#Mac rambles about fic canon

[quakiebaka]

on one hand, I could write a fluffy self indulgent "slow burn" freenoodles fic, but on the other, I could give in and contribute to the already sky high pile of angsty shadowpeach fics and mayhaps project a few things here and there.

or I could actually do mY HOMEWORK–

[life-on]

But I’m also a little devastated by the news because I was holding onto a tiny sliver of hope?? From how I watch the show, Dennis doesn’t believe he’s worthy of love, he’s not necessarily self aware of how horrible some of the stuff he does is but he sees himself as completely unloveable and that’s what bothers him about Mac so much it’s like how can you love *me* of all people, like Mac’s raw vulnerability scares him and their situation raises the question is it possible for Dennis to accept the love he thinks he doesn’t deserve?? And I very badly need the answer to be yes. So I think that would fall under macdennis becoming canon so that’s out I guess but god how cathartic would that be. I generally dislike fics where Mac has self awareness and emotional intelligence so i definitely wouldn’t want that from him but I need some kind of acknowledgment, you know?? That’s what bothered me a lot DTAMHD, I didn’t hate it but it wasn’t the kind of catharsis I was hoping for. Like Dennis got mad at some people, and was able to control it but I was hoping to see more?? Like can we go further? Honestly it left me very curious as to where they’ll go with him in season 17. Has he managed to get a better handle on his rage? If not, what was the point of that? If so, what new things are we going to see from him? Listen I have a lot of thoughts and worries re: the writers’ room but I generally have full faith in Glenn to write Dennis well. Anyway I’m rambling and projecting and it’s a silly fictional show and everything’s fine and I’ll be fine but oof that stung just a little.

[winterpower98]

I'm glad you liked the little fic I threw your way on your birthday :3

It isn't one of my best (that title still goes to "Blood of Gold", in my humble opinion~) but I tried xD

Now, let me throw a random idea at you that has been stuck in my head for the last...three or so days!

So, remember this little throw away line from the first chapter of "Blood of Gold"?

It was a nood to THIS POST of yours that, to my knowledge, never made it into the Cursed AU canon (at least I couldn't find it in the Masterpost-) but featured the idea of Macaque starting to randomly throw food at the twins when he noticed they can't cook.

Now, stick with me here! We are going to take a sharp turn here in a completely different direction xD

Can we all agree that Pigsys love language, to show he cares, is food? Becouse the pig ain't that great with voicing his feelings (just like a certain black monkey-), so instead he goes by "actions speak louder than words" and coocks to show he cares? Let's continue with that thought/idea in mind!

Back to Macaque!

Remember how we shortly talked about that, after really fucking things up in "Breaking Point", Macaque would go to Nuwa for help, to fix things with the twins and Mei, and she would just tell him to go ask Pigsy?

Go back to that idea of Macaque throwing food at the twins that never made it into the masterpost!

What if we recycle that idea?!

-after "Breaking Point", Macaque asks Nuwa for help

-Nuwa directs him to Pigsy

-Pigsy, after noticing that the monkey won't be able to just apologize to the kids directly, gives him a tip out of his own book: that actions sometimes speak louder than words. And food can do wonders in showing that you care

-cue maybe a smal intervention lead by Mei a view days later where Macaque says he won't throw the twins out ("becouse finding replacements would be a bother"-he claims) and:

-next thing you know, Mac is throwing food at the twins at random ocations. An apple that apears on the table out of nowhere here... a hand full of plumbs that suddenly drops from the sky there...a mango to the face becouse no one was quick enough to catch it-

Macaque is now trying to bribe the twins with food to apologize/get in their good grazes again!

(Sorry you had to sit through my ramblings about this random idea xD I'm tired, and my brain has been trying to find ways to bridge the gap between "Music Box" and "Blood of Gold", and than I remembered that post I linked above, and I couldn't stop thinking about it since xD)

~*~

Oh, I remember that! Yeah, I assumed that line was a callback to that specific ask XD

And that whole situation kinda falls under the category of "Technically speaking it is canon, but it's not in the masterpost because I wouldn't know where to put it timeline wise"

But moving this idea to be something Pigsy suggested? It's great. Fits the characters involved, fits the very messy timeline I have, and keeps some of that stupid comedy that I can't resist

Now, how long do you think it's gonna take for Macaque to remember that, while the twins can eat pretty much anything, they are onis and their favorite food is metal?

[charmac]

in regard to the theories, it’s nothing profound, just things i’ve caught that may allude different things. i think he had a crazy 20s-30s and definitely had a drug problem (as alluded when he recalls the 2008 world series and when he’s going over the contract with mac). i think he went through this wild party phase and then something bad inevitably happened to him, and that’s why he’s so obsessed with control and keeping a perfect image. not entirely sure what could’ve happened, but there was definitely lack of control before there was obsessive control. i also am interested in seeing the backstory of his sexuality, since all the sex tapes that mac saw were girls’ names, and i could definitely see that he would struggle with coming to terms with that (obviously not as much as mac lol) but there probably were some issues there. also, he probably assumes that no one would want to be with him unless he pays them, so there’s probably some issues in his past that led to that belief. idk there’s just so much to think about with this fic!!! if the crazy party guy -> obsessive control of image is true, then his backstory definitely reminds me of shiv’s from succession. now i’m just rambling. i can’t believe im thinking this deep about a character from a macdennis sugar daddy au LOL

No it's great, I love how much you're thinking about it, especially to a depth that I do.

That's definitely along the lines of it all, for sure. The major difference in canon Dennis and this Dennis is obviously the money he has for himself (even if he's still tied to Frank in some ways). Financial stability gives Dennis a clear basis of control over his life, the problem is somewhat obvious in that he's not just financially stable, he's rich... and no monetary barrier blocking his access to things like sex and drugs took a while for him to get under control. Perhaps he's still to this day trying to figure it out, and his past continues to haunt him .. You'll see in due time.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

hi mac!!!! mentally i am sitting with u on the couch watchin youtube videos w u. i hope ur day was good :3 i had work 2day. did not stop me writing ghostknife!!! i wrote 2k more words in my tumblr drafts over my seven hour shift. im at 8.5k words total now. get my ass out the kitchen im cookin too hard!!!!! THAT ASIDE mac can u gimme some nhw thoughts. i wanna hear about nhw mark winters. tell me abt ur favourite gay depressed blond man!!!!!!!! i wanna hear abt him and what the winters family torment nexus is like in nhw!!!!!! holding out a microphone 2 u the floor is yours 🎤

OKAY . HI. I LOVE TORTURING THAT BLONDE MAN. im going to direct you to the mark winters essay just in case you havent read that one yet because its got context for a lot of what im gonna talk about hehe (beware for worm spoilers, ill make this answer easy 2 understand without context i promise) under the cut bc i tend to ramble about him. oops

god . okay. basis of the entire nhw mark winters character is that he is the most unlucky man in the entire world. like. literally. hes been targeted that way. universe's favorite punching bag. i could make a joke here about being god and such but ill save that for my dnd campaign.

literally. so much bad shit happens to him. and then keeps happening to him. and keeps happening. and he has to be so fucking. emotionally repressed and logical and analytic and focused or else he will go crazy. mark is one of those capes that got powers artificially (overlord forced them on him- parallel to forced experimentation in canon) but the dramatic irony of it all is that even if mark would have gotten his powers naturally through a trigger event... with the way worm powers work he probably wouldve ended up with the same powers anyway. man is a striker/tinker, which comes from "facing an immediate, in-your-face threat, usually a singular object or individual" (indirect danger from simurgh, immediate danger from ashe in his very unstable breaker form immediately after killing his mom) and "solutionless problems over long periods of time, culminating in a crisis moment" (faking his and ashe's deaths in order to escape the quarantine process of simurgh survivors, having to be on the run from any sort of scrutiny for nearly TEN YEARS, eventually resulting in being offered a job working for overlord (a notoriously cruel crime lord)) . i have a lot of feelings about that. mark goes through all of this and never has a trigger event, he gets through it all with his humanity mostly intact. and then he ends up getting powers anyway because hes forced into a corner by a fucking alligator man.

