#Fanfic Talk

[desired-misery]

*Leon, popping back around the corner after being gone for 10 minutes to rejoin Chris and Alpha Team*

Leon: Did you know there was a big BOW down that hallway?

Chris: Oh, shit, you need back up?

Leon: Was. I said 'was'.

Leon: But back up would have been nice about 7 minutes ago.

*Leon lifts his very obviously, disgustingly broken arm to show Chris*

Chris: holy shit Leon--

Leon: Don't worry, as long as we get out of here before the painkiller wears off I'm good

Chris: ... there wasn't exactly a right answer to ease my concerns, but that is actually a wrong answer

[mouseonamoose]

I've been tinkering with attributes for a therapist who would fit into the Disco Elysium world. I can't imagine that anyone else would find this interesting, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

In case anyone is interested, I've put them under the break. Suggestions and comments are welcomed.

Mirror: You can reflect back to another what you see in them, and you can shape an environment by doing so. Too much, and you’ll disappear into the other’s experience; too little, and you will be domineering or distant.

Academe: You’re well-educated, and there’s a diploma on the wall to prove it. Too much, and you won’t recognize the differences between theory and actuality; too little, and you won’t be able to make sense of what’s happening.

Practicum: You’ve got experience; you’re a trained professional. Too much, and you’ll become jaded; too little, and you’ll make mistakes.

Anima: Your wants, urges, and other drives, both physical and psychological. It is in closest contact with your electrochemical systems, which otherwise would be cut off from you. Too much, and you’ll be driven by desires you barely understand; too little, and you’ll struggle to meet your basic physiological needs.

Charm: You can get people to like you. You can make them feel comfortable, safe, and maybe other things, too. Too much, and you’ll come across as inauthentic; too little, and you’ll be off-putting. 

Élan vital: The will to live; Hope, which is many-clawed and unyielding. Too much will make you delusional; too little will make you liable to despair.

Guile: This world doesn’t grant authority to the likes of you, so you have found other ways to enforce your boundaries and get what you want. Too much, and others will find you untrustworthy, underhanded; too little, and you will be an easy target.

Other-Light: There are shadowy things, but not the kind that any flashlight can illuminate. Too much, and you’ll become one of those shadows; too little, and you’ll fail to see world’s true depths.

Other-World: Dreams are your domain; inhabit them at your own risk. Too much, and you’ll lose yourself in another’s inner world; too little, and you’ll never get to leave your own mind.

Conformity: It is safe, in the crowd. It is good to fit in. Too much, and you’ll be unnoticeable; too little, and you’ll be a laughingstock.

Style: Fashion is the sphere of self-presentation, individualization, and group identification. Too much makes you shallow; too little, and you won’t be able to present yourself successfully or understand others’ self-presentations.

Bon ton: Etiquette, manners, and comfort with class. Too much, and you’re a snob; too little, and you’re a rube.

Paperasserie: You can abide by it, you can ignore it, or you can cut through it. Regardless your methods, surviving within a bureaucracy requires knowing how to manage the red tape. Too much, and you’ll become a bureaucrat yourself; too little, and you won’t get anywhere.

Lockbox: Don’t worry about this one. Just leave it alone.

[yummygender]

I love it when writers on reader x Loki fanfics with the relationship already there, makes Y/N essentially wearing the pants in the relationship.

A Y/N that’ll protect Loki no matter what.

A Y/N that is the definition of ‘Hel hath no fury like a woman scorned’.

A Y/N that even LOKI can get scared of sometimes.

Love it.

It’s my bread and butter of fanfics.

You put in a scene of a deranged Y/N flailing around and cussing at Thanos while Loki is holding her back.

“Easssyyy Love, h-he didn’t meant it…”

“LIKE HEL HE DID!!!!”

Love that.

I need that shit.

[185northgower]

The 🫐 and 🫃under the "Knock Him Up November" post?? M'am should we be expecting something?? 😉😉

👀👀👀

He called his mother, who told him to go to the pharmacy if he didn’t feel better soon. He slowly started feeling better, and by evening he had almost forgotten about the nausea he’d felt that morning.

