#IS THE ARGUABLY NUMBER ONE SHIP OF ALL TIME CANON

[mehoymalloy]

What attracts you to Imotohan? Idk if I get it yet….

One day I should make, like, a ship manifesto...

Today is not that day; instead, you get a collection of references to other posts that I found when I couldn't sleep last night.

Reason Number 1: I really like enemies to lovers as a trope.

I always have, ever since I started reading fanfic way back in the day with Kim/Shego lol. But I especially love when two characters allow me to totally buck the more traditional power dynamics of one party having all the power while the other has none, which I find boring and not at all fun to explore.

At first glance, Otohan does have the upper hand a lot of the time in their dynamic (I mean, hell, they start out by slaughtering half of Imogen's friends and the love of her life). But it’s pretty easy (and very fun) to give Imogen opportunities to be on equal footing with Otohan or even surpass them entirely. And the Tension that comes with exploring two characters who hate each other but can’t help but be attracted to each other is just what I find the most interesting and fun to explore in my own writing in particular.

Sources (lol):

Cool Art that really HITS with the Enemies aspect.

Would also be remiss if I didn't plug Shamie’s art, who has created So Much art because I throw money at her every chance I get. Just scroll her whole otohan thull tag, you won't regret it.

Good Thoughts with my own tiny addition about shipping culture in general.

A nice little ask about characterization and violence.

Reason Number 2: They’re obsessed with each other.

To the point that the cast themself see it and take advantage of it in-game (see here, when Sam pulled 'the one you're so keen to meet with' out of his ass, assumedly failed a deception check, and yet Otohan still either humored them or just zeroed in on 'Imogen? Where's Imogen? Tell me where Imogen is' anyway like a fucking simp.)

Otohan in particular also displays a frankly terrifying amount of ‘care’ and effort in getting Imogen to exalt in the battle at Bassuras, which I talk more about here. It’s what kicked off my intrigue with this ship and got me to try my hand and writing them (and then never stopped, as you can see).

Imogen, for her part, is just understandably terrified of but also constantly infuriated with Otohan (shitpost that shows that well). She says Otohan’s name with such vitriol and I adore her for it. Very ‘I’m gonna punch you in the mouth with my own mouth’ energy.

Here’s some video clips that show off their actual in-game dynamic really well, this one brilliantly set to My Kink is Karma (thank you @corkulous) and another to Death of Me (a million thanks to @lavendertheys).

Reason Number 3: They push each other’s buttons really damn well.

Arguably the most important thing in a ship for me after Tension.

We saw Otohan lose their patience exactly once, in my opinion, during the final battle when they called Imogen a ‘bitch,’ and as I said in this post, I think Imogen deserved so many more opportunities to rile Otohan up like that, especially in actual conversation as opposed to combat. She’s just so good at it, by golly, and if I can't see it in canon I can at least write about it.

And I mean, Otohan got Imogen to exalt (the only time she has done so, to my knowledge) and blow up a whole city block; I think it's safe to say they can get under her skin if they work at it, and I wish they had even more horrible opportunities to do so in canon before they kicked the bucket.

Anyways, that's the gist of what attracts me to Imotohan. If you don't get it, then the ship might just not be for you, which is totally fine—to each their own! Thanks for giving me an excuse to yap about themb~

[on1occasionfork]

you can't take the stars from me

Happy birthday, @kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon! Here's the Firefly AU you never asked for!

Chapter 1: Centauri, Part One

Rating: M

TW/CW and tags: Inspired by Firefly (TV 2002), References to Firefly (TV 2002), Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Space, Action/Adventure, Eventual Romance, Crowley Needs Love (Good Omens), Aziraphale is "just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing", They/Them Pronouns for Muriel (Good Omens), They/Them Pronouns for Beelzebub (Good Omens), Canon-typical violence, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Except they don't stay enemies for long, They speak Welsh instead of Mandarin, Don't ask me why, Misuse of Welsh

Summary: When the job doesn't pay, you do what you need to survive, even if it means taking on passengers. As if he didn't already have his hands full keeping the ship in the air and dodging his crew's constant trysts. It wouldn't be polite to toss all the passengers out the airlock, right? Maybe just a couple of 'em?

The boy is alright. And the Shepherd, well, Crowley's never been one for holy communion, but there's something about that fluffy hair and those stormy blue eyes that makes him want to kneel.

He might even get the chance — if they can make it past Legion and the reavers.

Chapter Excerpt:

He always felt better once they were in the sky, nothing but twinkling stars and black around them, even if it was arguably the time when the greatest number of things could go wrong. It was peaceful. Quiet. There was a certain sense of serenity.

Continue reading on Ao3

Shout out to @brenna for betaing this on short notice!

Credit for the art concept to my very creative wife, @sexy-sheep (who also wishes Pepper a happy birthday and is grateful that I have an amazing beta for TSTL because it means she doesn't have to fuss about with commas).

[melkor-did-nothing-wrong]

hi!! i read your tags on your latest rb (the one about the angbang child) and idk if you posted about it in the past but i would love to hear more!! i also have my own hcs and im always interested in hearing other peoples ideas <3

(from what i read in your tags, if you dont feel comfortable talking about this, i understand, or if youd prefer, my dms are always open if you dont wanna reply publicly to this)

Ok I am going to start by apologizing for taking a long time to answer, as well as thanking you for sending the ask in the first place. I still don't know if I should answer this publicly, but after years of either being told off for it being "boring" or "not canon" or "ooc" or even seeing people leaving the conversations on read every time I mention angbang with a baby of their own, I really really do want to yap while having the opportunity of saying: "well, as you can see, someone asked, so I'm just answering! clearly that's for the asker!". So thanks for the opportunity and the encouragement. I'm going to put these events/developments in a numbered list, so you'll have an easier time asking me to elaborate on anything specific later on if you so choose. They're not perfectly coherent but it is what it is, you know?

(Also: People who think the whole concept is bad or cringe, don't interact with this post. I've been hearing this for years but if y'all are allowed to make your own fankids for literally every other ship ever, then so am I!)

First of all, I'm gonna be using terms like "having a baby" but I want to clarify it's actually weirder (and arguably sillier, depending on who you ask) than that. I am not talking about developing another person's body to birth here. I am talking about developing another spirit or soul, which will only get a body when the whole process is done. I am just using terms that will be familiar to us as people even if the process isn't identical (the same way people would sometimes talk about birds or reptiles being "born" even when everyone collectively knows they just hatch from an egg).

So obviously at the end of the WoW, the army of valinor comes over to arrest Melkor and drag him through the doors of night

Melkor immediately throws his hands up like "Nope, you guys really shouldn't kill me. I'm going to have a baby and it'd be incredibly rude of you to kill me given the circumstance"

Exhausted collective sighs. Obviously that's typical Melkor BS so we're not gonna believe that, but I suppose disproving it publicly back at home and putting an end to the bs will not be a huge amount of time wasted. whatever.

Yeah sure ok Melkor whatever you say. we can drag you back west to officially call the bluff and get rid of you there.

Drag Melkor back. Whatever. just end this farce please.

Wait. Wait what the fuck. What the fuck do you mean there actually IS a baby??? HUH???????? How come???? WHY?????

Ok fine whatever UGH you are SO annoying. Fine. you can stay in jail until you have it and we'll kill you AFTER. Whatever.

