#also also this is kinda sorta technically a WIP

[clownswamp6]

My silly little tf ocs :D closeups under the cut :)

[casual-praxis]

"Praxis stop making AU's only to abandon the concept immediately" challenge: Failed.

Here's a wip of something I probably won't actually finish since the concept is so far outside Four Swords it's basically its own thing.

I've been listening to Tales from the Gas Station again and it got me wonderin' how I could throw the Four Swords boys into a similar scenario, and somehow we got this concept from it, despite having no basis in either media.

Vio wouldn't even be the protagonist technically--just a recurring secondary character who turns out to be only slightly better than the actual antagonists.

He also dies at the end of everything, so there's that too.

More rambling below the cut for anyone interested. It turned into a mini-fic on accident, whoops.

From what I managed to cobble together while staring into the oven at work and giving myself an eye-strain headache, the actual "main character" is Blue, and they all work at either a very slow gas station or a very slow food establishment.

There's a weird cornfield right behind the building that's kinda funky if you look at it wrong sometimes, but that's pretty normal for their town. Lotta strange things in that place. Weird happenings all around.

So obviously since business is basically a graveyard all the time, the best way to pass the time would be to dare someone to go into that weird af cornfield, right? Yeah, makes sense. Which is why Blue nominated Red.

Of course, Red doesn't want to go in the weird cornfield--it's almost dark out, and the corn smells strange, and what if he gets lost, and, and, and--Blue doesn't care. Get in the cornfield, Red.

And so Red goes. And he's gone. And he's gone. And, huh, it's been an hour. Did he actually get...oh, nope there he is.

Red returns, but he's acting a little...weird. After being in the weird cornfield. Probably not connected in any way. But just to make sure, Blue asks if Vio's also getting weirded out by weird Red.

"That's not Red," Vio insists, but that's stupid. Vio's being stupid, and Blue tells him as much.

"What were you even expecting?" Something funny, probably. Not...whatever this was. It was like Red had found a twelve-pack of five-hour energy drinks out in the maze and decided to chug the whole dozen.

"So he'd be dead."

He's not dead! He's probably just...spooked stupid, or something. He'll be normal Red again tomorrow. Yeah. Once the nerves wear off, he'll stop being so...hyped about life?

"Huh, funny that. Guess what rhymes with Red."

Shut the fuck up, Vio.

And so, the wait for normal Red's return begins.

A day passes; still being weird. Another day goes by. Not much difference. Soon, a week has passed, and Weird Red seems to be here to stay.

Honestly, Blue is not vibing.

Sure, Normal Red kinda pissed him off, but at least he was genuine! ...probably. He was kind, at least. Not this... saccharine, doe-eyed...thing pretending to be Red. It wasn't even doing a good job at it! Red would never forget to water the fake plant in the window! He loves that stupid piece of plastic like only an overly empathic idiot could.

Vio was right. They had a corn demon among them or some shit. The real Red was probably still wandering in circles out in the cornfield, he had to be. And since it was kinda, sorta...maybe Blue's fault that Red was lost, he should probably be the one to go looking for him.

It was a little strange how the fake Red seemed to disappear after Blue told Vio his plans, but so long as he didn't get ambushed by the thing out in the field, he was golden. Or, well, he was Blue, but you get the point.

With that in mind, he bravely entered the weird cornfield on his lunch break. Because surely, Red was just a little lost and not...

Oh fuck.

"Wonderful." A cold hand grips the side of his face, dragging his reluctant gaze away from the mangled... His vision blurs, barely making out the familiar silhouette of-

"You found the body."

Vio.

Why was-?

"It's so sad," Vio intones, tightening his hold as Blue resists. "The guilt must be eating you alive, huh? This was your idea, you know."

What-

"How sad," he repeats, as if attempting to empathize. "You made a mistake, but it's okay. I've already taken care of the doppelganger."

An unnaturally purple fluid drips from the corner of Vio's mouth as he speaks, nearly iridescent in the evening light. Just the sight of it is enough to activate Blue's fight or flight response, but despite his struggling, Vio's grip doesn't falter.