By the next morning however, it had returned. Nace went to the pharmacy, and came back with tablets that seemed to help. Until it came back again the following morning.

When he called his mother again she got quiet for a moment before passing him to his father.

What followed may have been one of the most embarrassing phone calls of his life.

This sounds like there’ll be plot in this but in reality it’s baaaaasically just some pwp 🥰🥰

This was supposed to be out on the (checks date and cringes) 27th of October (as part of our (@madrabit BoJance kinktober) buuut that ship (pun intended) has sailed so… it’ll be out whenever we finally get on with it 😬😬

I could be convinced to share another snip of this or some other fics tho, if anyone is interested

[oh-wow-im-still-here]

While I do like a good shen bros fic in theory, I've also noticed that woobified characterizations of shen yuan tend to flock to those types of stories. Which leads to a very common scene were shen yuan will say something like "so sorry my brother is abusing you, but you must understand that he had a hard childhood😔😔" To luo binghe. Like, no. Even if it was a shen yuan pidw native au, I have trouble imagining he would be like that. I wouldn't say he would have the perfect reaction and response to the luo binghe situation but I don't think he would be like that. Just not my cup of tea personally, sorry.

Scenes like that always remind me of that one scene in the children's book series/tv show series of unfortunate events where an adult tells the beaudelaire children "its complicated. I know Sir can be prickly, but you have to understand, he had a very bad childhood."

To which klaus, one of the children, replies with "I understand. I'm having a very terrible childhood right now."

[ladyriot]

I was gonna write the nastiest, bitchiest little rant (not really but in spirit) about how I was trying to write some rizzles smut but the neighbour was playing the music for their thanksgiving gathering so loud that it was shaking my walls... but tumblr has a key to the universe or something because as soon as I opened this text box, the music went quiet and my sister called me and offered to buy me iced coffee.

[sarasade]

There is a lot to be said about how fanfic can sometimes feel grippingly canon accurate THEMATICALLY while the characters are actually doing things the original story (and the marketing department) would never let them do.

That's an essential ingredient of good transformative fan creations, I think. Analysing the themes and subtext of the original text and mixing them in a new way.

[desired-misery]

BOW!Leon WIP | Luis's POV

An unlikely ally in Luis’s trying-to-comfort-a-BOW-because-it's-the-right-thing-to-do plan is one of the BSAA’s own soldiers. One of the soldiers who encountered 537 in the field, actually. Lieutenant Piers Nivans, second in command of Alpha team. Luis finds Nivans watching 537 over the lunch break, curiously peering at the computer monitor to see 537 inside its crate (which it had returned to and not moved from since the crate was put back inside its enclosure, proving the attempt to teach 537 the floor was safe was a failure).

Nivans— he insisted Luis not use his rank— is very interested in BOWs in a more academic way than Luis would have expected from one of the BSAA’s top soldiers, especially from Alpha team, which Luis knows is deployed to eliminate BOWs all the time. Frankly, Luis is surprised that Alpha team didn’t shoot 537 on sight. He asks Nivans about that decision.

“It’s really weird, but it wasn’t attacking us. It was doing exactly that, so we left it alone.” Nivans points to 537 through the one-way glass. “I’ve never seen a BOW be calm, you know? I thought it was just an animal at first, like a leopard or something. Didn’t feel right to shoot something that was minding its own business, so we just closed the door to the room and moved on.”

. .. ... .. . It is a brutal, callous thought, but it is scientifically interesting that 537 could even be taught to be ‘calm’ as Nivans put it. Nivans is thinking along the same lines, though, because he suddenly looks even more interested.

“Have you guys ever trained a BOW before?”

Luis frowns. “No.”

Nivans tilts his head. “Do you want to try?”

Luis stabs a finger at the paused video on his tablet screen. “That’s cruel, I won’t let anyone—”

“You know zoos train their animals, right? Their dangerous animals, including lions and reptiles. It’s possible— straightforward, probably, as long as the animal has the capacity to learn, which 537 clearly has.” Nivans pauses, looks Luis over. “Do you have anyone on the team who has experience with training dogs?”