Manwe is just. Trying to ask Melkor wtf is going on. Melkor, who is having a very very bad time in prison, predictably tells his brother to flock off.

Meanwhile, Mairon, who has just learned of that development, sighs and makes an effort to get to Valinor to drag his annoying (but beloved) hubby out of there.

Shortly after Melkor has the baby and manages to configure a physical form for him, Mairon commits a few acts of terrorism around as a distraction, then shows up in front of Melkor in dragon form like "Get on, we're leaving".

They make it east, and have to start living on the run from place to place out of fear of being pursued, as well as trying to find any remaining allies.

Eventually when they realize there are most likely no immediate plans of attack or attempts to retrieve them, Melkor and Mairon decide to temporarily settle near a settlement of humans who were on Melkor's side in the war, partially because they won't be kicked out by allies and partially in hopes of discouraging Manwe from ordering any attacks due to the fear of human casualties.

What follows is a lot of trial and error in raising what is essentially an immortal Ainu who is both completely new to this world but is simultaneously technically an ancient spirit who has partial knowledge of all things but can't make sense of them.

Another part of the life they build raising a kid is Melkor having to deal with the personal trauma of basically everything and everyone else being gone- it's a significant struggle for him to go from doing whatever he wanted pretty much consequence free, while having the support of his entire court, to just sitting here with Mairon and the baby, just the three of them. He genuinely thought it would happen sooner, that their son would grow up a prince, safe as can be, surrounded by friends and be as adored by all as he himself was. Unfortunately that was not the case, and now he has to raise him very differently while knowing he'll never meet any of the people Melkor had called friends or had any sort of fondness for. You know. Because they're all dead and it's mostly his own fault.

Mairon on the other hand is less affected by it all that much. He always liked being alone just fine, he isn't exactly a huge fan of big crowds. It's difficult for him too, starting over somewhere new and knowing all the people he knew are dead, and also having to keep in mind that he might have to hop around every so often to evade his weird immortal ex-employers, but if there's anything that mf can do is dodge taxes. You're never gonna Al-Capone him. Ever. Can't put him in jail if you can't find him etc. And he's very good at not being found. He's also mostly okay with not being bothered as much. He has his own thoughts on the matter but he doesn't have the time to be an angstlord because now he's got to watch out for double the troublemaking chaotic Ainur and has to make an effort to prevent them from getting into too much trouble. Honestly it's not that different from runing a fortress, in terms of how busy he gets, if you ask him. Anyway he is very fascinated by the baby because unlike Valar (Melkor and Manwe, Yavanna and Vana, Nienna Namo and Irmo, Nessa and Orome…) Maiar are not created in sets of siblings, so Mairon is familiar in theory, but not familiar in practice, with the idea of a family unit. He doesn't entirely understand what it's like to have a connection with someone that runs this deep but he's absolutely fascinated by this little family of his.

Considering how Melkor is "No longer counted among the Valar" specifically, and considering the original plan was 15 Valar, I like to think of the kid as the Vala who will eventually gain the role of replacing Melkor. To that end, I needed an aspect for him to embody that is at least slightly similar to how I view Melkor (as an aspect of change and transformation), as something that can be associated with the creative process like Mairon, and as a bonus, something that Tolkien himself would consider at least a little bit negative. In the end I have decided to settle on that thing being Technology. It can be used creatively to innovate and streamline tedious or difficult processes, but can also be used for evil/selfish ends (especially these days…)

Last but not least, because I can't stress this enough - just because I prefer Melkor and Mairon to be loving partners to eachother and loving parents to their son, that does NOT mean they're suddenly "good" or "kind" or "redeemed" or any of the thousand other words used to describe either post first age Mairon or post fourth/whichever age Melkor. I am not opposed to the idea in general, in fact not only do I get the appeal, I even love it because I love reading about these evil little feral creatures being happy together. but to me personally just because they love their own boy and are cordial to allies who were dying for their cause during the recent war in this specific AU, it doesn't mean they're suddenly going to be good and nice and friendly towards any and every person they come across in the rest of it. In other AUs, sure, in other projects written by other people, absolutely, in other nonsense written by me, even, yeah absolutely I'll allow them to be nice. But here specifically they're still annoying evil disaster creatures who might kill any mortal for the heck of it just to see what happens. They just do it less often because they don't have a thousand Umaiar, ten thousand Orcs and a hundred dragons to back them up this time. So if they do the killing they'll have to face consequences this time, and they really wouldn't like that, so they play nice for the sake of, you know, not being murdered in their outnumbered, outmatched current state lmao.

[wlwcatalogue]

Valentine's Special ~ Aerith/Tifa from Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Compilation)

Since today is Valentine’s Day, and FFVII: Rebirth is releasing at the end of this month, it’s the perfect time to get caught up on Aerith/Tifa, a.k.a. Aerti, a.k.a. possibly the most unexpected F/F ship in gaming! Here is what I consider to be the most comprehensive compilation of Aerti scenes from FFVII: Remake, prepared by yours truly for your viewing (and shipping) pleasure :)

Quick sales pitch: While Aerith is famously The One Who Dies and Tifa is known for her sexy character design, they are also popularly remembered as main character Cloud’s two equally appealing love interests, as attested to by one Robert Pattinson. However, just as the elements present in the original 1997 game Final Fantasy VII were expanded on and added to in FFVII: Remake, the relationship between Aerith and Tifa was also fleshed out… to the point where it became very, very easy to ship them together. To put it in Tumblr terms, it’s like Betty and Veronica, but taken in a different – but still (subtextually) gay – direction compared to Riverdale. Check out the video above, it's just 1.5 hours!

(Longer sales pitch / commentary below the cut)

Originally from the hit 1997 Japanese role-playing game Final Fantasy VII, Aerith and Tifa, along with the main character Cloud Strife, were one of the most famous love triangles of video games at the time, and arguably even now. (Note: Think Betty and Veronica (Archie but pre-Riverdale), or if you’re more familiar with anime, Rei and Asuka (Neon Genesis: Evangelion) or Saber and Rin (Fate: Stay Night).) Although they barely had any interactions together and really were primarily love interests for Cloud in the original game (and subsequent related works), the relationship between Aerith and Tifa was significantly more fleshed out in Final Fantasy VII: Remake (2020), going beyond your standard box-ticking “look, girl power!” exercise. There seems to have been many a fan who walked out of playing Remake who found Aerti (i.e. Aerith and Tifa’s relationship) memorable – whether read romantically or platonically – resulting in many GIFs, fanart, and even compilations of memorable scenes of their “friendship”.

Not only do they interact with each other outside of speaking about Cloud or other male characters (scraping a pass in the Bechdel test, yay!), Remake gives the relationship space to develop from “strangers who hit it off” to “individuals who care about and trust each other”. Significantly, Aerith is the one who seems to take Tifa’s concerns the most seriously and comfort her, and Tifa is also able to see past Aerith’s cheery façade and reach out to her at her times of greatest need. In my opinion, each of the pair offers the greatest emotional support to the other out of all the characters – even more than what they do for Cloud (or what Cloud does for them).

