#I'm not Tagging this with the fandom stuff bcs this is very niche just for me

[liedownquisition]

out of context meme of ch2 of In-Thighed My Head that I needed to get out of MY head.

[specialgradefckr]

I really love your work. I've read all of them, more than once, and you've inspired me to make my own! I really like your profile, and if I'm not mistaken, you're the only one I know with a "search keywords" feature. I also think it's very clean to look at, easy to navigate for new users. I really hate the idea of bothering you, but I'd really appreciate it if you could give tips and advice for new users like me. I'm still new to tumblr, sorry and thank you in advance.

asdflkhjldfgh that's so sweet of you to say!!! i'm really glad you love my stuff, bc looking back, i'm super proud of almost all of it. like, i think i had a lot of bangers, and it's so validating to hear that you think so, too <3

and don't worry about bothering me. i won't lie, i've been getting a BUNCH of asks, but it's so, so encouraging to have all this engagement. it really motivates me to write bc i'm like,,, look,, all these friends in my inbox who want to read my work 🥺

i hope your inspiration goes well! i haven't been great about reblogging other people's work lately, but i do actually read a lot of stuff, particularly in the gojo/yandere gojo tags.

that's my number one piece of advice btw - tag the shit out of all your stuff. tumblr tags can be forgiving or a bit stiff depending on how a person is searching for fics.

literally search for an example of the kind of fic you're writing. take a top example with a whole bunch of notes. look at the tags on it. often it'll be something like:

fandom, fandom x reader, fandom x yn, fandom x you, char, character full name, char x reader, char x you, char smut, char x reader smut

and just go. slap on all the tags. make sure you don't include anything inaccurate though! i do also know some writers, particularly yandere ones, who write fics and then tag all the applicable characters, which is a great way to show up in a log of searches.

basically the fic won't contain a character's name - if it's for a male character, the character will just be "he/him" in the story. and then in the tags (or in the body of the fic) the writer will list character who they think fits the archetype.

@yanderenightmare does these really well (they also write fics with specific characters in them), and as fate would have it, they've also given out writing on tumblr advice:

https://www.tumblr.com/yanderenightmare/762144865228357632/heya-do-you-have-any-more-writing-tips-for?source=share

on search keywords - i've always found searching on tumblr to be spotty, so those tags are kind of my attempt to have some organization.

there are other blogs that do it (tumblr's huge, there's always someone doing something) but it's not necessarily common. #lemon as a smut tag and #answered asks and #BYHTD as filtering tags are kind of things that just came up when i was thinking "how will i find this if i want to look back on it later?".

i will also mention, i am by no means some particularly great tumblr power user or anything. i just started writing my silly little fics way back in june sjkfglhsg honestly i'm surprised by some of the attention i've been getting! i figured a lot of my stuff was kinda niche!

more advice. make a masterlist pretty early on and update it like... every few weeks or so. try to make a schedule to post and keep to it - for this blog i try to post a fic/content every wednesday, although i'm thinking about doing twice a week or an odd middle update every now and then.

do not be scared of other tumblrs. make friends. reblog their stuff! people really like it when you do that! if you see a fic you like, reblog it, and leave a comment in the tags or the reblog, even if it's just "my favorite part was X". they may never interact with you (such is the nature of online socialization), but you gotta be the change you wish to see in the world.

writer friends are a super valuable resource. they can help you come up with ideas, cheer you on, workshop stuff with you, and just generally make you feel good about writing when your juice is failing you.

i know MANY writers who go through periods of just thinking they're bad writers and all their work is bad, etc. it's a struggle and having other writers to tell you "i don't think it's bad" does a LOT.

in any case, from one writer to another writer (hopeful), good luck!

[tea-and-secrets]

Okay this one is sorta NSFW but it's not detailed. Anyway I made a tumblr blog about a deeply taboo subject that I am into (it is not illegal or immoral just heavily looked down upon) and since this thing is so taboo and shameful I don't tag my posts with it. I don't want to get harassment or banned yk. Anyway I found some sort of a community and one of them had a confession blog. I submitted an ask related to the content and mentioned a fic I really liked and they deleted my ask and made a post saying not to make asks personal related. Like it was fandom related it wasn't personal??? (The blog was about fandoms so) the community is so tiny and im kind of forced to interact if I want some content tbh. I'm also autistic and a freak so that does not make social matters any better. I just want to talk to more people about my *ahem* interest without getting canceled or shunned is that too much to ask :( anyway I also found a really cool person on Twitter who writes amazing fanfics I like. I feel bad for them because they're going through some mental stuff but they cater to my niche perfectly. I'm going through some mental stuff myself and I think thats what sparked me making the blog in the first place tbh. I've barely slept since making it and feel extremely anxious. Also further rant very off topic. The other day I sent an anon ask to a person that involved me oversharing about my mental illness. It was completely unasked for but said disorder was related to a post they made that upset me. I don't really feel bad abt it because they upset me and made a pretty rude post about a sensitive subject. I have more tea still. I infiltrated this community of insufferable people who had an anon ask blog much like this. People were so mean on there like I was just trying to share my thoughts like this and they kept bullying me :( it's so annoying bc my mental illness is irrational and people just don't Get It. These days I sometimes just pop into random peoples ask boxes and talk about this stuff. I just think way too much and my friends and people irl would think I am literally insane. I kind of am but thats beside the point. Here's to the ramblings of a mental person. Anyway diagnose me im waiting

.

[cobra-wives]

Hiya Tumblr user Cobra-Wives!!! Uh sorry if this is out of nowhere but I’ve been meaning to send an ask for a while so whatever.

I kinda just wanted to hop in and say thank you for all your cobra kai content, specifically the Cobra Husbands stuff because it’s been feeding my insatiable hunger for art of them. It tickles the little.. Terry Silver in my brain and it makes me so so happy I cannot!! Be normal!!! Like I am so obsessed with your art and animatics of them and I absolutely lose my mind. Your style is adorable I love seeing them. And your ramblings and writings and stuff are so interesting… Everytime I reblog something from you I sound like I’ve been sniffing crack in tags because???

Like, I’ve been hyperfixated on and off with Cobra Husbands for god knows how long, and in the past [before you made this side blog, or I guess before I found it] I’d go through the tags daily and be kinda. disappointed about how little new content there is. Which is probably why my interest for them has died down a bit. I’m the type of person who usually gets into really small, niche fandoms so finding quality content is a chore. Course now with season six it seems a lot more active but idk this blog is kinda just. my favorite CK centric tumblr blogs.

I’m sorry if this sounds annoying or doesn’t make sense I’m really struggling to articulate my thoughts rn [also I suck at English] but uhhh in short, thank you!! You are so very cool and I will be eating up every new post!! Meow!!!

-Typewriter

[Also for you, a treat. I give you ugly Terry Silvers I have doodled. Thank you and sorry again]

well, lovely tumblr user hizznbyte, i've gotta say - i thought i was having a great day already... this has made it loads better!