ANYWAYYYYY. the fic im writing rn is from tide's pov and its immediatly after overlords death, where tide finds mark (and a bunch of other people) unconscious in tubes after going through biological experimentation and getting. animal features. this is how mark gets the lizard stuff in this au. anyway since the fic is from tide's pov i want to take a second to talk about what it would be like from marks pov. mark disobeyed one of overlords orders because it would have meant fighting the wards (who ashe . recently joined as part of the team) . overlord does not take this well and punishes him by using him for unethical human experiments. so between that moment and overlords death, mark had been subjected to over a week of near-constant testing and surgery and he was probably awake for a lot of it and. thatll fuck a guy up!!!!! pretty fucking severely!!!!! but in the grand scheme of things a week isnt that much time. which is why his transformation is only minimal and he can still pretty much pass as human with some disguising (some of the other subjects were. not so lucky).

mark was unconscious for the entire overlord fight, so he has no idea what happens. because he was unmasked, the heroes dont recognize him as a villain so instead of going to jail he gets taken to a hospital with all of the other subjects and is basically just treated as a civilian victim. but because nobody knows who he is or his relation to ashe/auxiliary.... nobody. tells him about what happened to overlord. the wards arent as closely involved with mark in this au (and honestly they dont really like him enough to care, they really just know him as "ashe's shitty dad" and thats about it). um. well. the only person who knows his identity and knows his relation is. tide.

working for a supervillain and constantly surviving out of the public's eye for fear that someone might discover your past doesnt leave a lot of room for friends, and his only living family is currently being turned into a puppet by another supervillain (not that he knows this yet) so the only person who really visits him is tide. theyre not friends, theyre not anything to each other, really, but . they KNOW each other. they UNDERSTAND each other in a way that. nobody else in the world would. go read roswells nhw tidalwave post its everything to me . anyway im getting distracted. like i said, over a week of constant unethical experiments and body horror will fuck a guy up. three of his base biological senses/instincts have been SEVERELY messed with (eyesight is fundamentally changed by the heat sense, he cant really thermoregulate well anymore, his balance is completely thrown off by the Addition Of A New Limb) and so that makes it. really hard for him to recover into some sense of lucidity. the next handful of days after he ends up in the hospital are a complete blur of consciousness, any time he opens his eyes hes totally disoriented, hes getting these awful migraines from the strain, he cant control his body heat and it seems like hes always too cold, the scales are fucking itchy, etc etc etc. hes bedridden most of the time because he cant even stand up on his own without support bc he has to get used to the weight of a tail. for those days where he's basically stuck in bed, stuck in his room, etc. he is. bored out of his mind, hes angry, hes scared (ohhh god hes in a hospital did someone do a background check do they know who he is. he hasnt been to a real doctor in over ten years), he doesnt know how much time has passed.

tide happens to visit the first day mark is feeling lucid enough to ask about ashe. this is like. a week or so into his recovery. he overheard one of the staff talking about the date and it made him like. snap awake because he realized hes been away from home and had no way to contact ashe in like. half a month. he cant ask any of the hospital staff about what happened to his son because thats a surefire way of getting a billion questions about his identity. so when tide shows up its immediately like "where is he is someone taking care of him i hate you heroes and everything you stand for but i know hes part of that team now please tell me theyre keeping him safe" and. tide is really really good at keeping a straight face but he just has this Look in his eyes and mark Knows in that moment that every single one of his nighmares is coming true. he tries to leave, tide has to catch him because he still cant walk and hes behaving like a fucking wild animal, hes biting and clawing and just in this rage because why didnt anyone tell me sooner i couldve done something i couldve protected him ("mark, you were basically in a coma" "i dont care") . nobody knows what actually happened to ashe yet. he killed overlord and then just. went missing. nobody saw him leave. they have no lead whatsoever on where he could be (yet) and it drives mark CRAZY dude like. all mark winters knows is grief and rage. eventually the wards are given that hint about where to find him and see him with the trickster and now THEY know, but. again, they dont.. know mark as well. they dont have any reason to go tell him right away. i havent decided yet whether it would be more painful for tide to break this news to him too or if the first time mark sees his son again is . on tv unmasked using his powers in some gaudy outfit he knows ashe would never choose to wear with his hair pulled back out of his face in some intricate braid and. why are his eyes orange . what the fuck happened to him. his wholeeeeee. entire world entire existence just comes crashing down around him .

mark winters universe's most hated man

[misscrazyfangirl321]

for whumpbois! 7, 8, 12, 16, 24

7. What ships are canon in this au?

Okay, let's see if I can remember...

Maleficent/Diaval

Will/Helen

MacGyver/Riley (2016)

Possibly Neal/Kate, but unconfirmed

Peter/Elizabeth

Aurora/Philip

Also there are nods to the whole past Grimm love square (Juliette/Nick, Juliette/Sean, Sean/Adalind, Adalind/Nick). Adalind/Nick are together in the fic, though, and Juliette/Sean m i g h t end up together. Unsure.

Monroe/Rosalee.

8. What platonic relationships are important in this au?

SO MANY. So Many. But in particular....

Peter/Elizabeth's friendship with Neal

Mozzie's friendship with Neal

Jack's friendships with both Mac and Riley

Nick's friendships with his teammates

Helen and Elizabeth (Lascelles, not the Elizabeth from Elizabeth/Peter)

And of course, the stars of the show: The platonic relationships that grow between the Whump Bois, Neal, Mac, Nick, Will, and Diaval.

12. What's your favorite line from this fic?

Nick clears his throat. "Look, we're all in this together. Cop, thief..." He glances at Diaval. "Bird." Yep, that's going to take some getting used to. "We're all stuck here, and we're all going to have to work together to get out. Okay?"

16. Are there any ocs in this fic?

I mean, the people who captured the Bois are technically OCs, but I'm not very clear on their motives. Or personalities. Or anything.

24. Ramble about something you haven't gotten to talk about yet.

OKAY SO LISTEN. Listen. Is this fic just an excuse to whump a bunch of my favorite whumpees together? Yes, yes it is. Will I probably have to yeet Diaval if I actually write this, just because his world Does Not Fit With The Others? Yes, yes I will. But listen. Listen. People who are naturally distrustful of others being forced to trust each other in order to save the people they care about.

