Yarp.

10. Do you write crossovers?  Just once. Let’s not talk about it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?  Better not have. I’ve had multiple pieces plagiarized partially, though. In really hilarious ways (to me, at least) because there’s nothing like borrowing a turn of phrase said to you IRL (while you were sleeping with the person who said it), giving those words to Maul as he speaks them to the Reader character, then finding someone else pulled out several lines of the same dialogue to use in their fic without permission. Maybe don’t do that. You don’t know where this stuff comes from, and you definitely don’t know what I was working through when I wrote it. Awkward. 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?  Not that I remember. (Maybe once in X-Men? I've had work turned into podfic, though.)

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

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?  Feral and Kai? Do OCs count? 

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?  Nothing is ever finished even if it’s finished. I don’t understand the question. /j

16. What are your writing strengths?  I show up every day and I do the work. Even when it sucks and when I hate it. I do the work. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses?  If I don’t have a clear overview of how a scene is going to play out (or especially the layers of an argument between the characters — what they’re saying VS what they really mean, what they’re withholding, what the reader knows but they don’t, etc) I will spin my wheels and fill up a page with setting description to avoid making a bulleted list of what’s actually happening so I can get to the point. Then edit it twelve times later like hacking away at a hunk of marble trying to get to the good bits. 

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?  Doesn’t bother me. There are circumstances where the jist of the conversation carries regardless, and if not, I’m assuming the writer’s offering a translation either in-text or as a citation. I mean, if you want to get granular about it, then start asking does doing that serve the story and what does it add, or does it detract, but that’s a situational thing and I think you need to experiment a bit to learn what works in context.

19. First fandom you wrote for?  Harry Potter. Draco/Harry. I was baby.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?  Archangel (unreleased). Heartsong (unreleased). Crown of Motherfucking Horns (current WIP). CoH my heart. CoH beloved. CoH my baby.

Tagging (no pressure): @herbalinz-of-yesteryear @grinningnexu @sinisterexaggerator @inquisitorius-sin-bin @umber-cinders @graaaaceeliz @not0a0mundane and anyone else who wants to play :)

[nice-to-meet-you-im-a-crytid]

How To Be a Magical Girl (Introduction)

This is an introduction to my original story as the title states. This will not be a comprehensive lore dump just a ramble of what the story is like and the many (many inspirations behind it

Disclaimers: This is a story in EXTREMELY EARLY production, This is mostly for fun and for me as a writer to both build a fanbase around my work and get used to jotting down ideas.

Inspirations: I'm staring with my inspirations for the story since they heavily explain where I was heading for pretty much the rest of the story.

First really big one is the anime Madoka Magica, so there's a lot of cutesy-ness mixed with body horror and some darker themes too in my writing. This also effects my art style quite a bit if you've seen any of my work on my tumblr page. Of course there's the magical girl aspect and an obvious school setting. Speaking of school settings my other inspiration would have to be My Hero Academia. I'm mostly referring to the slice of life/school aspects and the earlier class focused episodes. I think the world building in My Hero is really cool and I think it shows quite a bit in my own world. Also the technical aspects of becoming a hero in the earlier episodes have given me a good idea of how I'd like my own story's made up profession to work on it's own technical scale.

Setting/Plot:

How To Be a Magical Girl is a novel in the works centered around the coming of age stories of a large cast of girls (15-16 yr olds) who go to a magical school and as the title states learn how to be a magical girl both as a job and as people. One really big theme is light academia which includes love of learning, friendship, and overall loving life. Another is also perspective as many of the mini stories are written is different POVs and hopefully if I can get a book or two into the world each one would also be in a different POV. This does lead to a large cast of characters all of which have different backgrounds, cultures, and unique dynamics with each other along with different places in each others stories. This is also one big coming of age story which is very dear to me as I, myself am coming of age as a young author, so this story is a huge reflection on my own experiences. The biggest most prevalent theme besides light academia is trauma and more importantly healing! The main monsters that these magical girls fight in fact come from trauma and each of the girls have their own troubles to work through along the course of the story. The literal setting of the book is of course the school: St. Amia's International School for girls! Pretty much think Hogwarts but made of quartz. Legit though lots inspiration came from European design and architecture (Scottish castles, French Chateaus, etc.) in alignment with the book's theme. Here is link to the Pinterest mood board Worldbuilding: Obviously there is magic in this world. It takes place a couple hundred years into the future, magic is very well integrated into the modern world, i.e it's used as an energy source, magical creatures are common place across the world, it's even a normal and often required course in schools. Magic itself is a learned skill that all people can have the ability to advance in and excel at. My best analogy for it is it's like sports, if you run everyday you gradually get better and you could even make it a profession with enough training. And also like sports there are certain skills and abilities that are better for each one, flexibility and strength are both good for all sports but would be best used and trained in particular ones. This also translates over to types of magic and skills. (These are not the best comprehensive notes of my story's world so I might make an in depth post for the whole thing, tell me in the comments if this gets enough attraction!)

If this post somehow reaches you and maybe you even like it give it a reblog so others can have the chance to find it too in mess of an algorithm. And maybe even leave a comment if you'd like to see more from me!

☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