#At the time this was the most ambitious thing I'd ever written

[cartograffiti]

Roses 2: Electric Boogaloo

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast, Juno Steel series Rated: M Warnings: No archive warnings apply Word count: 22,890 - Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel (Jupeter), Duke Rose/Dahlia Rose, Rita/Sasha Wire, Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Characters: Juno Steel, Peter Nureyev, Rita, Sasha Wire, Buddy Aurinko, Vespa [Ilkay], Brown Jacket [Jet Sikuliaq], Alessandra Strong, Small Fry - Juno Steel and Peter Nureyev have lived together for a year now. Their happiness would be complete if only people would stop asking them about their plans for the future. They're overdue for a conversation about it, but why rock the boat? Buddy and Vespa Aurinko have a niece who's fallen in with a bad crowd. Has she volunteered her brilliant mind for evil, or is she a hostage? Clearly, only one thing can solve everyone's problems: a fake marriage mission. Undercover again as Duke and Dahlia Rose, the detective and the thief navigate the glittering dangers of [Space Monte Carlo]. At least they'll look fabulous doing it. Roses 2: Electric Boogaloo. A story about desire, commitment, and living dangerously. No longer canon-compliant.

This was written for the 2018/19 Penumbra Mini Bang.

This fic was posted in 2019. I'm sharing it now because I want my Tumblr to have a nicely organized link to each of my fics. Some I've shared with such inconsistent tags I can't find the links myself, and many I've never blogged about at all! This one I know I have, but this is an easy way to get organized.

[luna-rainbow]

I'm sorry if this is an odd question. I'm new to the Steve/Bucky fandom and only recently started reading fics relating to them. How come most fics tend to favor Peggy and write her to be a sympathetic character? Most of the fandom that I've interacted with agree that Peggy isn't a good person (SHIELD and Hydra as well as her behavior with Steve in CFA) and wouldn't be a good match for Steve. I've loved all the fics for the love b/w Steve/Bucky but the sympathetic writing of Peggy has irked me

Thanks for the ask!

I came into fandom pretty late so I missed a lot of that, but I’m told Peggy has always been pretty popular in the Stucky fandom.

I think her popularity comes from a number of reasons — 1) lack of other female characters at the time, 2) easy to project onto, 3) a reluctance to tackle her negative traits.

At the time when Stucky’s popularity exploded, there weren’t a lot of female characters in the MCU. There were Pepper and Jane, both of whom were passive watchers and “civilian counterparts” to the main character's heroic enterprise. Peggy was a rare Phase 1 love interest that seemed to be present and at least somewhat handy with a gun. People were more forgiving of unfavourable character moments — and just coming from the movies alone, you could bend the narrative to ignore most of those unfavourable moments.

Which leads me to the second point, which I think is the most important one. The vagueness with which Peggy is written makes her an incredibly useful “blank” character to project onto. Firstly, her mannerisms are forceful and assertive, and the superhero genre target audience is one who likes to watch things being resolved by fights. As I said above, at the time there really isn't any other female character (apart from Nat) for the female audience who likes action heroes. Secondly, Peggy and Nat form the madonna-whore dichotomy (especially with Whedon’s characterisation), and a lot of people would prefer to project onto the fandom madonna than the whore. Thirdly, she has very little character traits within the movies apart from “strong-willed” and maybe “ambitious”, which gives a lot of flexibility to how writers can play with her character. Fourth, the fact that her appearances in the movies only ever occur in Steve’s company (except the later cameos) gives a misattribution of narrative proximity, with a lot of fans believing (especially if they haven’t revisited the source in years) that she was a more important narrative force than she actually was. But that same narrative proximity is appealing if you want to project onto a female character who can participate in Steve’s adventures and you don’t like Nat or Sharon or an OC.

And the third point I think is the trickiest part. Does fandom misogyny exist? Of course it does, especially in the MCU. But misogyny is also flung around as an accusation against fans who make genuine critiques of a character or want to write a nuanced female character that acknowledges her negative traits. Someone once dumped a 1500 word rant in my comments because I omitted Peggy from a Stucky meta, so you can imagine how much her rabid fans would arc up if you are actually critical.

Besides, writing a nuanced character takes effort and planning and a lot of hard work. I know for myself unless I plan to tackle Peggy as a fully-fledged character, I'd either omit her from the story or give her a very minor role that is not overtly critical, because it's just not worth the effort of the argument in the notes.

[defira85]

FIC WRITING REVIEW 2024

Thank you to @iapetusneume for tagging me!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some qualitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either. Artists and gif makers, please also join in with any quantitative or qualitative stats or facts you want to share about your year.

Words and Fics

6 fics published

411, 630 words (yeah baby we're BACK)

Top 3 Pairings Relationships

The Dark Urge/Enver Gortash

Gale Dekarios/Female!Tav

on a technicality for having the most chapters written about them in a multi-character fic, Astarion Ancunin/Female!Tav which I am a little annoyed at myself for. That boy has plenty of fics about him, I need to do better

Top 5 by Comments

Keep Telling Me To Breathe (177 threads, 376 total)

A Heart As Cold As Ice (68 threads, 127 total)

(And So) My Heart Became a Void (58 threads, 113 total)

Not All That Glitters (37 threads, 78 total)

A Girl Called Midnight (10 threads, 20 total)

Top 5 by Kudos

Keep Telling Me To Breathe (270)

A Heart As Cold As Ice (71)

Not All That Glitters (49)

I Love You, Franc (34)

(And So) My Heart Became a Void (30) TIED WITH:

A Girl Called Midnight (30)

Top 5 by Hits

Keep Telling Me To Breathe (6851)

A Heart As Cold As Ice (1257)

Not All That Glitters (807)

(And So) My Heart Became a Void (739)

I Love You, Franc (219)

KTMTB really is the monster outlier fic huh. It's my Spiders Georg

Fandom Events in 2024

Gortash Week July 2024 - what an absolute blast this was. So much good stuff that week! Excellent fics! Amazing art! Great edits! Good good friends! I had so much fun with this week AND managed to post my first three entries while undergoing a monstrous day of travel from Alaska to Vancouver to Brisbane and then home.

