#These sentences are from what will be a bunch of different fics so we're a bit all over the place

[floydmtalbert]

WIP word game!!

Rules: You will be given a word. Share one sentence/ excerpt from your WIP(s) that start with each letter of that word.

@shoshiwrites gave me the word heart! And since I have recently tripped and fallen into a situation involving Louise in the MotAverse (yes I am still laughing at myself), I thought I’d share a few bits from that document 👀

[H] Her voice is low and a little laughing, and it is this that finally convinces him: the tone of wry amusement, so familiar from that night in London, her quips and questions and the lamplight on her hair.

[E] Even further away, over Norwich, searchlights sweep the sky.

[A] As he draws back, his lips brush against her skin, the slight hollow under her cheekbone where there is a soft, almost invisible down.

[R] Rosie leans back in his chair and looks at her, eyes crinkling and a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

[T] The row of exclamation marks worries her a little, but the next morning she finds herself looking forward to it. Dancing, drinks, chatter and laughter. A distraction.

Tagging, with absolutely no pressure: @flashbastard, if you’re working on something currently! Your word is golden.

[aethon-recs]

This Week (x2) in Tomarrymort (25 October – 7 November 2024)

Hello again! We have two multi-chaptered fics finishing this week, highlighted below, as well as a bunch of delicious one-shots and chapter updates as always.

Completed Fic:

Sits the wind in that quarter by @mosiva (M, 61k, complete) “After something of a long absence, Lord Riddle, the Earl of Gaunt, had returned to London.” This is a really cool Regency and Omegaverse AU (how cool is that to see that combined??) that features a lot of courting, gossip and intrigue, social climbing, and Alpha Tom Riddle along with Beta Harry Potter.  Broken Tomarrymort Telephone: Collected Stories by @exquisite-tomarrymort-telephone (E, 109k, complete)  A Tomarrymort version of the Broken Telephone game — passing a whispered word or phrase around a circle, with it often evolving into something quite different as it goes from person to person. “In our version, the starting person received a secret prompt and wrote a fic based on it. They then created a prompt for the next person by summing up what they had written in a single sentence -- with the caveat that their prompt couldn't use the same words as the prompt they were given. This continued through twenty-six (26!) different authors and artists, each adding their own flair and creativity to the exercise. Which brings us to now! We're wrapping up the creation part, so it's time to start sharing it with the world. We hope you enjoy what we've created -- we certainly enjoyed making it.”

In addition, a recap of the author notes from last week. (Please feel free to add some extra context to your fic update in the reblog, such as a little bit about the chapter(s) updated, and I’ll throw it in the update for next week!)

every step i choose to take begins to set the world aflame by @boyneptunee (NR, 4k, WIP) “Tom Riddle wants to become immortal. He will do whatever it takes to achieve it. It gets him in the most interesting situations. (A Phoenix saves his life. The Phoenix is not a Phoenix.)” These Fragments We've Shored by @rowena-rain (M, 31k, WIP) “You call me here because you crave atonement, and only I can give you that. After all, I am the only other who knows what it means to tear one’s soul. Or, as one very astute commenter put it, "Enter Voldemort, the World's Worst Therapist!" (Sorry in advance - Voldemort basically wrote this chapter lol)” Touch of Death by @moontearpensfic (E, 6k, WIP) “An oviposition AU, where Eldritch Harry/Death gives Tom his eggs, which will protect Tom from, well, death. In chapter two, the eggs hatch.” Time Stumbler by @wintumnly (T, 96k, WIP) “One part of my slowburn Harry-raises-Tom series. It ends in Tomarry, but everything building up to that point is unhinged humor, not-good-at-feelings fluff, and angsty plot surrounding Harry and Tom's chaotic and ever growing affections for one another. Update 23 explores Unconditional Love, and there will be familial love, friendship love, flirtatious love, obsessive love and others in future parts.”

*

Tomarrymort One Shots and Completed Fic

Chapters 26 and 27 (Completed) of Sits the wind in that quarter by @mosiva

Chapters 1 through 27 (Completed) of Broken Tomarrymort Telephone: Collected Stories by @exquisite-tomarrymort-telephone

One Shot | Resonating Souls by @endlessburningdarkness

One Shot | Anabiosis by @lee-bella

One Shot | Bites and other Surprises by lemonchase

One Shot | Viticula by @crowcrowcrowthing @cindle-writes

One Shot | Speedrunning Danger by @i-dream-of-libraries

One Shot | Karma’s a bitch by @albondiguilla007

One Shot | It's Like This by @twopenguinsinabox

One Shot | Boulder On by @lumosatnight

One Shot | WTF, Potter?! by @dragonaireabsolvare

One Shot | a couple inches shorter by @2sidesofthesamesoul

One Shot | bloody money by @00queasy00

One Shot | Cerulean blue by @albondiguilla007

One Shot | It's Not Always What It Seems by dysproporsium 

One Shot | To be Entwined by @cyandenial

*

Tomarrymort Ongoing Fics

Chapter 6 of And the Living Will Envy the Dead by @k-s-morgan

Chapter 18 of A Simple Request by @shyinsunlight

Chapters 3 through 6 of in the silence by @satflesk22

Chapter 7 of Anytime, Anywhere, Always by @moontearpensfic

Chapters 15 and 16 of the stars, my destination by @milkandmoon-ao3

Chapter 11 of Ills of Murder by @shadow-of-the-eclipse

Chapter 2 of In My Lover's Room (i am free) by @hyalithium

Chapters 1 through 5 of To the Hilt by @izharmilgram

Chapter 10 of Strings of Fate by @dizzydreamer

Chapters 2 and 3 of If I were you by @onehitpleb

Chapter 25 of would that i'd loved (long ago) by @sprst1tion

Chapter 18 of with eyes like these (who sees anybody else) by @cealesti

Chapter 9 of 7 by @moontearpensfic

Chapters 3 and 4 of you speak of the devil (like he's not your friend) by @amuria

Chapter 24 of Time Stumbler by @wintumnly

Chapter 20 of Outrunning the Villain in You by @zenyteehee

Chapter 19 of Of Darkness and Luminescence by @mindchroniclesandbrainfluff

Chapters 6 and 7 of Memories of a Killer by @chemfreakwriting

Chapter 1 of ROOTED by @inhumanbby

Chapter 1 of baby, turn the bright lights on by @ictyn

Chapter 1 of Harry's No Good, Very Bad Day by @2sidesofthesamesoul

Chapter 15 of Double-Aspect Paradox by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 15 of Saint Harry by @alenablack @chaos-bear

Chapter 7 of Fetters of the Damned by @sc0rpiflow3r

Chapters 131 and 132 of Liquida Tenebris (Remastered) by @dymis

Chapter 1 of Wish by @sri-verse

Chapter 10 of flour power by Kozzie

Chapter 5 of What quickens me is the violence in thee by @i-dream-of-libraries

Chapter 20 of Occultation by TimaeusKosmou

Chapters 21 and 22 of Learning to love by @l-archiduchesse

Chapters 1 and 2 of The Serpent and the Stag by @green-like-the-sky

Chapter 2 of Fake Boyfriend by J0305

Chapter 7 of i am anonymous, you are a concrete wall by Pensievable

Chapter 8  of we made universes out of bitten lips and broken hands by @boyneptunee

Chapter 8 of Lesmosyne by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 2 of Your Wish, My Command by @moontearpensfic

Chapters 6 and 7 of Venom or Valor by @lightningant

*

[actual-changeling]

I have written many meta posts and s3-theories, and read even more, but I got hit by an idea I have not seen before. (If there is another post, please link it!)

After vibrating for an hour and losing my mind in my dms, I have no scraped together enough brain cells to present what is probably my first actual 'main-plot meta'.

Welcome to another edition of Alex's unhinged meta corner, today with a title to honour Crowley's James Bond obsession and the possibility of another heaven heist.

I give you:

From Jesus with Love - You Will Live Twice

Now, let's get right into it.

I think Neil might have told us more about the main s3 plotline in the announcement article than we previously thought. We all got stuck on 'they're not talking'—for good reason—but it is the part before that which has been bugging me ever since then.

The plans are going wrong—and this time that is a problem for earth and humanity. Turning that around, it means that whatever that plan consists of would be the way to go and beneficial for everyone, the opposite of the main plot of s1.

"They need to prevent the Second Coming (SC)" is pretty much the only and most popular idea I have seen, hundreds of fics and metas and whatnot have been written about it, but I think there's a good chance we're wrong. If we're not, well, I will honestly just be happy to be watching season 3.

Whatever the Metatron is planning will have negative consequences for everyone, or as Michael puts it: "And so… it ends. Everything ends. Time and the world is over, and we begin Eternity… forever and ever."

It sounds very much like Apocalypse #1 - Same Old Plan, same expected result, yet if we look at different interpretations of scripture we find that the SC is not entirely about complete destruction and death for all of humanity—it is about creating a new world/migrating to the kingdom of God.

This is taken from the Wikipedia article about the SC

Resurrection and life in a world to come are a direct contradiction to the result Michael is explaining—total annihilation of humanity.

Now, I am neither religious in any way nor have I ever received any sort of biblical education. Luckily, Christians seem to love talking about the bible because there are dozens of bible website to wade through. If I get anything wrong, please point it out, I have never touched a bible in my life.

So, after reading many, many quotes by a bunch of different guys, I tried to create a somewhat coherent picture of what the SC might look like based on the assumption that the end result is positive. I will talk about how they can be interpreted more in-depth later, otherwise this would turn into a string-net very fast.

Additionally, we can also see where these points overlap with the statement Jimbriel gave in the bookshop in episode three.