"I can repair the rest, too, if only you forget this ever happened." Vio smiles, disarming and kind.

It doesn't reach his eyes.

Blue's mind blanks. The bitter taste of...something burns his throat. He tries to remember what it was he last ate, but he can't seem to think straight anymore. What was he doing again? He can't seem to remember, and-

Blue opens his eyes.

Red is staring at him in obvious concern.

Apparently, he'd zoned out in the breakroom again. Weird. He's been doing that a lot lately for some reason. Oh well. He couldn't afford health care, so that issue was just going to have to sort itself out.

He decides to spend the rest of his break trying to get that gross bitter flavor out of his mouth, while Red goes to water that fake plant he still hasn't realized is plastic.

All is as usual in their weird ass town.

Then again, Blue can't really remember a time when it wasn't weird. Like seriously, who planted a cornfield behind their store? It never seemed to die or go out of season...super fuckin' weird.

Maybe he should go poking around in there one day--er, actually, something about that idea just made the bad taste worse. Yuck. Maybe not.

--

This was not supposed to read like a fanfic but that's just how it ended up manifesting, my bad.

Here's some rapid-fire notes to make this a little more coherent:

+ Blue (and Green, though he didn't appear here) both tend to ignore anything supernatural that occurs. Both of them have had their memories altered by Vio on several occasions, but only because they keep winding up in situations that require it due to brushing off the signs.

+ Vio is a spider demon inhabiting this weird little town because of the sheer number of supernatural happenings. The way demons operate here is a little strange, they're constantly seeking out other supernatural beings to kill and consume their souls for power. This town is basically just Vio's territory at this point, enter at your own risk.

No one knows he's a demon, and he's constantly pushing the limits just to see when someone'll notice. Very frequently he'll say something along the lines of, "I'm completely normal" or "I'm human" mostly unprompted.

His saliva contains venom, of which can be used to erase the memories of anyone who gets it in their body somehow. The amount of memory lost depends on the dose, but Vio never ends up needing to erase more than a few days at most. He usually just spits on his fingers and shoves them in someones mouth to administer. (If he tried hard enough, he could neutralize the effects, but he doesn't have a reason to. For now.)

+ Red actually did die here. No amount of memory manipulation was going to undo that. Vio was still able to bring him back, but he's not really human anymore. His soul basically belongs to Vio now, but seeing as Vio wants him around, he allows Red to remain as some kind of will-o'-the-wisp given human form. Red does know Vio is a demon because of this, but he isn't going to say anything.

If Vio were to die and his was consumed by another demon, Red would die as well. So it's a good thing Vio's soul isn't consumed when he dies. :)

+ Shadow shows up in town at some point and starts working at the same store as the others. He's there under the orders of Vaati, but mostly he just wants to fight Vio. They have history, though it differs depending on who you ask.

After befriending everyone, he decides to go against Vaati, who's goal is to take the town as his territory to reap the benefits. This culminates in a massive fight between the minor supernaturals and Vaati's forces, and Shadow and Vio vs Vaati himself.

They manage to defeat him, but in one last bid to take Shadow down with him, Vaati lashes out with the last of his power, hurtling a sharp piece of debris from the battlefield at a weakened Shadow. Vio intercepts it, because of course, and though he's able to stop most of it's momentum, he's still down two of his mechanical spider legs, and it pierces through his weak point (chest gem) despite the other two.

There's a brief moment where they make eye contact, kinda just in disbelief, before Vio's physical form dissolves and all that's left is his purple soul. Shadow has to fight his natural instinct to consume it for power, and instead hold it gently as he returns to the others to let them know Vaati was gone now, his soul shattered and scattered to the wind.

+ I have no idea if any romantic relationships would be present here, but at the very least Blue and Red are soft for each other in some way (post cornfield). Shadow's feelings for Vio definitely aren't straight, though Vio's feelings are a mystery even to him. And Green's around here somewhere. Zelda too.

All of this was thought up in the span of like two hours so it's not very coherent, but it's what I've got so I offer it to y'all in place of actual cohesion.