Gortoween 2024 - My plans for fic didn't pan out BUT I did post one of my first ever big art projects, reimagining Gortash and my Durge Kassara in the movie Constantine

BG3 Villianmas - Another event where I tried my hand at art instead of writing! I threw together four pieces in total for the Villain Christmas prompts, and to the surprise of nobody it was all Gortash art

BG3 Winter Big Bang - This one is in progress, but I signed up last year and I had my first check in a few weeks ago. I'm being overly ambitious and attempting fic AND art, we'll see how much that shoots me in the foot haha

Writing Reflection

I rediscovered myself this last year thanks to BG3. I really do feel like I was in a creative coma for four years which, valid, life has been incredibly traumatic as a health care worker since 2020 for obvious reasons. And not just writing but learning how to be an artist as well!

It's not just that I rediscovered HOW to write again and found my motivation, but I fell in love with the act of being creativity and the joy of writing, and more than that, I fell in love with fandom as a community again. Making new friends, being brave enough to message people. Persevering with posting even when it felt like I was talking to the void in the early days (we've all talked a lot about how fandom has changed so I won't rehash it here) and trying to help shut that void up for other people.

I'd like to have time to read more fics in 2025, and continue to engage in community. It's been incredibly invigorating taking part in events again, I haven't done it in over a decade and I'm just so delighted by it

I want to do the Friday Reviews thing that I reblogged earlier, and uplift more writers. I want to do more art, learn how to do actual lineart instead of painting everything because it takes so fucking long. And I hope to bring a little bit of joy and excitement to others that the last year has brought to me

Tagging @flamemittens @elinorbard (did you already do this one? I can't remember) @chronurgy @sankttealeaf and anyone else who feels confident enough to share their stats with the class! Be brave!

[eurydicees]

fanfic writing review!!

thanks for the tag @goatunderthebridge , i appreciate it lots and this was super fun to write out <3333

How many works do you have on Ao3?

89 total, 26 from this year! i've been publishing on ao3 since 2019. my grand dream was to reach 100 by the end of this year but uh. that was ambitious. clearly.

Your top 5 stories by kudos:

another word for wanting (zukka, 23119 words)

this one was super fun to write at the time but i do look back on it and like. think a lot about all the things i could improve about it lol. the perfectionist in me has a hard time with this one partially because it's my most popular fic. by like. an INSANE margin. like it's not even close. i mean overall i'm pretty proud of it and i'm SUPER happy and honored people read it, i just think i could do the concept better if i tried it again now.

clean hands to hold him with, a clean house to love him with (sakuatsu/miya twins genfic, 4070 words)

this one started as a short tumblr fic that i made into a longer thing to publish on ao3, and i'm really glad i did. i'm very proud of this fic i think, especially given that i'd never really written osamu before. i'm also really happy with the way atsumu turned out in this one.

where a laugh meets a cry (tamakyo, 5351 words)

i'm still really proud of this one lol. it makes me so happy that it's one of my most popular because i really did put so much love into it. i do think my characterization of tamakyo (kyoya especially) has grown a lot since this, but i'm still really happy with how this turned out. also the response it got was genuinely overwhelming with how kind and generous people were with it, so it has a special place in my heart because of that too.

another love letter you'll never read (stucky, 6419 words)

LMFAO i didn't actually realize this was one of my top fics. but i'm glancing through it now and honestly? not my worst work.

and oh, now speak this gentle love aloud (sakuatsu, 5913 words)

ok i'm gonna be real guys i'm not actually that happy with this fic. i'm so so so appreciative of how kind commenters were with it, and i love that people liked it so much! but it does not feel like my best sakuatsu, nor my best writing in general. idk im very grateful for the love this got, i just also think i have better works lol.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yeah, i respond to all of them! sometimes it takes me like. a month. but i will pretty much always eventually get back to a comment. i'm so so so grateful every time i get a comment, and i genuinely LOVE hearing people's thoughts on my silly little works! it makes me so happy to read comments and so i always want to give my thanks back :)

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

hmmm the first one to come to mind was "in the arms of loyalty and the hands of devotion" because it has MCD and i'm really proud of how i wove that narrative together to end with that, but then i thought about it and i've fully written multiple MCD fics lol. i think "all the things he left you with in the aftermath (& all you'd do to get him back)" does really interesting things with death and hope and tragedy, so i might say that one though.

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

i feel like i mostly write happy endings? so depends what you're looking for in happy tbh. "gonna build you a bridge over the pacific" has a really sweet ending imo and i'm really happy with the way that one turned out.

Do you write crossovers?

not really? i don't think i ever have, now that i think about it. i've written AUs of other media i like, but never a legit crossover. i don't really read them either.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

like yes and no. there was someone(s?) who was really offended by "i've got the matchmaker on speed dial" because kyoya is half-latino in that fic and i got an upset comment and ask lol. but that was resolved pretty quickly imo, so i'm not too hung up about it.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i would be too powerful if i was capable of writing smut so god gave me an extra dose of internalized shame and anxiety to keep my writing prowess in check.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

uh. not as far as i know? i sure hope not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yeah!!! you can read "shakespeare for lovers" in russian here!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

back in my wattpad days i did!! me and a friend wrote a [redacted] fic about [redacted]. i haven't since then though. tbh i'd still be open to trying it out, but i think we'd have to have an established friendship already, and we'd have to be REALLY clear about responsibilities.

What's your all-time favourite ship?

this is an evil question and i refuse to answer it.

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

sighing. i am haunted by so many WIPs. i have two drafts for the next pieces to the hearts of our own design series but they've been sitting there for so long. i also have an iwaoi confession/coming out/feelings realization fic that sits and laughs at me while i struggle to write a sentence.

What are your writing strengths?

i think i'm good at capturing emotions in general? idk. i really enjoy figuring out how to describe feelings because they can often be so complex and contradictory. i also have a really hard time describing my OWN feelings, so i get a lot of satisfaction from being able to realistically capture emotion in a character lol. i think even if a character is in a deeply unrelatable position, i'm alright at making it understandable. idk.

What are your writing weaknesses?

dialogue fr. i struggle so much with making characters TALK. a lot of the storytelling pillars i'm at least decent or passable at: i can do the thought process, i can do the character analysis, i can do the scenic descriptions, i can do the sensory feelings. but oh my god i start writing dialogue and the whole time i'm in my head wailing WOULD HE FUCKING SAY THAT.