Listen. Listen. Guys with vastly different secrets and skill sets being forced to work together and immediately going "Okay we're buds now" while their teammates slowly try to get a feel for how much they should trust one another.

Listen. Listen. A heist/whump fic with friendship, found family, and threads of romance all woven together.

!!!!!!

[thelightsandtheroses]

Theories? Ideas? Triple frontier?? Spill the tea babe

Thank you so much for the ask, lovely! Ah, Triple Frontier - I actually rewatched the film twice recently when I was travelling as my film for the flight. I just genuinely adore Frankie Morales and I really want to write something for him. I apologise in advance if this answer is way too long!

My fic idea for Frankie: I really want to play with some tropes I love but haven’t written before. I’ve already seen some done brilliantly in this fandom (e.g. brother’s best friend) so I want to leave those for now as I’m not sure my idea would add anything new to that trope but there are some fun ones to still explore.

I am a big fan of he falls first and friends to lovers, both of which I think are quite Frankie Morales in general.

The idea I’m currently playing with is post film, with Frankie in the position of kind of part way through getting himself together again; he’s single, trying to get more visitation with his kid, is finally trying to stop couch surfing and get his licence back so he’s not entirely at rock bottom but he’s not where he wants to be. He meets the reader, though I’m still deciding if I want to make them an ofc as writing as the reader is newer to me and feels slightly less natural but then practice might help! My current ideas is to have the Reader coming in as the friend of Benny’s new girlfriend (or possibly some other way I’m still ironing that out) who hasn’t been in Florida long and ends up becoming good friends with the boys. The other idea I have for this which I’m leaning more towards is she’s linked to Tom somehow - because while I am not a fan of Tom it could be super interesting to use this to explore life after the film too for the boys and her finding out more about what happened. Like maybe she’s his niece or sister who has moved back to Florida? Anyway, the Reader has her own past she’s working through, and the two of them connect but neither of them realise at first the other likes the other that way so they’re both hiding their feelings and trying to get themselves to a version of themselves they think will be more ready for the other, not realising where they are. Hopefully it will be better and less vague than it sounds writing it down here. I also have a bodyguard au idea for him but I’ve never written a plot like that so I’m a little nervous.

My general Frankie head-canons and theories

I feel like the movie just broke him systematically over an hour and half so I kind of want to write something that’s about him putting himself back together again. Also I think he was done with Pope’s scheme before he even got on the plane. He did it for loyalty over anything else.

Also I think as much as we’re told about his loyalty and friendship with Pope, some of that to me read as more of the actors’ friendship coming through than just the script. Maybe it’s me, so I’m interested to see how I could explore that friendship more in the wake of the film, like Pope looks pretty worried about Frankie at the end but is also talking about going to Australia.

I have a whole playlist I’ve been building for Frankie and writing him/the idea I mentioned. There’s a fair bit of Taylor Swift (like all my playlists) but also I have some 90s there, some Fleetwood Mac (Frankie loves Fleetwood Mac, I’m sure of it) and also a song called Sometimes by Gerry Cinnamon which felt quite Frankie to me.

Other ideas: I’ve been playing with a couple of ideas for some Joel Miller fics too - more one shots, one idea I have is about bonding over music and the other is a Jackson era idea

Thank you so much for the ask and hopefully I haven’t rambled too much

[anachronistic-falsehood]

👀👀👀👀!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUGHORTHUIFGUH HIIIII!!!! :3 ok splitting this evenly between u and mac bc u both sent me MULTIPLE EYE EMOJIS!!! wonderful :3 thank u for giving me the opportunity 2 talk about my abandoned fics maybe it will give me inspiration 2 keep writing them??? perhaps??? unsure ANYWAY

OUGHHHHH ok ok gonna scroll thru my folders real quick. lets see hmmmm HOLY SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT MY MIDVALLEY THE HORNFREAK ORIGIN STORY FIC. forgot about that one. idk if i'll ever finish it because tb-fucking-h i fell out of trigun like super fast (the fandom's treatment of vash and ww has. really put me off. stop infantilizing vash and turning ww into a hot dangerous daddy dom i'm soooo fucking serious rn) my midvalley backstory it is still. sitting there. in my drafts. even if i never finish it perhaps i can put it in a google doc and send it 2 u and mac and the other hornfreakers!! but for now. here it sits. in the fic graveyard

in the same vein as that: trigun modern au roadtrip fic. i was so fucking excited about it i had a fucking blast writing the first few chapters, but again, Fandom Issues put me off (I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS URGHSGHHG I WANNA ENJOY MEDIA BUT SOME PEOPLE JUST MAKE ME AUTOMATICALLY ASSOCIATE THE MEDIA WITH THEIR SHIT TAKES AND PERCEPTIONS I'M GOING TO EAT A BRICK WALL) but also maybe i can throw it in a google doc and write out the plot points that were going to happen and toss it to the masses at some point??? it's just sitting there. looking at me. MENACINGLY

hmmmmm oh i had another trigun one i wanted 2 write. where after the events of trimax vash ends up going back to lena and staying with her and eventually meets livio again and then knives is still alive and then milly and meryl show up and they all get to live happily and everything. wonderful times <3 there was also ANOTHER one that was meant to be post canon trigun 98 where knives is being forcibly rehabilitated into society by vash and he is being such a little shit about it but he slowly but surely learns to love and be happy, and one day he's smiling and laughing with meryl as the two of them make soup in the kitchen while vash and milly play cards and eat donuts at the dinner table and he realizes huh. maybe it's a good thing i didn't destroy all of this. and i will never finish writing it but man it is always going to be a concept that i will hold dear to my heart

man this entire thing ended up being trigun huh. did not intend that but i got rambling <3 let's finish with a homestuck one!! i was going to write a post meat epilogue fic with ult!rose as the narrator bc we all know ult!dirk is a lying little bitch and does not talk about his feelings ever but ROSE sure as hell will talk about his feelings. not her own not EVER but she will put her father on blast at any opportunity she gets. i wanted to like. explore ult!dirk more thru her eyes bc he's so interesting to me but i never finished it. maybe i'll get back 2 it someday but for now it sits in the notes of my phone. half a chapter done. probably all it will ever be </3

[depizan]

Game canon is presumably fic canon unless otherwise shown or mentioned, which is fine most of the time...

But kind of frustrating when either there are adjustments you want to make for fic canon that you can't figure out how to write or allude to at some point (Kyrian's so far word of god only celebratory night with Sanju, for instance) or when game canon doesn't entirely make sense but working out what does is a can of worms. (Probably carnivorous worms. It is Star Wars.)

I'd accuse Nar Shaddaa of being the planet (okay, moon) where logic goes to die, but I think it's really only Smuggler!Nar Shaddaa and Agent!Nar Shaddaa that have issues, especially if you start poking at anything. (Or those are just the only two class stories where I have started pulling threads and suddenly I don't have a carpet any more.)

My issues with Smuggler!Nar Shaddaa are at least as much personal preference (I would prefer that Bowdaar not be luggage, thanks) as actual screwy writing. (Or I've forgotten how bad it is, since I'm pulling a whole entire reject your reality and substitute my own with it.) But the more I look at Agent!Nar Shaddaa, the more I find myself going "wait, what!?"