Oh, also Vio's probably going to get revived. Shadow gets to be the one doing the resurrecting for once. Just gotta find those Vaati soul shards and shove them into Vio's. I'm sure it'll work out fine.

[littlemisspascal]

twenty questions for fic writers

Thank you so much for the tag @kteague ✨💖

1. how many works do you have on AO3? - 55 (but technically, I listed out the chapters of Death and an Angel individually as fics before combining them in one altogether so the number's a little less)

2. what's your total AO3 word count? - 399,907 (again, a bit less cuz of reason above)

3. what fandoms do you write for? - Pedro Pascal mainly. Then the one fic for Melshi from Andor.

4. top five fics by kudos -

The Infinity Cube - multi-Pedro Pascal boys/Female Reader

Establish Ties - chapter of Death and an Angel

Together - chapter of Death and an Angel

Death and an Angel - Din/Female Reader

Mailroom Crush - Javier P/Female Reader

5. do you respond to comments? - Usually yes. Though sometimes life gets hectic and it takes me a bit.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? - I don't really like unhappy/angsty endings so...hmm...I guess Bitter Ends Turn Sweet in Time cuz it's kind of an open-sorta-hopeful ending?

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? - Infinity Cube's pretty dang sappy if I do say so myself. Also Love Triangles has a really sweet ending too.

8. do you get hate on fics? - In the past I got told my fics weren't worth reading because there isn't smut in them. And a few times I've been told they didn't like the endings of certain fics, that it would've been better and more preferable to them if I'd done X, Y or Z. But lately since engagement's been down across the board, the hate's been gone too.

9. do you write smut? - If I do I write it as non-graphically as possible. I call it flowery writing, just pretty words strung together to get a vague picture across. Like in Before. When. After. or Into the Blue

10. craziest crossover: - I haven't written a crossover 🤔 but I mean, my Reader character literally travels the Pedro multiverse in Infinity Cube so maybe that's kinda sorta close?

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? - Not that I know of

12. have you ever had a fic translated? - Nope

13. have you ever co-written a fic before? - Me and @beecastle have teamed up before on a few fics. I'm a lousy writing partner tho. Very slow and picky so bless Bee for putting up with me

14. all time favorite ship? - I have so many otps. GhostSoap is very big for me at the moment tho <3

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? - The Last Mandalorian comes to mind. I have notes and notes and notes for that fic, but between my brain fighting me and also, like, 1% interest from readers it just doesn't seem like a likely goal to reach.

16. what are your writing strengths? - I don't really have any noteworthy ones

17. what are your writing weaknesses? - Too many to list here

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language? - No problem with it. I do prefer though where somewhere in the fic, either in parentheses afterwards or at the notes at bottom that it says what the meaning is because I'm lazy and don't wanna google it 😅

19. first fandom you wrote in? - Mandalorian

20. favorite fic you've written? - They're all faves in different ways. But...Before. When. After is special to me--not just cuz it's my only non-Pedro fic, but I think there's lines of writing in there that are some of my personal best 😊

Non-pressure tags: @kyberblade @wheresarizona @wardenparker @mermaidgirl30 @morallyinept

[embithesinner]

idk man, like i kiiiiiiinda get where horikoshi was trying to go with the ending, but i feel like if things got tweaked and moved around a bit like i'm thinking below, it probably woulda turned out better (and this is with fan ships completely out of the equation); stuff thrown under read-more 'cause i got wordy:

when we see the kid with the stitched up mouth, have it be at the ending's 'present day' (gone is the plate boy unfortunately because imho trying to make a full circle with him just didn't work for me at all; bonus points for changing that one 'full circle' cover to have stitched-mouth boy instead)

the old lady sees the kid, remembers coming across tenko all those years ago, prob has some inner monologue about how if she had done things differently back then would things maybe have been different idk but other than keeping that to herself and not outright sayign it to the kid, the main point is she still goes up to the kid and goes 'hey, are you okay? do you need help? there's a hero agency nearby, i can help you find proper help'

it sorta shows that society is still taking some baby steps in changing its way, still has a long way to go, but the signs are there