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

i don't actually have many opinions on this tbh. i think if it's done, like, badly then it's super jarring and frustrating to read. if it's done well, like go for it ig. but that's kinda just true of everything. all in all, you can make it work for sure if you do it right. it's not really something i'm interested in doing though, stylistically.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for but want to?

i don't think there's anything really lined up right now! i'm chipping away at my holiday fics and my spotify wrapped prompts and having a good time with those. i'm not really putting anything off atm.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

"who's your favorite child, eurydicees" "which of your organs are you proudest of, eurydicees" "which part of your heart is the most important to you, eurydicees" i dunno man. it's honestly easier to tell you which ones i'm least fond of. but that's so negative and sad. idk. my top few in reverse order of publication are probably

well i did START making this list

it got too long

then i had a crisis over what to put

im done now

whatever. thanks for reading if u got this far<333 tagging anyone who should be writing right now but is on tumblr instead. you know who you are.

[carry-the-sky]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by my one and only brainpipe bestie @ninzied ♡

How many works do you have on ao3?

43!

What's your total ao3 word count?

163,202

What fandoms do you write for?

mostly good omens at the moment, but i am also tinkering with an old kanthony fic. i have so. many. hellcheer wips collecting dust in my google drive. and of course kastle my og, my beloved.

Top five fics by kudos:

say my name (and every color illuminates) - kanthony

the wonderful part of the mess that we made - stranger things trio

warm, solid things - hellcheer

every bit of beating heart - kastle

my head is filled with ruins (most of them, i built with you) - kastle

Do you respond to comments?

always! if i don't, i probably didn't see it.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

definitely any of my older kastle fics 🙈

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

probably the one lucky dog series? i based the proposal scene (spoilers for a fic that's five years old lol) off of my own, which made me happy, at least!!

Do you get hate on fics?

thankfully no!

Do you write smut?

i have, but it's a struggle. the stage management of it all!! it's definitely something i'd like to work on and improve though

Craziest crossover:

probably my good place au. i was hmm shall we say overly ambitious with that idea, but it was a fun covid project!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i haven't!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

in theory i would love to, in practice i think it would stress me out immenselyyyyy

All time favorite ship?

i like nina's answer for this one. i love and appreciate them all for different reasons!! kastle will stick with me forever obviously. truly the fandom to rule them all. ♡

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

the hellcheer detention fic i started for @majicmarker under threat of being pushed into a pool if i didn't finish, oop. wrote about 5k and just lost the plot completely. tale as old as tiiiime

What are your writing strengths?

capturing a vibe. dialogue. exploring smaller moments.

What are your writing weaknesses?

plotting?? i don't know her. also finishing chaptered fics. i probably overuse semicolons and em dashes.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

i've done this before with very simple words/phrases. anything more in depth should probably be looked over by someone who speaks the language?

First fandom you wrote in?

kastle!!

Favorite fic you've written?

probably warm, solid things. it's the longest one-shot i've ever posted, and it's personal to me in many ways. i'm happy it seemed to resonate with people!

honorable mention to my most recent good omens fic, which took years off my life to write, but i'm quite proud of the end result; also this kastle ficlet which sort of just fell out of my brain fully-written?? what sorcery????

tagging! (no pressure!): @majicmarker, @redbelles, @heartonfirewrites, @imashybear, @evilbunnyking

@onebatch2batch, @ejunkiet, @malachitegrey, @andromeda4004 and anyone else who sees this and wants to play :)

[krirebr]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

Thank you so much for the tag, @bigtreefest 💜💜💜

We Are Vain & We Are Blind (Dark Ransom Drysdale x Reader) I genuinely think this is the best thing I've written. It's definitely the most ambitious. It has a bunch of elements I'd never tried before (horror, suspense, smut, etc) and I'm so so proud of myself for pulling it off. It will probably always be my favorite.

I Know I Should Know Better (Bodyguard!Curtis x Actress!Reader) My first stab at a series and the work that taught me how to do chapters. Plus, I just really love these two sad beans and how very much they care about each other. My ideal mix of angst and pining.

More Than This (Arranged Marriage Ransom Drysdale x Reader) It is very possible that by the time this monster is done, it will be the longest thing I've ever written. Just really dragging out this slow burn and exploring all the ways these two deeply flawed people might actually fit together has been so fun for me.

I Can't Sleep Cause My Bed's On Fire (Vamps Ransom x Reader x Steve) The introduction of Vampire Steve!!!!!!!!! Some of the most fun I've ever had writing. And the fic that turned my little one-pairing AU into a giant multi-pairing mess of worldbuilding.

Giving Me a Thrill (Sex worker Johnny Storm x 40s something Reader) Really hard to write, for whatever reason, but now that it's out in the world, I'm so proud of it. A lot of my own feelings about aging are in this one. Along with Johnny just being an absolute menace. 😏

NPTs: @navybrat817 @intrepidacious @targaryenvampireslayer @darsynia @foxgloveprincess

[ageless-aislynn]

As mentioned in my last post, welcome to Aislynn's 1 Word For Each WIP November Extravaganza! (It was too long to fit all of that in the banner, so hence the number 4 coming in clutch, lol!)

Here's what I'm GOING TO write at least one word for in the month of November:

Halo the series

"15 Minutes" - (John/Female Reader) Chapter 12 is in progress and will get progressiver (word of the day) by at least 1 more word! *nodnods*

"Recreation" - (Kai/Male Reader) The final chapter will be slotting in between its sibling fic's *points up at "15M"* second to last and final chapter. I have notes on chapter 5 but no draft started... yet.

"Untitled Fluffy Vannak fic" - (Vannak/Female Reader) Just a one-shot that I wanted to do for the big guy, something sweet and fun because he got VERY LITTLE of either in season 2. 😭The draft is already in progress.

I also would like to write a Reader fic for Riz since the entire rest of Silver Team is getting something 👀but have nothing on tap just yet.🤞😣🤞 One day, I hope, but I'm not counting this as part of my WIPs to be finished in November... unless I should get a heck of a lot of work done on everything else. 😉

Halo: Reach

"Choices: A Choose Your Own Spartan Adventure" - (Noble Team/Female Reader) One of the most personally ambitious things I've attempted in a while, the first chapter that sets up the adventure is almost done. Next to go are each of the chapters where you choose which Noble Team member you'll continue the adventure with. I have the plot for all of them but only Emile's has something written. We'll also be getting a separate chapters for female and male Noble Six, since we're all about, you know, choosing who you want to adventure with and Six can be either in the game. 😎👍

The Flash

"The Price" (NSFW) - (Caitlin Frost/Hunter Zolomon) I've known what's going to happen in chapter 2 for a quite a while now. Just got to write it... one word at a time, right?