Watcher X's exit is...odd. But there are any number of ways to make it more sensible, from the agent (or Watcher Two) being smart enough to figure out what's going on on their own (if you want to kill Watcher X) to the agent running into bad traffic (if they sympathize with Watcher X but don't want to take his deal).

What's harder to render sensible is, oh, everything else involving Watcher X. Imperial Intelligence thinks this guy's dangerous, but has nooo problem giving him the wherewithal to cook up a drug that mimics the effects of too many stims/questionable enhancements and cybernetic implants that let someone disguise their vital signs (this isn't a concern for a prisoner? sure, he probably can't implant them in himself. probably.). Never mind letting this guy give an active agent both drugs and those highly questionable implants.

(Okay, you can refuse the drugs. Not the implants.)

Sometimes it seems like Intelligence thinks Cipher Nine is awfully expendable. Are we sure they're supposed to be a top agent and not some incredibly lucky/skilled sacrifice?

What the Agent is doing on Nar Shaddaa also gets a little slippery (and is weirdly very directed by Watcher X, which is probably a gameplay thing, never mind that it does slightly odd things to the story). I won't say it doesn't make sense, but it does feel like there's a piece or two missing if you look closely. (Heck, one might be able to nudge it slightly and imply that Watcher X was the actual leader of the Nar Shaddaa terror cell...)

But, even if it were all perfectly smooth, with no nagging questions or unpleasant implications about just how expendable Intelligence considers its agents, I'd still be poking it with a stick both because of those highly questionable implants and because it ends with the agent slaughtering VerveGen's top people. (Who are, yes, evil terrorists producing and distributing a drug that enhances you then melts you. I'm not saying it's not justifiable, just that it's a lot of murder.)

The implant isn't really a character problem. It's an obviously risky move that raises (or should raise) all kinds of questions, but Kyrian (more or less) accepts the risks of his profession...as long as those risks only apply to him. However, it's still a can of worms. As I once noted to @pyr0clast, how does Intelligence know the implant only does what Watcher X says it does, how does the Agent know that, and, most importantly why does it only do what Watcher X tells the Agent it does? Imagine if the Agent goes after Watcher X when he escapes, only to be brought down by the implant when they try.

(Okay, that's not what happens in the game because the players would be pissed. But it'd make a hell of a moment in a story.)

Theoretical impressive exits by Watcher X aside, you'd think Intelligence would want those implants out of their agent ASAP. You'd think the Agent would want those implants out ASAP! Game canon, of course, just forgets they exist, but fic has to deal with these things, whether with a quick trip to an Intelligence post or a back alley doctor recommended by Kaliyo (because why stop at one bad medical decision for the week).

VerveGen, however, is a character problem. Kyrian doesn't like murder as a solution to anything, even people-melting enhancement drugs and intergalactic terror organizations. Arrest by the Empire is out, the local authorities are just murder with more steps and exotic wildlife, so that pretty much leaves some form of sabotage (unless I've overlooked something). Which makes the implants irrelivant, since they're part of the murder plan. (Provided Watcher X doesn't cook up different highly questionable implants for the sabotage plan because, damn it, he wants to do unpleasant elective surgery on some member of Imperial Intelligence and no one from HQ is handy.)

All of which means I need to write or allude to bits of slightly alternate Nar Shaddaa.

At least it's marginally easier to deal with than the problem of Sanju Pine.

[nightcrawlerzincorporated]

15, 16, & 19!

15 Favorite sunny fic(s)

There are so many amazing ones it’s hard to choose! I would say the ones currently sticking to my brain the most are: The Gang Learns to Exist in the Moment, Wishing Well, Stubborn Selfish and Easily Jealous, and The Way We Look to Us All. Spoilery ramblings as to why under the cut because I can’t help but gush a bit over these lol

16 Random hot take

This is a SPICY one but. I am not optimistic about macden actually becoming canon. I would love for them to be canon, I think it makes sense for the characters and it think it would create a lot of comedic potential, but I’m also a bit of a pessimist, and I personally think RCG finds it funnier to have them have an almost-kind-of relationship than an actual confirmed one. I feel like if anything they’ll be canon at the end of the very last episode and then they’ll die or something as a last joke about how these people don’t deserve to be happy after all they’ve done. But who knows, maybe I’m wrong

19 If you had the skill/talent/time to create any content you wanted, what would you want to make?

If I had the energy I would write a million macdennis fics I have so many ideas. If I had the skill/talent I would draw a bunch of funny/sappy ship art

The Gang Learns to Exist in the Moment

Oh my god ok where to start with this one. This one buzzes around in my brain constantly. Holy fuck the funeral scene where Dennis is super drunk and his and Dee’s family gets all judgey and Dee stands up and says “He was a terrible father to us, you understand?” UGH. That makes me feel so many things I think about that scene all the time. Mac’s therapy sessions where his therapist tries to help him realize he’s gay are so sweet. It wouldn’t have fit with the tone of the actual show at all but sometimes I wish they were canon because it’s such a great exploration AND WHEN HE SAYS HE LIKES SUPER MASC GUYS AND HIS THERAPIST POINTS OUT DENNIS ISNT SUPER MASC AND MAC LIKES HIM?? I die in the best way possible just get rend in twane oh my lord. Dennis’ fight with Dee is so real and is resolved so beautifully. Charlie learning to read finally??? The star charts! The “real” funeral at the end AND HOW IT WRAPS WITH THEM FINALLY SINGING TOGETHER AGAIN. Fuck. I literally wept. I’m whirring just thinking about it now.

Wishing Well

This one is still ongoing but already I have so many Feelings. The metaphor with the burning apartment. Dennis thinking talking to Mac about missing him is a dream when it’s clearly a memory he was just so drunk??? FUCK. That’s good shit. Convincing Cricket to marry them secretly like the dumbass he is. THE BATHROOM KISS. Mac getting his memories back but not telling Dennis?? The reveal that Dennis is the first one who called him Mac instead of Ronnie AHHHHH. Literally always thinking about this one and aching for more. Can’t wait to see how this one ends

Stubborn, Selfish, and Easily Jealous

Poor Trevor. Honestly I’m usually not a fan of fics about a third party getting between a ship but this one is so well done I was hooked start to finish. I love Dennis’ dream sledgehammer and him “leaving” it on the elevator at the end. I love how Trevor is genuinely a good boyfriend and it doesn’t pull the whole “well obviously ship should be together because third party is terrible anyway” stuff I hate. It does such a good job showing that Mac and Dennis love each other while showing the reasons they aren’t together and why Mac wants to be with Trevor despite Dennis finally reciprocating his feelings. And when Mac starts cheating with Dennis it gives me such complex feelings it’s *chef kiss*. The hospital scene holy shit. The epilogue! There’s so much real human stuff here it’s so good.

The Way We Look to Us All

This one is pure Dennis angst, and you all know I live for that. Dennis struggling to accept his sexuality, and his age, and his obvious feelings for Mac is so so good. I love how the sex scenes mesh with Dennis’ character arc and the themes. I love them trying to punish/help Charlie and Frank. I love Dennis’ freak out to Artemis. It’s been some time since I last read it but it’s still inside my heart and soul.