What is Jesus' job description?

only God knows when and how exactly it will begin/happen, no one else does, including Jesus and the Metatron

a lot of different catastrophes are mentioned or quoted as something Jesus said, like earthquakes and storms -> Jimbriel mentioned a tempest and great storms

there is also the line "All these are the beginning of birth pains." Birth pains dictate that there will be a birth—birth of the world to come perhaps?

dead people will be resurrected/leave their graves so that they too can be judged (I'd say participate in it but that sounds like the Second Coming is a summer camp activity)

there are also mentions of stars and the heavens in general falling from the sky and the sun going dark -> Jimbriel also mentions darkness as one of the signs

great lamentations, as Jimbriel says, are also a part of many different passages, with humans mourning the world as it was

the Lord will descent with the voice of an Archangel and the sound of a trumpet/the trumpet of God; the grammatical structure of that sentence seems to be interpreted differently depending on who you ask, but the voices of angels/an Archangel and some sort of trumpet are common terms

once everyone is in heaven/wherever the 'main even' will take place, a judgement call will be made for every single person in relation to the book of life, which decides whether they will be punished forever or not (one passage talks about a lake of fire and mentions it several times in a row)

And this is where it gets tricky. To figure out what the SC looks like, we first need to understand a) what the Metatron's capabilities are, b) what he has to lose, and c) what exactly would be a threat to him.

If you ask me, all of this comes down to the Metatron wanting to stay and be in power for eternity with full control over angels so he can do as he please, aka keeping the system running as it is.

We know the book of life (bol) is a thing in the Good Omens universe, whether it does what Michael said is an entirely different question. So far, we have also only got confirmation that hell collects and tortures souls—in such large amounts that they are understaffed—while heaven looks completely empty.

The Metatron runs heaven as an institution, he seems to be the highest power any of the angels have access to and the one they defer to. He refers to himself as the voice of God and combines judge, jury and executioner, making him one great celestial dictator.

From what we know of hell, they do things a lot more democratically, having different councils, dukes, and ranks that are responsible for different levels of command.

We also know that that the Metatron wants the world to end, his goals can probably be summarized as the statement Michael makes, which would leave him in charge without any opposing forces.

We also also know that he sees Crowley and Aziraphale as a threat—why exactly remains a mystery for now—and that the success of his plan hinges on having a Supreme Archangel (SA) he can control. Gabriel decided to become princess of hell and Beez' sugar baby, so he was out of the equation, and after the Armageddon disaster, I don't think he wants to risk failing because of an unfamiliarity with earth (plus, y'know, getting our two idiots away from the plan).

It's interesting to me that right at the end, he says to Aziraphale "We call it the Second Coming"—call, not it is or it will be, CALL. We know that nothing Neil writes is a coincidence, definitely not with such an important line.

Just because you CALL something a specific name doesn't mean it IS what you call it, e.g. Aziraphale calls Crowley a foul fiend when we know he very much isn't.

The Metatron is selling his plan as part of the "Great/Ineffable Plan", so any questions can be blocked by saying it's God's will, it's ineffable. Whatever his plan is, he hides it behind the concept of the Second Coming, which angels know just enough about to understand the basics without having in-depth knowledge of what exactly it entails.

It is a good fucking strategy, I'll give him that, and it WORKS because angels—even if they have doubts—do not question. They simply don't; fear of punishment and millennia of conditioning have left them in a horrible place. When they encounter something unknown, their response is "I already knew that" as to not ask questions.

Crowley questions, we know that, and Aziraphale, ohhhhh, Aziraphale ALSO questions, but he does it in a less dangerous and obvious way. The Metatron is vastly underprepared for that.

(Side note: That alone would be its own meta post, but the gist is that he questions heaven's plans and then adjusts his assumptions of what God might want to what he WANTS God to want, e.g. Job, the Arch)

To summarize everything I just said, the Metatron wants to do what Armageddon failed to do—destroy earth and the universe—so he can be supreme dictator of all remaining celestial beings and gorge himself on power.

But instead of calling it his Big Evil Plan, he calls it the Second Coming, making everyone play along without resistance.

We cycle aaaaall the way back to the sentence I quoted—the ACTUAL plans are going wrong since the Metatron's would mean total destruction.

But what is the SC supposed to be if not the Apocalypse 2.0?

When I look at all the different aspects of the SC and assume a positive outcome, then the end result to me would be a new world that is pretty much like the old world, or maybe even literally the old world but with any destruction reversed. Heaven and hell get dissolved since now that everyone has been "judged", they as institutions are no longer needed, they have fulfilled their purpose.

No more judgement means there is no reason to keep track anymore, so why do you need to run celestial corporations whose only job is doing exactly that? You don't—and THAT is what I believe is the biggest perceived threat to the Metatron, losing full control over everyone and everything, losing his position, his title, and whatever else he has.

On top of that, Good Omens has told us again and again that God doesn't seem to give a fuck about good and evil anymore, and that without heaven and hell being all wrapped up in it, humanity would have 100% free will without any consequences.

Maybe the BoL is empty, maybe it isn't real, maybe Jesus stole it to straighten a wobbly table, who knows. There is a chance it is what Michael says, but I would admittedly find that a bit. too obvious and boring since it would boil the plot down to "they save their own asses again" and not "they save humanity at all cost".

Regarding Crowley and Aziraphale's role in this—I have Thoughts TM but those definitely need their own post. In short, they have to get the SC back on track, the real one.

-

If you have made it this far, thank you for working through what I hope are more or less coherent rambles. Any spelling or grammar mistakes are my own.

Questions? Thoughts? Corrections? Expansions and additions?

Feel free to add to this post however you like (and I can't believe I have to mentions this but if you clown on my post or behave like an asshole you will be blocked).

[emmerrr]

Trick or treat! 👻

[ i tried to write a 3 sentence fic, but it turns out i don't know how to do that? so here's this instead! enjoy <3 ]

*

Adam arrived at Monmouth late after a shift run long, and followed the trail of pumpkins, all differently styled, up the stairs; one with a Jack Skellington face, one with a smaller pumpkin in its mouth, a cat, a horrifying demon-like face with needle sharp teeth, a bunch of smaller ones with various intricate patterns craved into the skin, and finally, one made to look like it was puking out its guts, pumpkin flesh pouring out of its mouth and piled around it.

This last one was clearly a Ronan pumpkin, and Adam smiled at the sight, before grabbing a candy bar out of the bucket by the door that had been left out for the trick or treaters.

He went to open the door, but it stuck -- it did that sometimes -- so Adam jiggled around the door handle for a moment and then turned it and shoulder-barged the door; a tried and tested technique for any stubborn door.

As it gave and he went flying through the doorway carried by the momentum, he was greeted by ear-piercing screams, which, naturally, immediately made him scream right back.

"Fuckin -- it's only Parrish, Gansey, Jesus," Ronan said.

"Hey, you screamed too!"

"I screamed 'cause you screamed!"

"We all screamed because you screamed," Blue added.

Now that his heart-rate had slowed down, Adam finally spotted his friends, illuminated by the TV glow in the otherwise completely dark room, all huddled on the sofa wrapped in a blanket.

Gansey had his hands covering his eyes. "Are we sure it's just Adam and not a serial killer?"

Blue patted his leg. "Yep. It's Adam. We're safe."

Adam stepped further into the room and dropped his bag to the floor. "What am I looking at here?"

"We're watching scary movies," Henry said, shoveling popcorn into his mouth. "Come join us."

Adam walked over; there was no space left on the couch but Ronan slid onto the floor automatically and raised his arm, and Adam sat down and tucked himself neatly into Ronan's side. Blue dropped a blanket onto them.

On-screen, Michael Myers was making his way slowly across the street towards Jamie Lee Curtis. Adam caught sight of the DVD pile near the TV, and by the looks of things, they were at least three movies in already.

"I see you guys have had a productive night," he said dryly.

Ronan grinned. He peeled a skeleton sticker off his t-shirt -- Adam assumed he'd got it from Blue -- and stuck it on Adam's face.

"Happy Halloween, Parrish."

[jacky-rubou]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

thank you @septic-dr-schneep for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 public works, 48 if you count anonymous

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

486,495

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Gravity Falls, which is the only one I really write for. Any other fandoms I have are either from previous fandoms or crossovers with Gravity Falls lmao

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. A Hug For Those Who Need It with 205 kudos (first fic to hit 200, woot woot) 2. The Trouble With Sweaters with 190 kudos 3. Sometimes All It Takes Is A Sleepover with 132 kudos 4. He Signs I Love You with 125 kudos 5. In The Dark with 112 kudos

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

I always try to at least give them a single sentence of gratitude, if not an author's cut of why I did what they liked. Sometimes just a heart if their comment doesn't have much to respond to. or a winky face if I'm being coy lol. I just like to let my readers know that I appreciate the comments and that they're not commenting into a void lol.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

that is so hard because almost all my fics are angsty in some way haha. but i guess there are some with bittersweet endings that aren't as crushing as others, so I'll go with Sacrifices Must Be Made (major gore warning), The Things You Can't Live Without, The Twist of the Knife That is Fate, and Lost in Loving Memory (suicide and self harm warning) all with major character death.

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

define 'Happiest'. i got some hopeful endings after soul crushing angst like Not So Different (And We're Dying For It) (suicide attempt warning) and Barely Living (And All It Takes Are Some Pills but idk.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

occasionally. mostly just peeps upset at pacing or my weird choices. i haven't gotten a lot. if i do, i delete it right away usually.

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

haha no. (no shame on anyone who does but... that's not my style)

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

I've written a fair bunch. I think the wildest one was a Courage The Cowardly Dog and Undertale fic I abandoned on ffnet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no idea if I have and hopefully i haven't. anyone who notices someone stealing a fic of mine please let me know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

if i have, they haven't asked or told me about it.

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

nope and the idea terrifies me. though if helping with ideas counts, i have had someone help me with one of my fics in a more 'major' way but i don't want to talk about them further for personal reasons.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

right now, i like fiddauthor.