"Guardian Angel" - (Time Wraith!Caitlin Snow/Eobard Thawne) About 1/3 of chapter 3 has been done for, umm, years now. Just need to push it on through a little bit more! I'm not sure how many chapters in all it will be, at least this one and a 4th but that may be enough to finish it. We'll see!

"Split" - (Caitlin Snow/Eobard Thawne) The third and final fic in the Ghost of Eobard Thawne series turned out, to my surprise, to have 3 very ragged first drafts and part of a 4th chapter just hanging out in my Word docs after all of these years. I still have my *surprised Pikachu face* on for this one, what can I say? 🤷‍♀️😂

"Try" (NSFW) - (TomCav!Eobard Thawne/Caitlin Snow/Mattobard!Eobard Thawne) Oh yeah, I went there. After all of the versions of them that I've written, the only really surprising thing is that I didn't do this a lot sooner, lol! This one has 3 chapters of almost 8k words done that nobody has ever read. It's weirdly one of the few times I did world-building, too. It's projected to be pretty big, 20-25 chapters, so maybe 50k words? 😱 It's a really big undertaking for something that's honestly just for me but... I'd really like to be able to read the entire thing one day, lol! And there's only one way to do that: I've got to write it, one word at a time. 🤷‍♀️😉

I may have totally forgotten something but this was all that showed up in my WIPs folder. Of course, that folder was imperfectly copied from my previous computer and I had to go looking for several of these, so who knows. If I missed something, feel free to let me know.

So wish me luck, frens! This is a challenge I KNOW I can do and I'm so excited about it! 🥳🎉🎊💖

All of my masterlists are here.

[hallowed-nebulae]

2025 Writing Goals

I admittedly feel a bit silly posting this, since it's been. . . a hot minute since I actually did things on this blog, but, I may as well make the effort! (this is entirely inspired by @corishadowfang doing the same -- if you like my writing, go look at theirs, especially if you're a fan of kingdom hearts).

i'll be putting this under a cut for sake of post length on dashboard, as i am Well Aware that i ramble, and i imagine i'll be rambling a lot. with that said!

i had a lot of goals and ideas for 2024 - i wanted to write a lot. it's something i'd started to notice, but this year i sat down and had to acknowledge that the times of 2019, 2021, 2022 even when i could sit down and churn out 3k words in one sitting, when i could update chapters semi-consistently every few weeks or so, is entirely gone. both because of my lower levels of energy, being chronically ill, and because of college work picking up, and things of that nature.

things have definitely changed a lot over 2024 -- i'd gotten diagnosed with POTS in late 2023, and this year by talking with my doctor, other friends, i've learned that i probably have EDS, which doesn't help with the energy levels. i'm trying to get better at managing my ambition with writing - that's a major goal, is to not start huge AUs or projects without pacing myself or being realistic about how long those things are going to finish.

another goal, most definitely, is to try to rotate my WIPs, and not just focus on only one WIP at a time. i tried that with crystal verse, last year, and it definitely led to some burnout, between all the exhaustion of everything else. being able to poke at different projects and not feel guilt about that is going to be incredibly helpful, i think.

also, i want to get better at actually working on my WIPs -- take some space every day, or at least every week, to at least add something. i used to have a goal to write 10 words, minimum, ever day, and i think i'll try to adopt that again as a 2025 resolution.

as far as WIPs that i've actually got:

Tempests Verse, my beloved, is over three years old, now. i started this thing in September 2021 and it's still ongoing, can you believe it? Storm Whispers, the current WIP, is going to be on hiatus for the forseeable future, until such time as @beastenraged has the energy or time to work on it again; it's written by both of us, after all, and i don't want to pressure them by writing a whole bunch on my end that they'd have to catch up to.

i do still want to work on this 'verse, though - since Dark Road has finished, i can now properly write out what happened with those sets of events, in this AU, and how they diverged from canon. more elaboration on the ghost xehanort, what happened with bragi, what happened with baldr, how Darkness even possessed xehanort's corpse, all of that. it's exciting, even if i don't know how long writing that fic will take or entirely where to begin. i do really love working with the mobile games, so i'm excited to work on this one, whenever i have the time or energy to do so. i reread all of Tempests Verse and took notes, last year, so hopefully i can be most consistent when writing this one, despite my poor memory.

Crushing Stones Verse! will still be poked on, as always. since it's become my warm-up exercises, writing a chapter of this AU's current WIP before moving to other WIPs once i'm warmed up, it's gotten a lot easier to work on this one. i finished outlining it, also, so while it'll take a good hot minute to finish, there is an actual end in sight! i look forward to working on this project and seeing how anyone reading reacts to some of the twists that happen.

Crystal Verse, my ffxiv AU (which has rambles related to it hidden over on @crystal-verse, my ffxiv blog), will get worked on as well. i'm trying to get better and not have there be an entire 7 months between updates like what happened last year; it's very ambitious, given it's a sort of novelization of, well, all of FFXIV, but i do also have an endpoint for this one -- currently, the plan is to write up to the end of Endwalker, and then stop. (that is, 6.0 -- no patch quests, no Dawntrail, nothing, just the end of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga.) given how large FFXIV is, this one will take a long while to finish as well, but i do really love it, so it's worth the work.

Miracles Verse will get its rewrite! to those of you who remember the original version -- please don't mention it, and i ask of you to simply read the rewritten versions with open minds. to those of you who've never heard of this au before -- good, the original was my first "got too ambitious and scrapped the project when i failed to execute it the way i wanted", so i'm hoping to do this story justice with the rewrite. this one will also take a long while, most likely, as i'm planning on using multiple digimon canons here, but i'm confident that as long as i rotate my WIPs and outline decently, i'll be in good hands.