(below is a visual representation of my process of logging onto tumblr.)

i'm so happy you (and many others who have come forward in tags and personal dms and LOVELY LOVELY interactions) enjoy my art, genuinely this has been such a sweet and fun community to interact with and i've really loved running this blog for the last 3-4 months! it's insane bc i thought we were kinda dormant walking into cks6 (i don't think i expected this much of a krilblr? revival HAHA) but like, here we are... i hope you have a wonderful day/evening and by all means, do not be a stranger - my inbox is always open to messages! :-)

[miidnighters]

PEOPLE I’D LIKE TO GET TO KNOW BETTER

alias / name : brodie

birthday : 6 august

zodiac sign : leo

height : 164 cm which i think is just under 5'4 ?

hobbies : writing, reading, embroidery, ttrpg

favourite colour : pastels - particulalry yellow

favourite book : the night circus by erin morgenstern, but shout out to Anne of Green Gables (which held the moniker until I read TNC) bc I'm sure have read that more times than I am years old

last film / show : dash cams australia lmao - but in terms of actual produced stuff, I rewatched Knives Out with my dad recently

recent reads : i just read the raven boys for the first time which was great, and I'm partway thru the mysterious affair at styles as well

inspiration : magical realism, slice of life, comfort, romance etc

story behind url : so, from memory (bc this is a very old URL), it initially came from the scott westerfeld midnighters trilogy, bc I love those books, and I was combining a couple of characters who previously had solo blogs onto the one multi, and who all were night-predisposed so. it made sense in my head

fun fact about me : ok so when i was thirteen my mum gifted my sister and I and a friend each tickets to go to the first twilight convention in Australia (I need u to understand how long ago this was) and like, I have so many stories about interacting w celebrities there but that actually introduced my mum to the event organisers and from there we spent the next 10ish years (until 2016) following conventions around Australia (both big general ones and smaller, niche single fandom ones - easily 8-10 a year) and I have met so many guests from various movies/shows who came out to attend these events etc.

(We did this bc she had a fandom-inspired jewellery/badge/little bit of everything business so like. we worked at all of these events but still a cool thing to miss school for)

tagged by: lovely @wildskissed and i was almost not gonna do it but your fact inspired me to share my fact lmao tagging: no one I just wanted to Share &lt;3 but tag me if YOU do this !!

[aeivyen]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by: @noodyl-blasstal thanks so much for thinking of me! Tagging: @the-barista-district

1. How many works do you have on A03?

I have only the one on AO3, I just started my account there not too long ago

2. What's your total A03 word count?

My wordcount is 78,284! It's one of the longest fics I've written in a long while

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Nowadays it's pretty much TAZ all the way down, but there's some old stuff I have on this blog that's WTNV adjacent and a couple things for The Arcana mobile game (playing in the setting with OCs, as is a preference of mine in general). I haven't locked up the deep archives of Marvel and Ranger's Apprentice and fuckin' Leverage, but I'm not gonna help you find them either

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The only one I have on AO3 is Virtue and Vice, but the most popular fic I can find on here is Firelight and Beach Nights 1 & 2

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

I love to respond to comments when I get them! I find them very encouraging and I will talk your ear off (or type your eyes off? is that a good perversion of that phrase? lol) about my Thoughts if you let me

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

I don't know that I really have any with angsty endings? Most of my angsty ones are the ones I wrote alongside my rp with @the-barista-district as tie on/lead ins to that storyline

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

Virtue and Vice has an ending that I'm really proud of, I feel like I managed to go full-circle on their story and end with a lot of potential and hope for the future. It's a story that became about growing up and choosing your family and who you want to be, and I lived in it for a year.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have not and would cry (then delete the comment, bc fuck'em) if I did

9. Do you write smut?

I have written smut, yes. The stuff that's publicly posted is not my best (many years old now) and I won't link it, but it's all appropriately tagged #fanfic and #nsfw if you want to go searching (why?)

10. Do you write crossovers?

It has never occurred to me to do so. I'm generally more comfortable doing OC insert fic (with the exception of some TAZ stuff. Rping has helped me to figure out Kravitz so I'll write him sometimes) and I wouldn't know how to go about a crossover in that sort of niche

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I'm aware

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

*shakes magic 8 ball* Signs point to no

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

I haven't, but I've rped a bunch and I feel like that's similar in some aspects I guess. Just, yanno, not really a finished fic out of it

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

Taakitz is the one I gravitate towards, though I can also be persuaded by a Taagnus and a Blupjeans

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

I've got a Taakitz fic on the back burner where Krav is a ghost but there's a time-recursion aspect and he thinks he's the one being haunted for a bit. I'd like to finish that but my brain has decided I'm doing something else (it's a fun something else)(still debating if I'll post)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I enjoy the characters and relationships that I build. Some are stronger than others, but I feel like I can generally get to a point where they're believable, and different dynamics can shine through. I love to get bogged down in the "where's the difference between what they're willing to say/do, and what they're actually trying to communicate", "how do they feel and how do they think they feel"

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have to agree with Noodyl here and say that tense is hard, POV is difficult (staying as close as I want the narration to feel is the part that gets me more than head-hopping). Getting into established characters is especially difficult (hense, OCs)

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

I think it can be cool and have considered many times adding Spanish to things, pero no hablo ni escribo mucho en español (heh)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

One of my earliest is from the Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan, hidden deep in the archives of redacted where I shall not link the general public

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

There's been a lot of stories I love and a lot I've lived in over the years, even from the before tumblr times. Especially from those times. I'm just going to say Virtue and Vice again bc it's recent and I love it and I'm not linking to anything from my teenage years bc yeeesh

[thistidalwave]

questions for fic writers

wow just noticed @softbrah tagged me in this....how fun! let's go!

How many works do you have on ao3?

120! that's since 2011.

What’s your total ao3 word count?

1,222,928. dear god.

What fandoms do you write for?

currently we deep in the k-pop trenches, collecting lil blorbos with compelling narratives and dynamics to smack together like dolls. specifically i've been writing for Seventeen lately, and previously for TXT and BTS, and because i am me, i write niche inter-band shit and collected a couple soloists to throw in for seasoning.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Addicted (to loving you) (Teen Wolf scott/stiles. no, idk either. please don't read it.)

pictures in frames of kisses on cheeks (checkpls bitty/jack/kent. pure fluff no substance the people love it)

love doesn't come in boxes (checkpls bitty/jack)

something good and right and real (hockey rpf benn/seguin, cowritten with @aperfect20)

drop everything now (hockey rpf bgally/agally, cowritten with @aperfect20. listen. these hockey fics are of their time and now they'll never leave the first page sorted by kudos.)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes, all the time! it takes negligible time and brain power for me, and i like to let people know how much i appreciated hearing their thoughts, even when it was just a thank you and then we're in a lil awkward thanking circle.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ok, i think it just has to be a tie between "only time is ours" and "34 Days", which are check please kent/jack fics about the same pre-canon break-up events, the first from jack's pov and the second from kent's (tho iirc they have different interpretations of events beyond the pov switch, too). they are inherently angsty bc absolutely nothing is good at the end of them.