the hero agency just so happens to be dynamight's agency (todoroki could technically also work here, but hear me out) --- kid prob has reservations about trusting a guy like dynamight of all people, but lucky for him, dynamight shows he gets it (y'know, in his own usual ways), but brings up the fact that there is a place he knows and wholeheartedly trusts to make this kid feel safe

in a way this scene is supposed to bring some kind of 'closure' on kacchan's character development arc; just a 'look how far he's finally come' kinda scene

cut to some place that fosters kids who come from very troublesome/questionable upbringings/living environments that actually does their best to make them feel heard, validated, protected, and offer proper guidance/shelter

cut to i guess something like an exposition that basically explains that this place (and maybe a couple more branches too) is something that's being funded by both Uravity and Deku for people (in this case/facility, kids) to get actual proper help/guidance/education/shelter from not-so-good backgrounds. bonus points for one of the objectives of these places being to also properly educate parents who think their kid(s) 'aren't right' to maybe uhhhhhh stop fucking thinking that way of their kid(s) and treating them like shit

cut to another exposition i guess where we find out that aside from hero work being uravity's primary job and teaching as deku's, on the side these two have been doing their absolute best to try and fix the system from the inside out through either/both individual and/or joint projects like these places, and over time this awareness/movement has been trickling down towards the others from class 1-a (maybe even also class 1-b), at least in terms of being resources that not only do just 'generic hero work', but also search for and point those who are struggling in the right direction --- a slow progress, again showing it's still taking a lot of time for things in society to truly have changed for the better, but the WIPs are there and going.

imo this would prob be a 'good enough ending' that neither makes everything look so 'yep it's all fixed' nor 'nothing has changed'

i guess the extra chapter could play generally the same way? BUT the key difference is that kacchan's subliminal recruiting and the dekuraka ship moments are switched. hear me out.

dekuraka ship moment can happen maybe during a break from the party, ochako maybe steps out 'cause lingering thoughts about the toga-dream, deku maybe steps out to have that shigaraki reflection, idk but basically they can have their moment there (bonus points if it happens while the gang inside talks about the whole dating part)

near the end of the party, the gang's all like OH WE HAVE ANOTHER THING TO CELEBRATE/ANNOUNCE and deku's like huh i thought this was just for todoroki and then toshinori walks in, gives the whole shpeel about everyone (kacchan especially of course can't forget that bit and right in front of that boy too lmfao gottem) pooling in to get those support gears for deku, and gives deku the suitcase

everyone goes all TRY IT ON WE WANNA KNOW IF IT FITS/SEE HOW IT LOOKS and deku's like well okay and does just that but is all like why would y'all do all this for me?

and then that's when kacchan (again in his own kacchan ways) tries to recruit deku (and then someone says it plainly and of course make kacchan go YOU DIDN'T NEEDA SAY IT FLAT OUT YOU IDIOT)

but kacchan just looks at deku like 'well? i know you still have that fight in you, and i'm not done trying to show i've surpassed you' or some cheeky shit like that

and everyone just looks at deku like what's he gonna say is he gonna take the offer and work on becoming a hero again?

and deku just looks at everyone, at his support gears, having that shigaraki reflection moment flash in his head again or some shit

and then it ends with just a close-up on his mouth forming into a smile. what is the smile implying? that's the kicker.

anyways thanks for coming to my random shpeel of a ted talk.

[yeyinde]

Hi! Hope you're doing well. I just have to say that you're my favorite writer and a huge inspiration to me. Everything you write, even the small little snippets, just make me so happy.

Are you by chance still doing the WIP snippets? Cause I go feral for Jacob Seed, and when I saw you had a WIP for him I can honestly say I almost fell out of my chair.

Hiya! This is so sweet!! Thank you so much 🖤😭

Jacob Seed is one of those characters who I'd very much like to chisel open. He's so intriguing. His ideologies are so unfounded but his conviction and his reasons for them are what I find really appealing.

