#I've been reading Caitvi fics like ALL DAY

[chronicsyd]

oKaY, now that I'm done freaking the fuck out about the new teaser for S2 I didn't actually mention anything specific that I found in it (mainly cuz it is only 12 seconds and I was mainly having gay panic over Vi and Caitlyn) but there are a couple things that did stand out to me:

the outfits are a Significant improvement over what they had previously been wearing under Marcus, like why on earth were the women wearing Dresses? also the beret's be bomb as hell (Jinx will probably start on her "Hat Lady" tirade with Caitlyn lol) (I also want the "You're own WHAT?!" line but i don't think it's happening)

Vi definitely looks begrudging (is the best descriptor i think) in the few frames of this, like she doesn't look all that happy to be in an Enforcer uniform (not that I can blame her, all things considered)

solely based on Caitlyn's face, I can tell we're entering our "Unhinged Caitlyn" era and girl looks ready to be on the warpath to go after Jinx.

the only spoken dialogue is "we've got a few surprises of our own" does she specifically mean Vi here? or a new group of Enforcers all together. or maybe she's being warned to "not underestimate Jinx" and she's saying "we have a few tricks up our sleeve" as a response to it in some fashion.

people think the ginger on the left is Marcus's daughter, i don't think it is, his daughter looked to be around Powder's age in act 1 (around 11ish), and the other looks closer to Vi/Caitlyn's age and i don't think the jump in time (if there is one) would be That significant. (Edit: Actually i think I'm gonna redact my statement on this cuz looking again, Caitlyn does seem to have a more "mature face" to me so there might be a time jump where this particular scene comes up)

Caitlyn is clearly sporting a new hextech rifle to go along with Vi's gauntlets (which clearly have been fixed) (in fact the first shot of the gem is what's going into the gauntlet, from the looks of it)

the small callout to Vi's tutu thingy in her LOL design

the gem placing scene and the glove being moved to reveal Vi are two separate scenes, the gloved hand placing the gem back most definitely belongs to Jayce (seeing as he's probably the only one that knows how to fix it) (Also there's a very clear cut between the two scenes as the second clip's focus is on the upper part of the glove, not the gem)

(Sorry for just completely spamming today, I've just been overall freaking out, lol. god, if I'm This riled up over a 12 second teaser you guys are SO not ready for me when an Actual Trailer get's released! but that's all I have for the time being, se ya!)

[letters-to-rosie]

My one oneshot of all time is impossible. 

There are three. Well there are more but I forced myself to stick to three. I'm terrible with choices

'Affection in all the wrong places' by LeBenj 

“You need to stop showing up here,” Ekko says as he unlatches his bedroom window with a loud click.

Without looking at him, Jinx’s lips perk with a hint of a smile. “You need to stop letting me in.”

It's soft and hopeful, with an undertone of hurt, and I love it. 

‘What's broken can still mend’ by MidnightLightHowlite

He hates her as much as she loves him, for nothing good ever happened to people who loved her back. But he cares, and that's different because people who hate you but also care will not forget, because they will forget a kindness but not a curse. People remember curses, remember misfortune if only to avoid it, and she's enough of a sin to be unforgivable.

… 

“You’ve been surviving for so long.” He brings her knuckles to his nose and takes in the gunpowder. When his eyes meet hers they’re frozen. “But have you truly been alive?

So many gems in this fic. It hurts just right. Learning to live and complicated baggage and hope (I might have a thing for that) 

And last one 

‘Why’ by PenguiniShipsIt

‘That's all everyone wanted to do these days. Blow up. Beat everyone up. Hurt someone. End someone.

It got tiring to a point that he'd rather wreck himself than hear everyone around him already wrecked.

And he got what he wanted at the sight of her on his couch. Again.

"Hey." He shook her by the shoulder. "What the hell, Jinx? Is this what we're doing, now? You're just gonna stay here when it—"

She's burning.’