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

there's a wip i made a few months ago inspired by a small angsty comic about ford's ptsd being triggered by water guns and almost shooting his family with a real gun i saw but i lost interest pretty quick when i didn't know where the hell to go with it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

emotions. i have made many a reader cry and i love that about my writing. and I think I have a good grasp on world-building.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

probably my bias towards specific characters blinding me to implications. specifically Ford.

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

I think it's fine. I don't do it because I fear writing something wrong. Also I don't really write with characters that would know other languages (except for Stan I guess but I don't get very much opportunity to add it where it makes sense haha)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

regrettably, the transphobic wizard franchise mixed with Sonic the Hedgehog for some godforsaken reason. never posted it anywhere though, thank god. just something i handwrote as a kid. for first ones I've actually posted, see the courage the cowardly dog and undertale fic on ffnet i mentioned earlier.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

ARRRGGGGHHHH SO HARD TO CHOOOSE!!!

A few I love from myself are my suicide!ford duology (soon to be trilogy, shhhh), my paralysis!ford trilogy, my blind!ford duology, and Dead On Arrival

anyway, tagging @ferretwhomst and @thereareeyesinsidethetrees

[dawl-and-dapple]

Heyyy, I'm a big fan of your work (your vampire Au was my favourite) and honestly it has inspired me to start writing my own fics (I have a google doc with almost 100 fanfic ideas but it's basically the same thing right? ☠️) I wanted to ask if you have any general writing tips or anything special about your writing process? You're amazing, keep up the good work

Thank you!!! I'm so happy you've started writing (the best news anyone who writes can get).

The bad news is that there isn't anything special about my process, besides the fact that it's the way that I write, and it's probably not the same way anyone else does it. Everyone will write and edit differently. I've figured out what works best for me over a decade of writing fics and stuff and attending dozens of writing workshops, though, so I'm pretty confident in my ability to give general writing advice lmao.

Here be a bunch of random tips ⬇️

Master grammar and syntax. Like music theory and calculus, it's not exciting, but it is necessary. The simple fact is that so long as your spelling is sound, you know the difference between they're/there/their, and you can put a comma in the right place, the quality of your writing will be fundamentally elevated. You would not believe how many students in a Masters degree for Creative Writing do not know how to format their dialogue correctly. It's frustrating and disappointing (kind of like finding out a really good artist has somehow got this far without knowing the basics of colour theory). Study up, put commas and periods in the right places, and fear not the semi-colon.

Read widely. Read stuff you don't think you'll like. Read stuff that isn't like anything else you've ever read. Read non-fiction and read essays. Think of your inspiration like a garden; if there's only one kind of plant growing in it, it can't be all that healthy.

Workshop your writing. If you have the opportunity to join a writing workshop in school/university/whatever, do it. The process of reading others' work and building critique will strengthen your editing muscles just as much as receiving critique will improve your writing. Otherwise, paying close attention to what your beta-readers/writing friends tell you in feedback will do just as well.

Cut 'distancing' words. This is something I've only noticed by myself, so I have no better way to explain it. Words like "felt" "saw" "heard" can act as a film or filter between the reader and POV character. If you want the action to feel immediate, consider cutting these kinds of words in your edit.

e.g.

She saw the door open and watched the man cross the room.

vs.

The door opened and the man crossed the room.

Especially if you're writing in 1st person, these words will subconsciously distance the reader from the character experiencing these sensations. I.e. it should be assumed that if we're being told the door is opening, the character who is narrating this scene is aware of it happening.

This is not to say that you should never ever use these 'sensing' words. Only that they can potentially hinder scenes of intensity. Use this advice wisely.

5. Readers typically pay most attention to the first and last sentences of a paragraph. If you want to draw attention to a specific phrase or sentence, there is no need to have it float alone on the page. You might only need to place it at the nose or tail of a paragraph.

6. STEAL!!! Be a writing magpie. If something you're reading does something cool, examine it, dissect it, chew on it like a dogtoy. Figure out why it made your brain explode and STEAL that technique. Try to use it yourself. Don't copy the text itself, of course, but do your best to understand why the good writing is good, and download that technique for yourself.

If you do this right, congratulations, you've just practiced close reading. Now do it again.

These are my most general tips that I can think of right now. The more specific this sort of advice gets, the less helpful I find it becomes, since it's always tailored to a particular person or particular style of writing. But the more you write, the more you'll understand your own process! Good luck, and I'm very glad to get you started!

[goldfishlover73]

2, 8, 17, 22, & 23 for the fanfic writer asks! 💞

2. Do I reread my own fics?

Yes! This is a recent development!

The first fic I started doing this to was "A gutsy travel through time" I actually have it on my Kindle. I now go back and reread a lot of my more recent old stuff.

I'm actually looking forward to a time I can reread some of my more recent works (looking at you boba!!!) and are so far removed that I can look at it with fresh, non hate filled eyes.

8. Current projects!

Currently I'm working on three massive projects and one pet project. The three are in the revision stage and as my brain refuses to write new stuff.*

Which is fine! I have been dragging my feet with magical garment girls and it will need at least one (probably three) more good revisions before it's done! I'm hoping to have that done by the end of the year!

The other project is that hanahaki disease story. My goal is... May, but after some poor scheduling on my part for my last story, I'm not doing deadlines. Hopefully it will be ready by May, but it will definitely be done... By the end...of summer...

... No promises...

*my pet project is from my og fandom dcmk!!! It's not a story as much as a bunch of snippets!

I do have a dcmk id like to get done by December! That's my 20 years writing fanfic and I'd like to do a full circle before my anniversary 🥰

17. Anything learned while writing fanfic?

Loads! Marigolds are cabbage worm deterrents! How far San Diego is from me. The science behind baking. Naruto's plot. How to hide your search history.

Lots and lots and lots.

22. Will I know how it ends before I start?

Sometimes! You know where you start, you know where you end. The middle is questionable at best.

But sometimes I get lost on the road of life (whatever Kakashi says) and the characters want someone different.

That's... How magical garment girl got 15 more chapters...

But other times I just finish a sentence and... Stop. It will seem like a good place to stop and I reread it and try to go where I wanted but it just doesn't work. I guess this is where it ends. It's beautiful that way.

23 where to end a chapter!

This is tricky!

When I'm initially writing I kind of just stop "this is fine" and move to the next chapter. But after I finish the story (I Wait to post multi chaps until it's all done) I review chapter length and try to get chapters to the same length (unless I'm being artsy fartsy and change the pg length for some reason).

So usually they are the same length with a SD of a page or two. For magical garment girl, each chap is 7-10 pages on average. Misadventure was 4-6 until the time jump. Then they got longer on purpose.

Boba was a pain because I wanted them all to be at least 2-4 pages, but I didn't want to bloat it. So some were very short

I always try to have something important happen in a chapter, whether it's world building, character development, or story progression. Or setting up for one of those things. I don't want anyone to read something and think "what was the point?" (... Unless I'm setting plot up for later)

My biggest fear with a long fic is people getting bored while I drag out the plot (mgg 😭), but we're also here to have fun.

Not sure if I answered your question! TLDR: I don't know what I'm doing 🙃

Thank you for asking!! 🥰🥰🥰

[kalypartemis]

Fun fandom answer

It's been a long time since I've filled out one of these things so since @fishylife tagged me in one recently, I decided to fill it out <3

3 Ships You Like: It's always changing and be warned before you read further that, while I keep it separate, I do consume/write rpf and will be including that in this answer - my #1 right now is xiuhun(Xiumin/Sehun) (ʃƪ ˘ ³˘). I was and still am a huge Promnis (Prompto/Ignis) fan. And uhhhh..... lets throw it old school. I adore Duo/Wufei from Gundam Wing. In conclusion, I was destined to be a rarepair shipper.

First Ship Ever: Honestly, I'm not sure if I remember my true first active ship? I'mma go with Max and Tyson from beyblade. But if we're going with my first ship I actively sought out and consumed fic for, I believe it was Nicol and Athrun from Gundam Seed.

Last Song You Heard: Currently listening to Moonbyul's new album, on Dark Romance as I type this sentence

Favourite Childhood Book: I think, based on my age, we can take an educated guess as to what series I loved. And while I'd never revise history and deny it, I'm going go with another book I really loved and still own a copy of - Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

Currently Reading: I actually just finished No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and I've yet to decide what to start next. It's a tossup between Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan and Ithaca by Claire North. Maybe someone wants to help me decide? :3

Currently Watching: Jumping around 5 different shows as always tbh. However, for the past few days it's been another watch of Bob's Burgers. I've been suffering maybe the worst anxiety dread I've ever experienced and it's always been the best show to keep me from spiralling into a panic attack.

Currently Consuming: Coffee coffee coffee. (well, and apple juice. Yknow the saying - one for energy, one for hydration, one for fun/taste)

Currently Craving: All the food I've looked up over the last few days..... I'm traveling to Toronto this week for the Stardew Orchestra and, even though I already have a bunch of places saved, I've been looking into a bunch of restaurants I want to try. I'm going to have to be rolled back onto the plane. Not going to tag anyone as I'm not even sure who to tag, so if you want to do this please steal it from me~~ I tag everyone <3333

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

Yes, I'm aware it's Tuesday not Monday but shhhhh XD

Just a quick one this month. Not even going to split it up by fandom as I usually do, just kinda blitz through.

So I ended up...essentially taking January off from writing, apart from a scattered few sentences here and there. Which on the one hand was probably good for me but on the other hand I'm behind on projects lol. Ah well.

