#I too sometimes just have bad days and respond to things accordingly but now I'm way less uhhh

[hajihiko]

Anon who made that one ask here. I'm sorry if it came across as if I'm accusing you. I'm really not. If you dislike something then that's more than okay, and I mean this genuinely. Also the things I wrote are moreso based on personal experiences I've had with lots of other dgr artists, and not meant to be read as insulting. I don't want you to focus about things you hate or dislike either. I apologize, I should've worded it better, that's on me /gen

Yeah no hard feelings man, I think I kinda jumped the gun based on previous asks, my perceived tone, and just how I was feeling? I'm chill now and like I do stand by what I said. but I could've worded it better too. Rest assured that I'll probably never openly talk shit, if I do I'll make a warning, and you can totally block me and whatnot it's good, whatever makes u happiest.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hey again Sex Witch!

Thank you so much for your help! I’m the gay guy from the other day whose ask re: sexual attraction you’d answered. You really got to the heart of the matter, and I truly appreciate that.

This might sound silly but… Are you sure it’s really not weird, gross or… otherwise wrong of me to just randomly initiate a conversation with someone in a bar like that? I’m sorry - even if the worst that could happen in theory is just a few awkward seconds, a part of me still thinks that an unsolicited “hey I like your necklace” Is too… forward. lol even if there’s a guy in a jockstrap gyrating two yards away.

Again, sorry for the weird asks. And thank you for all your help!!!

hello again, anon! I'm very glad to hear that I could tap into something resonant for you. doing this kind of work without being able to have a proper one-on-one convo means I sometimes I sometimes have to guess at exactly what the best advice for someone will be, but luckily I've been doing this long enough that I've gotten to be a pretty good guesser :)

I'm 100% certain that it's not weird, and certainly not gross, to approach someone that way, as long as what you're saying is appropriate for the context. for instance, I'd broadly advise against walking up to someone who's, say, sitting in a coffee shop minding their own business and opening with "you have a gorgeous mouth, I want to see my dick in it." there are absolutely people out there that it would work on, sure, but you shouldn't assume that, because the potential to guess wrong and become an instant sex pest are wayyyy too high.

but even that's not wrong in every setting! that guy gyrating in a jockstrap probably wouldn't mind someone being a bit sexually forward; indeed, there's a very good chance that he's doing what he's doing specifically to encourage that.

but there's also a HUGE world of other, much less risque ways to open up a conversation. let's talk about your example with a necklace, and complimenting details about someone's appearance in general:

"hey, I really like [aspect of person's appearance.]" many people (wisely) recommend sticking to things that people pick and have control over - for instance, makeup, piercings, jewelry, tattoos, hairstyles, and clothing, rather than focusing on specific facial features or body parts. there are also a lot of ways to take that one further if you want to go for a more substantial conversation, including the following:

"I like that tattoo/piercing, did you get that done around here?" or "I like that [article of clothing], where did you get it?" gives them the option to provide as much or as little information as they like, potentially tell personal stories you can respond to, etc.

alternatively, if there's an identifiable common interest in their outfit: "hey, is that [thing] a reference to [whatever]? I love [whatever]!" great, now you can talk about d&d/comics/a movie/a band/an anime/literally whatever for as long as you want as a way to get to know each other

or, alternatively: "hey, that looks really cool. is it from something?" again, gives them plenty of options about how much they want to respond, which you can play off accordingly, and honestly? letting people explain a thing to you can be VERY fun, not to mention people LOOOOOVE having an excuse to talk about shit they like.

also, hey, if someone is just wearing an outfit that's really fun overall? something that they clearly took effort putting together to look nice? man, they WANT you to compliment that. they want you to compliment that so bad.