Red Scales Verse, a new au of mine, is my first major RWBY au! you have @cheeseandcake-from-ao3 to thank for this AU, as they provided the initial idea, and have rambled with me long enough for me to decide to write this as an entire proper AU. no idea how large this project will be, we'll likely go to post-V9 for this one (and if V10 ever gets greenlit then who knows, we could adapt that one into this AU as well). i've only recently gotten into RWBY, so i'm not sure how well this will be received, but hey, who am i if not someone who writes niche fics that are for me and me only, right? (this AU begins with the premise of: what if ruby rose, and summer rose, were wyrms akin to the story of the king lindwyrm? and then things diverge and stick to canon in different ways from there)

i want to make room for more oneshots, also! i've got a couple that i'm poking at, one for RWBY and one that's for digimon frontier, but i miss just -- writing oneshots. writing a thing and being Done with it, and not having to plan for another chapter or work in the series or whatnot. i miss oneshots and want to do that more. so, that's what i'll try to do this year!

with all of that said -- please look forward to seeing more of the various WIPs, and if you have any questions feel free to ask! it's a bit ambitious this year, but i'm trying to be ambitious in a different way than i was last year, and hopefully will be kinder to myself as far as writing.

good luck to everyone else, in 2025, and may your writing be whatever it is that you desire to get done

[grey-wardens]

favorite fics written in 2024

one of the highlights of this year has been diving into writing with bg3 fic! i thought i'd make a post about some of the fics i particularly enjoyed writing this year.

blood-dimmed tide - default dark urge/wyll, mature

this one was my most experimental piece by far! half of it is written in second person and it also ends on a very ambiguous note... it's the fic here i can say is the most tailored to my specific tastes, ha. i really enjoyed taking inspiration from the narrator's lines for dark urge when writing the parts focused on him.

sea, swallow me - minthara/karlach, explicit

this fic was my first time writing either of these characters and minthara's one of those characters whose voice i can just hear very vividly in my head. i enjoy writing her a lot, and i need to do it more. this fic is pretty damn horny lol but there has also always been a bittersweetness to the way i see this ship, and this is really a dynamic i'd like to explore more in 2025...

the sweetness of surrender and either way, you got lucky - astarion/wyll, explicit

i can never get enough of the monster/monster hunter dynamic with wyllstarion and i really enjoyed writing both of these pieces. the former in particular is very specific to my personal likes, lol. i'd also love to write more of that in the future!

start me up - astarion/karlach/wyll, explicit

these three have my entire heart, and i always enjoy the post-game space of the three of them in avernus. with this fic (although it's entirely from karlach's pov), i tried to give each of them equal space in the narrative - it was a challenge, but a fun one.

and a honorable mention goes to LOST, which is currently still being posted and edited, lol. it's the longest thing i've ever written in my life and also the most ambitious plot-wise. i've already identified many things i could have done better, but i think it's still a step forward for me as a writer and i do really enjoy the canon divergence bits!

[aliscntcrres]

task 03 ; the euology

Alison is wearing a simple black dress ... from Prada's Fall 2004 Ready to Wear line. Paired with a simple, light weight, black cardigan. The golden crucifix and Tank Louis Cartier watch she always wears, paired with simple small golden hooped earrings. Sensible black heels. Hair and make up kept simple but elegant. And I know you're all wondering: Benito is not present for the funeral, he's inside the house probably Alison's room enjoying some peace and quiet xx

" I'd like to start by thanking everyone for being here. Coming together on such short notice. As well as Mrs Tristan and her team, all their tireless hard work to put this together in a matter of days. A wildly impressive feat even for the best of the best. "

What the fuck was she doing. A thought that runs constantly through her mind as she stood in front of the crowd of mourners, beside Richard's new grave. Aside from the way she clutched a card in her hands, the quickly written notes upon it, she held herself impeccably well. Like she always did. Politely mingled with guests before the service started, tried to keep an eye on everyone as they faced Richard's death in an undeniable sense– tried to get an idea of what they intended on saying as well, obviously. But she felt insane for it. She felt insane for every conversation she had, every politeness she regurgitated– even the stupid outfit she'd put together. Thank god she was capable of doing what she had to on auto-pilot.

" A man like Richard Woodrow is infinitely rare. To be intelligent and ambitious is one thing. Without them, the career his hard work earned him, many of us may have never crossed paths with him. Certainly we would have never had any of the opportunities he was able to offer us. But to be those things, and then also as kind as Richard was? To have as open a heart as he did? I've never known anyone else even capable of it. And I'm not sure I ever will again, I'm not sure any of us will. "

His name felt like glue and sandpaper in her mouth each time she said it. She knew the formal way she had usually addressed him was entirely inappropriate in this setting. It would be off putting to hear her called him Professor Woodrow and then say the words that were expected of her, and then hear the other wards she spent so much time with share anecdotes and memories of him. But to her? It made her sick to her stomach. That flicker of anger she'd felt when she'd first read Mrs Tristan's letter had been ignored but truthfully it hadn't dimmed. The act she put on so well only fanned the internal fire.

Pause came as she looked at the next note on her card. It told her to share her own anecdote. She'd written down the words 'first meeting' but standing here, staring at those words, feeling the rage burn in her stomach – there was no way. She knew it would make her seem a better person, more relatable, more empathetic. But why did she owe that? Why did she owe it now? So, Alison detoured. If she could escape vulnerability even at a funeral, she might just survive the next few days.

" I won't speak for the others, as you'll hear from them all too. But I can only say how grateful I am for everything he gave me and everything he gave to all of us. From the most basic necessities like a roof over our heads, to education, to health, to confidence, to purpose, to belief in all of us. And to connecting us to one another. "

She could feel her act. Perfectly practised and perfectly in place, it usually felt entirely effortless. Usually it felt real. Her posture, her features, her perfectly calibrated words. Usually her greatest strength, her greatest protection, it felt like her greatest weakness. She wondered if she came across as much of a fraud as she felt. She wondered if she cared what anyone here thought of her. She wondered how much longer the flood gates would hold back the rage and sorrow within her. She wondered how heartless she seemed for not sharing any sort of personal story, no matter how short. She wondered if Professor Woodrow even really liked her, or if she was the start of something that changed when he met Estrella. She wondered it all with a sadness delicately coating her features. Showing that she had the appropriate, solemn feelings about this, but that she was good at holding them back. Exactly what any guest, any of the fellow wards, would expect from her.

" I idolised him endlessly, and I'll miss him dearly. "

[peskellence]

Tag games-Ask a fic writer

Thank you @sunwarmed-ash for the tag! 💖

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

13 on my current account, so not a massive amount 🫣 I'll level with you fine people, I have been guilty of committing the sin of deleting fics (or entire accounts) when I decide I'm no longer proud of them... I've never done it with any of my DBH stuff, but I have done it for basically all other fandoms I've been involved in. I have since learned the error of my ways and to orphan rather than delete after losing some of my all time faves to other writers doing the same 💔

2. What fandoms do you write for?

Active - Detroit: Become Human (also toying with the idea of writing some BG3 fics... 👀 I blame my Neil Newbon fixation)

Former (may return to) - Ace Attorney (AA)

Former (will not be returning to) - MHA, Death Note, Hetalia, Teen Titans.