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

this is so hard to decide, bc i primarily write romcoms and by the end of them if your teeth aren't rotting i did it wrong. i will give a shoutout to "doesn't matter what we do", a bts jimin/j-hope that is all about just Letting Urself Be Soulmates and then grossing out ur bandmates about it.

Do you get hate on fics?

no, thank god.

Do you write smut?

yes i have been known to write filth. sometimes the romcom plot calls for it. i'm horrible at pwp bc i'm always giving it plot, but u kno, sometimes the spirit moves me and i manage it.

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

crossovers of fandoms that have nothing to do with each other actually kind of squick me - i'm talking crossovers where characters who have never and will never meet are there for no reason (think superwholock tbh, tho i was uncharacteristically a lil into that at the time), not fusions or big universes with diff shows or whatever. it's just not for me!

but in terms of things where it's less drastic (crossing over bands in k-pop, for example) i am all over that, bc there's interesting stuff from real life there! my craziest example atm is a baekho/jun fic, and like, it's not that crazy!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, it's always so awesome that someone wants to take the time to do that.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yessssss, my favourite way to create fic.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

this is an extremely insensitive thing to ask a ship whore like me. there are some ships that REALLY set my brain on fire over the years, though. check pls kent/jack drives me insane to this day. harry styles/nick grimshaw was So compelling. 2012 oilers "kid line" (nugent-hopkins/hall/eberle) went off.

often fandom really makes these ships worth it to talk about and inspires me to contribute. i am often very compelled by one character in particular and just ship them with everyone possible so i can examine all their sides.

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

hmmmm if i WANT to finish it, i probably will. there are things that i ended up abandoning, though. one of those i'm still kinda sad about was a dylan/mitch/auston sequel to my connor/rystro.

What are your writing strengths?

i write realistic dialogue and i'm great at characterization (shoutout to the mean comment i got circa 2010 telling me to get good at characterization. i did. thanks.) my voice has always been strong, too.

What are your writing weaknesses?

i sometimes slack on depicting the interior emotions of characters. i'm not great with setting or exposition because the brand of fanfic i tend to write isn't a great place to practice those skills. i try to find places to do it, though!

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

it's the norm in k-pop fandom to drop in localization things like honorifics, and i like it because it can communicate relationships between the characters and so that it's not SO divorced from the context the idols actually live in. this is such a weirdly specific question, idk what else to say about it lmao

First fandom you wrote for?

twilight. bless her.

Favorite fic you’ve written?

choosing between my children? ok. at the moment i'm quite fond of too real to call it magic, a contemporary fantasy au where the main character is stuck in a dream. i felt really good about what i did with the themes and setting of the source material (a mv, so you're only 3mins and a quick google of the main characters' names away from reading this fic!) and the way i developed the relationship. it's underrated af bc it's a niche pairing.

i will tag @aperfect20 since i already tagged her in the text of the post. no pressure tho.

[the--highlanders]

20 questions for fic writers

super late but tagged by @penny-anna, thank you!!

How many works do you have on ao3?

203 apparently! which is like, a lot but also doesn't feel like that many for how long I've been posting now

what’s your total ao3 word count?

1,060,055, and I'm still SUPER proud of hitting a million words. don't think I'm ever gonna write as much again as I did in 2022 (how did I write almost 400k in a year????) but apparently I'm over 100k for this year so. happy with that even though I haven't written nearly as much as I'd like due to like, general life stuff

What fandoms do you write for?

just second doctor era dr who! I definitely get like, story ideas for other fandoms I enjoy, and occasionally I'll idly imagine writing some of them, but never really seriously. I've kinda made an active choice for this to be my niche and I don't seem to have run out of ideas yet so

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

ok I'm gonna cut out like, 'fics' that are actually compilations of prompt fics etc bc I feel like that's cheating but. let's see

in the night i lie and look up at you (when the morning comes i watch you rise)

Sacrificial

Revelations

Vigil

tell me how you'll kiss me when i touch down

weird list tbh! big fan of the first and last one being there but like... sacrificial in particular I was NOT happy with ahgjklfdjgf. I do like vigil tho

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes absolutely!!! they fill me with so much joy & serotonin so I like to reply, & also I love love love discussing stuff w/ people in the comments (hi @galacticlamps ahjkgfd). I'm very very behind on it right now but I will get around to them all I promise!!!

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending

oughfkdjg this is tough. I do think if only we could have been brave on time was pretty angsty, I don't usually write fics that toy so much with major character death.

there's a few others but the first one that jumped out at me while scrolling through my fics was i'm trying to reach you (before all the ghosts do). minor character/oc death this time but like. the whole fic was very much born out of the image of its angsty ending, so.

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

hm I mean I do write a lot of angstless fluff!! so like, any of those. but I'm gonna go with litany for a reunion, because so much of it is angsty that I think the ending seems happier because of it.

Do you get hate on fics?

not yet! but this fandom is pretty chill so.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I am very very sex-repulsed ace it would not be a good time for anybody <3

Do you write crossovers?

not in the sense of like, bringing characters from one fandom into another. if I had the stamina/confidence to do proper longfics I'd absolutely do more aus, some of which are inspired by other media (if you guys could see the fairytale aus that live in my head.), and I /do/ have a daemon au.

the only crossover I've really done is Lifeboat, which is like. still a concept I enjoy. ark/its lore is something so close to my heart, so it was a lot of fun to fuse it with dr who. plus I just like imagining that victoria's dad was surrounded by so so so many unhinged mad scientists. & I also find it very very very funny that the ark character in question is now voiced by david tennant

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that I'm aware of! again like. small and chill fandom. who's going to be doing that.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, and I don't think I'd want to - I'm a little bit too precious/sensitive about my writing to even have like, a beta reader or anything. I don't think I'd do well trying to co-write with someone. the closest I've come is kind of co-plotting out fics with other people (the plot of the selkie au is as much @ettelwenailinon's brainchild as mine <333)

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I have been so deeply invested in two/jamie for so long that I can no longer untangle it from myself.

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

the fic I want to write most is a super comprehensive multichapter spanning about two years between jamie getting dropped off at culloden after the war games and two coming to pick him up again for 6b. I have a general sweep of the arc, some summary notes, and pages and pages of historical notes for it. unfortunately I don't think I'm ever going to feel like I've done enough historical research to justify writing it, even if I do somehow magically get myself to buck up into writing proper longfic.

What are your writing strengths?

hm idk! I'm quite pleased with some of my prose/descriptions sometimes. & I've had a few comments over the years saying I'm good at characterisation, which is always nice to hear.

I never really know what's good about my writing tho. not out of any sense of inferiority or false modesty or anything, I just. don't think that deeply about writing in general. the words come out & if I like them I like them

What are your writing weaknesses?