Priorities for this month: 1. SWBB I'm picking up the project I had to step away from last year. Anakin was not found at age nine and never became a Jedi; we're handwaving that TPM ended roughly the same way anyway because Padme and Obi-Wan are very good at what they do and one of the other pilots got lucky on the droid control ship. Fast-forward to like a year and a half/two years into the Clone Wars, Ahsoka ends up briefly stranded on a planet that's neutral mostly because it's a black market hub. They click pretty quickly, hang out for a while, stumble into a Separatist plot to test a chemical weapon and blame a limnic eruption for the deaths, and Deal With It. Hondo and Bo-Katan are briefly involved because I said so XD 2. P&J We're getting to the part where Ari actually finds stuff out, lol. Getting to Europe and talking with other researchers, etc. There's some interesting stuff in Marseille, and Calais is important. And Ari and Phil continue to be cute in the background. 3. The Other Battlestar Baltar ends up on Pegasus; there's a bunch of stuff built up around the two OCs who fill the plotholes he left behind...I need to get more text down in general, lol. And also figure out how I want to structure it? Like...I do need to establish the new people (including a few on Pegasus, like the senior medical officer, a marine officer, there will also be a Four who gets pulled from the civilian fleet...) and also clarify why Baltar ends up in a different position (and why Helo doesn't because he and Athena still need to meet). And it would probably make the most sense to just go linearly and handle all the miniseries exposition in order. But then again would that actually be Interesting; or would it be better to pick up later and jump back and forth in time...yeah, you see my problem lol. 4. Acheron Javert Groundhog Day fic; looping the last 36ish hours of his life. (from right before he heads to the barricade to his death). 5. Maybe get back into Precipice or write some origfic if I have time/brain.

Longer-range projects: 1. Percussive Maintenance is still hanging out in my head, so I'm tentatively planning on that for GBB (aka the one where the at least two concussions Sam gets during Downloaded unlock Enough of his memories) 2. Or maybe I'll jump back to The Blood of Angry Men, we'll see. (aka a Zarek character study; looking back on his life (and the allies/friends/tools that he's led to their deaths) from the night before his execution) 3. What I'm definitely not doing is any of the crossovers floating around in my head; either the Star Wars ones or the WoT ones. (the one I talked about the other night; and a fusion is actually sort of building in my head because of course it is. Mostly because of the Kara-as-Mat thing I pinged onto the other night; but also Baltar would be an interesting Logain; possibly Zarek as Taim? I think I'd leave Rand as Rand and just fill in the roles around him. Lee also lines up really well with Perrin...and since this would derail pretty early on I feel a little more Flexible about love interests/etc. lol. For reasons of Tuon, Moiraine, and Lan, mostly. Also Faile. Also I'd still want Caprica as a sul'dam, I think, but Logain doesn't have a canon love interest IIRC sooooo that's easier to sort out XD ...although now that I think about it, Athena as Nynaeve and Helo as Lan could work...) 4. Incinctus/other Castlevania things. 5. I'm doing pod_together again once signups open. I need to refine my fandoms list, haha. Not that I haven't had interesting times the last couple years, but it'd be nice to get matched based on something that Isn't a very secondary/tertiary fandom for me again. 6. AtLA may come floating back into my head enough to pick up some of the projects I wandered away from there, we'll see.

Not writing, strictly speaking, but there's some admin/modding stuff for this year's GBB that I should get a move on, especially since the event is moving to May-October, plus helping out with SWBB the way I do every year.

...yeah, that's pretty much where things stand. Hopefully I'll hit a nice groove this month!

What about you guys, what are you working on?

[izzy-b-hands]

a pre-but leading towards Stizzy and potentially Steddyhands thing below. A lot of hurt ppl trying to heal and accidentally hurting each other a bit in the process. Mostly between Ed and Izzy. They're gonna work on it, eventually. Not in this fic, but it alludes that it pushes them onto that path lol.

---

"Getting a bit ridiculous now," Stede huffs. "After all, you could have at least borrowed my jacket."

"And ruin the ensemble?" Ed replies, pulling on Izzy's vest. "Speaking of, this does look better with the vest on! Thanks, Iz."

Izzy nods but his smile is clearly one of discomfort.

Then again, he also immediately volunteered his own clothes for Ed to wear, after a passing fish vendor emptying buckets of chum emptied one all over Ed.

So as far as Stede sees it, the discomfort is his own fault.

"Here," Jim dashes up by them, their long coat in hand. "It isn't that warm out today."

They drape it over Izzy's shoulders before he can even open his mouth, then dart back to Olu in the middle of the crowd that the crew has bunched into on the market walkway.

Stede waits for Izzy's snappy response, but, nothing.

He leaves the coat on too, pulling it tighter with a hand.

For the next hour, they plod through the market stalls, finishing up the long list of things that need replenishing or that are wanted.

"Back home we go," Ed instructs as they reach the front of the market. "Iz, thanks for holding my things for me."

Stede fails to bite back a frown. He'd forgotten Izzy had been carrying Ed's messed up leathers and shirt, that he'd not even paused before taking them from Ed wordlessly.

Fucking Israel Fucking Hands.

He does not care about him. Not one fucking iota. He cared so poorly about his own son that Louis had forgotten who he was. Would that it would happen the same with him and Izzy. Though he'd rather not somehow become Izzy's father.

"Leave them with me," Izzy says. "I'll get them clean enough again."

"Tall task, but I believe in you," Ed nods. "Jim, come get your coat."

Jim doesn't move.

"Jim, come on," Ed smiles.

Stede catches Jim's eyes.

Fury.

"Erm," Stede clears his throat. "They can get it back once we're at the ship. Right, Jim?"

"Yup."

The response is more a snap of the jaw than a word.

They head back home, bunched in the bigger dinghy, bags and boxes and small barrels crowding their feet.

At the ladder, Izzy hands over the coat, tosses Ed's leathers up onto the deck, and then is up and gone before Stede can get onboard.

Not that he cares, really. But Jim was concerned, apparently, and a good captain would attend to Jim's feelings.

"I'm sorry if Ed overstepped there," he murmurs to Jim as they help Roach put away provisions and groceries. "He just didn't want your coat to be misplaced, I think."

"You know exactly why he said what he said," Jim frowns, slamming tins onto the pantry shelves. "Look. He may be back to how he was before you left him-"

"I didn't leave him," Stede interrupts. "Not like that, at least. Like how you're making it sound. I just left him physically, temporarily."

Jim rolls their eyes. "Pardon me for not noting the extensive difference."

"Finish your sentence then," Stede snaps.

"He's happy. You're happy. I'm happy for you both! But you know who I'm not happy for?"

"Izzy."

"He got fed his fucking toe," Jim says. "And he's still jumping before Ed even says how high. I don't fucking get it."

"They're friends," Stede says, handing over a woven bag full of fruit. "And coworkers, and they've been together a long time. That's just how they fit together."

"No," Jim chuckles bitterly. "No, I call bullshit on that. They'd never have stuck around each other if that was the case."

"Then what?"

"Ed needs to pay attention and acknowledge Izzy damn near licking his boots just at the sight of him," Jim replies. "And Izzy needs to remember he's more than a first mate, and to get off his fucking knees to lick those boots, because Ed keeps kicking him on accident instead."

"They aren't trying to hurt each other," Stede says.

"That doesn't undo any of it."

"Maybe they need to talk," Stede sighs. "That's what you're going to say, isn't it?"

Jim shrugs. "Maybe. I'm going to take Izzy the new shirt and trousers Olu, Lucius, and I bought for him while the rest of you were arguing over tea."

They pull the clothing from the last bag of tins, hidden at the bottom, and leave with a swish of their coat.

--

"-okay?"

Stede jumps back behind the wall at the sound of Frenchie's voice.

"We talked about this," he continues. "Yeah, you absolutely fucked up, and then some. But we're here, in the present, and things are better, and if we can forgive Ed and Stede, why the fuck can't they forgive you? Or at least act decently?"

Stede hadn't thought they'd been that bad to Izzy, post-reunion. They gave him orders, of course, maybe a bit sharply now and then.

"You're all going to get yourselves in trouble," Izzy mutters.

"So we get in trouble, whatever!" Frenchie shouts.

"Shh!" Izzy hisses. "I appreciate it. You know I do."

"Yeah, because I finally got to know you! And I know that you don't deserve...I mean he could have bought new clothes! And left you in yours, and he could have worn Jim's coat in the meantime!"

"He's our captain," Izzy says, surprisingly calmly and gently to Stede's ears. "As is Bonnet. There are some things you just let slide, when it comes to captains."

"These captains are supposed to be your friends too though," Frenchie protests. "Friends would at least say thank you for your charity earlier."

"Ed thanked me!"

"Ed liked how he looked in your clothing and thanked you as an afterthought."

That stings. Stede can feel it himself, because he knows Frenchie isn't entirely wrong. Ed didn't mean it that way necessarily, he doesn't think. He was truly thankful but excited to no longer be covered in fish guts! Surely, he could be excused for not responding like Frenchie, apparently, wanted.

There's a hitch of breath. A shaky sigh.

Fuck. He's crying. Izzy is actually crying.

"Hey," Frenchie says soothingly. "At least you've got some new stuff, so you can let your leathers air out with Ed's until they don't smell of fish as much. And Ed can keep sharing clothes with Stede, so you should be the only one wearing these, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Man," Frenchie continues. "Come on. John and I want you by us for the chapter tonight. We can go choose blankets and pillows and our spot near the mast right now, so we're all ready by then."

Stede waits until he can't hear their footsteps before stepping away from the wall.

He thinks back to the night he and Ed had traded clothes, and a phrase from the time comes to mind:

A harried, terrified, "I don't know what to do," in his own voice. He sure as fuck doesn't know what to do now either.

--

"Iz really is tougher than you think," Ed says.

"That isn't what I'm meaning," Stede sighs. "Ed, you need to talk with him. Clear the air, and set a course forward for the two of you."

"I love the sailing metaphor," Ed replies. "But I don't think it's necessary. I'm not proud of what I did to his toe, and I probably shouldn't have-"

"Not ideal," Stede nods.

"Not at all," Ed continues. "But why does that mean I need to go have some heart to heart with him? If he needed that, I think I would know before any of you! I'm his friend."