So what makes their relationship romantic rather than simply platonic to me (other than sheer force of will)? Even though there isn’t really any direct flirting or explicitly romantic lines, there are a number of moments which are framed romantically or parallel romantic moments between Cloud/Aerith or Cloud/Tifa. Perhaps the most obvious of this is when Tifa protects Aerith from falling (twice), which is animated and shot in a way which suggests that it’s just as swoon-worthy as when Cloud protected Tifa from a fall in a prior scene. However, another notable example is how the high-five gesture is linked to Cloud’s opening up to Aerith (as he has to be persuaded over the course of several scenes to do the high-five), but Aerith also high-fives Tifa in other scenes later, effectively appropriating the gesture. So while I never expect it to ever become canon, Remake’s Aerti has been a wonderful surprise and I hope to see even greater developments in their relationship within this subtextual space as the FFVII: Remake trilogy progresses.

Let's all hope for the best-- in the meantime, please enjoy this compilation!

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

One random funny shipping trope I like occasionally is when the same person ends up dating two members of the same family (either at the same time (dating the parent and their kid) or at different times (dating the parent/ancestor/elder and then dating the child/descendant/younger at a later date)

Some notable examples from my brain:

Urbosa x Botw Zelda's mother + Zelbosa

What can I say? I first saw the former on Twitter and loved the fanart/au ideas of this ship. Frankly, I like it on its own whether as an au where they got married/became partners, or even if it's a homoerotic friendship with unrequited feelings (on Urbosa's end at the very least).

As for the latter, it kind of just struck me when I first watched that memory in base botw where Urbosa is holding Zelda as she sleeps (tuckered out from surveying) and talks to Link about her. This scene really set Urbosa up as a comforting presence to Zelda, and the knowledge that Urbosa displays sets her up as someone just inherently close to her (or at least someone who has been watching her all this time)

Under the framework of this post though, I love to imagine that Urbosa either has/had a secret thing with Zelda's mother, watched over her diligently and tried to position herself as a helpful presence, and then once Zelda properly grew up and started to get older, feelings (on Zelda's side first) started to grow more uncertain. I'd like to think under this framework that once Zelda becomes an adult and comes to terms with these feelings, she becomes embarassed around Urbosa😂

Or, as someone I know once said "Don't you think it's funny? Urbosa had a thing with the mother and the daughter!"

I also can't help but think back to this post I saw on my for you page about how a "MILF" should specifically be a woman old enough to be your mother. So like. It's also funny to imagine like, a sweet childhood friends situation with past!Urbosa/Zelda's mom, but then Zelda being so down bad for a MILF with eventual Zelbosa

Botw Zelimpa + Zelpaya

Now, I've shipped Zelimpa in botw since Age of Calamity released. Real princess and her number one bodyguard kind of situation seemed to be going on there (for the record, I watched the trailer and played chapter 1 of that game). As for Paya/Zelda, I didn't really think much about it until I (1.) got into botw Zelimpa and (2.) went through Paya's diary in botw and it hit me that Paya could very plausibly be into both Zelda as well as Link.

Under the framework of this post, I really can't help but think of them like parallels to the movie Hook (Paralleling Peter/Wendy and Peter/Moira). In this case, it's funny to me to imagine Zelda having this deep bond and relationship between Impa during AoC era, and then 100 years later (post botw) when she finally meets Impa again, Impa introduces her to Paya. And while Zelda sort of slowly falls for Paya as they hang out and get to know each other and talk, the feelings hit Paya like cupid's arrow (I love you bi crisis Paya).

Nanago + Goyuu

This one sorta came about because (in addition to both of these ships) I like those aus where Nanami is Yuji's adoptive parent. And so it's funny to imagine a situation in which Nanago are exes and/or divorced, and then like years later Yuji and Gojo have one of those chance meeting x romcom romances where they both find out after the fact that Gojo was once with Nanami, but it ends up being Nanami who's the most annoyed and bothered about this situation in the end

Nanami really wishes his adoptive son would dump his ex's ass😂

Rigurd/Siguriddle + Hayariddle

This one's a bit different just because Hayato is Sigurd's reincarnation rather than Sigurd being Hayato's ancestor, but it’s close enough. And it's close enough because this is actually arguably pretty close to UR canon?😂

Like Riddle has an entire King and his most devoted servant/secretary thing going on. There is so much implying that Riddle was probably in love with him, if not that they actually were involved as a couple. And then after his lord (Sigurd) dies, he dutifully makes sure that his beloved's soul reincarnates properly. And then he watches over and protects Hayato (said reincarnation) as he grows up, sets his plans in motion and inserts himself into Hayato's life when Hayato turns 17, and then grows attached to him enough that when he finally ressurects his dear lord after centuries, he chooses his reincarnation over him. And if the ending of that manga tells me anything, it’s that Riddle really did get the King and his reincarnation 😂

Vintaker + R!Ciel/Undertaker

I haven't actually read far enough into BB to know a lot of details, but all I need to know is that the Undertaker may have been implied to be involved with generations of phantomhives, that he did canonically hang with Vincent, and that he's like the Sebastian to R!Ciel. Funny to imagine him involved with the father, and so too his precious dead heir that the undertaker went through the trouble of trying to bring back

Lansoni + King Sonic/Galahad

If you follow me you may have already seen me posting about them but regardless

Satbk is the only continuity where a version of Shadow (Lancelot in this case) is arguably Silver's (Galahad's) dad. I will be completely real with you it is so funny to imagine King Arthur "Sonic" Pendragon being involved in a relationship with two of his knights, both of which just so happen to be father and son. Shenanigans abound. It's funny to imagine

[manicmermaidbaby]

Fic Writer Interview

Tagged by @lavellenchanted

tagging @intosnarkness @hsavinien

How many works do you have on ao3?

58. 18 of those posted since summer 2023. Also some of my works are fanvids, although most of my fanvids are just on my youtube.

What’s your total word count?

442,507! Almost half of that is one fic lol

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

How Not to Drown (Hellcheer)

(Don't Let Me Get) What You Want (Hellcheer)

Far Less Alone (Keyleth/Vax)

Butterflies (Jester introspective, Fjorester)

The Only One I Ever Saved (Hellcheer, Companion to How Not to Drown)

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I used to not reply bc I thought it was considered rude on ao3! I don't know where I got this idea but I thought you were 'inflating your numbers' so I didn't do it. Now I DO reply which I think makes everyone much happier and I really enjoy interacting with my readers!

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

So. I'm a happy ending person. I write angst with happy endings. However I do have Missat. Which is based off speculation and clues that maybe having babies is hard for asgardians aka miscarriage fic so it's all about loss and there's no magical healing or anything it's just grief

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

That's gotta be Too Sweet. Hellcheer style Scoops Ahoy ad made me write the CUTEST date fic and torture Chrissy in the process and it's just pure spun sugar.

Do you write crossovers?

not unless we're counting crossing comic/mcu canon but I'm not opposed to it! Also my witch!chrissy fic idea borrows from Critical Role which is my next project that I'm planning to start in january....

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No! I did once get someone come right onto my tumblr post and go 'i don't think eddie would have [x] but otherwise i liked it a lot' and dear tumblrite you can keep that shit to yourself lol.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. Too much arguably. There's far too much smut in WYW but i didn't know how to remove it and eh, no one complained.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of! Hopefully never.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of..

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have written in the same universe as a friend but not co written a singular fic. I however have RPed for years so like. basically? I mean there is sooooo much rp on my sif blog lol.