^^^ as I am always saying I wish I could break down the mental block that's stopping me from writing longfic

kinda related but like. I'm definitely a perfectionist and that can paralyse me sometimes when I'm trying to write a first draft.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I need to do it more often!!

my absolute dream would be to be able to translate all my fics into gàidhlig tbh. but I love love love giving jamie gàidhlig dialogue, or even just dropping little turns of phrase into his english dialogue, stuff like that. I definitely feel like there's some space between how I write/characterise jamie and how he is on screen, but to some degree that's a conscious decision. I'm always trying to strike a balance between like, writing him in character and writing him in a way that feels authentic to his time and cultural background. but dropping in bits of gàidhlig is a fun way of doing that (and also of getting myself to write in the language which is definitely good practice)

First fandom you wrote for?

hm I mean technically ig it was the saddle club. I was like 3 years old and I wrote a 'book' about the horses.

in terms of like, actively writing fic with the conscious knowledge of what fic was, probably fic about warrior cats ocs when I was about 11/12.

Favorite fic you’ve written?

old ghost's waltz, always. I loved how it came together, it was my first real dip into doing super historical jamie fic & a sort of replacement for the post-war games longfic I may never write, and it was a response to the phantom piper, which drives me absolutely insane in both good and bad ways. like it gave me so many ideas but god I could fix her.

unsorted is a very solid second though. it had all the historical fic joy of old ghost's waltz (even more so in some parts - the scene with jamie and connie might be my favourite scene I've ever written), and it was just. so cathartic to write as an expression of a headcanon I'd kind of hidden for so many years bc I was worried it wouldn't be well-received. it's my favourite fic to get comments on just because it always feels like a relief to see people enjoying it.

tagging @galacticlamps, @p0stscripter, @ettelwenailinon and anyone else who wants to do this!!

[noxiatoxia]

since u asked i think ur ouranposting is indeed #based as hell (literally what im here for but also i dont get the memes u reblog from anyone else either) and honestly the world needs more twincestmaxxing, i hate how this stuff got so discouraged like i used to be one of the big elricest posters literally ten years ago and now tags are dead. i like it when ppl tag even their short text posts ("guys imagine they did xyz" and im like yeah man im imaging that now. hits the like button) bc its SOMETHING for the other ppl to see and laugh at and enjoy. i appreciate that about the hikakao ppl on here a lot, you included.

THANK YOU MY HIKAKAO POSTER IN CHRIST. also yeah sorry all my other reblogs are literal nonsense im going through it (psychosis)

well anywayzz, i totally agree with you there. i was also pretty online during the "anything goes" era of the internet, and so modern landscapes of culture around shipping and shit is pretty dumb to me. In most aspects, really. I don't get the whole "us vs them" mentality of proshippers/anti-shippers or whatever, i'm pretty individualistic in the sense that i feel this shouldn't be a group thing and it should just be "post whatever u feel like and if u see smth u dont like block and move on, that easy". also cuz overall the whole shipping morality thing in and of itself ties back to morality in what fiction is and isnt okay and that is a HUUUGELY nuanced discussion that CANNOT be boiled down to just 2 sides......so i very much disagree with that approach. i know i have people on "either" side following me, ppl who identify as proshippers or antis, n just to clarify i have nothing against either "side", u do u, not my business, i just personally don't agree with the idea of whittling it down to something so anti-nuanced. but hey again this is why i don't rlly discuss this sort of thing on here bcuz it's a biiig biig serious topic and brotha im on tumblr dot com posting about twincest from a 2000s anime does it look like im taking myself very seriously here...

ANYWHO! ouran is a very small fandom at this point in time so hikakao even more so. but im glad i've found a niche community and i appreciate all my fellow posters :] whether u are a lurker or on that #grind making art, i love u.

[runicmagitek]

2022 Writerly Year Review

tagged by @frozen-fountain (many thanks!!) not gonna tag anyone, but if you're a writer and are reading this and feel like giving this a go? Consider yourself tagged! 💖

Total number of completed works. Posted to AO3? 62 🙃 I guess it's technically 61, as What Leads You Here is still in progress, being a longfic and all.

Total number of WIPs worked on this year. Oh lord, hold please as I count all the drafts and partially done stuff in Scrivener.... 7 total. 8 if you include What Leads You Here, which fully drafted, but in the editing phase.

WIPs neglected this year. I honestly don't know djsaklfdjslkfjkldas I continue to neglect my one Celes/Terra fic I abandoned when 13 Sentinels hijacked my brain, so there's that 🙃 I promise I'll return to it one day.

Fandoms I've written in. 13 Sentinels, Critical Role, Final Fantasy (VI, VII, IX, and X), Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, My Dress-Up Darling, and Pyre

Total word count. Uh, posted to AO3? 287,882. Written? A little over 500k

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you expected? MORE. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY MORE.

Did you take any writing risks this year? There were a handful of fics that I banged out in a single day, quickly edited them, and slapped them onto AO3. Are they amazing works of literature? Hell no. Were they super fun to write? Hell yeah. I need to just… relax with editing more and let myself do this more often. I swear some of my better-received fics are when I go "you know what? fuck it" and release it into the world.

Do you have any goals for the new year? Not write as much lolsob. Also finish What Leads You Here along with a handful of WIPs. Maybe even revisit that Celes/Terra WIP if I have time/energy!

Biggest disappointment? Not so much in my own writing, but just lack of engagement with some of my fics. Then again, that's par for the course when you write A) not-so-popular characters, B) gen fic, and C) stories involving death and angsty bits. Also seeing my fluffy G fics doing better than my smutty fics in the 13 Sentinels fandom just… continues to baffle me to this day. It's LITERALLY the only fandom I've ever been in where smut does worse numbers-wise and I don't get it.

Biggest surprise? I wrote something for Critical Role!! I've been a longtime watcher and enjoy the show, but I've done my best to staaaaay away from the fandom 😰 plus I tend to wait until I finish something before I ever consider writing a fic for it, just so I can have the whole picture, so to speak. But one particular episode just set me off and I had to write something to hold me over until the next episode 😭

Most popular story of the year? Most hits/bookmarks? For the Ones That Feel It the Most

Most kudos/subscriptions? Sweet Dreams (why are people subscribing to a oneshot lolsob)

Most comments? What Leads You Here

Ahhh the power of posting fics near the release of a popular thing. And also longfics lol.

What's your own favorite story of the year? I feel like this changes on a daily basis lol I love all of them for different reasons. Lucid has a close place to my heart bc I was Very Upset to find close to no m!Byleth/Gatekeeper fics in an incredibly popular/active fandom. Also really love how Like You, Only Sweeter turned out, which was an incredibly self-indulgent story for me (I just wanted them to smooch)

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion. Nearly all of my 13 Sentinels fics bc the fandom is small and niche lolsob. But also Marinate, which granted, I posted the last week of 2022, but still.