[a-a-a-anon]

random headcanon thing/interpretation about Mac and Dee. ramble warning. 

tldr Dee, being a similarly-aged regular female presence in his life, was a constant reminder for Teen Mac that he’s gay 

  Mac was kinda freaked out by Dee’s presence when they met in high school. He was in the middle of that stage a lot of LGBT teens go through where he’s realizing his sexuality - he’s catching himself being attracted to men and he hates himself for it and he’s internally repressing/denying it. It’s a storm inside him and he just does not have a healthy relationship with his sexuality at all at that point. 

At this incredibly unstable point in his struggling young gay life, here comes the Female Reynolds Twin who is almost a perfect contrast to the Male Reynolds Twin in this situation - they’re actually pretty alike in a lot of ways (especially when Dee can take her back brace off) except for the key difference in gender. And he just knows which one he’s “supposed to” be attracted to but he just isn’t attracted to Dee at fucking all, and he feels like something is malfunctioning here.

And he’s so frightened by this revelation that he blames Dee for it. Here she comes, always hanging out with him and Dennis and Charlie, and every time she does nothing changes. He doesn’t catch even the whiff of feelings for her while he does for Dennis but he can’t even admit that to himself. Her presence is just a constant reminder of the “malfunction” in his sexuality. 

His brain tells him that if Dee were just hotter and wasn’t so gross (like almost representing his sexual repulsion to women as a whole) he’d totally be attracted to her - thus somehow it’s HER fault he’s not attracted to her (and to women as a whole). So he makes fun of her appearance wayyy more than he should. He calls her ugly not even because he thinks she’s particularly physically off putting but he’s kinda just venting all his frustrations with the female sex on her. Because she represents how frustrating it is that women just aren’t “hot” to him.

Of course, later Mac becomes comfortable with being gay and still despises Dee (like after “Hero or Hate Crime?”). But by then he’s gotten to know Dee and already hates her for completely different reasons (still not really all valid reasons especially because he’s canonically pretty misogynistic). Still, that initial feeling that she sparked in him set the tone for their whole relationship. Dee never realizes any of this, she just assumes that Mac thinks she’s ugly and pathetic so she shoots back with all the negative words she can muster, which doesn’t help their dynamic at allll.

I think this idea is kinda expanded on in “The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby” when Mac tries to force Dee into fulfilling the traditional American family unit dynamic with him. Just trying to make his dynamic with Dee traditional and het. It doesn’t work, as we know, which is frustrating for Mac too. 

Btw this was sparked when I was going through FF.net IASIP fics, sorting by oldest for shits and giggles (it had a lot of Mac/Dee, I’m guessing since Gay Mac wasn’t concrete in the show yet). After scrolling a bit I found “Mac is Stuck in the Closet” where (SPOILER) Mac is scared he’s about to die, Dee and Charlie are trying to comfort him, and Mac admits, “Dee, I only hate you because you remind me of what I am. You're a beautiful woman, and I have to be around you all the time, and you keep reminding me that I don't like hot girls and I'll never be normal.” I don’t think Mac would ever express his emotions that concisely (in words, at least) but I think the idea is pretty spot on for the character.

[charmac]

Hello ^-^

I follow you on twitter as well and you are one of my FAVORITE sunny/macdennis accounts EVER.

I read this post of yours :

https://www.tumblr.com/charmac/722295024558243840/okay-i-just-stumbled-across-that-sinned-fic

And I wanted to ask if you like Established MacDennis while reading/writing fics?? I love it when authors write macdennis' relationship from others pov. Like how Charlie sees them as a couple and think they're badass, how frank can't still believe dennis is with mac, how dee is absolutely annoyed by their excessive pda!

I also love when an original male character is interested in one of them before the other appears and then they're like "holy shit they're so in love" or omg mac/dennis is a lucky guy etc.

Sorry for rambling, it's just that I appreciate your opinions!

Thanks! :)

Honestly "I'm not a huge fan of "established" Macdennis is kind of a weird battleground, because for canon I constantly teeter between being fully-convinced they're fucking, have been fucking, for years, and that they've absolutely never hooked up, lmfao. (If you're wondering, we're currently standing at, yeah they're absolutely fucking).

So my idea of (or what I enjoy in terms of) "established Macdennis" is that they're together and no one knows, and that's kinda where I stand for fandom too, in terms of what I enjoy.

Personally to me the idea of Mac and Dennis openly dating and happy being seen in public as a couple is a little unrealistic. Especially on Dennis' side, he's already pretty anti-PDA/having others perceive himself as soft or being able to be locked down (and boyfriend/partner/lover is a label...). Then, letting Mac be on him, call him his boyfriend, etc. gives Mac a little too much freedom. For Mac, I think I go back and forth on the idea. S12-14 Mac would kill to call Dennis his boyfriend, would brag to everyone he knew that he was drilling him, but Post-15? I think maybe he's mellowed to a point where having Dennis to himself, as a secret, on the DL, would be kinda enticing (at least Dennis could convince him as much). There's something thrilling about having a dirty little secret so to say.

So my idea of them 'in canon' if they were officially together would be that each episode they kinda flip-flop being broken up and back together for stupid fucking reasons. I love the idea of all of The Gang hates and enjoys them together for different reasons, at different times. Like Dennis is just being a complete bitch and Dee turns to Mac and is like "Could you tell your boyfriend to be reasonable?" And Mac's like, "Oh, no, Dee we're not together anymore, see I forgot to pick up Dennis' dry cleaning on Saturday and that's a break-up offense, so..." and Dee just angrily huffs and walks away. And then the end of the episode Charlie walks into the back office right in the middle of Mac sucking Dennis off and he just yelps and slams the door like "DEE YOU TOLD ME THEY WERE BROKEN UP!" And then the next episode, once again, you have no idea they're together until Dennis is caught with his hand rubbing up Mac's thigh and Frank's like "No way, none of that shit in the bar!" and Mac grabs Dennis' hand and forces it off and is like "That's fine, Frank, because I'm not talking to Dennis right now anyway." And Dee's just like ???? Mac's called it off this time!? But no one actually wants to know, so they all move past it. I think Charlie would go back and forth between liking them together and broken up just based on how they play into his schemes and ideas in either scenario. (i.e. Mac wanting to get blasted with Charlie after he and Dennis have broken up for the 10th time or Dennis being completely willing to go with Charlie's plans bc Mac is into them and Dennis is staying on Mac's good side that week).

I think in any case, anyone outside of the Gang/recurring characters looking at the two of them would probably be into them because of their looks, see them nasty makeout and go damn, alright, too hot guys found each other, then watch them immediately turn around and try and kill each other for any random reason, and be glad they dodged that bullet... Lol

Sorry for my rambling... ;)

[etherealvoidechoes]

XCOM Worldbuilding - Viper Venom and Other Biology ideas

I warn this may still be a scattered brained mess knowing me and how I can ramble. Hope it’s not too messy of a read. Also if there’s info in this that has been confirmed or tossed by Chimera Squad I don’t know it. Still haven’t had the chance to play the game(curse you outdated computer(and it not on Mac yet)) and don’t want to watch a playthrough. Don’t want to spoil everything for myself. Onwards to my nonsense!

Really this whole brain spew started because I was thinking about how the Viper King’s freezing venom works while all the other Vipers, we’ve seen, canonically have poisonous venom. So my brain got to thinking, “What if, a Viper’s venom can be influenced by the environment they’re raised in?”