Caring despite all the rightful hesitations, a bit of ridiculousness, and from Ekkos's perspective, an incredulous situation makes for such a good read.

okay I have been super tired, so this took me like 3 days to write lol but we're so back baby here we go!

going one by one:

Affection in all the wrong places is very cute! I like the concept of things having eventually calmed down years later and Ekko and Jinx being able to relate to each other without the mediation of the conflict we see in the show. in some ways it also reminded me of one of my fics, with the whole "years later" thing, and I just think it's fun to see how different authors interpret similar ideas 😊

for What's broken can still mend, I think I actually read this one before I had my account?? I read a lot of CaitVi back then lol but I was just starting to get interested in timebomb. yet the summary sounds familiar...

but anyway, on to the thoughts! this is such a small thing but I love the idea that Vi comes to the Firelight base and plays with kids. I love it so much I might steal it for the end of revolution lol (with credit, naturally). and Ekko deciding not to kill her? wild lol, just wild. a little curious about why then, but hey, it felt very poetic and we can never be mad at that haha also was surprised at how it ended, but I was happy to see that Vi and Jinx made up, because who knows how canon will go 🥲

and for Why!

I feel like I've figured out your pattern lol you like fics where after the events of canon things chill out and Jinx goes to Ekko. and then implied/actual sex haha

the top author's note on this one is so fucking funny lol

I do enjoy Ekko being a bit of a dork here. the first fic I wrote with him in it has him telling bad science jokes lol. but he's also so sassy here which is how he became my favorite Arcane character in the first place, so we love to see that too.

He loved the way she swallowed. around here is when he started to get really terrible and I was so down for it lol. AND it's reciprocal! I like that playfulness coming out with them. you can feel how much they're into each other, and that along with how they're not saying everything (which I feel like is also a commonality between these 3 fics). since this is the longest of the 3 by a good bit, it really comes through, and I like in particular how Jinx is really torn up about the idea of loving him while Ekko is eventually able to convince himself to stop holding back, even though he's still afraid she'll hurt him.

She had seen what happened to people she loved and loved her back.

Not Ekko. Not chubby-cheeked, pouty-faced, sad-eyed, Ekko who hovered around her when she was sick and injured, who tended a nice little garden of friends and firelights, who zipped through the fissures like one of those masked heroes in barbershop stories.

yeahhhhhh this is good shit lol

“Are you aware of any reason she might threaten your safety?”

Yes. I edged her six times and came in her twice.

pffffffft

the end to this one is also really interesting. I would say it's my favorite of the 3. I like how the tension between Ekko and Caitlyn and Vi plays out, though I'm wary of the Firelights being legitimated by Piltover (though Ekko is, too, which is why I love him lol). it's interesting to see them inhabit this space created by all the tension in the world around them. and then, of course, Jinx comes back. more bittersweet than the first 2, but in a way I enjoyed a lot

thank you for sharing! 🥰

[brainrotheartrot]

hi hi yes hello,, first off i just wanna say i LOVE your art.

second, this is kinda weird but i just joined the arcane fandom not too long ago, & it was literally only because i saw vijinx art. like all of my mutuals are into arcane & i never bothered to get into it UNTIL i saw fanart of vijinx a few months ago. something abt it just intrigued me. i honestly never cared for caitvi.

however i wouldn’t consider myself a pro shipper, in fact i’d deny that. this is the first time i’ve enjoyed anything like this & i have no idea why. however i do like hardcore dynamics, for example, ellie/abby from tlou. but of course something like vi/jinx is more “extreme”. well in my opinion.

i’m coming to you because i’ve been stalking a lot of vijinx shippers and i really admire their content, especially yours. it’s such a guilty pleasure of mine. but i’m too scared to interact with anyone, even on an alt. so i just decided to stay anonymous.

i was just wondering if you ever felt guilty the first time you started shipping them? i’d honestly envy you if you haven’t. and how & why did you start shipping them? feel free to rant abt them for as long as you’d like.

i’ve been hearing stuff abt how they weren’t always sisters, like in the early league days. i wish it just stayed that way because it bothers me to not be able to talk abt my favorite ships publicly without being ridiculed for it. but a fucked up part of me is glad that they became sisters. holds more weight, you know. i understand the appeal entirely.

i’ve also even been secretly drawing them but i definitely do not have the balls to post them anywhere😭

ANYWAY, i’m yapping, but just let me know anything about your experience with them, how you view them n stuff. and if you have any advice to give me or any other information pls feel free. thank u so much

ps. i’m totally reading ur fic in a bit

Aww, hey there anon! Thanks for reaching out, always nice to meet another ViJinx fan :) I'm glad you enjoy my art, and I hope you'll like my fic as well! (Also, if you'd like to send me your art privately, I totally promise not to show anybody. <3)

I got a little rambly in my answer there, so I'll put it under the cut.