Most fun story to write. What the Water Gave Me, which very quickly snowballed out of control into its own thing. I had a blast writing this mermaid AU and thinking of lore for this world!

Most unintentionally telling story. I'm not sure if this means like… a story that utilized more telling as opposed to showing or just… telling about me as an individual. Either way, I'm genuinely not sure? A lot of aspects of myself are sprinkled across my stories, but isn't any work of art?

My favorite part of fandom this year. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO PICK ONE?????? Meeting so many cool and incredibly talented people. Starting a Discord server with good friends. Applying (and getting accepted!) to a bunch of amazing zine projects. Participating in all the secret santa events and fic exchanges. Being late to a fandom and getting to experience things for the first time. Watching my friend react throughout their 13 Sentinels playthroughs. Collaborating with a lovely art friend to make our own damn zine. Getting to share my longfic with the small, yet vastly passionate community. And just… so so many more moments that made me smile and be forever grateful. If we've interacted at all, even for a brief moment, thank you for making 2022 a little brighter.

[zannolin]

2, 3, 6 (for three's a crowd), 15, 17, 18 for the fae au, 23, 28 for the ask game!

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

screaming @ how accurate these are and also the jump between the first two. i'm such a hurt comfort girlie.

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

oh look i made a bingo for this that basically sums it up. throw in a little religious trauma and aro confusion. for flavor.

6. What’s one fact about the universe of [insert fic] that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

ohhh three's a crowd ur my fav person ever for asking this. there's actually a lot of little details and content that got cut from it while i was writing simply because it was so damn long and stuff that i liked conceptually didn't end up fitting in by the time i got around to writing. a couple things would be that riley has a lucky hoodie (the one he's wearing most of the first movie); as more time goes on, unless he's at some kind of event, he actually goes back to wearing hoodies and his glasses more than suits and contacts because (in this fic universe anyway) he was dressing professionally to try to be taken more seriously and eventually gave up/realized his friends care about him whether he's in glasses or not; and also, regardless of if emily and patrick got remarried after BoS, emily did not change her last name (back?) to gates. FUCK canon. canon is so wrong for that. that is dr. emily APPLETON. i stand by this.

15. What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?

oh it's so harddd to choose. i think the award still has to go to without anesthetic bc man. i love my silly little fey worldbuilding. i love it so much. but the polar express au remains beloved in my heart.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

i want to take the characters from the man from snowy river (1983) and i want to put them into the scorpio races universe. as a treat. for me. world's most bonkers niche fic i am the ONLY person in the target audience the target audience is when i look in the mirror. and i don't care i love it. some honorable mentions would be megstine (meg/christine from phantom of the opera) paranormal investigator au where christine is haunted and goes to meg for help; a truman show au for shazam; there was literally another that was so wildly unhinged and i forgot what it was while typing the rest of them out...rip me. it was good tho. maybe some qibli/winter/moonwatcher fic idk.

18. If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

oh for the fey au that's easy. i'll never write it since those days are gone but i told moth the one thing that i thought about writing but never got a chance to was wil meeting cornerwitch q. there just wasn't a very logical place to fit it into the narrative so they never actually interacted which is kind of a bummer but also it wasn't necessary for the story, so.

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

[chanting] timeloop timeloop TIMELOOP

28. Does anyone read your fics before you post them? If so, who?

no beta we die like i do every time i clock on at work. the only people who read my fics before they're posted would be whichever friend happens to be interested in the fandom i'm writing for and thus gets snippets dropped in dms on occasion. usually that means it's blu lol.

thank you for the asks <3

ask game!

[the-black-bulls]

Can you elaborate on your answer for question 17 on the choose violence ask game? I'm a bit confused on the 'less gen-rated and ship-specific' part but I do want to make content for BC that is more niche or not overly similar to the content currently there.

Let me know if you'd rather reply privately and I'll msg you again without anon ^^

Sure I can! I'm delighted to see more fan creators in the fandom who wants to share more BC content and I'd be happy to have a chat with you in the messages regardless (cause I'd love to talk with more BC fans and exchange ideas with them!) 😁

alright, yeah, question 17, I realized I didn't make myself clear enough on my answer upon rereading it, my bad.

To quote myself:

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art: we definitly need more black bulls content that focuses on unusual and refreshing dynamics within the squad, especially if it's given to not very popular members, and the less gen-rated and ship-centric they are the better!!

(obviously this is 100% just my personal opinion, it shouldn't reflect or control what kind of fan content people create)

okay first, about the ship-centric part, there's plenty of content in the fandom that heavily focuses on ships (non-surprisingly since fandom is very tied to shipping culture), I'm the kind of person who would go through all the shipping tags on AO3 and turn off all the character pairings, especially black bulls ones, because I prefer non-romantic dynamics and interactions and I think there's not nearly enough content of this kind, unfortunetly, neither there are many crack or rarepairs which is one thing I'm willing to try with ships.

as for the gen (=general audiance) part, I don't know how "we need more niche and unique stuff" translated into "less gen-rated" lol, but I should make it clear that I have fanfics in mind when I typed this, and while I definitly enjoy gen stories — they'e simple and flexible and can involve many shades and colorful ideas — I'm a sucker for things that will have me at the edge of my seat which are often T-rated or higher and there's not enough of them, at least not black bulls related, in the fandom from my experience.

I hope I succeeded in making this clear enough! (for real though do what you love & have fun 🍀)

[theoxenfree]

heyheyyyy i absolutely adore your writing and i've read thru pretty much everything on your masterlist at least twice whoops,, (a few of your links don't work tho, just thought to let ya know! not that that stopped me lmaoooo) honestly i think you've honed your craft rlly well and it shows! settings and characterization never miss, neither do the interesting storylines or impressive and immersive worldbuilding. it's sad to see your works don't get the reach they should. :( entirely up to you but i rlly recommend you should check out the #yandereoc community, and explore using some of those tags maybe. folks over there would adore what you write, and i reckon you could branch your writing out to a similar niche that goes hand in hand with the monsterfucking community. (lots of overlapping blogs already) that aside, i hope you keep writing because you've truly captured me! opaque was a masterpiece that made me feel really sad, and the worldbuilding (descriptions of the cyberpunk-esque city and society) blew me away. montague was a fav as well, with how seductive and casually cruel he felt. and the scholar husband??? wow a classic fantasy executed so well, truly. something about the swirling darkness had me clawing at my walls btw. totally normal about it. yep. totally. thanks for doing what you do + have a lovely day <3 - 🌈

heya! first off: I'll definitely check those links shortly when I get some downtime, but it may because most of the pieces listed don't have stories to them yet. they're just there as placeholders under actual pieces are done.

but, nonetheless, I'll go through them and check it out to make sure I didn't goof the links somewhere at some point 💕

second: ive thought about applying the yandereoc tag to try to expand my reach, but I'm not entirely sure if that is a niche that I exactly fall into. with some of my stories, absolutely: montague from blood catalase, father shaw from a flesh sin, possessed!husband from imposter—but not everything I write does fall into that, y'know? I'll probably tack those on as an additional attempt tho! thank you for the suggestion!

as for the reach, I knew that starting an OC x reader blog wasn't going to have much reach at all most of the time.