Now, we don’t know what the Vipers were like, or looked like, before the Elders meet them and heavily genetically altered them and specialized them. Mixing, matching, and pushing what the best of their species had to offer. So “today’s” Earth-specialized occupational force Viper has a carefully selected mish-mash of aspects from all the variations from their homeworld(s) and then other genetics plucked from choice species the Elders deemed would further improve them. And who knows if Vahlen somehow caused the Viper King’s venom to do that. But I like the idea that the environment can influence the venom of a Viper, besides the parents lineage. Different regions can lead to the venom strictly being venomous(at different levels of lethality) or become poisonous(that gas), freezing, burning, hallucinogenic, and etc. The possibilities are endless. I’m already working on the idea of hallucinogenic venom with a Viper I’ve created for my fics. Also playing with the idea that Vipers aren’t fully immune to their species venom is there are variations. Same region Vipers tend to be immune to each others venoms with some exceptions. Since regions could be massive, there could be subtle differences especially if certain foods can affect the venom to make it more potent and/or change its affects. Also again, parent’s lineage can affect the venom of the children and neither parent(and clan) would be fully immune to their children’s venom.

So back to the Viper King. Possibly that long cryostasis heavily affected the his DNA. Also he could originally from a cold region on the Viper home planet or heritage traces back to there. But who knows and Vahlen’s eagerness to experiment… My Commander will have fun talking to her if they ever find her… Also trying to figure out a semi-plausible way his venom works. Probably transfer of thermal energy like liquid nitrogen, but is able to work with a “smaller”, spread out, amount of liquid that transfers heat away from the target at a near instantaneous rate thus flash freezing the target.

Eventually, I got to thinking about how their venom becomes that gaseous cloud when spat out and wondered if it was always like that or not. Possibly one natural variation in their species could naturally spray out venom, like Earth’s spitting cobras, and the Elders mass applied it to the rest with some tweaks. Another possible way the Elder got the idea is when some Vipers were converted into Thin Men and it lead to new discoveries and ideas of further genetic tweaking. Taking this from the autopsy, “A large portion of the specimen's thoracic cavity is devoted to enormous glands capable of producing a toxin that is then expelled via ducts with considerable force.” Just makes me think those glands were under a lot of pressure, constantly.

Then that got me thinking about their venom sacs. How many do they have, where are they placed, and how large are they to able able to produce huge clouds of venom? So I see them having more than one set of venom sacs to account for large amounts of venom production(especially taking part of the Thin Man autopsy into consideration.) One set in their heads like earth snakes have them, mainly feeding the fangs(thank you they don’t bite you soldiers in game). And then two sets in their chest as the upwards action of a contracting diaphragm would aid in squeezing the sacs. So one larger set sits with the lungs and a smaller set sits in those “breast”. And yes, I know the whole “breasts” are a continual point of contention for some people and to me when I look at the finalized art they don’t really look like human breasts(in the sense of fat). They look more muscular to me.

Did Vipers always have “breasts”? Who knows and who cares. They’re aliens and don’t have to follow Earth reptilian rules (As they don’t already do so with their tongues). So it could be natural or could be the Elders’ making them look more appealing to humans and also having it double as venom storage.

Back to the environment shaping ideas. I like the idea of that Vipers can adapt to new environments quickly. Why the Elders like them so much, but also have a tight control on their reproduction so things don’t get out of hand to muddle their fine work. And also keep any future revolts from happening as they don’t like species under them getting too powerful. To focus on the “Earth-Specialized” comment I made earlier, and an angle I’m taking my fics, I’d like to think the Elders aren’t too blinded by their pride to leave zero genetic diversity in the races they’ve enslaved, so there probably are still a decent amount of genetic diversity for the Vipers but the Elders mainly use what they believe works best for the worlds they are enslaving. And going on “what they believe works best” and something else I’m working on in my pics, the one Elder force we see on Earth isn’t all of them. I believe there are several branches to the whole collective spread out across the universe. All have that main collective goal of finding a species that would be best for future host bodies with the “happy” benefit that species can become part of their Empire to fight off what is chasing them. So each branch has their own unique alien forces and sometimes share with each other(I like to imagine they squabble amongst themselves no matter how “above it all” they try to make themselves seem). So that’s something I’ll elaborate on in the future.

Eventually I started thinking about Viper reproduction and how that worked. Had to involve a lot of egg clutches being released as we see with the Viper King and all those children(and concept art for that mission shows lots and lots of eggs) to make the Elders go “Yeah, no. Let’s nip that now.”. Like female had clutches up to 5 eggs and possibly more.

I would say the Elders nipped the clutch sizes into something more manageable, but with the Viper King and the concept art, I don’t think so. Shame the developers didn’t continuously have his spawn appear throughout the game. (At least they’re mods for that!) If the genetic locks are undone, I wonder if the Vipers would operate on temperature-based sex determination or sex chromosome determination. If temperature-based, makes me wonder if they had a “lopsided” sex ratio(depending on region) to boot before the Elders showed up.

I also have my own reasons for my fic that involve a minor revolt for being one of the reason for the Elders locking the Viper population to females, with a few select males being held strictly for breeding. Eventually will elaborate on in the future.

[amandagaelic]

Fanfic Tag (bc, Sunday)

I was tagged by @waitingforthestarstofall and @disappearinginq who are two of my favorite enablers over here. And according to at least one of them, there are no rules in this game, which means my replying many moons later is all good (right?). 

Questions:

Ao3 Name: gaelicspirit (same on FF.net)

Fandoms: Supernatural, The Young Riders, White Collar, Hawaii Five-0, Sons of Anarchy (all only on FF.net), The Musketeers, Daredevil, Teen Wolf, Timeless, MacGyver, Magnum, P.I. (on both Ao3 and FF.net)

Number of fics: 75 (+ 1 WIP)

1. Fic you spent the most time on: From Yesterday

2. Fic you spent the least time on: Raincheck

3. Longest Fic:  From Yesterday   (286,050 words)

4. Shortest Fic: Sacrifice (2,315 words)

5. Most hits: Devil to Pay (on Ao3...no clue on FF.net)

6. Most kudos: Devil’s Own (huh, I’ve never compared these stats before...maybe I should write more Daredevil)

7. Most comment threads:  Devil’s Own (on Ao3), Ramble On (on FF.net)

8. Fave Fic you wrote: This is a toughie. I love them all when I’m writing them...I think maybe it’s a 3-way tie between War Scars, From Yesterday, and Conairt. The first two were as AU as I generally get (I’ve a tendency to be a bit canon-bound) and that was fun to explore possibilities with those characters, and the 3rd was basically the story I wanted to read but couldn’t find anywhere...so I wrote it myself. 

9. Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: Hmmm. I don’t know that I’d actually rewrite any of them. They exist in my mind the moment they’re being created and then once out there in the world for all to see, that’s who they are, scars and all. I have occasionally thought about expanding on my White Collar story, Fortunate Son to explore what happened next. Though, now that the show has ended, it would be 100% AU. I guess anything I would really want to take further would be a new story in and of itself, so it wouldn’t really count as “expanding” on it. 

10. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning:

I started another MacGyver fic last weekend called “Hello to the Night.” I’m about 25K-ish words into it and still playing it out. It’s a bit of pandemic therapy for me, to be honest. It’s really hard to get out of my own head these days, it seems.  Premise: Set  around S4 episodes 9 and 10. Turns out emotional trauma + concussions + experimental drugs don’t mix quite as easily as one might think. Mac’s dark side does more than toss him a creepy grin from the other side of a window when getting “lost in his head” is taken up a notch.

Excerpt:

Another streak of light cut like a white-hot tracer bullet across the darkest part of the sky.

“You out here making wishes on shooting stars?” Bozer asked, tapping the back of his fingers into the palm of his opposite hand.

It caught his attention then that Mac was clad only in a T-shirt and shorts; it almost looked like they were the clothes he’d gone to sleep in, not grabbed for a planned midnight run.

“These aren’t stars,” Mac corrected him, his voice sounding strangely detached from the moment. “That light is caused by dust and rock falling through the atmosphere and burning up—happens when the Earth passes through a trail of debris left by a comet as it orbits the Sun.”

Bozer felt his mouth tug up in a reflexive grin. “Is that right?”

“My dad gave me my first telescope when I was eight,” Mac continued in the same, oddly modulated tone, as if he were speaking in a dream. “Showed me how to find the constellations, track comets. I took it apart one day and he wouldn’t help me put it back together again. Said I obviously needed to know how it worked, so I should figure it out.”

Bozer remembered that telescope. He remembered James MacGyver’s stern face as Mac worked to rebuild it from the collection of parts scattered around them in piles organized by size and use. He remembered fearing that face.

“I did, too. Figure it out.”

“Yeah, I know, man,” Bozer smiled, watching Mac watch the starts. He frowned a little when he saw a hard shiver chase its way through Mac’s slim frame, though the blond man didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s like they were mine, y’know?”

Bozer’s frown deepened. “What—”

“And for a little bit there, it felt like he gave them to me,” Mac continued as though Bozer hadn’t spoken. “Like the whole universe was mine because he let me see it. But…,” Mac shook his head, his eyes distant as they tracked down from the sky and skimmed the horizon in front of them. “Then he took them away. He took them with him when he left. And I can’t figure out how to get them back. I keep trying, but…they’re just…,” he looked back up at the night sky, “they’re so far away.”

Bozer reached out and rested his fingertips on Mac’s bare arm, flinching back a little when he felt how chilled his friend’s skin was. He couldn’t see it before, but with that touch he realized Mac was shivering consistently now.

“Hey, Mac, you okay, man?”

Mac blinked, looking down at Bozer’s fingers on his arm, then frowned. He glanced around him slowly, tracking over to his left until their eyes met.

“Bozer?”

“Yeah?”

“What…what are you doing here?”

Bozer blinked, his eyebrows climbing his forehead. He tightened his grip on Mac, wrapping his fingers around his friend’s forearm until he felt the other man’s shivers through the bones of his hand.

“I was looking for you,” Bozer said truthfully, trying to keep the worry from his voice as he watched Mac look around him, over his shoulder to where the Griffith’s domed building loomed in the shadows, then back across the dark horizon to the lights of Los Angeles. “You decide to go for a midnight run or something?”

Mac swallowed hard, reaching up with a trembling hand to rub at his forehead. Bozer recalled his tired voice claiming his headache had a headache earlier that day—no, last night—in the lab. He dropped his hand and looked around again and Bozer realized what he was seeing was a growing awareness and recognition—and it frightened him.

“What the hell are we doing out here?” Mac asked, his voice sounding thin, baffled.

“Mac,” Bozer gripped his arm tighter. “I found you out here.”

Mac looked at him, blue eyes cloudy with confusion. “What?”

“I found you, man.”

Mac darted his tongue out, wetting dry lips, his shivering increasing until Bozer saw his teeth start to chatter.

“I don’t…I don’t remember…,” he shook his head. “I don’t remember leaving the house.”

Bozer folded his lower lip against his teeth, biting it to keep whatever noise that wanted to escape a prisoner. “Well, how ‘bout we head back there now?”

Mac nodded shakily and moved to slide off the fence. Bozer saw in a split second the ground was too far below him for Mac to land safely. He thrust out his arm and braced his friend, swinging his leg back over the fence to the paved walkway and pulling Mac backwards with him. Mac scrambled to find his footing, standing on trembling legs as he gripped Bozer’s shoulders.

“Holy shit,” Mac took a stuttering breath as if he’d forgotten that was what his lungs were supposed to do, straightening slowly. “How the hell did I…?”

Bozer shook his head. “How about we don’t worry about that right now, huh?”

Mac nodded, his eyes still on the drop-off on the other side of the fence.

“C’mon, man,” Bozer turned Mac toward the parking lot, keeping one hand on his friend’s arm, the other on his lower back. “It’s late and I’m cold.” He wasn’t, but it was always easier to get Mac to act if he was doing so on behalf of someone else.

“Yeah,” Mac nodded. “Yeah, sure, of course. Boze, I’m—”

“Don’t,” Bozer pushed him gently forward. “Don’t worry about it, man. Yesterday was weird for everybody.”

“Yesterday?” Mac asked, the word tripping out on a faltering breath as his shivers increased.

Bozer pressed his fingertips harder into Mac’s lower back, feeling the corded muscles there tighten against the pressure. “Yeah, y’know…crazy DARPA drug, Tesla weapon….”

“That was yesterday?” Mac asked, blinking owlishly at him.

“Time flies when you’re trippin’, man.”

Mac didn’t reply and didn’t resist as Bozer continued to guide him toward the parking lot. He stumbled over his own feet—any coltish grace that once guided him having vacated in the wake of whatever this was. Bozer steadied him, noting that while Mac didn’t quite lean into him, he needed the support.

“Easy, man,” Bozer wrapped an arm around Mac’s slim waist, pulling him flush against his side. “You’re moving like me after a night of whiskey.”

“That…doesn’t sound good,” Mac returned in the same spacey, confused tone. “You make some pretty bad choices ‘cause of whiskey.”

As they reached the car, Bozer shifted his hip to keep Mac propped up, pulling the passenger door open and maneuvering his friend into the seat.

“Yeah, well,” he reached across Mac’s shivering form to fasten his seat belt, “in whiskey’s defense, I’ve also made some pretty questionable choices completely sober.”

Mac huffed a semi-amused chuckle, his head dropping back against the seat. Bozer jogged around the back of the car to climb behind the wheel.

“Let’s crank that heat up, how ‘bout—” Bozer stopped as he glanced over and saw Mac had quite literally passed out, head tilted against the window.

His hands lay lax in his lap, fingers curled toward his palms, the left one twitching in what looked like an attempt to reach out, but not quite getting there.

“Jesus, Mac,” Bozer breathed, turning up the heat anyway as his friend shivered even in his sleep. He shrugged out of his hoodie, draping it over Mac’s bare arms and t-shirt covered torso.