Honestly, I only call myself a 'proshipper' because this is what modern fandom lingo dictates. I don't really gel with a lot of elements of 'proshipdom', if you will -- there seems to be some broad agreement that if you like Some messed up aspects in your fiction, you must like All of them. And I really don't! I ship ViJinx because I love their specific dynamic, not just because I'm hot for every taboo topic by default. I probably would've shipped them just as much if the show had just made them close childhood friends, for example. But I also have no issue with fictional incest ships, I think they can be fun and juicy.

Like you, I've always been really drawn to problematic and intense lesbian relationships. I like CaitVi plenty, and I think they're going to get a lot messier in S2, which I'm excited for. But ViJinx is just an insanely compelling dynamic. I love the toxic codependent yuri shit. I love the tenderness and the violence, their shared past that now feels completely inaccessible to them both, Jinx's obsessiveness, Vi refusing to give up the image of Powder she's clung on to for years... man, this shit just rocks, okay. I'm not gonna pretend that it doesn't.

I've never felt any guilt about shipping ViJinx, tbh. I'm a fandom oldbie, by which I mean I was around before the morality police took over, and everyone understood we were just here to mash Barbies and have a good time. I've shipped several incest pairings before this, and I've always had a blast doing it. And so help me god, I don't intend to stop now, even if my Twitter blocklist is twenty miles long. I just immediately cut out anyone who tries to start shit, and chill with my fellow weirdos. It's a pretty small circle, but it's a nice time!

If you do decide to make an alt at some point, I recommend doing so on Twitter, as I've been able to find more active ViJinx shippers there. I could rec you some nice people to follow. :) Thanks for reaching out!

[contrivedchaos]

Fic writers' 2022 roundup:

I've never done one of these before, but I was tagged by @pikapeppa, so I'll give it a shot!

Words written: 54,050. It's not a lot, but other than the year I wrote my master's thesis, it's the most actual writing I've done in a long time, fanfic or otherwise. I'll count it as an accomplishment!

Smut scenes: Oof. Let's see. 6? We'll go with 6. Across four different fics.

New things I tried: Within the last 12 months, I've dipped my toes into the Arcane fandom and finished/posted 3 parts for my (ongoing?) three-part CaitVi series: Every Small Disaster, Say My Name (Like an Elegy), and It's Psychosomatic. It's been so much fun! Hopefully I'll find another opportunity to do more for this pairing. I definitely want to write more of them in the future!

Fic I spent the most time on: My longest fic was Where The Time Goes. I started Chlodine Week 5 years ago for this tiny, desperately-hanging-on fandom, but never wrote anything substantial for it beyond a few oneshots. This year I spent 2-3 months working on a labor of love that I never expected to go anywhere. It was a fic almost entirely for myself, and so far it's my favorite thing I've ever written. I was so happy when it was finished.

Fic I spent the least time on: The first fic for my CaitVi series, Every Small Disaster. (This was technically posted Christmas of 2021, but I'll count it) It was my first time dipping my toes into the Arcane fandom, and I think it came out swimmingly!

Favorite thing I wrote: Definitely Where The Time Goes. Chlodine will always have a special place in my heart. I can't think of a fandom that's more dear to me than the Uncharted fandom. It's been a light through the toughest years of my life so far. I owe a lot to it, and particularly the Chlodine ship. I don't see it being outranked as my OTP any time soon.

Favorite fic(s) I read: I've read so many AMAZING things this year. This list will be DIFFICULT to narrow down. Here goes:

Violence and Variations by Thisisatree (@dancing-b0nes): The Locked Tomb has made up the majority of my fic and book re-reading in 2022, and this one is no exception. Technically started this one in 2021, but it's still ongoing, so I'll count it. While it's like 60% a Griddlehark fic, and sort of a re-imagining of their lives post-TLT, practically every ship, in all their wonderful configurations, gets their dirty day in the sun. I have been on the edge of my seat for more than a year with this one, and it shows no signs of stopping. Also extremely spicy! I'm so hooked!