"He loves you. As a friend and far, far more."

Ed's goblet full of wine hits the floor and shatters.

"I need a minute," Ed says softly. "Either I need to go outside and find somewhere else to be, or you do. I'm not mad; I'm just-"

"I get it," Stede cuts him off as gently as he can. "I'll head outside and check around on the crew. If you need me, come find me, or have someone else do it if you need. They won't mind."

He steps out onto the deck a moment later, heart beating out of his chest.

He'd hoped it wouldn't be a surprise to Ed, because even he, of all people, could see it now. The almost blind devotion and loyalty Izzy had for Ed as a captain wasn't any random luck or just the act of sailing together for years. It came from the friendship that had been there seemingly from day one of them knowing each other, and, from Izzy's side at least, the love.

But apparently, a surprise it was.

"Hey," Lucius steps out from behind the main mast. "Tea?"

In the galley sit Pete, Frenchie, John, Izzy, and Roach, though Roach is busy with a dough on the table in front of him.

"Welcome Captain," John raises a cup of tea. "Get everything you bought put away?"

"All the clothing, yes," Stede blushes to think of it. They'd literally been at clothing stalls, buying silk and cotton trousers and shirts and scarves for himself, all while Izzy stood there shivering and increasingly stinking of fish from holding Ed's leathers.

They could have bought him a new outfit in less than five minutes, but they hadn't even thought of it. The clothes wouldn't have been perfectly tailored of course, but they would have been clean.

He doesn't care about Izzy. He doesn't. But it feels a bit uncaptainlike to not have done anything about it, in hindsight.

"We are relaxing together and hanging out until story time," Lucius smiles. "Join us."

"I think you'll like the next chapter," Stede says.

"Ah, no spoilers," Roach says without stopping his kneading of the dough. "We can wait a few hours to just hear the chapter."

"Of course," Stede says, watching as Izzy, without blinking, pours him a cup of tea and does up the sugar and milk for him too.

He frowns when he slides it over, but otherwise he doesn't even look at Stede.

"Um," Stede hesitates.

"Ed alright?" Lucius asks.

"How did you know?"

"Honestly, I was listening in," Lucius shrugs. "It's been wild lately on here and all of you want advice, and I'm just trying to keep up."

Izzy giggles.

"He gets it," Lucius motions to Izzy. "Seriously though, is he okay?"

"We're having a small disagreement," Stede replies. "Not really a disagreement, actually. I told him something I thought he already knew, or at least had some idea of, and he had no idea, apparently, so..."

He raises his cup of tea. "Here I am."

"These things happen," John says. "I'm sure you'll talk it out tonight with him, and be back to normal tomorrow."

"I don't know about that."

"What did you tell him?"

Izzy asks it quietly, just audible.

"I-" Stede pauses, his cup nearly slipping off the edge of its saucer as he sets it down. "It wasn't important."

"Must be if he asked for space," Pete raises a brow. "Come on, you can tell us. If you want to, of course."

"I think I have an idea," Lucius says.

"Me too," Frenchie says slowly. "Captain, did you by chance tell him that Izzy-"

"Was lovely for carrying his things today? I did!" Stede says quickly.

"No," Frenchie scoffs. "And you know that isn't what I was going to say."

The table falls silent except for the sound of the dough being worked.

The galley door creaks open, and Ed wanders in.

"Oh, good. Izzy-"

He strides over to the table and slides some coins towards him. "For your trouble, today. I can see you found something new, but buy yourself something at the next port too. In case of any more fish vendors with shit aim."

Izzy takes the coins slowly. "Thank you, Ed. Much appreciated."

"Stede, I'm gonna take a little nap before the story. Wake me when everyone is ready?"

Stede nods, and kisses the top of one of Ed's hands before he leaves.

As soon as the door closes, the room explodes.

"Wow," John mutters. "He knows you love him now, and you showed just how much at the market and then some before that, and that was worth how much, in coin?"

Izzy shoves the coins his way, staring into the whorls of the wooden table, but doesn't say a word.

"Izzy, seriously," Frenchie starts, but Izzy's hand slams the table.

"I volunteered to give up my clothes, because he's my captain and my friend," Izzy says, teeth gritted. "But he made clear, when I pledged my loyalty, that captain would have to come before friend, in regards to us. So that's what I do, and that's what I did today, and how I feel about him doesn't matter!"

He blinks. "I'm. I should go to my room anyway. Put things away."

"You didn't buy anything," Roach says.

"Then I'll rearrange in case I buy anything at the next place!"

He nearly runs out.

"Great," Pete scoffs. "It's gonna take weeks to get him to talk more openly again."

"No it won't," Lucius says. "He's been doing a lot better. We'll give him some space, and he'll bounce back."

"I don't know what to say," Stede admits bluntly, his voice sounding too loud for the room, at least to him. "I'm sorry."

"Person that needs to hear that isn't in the room anymore," John says.

He doesn't care about Izzy. He doesn't.

--

"Hey."

"What do you need?"

Izzy is shuffling his few knick knacks on the small shelf above his cot. There's so few it honestly looks ridiculous.

"To talk to you."

"Got anything else? Lucius is the one for a chore like that," Izzy says. "Barnacle scraping maybe? Hate it, but I can do it, since no one else ever fucking does. It's a wonder the hull isn't made of them by now."

Stede lets himself giggle. "Do we scrape or leave them at that point?"

"Depends. If you want a hull, leave them. If you don't mind sinking from the holes that'll be left and in need of rapid repair, then scrape them all."

"Izzy," Stede says. "I didn't mean to cause any trouble by telling Ed what I did. I honestly, truly, thought he knew how you felt."

"He used me to practice kissing so that he'd be a better kisser for Jack," Izzy says, hands stilling over the items on the shelf. "Laughed at me for looking starry-eyed during and after. I lied and told him I just liked kissing that much. It's as much on me as it is him."

"That's probably not false. But even so...why not talk about it? Clear the air, about everything."

"All I did was the let the man borrow my fucking clothes," Izzy mutters.

"Because you love him."

"I'm not going over this all again," Izzy continues. "I made it clear in the galley-"

"I don't hate you," Stede interrupts. "Not anymore. I keep trying to, believe me. It isn't working. I don't know if I love you, but...you are something, to me."

Izzy turns from the shelf, to finally face him. "And what does that have to do with me and Ed?"

"You two should talk," Stede continues. "Amd whatever the two of you want, with each other...as long as I have Ed just as much, I'll be happy. If that's clear enough."

Izzy's gaze softens. "It is. Is there any point?"

"In talking to him? I can't say for sure," Stede replies. "But if it were me, I would at least give it a try."

They walk out together to his and Ed's quarters, and he gives a rapid fire knock for Izzy before opening the door. "Go on. I'll be out here, bothering everyone else."

Izzy smiles. "You are very good at it. I'll be at ease knowing that particular duty is in good hands."

"That sounds better," Stede grins. "Go on, use the adrenaline and get in there!"

He shuts the door after Izzy steps inside, and sits against a wall near it.

He cares about Izzy Hands. A hell of a lot more than he ever used to, or expected he would.

But he does.

[internerdionality]

Question game! Tagged by @dragonmuse and @thetardigrape 💕🙏🏻😊

if you're a writer and you see this, consider yourself tagged if you want!

Do you write in order?

Nope. Frequently quite the opposite. I tend to start with the climactic scenes of a fic, the big emotional cruxes, and then figure out how to get the characters there.

There's definitely exceptions, especially when writing more humorous or lighthearted fics, and I've been experimenting more in the last year with posting works-in-progress, which requires writing much more sequentially than I used to!

WDYDWADS and A Fucking Duel, my most popular fics so far, each started with a very cracky premise and I had no clear idea where I was going when I started with them. I had the occasional out of order moment—I've been sitting on the next chapter I'll be posting of WDYDWADS since July, because I wrote it and then realized a bunch of other stuff needed to happen first, and the third chapter of A Fucking Duel was written before the second. But mostly they were written in order and I posted up each chapter before finishing the next.

But my longer fics like Soaked to the Skin and Mutually Beneficial were written much more chaotically. Chapters 17 & 18 of Soaked to the Skin have some of the earliest scenes I wrote for that verse. It's been a bit longer since I wrote Mutually Beneficial, so I don't remember the exact order, but I know that the moment in Chapter 14 where Clark goes to his knees was the first one I envisioned and one of the earliest ones I wrote.

How fully formed does your writing come out the first try?

I tend to think over the scenes first, and then workshop sentences and paragraphs as I'm writing them, so it depends what you mean by "first try." Most of the time, the fic as you would read it after my first fully written draft is pretty close to the final version. It's just fine-tuning after that, unless something isn't working.

However, sometimes something isn't working, and then it can change a lot. For example, the aforementioned Chapters 17 & 18 of Soaked to the Skin were originally one chapter, and all from the Lucius' POV. After I'd written a bunch of the rest of the fic, I realized that we desperately needed to see what Izzy was thinking during it, so I ended up splitting it in two, expanding both parts, and flipping the POV in the second half. That doesn't happen to me very often, but pretty much every longfic I've written has at least one chapter that ended up getting overhauled, sometimes multiple times. The one I tend to remember with agony is Chapter 9 of Welcome to the Mouth of Hell (please mind the tags if you follow that link)—I actually swapped out one of the major characters in that scene twice before finally figuring out how to make it work.

How many drafts do you go through?

Well, that depends on what you consider a draft, lol. The longer and more serious the fic is, the more I tend to pore over it. I also tend to reread and fine-tune earlier chapters of a longfic to get back into the right mindset before writing more, so chapters written earlier may end up getting fiddled with a lot more than later chapters. But it's all a pretty incremental process, so I don't usually have multiple "drafts" of the entire fic in the way I did when turning in assignments in school.