"but Makenzie how do you know?" because I dress like a loud-ass fruit 7 days a week. and I'm not doing specifically because I want people to compliment me, duh, I'm doing it because it's fun, but it's nice when people say something kind about my outfit! it's nice to be noticed! the other day I wore a pair of bright pink overalls and a student passing by me stopped to say that seeing them made her happy because pink is her favorite color! that's a great interaction, nothing unpleasant about it! I've also recently dyed my hair a shade of yellow that can be best described as "highlighter," and a LOT of people have been stopping me wherever I go to let me know how much they like it. that's nice! feels good! I also wear a lot of huge earrings, especially when I'm working at events where I get to meet prospective students for the university where I work, because it gives nervous teenagers something easy to start a conversation with! they say "I like your lego mermaid Batman earrings" and I say "thank you, I wear them so gay people will talk to me!" and then they get to say "whoa, I'M gay!" and then we're off to the races.

obviously it's presumptuous to assume people are dressing to be alluring to you specifically, but there are also very few people in the world who will be upset at being told that their hair looks nice and their outfit is cool and you think their tattoos are awesome.

people are also generally pretty stoked to hear something like "you're a really good dancer!" or "that food/drink looks good, what did you order?" or "sorry, but did I hear you talking about x? I love x! what did you think of xyz?"

statistically most people love to think that they have good taste and hate being the one to make a first move, so if you do both of those things you're already off to a GREAT start.

also, another fun reminder: even if complimenting that necklace doesn't lead to a romantic or sexual connection every time, it does serve as good practice for talking to people and makes you someone who gives compliments easily - and hopefully someone who's good at receiving them back, because many people love to repay a compliment immediately in kind! and it's never bad to be known as somebody who's generous with saying nice things :)

just give it a try; I promise you'll like it once you see how warmly people can respond to even casual praise!

[calamity-aims]

20 questions!

thanks for the tags @gaeasun @saltsanford @purgetrooperfox <3 love you guys

How many works do you have on AO3?

75

What’s your total AO3 word count?

238,592 (ooh I'mma celebrate when I hit a quarter million)

What fandoms do you write for?

mostly Star Wars! I wrote fic for some other fandoms early on but we don't talk about those

What are your top five fics by kudos?

your heartbeat's a countdown - crack fic in which the Jedi know the clones are a trap and try to avoid them at all costs

Necessary - a whumpy Voltron Klance fic I wrote after the first season (before the show went to hell)

their days are darker - in which Wolffe doesn't know how to drop anything and Fox is having the worst two days of his life

the broken-hearted rang their steeple bells - tropey Witcher kinkmeme fill that for some baffling reason has tons of kudos

exploitation, hesitation - short oneshot in which Fox assumes General Kenobi is just like his natborn superior officers and reacts accordingly

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to reply to every single one (unless it was just emojis) but then I fell off and now I feel bad :( I read them all though! and they are so treasured! one day I will make it through the backlog

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

ooh see despite writing a lot of angst, I almost always write happy endings, so maybe I'll take no gold, I'll take no silver (please read the tags on that one). maybe spit some blood at the camera is pretty sad too, actually

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

all of them!! yayyyy! even if it's not spelled out, I usually resolve things because that's the world I want to live in! every fic is a fix-it fic

Do you get hate on fics?

not really, mostly just people asking when I'm going to finish, although I have seen people complaining that my version of Fox/Corries is banal and overdone which like yeah. I agree. but my brain won't let me move on.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

hell yeah I do! I don't know what "what kind" means - I write characters fucking, never x reader and rarely OCs; and it's usually somewhat kinky because I just can't not

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

I've written a few fusions/AUs - elysium is as far as to is a Gladiator AU, everyone wants a double feature is a Pacific Rim AU, and more human than human is a Bladerunner AU. but I've never done a straight-up crossover, although there are a few bouncing around in my brain (namely, the GAR joins the Decepticons and another where Boromir meets Rex and falls in love)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yeah I've had real problems with people plagiarizing fics, from lifting whole sections of dialogue to copying really specific scenes

Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but one got a podfic

Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

yeah I cowrote hold me like a grudge and sometimes a parrot talks (unfinished) with the fabulous @postapocalyptic-cryptic!

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

oh man. I love Quinlan/Fox to death. but I will admit that I was Stucky trash from the very beginning.

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

ooh there's a lot. Mace/Fox fic, sometimes a parrot talks, deaged Corries, chroma...

What are your writing strengths?

hm. I don't know. I think I'm good at characterization and dialogue?