I knew feedback would pretty much be shit unless the right people came along to reblog (which it's garbage smaller blogs like me have to rely on that to get seen).

I'm grateful to have a handful of my very kind, supportive moots from my fandom days who still follow me here and my writing and leave me feedback and talk to me to help me as best they can.

also grateful to a lot of new moots and folks who follow who have been amazingly supportive and share their thoughts and such 💕💕💕

but, yeah, I kinda knew my stuff wouldn't reach very far which is why I don't get up in arms about it anymore. but, which is why I am aggressively in the fucking tags bc I don't deal well with being swept under the rug lmao

as for the feedback on my other stuff, thank you SO MUCH!! I'm always so glad to hear that people like stories like opaque and blood catalase bc those projects take me months of hard work and losing my fucking mind.

"casually cruel" is such a good way to describe montague too, lmao that's CRAZY 💀💀

the swirling darkness had me going feral writing to, believe you me.

I appreciate you tremendously for leaving me this ask and sharing your thoughts. like, comments like this absolutely make all my efforts and time put into my work absolutely worth it. and it reminds me why I love writing as much as I do

I still have a long way to go as a writer, a lot more I can learn and hone and improve. but, these sorts of messages let me know I'm going the right away 💕💕🫂🫂

[show-us-kaidenshenandoah]

ill eventually make a proper, pretty intro-post

but hello, hi, i am Kaiden-Shenandoah Knapp

also, yes, Kaiden-Shenandoah is my first name. the hyphen is optional, but you still have to type/say the whole thing. no, you may not call me "Kaiden". yes, i am aware it is a mouthful lol

(probably gonna change my surname is "Knapped" in a few years. i wanna distance myself from some shitty family while making the Indigeneity in my surname more apparent. dont be surprised when that happens. im just putting it off bc i got a lot on my plate rn lol)

(also if you knew me as "Kayleen", hi, hello, i no longer go by that childhood nickname. it is retired, wave goodbye, better to have loved and lost and all that)

this is my messily mindless "welcome to my head" blog, we do things very casually here. im making it my new Main (as of 24 March 2024). my professional/art blog is @kaidenshenandoahknapp

but the real point of this post is: i am not a bot lol

and also, stuff is on a queue (until i do a mass-reblog binge but, typically, i am on queue)

everything in my queue is now 2 post per 24 hours (as of: 20 April 2024)

ive been on tumblr before, but since this is a new Main, im just going through my favorite content-creation blogs i know and mass-queueing loads of the op's projects. (if you are one of those said blogs and find this nth new notes a day from me annoying, please let me know; and i will just spam them all to Post Now so i can get out of your hair asap) i'm also just not good at regularly keeping up with creators' new stuff week-by-week, so instead i generally mass-queue because i assume mass-reblogging is a bit more overwhelming, idk, maybe im just overthinking lol

tags guide: (mostly for me, ngl lol i need reminders of what i tag what when i do my mass-queues)

#me - me posting something

#relatable - "omg that is so me" at someone else's post

#aesthetic - me just really liking the vibes, which sometimes just also happens to be pretty to look at lmao

#canines wolves and werewolves i love - i know what i am about. ill probably have more "niche My Special Interest tags" as i find posts that fit them

#nutty nutcrackers / #the nutcracker - another Special Interest tag. pretty self-explanatory, i like The Nutcracker a lot lmao

#betty boop - you would think this belongs with fandom tags, but no. part of why i am obsessed with her (and have been since i was, like, 14) is because she was the popularization of the very next tag's trend

#infantalization in animation - it's when you apply baby facial proportions to an adult bodied character, it's most often done in female characters. i'll be using this tag outside of animated stuff btw. but yeah, anything that examines that visual design choice i am all 👀 over lmao

#other people's art - any individual person, not counting final version of studio work (like ill tag "Lilo and Stitch"'s exploratory concept art with this, sure, but i wont tag stills of the "Lilo and Stitch" film)

↳ #animal art

↳ #background art

↳ #oc art - is all "my original character in a canon piece" kind of ocs, not the "my original character in my original story" type

↳ there are also specifically listed artists here and there if they have influenced me/my style in the past or recently (such as but not limited to: #rvsa). almost all of them are indies with social media (aka: no Van Gogh, no Hayao Miyazaki. if they have their own fandom, i tag said fandom and not the specific artist, usually. it depends. there are some gray areas)

#brushes - the (digital) brushes people i like use

#art tips

#writing tips - is about actually doing the practice

#on writing - is the philsophy about the practice

#[insert fandom here]

#[insert fandom here] analysis

(here are the tags i chose for some fandoms that had multiple possible tags. this is not all of my fandom tags)

● #studio ghibli, #[insert studio ghibli title here] (i tag both the movie itself and studio. because sometimes i want something from the original movie, so i go into those tags; and i also go to the studio to look at overarching things since the studio has such a strong overall aesthetic/visual brand)

● #[insert disney title] (here, i do tag the specific movies and i dont just use the studio. because im usually looking for specific things this one disney movie has)

● #moomin (as opposed to "moominvalley", "tales of moominvalley", or the like)

● #my hero academia (so many different options for one work)

● #trigun (so many different branching creations from one source lmao im just gonna lump them together)

● #into the spiderverse (i dont use "across the spiderverse" for simplicity's sake, and i don't use the hyphen/space between "spider(-)verse" also for simplicity. its easier for me to be consistent if i just go "nah, its all one word")

● #marvel comics (i do not tag the mcu specifically)

● #dc comics, #batman (i tag both. but i dont tag any other dc comics property. i just know im esp obsessed with the batfam enough that, sure, they should get their own tag)

[edge-oftheworld]

thank you for the lovely welcome to your inbox! and while i've noticed that about the 5sos fandom, i do think that for the longest time i was scared i wouldn't fit in as a result (the thing that got me into 5sos other than their music obvs was the way that they actually kinda think like me and that's so rare to find in an artist or even irl, and the fact that there are four of them i can relate to and who also grew up not far from where i did is just such a blessing and something I always want to talk about, and while they are all objectively gorgeous and i can appreciate that i don't generally think about them the way a lot of the fandom does) but i've been so welcomed and people rb my textposts and i think i've found a bit of a niche in here which is amazing! overall I think while this fandom does like to appreciate how they look etc we are here for interacting with deeper stuff when it comes which I love.