3. Top five fics by kudos:

With Love, Signal Red - AA

More Than Our Parts - DBH

With Love, Miles Edgeworth - AA

With Love, Phoenix Wright - AA

Part Of You - DBH

4. What's your total ao3 word count?

234,659 (almost half of that consists of a single story 🙈)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try my very best! Someone it takes me a while though 🙏

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

It's probably a toss up between stay with me. (DBH) or With Love, Phoenix Wright (AA) - although I'd argue that the latter doesn't count because it's a prologue to a longer story, so not really an 'ending'

I also wrote a DBH flavoured retelling of Carrie once—a fic request called GAVIN. For anyone familiar with the story of Carrie...yeah, you already know that doesn't end well. 😬

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

You see I love me some 'angst with a happy ending', so a lot of fics I commit to follow that formula. I'll say that More Than Our Parts has the happiest ending, just because of the sheer scale of Hell everyone went through in order to get there 🥲

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have received criticism on my works before, but nothing I'd say was intentionally hateful.

(Unless you're counting some of the reviews on my ancient FF.net account—but I was 14-15 when I wrote most of those stories, and I'm going to put up my hands and say the hate is 100% valid 🙃)

9. Do you write smut?

Is it even one of my fics if I don't shoehorn some smut into it? 🤷

10. Craziest crossover?

That would be the only (technical?) crossover of Detroit Become Human x Carrie

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not 😭

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not—if that ever happened I would probably be so flattered that I'd just keel over and die 💖 (affectionately)

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

I have not, although I imagine that would be fun! I'm open to offers if any fellow authors are interested 🫣

14. All time favourite ship?

Ughhh, do not make me choose just one...I'm going to bend the rules and give three different answers according to slightly different criteria 🤏

First Ship I Ever Wrote For/Got Invested In-

Beast Boy / Raven (DC/Teen Titans)

Ship That Got Me Through A Difficult Time/Ultimate Comfort Ship-

Phoenix Wright / Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)

Current Favourite-

Gavin Reed / RK900 (DBH)

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

That knowledge stays between me and the unhinged notes app I keep on my phone

16. What are your writing strengths?

(Self promotion makes me uncomfortable one sec—) I would say my characterisation/dialogue and vocabulary? I have also been informed that I am good at 'setting the scene', creating for immersive backdrops.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Awkward sentence structure, spelling and grammar (I use a checker for that) and both over describing with lots of fluff and under describing with flat descriptions. I can never get the balance right 😭😭😭

I also have a nasty habit of reworking things constantly, as well as being overly ambitious with my ideas and then worrying the pay off is disappointing 🥲 meaning it takes several decades to publish anything.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

When I tell you I was balls deep in the Hetalia fandom during the latter half of my teens— I am extremely familiar with language switches in dialogue, does not bother me in the slightest.

(please add translations at the end though 🙏🙏)

19. First fandom you wrote in?

The OG Teen Titans cartoon from the 2000's 🫡 I embrace my heritage, but also will not be directing anyone to my ancient FF.net account as it makes me want to peel off my skin and jump out the nearest window.

(I have long since forgotten the log in details, so it will exist as an enduring time capsule to the time I was a moody teenager blasting MCR on the playground and complaining that no one understood me.)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Perhaps it's recency bias, but I am going to say More Than Our Parts. I poured my heart and soul into that story and I'm (mostly) very proud of it.

Tagging my beloved @wedonthaveawhile as I imagine most of my DBH friends have probably already been tagged 💖

[boasamishipper]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by the lovely @doodledrawreblogs - thanks cy!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 104 (it will be 105 after my yuletide fic is posted)

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 1,296,866

3. What fandoms do you write for? i've written fic for legend of korra, milo murphy's law, the dragon prince, star wars, ted lasso, top gun / top gun: maverick, 9-1-1 lone star, what we do in the shadows (tv), a league of their own (tv), mission: impossible, our flag means death, perry mason hbo, and night court.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

when i see your face (top gun, icemav, 1.4k) - 5018 kudos

Moving In Slow Motion (top gun, icemav, 7.5k) - 3044 kudos

Make A Wrong One Right (top gun, icemav, 18.8k) - 2313 kudos

baby, baby, i'd get down on my knees for you (top gun, icemav, 18k, cowritten with @academicgangster) - 2290 kudos

Word on the Street (top gun, icemav, outsider pov, 3.8k) - 1991 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? yes! if you are kind enough to read one of my fics and leave a comment, i always do my best to reply, even if it's just a string of heart emojis.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? probably Like Attracts Like - it's a companion piece to my legend of korra mash au sometimes you hear the bullet, and ends with zhu li (the radar of the story) getting word of varrick's plane going down a la henry blake in abyssinia, henry. truthfully, i'm not a big writer of angsty endings. angsty beginnings and middles, definitely, but i prefer all my fics to have a happy ending.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? see basically all of my fics have happy endings, but i think the happiest ending i've written goes to the end of I Know I'm Home, my robisanya au where sam matched with dani on bantr and not rebecca. in the final chapter, all the loose ends get tied up: richmond wins the premier league, roy and keeley get married, and sam and dani have the 'i'm going to marry you someday' talk. nothing but sweetness all around.

8. Do you get hate on fics? the only hate i've ever gotten on a fic was for one of my star wars sequel trilogy rewrites, and that was from some reylos who didn't like the anti-reylo things i was saying on my star wars sideblog, so... nah.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i do and i have definitely gotten better at it over the years (though i still have a Long way to go lmao). i've only published m/m, but i've written some f/m smut (as you will see when i publish my degas/paris fic next year 😏)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? indeed i do. craziest (or at least most ambitious) has gotta be there's a raging fire in my heart tonight, my top gun/mcu crossover. (craziest crossover i've ever come up with is the night court / perry mason hbo crossover that @saltyfilmmajor and @bornforastorm have been enabling me to write)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? no thankfully

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? yes! when i see your face has been translated into korean and chinese, Lead Me On (To The Other Side) has been translated into korean, and (I Love You) A Bushel and A Pallet and Moving In Slow Motion have both been translated into chinese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? yes, i wrote baby, baby, i'd get down on my knees for you with @academicgangster and wrote Austin Alone with @lilalbatross

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? i'm picking three for how they have influenced me and my writing: boasami, finnrey, and icemav.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? there are So Many of these....my google drive is essentially a graveyard of unfinished wips

16. What are your writing strengths? dialogue for sure. i've also been told my characterization is great and i have good comedic timing.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? action scenes and smut

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? i've done this before - usually i run it through google translate and then check other translation sites to be sure it's as accurate as possible. i've included the to-english translations in some fics (namely my top gun ones where i've written ice speaking russian) but mostly leave out the to-english translations these days. usually when my characters speak a different language you can pick up what they're saying from context.