If we're counting every time the text changes as a different draft, though—at least two? At the very least, I'll write out a fic in Google Docs, import it into AO3, and read it over again in the rich text editor, looking for import errors and fine-tuning as I go. I think the most I've ever gone over a chapter before posting it is probably around ten times? I do also reread over my old, posted work sometime (especially the smut, that's why I write smut!), and I'll fix typos and fine-tune sentences even years later if I notice them.

So an old smut like A Private Nightmare... and Fantasy, I've probably gone through three or four "drafts" since it was originally posted. As far as drafts that are substantially different from each other though, the record is three, for that chapter linked above.

Tell me about your process.

Well, I think I covered a lot of it as I blathered on through the previous answers! I tend to seize on something that seems important or interesting (preferably both!) to me, whether it's a dynamic between two people that I couldn't get out of my heard, or a piece of emotional growth that I went through and want to model, or exploring a sexual kink or orientation that resonated with me, just a particular premise that I thought was funny! (Or well, sometimes it's just 'write the smut you want to see in the world'...)

I usually try to have at least the broad strokes of what I'm going to write worked out before I start, although as mentioned previously, there are exceptions! With longer fics, I write outlines—I'll use the heading feature of Google Docs to lay out the main beats, then block out how many chapters I think I'll need, usually with a little summary of what I'm trying to do with each one.

I get somewhat overly married to (what I think are) clever story structures sometimes—for example, the alternating POVs in Soaked to the Skin, or each chapter of A Fucking Duel aligning to a number in The 10 Duel Commandments. I have one outlined WIP that using a four-person rotating POV. We'll, ahh, see how that goes if I ever start actually writing it.

[nevermindirah]

🦋🎈📡 (and a kiss 😘)

Beijos para você! (I'm being so normal about not falling down a rabbit hole about tu vs você right now djksfjdasfjds)

🦋what are you most insecure about when you post a fic?

Are people gonna like it?? (Do people like me??)

Then once I wrangle my social anxiety brain worms back to their rehabilitation corner, I'm wondering about whether the things I was trying to communicate with the fic seem to be coming across to the people reading. Do my understandings of these characters ring true for other people? Did the things I thought were poignant or funny or hot actually feel that way to people who aren't me?

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

I've been told more than once that I have a very distinctive writing style for smut. At first I just blushed my face off whenever I heard that, because oh my GOD I am publishing pornographic writing on the internet!!?!?!? and people are READING it!!?!???!!!?!??? Now that I've had some time to get used to it, I take it as a badge of honor, even when anxiety pokes through that maybe not everybody means it strictly as a compliment. You know what it's a style and it's fun and we're embracing it!

More broadly, my style has definitely changed since BoN first ate my brain. There are some elements of my older fics that absolutely make me cringe now, like the rapid-fire pov shifts (sometimes in the same sentence!) and the explosion of French pet names. No shade on those old fics, I'm glad I wrote them, and I'm glad the people who still enjoy them are enjoying them! It's just that looking back on my older stuff confronts me with how much less practice with writing fiction I had two years ago than I do now.

One element of my fic style that hasn't changed and I doubt ever will is my tendency towards complex, multi-phrase sentences. My professional life has required too much writing about legislative details; at this point it can't be reined in completely, even when I try.

A thing about my style I'm hoping will evolve in the future is I want to learn more from writers like you who are writing so beautifully and effectively in English as a second language. Using my high school Spanish to write anything more complex or poetic than "Booker piensa que Nile es hermosa y tiene razón" (Booker thinks Nile's gorgeous and he's right) feels impossible to me. But English has a much larger vocabulary than Spanish for a bunch of historical reasons, and I have access to several (but importantly not all) registers of that vocabulary for a bunch of personal as well as structural class-and-race reasons, and the significance of word choice as an element of style probably operates differently in a language like Spanish with its relatively smaller vocab inventory so that means other stylistic choices I'm completely unaware of are probably doing super cool things to express the layers of meaning I've been taught to lean on word choice to accomplish in English — this is an enormous area of comparative linguistics but one small example of the ways we can shift our writing styles to more effectively express our ideas to people with different linguistic frames of reference. All that's even more interesting given the staggering diversity of language experience among our immortal blorbos. I don't know what particular stylistic changes might be in the future for me along these lines, it's just a thing I'm thinking about.

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

I love that you asked this because it gives me the excuse to say fandom is important! It's part of our lives! Hobbies we do for fun and stress relief aren't The Most Important Thing In the World but they're still part of our lives and part of the world and therefore what happens in fandom matters! Nile Freeman is a fantastically rich, complex, well-drawn main character and she deserves tons and tons of fandom content about her, and I'm a part of that and so are you! Fuck yeah!

I also really cherish my part in building Jewish Booker. The overwhelming majority of Jewish representation in mainstream US movies and tv comes through filters: Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries being pushed into the entertainment industry by several European countries' discriminatory policies and that tradition carrying over in the US despite legal equality, Euro-descended Jews being model minority-ized by the post-WW2 US that very much did /not/ involve itself in that war to stop the Holocaust but chose to frame itself that way after the fact, lots of individual Jews' family trauma and internalized shame and fear of the next wave of antisemitism around the corner, etc etc. The result is most US media that includes Jews is made either by Jews who feel enormous pressure to represent our entire people in a way that's perceived as palatable and nonthreatening to white culturally-Christian people or more often by non-Jews who've absorbed decades of iterating carbon copies of what previous generations thought was palatable. US Jews invented comic books and the superhero genre and yet the first MCU property to have an explicitly Jewish character was the 6th tv show in Phase 4.

There just isn't much mainstream content about Jews in my country, one of the two places where most of the world's Jews live, made by Jews who uncomplicatedly like being Jewish and don't have big economic and cultural pressures on them to represent all of us in Certain Ways. Wow, I didn't realize this rant was building up in me until I started typing. Anyway yeah I get to be honest about what Jewishness means to me and what I think it would mean for Booker and share it with people through fandom with just a little teeny tiny bit of a filter (my own internalized stuff) compared to the many layers of mess that mainstream content has to go through before it reaches non-Jews all over the world who consume US media and who may or may not know many Jews personally.

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

For the ask game :] 2. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas 9. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block) 18. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, 20. What is your total AO3 word count 22. What scene in MoaH took the longest to write? What was difficult about it? 

Ah, thank you, thank you for the ask @doubtfulloser!

2. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas

Honestly, it varies a lot. Sometimes from dreams, though usually for fic its a thread in some fandom discussion. GoS started with exploring a thread of people who wanted a unified timeline after the original split was announced in 2012, and MoaH was from a discussion on BOTW trial/dungeon design. And then I kept pulling the thread until it became a plot.

9. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

Habit.

I had to confront this big time this past month recovering from the flu, because here was the double edged sword: if I didn't write, I was kicking myself for not being productive, and if I did write, I was burning my brain out and not actually enjoying the process. Every other time I've been confronted with this problem, I ended up going on hiatus, which I don't like because they would go on so long. And there's a real conversation I'm starting to have with myself about my self-worth and productivity, but we're working on it. But the point was, I made a system to compromise where I'm currently at and people to support me on it (chiefly, my partner, though the Expanding Hyrule community is really building to meet part of this too).

The solution I'm finding now is habit, but it's not the same habit. I'm applying the things I did to keep my Duolingo streak for four years (which I still miss, but they started using AI so fuck that). And that's to have different goals depending on where I'm at.

If I'm not doing well, in whatever way, I have a writing maximum of ~400 words (give or take a finished sentence). The goal of this is not to write a bunch, it's to write at all. It's to prove I can maintain a habit and get back to it when I feel better. And then when I am feeling better, or generally in a good head space, that switches to a 400 word minimum in the day. The 400 word as a metric is specifically based on Terry Pratchett's daily writing goal. And so far, it's working. I'm getting back to my previous pace of a chapter a day.

It's also important for me to engage in other media outside of what I'm working on. Low inspiration usually means there's not enough ideas going in, which means I need to engage with other stories than my own, and outside of whatever fandom that might be in if it's fic. So subbing in other sources of inspiration is a key to restoring my natural sources. Right now, I've finally at a chance to watch Vox Machina and I'm playing through Ghost of Tsushima, very good additions to the rotation of writing sprints.

It's a work in progress, but it's important to be flexible in building answers. And it's ok to accept to yourself that you can write/draw/make uninspired. Just a little bit to flex the muscle helps, but it doesn't have to be groundbreaking every day (and it likely won't be).

18. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven,

I have a hard time with this one, but I'm going to say action-driven first because I know I rush my openings. I like to get to the plot. I write at a lower reading level but about more adult topics/lens because I believe we need to be making a better effort to make fiction, particularly fantasy, accessible again. I lean for big plots and bigger casts, and I very rarely know which trope to properly put on shit because I like poking them too much.

20. What is your total AO3 word count

As of the MoaH chapter to going out today (Oct 15), 253,730.

22. What scene in MoaH took the longest to write? What was difficult about it?

Oh boy, there's a technical answer to this and there's a real answer this. Also hard, because neither of them are out yet.

There's a scene in book 2 that's the culmination of a character arc that was very important to me to get tonally right, because I don't want Link's influence on it to be about him or to reach as a vein of hero complex on his part, but it was important for me to impress on the readers that most identify with MoaH Link the impact they can have by being good allies to people, about learning how they can protect people the way Link is in the story without centering themselves. I don't know if I got it right, but I hope I got close for the first pass.

Technically though, there's a chapter with an avalanche, also in book 2, and despite being pretty high octane, it took like five days to write because I was dying of the flu.

And thank you again for the ask!

[collectionoftulips]

hi! I just finished reading "just give these loving arms a try, baby" and I am so in love with your writing style! i love the way you portray the character's feelings, both regarding one another and themselves. it makes the story longer (I saw your author's note on you being worried about it, but I just love it!! the fact that it's going to take time for them to be a thing, those fics are the ones I enjoy the most) and richer.

also, I took some quotes from chapter 6 that I adored!