What's your all-time favourite ship?

based on my output it's Hellcheer. No one else has taken over my brain this way. I do however also have to say Thorsif. They are my eternal loves.

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

jokes on you I don't post WIPs. I do have a DND au in my docs that i really like the idea of but once i got into it i'm not sure if it's working. so probably that. I also worry about ever finishing my season 4 rewrite. that's a matter of picking it and writing it, but I plan to get a new job and ANY new job will mean less writing time.

What are your writing strengths?

dialogue, and I think I'm very good at writing convincing emotional arcs!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions *hides*

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

I think it depends heavily on purpose and canon. If you need your readers to understand the other language than you have to have a way of translation, which can be difficult if you're doing anything longer than a word or two that the fandom might already know by osmosis. I haven't had to deal with multiple languages in fics much, thankfully, so I don't know all the options.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Gundam Wing.

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

I have an unfinished Briarwoods backstory fic that in an ideal world i would finish and post

What's your favourite fic you've written?

This is hard because there's a lot of variation in my fic writing but I think it has to go to How Not to Drown which, while the pacing is a little funky, is pure teen drama in your veins and is a story that means a lot to me.

[straightbaittournament]

may the best bait win! propaganda under the cut

norea and el5n:

[SPOILERS] One of them (Norea) was killed just after accepting a proposal to travel the world with Elan. Spoilers! Norea gets killed right as she is agreeing to El5n's plea for them to escape the war* and run away together instead of laying down their lives as replaceable tools. *(referring to it as "the war" is a oversimplification of the political conflict they're involved in, done on purpose to save time/space for this submission)  (Side note that I think should be taken into consideration in classifying the ship as straight bait: The actual main couple of the show is an f/f couple. They are engaged to be married [Update because the finale just aired today: epilogue shows them now married with their wedding rings on], they both live, & their developing relationship is a main driving force for the plot, in-part because said engagement is a very purposeful Revolutionary Girl Utena reference, because the show's head writer also wrote the novel adaptation of Utena) [END OF SPOILERS] So El5n was actually really annoying to watch for most people when he was introduced, but watching El5n and Norea annoy each other was very enjoyable, especially while they were locked in a room together (along with Nika) because any of them being out and about would be inconvenient for the faction each of them had gotten tangled up with.  [HEY so originally these were 10+ image links in this section, but tumblr won't let me copy paste them all at once as that many links are not allowed on a post, and for me to post them as unlinked text i would have to post them unspaced and then go through and find where each individual link ends and add a space, which is a level of extra work i'd rather not do for this tournament. if the writer of the propaganda wants to send me a more condensed set of links or pics either through messages or by inbox please feel free, but as of now i'm just gonna leave it blank]

picard and crusher:

They have a number of romantic moments throughout the TNG series from arguably the first but DEFINITELY the second episode. but they only get together (briefly before divorcing) in an alternate timeline episode which is also the season finale. Also they have a kid together in Picard but are still not allowed to be together She was married to his best friend and he was in love with her but wouldn’t say anything because he wouldn’t want to damage his bestie’s marriage and then his friend died and they met again years later and shared a lot of romantic and sexual tension for years. He openly admitted (under mind reading) that he had loved her since his bestie was alive but felt he couldn’t act on it. In an alternate future they got married. In the canon future they got together and broke up repeatedly because trauma makes relationships hard sometimes and they have a kid together who is named after the aforementioned bestie. An episode forcing them to share thoughts makes him openly admit that he loves her and has loved her for years even when she was married to his best friend.

[aeternallis]

KPTS Fic Trope: Kim should grovel / Semi-deep dive commentary of the breakup scene

I've seen a number of fans complaining about this trope, so I wanted to talk about it. XD Before that though, I will admit that I myself don't fully understand this trope--or rather, I'm not really sure what this trope fully entails? Because ngl, it sometimes also feels like readers/writers don't actually mind this trope, just only up to a certain extent.

And for anyone curious, I'm firmly on the camp that KimChay should yell/fight out their problems in the most unhinged manner possible like feral beans with lots of sexual tension to muck through AND with no one else involved cuz for the majority of the show, they were off in their own little world anyway~

But I may be on the minority in that, lol So, I digress.

From what I've gathered of this trope though, I'm assuming it's basically: -Kim begging Chay to talk to him/forgive him/ give him a second chance -Kim's own brothers takes Chay's side -VegasPete is somehow in Chay's affections and gets one up over Kim? -Basically no one is on Kim's side, lol

Depending on the execution of the fic, all or some of these points may be featured in the story in order to get these two lovebirds back together.

And honestly? I think the reason why this trope is so popular but also has its share of detractors is because people are looking for the payback or shall I say, "equivalent exchange" of this scene in particular:

It's arguably their most heartbreaking moment in the series, and I will admit, for some people who've had a bad breakup or two in their lives, it may hit a little too close to home, yknow?

And see, I've brought up the opinion before and will reiterate again that what the audience understands about KimChay's circumstances IS NOT what Chay understands as the character that makes up one half of this semi-canon ship.

And based on your understanding of this (as well as your preference, ofc) lies the difference as to whether you like/hate/feel neutral about this trope.

Sure, we can say that Kim did nothing physically to hurt Chay. We can say that Kim did what he had to do in order to keep Chay safe and not draw him into the dangerous world of the mafia, that he was looking out for Chay's best interests. There's just enough of Kim acting like a simp for Chay in the show to get this point across.

But be that as it may, Chay is not the audience. He's not a mind reader, especially not towards someone like Kim who's already closed off and hard to understand to begin with. Lol

And Chay not being able to read Kim's mind or intentions is not a failing on his part as a character; on the contrary, it's what makes him more human and sympathetic to the audience. There's a difference between emotional intelligence and having confidence in another person's motivations. In which case, I think herein lies the other distinction, if you, as the audience, are either willing to give Chay too much credit, too little credit, or just enough to get the ball rolling.

I think what tends to be forgotten about Chay's character at times is that for all his bravery, boldness, and intelligence (which deserves all the praise in the world, because holy moly, if only I had half his guts, I would get a lot more shit done), Chay is also someone who deeply respects people's boundaries. He's a noble character in that way, and why I think in particular Porsche did such a wonderful job raising him.

And we've seen this a number of times, from their very first meeting. He was brave for asking Kim to be his teacher, but didn't push to persuade him otherwise when Kim couldn't say yes. He was bold in tracking where Kim lives to serenade to him, but knew when he had to back off. And even when he confessed to Kim, there was no expectation of his affections being returned, only that he had wanted to show his gratitude to Kim for letting him do his best, and hoping perhaps that the time they spent together would always remain special to Kim.

In this regard, Chay remains loyal to himself and his steadfast nature without ever pushing for more than what Kim could give. But what made the breakup scene painful I think is not just because Kim made Chay believe that he had never loved him, but also because Kim muddled Chay's understanding of the boundaries between them. I would maybe even go so far as to say that what Kim did to Chay was basically a form of gaslighting.