19. First fandom you wrote for? the first fandom i wrote for was (i think) icarly, but the first fandom i published fic for was legend of korra.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? varies depending on the mood i'm in (and also i have written a Lot of fic so it is difficult to choose lmao). right now i'd say Word on the Street - i'm still really proud of how that one came together.

tagging @icemankazansky @lookforanewangle @lilalbatross @hacash @saltyfilmmajor @bornforastorm @maverickcalf @academicgangster and anyone else who wants to do this :)

[thethirdromana]

How many wips have you got and about what?

I have 12 at the moment, at various stages of completion from basically just a concept, to mostly finished, to probably dead.

After Dark (probably dead) - this was from my brief Siskoshir phase. It's night time and various people are sneaking around Deep Space Nine to visit their lovers. I think I'd have to get into Siskoshir again to have the motivation to finish it.

All Your Yesterdays (dormant) - this is a wildly ambitious DS9 fic, with the premise that after the end of the series, Sisko asks the Prophets to send him back to DS9 when he first arrived there, to try to prevent the Dominion War. This could plausibly be at least novella-length, and will probably not happen until I next rewatch DS9, so watch out for it in 3-5 years.

Christmas Eve, 1901 (nearly finished) - Dracula ficlet, does what it says on the tin. I'll probably tweak this one and then publish when it starts to feel properly Christmassy.

Enterprise celebration (half-written) - I posted the start of this here. The Enterprise crew gets sex pollened and has an orgy. I probably need to reacquaint myself with Enterprise before I finish it, but I do want to finish it.

Everyone has to be dabo girls (half-written) - DS9 fic, also does what it says on the tin. This one floundered on my inability to decide what sexy outfits everyone should wear. (The idea is that it's mostly silly and a bit sexy but that the crew also learns that being a successful dabo girl is hard.)

Five Ways to Break the Prime Directive (probably dead) - Picard gives a speech to new Academy cadets about the prime directive, then we flash back to all the ways previous captains have broken it.

Road trip (nearly finished) - Babylon 5 smut. This is with my beta reader as we speak, and awaiting a better title.

The Battle of Bamber Bridge (probably dead) - DS9, in which Sisko, Bashir and O'Brien's Battle of Bamber Bridge holosuite programme glitches and lands them in the real thing. I think it would be a fun idea but unfortunately I have no motivation to actually write it.

The Further Adventures of Nog and Friends (half-written) - this is a sequel to Human Error that I've been failing to finish for about three years now. One day!

The Seduction of Jean-Luc Picard (mostly just a concept) - Picard has ethical dilemmas about whether it's right for him to date Q.

Valet's Honeymoon (half-written) - this is probably my most active WIP, a Jeeves/Wooster story in my Happily Ever After, Jeeves series. Hopefully I'll have time to work on this over Christmas.

What They Don't Teach You at Ferengi Commerce School (half-written) - this is the only one that's on AO3, unfinished, sitting there as a lesson to me about posting fics before I know the ending. I do intend to finish this eventually, but the stars will really have to align for me to get there.

[cinnamontails-ff]

27 and 77 for either Accountant’s Guide or MA, your pick!

Hi! Thank you so much for the ask ❤

27. What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

My favorite part is probably in the early stages of planning out a story. I tend to play around with multiple ideas at the same time, working on characters, plot, theme etc., and there's always this moment where they all seem to click into place in my head. Like, I can feel this is going to work. It's going to be worth the effort, and that's really magical to me.

Least favorite part is editing. Particularly the bit in between the 55-75% mark of the story. It's a tricky part of the narrative for me because you're setting up the finale, but it's not quite there yet, and while I typically have a lot of ideas, editing is where I need to be very critical with myself. I almost dropped MA when I was there because it was super difficult to get right and readers were leaving left and right and it was so frustrating to know all this amazing stuff is just around the corner if I can just get there. The Objection POV chapter really helped though, so I'll keep that in mind for my next project :D

77. Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter?

Accountant's Guide: The first kiss. I've read it so many times and my heart still starts racing for them. The slow burn, the build-up - it just always works for me.

Magistrate's Advocate: I think from a crafting perspective, chapter 20 is likely the best thing I've ever written. It had to accomplish so many different things and connect so many threads I'd set up over the course of the story, and it had to do it in a way that feels natural, yet surprising and suspenseful. It was a very ambitious chapter for me and I'm genuinely so proud of how it came out.

[drowninginredink]

Hi. Okay. I am about to talk about Shian for a really long time because I have thoughts. And @generaltrashshecox reminded me of them by talking about one of the huge draws to shian, which is that they are not the obvious other half to each other and yet they choose each other anyway. I love that aspect of it, but I'm not talking about that here.

A comparison a million people have made is Ian and Anthony to Shayne and Damien. Shayne as Ian 2.0 and Damien as Anthony 2.0. The idea that Ian and Shayne are the same is what really fascinates me about Shian, because they so are, and they so aren't.

Let's look at that on the most surface level. Ian is the face of Old Smosh and Shayne is the face of New Smosh. They both have carried the company and been the face of it. They both very much are Smosh in some people's eyes. When some people think Smosh, all they picture is Ian; when other people think of it, they just think of Shayne. They both very much have the weigh of this brand and entertainment enterprise on their shoulders. If you want a great case study/exploration of that, please read "drive it like you stole it". Talking to @furry-jackson about that fic is really where all of my Shian thoughts came from. Also God can she fucking write. Everyone should read everything he's written ever.

But. I want to take it a step beyond that. Because yes... the brand has both been on them... but not in the same way. Ian created Smosh with Anthony. Ian is attached to Smosh. We all know that when Anthony left, he asked Ian to come with him and Ian refused to leave this thing they created behind. Ian was the one who saved Smosh when Defy collapsed. Ian was the president of Smosh under Mythical; he's now the co-owner.

Shayne? Shayne is just talent. Well, talent, and a director, and presumably an unofficial writer/producer... but like... he's not in leadership. He has no stake in the company. One thing I think about so much is a single line from this video by Swell Entertainment about being on Reddit Stories. She talks about having a conversation with Shayne about her life as a self-employed YouTuber, and Shayne said he could never do that and he's so glad that working at Smosh means he can do YouTube as a 9-5. Most people with 9-5s are not that invested in them, you know? I mean clearly Shayne cares about Smosh way more than most people care about their jobs, but still... he's just an employee. He does not have the deep-seated ties to it that Ian does. He didn't create it. It's not his. He's just one part of a greater whole.