Twice by BonesforTime: Another TLT fic, this one's a re-imagining of the events at Canaan House in Gideon the Ninth, with such a unique take on what it means to be a Lyctor and on the dynamics of the cavalier/necromancer relationship. And lore and world-building! Another Griddlehark-focused fic, this one constantly has me in stitches, combined with such a raw, intimate writing style for the smut scenes. Bones has such a way with words, and they continue to amaze me with each new installment. Definitely continuing this one into 2023!

Table Manners by Armengard (@armengard): Y'all know I go absolutely feral for anything by Armengard. Their first contribution to the CaitVi space is no exception. They took me out with a one-shot earlier this year that will undoubtedly be on my fic re-read rotation for years to come. Can't say enough positive things about their entire catalog, so this one is also definitely worth a read. And sooooooo spicy! Whew!

Even The Hardiest Desert Blooms Need to Get Wet Sometimes by Pikapeppa (@pikapeppa): Literally the only writer of MLW ships this lesbian will read these days. Their writing style is just that good. It's so refreshing and engaging that if they decided to author a dictionary, I'd probably read it. I jumped back into the Horizon fandom (extremely late, forgive me) after a major surgery over the summer, and the first thing I did upon playing Forbidden West was dive back into their fics. This one is a Drakkaloy fic, and is not only entertaining, but also extremely spicy. Definitely a must-read!

Your Mouth and Its Flowers by driluth (@driluth): Technically late 2021, but I'll count it. This is a CaitVi AU based on one of my favorite books of 2022, This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The symbolism! The way Red and Blue are literally Vi and Caitlyn, and are so amazingly portrayed in this AU! Definitely a hidden gem for me to find in 2022! But I'm so glad I did!

Writing goals for next year: I don't have any particular writing goals for 2023. I'm looking forward to the Horizon Forbidden West DLC, so if I can get my hands on a PS VR 2, maybe I'll get inspired to dip a toe into the Horizon fandom. I'm definitely tempted by all the WLW potential for this series. Also more TLT...Alecto is coming in September, so there is still more to work with. We'll see!

[dittoremus]

get to know better tag

how come i'm always late for these things :') anyway, thank you so much @popyandshit for the tag!! 💖

three ships: oh boy we're off to a difficult start. i've gone through many fandoms and i'm a compulsive shipper so i can't bring myself to choose. i'll just say my favorite marauders ships since it's been my latest long lasting obsession?? i guess?? AND EVEN THAT'S A STRUGGLE FOR ME. i'll just go with dorlene, wolfstar and recently i've been really into jily again.

WAIT NEVERMIND I'VE CHANGED MY MIND AND I'M MENTIONING OTHER SHIPS: KANEJ (SOC), CAITVI (ARCANE), PYNCH (TRC), CATRADORA (SHERA) AND MANY OTHERS

first ship: i think the first one i properly and actively shipped was percabeth??

last song: IT'S KILLING ME THAT IT WON'T BE AVAILABLE ON SPOTIFY UNTIL FRIDAY

last movie: everything everywhere all at once (watched it this weekend with my mother)

currently watching: i finished watching heartstopper s2 a couple days ago. currently i'm rewatching the walking dead (i may be working on something and i'm hoping i can use it as inspiration) and my friend is forcing me to start alchemy of souls so i guess we can add that to the list.

currently reading: i'M STILL READING DAISY JONES AND THE SIX (I DON'T KNOW WHY IT'S TAKING ME SO LONG WHEN USUALLY I'M A FAST READER AND I AM LIKING THE BOOK). as for fics i've mostly been reading one shots (if you have any long fanfic recs please send them my way)

last thing i wrote: a very VERY basic draft of the first chapters of the zombie au i'm working on

currently writing: the above-mentioned zombie au (and a project for uni lol)

i have no clue who to tag so feel free to do it if you want ✨

[aprillikesthings]

I'm so envious of people who write fast and write easily. I can often picture scenes but then I go to describe them and there's just no way they'd work that way, or once it's in words it looks fucking dumb, or I can't find the words to describe the things I can feel and see in my head, and there are days it's like this monumental effort to get down ANYTHING.