And in muddling that crucial understanding between them, the full scale of the implications in regards to what Chay must have felt in that moment, in my opinion, cannot be overstated:

-the abject humiliation of having believed that someone had returned your feelings, only for it to be implied otherwise by said someone, no matter what Kim's meaning was with his "I'm sorry" LOL -the doubt and lack of confidence in yourself due to misunderstanding someone, without even knowing it -the fear of having shared so much of yourself, when the other person may not even have wanted nor cared for what you had to share in the first place -the loneliness that comes after having experienced all of these emotions, particularly for Chay who was already feeling left behind by his own brother

It's not a surprise tbh, why Chay chose to pull away from not only Kim after this scene, but also from Porsche, at least on an emotional level. Negative emotions like these tend to spill over to the perception of other relationships in one's life; it's hardly ever only contained to the relationship they originated from.

All of these things are painful human experiences, not just something that fictional characters go through, yknow?

And this is why I think this trope is so popular with the KimChay fic writers to begin with. I imagine that those who have written reconciliation fics that feature this trope are highly sympathetic to Chay's plight due to their own lived experiences, and why, while I myself am not necessarily a fan of it, also choose not to judge it.

It's basically wanting to find that sort of satisfaction in fiction that otherwise isn't always found in reality, using said points in the trope.

Ultimately, Kim is the one who muddled that important understanding between himself and Chay. This being the case, Kim has to be the one to untangle them now, imperatively so for some writers, to the point it's at the cost of losing one's dignity (the begging part) and standing alone (his own brothers don't have his back).

[aeon-borealis]

The simplest answer to why Alenoah became popular is a fanfic called Slippery Slopes by courtney-deserved-better on Ao3 happened. The fic saw Heather being eliminated rather than Noah during 'I See London…' as it explored how Alejandro and Noah's semi-friendship turned rivalry turned romance would look like in this TDWT rewrite.

Alenoah did exist as a rare pair before with a few authors who were loyal from the beginning, but that fic put it on the map. It led to an explosion of TDWT rewrites with Alenoah, which eventually to authors realizing they could put these two in even further Situations. It also led to a bunch of fanart for the fic being made on tumblr. Which exposed more people to the ship and its potential as a different flavor of Aleheather. Which led to even more art and it became a huge snowball until you now see.

I'm under the impression that it pulled most of its fans from Noco since Alenoah arguably has more basis in canon that you can work from. Not to diss on Noco of course, I just don't see where else the fans could have come from since I don't think they just popped out of nowhere, and Noco had the most fans with the potential of conversation purely based on the number of fans.

That's just my theory though! I've only been in the TD fandom for a couple of months thanks to Island of the Slaughtered so I'm basing all of this on my observations via tumblr and Ao3 rather than being in the fandom during rise of Alenoah.

Thanks for answering my question on where this might have started! I'm definitely curious about that fic. Noah has only so much screen time and following him to a final 2 scenario, regardless of ship fodder, sounds fantastic.

I think your theory is plausible. I was active in the Total Drama fandom between 2010-2014, but only came back recently. At that time, Noco was definitely one of the popular ships next to Duncey. The height of it was definitely 2007-09 because of the "ship tease" accidentally cuddling together scene in Island. Noah's always been a fan favorite. And the fandom fell in love with Alejandro the minute he appeared on screen.

This is a very generalized opinion, but early fandom for anything was really, really attached to whether or not a ship was canon. LGBT pairs of any kind were sparse in cartoons or Western animation at large. Noco makes sense from the perspective that these two had the closest, plausible chance at canon. Even if it was a snowball's chance in hell.

More recently, fans are a lot more open and receptive to crackships and rarepairs than the early 2010s. While this is a wildly different example, Alenoah kinda reminds me of how fan content helped Hanamusa (Pokemon) take off and become as popular as it is now. I want to do more research on this. I might end up writing an essay if I'm not careful, lol.

[coraniaid]

Willow also for the character ask game

General opinion/how much I care about them: I’ve always really liked Willow, ever since I first watched Buffy.  I think that she is without doubt the second most complex and richest character on the show (after Buffy herself, of course).  I like that Willow gets to be a girl who is good with computers and likes math puns and teaches her friends trigonometry.  I like that she gets to turn Xander down in Prophecy Girl despite spending years waiting for him to notice her.  I like the fact that she has a real arc across the show’s run, one that often involves her not being a very admirable person.  I like that she’s a bit of a hypocrite and that she isn’t afraid to hold a grudge.  I like that all her worst flaws arise naturally out of her greatest virtues.

A ship I love: Boring answer maybe but I think all of Willow’s canon relationships are good in their own way.  (Well, all her canon relationships apart from the one with the evil demon that lives in the internet.  Not really sure about that one.)  Wanting to be loved and to be in a romantic relationship feels like a very substantial part of Willow’s character, actually (see, relatedly, all the different  times Willow tries to make Buffy happier by setting her up with somebody). But sure, Tara/Willow is my favorite.  It’s the best (and arguably most long-lasting) thing to come out of Season 4, too.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Buffy and Willow’s friendship is one of the most important parts of the show to me, and I think it’s as important to them as any other relationship either of them have.  And I honestly think it is better done and develops more organically than any of Buffy’s romances. Willow’s journey from “why is the new girl being nice to me? what does she want? I’d better memorize and act on every bit of bad advice she gives me so she’ll like me” to “Buffy is my best friend and we’re going to go to grad school together, so she simply isn’t allowed to stay dead” (and Buffy’s corresponding journey from “why is my brand new friend Cordelia being so mean to this poor girl?  wait, is Cordelia a bad person?  am I?” to “okay, since bad things will happen to Willow if I don’t stop the Master I guess I’ll just go and fight the Master and die“) just feels a lot more real than any number of love at first sight plotlines.  I really wish they got to talk more in Season 7.

The NOTP: I think not having Willow and Xander end up together is one of the smartest choices the early seasons of the show ever made.  As childhood friends they work really well, but as a couple … no.

My biggest headcanon about them: I’ve decided that I think Willow and Cordelia were friends when they were very young, and that the whole “We Hate Cordelia” stuff only happened after Cordelia met Harmony and publicly distanced herself from Willow to fit in with her new cooler friends.  I think that explains some of Willow’s animosity to Harmony in particular (who she seems to hate more than Cordelia, even though we barely ever see Willow and Harmony interact), and I don’t think the way Willow and Cordelia talk to each other in late S1 / early S2 really makes sense if they’ve never gotten on before.  (This theory fits the little the show reveals about their personal timelines, too, I think: the show at least implies that Xander has known Cordelia for a couple of years longer than Willow has known Harmony, and we also know that Willow and Xander have been inseparable since kindergarten.)

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: If I ever find the time and energy to write a direct sequel to my Season 3 Buffy AU, I think Willow would be the main character.  (I actually have a vague outline half plotted out for it and everything, though it’s really not very likely I will find the time to work on it any time soon.)   Maybe I’ve just never looked in the right places, but I don’t think there are many plot-heavy Buffy fanfics where Willow plays a truly central role. 

Something that makes me think of them: Uh. So, this is a bit of a non sequitur (and very much a case of me projecting onto my blorbo, I know) but it kind of annoys me that the show suggests that Willow is majoring in sociology (or at least something adjacent to that) in college.  Yes, I get that she has to be in the same classes as Buffy sometimes in Season 4 and 5 for plot reasons, and she has to be doing something Buffy at least expects to be able to follow for the brief and disappointing return to college in Season 6 to work.  And yes, I know that Season 4 deliberately plays up the whole “Willow’s not into computers much these days, if you know what I mean” angle, (although I’d note that she still seems to know her way around a computer fine in later seasons when the plot requires it).  