That's what really fascinates me about Shayne and Ian as a dynamic. Because yes. They are similar in so many ways. They're both very extroverted and yet reserved at the same time in interesting ways. They're figureheads of the company. They're leaders. And there is just a general simpatico vibe between them that I can't quite describe, but you feel it and you can tell that while they're cut from different cloth, they've been sewn into the same pattern. Their general vibes, for all they are different from each other, are also very much the same. But the one key difference between them is that weight. Shayne is fundamentally freer than Ian will ever be, because he did not create the brand, he does not own it, and he's never been more than a really prominent employee.

I've never actually seen anyone explore that. I think the closest I've seen to capturing it was the way @casblueeye wrote Shayne in The Kintsugi Kid. Shayne is a stay-at-home dad in that, and I do think that speaks to the fact that in a lot of ways, he is just along for the ride. He's happy in the role he's fallen into, even if that's not the most important one. I really haven't seen other fic writers capture that side of him that isn't ambitious but is instead just happy with where he is in life right now. I love it, and I think about it so much, and I'd love to see other people write Shayne the way that they did. But that's not a shian fic. I haven't seen anyone do it with Shian.

I am sure I'll eventually find a story beat where I can explore that, but right now I just have not found a shian premise for myself. I've got the dynamic, but there's no actual plot in my head. So since I have nothing to write with it, instead I am screaming about it on here so the rest of you can share my brainworms.

[khalaris]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Ooh lots of fun questions, thank you @justhugsplz for tagging me <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

25.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

61,430 which is absolutely mind-boggling to me. And of those about 45k are Tatort Wien. Which I started writing exactly one year ago. For comparison, I've been writing fanfic for over 20 years and until I fell into Tatort fandom in 2021 I'd posted less than 3k in total.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Exclusively Tatort Wien at the moment. If I ever manage to peek my head out of that particular rabbit hole, I might get back to some Münster WIPs. Not in the near future, though :D

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Aufgeben -> Der Anruf -> Die Welt in unseren Händen -> Bordsteingespräche -> Loslassen

Haha, Tatort Münster with a little sprinkle of Wien. I don't usually sort by kudos, so it's a bit surprising to see Die Welt in unseren Händen rank so high. Well, high in a range between 75 and 34. That's just how it is in small fandoms :D

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

Yes, always. Sometimes it takes a while to get to it. But I always want to take the time and energy to write a proper response, because a) if someone else took the time and energy to tell me how they feel about my story, the least I can do is tell them how much I appreciate them commenting. and b) A comment always feels like the start of a conversation to me. I remember the long comment/discussion threads under fanfic on Livejournal and I miss the community of that. Nowadays it often feels like there's this growing gulf between author and reader, probably because of the current content creator/consumer culture that does little to invite equality or discussion.

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

Silence, a Torchwood CoE fic about John Frobisher's last moments.

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

Bordsteingespräche. I'm really proud of how everything came together in the end in that one :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope, thankfully never.

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

If you'd asked me that a month ago, I would have said no. But recently I kind of got over my terminal embarrassment at even trying to write anything smutty. I haven't posted anything yet, but there's several fics/chapters in the works. Tbh I don't find vanilla sex interesting and most of the usual kinks in fanfic are either squicks or a snooze-fest to me. The stuff that I am writing is either weirdly specific kink or just downright unsexy (which my characters are having a frankly outrageous amount of fun with atm, bless them).

I'm a bit hesitant to put any real smut in a fic that isn't actually primarily about the smut. I fear enough people might be put off by that, so hardly anyone would end up reading it then. Bit of a stupid fear to have, perhaps, but still...

(Yes, I know, I should just get over it and simply write and post whatever the hell I want 😅)

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

I've had a lot of crossover ideas over the years, but the only thing I've ever written was an MCU/Agents of Shield thingie I hacked out during NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago. Let's be honest, that combination is the least crazy crossover of all time and hardly counts as a crossover at all. Like 99% of the stuff I've ever written during NaNo, it's completely horrible, unfinished and should never see the light of day again.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've translated Bordsteingespräche myself, but was very unhappy with the result, which is why it's unavailable at the moment. It's going to get reworked at some point.

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

Many many years ago, when the world was still young and some of you not yet born 😂, the lovely @hope-calaris and I cooked up a tentative plot for a rather ambitious Star Trek: Voyager fanfic. We didn't end up writing that one, but later co-wrote a CSI: Miami one with someone else iirc and I believe there might have been a 4400 (?) fic, also. Due to depression, my memory of that time is hazy at best, though, so it's possible that I'm missing or misremembering things there.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Didn't expect this question to be so difficult to answer, but is kinda is... 🙈 I guess any combination of my 3 Tatort Wien blorbos. Apart from that, Boerne/Thiel and Stephen Strange/Tony Stark are ships I can always come back to.

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

The aforementioned MCU/AoS time-travel epic.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, especially banter-y dialogue. And editing sentences/paragraphs for maximum impact (when I take the time to do it)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action. What characters are doing, how they're moving, getting them from A to B and so on. Ugh.

External conflict. I despise conflict in real life and find it extremely difficult to write. You won't find an antagonist in any of my current stories or wips. And when I do write conflict between characters, that's always rooted in their internal conflicts and mostly the result of them not communicating properly.

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

It's very hard to do right. Translations in footnotes are annoying and leave me confused while reading. Translations in brackets behind the dialogue also annoying and missing the point of having different-language dialogue in the first place. It can be good when the author puts enough context there that you can get the gist of what is being said without needing an actual translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Files. There's probably some 23-year old notebooks in the back of a drawer somewhere at my mom's house that have fanfic snippets mixed with homework assignments.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Oof, that's another difficult one. I have several that are favourites for different reasons.

Bordsteingespräche for the sheer joy and ease with which it was written.

Kaputt for how much of my heart and soul I'm putting into it.

Die Welt in unseren Händen, because after twenty years of trying and failing I am now finally writing an epic long-form multi-chapter fanfic and I have so many plans and ideas for it. I cannot put into words just how wild that is. And I simply adore this version of my favourite characters.

No-pressure tagging @carlomenzinger, @kathastrophen and @all-my-worlds-a-stage if you want to :)