and that's so cool that you find it brave (I love that!) personally I kinda just thought some of us just do that, naturally, and we kinda have to in order to be ourselves and not suppress whatever it is that we're processing, especially as artists and creatives it's kinda hard to turn that off and i do think giving the space for it and interaction with it is so important, like you said with ash and with many others it does interact a lot with the art that they make and we love! i'm honestly so stoked ashton feels comfortable to talk with us about this because it is a personal thing--but also one I think we're meant to connect on and learn to be able to disagree on in a way that's still validating when it comes to it. so I do hope for the fandom that we can keep up and at the very least be nice about it, which I think is happening!

gonna include your tags now so i can answer them a bit too

#i know this was a bit of a generalized answer but I'm a bit scatterbrained this week tbh so I did my best 😵‍💫#i've had you in my drafts for a minute and i didn't want you to think i'd forgotten about you!#but in general yes like that q&a the other day was so enjoyable for me bc it was such a simple prompt#and it was interesting to see how each person interpreted that question and in turn seeing his reaction to their answer#i would watch a million more q&as like that#i just think the world is so uncertain and trouble at this point in time#it's hard not to be philosophically or spiritually minded#and also at least for me I feel like there is a lot of philosophy and spirituality intertwined with the concept of fandom#or at least how i engage with it personally#and so for me it just makes sense for those topics to run parallel i guess#anyways hi! welcome to my inbox! 💙#ask#faithfromanewperspective#edge-oftheworld

honestly, the way that people differ so much in how we think and interpret things really fascinates me. and it's definitely a skill to find common threads in many different viewpoints which ashton did really well too. I hope it was a cathartic experience for him as well both because i hope he does do it again and set a precedent of sorts (instagram as a platform?? who would've thought) and also because I feel like a lot of these things have been weighing on him for the longest time and he's put so much work into feeling better and doing better for those around him I just hope he does get to feel properly seen and understood and I hope as fans we do too, when we so often do get into fandom because we're looking for a connection that our immediate surroundings don't provide. and so many people are stressed about the world too or have had expectations for a much easier existence than what we have and it's really good to not feel alone in that and to also have celebrities who are human just like all of us so it doesn't feel like everything we're consuming is fake (like it obv isn't, but i'd say not ever trying to be anything but real and being relatable because of that is something that 5sos stand out for)

i def have seen how fandom spaces are great for debating ethics and stuff and how much we hold people to account for what they do with their platforms but to me it's been generally negative and it's hard for someone to do something seen as 'right' imo (again, 5sos fandom is a lot more positive than most though, but when they did their little nod to humanitarian aid I went crazy comparing them with other artists who've sold similar films and kept the money for themselves, and was a little surprised everyone else wasn't really reacting like I was). and while I've seen how fantasy fandoms easily slip into conversations about spiritual beliefs I feel like this might not be what you're talking about with the spiritual and philosophical aspect of fandom, and I'd love to hear more about it!

okay I’ve been lurking for a while but I don’t think we’ve properly interacted. anyway I just rb’d your post (don’t get fooled by the url, edge-oftheworld is me wearing the 5sos sideblog hat) and I wanted to ask. philosophy in the fandom (something ash would be proud of!) some of your takes. what do you think. annoyingly vague, similar questions (?) I guess—as many as you want to answer to a kind-of stranger I guess?

Hello! Yes, I remember seeing your 5SOS blog in my notifs panel before! 👋🏻 Generally speaking, I'd say we don't get a ton of philosophical chatter around here, but I'm all for it! I mentioned this in my tags of the Ash Q&A from the other day, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I personally love when he goes on a bit of a philosophical or spiritual tear. I think there's something inherently brave about diving deeper into the way things are and questioning the world around you and I enjoy hearing people's thoughts as they go about their journey, and it's especially meaningful when it's an artist I admire because I think those conclusions definitely inform their art and vice versa. Obviously I love fandom but I'll be the first to admit it can often be a bit surface level (my blog in particular is proudly fueled by hyperbolic declarations of love and thirsty emojis) so any opportunity to dig a bit beyond that is always a welcome treat. 💙

[tianshiisdead]

Hello again! Back to asking you some more questions out of curiosity! You’re answers have always been so detailed and insightful!

After seeing a few posts of yours, I wanted to ask, why do you ship China/ Mongolia? It’s a fairly unliked, or at least unpopular ship in the English Hetalia fandom, so I’m curious to see your perspective? That, and how do you imagine their dynamic?

Hii! I'm so glad my answers have been good, I love talking so thank you for the questions! I'm sorry about how long this reply is, its pretty rambly

quick disclaimer: these r my opinions and thoughts, there r sensitive topics and such here as well that I try to treat carefully

SHORT ANSWER

(ignore the 'show' lol it's jus fav x fav)

LONG ANSWER (warning. its pretty long)

Hmmm to be honest, the simplest answer is just that I like and ship everyone with China who is my fav, I really like Mongolia, they have shared history, so I smash them together and call it a ship LOL

It's also bc I like Chinese history and the Yuan dynasty is a pretty prominent dynasty. Plus it's incredibly funny to me to see China bounced from one foreign ruler to the next in that little pocket of time where a part of China passed from Mongolic to Tungusic rulers while the Song dynasty grew and then shrank until it was finally fully conquered by Kublai Khan + going with the headcanon that nation-tans lived with their conquerers, I think China chilling with Mongolia during the Yuan dynasty is a fun image. It's a little difficult to write about because Mongolia (and, less relevantly, China as well) like, fractured a lot? It's not a single line of successive nations, and modern groupings and borders haven't always been this way ofc, so it's always a little hard to parse that in Hetalia terms. But it's fun to think about : )

Also, I will say I follow mainly Japanese artists on twitter and there's surprisingly a rather developed niche of Mongolia/China shippers

Dynamics

Dynamic wise, I focus on old history, but I like a variety of things! ぴよEX from pixiv has some really fun historical comics, the super serious Mongolian Empire and arrogant but expressive China are really cute when interacting, their casual day to day dynamic and interactions despite the situation are fun too. As a big China fan from a purely Hetalia point of view abt an event from many centuries ago, there's a feeling like 'wow he put a lot of effort into conquering China huh he tried really hard lol that's kind of cute... also he was the only one to Truly Have all of China until Qing dynasty came along... the Khitans and Jurchens all tried but were unable to fully conquer China... it was only Him 🥺'

I personally really love clingy China who reminisces about the old days and Mongolia who's a little tired of it, even though it's very unrealistic because the Yuan dynasty obviously wasn't a fun time for Yaoyao and then the Qing dynasty. ALSO was not a fun time for him haha so what would he even reminisce about... it exists in my heart though, a nebulous 'yeah maybe they hang out sometimes and China gets jealous over stupid shit and reminisces thru nostalgia lenses about how he once sat side by side with Mongolia and Mongolia tries to focus on the meal and not on the yandere beside him'. I also have a specific image in my head of Mongolian empire era Mongolia walking around with Song dynasty China tagging along to complain about stuff despite the lack of friendliness between their respective nations. Ahistorical but fun! The few Mongolia/China fics I've read in the English fandom that aren't openly anti-shipping are rather angsty fics about the Yuan dynasty, and though I can see why, I think it's much more entertaining to see their coexistence and casual day-to-day interactions in the ~century that the Yuan dynasty lasted, China's annoying peppiness, Mongolia half-listening to his flights of fancy while doing Big Ruling Things, etc. In general, the base of the ship for me is 'tall, annoyed, and serious x small, annoying, and expressive'. Like the first image I doodled specifically for this ask lol