"Maybe it was because he got to see her dance, and knowing that she had seen him act - it felt reciprocal somehow. That was probably what it was"

this scene was precious, and the feelings that this sentence holds are amazing. we understand how his mind works, even if we are a bit like "sure, jan"

"Yet, there was a part of him, however small, that wanted Kate to know him. It had been a realization that had brewed within him for a while, a feeling which reached a crescendo when he had seen her dance."

I love how you are writing the development of their relationship, it's not a sudden realisation that he wants her, but instead a slow "opening" of Anthony's character

"That was not the case with Anthony. With him, it seemed to be a much more internal affair. Anthony would grow quiet."

she reads him so well! it's amazing that connection they have even if they aren't yet super close, it's wonderful and it warms my heart

"You need somewhere to grow. It’d be pretty boring television if you were perfect from the jump.”

again, she knows where his attitude is coming from, his "insecurity", we could say, and instead of offering empty advice or motivationa quotes, she takes that problem and presents it as natural and even positive.

I'm so so sorry for such a long ask/comment, I don't expect you to reply, but I wanted to let you know how much I'm loving it!!

Hi,

First off, you don't ever need to apologise for a long ask/comment ❤️ It's incredibly sweet, thoughtful and warms my heart. Truly. Especially as Ao3 generally seems to be going into a bit of a low activity phase or we're in a fandom off-season - I've had a difficult time getting a sense of how the Strictly AU is landing (but I'm having a lot of fun writing it!). It's so sweet to get an ask and for someone to point to lines that they liked... truly a treasure, thank you.

I so love the points that you made. One of my favourite things with Kate and Anthony is how Anthony might be rash, hotheaded, insecure and a whole bunch of other things and people would (rightly) take issue with some of his behaviour. Kate might also belong to that group of people but she also understands him, whether she wants to or not, in a different way to other people, so she can see past his facade, and offer up space for him to learn and grow in a way that his surrounding doesn't really allow in a safe non-judgemental way (he and Kate both had to grow up far too fast, and the understanding of what that means and does to a person is something that unites them in different stories or AUs etc and I love writing). In the Strictly AU, she doesn't realise that facet of his personality yet and I really really hope you'll like how I've decided to deal with that aspects in this story (I can't wait to write it, even if it's still a bit to go).

(I also love having elements of unreliable narrators and creating 'sure jan' moments ❤️)

As for the improvements, I do definitely think anyone who has done teaching in any capacity (as Kate has) would understand this myth of people just showing up and 'naturally' getting stuff never happens and actually, even if that was possible, that would be missing the point. I have a whole thought process on learning and what's happened with that and how people's relationship to learning has become skewed, but actually the beauty of learning often lies in the process, letting things take their time and see how the thing you're learning settle in you. Everyone learn at their own pace and that's pretty beautiful.

Plus, on a pure cynical TV level, the 'sure thing' winning something is a shitty narrative - there are reasons why most runner-ups of X-Factor (for example) have often been more prepared and professionally packaged (and middle class) than the people who end up winning (and also probably why runner ups on X-Factor have seemingly easier time translating their exposure to long-term career success to a greater degree).

Seriously, thank you. Your ask really made my day and thank you so much for such a sweet ask ❤️ Hope you enjoyed my response!

(I hope you get notified of my response, dunno if the 'done thing' is tagging asks to make sure)

[quillsandtypos]

Ski Trip

Summary: when the reader agrees to go on the annual ski trip up to the mountains with her boyfriend, Luke, and her friends she expected to go looking at mountains. But what she ends up doing doesn't require much hiking

Pairings: alive!Luke Patterson x reader

Words: 2.4k

Warnings: THIS IS NSFW FOREPLAY SMUT PEOPLE

If any of you have ever had a conversation with me and you read this fic, no you didn't

...........................................

"What are you two doing tomorrow?" Julie asked you.

You rolled into your stomach and propped your head up in your hands. “I’m not sure, but I know what we're doing next weekend, unfortunately.”

That peaked Julie’s interest, you weren’t usually much of a complainer. “Why unfortunately?” she questioned.

“Because I'm going on the Ski trip with him,” you whined. You wanted to spend time with Luke, you just didn't wanna go on the trip.

“Oh my god, you get to go?” she excitedly asked.

“Not helping,” you commented.

Julie smirked. “Sorry not sorry, I’ve been trying to get you to go for the past two years. And the first year, I couldn’t even go,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, so why would I have gone if you and Flynn weren’t even gonna be there?” you asked. As if on cue, Flynn walked down the stairs.

“Heard you guys were talking about me, all good things I hope?” she spoke as she walked down the stairs.

“Always,” you said, somewhat sarcastically.

She motioned for you to scoot over so she could have some space on the couch.

“So, if we’re done talking about me, did I hear someone say something about the ski trip?” Flynn questioned.

Before you could open your mouth Julie was already telling Flynn about how you were coming on the trip.

“You are?” Flynn squealed.

You tried to not get excited from their joy, but it was impossible; they were contagious.

You shyly smiled. “Yes, I’m going.”

“Yayyy!” Flynn yelled. The girl was practically jumping up and down.

“Oh who are you sharing a room with?” Flynn asked.

“Luke and I are,” you answered.

The girls exchanged a look you knew all too well.

“Shut up!” You covered your face with a pillow.

“We didn’t say anything!” they protested in almost complete unison.

You could feel your cheeks burning up. “Yeah, but you thought it,” you argued.

“Well whether we thought it or said it, you’re sharing a room with your boyyyyyyyfriend,” Flynn sang.

“If you guys start sing teasing me, I will leave,” you threatened.

“Don’t you need us to pick out your outfits?” Julie remembered.

“Oh, shit, yeah.”

“So in other words you have no leverage?” Flynn realized.

“I’m your ride home,” you reminded her.

“Outfits it is, but do not think we will be forgetting about this!” Flynn cried as she walked up to your bedroom.

“Whatever Flynn!” you yelled back.

“She’s right you know,” Julie slyly commented.

You just huffed in response.

The two of them did a very good job at helping maximize your california wardrobe for the mountains. Granted you had to go buy a couple things in advance, but overall, you felt confident that you could bear the cold of the mountains.

“Alright, I think you’ll survive,” Flynn proclaimed.

You closed your suitcase, and surprisingly you didn’t even have to sit on it.

“Thank you guys, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, it was our pleasure, especially since you’re actually coming this year,” Julie said.

You dropped them both back off their houses and they were nice enough to spare you from embarrassing you in the car ride.

...........

You heard someone creeping up behind you as you grabbed your stuff to head to your second class, and as you felt arms wrap around your waist you knew it was Luke.

You turned to face him. “So I was thinking if we get one of the window rooms then we can see the snow when it falls,” he proposed.

Your face lit up. “Wait, it’s gonna snow when we’re up there?” you excitedly asked.

He happily watched your beaming face “I mean that’s what the weather said.”

“Oh my god! I haven’t seen snow since-” you paused, “actually I don’t remember, but it’s been awhile.”

“Well there’s a good chance that’s gonna happen,” he said.

“You know you’re actually required to show up to school for them to allow you to come right?” you teased. Though originally it had been a legitimate concern.

He licked his lips. “I’ve been coming everyday so I could come on this trip,” he defended himself.

“Coming to school and staying in school are two very different things Patterson,” you playfully reminded him.

He leaned in closer and his voice got quieter. “And what’s that?”

You resisted the urge to swallow and pulled away from him. “One is what I’m doing right now, because I need to go to class.”

He pulled his lips tightly before sighing. “You got me there,” he admitted.

“I always do,” you said, as you started walking off. You turned around to see him still standing there, you would be lying if you said it didn’t bring you joy.

“Go to class Luke!” you yelled back at him.

“You got it!” he saluted you and walked the other way.

You playfully rolled your eyes. That boy would be the death of you, but you supposed there were worse ways to go.

That Friday you didn’t have any school since the school board figured it was pointless to send a bunch of kids to school the day before they went on a ski trip. There wasn’t going to be any actual learning anyway. You usually would’ve spent some of the day at Julie’s; which you did, but today it wasn’t in the studio for practice. You figured since she had helped you pack, you could at least keep her company as she packed.

“So who are you sharing a room with?” you asked her, as she sorted through her jeans.

“Me and Flynn just figured we’d share one,” Julie said offhandedly.

You chose to not comment on how she was obviously forcing herself to be casual.

“Ah I see, do you know if Alex and Reg are coming?”

“Yeah, and get this Alex and Willie are sharing a room,” she gossiped.

“I’m calling it right now, they're gonna start dating by the end of the weekend,” you hypothesized.

“I 100% agree.”

The two of you spent the next hour or so just discussing what sort of things you wanted to do while you were there over the weekend, and of course how much Flynn was running around her house frantically changing outfits. You actually were excited about going, not necessarily about the actual trip, and about dealing with certain classmates, but you were looking forward to being with Luke and hanging out with your friends.

For some reason when you woke up the next morning you were a little nervous, you supposed it was because you had never been skiing or snowboarding for that matter.

You got ready pretty minimally considering you were soon to be on a five hour bus ride. None of your family was up yet so when Luke pulled into your driveway you slipped out the door.

“You got everything?” Luke asked.

“Everything except my chill,” you responded with a smile.

“You’re gonna be alright, and you don’t have to do anything there you don’t wanna do, so if you don’t wanna risk a broken leg, then don’t.”

Despite your anxieties, you knew he was still right.

“Thanks Luke.”

“Anything for you.”

When the two of you got to the bus everyone else in your group had already gotten there. You, the rest of the band, Flynn, and Willie had made a plan for the bus.

“We have arrived,” you announced to your friends as you and Luke took your spots.

“And just in time too, people kept trying to take your seats,” Willie reported.

“Thanks for saving them,” Luke responded.