“Why would we have someone on the research team with that expertise?” Normally, BOWs are pretty single-minded. If awake and aware, they are either trying to destroy or trying to produce more of themselves. The only time Luis has heard of anyone having any sort of progress ‘training’ a BOW is with Nemesis— but those were human, so it was more about preserving enough of the mind and brain to allow tasks to be remembered and completed.

“I could teach you how to do it, if you’re serious.” Nivans offers like Luis doesn’t already have a full time job. “I’ve helped train MWDs— uh, military working dogs. It’s actually pretty fun.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself?”

Nivans shrugs. “I don’t really have much free time usually, but I guess I could for a little while. Until we’re moved onto another assignment.”

“If you think that could be helpful,” Nivans adds.

“I don’t know what good it would do, to be honest. What do you think we could train it to do?” Luis asks.

Nivans watches 537 pretending to sleep inside of its too small crate. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s really smart?”

“That would be fascinating to discover,” Luis says. “But I think 537 is owed at least the understanding that it can have the whole room to itself.”

Nivans nods. “Let me talk to my captain.” 

[mouseonamoose]

I absolutely loved Demonology. It was an extremely generous gift to the fandom and to the GO mythology as a whole. I loved how you fleshed out Aubrey as a real character and the story being told through her perspective was so effective and clever. I was amazed at how true to the character of Crowley you were so that you were able to write him so authentically into new scenarios. Each chapter was such a surprising and original adventure but with a beloved friend. I loved the humor and pain in this story and so glad it wasn't any shorter than it was. Also, I was reading it at the Denver airport when Crowley made that quip about Aubrey's smell so I felt very connected to the story at that time, very funny private moment. I think this was the most enjoyable story I have ever read and also, got me to see why I personally related so strongly to Crowley. I have found validation as well as escapism from the perennial grief I feel at this time of year. So thank you thank you thank you.

I also read the Aziraphale story, which I felt had some very funny, LOL moments and was heartbreaking. I do wish that you had felt the freedom to write a healing journey before you saw season 2 and the stuckness that Aziraphale was still in. I think it can be really cathartic and beautiful to imagine what it would take for them to become healed. That was the magic of the Crowley story because you actually delivered the answers you promised which is so rare in any book. You showed us the magic that it took with trust and time and expression for Crowley to restore his heart.

I'm going to go back and read the story all over again.

The imagery that stuck with me the most was Crowley wedged up in the corner of the ceiling, and also the most glorious chapter where he shared his poetry with Aziraphale. Also I am a plant lover so all that stuff with the tree and Bud was just phenomenal.

You are an extremely gifted writer and I hope you continue to write and publish and I really, really hope you write some more stories from this universe. If there are any others please please let me know!

Oh, thank you. I'm blushing! I am so grateful that you found both valuable, and shared this with me.

I think, having done both Demonology and Angel-Centered now, I have come to this conclusion: anything but a satisfying resolution for Crowley would have been a disservice to his character; anything but unsatisfying heartbreak for Aziraphale would have been a disservice to his character. I don't mean this at all in a harsh way, regarding Aziraphale, and I have no doubts that he and Crowley both will have a well-deserved Happily Ever After. But, in therapy? And especially within the confines of the sort of fanfic I was writing (e.g., as much as possible, avoid adding to canon; as much as possible, only extrapolate and comment upon canon)? What other sort of option could there be, for Aziraphale?

I don't know.

Or maybe I'm just experiencing the same bittersweet frustration about Good Omens, right now, as everyone else, and that's clouding my thoughts.

You sent a follow-up message, clarifying you'd appreciate recommendations for other Good Omens fic. I am terrible at providing recommendations, unfortunately, but I hope others will be happy to offer some. There is one I can think of, though! Factory Settings is superb. I'm blown away by the clear confidence in the plotting and characterizing. I wouldn't mind it being our S3.