What are your writing weaknesses?

fukcin plot beyond "there is hurt and then there is comfort". and also explaining more about people's emotions, like, I know what they're feeling but I need to tell other people

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I just use google translate, I'm sorry

First fandom you wrote for?

oh boy oh fuck. The first fandom I ever wrote for was Phantom of the Opera when I was in eighth grade. go ahead and laugh

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

uhhh. aaa? um. probably unexplain the unforgivable, but I also really liked how a once and future sun turned out

no pressure tags for @postapocalyptic-cryptic @meerlichtz @milfmisspiggy @catboydogma @jaigeye

[itsjustalark]

@seeingteacupsindragons

" I hope you don't mind me breaking that ask up into smaller chunks to respond to instead of actually answering the ask in my inbox. Sometimes people send me really long things, and then I know having it on my blog and then having to read my probably accordingly long answer is not going to happen, and I just. Feel bad about it."

Mind? Hell no. I'm honoured that you've decided to give me the time of the day at all. It is completely fine with me and thank you for letting me konw. Next time ill make sure to post on my blog and just tag you.

"Tiadane's not actually a boy; this is made clear relatively early on, and he's not picky about pronouns because his home doesn't have a good concept of things like "gender" and "lots of gendered pronouns." I tend to alternate what I use for him when not in the book, and even in the book he shrugs off a couple "she's." And there's actually not any romance in that one; Tiadane and my deuteragonist's relationship is platonically weird in that one. I don't always like writing romance, but I usually have a deuteragonist running around because I just like paired character dynamics a lot."

I'm really sorry for just asssuming Tiadane to be a guy. On the other hand I love when fantasy worlds explore cultures that dont have the same understanding of gender as us. I feel it isnt done enough and where it is atempted its never done with the enough care.

Also when I said 'relationships' I didn't mean them as explicit romantic ones. I'm a big fan of interesting dynamics and I dont believe they always have to be romantic to get me interested. There are so many ways humans interact with one another. That is whats most facinating to me.

"I'm actually not super great at worldbuilding, either. I tend to do it as little as possible and only when I need to; a lot of my current revisions are fleshing the worldbuilding out. And now that I'm focusing on, a lot of the results are good, but it's often just sort of not really the most fun focus for me. "

I'm also not an intricate world builder and cant even imagine going to the flora and fauna level of detail. My points of interest in world building is societities. How they function different from our and how they effect the people living in it accordingly. I build my worlds around my characters becaude i also feel that a fleshed out world only gives more depth to the characters.

Glad to know your world building is going well. I cant even imagine the revisions i have to make one i finish first draft as ive completely given up ingraining the magic system as part of the characters perspective and how it effects their thing cause it was gettjng to complicated. So i will now have to add all of that stuff later on.

"What I shared was actually the query; queries and synopses are different in the publishing word. Basically, my query is supposed to sell people on making it sound interesting, so I'm glad it's working for those functions for now. It still needs to be edited some more later. "

Oh I didnt know that. Still new to all the publishing jargon but always happy to learn more.

"Tiadane's book originally came from playing too much Smash Bros and staring at Pit for too many hours in a row. And then I just typed some random shit to get some words out when I was stuck revising something and not having fun, and started writing this introduction to his world."

I love how we writers get ideas from the most rediculous of senarios.

"I am a very character-focused writer and have had recurring problems with getting a plot to attach correctly over the years. I think Tiadane's book is the first time I didn't have (too) many issues with one by the time I sent to to a CP, and I'm still ripping a lot out to replace it with something better. "

I also write character focused works. Characters are why i read books. I dont reallyenjoy plot heavy books. Every aspect of plot, fleshing out the world or magic i enjoy because it makes tge characters feel more real and elps highlights the themes if the book.

"Each of my fantasy worlds (I also write sci-fi sometimes, and some stuff just...set in our world) has its own magic system. I don't know how writers just have The One for tons of stories. Large universes to play in can be fun, but so is making up new stuff every time."

Also, would you mind telling me about your magic systems? I love that stumm. It facinates me how maging systems ingrain themselves into a story. When i was first materializing my story it was set in a normal world but my mund was like: no no no this story need a magic system and an exploration of the chosen one narrative even though back then it didnt have anything to do with the main plot. But thats me cause i love over complicating thing for myself.