But also: up until l literally 2016 I had convinced myself I couldn't write fiction at all! So part of me still believes it's all been a fluke and I will once again be unable to write fiction any day now. Which isn't true??? That's. Not how it works.

I only started writing because I'd fallen hard for Amethyst/Peridot in SU, and there was a tiny handful of fics in the tag. I wrote down a silly headcanon in narrative form and posted it before I could change my mind--and people liked it!

And then I had an idea for a story, and then another story, and then another one--and people liked them! I was writing for a tiny corner of the fandom, but anything new I posted got about 100-150 hits and a few dozen kudos in the first 24-48 hours, because that was the number of people obsessively checking the ship's tag and attempting to read everything.

(It's still funny to think about, but I wrote, like, a double-digit percentage of the explicit Amedot fics out there; which means that anyone who liked smutty stories of those two had likely at least attempted to read my stories!)

And then like a week after the first K/DA video came out, I managed to post the first explicit Akali/Evelynn K/DA fic, and shit blew up from there. I will never forget the :O of watching my hit count climb to 1000 in a single day. I kept refreshing the fic over and over and realizing: dozens of people are reading this. Right this second. While I sit here in my pj's. WHAT. THE FUCK.

For a few months? I think?, that first K/DA fic of mine was the third most kudos'ed fic for the entire League of Legends fandom tag!

(If you sort for the pairing/explicit/by kudos, I'm still on the first page; but definitely not top five, lol.)

I still think my K/DA fics are some of my best writing, but a huge reason for it was being in a very active server (...which I started) and constantly bumping ideas off of each other. Also if you're writing all the time you just get better at it!

I wrote a few things for Arcane, and what's wild is that one of them is my most popular fic by FAR, but so many people were reading Arcane (...okay, specifically CaitVi) fics that that one is nowhere near the top for that fandom, by any way of measuring things.

ANYWAY. I've said all this before.

But I'm hella out of practice writing fic. I mostly yell into the void here when I'm stuck on something, though I've been doing that less lately.

But I've never been a fast writer! There's been a handful of times I've managed more than a thousand words in a single day, and I know people who can do like 4k words per day on the regular, no problem.

And even the stuff I do write, these days I want to edit like fifty times before posting them. Mostly because my ability to spot issues in my writing is sharper than my ability to fix them, I guess? But also because I constantly change my mind on things.

I'm not going to lie: I knew I wouldn't get a lot of readers, I'm writing an au a lot of people don't care about four years after the end of the show. But it still sucks to see how slowly any of my numbers increase. I got hella spoiled back in the day; I took a screenshot of the kudos email after I posted the one explicit CaitVi fic I wrote because it was BANANAS. (And posted it to facebook to brag lol.)

But dammit, I want to tell this fucking story. I haven't even gotten to the good fun stuff yet; the stuff I'm really excited about that I've seen in my head a thousand times.

I keep refusing to let myself write it, out of fear I won't write the stuff in between, but I think I might sketch out some of my ideas anyway, just to help push me to write the stuff between now and then.

ugghghgh it's been nearly a week since I managed to write anything on my au fic but I got some words down finally

Dunno if they're any good but it's something

Writing them being apart, meeting new friends; all that shit--it's difficult!

But also once again I ended up googling shit like "what were school lunches like in the 1960's" (bad, but mostly bad in the same way home cooking was at the time--nothing fresh, lots of meatloaf and canned green beans and pints of milk)

[sky-ham]

Congrats on finishing all your pieces for Inktober! Please don't hesitate to promote your Ko-fi more! May I ask what your favorite Caitvi fics have been and what fics you're planning to read now that you have the time for it?

Thank you! I've had trouble concentrating on long-form stuff so I haven't read a lot of fics. So far I like SunsetSharkbite's Mermaid AU, which was my Inktober Day 16 piece. It's very cute :)

[space-blue]

I’ll stop asking in multiples one day. For the fandom list. 1, 5, 10

Ehehe thanks for asking, multiple is fun! From these!