Tagging: Okay, if you’ve already been tagged--or literally have no interest in this--feel free to ignore. This is a bit of a free-for-all here. @thethistlegirl @impossiblepluto @flowing-river24 @panchostokes @nativestarwrites @beamirang @21forestglades @blazeofobscurity @angus-mac-intosh @purplecolouredglasses @writtenbyblair @dashboardonfire @bands-space-and-monsters-oh-my @macgyverfever @thekristen999

[third-rail-vip]

fic writer interview

Tagged by @adventuresofmeghatron

I’m late so you’ve probably already done this but tagging:  @laurelsofhighever  @tanaleth  @asaara-writes  @allisondraste  @pchberrytea  @red-hot-chili-tiefling

Thank you for tagging me!  Sorry it’s taken me forever, my imposter syndrome has been laughing loudly in my face at the idea of being considered a ‘writer’.  Please, come in, sit down and have a look see at my complete lack of process or general idea of what’s going on :) 

Name:  Ginger

Fandoms:  Fallout 4 currently.  Dragon Age a while back.

Where you post:  I put all my full fics on AO3 and if it’s a shorter one then I post the whole thing here on tumblr too.  If it’s giant then I post a snippet here with a link to AO3.

Most Popular One-shot:  Based on kudos The Wanderers - yeah i’m surprised too.  It was my first venture back into writing after taking time out and it was a whole new fandom and a game I was new to.  It was a fun silly little exercise in me learning my new otp and working out their fairly early days dynamic.

By comments, it’s Complicated.  I’d had that one in mind for a while before writing it (probably why it took 4 rewrites before it felt how I wanted it to).  It’s a good bit of post-feral encounter wound tending and hurt/comfort with some feels starting up (or becoming harder to deny).

Most Popular Multichap:  I don’t have any multichapter fics any more.  Once upon a time I had a Dragon Age Origins one.  I’m not good at the commitment of multichapter.  I made it 14 chapters into that one and it took me so long to drag myself out of Lothering I took it out back and shot it.

My Fallout one shots are part of an ongoing series - Then I Met You - which is a series of snapshots of Ivy and MacCready relationship (it’s still in pre-relationship stages right now).  It’s mostly character driven rather than main plot driven, but it does fit within the fallout 4 canon with some backstory and timeline canon divergence.

Favourite story you’ve written so far:  You know what, it’s my least popular Fallout one, but I have a soft spot for Blood & Rain.  It’s the second one I wrote and it’s Ivy’s pov with a hint at her pre-war life (she’s a non-canon origin sole survivor).  I got to indulge myself in writing descriptions and some action - my old faves from when I used to write (pew pew is way harder to write than stab stab).  It’s also got a really important bonding moment between Ivy and MacCready.

Fic you were nervous to post:  Every damn one.  Sharing anything you’ve made really is putting a little piece of your heart out on a platter for everyone to see and waiting to see what will happen to it.   I guess The Wanderers was extra nerve wracking because it was the first thing I wrote after telling myself I’d never go back to writing, it was kind of a make or break experiment.  Blood & Rain because of the potentially triggering material, hoping I’d touched personal subjects with enough sensitivity but also still telling the story I needed to.  

How do you choose your titles:  hahahaha WELL, I finish faffing with the main story in AO3 and then am outraged that I’m expected to have a name ready before I can post it.  Honestly though, I’ve no formula.  They all have working titles in google docs which tend to be either a vague description of what’s happening, or a song title/lyric that’s running through my head while I write.  Like, the current fic I’m working on is ‘mass pike pt 2’ which is a useless title since the part 1 was actually called Gunners & Grudges.  And I won’t know until posting day what I’m going to call it.  

I did put some serious thought into a title for my series - Then I Met You.  I was cycling through song lyrics or things that might be a general vibe for them but settled back on one line from MacCready’s final affinity chat, “then I met you”. And it just fit so well.  Meeting each other is a turning point for both of them; whether you just look at it as making a friend in the wasteland, or finding some direction after drifting for too long, or there finally being a glimmer of hope after a long time in the dark (this all counts for both of them), something changed when they met.  

Do you outline:  Sort of.  I have a massive ‘fallout notes’ document where i just jot down whenever i have an idea of something i want to write, or just random bits of dialogue that spring into my mind (that may never see the light of day again).  From there, if I want to expand them I tend to bullet point with plot ideas, more dialogue, key backstory or important things I want to cover.  I tend to have multiple fics I’m doing this with at once and I bounce between them depending on where my mind has drifted off to that day.  By the time I actually come to write something, I tend to have a lot of notes to work from, in fact quite often I have to cut back on all the ideas I wanted to cram in and some things get slotted back into the giant fallout doc for future reference.

Complete:  I only have one shots, so technically they’re all complete and can be read, for the most part, individually without you needing to have read the others.  They will make sense, there might just be some context from previous one shots in there.

In progress:  Then I Met You is an ongoing series for my Mac x Ivy one shots.

Prompts?:  I do put prompt list out there for Mac x Ivy when my brain isn’t cooperating and I feel like a need a little extra inspiration.  For the current series I’m hoarding them and working them into the context one shots I have planned.  Pretty much all my Dragon Age Origins one shots over on AO3 were prompt fills.

Upcoming work you’re most excited about:  Ugh guys we’re getting close to them getting together territory and boy do I wish my brain was being cooperative so I could get these couple of stories in between down on the page and could start working in earnest on those ones.  There’s a lazy morning in bed after a big party fic I’m really looking forward to writing (I’m looking forward to both tbh) - any excuse to explore stories behind scars and tattoos and I’m there for it.  I’m even getting a commission from the amazing @tarberrymentats  for it *discord wiggle*, so yeah, I’m excited about getting to that one!

Anyway thank you for reading my ramblings x

[bardic-inspo]

I'm REALLY enjoying Bring the Gasoline, and I'm so very looking forward to sinking my teeth into chapter 3 when I have some time this week! If you don't mind sharing, I'd be curious to know what made you want to write it! Any starting point from which the rest of it grew? :D

Oh hey friend!! :D

It honestly means the world to me that you are enjoying it 💜 this story has come to mean quite a great deal to me, and, I'm really surprised and blessed to have made friends through the process of writing it. I am so so happy to have you along for the ride!

So, part of it was a desperation to break my years-long writing drought. I played Fallout for the first time last August. And I looked at NaNoWriMo coming up that November and just...went for it. Zero to sixty. Just, threw myself at it without a real plan other than "Nat and MacCready". I barely knew Nat back then, too. So I was really following the game script at first, until I took a leap off of canon when it came to the Gunners (something to look forward to, maybe). I somehow managed to hit that goal (which is wild to me now because on a good writing day, I write maybe 700 or so words in a sitting). And I remember thinking, "oh, I'll finish this story in another month or so". That's a funny joke to me now 🙃

I had a small excel spreadsheet with scenes I had dreamed up for them, but not much else to go on. Med Tek sticks out to me. There's a scene there that's been crystal clear to me from day one, but...maybe not for obvious reasons. I think that mission might go much as people would imagine. Except...for one piece.

Nat has evolved so much since then. I stand by my choice to "hermit draft" for a while, I know it was the right move for me personally to grow as a writer and to become comfortable enough to share.

But what REALLY got me wanting to write Mac fic specifically was his romance line: I've never really thought about us that way.

Like. Oh buddy, really? *Nudges him and Nat closer* Really?! *Nudges them even closer* REALLY?!

Thanks for coming on this ride with me and letting me ramble about my favs 💜