Its place in English fandom

On the topic of popularity, I can understand why it's not as popular in the English fandom tbh the history between the countries has been very antagonistic and fraught w violence, esp in modern history, the 1900s and Mongolia's struggle for independence and such. and culturally there aren't that many similarities, aside from what's left over from the past rule's influence on culture and then there's a bit of cultural influence up north ofc. And then the topic of Inner Mongolia, as well as ethnic tensions... I'm not really in a place to comment and I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to say anything, so this is just an acknowledgment it exists and also that it in my experience influences the English fandom, which, I mean good for them doing some research and staying away from sensitive topics and potentially offensive depictions

also the people who ship Mongolia ships in the English fandom tend to be Mongolia biases, and this ship is more of a China fan ship if that makes any sense? Like, if you liked Mongolia you might ship him with like, Tibet, have something fluffy and sweet and not... this toxic ship fraught with recent suffering, but if you like China there's a bigger chance of shipping him with Mongolia focusing on the Yuan dynasty. A bit of bullying for our fav little arrogant old guy. Meanwhile, there aren't that many China mains in the English fandom and the ones who are out there tend to ship him with yt ppl and focus on either AUs or modern history with a focus on China/western relations 😅 which I mean, fine, I do as well dsjjghfljk but fun historical ships like Mongolia/China aren't really popular.

Qing Dynasty rambles, kinda off topic

Another thing: the Qing dynasty! Okay so, I've read like. at least one english fic that had China turned into an oppressive little dickhead in this time period, but IMO and it's a very very personal and subjective thing, I don't think having China, that is Yaoyao, being the main force in the Qing dynasty makes much sense. This isn't like Yaoyao apologia LMAO it's more like, if each distinct and separate people and culture have their own nation-tan, I don't see why Manchu wouldn't. We may be sinicized now and I consider myself Chinese, but we are still a distinct people to the Han and Manchu were NOT Chinese back then!! It should also be noted that while the Manchu ruling class encouraged the mindset of a diverse China, 'Manchu Mongol Han' (满蒙汉) type thing, they were still conquerors who conquered China, Mongolia, and then a bunch of other places, and there was a hierarchy involved that had Han Chinese below Manchu. There were Han (and Mongolians and other ppl) who were promoted and integrated into the banner system or given Manchu clans or whatever and they were allowed to send their daughters in as concubines but the upper class was generally Manchu and there was a (failed) effort to retain traditional culture, meaning it can't be taken as 'Manchuria was consumed' sort of integration. Shoving 'well China was not in charge of China' in there kind of... changes the dynamics of Mongolia and aph China a little? Another, maybe more important point, is that Mongolia being conquered by the Qing dynasty in many cases wasn't initially a China Mongolia thing so much as a Manchu/Jurchen tribes vs Mongolian groups sort of thing, some groups fought with the Manchu, others were allied w Manchu Qing for protection against other groups, also iirc there were enmity/alliances left over from when Manchu were a bunch of little Jurchen tribes who either fought with the nearby Mongolic groups or turned to certain Mongolic groups for trade and alliances as protection. Like I get that in modern times HOW exactly the conquering went down doesn't matter as much as that it did and at that time China was the main force even ruled by outside conquerors, especially because the Qing dynasty is acknowledged as Chinese and the current country is a direct successor state to the successor state of this dynasty, but Hetalia content that directly addresses this history should take it into account. It's sort of like hmmm the Yuan dynasty's attack on Japan?

Of course, this is a sensitive topic! Lots of violence. Sooo it's the sort of thing that I'm hesitant to make 'content' about, but I do think about it sometimes. How would the relations go down? Idk bc Qing dynasty isn't one of my preferred periods for Mongolia/China but I thought I'd include it anyways since I've seen this era around in the English fandom and I had a Hot Take I wanted to express. It would be an interesting dynamic, though, bc then China goes hard trying to keep Mongolia in the republic era which was VERY VERY ruled by Han who were miffed about centuries of oppression under Manchu rule, lots of anti ethnic minority sentiment arose from that and the, ah, other events going on in during the late 1800s and early 1900s. so it's like... as a country it makes sense but how do you fit this into the characters? It's not like the characters have to like what's happening in their country of course, but I'd like to situate them in the time and atmosphere nonetheless. It's also a situation where China was getting hella brutalized during the late Qing/Republic era by western powers and Japan, so the usual line about this era for it is 'wow poor baby : (' which I admit I love, but it does leave Mongolia, any and all suppression of culture, and its independence movement by the wayside. A country and its systems can be very complicated because everything happens all the time and there's like a billion people involved but then u gotta find a way to balance it within these individual characters which is hard!! I've read so many fics in this era and it always focuses on a few specific character/country relations and inevitably leaves many big things out, everything just happens all the time huh!

I guess the timeline would be roughly:

Stirrings of trouble -> Manchuria gathering. some Jurchen groups are directly allied with Mongolian groups for protection while other Jurchen groups waged war on them and the Ming dynasty so this is awkward -> wowee China has been conquered uwu Yaoyao enters another Jin dynasty -> battle with Mongolia ig? or talks of alliance? The same thing applies to pre-Manchu unification, it's hard when all the different groups represented by one dude are doing different things and it's hard to say who gets the nation-tan -> ok now Qing dynasty is at its largest. China and Mongolia are both under Manchu rule, Mongolia has a bit more status but China gets kept closer to the rulers and in the palace cause obvious reasons. Do they interact? probably sometimes? i'd have to do more research on the details -> oh no the westies have arrived to do a bit of war and opium -> China has attacked and gotten rid of Manchuria, preferably while crying for the spice, but now that he has Mongolia he doesn't want to let go : ( misery -> and the rest is history. i guess

Closing

I'm sorry if nothing makes sense but I started writing and editing at midnight and I can see daylight through the windows so I'll leave it here

Finally: here's a link to PiyoEX's Mongolia/China compilation! There's a bunch of short comics about the Mongolian Empire/Song Dynasty part of history, some Russia Mongolia China, and one timeline of events with Mongolia celebrating Yuan dynasty, China celebrating Ming dynasty, and both of them side eyeing the new guy for the Qing dynasty dksljhgf

To be honest I don't usually think too deeply about this ship aside from teehee funny 1100s AD interactions and wow what if they went out in modern times and Mongolia had a horrible time and China couldn't stop clinging to his arm like a bug! And ofc that one irl video where China was thanking Mongolia for some sheep the gov sent, and some dude sang this song of thanks that was autotuned to hell, but the ship has a lot of potential for exploration, though it's sensitive and hard to handle correctly imo