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Since I'm pretty deep in the aroace waters, I generally don't really have OTPs and also don't really give a fuck what people like. I've shipped some really stupid stuff just for fun, and most of the time I can come up with a scenario that makes me "buy" any coupling.

What happens more often is that a pairing in canon will be baffling to me. Fanfic has the time to expend on a relationship, make it earned or believable. Also fanfic can tweak canon, so yeah. I can get behind pretty much any OTP in fandom if it's presented conclusively. I still have like, one Notp (Thrawn x Pryce), but it's not that I don't get it, just that I dislike it enough to block it from my dash and avoid all fics.

THIS BEING SAID. I cannot understand how canon is trying to sell us Cait x Vi. Sorry guys! Please don't take me to the pillory.

Cait is a 1% hyper privileged and a cop. Vi is a victim of a violent and abusive system, who lost her parents to cops lethal violence and also 5 to 10 years of her youth to cop abuse of power. She and Cait are so diametrically opposed, I cannot believe any normal and sane human being in Vi's position would fall for Cait within two days, no matter how cute or nice she is (and she's not very nice for a large part of it, and insanely naive the entire time).

I just feel like their entire "romance" was rushed at the cost of Vi's entire character integrity. I spent hours assimilating she knows, as a child, how downtrodden she is, how broken the system is, how much more suffering is in stock for them, and then boom, she suffers the worst possible fate short of death, and she falls for the first cute cop she meets? Please... Then she rats out her sister to the entire COUNCIL? Who are you and why are you haunting Vi's body?

So yeah, basically set out to write Fathers and Daughters specifically to fix Vi, because she's the lynchpin characters of this show, and she was done crazy disservice to hurry her into an unconfirmed 2 days romance with Cait.

Absolutely no shade here on Caitvi shippers. I'm very happy the main ship of the fandom is F/F, it's a breath of fresh air compared to so many others. Like I said, I'm certain a lot of fics out there actively fix their relationship by addressing my concern, deepening their relationship, stretching canon over more time, etc. I'm sure I could love those fics too. It's what is in canon that leaves me (；⌣̀_���́)

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

Nah. I'm an old dysfunctional granny. I follow like 5 people and I'm liberal with my block button. If stuff gets heated over some ship I disconnect from that discourse and don't think about it.

Like I said above, I'm not really that concerned with shipping. Even if I read or write it, I tend to focus on platonic dynamics, found family, and if I ship, it's usually centric to one character. Sure I'll read Silco/anyone or Obi-Wan/Anyone.

So fandom would need to ruin Obi-Wan himself (fear), etc. Which I'm happy to report has never happened yet.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Siiiiiiiigh. I'm a Clone Wars fan. Why would you ask me that... I'll have to make a list!! x'D

In all seriousness, most of the Padmé & kiddie politics arcs, droid arcs, Jar Jar arcs (except his epic Windu team up one that was awesome lol)... But the arcs that grate me the most are the flawed ones that have amazing potential but never end up finished.

Umbara?? What happens to Tup???? How do the clones deal with trauma?? How does Anakin feel about his men being put through the grinder with a fallen Jedi? Does it not strain his relationship to Palps?

The Slavery arc. That was so fucked honestly, 14 yo Ahsoka hanging out in a fucking cage in the sun, getting grim promises from her future "owner", a grown ass man with a grudge... Like... There should have been far more repercussions to that. Where is the arc where they heal? Where is the arc where Obi-Wan deals with the after effect of the horrors he witnessed and endured?

Yes, it's a kid's show. But you are showing kids 10+ people being sent falling to their death for kilometers for one man to MAKE A POINT, so some "processing trauma" stuff can't exactly be deemed too dark.

And holy shit let's not forget Deception arc. I love it. Bane/Hardeen my grubby beloveds!! BUT—

WHERE IS THE AFTERMATH!! Obi-Wan CHOSE not to warn Anakin. He played dead, burnt all of his social bridges. It's insane that the show gives them a tiny aborted conversation and that this is never revisited again.

It's also a shame because it's a missed opportunity to spend more time looking at the bridge in confidence between Obi and Anakin. And yes, it's a kid's show. That could be addressed during another exciting mission.

I just feel like the show shies away from its own consequences a lot.