The two of you continued chatting with the rest of your friends until the bus driver instructed everyone to take their seats. The majority of everyone slept on the way up there but you were too anxious to get there to sleep. Instead you watched youtube as Luke napped on your shoulder.

“Luke, Luuuuuuuuuuuke, Luooooooooooooooke,” you spoke. You were trying to wake him up quietly but you were starting to realize that wasn’t going to work.

Luckily Reggie was awake. “Oh he’s a heavy sleeper, that’s not gonna work.”

Reggie basically got himself so he was dangling off both sides of his chair before yelling in his ear.

Luke awakened with a jolt, looking fairly startled.

You weren’t entirely sure whether you should laugh, throw Reggie under the bus, or maybe both.

“What happened?” Luke asked.

“I woke you up,” Reggie answered innocently.

“By yelling in my ear?” Luke groggily questioned.

Reggie quickly tried to backpedal himself out of this situation. “I mean I don’t think the method is relevant, the important thing is that you’re up.”

Luke wasn’t awake enough to deal with the situation at hand. He just chose to lay his head back on your shoulder.

By the time you had made it to the hotel you were ready to collapse. Luke laughed when you flung yourself onto one the beds.

“Should I be worried?” he asked, mostly as a joke.

“No,” you smiled and rubbed your face, “I’m just really tired.”

“You couldn’t sleep on the bus?” he guessed.

“Yeah,” you groaned.

“You know what would help?” he asked.

“Do tell,” you inquired, from your face down position.

“This,” he said, before he jumped on the bed beside you. He curled his warm body around you and pulled you in.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yes,” you responded. You attempted to melt further into him. You laid there in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes.

“Luke we should probably go do things,” you suggested. You attempted to get up but he pulled you back down.

You stayed with him but you turned around so you were facing him. “Luke?”

“Yes, y/n?”

You bit your lip, you had to admit, it was pretty cute. “Are you going to let me get up?” you asked.

He looked into your eyes lovingly. “Well if you’re trying to leave then no.”

“So that would be a no.”

“Well if you look at it that way then yeah,” he admitted with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Luke come o-” the rest of your sentence didn’t quite make it out. Your smart boyfriend decided to use your weak spot on your back against you.

“You wanna go now?” he teased.

“Not necessarily,” you lazily responded.

You could feel your willpower fading as the light stokes up and down your back sent a calm wave of chills through your body. But you knew if you didn’t use your chance now there was a good chance you weren’t getting out of that bed today.

“Luke come on we gotta go,” you whined. It’s not like you weren’t enjoying yourself, you most definitely were, but your friends had to be wondering where the two of you were.

“Alright, alright, fine,” he gave in.

“Can I have a kiss though?” he sweetly pleaded.

You gladly agreed, but you realized his plan of not leaving the room hadn’t quite ended when the kiss started leading down to your jaw.

“Luke you’re not sly,” you laughed.

“Oh is that so?” he asked, as he moved down to your jawline.

You nodded your head.

“Then why aren’t you moving?” he purred.

Okay, so he maybe had a point.

“You can tell me to stop,” he reminded you. He looked into your eyes for any sign of you wanting him to stop and waited.

“Unless of course, you don’t want me to stop?” he asked, with the biggest smirk you had ever seen on his face.

“Not necessarily,” you said, completely avoiding his eye contact.

He crawled over top of you, “What was that princess?” he asked.

You forced yourself to look into those beautiful blue eyes, and that devilish smile. “No, I don’t want you to stop Luke.”

“That’s what I needed to hear.” He bent his head down at your jawline, this time starting on the side of your jaw bone. He sucked at the skin and you bit your cheek down on a moan. He moved down from your neck pressing harder and making it harder for you to control yourself.

“Luke,” you moaned.

“Yes?”

“No marks.”

He smirked. “It’s a little late for that one.”

You rolled your eyes at his antics. “You suck.”

“I don’t think you're exactly in the position to be saying those sort of things,” he warned.

You raised your eyebrows. As if he thought you would back down that easily. “Really?”

He licked his lips and shrugged.

“Make me,” you insisted.

“Bad choice of words,” he threatened. In a second his shirt was off and one of his arms held your’s down and above you.

This time he noticed when you swallowed. “Nervous?” he asked, his lips quirked up.

He might’ve been starting to get to you, but you weren’t going to admit to it. “You wish Patterson,” you tested.

His head dipped down towards your collarbone. He lightly sucked on it and gradually increased his intensity until your body unwillingly gave you away and you gutturally moaned.

He jutted his chin out, the fire in his eyes on stage was nothing in comparison to this. “What about now?”

“Yes, Luke,” you groaned out.

He somehow managed to pull your shirt off with you laying down, and managed to unhook your bra with minimal difficulties.

His mouth softly sucked on the very top of your nipple.

“Fuck,” you moaned.

As he continued sucking at a rapid rate you felt the knot in your stomach twisting further, just as you thought it was going to release Luke stopped.

“How much do you want it?” he asked as he slowly pulled your pants down.

You were not going to give him the satisfaction of begging.

You felt a finger glide across your clit ever so slightly and back and forth he kept going, ever so slowly.

A whimper escaped your lips.

“Beg for me, that’s all you have to do,” he promised. He was most definitely enjoying himself.

He moved back up to your nipples but instead he moved as slow as he could, he was trying to break you.

“Come on princess, you know you want it,” he taunted.

A sole finger swiped down your pussy and your breath hitched.

“Luke please,” you moaned.

“What please? I think it has something to do with fucking you silly,” he hinted. He once again crawled over top of you to be able to see your face. Like a predator stalking prey.

“Please rail the shit out of me Luke,” you whined.

“That was all you had to say princess.”

[aryasage]

questions

stolen from liv (is anyone surprised at this point?)

do you read or write fanfiction and why?

yes. obviously? apart from being fun, i feel like i have a lot more freedom than with traditional writing. you'll notice in all of my fics (especially atcybyna) that i don't have strictly correct writing all the time. that's intentional (unless it's a typo or something, then it's just me being dumb). having mostly correct punctuation and such and then suddenly having the narration turn into run-on sentences? that conveys something. i really enjoy parallels and motifs (if you hadn't figured that out already) and this is part of that. having traditional writing standards and then breaking them is what makes it interesting, but it's hard to do that when your reader expects you to keep up those standards throughout the whole work.

that and brainrot

2. how and when did you discover fanfiction?

there's a fic not in lolrpf on my account. i'll let you figure out the rest.

3. how has fandom and fiction evolved since you found it?

i'll be honest i don't really know how to answer this question? i haven't been in fandom for long enough to see much change, i don't think

4. do you still engage with it in the way you used to?

i have to scroll past a lot more cringe things now.

5. which fandoms do you enjoy reading/writing?

lolrpf at present but can't say i enjoy looking through the fandom tag. the few people actually writing gen fics are what keep me sane

there's a tua fic that's just been sitting there taunting me for about six months. doubt i'll ever get around to finishing it but it was an interesting restriction i had to work around with the one line i really wanted to include at some point

That One Fandom. i have a doc full of fic ideas and a bunch more wips. might go back to them some day when the lolrpf brainrot runs out. but that'll take a while.

6. who are your otps?

i participate in exactly zero fandoms where shipping isn't at best awkward and at worst incredibly problematic! there's a reason for that!

7. have you told anyone you write fanfiction?

well sometimes people ask what i'm writing and i just laugh and say it's…creative writing, other times i tell them and their face falls instantly. have been able to convince some of them that as long as you're not cringe about it it doesn't have to be cringe though! we're getting there.

8. what does fanfiction mean to you?

the fact that you don't have to do all the world and character building yourself and just get to the angst or the fluff is pretty neat. my twin shadow. the way that you can build a community by just throwing your writing into the world. lots of things. i think it's hard to pin down.

9. do you prefer canon-based fanfiction or au? (so fanfiction that slots seamlessly into the original story or ‘alternate universe’ fanfiction where the world is slightly different)

aus just kinda hit different, ngl. you can do so much more with—well, everything. and pure canon in rpf—it can get messy extremely quickly if you're not careful. i tried once and it basically turned into an au anyway.

10. tell us about a fanfiction you’ve either read or written

one time i had a dream where i was a certain pro player (not gonna name names) (and no, it's not who you think) who was basically jhin but with a bit more restraint about that whole war thing. i'm sitting at a table in the back of a bar, and the people at the bar are talking (loudly, they're drunk) about the war on the horizon, and how much simpler it would be if the second coming of jhin hadn't disappeared.

woke up and wrote down a basic plot and then i worldbuilt the whole setting: basically, champs are gods and can make someone their vassal, depending on the god that can mean anything from visions in their dreams to full-on getting possessed every so often.

with jhin, well…like in canon, mans is a bit murderhappy, so his vassal is freakishly good at killing people…but it’s always a spectacle. he doesn’t even know he’s jhin’s vassal until one day in a battle (he’s a soldier, there’s a War going on) he blacks out and suddenly all his allies are cheering for him. they don’t know his name, so they’re not shouting that. they’re shouting the name of the god that won them the fight.

fast forward a few months, he’s basically won a war single-handedly. that’s great and all. but he doesn’t remember how he did it. all he can remember are the screams and the blood and the joy he had felt doing such horrible things. and that terrifies him.

time skip to a few years later, he’s trying to live a normal life, trying to pretend like the voice of the god in his head isn’t constantly telling him to murder everyone in the room. but another war is coming. and this is where our story starts.

he gets drafted (again) because even though he’s a war hero, that only means he’s proved how important he is. and, you know, corrupt government and all.

in the army, he meets people who were able to keep their being a vassal secret, and they all bond over the gods in their heads.

and that was about where i ran out of plot. it was an interesting world, but the story that i chose to tell was both too long and too directionless for me to ever finish. might do something else with that setting at some point though.

oh yeah and @space-axolotl you should answer these too >:)