But in high school Willow was clearly more into STEM than anything else, what with the science fairs and the hacking and being head-hunted by a computer company and … look, I just think she should have been allowed to major in math, okay?  

I mean, abstract algebra has root systems and crystals and spurious use of the word ‘quantum’ and really atrociously bad puns!  You get to learn a secret little language that most people don’t understand and consider yourself part of a semi-mystical tradition stretching back thousands of years and draw elaborate geometric figures and convince yourself you’re learning something fundamental about the nature of reality just by thinking really hard! You’re telling me teenage Wiccan and confirmed nerd Willow Rosenberg – who was covering for her computer science teacher as a high school junior and who, it’s at least implied, did even better at the math component of the SAT than the verbal, and who explicitly chose Sunnydale in part because she’d be able to design her own curriculum  – wouldn’t love all of that?  

… anyway, yes, as I said, it’s possible I may be projecting here just a tiny little bit.

But anyway.  My answer to the actual question is that sometimes I am reading a math textbook and I think: “oh, I bet Willow would love learning about this”.

[tacky-jack-with-a-hat]

So some Mother Nature/Florida headcannons

(Bc I just found out that last week a 100 year old tree fell on DeSantis's house...)

• This ship is more complex than you think

• They frequently flip between intense love and trying to undermine or sabotage each other

• When in love they will throw hurricane parties, have beach days or take their alligator children on a walk through everglades.

•Nature loves Making waves for Florida as he plays in the water.

•In the winter she will purposely make it just cold enough so he could snuggle up to her.

•Florida admires her power and terrifying she can be, seeing her chaos and storms just as beautiful as the rest of her creations.

• Like Floui they are a crime duo that function on chaos and passion but Nature is less calm and controlled then Loui yet she is stronger and arguably more dangerous than Florida. This shows during her fights with Florida.

•Nature has threatened to drown Miami on multiple occasions, climate scientists say she isn't joking 😃

• Her love for Florida comes from his unique environment. The peninsula state is one of the most biodiverse States in America (7th for known animal species and 6th for vascular plant species) and Mother Nature wants him to be healthy and maintain his unique ecosystem.

• Things were fine when they first met as for most of Florida's history he was considered inhospitable swamp trash so people avoided him. Leaving just him and Nature alone.

• But when people did came Nature refused to share Florida with real estate developers; using her tropical storms, hurricanes and high temperature to keep people away from Florida.

• For example during Florida's 1920s housing boom (when he was entering tourism industry) she threw two hurricanes at him that was stronger than anticipated, developers to become bankrupt and the growth to halt.

• However, their conflict arises from Florida's unchecked tourism industry. 44% of his vertebrates are declining in number, most likely due to habitat loss (such as the Everglades being shrunk down by 50%) in order to build hotels, fast food chains, highways, attractions or holiday homes. Not to mention animal behaviour changes when tourists with little knowledge of the wildlife end up frightening and harassing the animals and pollute habitats. There's also SeaWorld.

Florida blames all of this on individual tourists whilst Mother Nature blames him for inviting the tourists in the first place and not looking after himself.

• From Florida's perspective he thinks Mother Nature doesn't want to see his success or enjoy things unrelated to her and is either ignorant or indifferent to her problems.

• It's also canon that Florida makes fun of her for the parts of the year when they're not together.

• Mother Nature however sees his attitude to global warming as unsustainable and self destructive but as the embodiment of an unstoppable force she ends up lashing out and causing more problems

• Everyone is against them being together, with Loui staging an intervention for Florida. He denies anything is wrong and will talk excitedly about his "fierce" girlfriend and the storms she makes.

• Florida likes being cradled and likes the way he is so unless someone else does something he's never going to give up Mother Nature nor give her the sustainable relationship she needs.

• Claire (Nature's assistant from the video) and some other countries often attempt interventions . Nature will always end up crying and questioning herself and Florida and vows never to ever go back to him.

• But then hurricane season comes and she falls for it again. Each time with a new idea how to "fix" their relationship for good.

• If they ever get married Florida is going to be one of those grooms who smashes the cake in the wife's face when she told him not to.

• Florida has mommy issues and this relationship proves it.

[shadowgeist-stars]

Behold, my Genklintville headcanons and other tidbits

Yeah, turns out I ship two polycules in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. One is Asobaroryuu, and the other is this. I've honestly got a healthy number of headcanons for each, but I'll focus on this one for now. With that said, albeit probably not very well organized, on to the listing!

Genshin and his wife, Sayaka, were a failed arranged marriage romance. They were friends, but really couldn't bring themselves to be more than that even after having Kazuma. Even if they both loved their son to pieces, the lack of proper closeness between one another was a small point of tension that they had to hide from their son.

It would be considered massively scandalous and against most teachings of bushido for a man from a samurai family like Genshin to feel or act on any sort of need for connection, let alone via relations with foreigners. But before he left for Great Britain, Sayaka decided those taboos didn't mean shit to her, and ensured he'd leave knowing he had her blessing if he finally found someone to love him as he deserved.

Klint's prone to switching into this Julius Novachrono-level geek mode when it comes to swords; especially swords that aren't commonly found in the West. So when Genshin first met Klint, the first thing out of Klint's mouth was asking about Karuma. Luckily, this works in his favor, as the best way to befriend and bond with a samurai is talking about their beloved ancestral sword.

In the first attack on Klint that Genshin was involved in, he managed to break some of the attackers' weapons in the ensuing fight along with getting in the usual hits on the guys themselves. Somehow, the thugs themselves didn't learn all that quickly that taking on Genshin would mean losing their own blades against Karuma. As far as Klint was concerned, though, this just made Genshin his new sparring partner.

The maiden name of Klint's wife is Adelia Baskerville, known as the Bloom of the Baskervilles. She's all about tea blends, fusses over all of her boys (Klint, Genshin, and even Barok), adores animals, and first met Klint through a fateful encounter involving a runaway Balmung in a park.

Speaking of Balmung, Genshin's first meeting with the giant deerhound mix was also the first time he was brought to the Van Zieks manor for an introductory spar with Klint. Balmung knocked Genshin off his feet the second the door was opened and was inexplicably very attached to him from that point on. Don't worry; he warmed up to the big goober fairly quickly.

By the way, there are actually a bunch of hunting dogs on the Van Zieks estate. Balmung is just Klint's favorite since he's the only one he personally raised from puppyhood.

That being said, Adelia has an unexpected Mama Bear streak that EVERYONE forgets about. If you say/do anything that she reacts to with anything less than a smile, you should know you divinely fucked up and should absolutely start running. Not from the guys, though. No, not when the rest of the hunting dogs arguably listen to her more than her own husband, and she's also more willing to pull out the "sic" command on purpose than Klint.

Adelia has gone out into a dark London night alone because her boys didn't come home after getting attacked. Usually armed with her dogs and sometimes a pistol for good measure.

As far as courtroom behavior, Klint is pompous and arrogant and unleashes all kinds of playful jabs at the Defense (i.e. Klavier-adjacent attitude, Simon-level snark). Private life is where he's a bit more awkward, especially with Adelia.

Klint's courtship with Adelia was actually fairly consensual for the time. By that point, he was already the lord of his household and decided to use his own status to take things at her pace, allowing them to fall for each other before any marriage arrangements were discussed.