This is quite a deviation from what I normally do—third person, technically no reader-insert (I kindaaaaa made an OC? Oops) a bit darker (dragging me back to my slasher roots), and pulls a lot from a pseudo-religious upbringing. It is really fun to write, in theory, but is one of those fics that is mentally taxing in the sense that every piece is part of a bigger picture. Despite that, though, I could probably talk about this fic more than any others because of all the weird influences it draws from—Siken (it was originally gonna be titled war of the foxes but I felt that was a little too on the nose so I changed it to wishbone which is even more on the nose), bible mythology (in particular, the warring interpretations of Abaddon, iyjyk but also??? Abaddon and Michael, though???? 👀), and um. Cult shenanigans.

Here is a little bit about it!

He's in her head now, a sickness polluting her grey matter until it's shaded the same colour as the burning auburn around his wicked mouth. The one that splits wide, and croons about her failures, her destiny, until the rasping slur of his words are skeined tight around her gyri. Festering like a cancer she can't clove. One that sounds more like a truism each time she hears it.

Jacob has his finger on the trigger of a loaded gun with the barrel pressed tight to her cerebellum. A tool, he said. One without a master. Until now. Until him.

She can't fight him. Can't get rid of him. 

She wonders if she ever even tried.

And for some Rook x Jacob (kinda sorta but in a weird and twisted way):

Jacob doesn't give an inch even with the barrel of her Whitetailer pointed at his heart. A beat, then, where the world around her seems to shiver at the smirk he sends her way, his own hand fixed, deadly and calm, on the butt of his garish rifle. Red. 

(Of course. Of course.)

He stands on his tower, a castle of rock in the middle of the Whitetail Mountains, surrounded by unfathomable wilderness, and the broken remnants of his wolf beacons, his fallen men. His Judges. 

They lay by her feet, discarded offerings to the man who vultured her sense of self, her agency, until the person she was before all of this was lost, collateral to a war she never agreed to. She feels it sometimes, the putrefying remains of idealism and hope clawing at her skull until the tissue shreds and bleeds. Feels it like a second degree burn, a scab she can't stop picking at, and then pushes it back into its sarcophagus. It's an effigial prison in which she's both a warden and cellmate. 

It rears, now, as her patent yellow boots sink into the ribcage of a man torn to shreds by her bullets, her fists, mourning the loss of who it once was—a person of empathy and compassion. Someone who would have recoiled at the sight of viscera staining her laces, bone crunching under the soles of her feet. 

But it's gone. All she feels is annoyance. Disgust. 

They rendered it out of her. All of them pulling and tugging until bits of herself ripped apart, left behind in their regions, in their hands. Faith holds her belief. John, her compassion. Joseph, her fear. And Jacob—

Well. 

She tries not to think about what she lost in his cages. The gaping hole where her humanity once sat is heavier now that it's empty. 

It doesn't matter. Not anymore. 

Everything has been culminating to this point. To this moment. She feels the weight of it, the truth, in her bones. Unlike John, unlike Faith, only one of them will walk away from this still breathing. Her fingers tense. A proxysm. 

She finds, as the sky fades back to an endless blue and the mournful call of a loon breaks through the coppice, that she isn't entirely sure she wants it to be her. 

"Everything, all of it, has been leading up to this moment," he calls down to her, answering the unspoken assertions that bounce around the bruised fibres of her head. Hunt. Kill. Sacrifice. She gets it. She hates that she does. Hates him, she thinks, even more for making her see, for turning her into his executioner so easily. "So, Deputy, what will you do?"

If it were Faith, there'd be something about the path. About choices. About submission and surrender. Giving up agency and self in the single-minded pursuit of devotion to the Father. John, maybe a taunt. A sotto voce about atonement and true self. Of life admit the torture. A baptism in pain. 

But Jacob is neither of them. 

"Are you gonna kill me, angel?" 

She thinks about it. Really does. Lets it grind down into her synapses as she imagines a world without him. A place in Hope County where they celebrate his death and burn his body on an altar, unwilling to let the cult take him back until he's charred bones and ashes. Sure, then, that he's gone. Forever. Always. No more. 

Jacob will burn. 

She thinks about it, and she shudders. 

It feels anticlimactic despite the effort he put into setting it all up. Moving beacons and men and cages and wolves. Tracking her down through the forest until she led them to the Wolf's Den, and put a bullet in the head of the only man who made her feel some sense of footing amid a crumbling world. A place that wasn't quite home but it was something. Purpose, maybe. 