[jonathan-samuel-smith]

TW bipolar discussion and nonconsensual kissing, mental health discussion

So about Saturn Girl kissing Jon without his ability to consent to it: I get that she isn't actively deciding to mind control the people around her, but she does have a choice in the matter. Her family wanted her to stay home until she could control her mind control powers, but she didn't want to and left. To me that's like if I noticed I was manic (not hypomanic) and didn't go to the mental hospital... Like I can't control my bipolar but I have the choice to stay away from others when it would harm them. That's not even a good comparison though because my judgement isn't clear enough to consistently do that when I'm manic, whereas she is at baseline and is able to think rationally. I wouldn't blame someone with bipolar because they have no choice, but I'm just saying the obvious choice would be to keep yourself away from others even if it's not fun for you. I feel like I can blame her, because she has a choice.

I do sympathize with her, but I really think she's hurting others disproportionately to the distress she feels stuck at home, and that's not okay.

If you look back on the events with the knowledge that she can't turn off her mind control, you see how manipulative she is, especially to Jon, and she does high-control group tactics: love bombing, isolation, guilt tripping, not letting him have rest alone where he would have time to realize he didn't want this.

I don't like the JonDami narrative that Jon was an asshole for leaving Damian in the past or was running away from his problems, because in my view he was dragged into a cult and I can't blame him for that, especially because he was extremely vulnerable at the time. I also don't believe Jon would have left in the first place if he knew up front that he couldn't bring Damian to at least visit him.

Jon had been in a state of fight or flight for around 6 years (not just talking about the volcano because there was also his verbally abusive grandpa and their deadly adventures and being trapped in space, and then him struggling to survive on the streets and trying to find a way home after he escaped) and the first time he really got a chance to cool down was when he was talking with Damian. He really needs a long break, therapy, and medication because what he went through can't be treated with therapy alone as the stress has chemical effects in the brain that need to be adjusted.

The writers don't care about how Jon should be extremely hypervigilant and defensive and anxious. I guess that's just not brave enough for a superhero, nevermind that leaving the house and getting treatment for these things, learning to trust again, and letting people help you is so much braver than punching guys when you have superpowers. It's natural to fight when your fight or flight is activated in a protective manner, but doing the logical thing when every signal in your body is telling you not to is really damn hard. The only coward is DC for giving Jon trauma and not actually writing a traumatized character.

That all being said, Damian clearly doesn't see how Jon is being manipulated, probably because his head is full of self hatred & doubting & repressed desires to ask Jon to stay, and thinks he needs to go against his abandonment trauma by swinging the pendulum too far in the opposite direction in his speech. With his c-ptsd and abandonment issues I can see him becoming bitter towards Jon for going to the future.

That could make for a really complex fanfiction, don't you think? The conflict coming from their unique life experiences and traumas, and them learning to understand each other like they're always doing. This misunderstanding of intentions born not out of something dumb like hearing the wrong thing or being unclear in language, but from their different points of view.

My jondami au where Jon leaves the legion early is calling me lmao "Isaac we have more problems for you to fix~"

That being said I have no exclusivity to these ideas for writing.

[terra-sketches]

WIP fanfic stuff!! - Hoshiminakaf

post-canon/canon divergent, all fluff baybee!

spoiler warning (just to be safe)

[need-a-name-101]

Omg I am currently rereading a fic a wrote about 2-3 years ago. (Which i deleted from ao3 because i was in a shitty mental head space at that time and wasn't thinking right) It had 77k+ words. And my writing style back then was shit as compaired to now. I am very tempted to reread that fic and post it again. but i have 2 ongoing fics and another secret wip. So let's see.

[madrabit]

“So… I was wondering if you wanna go to the gym later?” Bojan looked up from his phone, eyes darting up to Nace who sat next to him on the couch.

Chapter two of my lil 5+1 BoNace kiss prompt is up 🩷💜✨️ (chapter 3 might take a lil longer, sorry, but what else is new with me 😃)

[pocketsizedcat]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/40266474/chapters/100858614

genuinely one of the best satosugu fics ive ever read, heart-warming, gut-wrenchinly good, 10 out of 10 and one of the best written shoko's actually