Genshin and Klint are a role-reversal of Kazuma and Barok. That is to say, where Kazuma is expected to be the one who annoys Barok in post-canon, Klint was the one who would annoy Genshin in pre-canon.

I might add more in the future, but this is plenty for now. Hope you enjoy!

EDIT: Here are a couple more

It's honestly not hard for Klint or Adelia to fall in love with Genshin. After several of his visits to the manor and even overnight stays, the two wind up confiding in each other about their attraction to him.

The van Zieks family hasn't had any religious affiliation for quite some time. If you ask them about their religion, you won't get anything concrete out of them. They're actually the closest you'll get to modern-day atheists. Among other nobles, they're the detested godless family, but they're legally and morally more respectable than every corrupt noble who wears a cross around their neck.

This is partly due to their legacy of work in the law and just generally disliking how various religious castes tends to mistreat certain people who've done nothing to warrant it, sometimes to the extent of twisting the law to their whims and letting actual criminals in the clergy get away with severe crimes.

The beginning of the non-platonic relationship between Genshin and the nobles happened entirely by accident. They were celebrating a hard-fought win with a really difficult case at the manor and wound up drinking to the point they all blacked out. Genshin winds up getting the full "Morning After" treatment the next day.

Genshin is very starved for affection and touch. He doesn't even realize what's going on with him when being held by his newfound lovers makes him weirdly sleepy and even subconsciously clingy. At the same time, however, the shame and internalized homophobia hits him hard, even while Klint and Adelia reassure him that there's no need to beat himself up over it.

By the way, Adelia's hair when it's down is basically the exact same as that of her daughter. Coral pink, very curly, and kinda puffed out. Klint and Genshin both admit that her hair looks better when it isn't done up into her usual tight bun.

[thesearchforbluejello]

I am once again asking.meme why The Stars at Night is one of the singularly greatest episodes of all Trek???????

I am such a sucker for big space battles and the current Trek era has delivered on that a few times, but this one might be my very favorite one. Like the moment when all the ships drop out of warp makes me absolutely lose it. I can count on one hand the number of TV shows that have made me cry, but this episode makes me cry every time specifically at that point????

The moment where one of the yellow Cali class ships physically blocks Cerritos from the Aledo??? And where Mariner uses Petra's little ship to block and destroy that last shot??? The choreography of the whole battle scene both at Douglas Station and then after the Cali class ships show up is just so, so good.

AnD tHe CaLi cLasS cHaNT?!?!?!?!

The meta implications of how fast the Cali class arrives is wild-- it's said a few times that Cali class ships are kind of junky and old, and when Freeman asks for maximum warp, Boimler says he's engaged warp 8... the Cerritos maxing out at warp 8 before severe damage to the struts and core (as Billups says and as visually shown) makes it significantly slower than the Intrepid class, because Voyager maxed out at warp 9.975 unless you want to be a salamander, and Voyager was about ten years out of date from Federation tech by LD s1. Voyager got Borgified, of course, but it's specifically said at least in the 5x23 Voy ep Relativity in one of the 2371 scenes that that's its specs before launch and thus before Borgification, though 2x15 Threshold establishes it can't travel over 9.95 for more than a short period of time. We don't actually know when the Cali class or the Cerritos itself was launched, but they're canonically aging noticeably by the early 2380s.

TL;DR If the Cerritos pushes past warp 8 and sustains considerable damage doing it, it's presumably very dangerous to do that yet the Cali class arrives extremely quickly to their defense, despite not all being close by. It's For the Narrative™ of course, but still. It's arguable that all of those crews took a significant risk to save the Cerritos, and that just makes me need to scream into the void for a hot minute.

[faecaribou]

Top 5 MarckCU characters and why along with ur fav series so far? :000

The Host - I just think he's neat. We don't have much of him personality wise that isnt fanon rather than canon but I adore him anyway. I've done wayyy too much self-shipping when it comes to the Host. I think we would hate each other but sometimes its fun to be black for someone, to use the homestuck terminology. Kinda guy who I would get into a fistfight with and then we would sit down and watch a movie together.

Head Engineer Mark - I am an insecure hopeless romantic so when we got a guy who would die a million times for us and never think a bad thought about us I adored him immediately. Then he DID turn on us and I was soooo distraught. Then he realized it was all his fault and when back to practically worshipping us. The Captain could've turned EVIL and KILLED EVERYONE at the end of ISWM 2 and our head engineer would never stray from our side. He is Obsessed. I should continue my fic where the Captain goes insane but Mark sticks by our side.

Darkiplier - Imagine a guy(?) who is obsessed with us. Yes, yes, head engineer Mark, I know. Now imagine the OTHER guy. When ADWM first came out I watched it and my first ending was the chocolate ice cream. i was genuinely afraid of darkiplier. like i had nightmares. WKM definitely changed my attitude about this guy.

Yancy - Arguably one of the top 4 most emotionally aware egos. I need more of him. I would stay in prison for him but I would also break him OUT of prison. He dances AND he sings.

those four were EASY choices for me but oohhhh who would I add to this list? Jim? Last year I would've said Google or Yandere. If it's MarkCU in general I'd say Mack. I hate Mack. I love Mack. I want to bite him. I want him to become increasingly concerned for my well-being.

WAIT OMG How could I have forgotten. Stan the Water Man. Stan is my number five no shot. I loved those videos but since he's in Space he's part of the MarkCU so Stan the Water Man. I was about to say Jim but Stan is a lot like Jim I can't explain it.

Fav series: I cannot deny the effort and beauty put into ISWM 1 and 2, or the emotional pull of WKM. The superb acting of WMLW. The fun of ADWM. I think I was most hype for ISWM, I watch WKM the most, but my favorite series was A Heist With Markiplier. My first ending was on Caveman Mat's island, and I about burst into tears when Mark pulled us out of the ocean after the storm. I really love choose-you-own-adventures, and ISWM's all-choices-lead-to-the-same-ending kind of takes a bit of fun out of it. So Heist is my favorite.

[katvonbirb]

20 questions writer meme

Trying to get back into putting words onto a page, so why not do a bit of retrospective? Can't hurt, at least, lmao.

For anyone that isn't aware or would like to browse tags and summaries before clicking the direct links below, I am Pandelion on Ao3. My answers below are based on my Ao3 fics, for the most part. 1. How many works do you have on AO3? 35

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 207,935 (arguably, only 150k are mine due to cowritten fic)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Bleach and Yin Yang Master most recently, but I've previously written for SPN, MCU, Teen Wolf, LoTR and a number of other fandoms over the last almost twenty years.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Begins A New Beginning (Teen Wolf, 3.2k words, alternate canon)

2. The Captain And The Dragon (Avengers, 600 words, fantasy AU ficlet)

3. kiss with a fist (better than none) (Bleach, 5.5k words, canon divergent post-Aizen)

4. Here There Be Dragons (Vikings, 6.4k words, alt. canon, dragon!Athelstan)

5. Making It Work (Avengers, 5.2k words, daemon AU where Phil Coulson is Fury's daemon)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try to and I absolutely read every single comment I get, but answering them doesn't always happen for one reason or another.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I enjoy a good spot of angst, but I rarely end on it. That said, i will not replace (what i lost in you) and it's sequel hands shaking with regret (i've held this dream) for the Yin Yang Master fandom is probably the winner.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Hmm, probably 'neath the love-light gleam, which was written for a Bleach Secret Santa gift exchange and is almost entirely fluff.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Haven't yet!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? The kind that doesn't get posted in public fics lmao. Honestly, I think only 2 or 3 of the fics I've posted to Ao3 even have sexual content beyond like, kissing and holding hands. The one fic that is actually marked as Explicit is probably surprisingly non-vanilla-ish for being the only one I've posted? But yeah, most of my explicit writing happens outside of Ao3.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I was going to say yes, but then realized that I haven't written an actual crossover since my LJ days. I usually write AUs based on other existing media, such as daemon AUs (His Dark Materials) or something like my rewriting of The Mummy (1999) with Bleach characters. That said, I once wrote a SPN/Gundam Wing crossover, that's probably the craziest one I've written.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have! One of my fics was translated into Polish last year. I don't read Polish, so I haven't been able to read it, but I'm super thrilled that someone liked it enough to do so!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I have one fic listed as co-written on Ao3, so technically yes, but I'm really on there more as part of the back-end development side, as my cowriter has done the vast majority of the actual writing. I love to rp, but actually co-writing is more difficult, in a way.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? Oh man, um. I'm going to say Grimmjow/Ichigo from Bleach, since their dynamic keeps pulling me back in, but honestly there are so many pairings that I gravitate back to again and again.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? There are so many WIPs in my gdocs that will never see the light of day, honestly. So many snippets of ideas and concepts that won't get fleshed out. I have two WIPs currently posted and I'm praying to get the inspiration/ability to finish them, so hopefully they won't join the list of never to be finished fics.

16. What are your writing strengths? World-building, for sure. I love settings, I love developing and establishing a world in a fic. And not in the, like, writing down all the details of the world sort of way, but in the broad strokes of character actions and interactions. I've also been told that my general style of writing is pretty great, but that might have been from a biased source lmao.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Pacing, most likely. Plot of any real sort. If you look at my Ao3, the vast majority of my fics are 5k or under, usually under 3k or so. I have such a hard time with long form fic, I have no idea how to properly pace things, I don't use outlines much at all, and constructing a plot is hard lmao. I much prefer to give little oneshots of a concept or something, leave the bigger plot implied and waiting in the wings.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? So hard! Doing a direct translation works for some things, but other stuff can be way too tangled up in the messiness of real language. I'd definitely prefer to have a native speaker that I can consult about it if I were to do anything with more than a phrase or two.

19. First fandom you wrote for? So, way back before I knew about ff.net or LiveJournal, way before Ao3 was a thing, I wrote what was effectively Dragonrider of Pern fic. After that, probably Rurouni Kenshin or Yu Yu Hakusho.

20. Favorite fic you've written? and the stars led me back to you (Bleach, 4.4k words, Grimmjow/Ichigo, space!au). I love all my fics, of course, but this one was just so good, very much a case of me writing something with myself as the intended audience. I reread it fairly often. kiss with a fist (better than none) is probably a fairly close runner-up, though, I am still so pleased with some of the dialogue and dynamics in that.

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20 questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tag @emeralddoeadeer! Am I using this to avoid writing? ... maybe

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

63 (I can think of at least 5 more that were orphaned or deleted)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,561,814 (lower than I expected tbh!)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, mostly Miraculous Ladybug and Star Wars

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

It's... all Harry Potter Everyone Lives AU. Literally, my top 8 are all the HP AU (the epilogue, however, comes in at 10 for some reason). So excluding the Spiders Georg of my fanfic kudos, my top 5 are: 9. By Her Side (miraculous ladybug smut) 11. The Gladiator Games (percy jackson - everyone dies au) 12. Office Number One (chase works out her HP complaints in a different way than the AU) 13. Movie Night at the Manor (dick grayson tries not to mope about the parallels between jason and the winter soldier) 14. 2am (i make people cry about young justice)

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

I try to respond to all comments. I don't quite get them all - but I try. Fic is about community, and I've made so many friends through Ao3 comments (including the lovely person who tagged me~)

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

Not even a toss up. It's The Gladiator Games, where I slaughter, one by one, all the Heroes of Olympus.

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

As I skim my list of fics, I find I'm not very into happy endings. I'm into hopeful endings, which I don't think are necessarily the same thing. I think I have to go with By Her Side, which, even though I've written a dozen Ladybug identity reveals, I think is the happiest. Even that one, though, ends on the hope that they can keep it this time, rather than reset the world like they've had to before.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

The closest I got to hate was people bitching at the HP AU for including Wolfstar (or for not including wolfstar, which is fucking funny tbh), and one or two people who complained that it wasn't different enough from canon or interesting enough. But, if the AU had not had such a lovely, kind, wonderful reception by folks overall, I probably never would have finished it.

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

I do write smut. I enjoy writing smut. I like paralleling emotional vulnerability to physical vulnerability. I used to write really kinky smut but I've become less enamored with writing it in the last few years -- that said I do still come back to my Percy/Annabeth/Piper/Jason fic that is kinky as all hell.

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

I don't know that it can be found anymore, but I used to have a Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons at Hogwarts fic. No idea if I orphaned or deleted it. I had all 7 years outlined. It was credited on Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons wikis, links all broken now. I think only managed to write 3 of them before I quit the whole thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

At least twice people have tried posting the HP AU on Wattpad or Ao3 as their own. Which is... an odd choice. Like, I'm not fandom famous, but it's a pretty distinctive fic. Both got taken down fairly quickly.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Some old, orphaned DCU smut got translated into Chinese. The HP AU has been translated into both Portuguese and German.

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

I used to co-write in school. I had a series that a former friend and I were collabing on, but we wrote fully different time periods in a series. I've never had a full fic co-written. Though, arguably, my beta team poured as much blood sweat and tears into the HP AU as I did, helping with everything from plot outlines to character developments to final grammar touches.

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

Percabeth. Something about them is just... so precious to me. I want them happy so badly.

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

Wisdom's Daughter Walks Alone... I know the ending. It's one more chapter. I should just write it. But I can't seem to make myself do it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. No questions asked. I love it and I'm good at it. It was the most consistent positive feedback I got throughout screenwriting and writing courses in school - I've always been very good at distinctive character voices.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot. Is it not enough for a story to be vibes? (If you want to know why I love AUs, Remixes, and songfic/poem frames - it's because I cannot think of an original problem to save my life. I can only borrow others'.)

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

Like all writing, it should be intentional. But, like all fanfic, it's just for fun so do whatever you want. Ultimately, when you write for others, you write to communicate a thought or idea. Writing is telepathy, as Steven King said. So using words from another language is just another set of tools in your belt to communicate an idea. Know your audience and communicate your idea well.

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

Very first ever? Kingdom Hearts. First written and published was Inuyasha. I am... old.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

All the ones I love, I love for different reasons. It's a hard question to answer, when each fic has served a different season in my life. I think I'm just going to pick 3, not necessarily because they are my favorites, but because they are the most vulnerable I have ever been in my writing. So, I don't know if I would say they're my favorite, but they have the most of me in them. 1. A Game of Scars and Secrets 2. Thicker than Water 3. Roots

Tagging @kay-elle-cee, @sunshinemarauder, @rosie-b, and @astargatelover!