It stands in sharp contrast to the dogfight between them. Jacob and his soldiers. A commander playing a game of war from the comfort of his sanctuary. They're gone, now, and she hates that she isn't, too. That no matter what she does, how open she leaves herself, he still lets her sneak up the side of his perch until she's crouched behind a log, until she can hear the weight of his footfalls as he searches for her across the blood smeared landscape. 

It's a fallacy. He knows where she is despite the engineered confusion in his tone. What was that? He asks. Come out and fight me, Deputy. You know I'll find you—

The red dot follows her, always just a few inches from where she's hiding. A farce. She hates it. Hates that he isn't really fighting her. A marksman, he said (hoorah), but the only bruises he gave her are in her mind. Mental scars. Stupid. She hates him. Despises him. 

(Hates herself even more.)

It feels like muscle memory when she peers over the ledge, her bloodied knuckles leaving smears of her fingerprints behind. He's there. Waiting. 

Killing Eli, killing phantoms. Killing men. Killing him. It all congeals in her marrow. Effortless. Easy. She's killed him so many times already that she's sure, now, she could close her eyes and find her mark. 

Over and over again, he turned to a nebula of dust when she jumped on his back, wrapping nimble fingers around his neck. Mocking words haunting her as he dissolved into the aether. The Father will protect me. You need me. Don't fight it. Just let go. You've served your purpose. Let's say you get out of this. What's next? You go back to running errands for a teenager and a housewife? You are nothin' without Eli. 

"Come out, come out wherever you are, honey," his crooning taunt makes her hackles raise. A part of her hindbrain prickles with unease. Jacob brings a certain terror out of those dormant depths—an atavistic fear coils around her jugular. "Let's finish this." 

She wants to end him. To kill and maim and bend and break until nothing is left but bones and tissue. She wants to ruin him. Wants him to ruin her. To end this conflict at the top of a precipice she never wanted to climb. 

She says nothing—not to him, to them—but scuffs her feet against the gravel for no reason other than to make him look. He whips around, hand steady on his rifle. 

"Finally done hiding, Deputy?" 

The red dot hasn't left her vicinity since she prowled after him, unleashing hell and gunfire on the men—his Chosen, his best—that tried to keep her away from him. Hiding, she thinks, and wonders if those words are a projection. 

The Whitetailer—the only anchor she's had since she found it laying behind in an abandoned cabin—hums under her fingers. Pulses with the blood rushing through her veins. It's always been heavy. An SA50 isn't easy to carry across a landscape she mostly ventured on foot (as the near constant ache between her shoulders can attest to), but it feels both heavier and lighter than before. Another contradiction of many since she walked out of the Den and into a world on fire. Since she slit his throat and watched him turn into cosmic dust. 

It's steady, though. Unwavering. There's a gash on her arm from one of his Chosen. A bullet in her thigh. The unhealed wounds—bliss bullets and arrows—twinge with pain when she tenses her muscles, breathes in deep. Her broken ribs scream. She feels like more like a throbbing contusion than she does an actual person, still caught in the tendrils of her conditioning where his voice echoes in her head, the last notes of a song that turned her world into ashes. Only youuu… he'd crooned.

Only you. 

Only ever you. 

She gets it now. 

Or, she wishes that were true. It isn't. It isn't because maybe she's known all along. Since the bunker. Since Pratt. One, two, three. One, two, three. And then he's got you. Since she blinked into cognisance surrounded by the fallen bodies of the militia who didn't survive the training, who had bullet wounds that matched the shots she took in Jacob's trial. 

Since she went back to the Grand View and walked through the rows of cages in the parking lot. 

She gets it. 

She knows what she has to do. 

Her grip doesn't falter when she aims up. Up. His stomach. His lungs. His heart. 

"You can't. You're done. You've served your purpose, and now it's time to accept your place, Deputy. Where you belong." 

She thinks of Tammy. Of Wheaty. There's nothing left for her. Not anymore. 

Nothing except—

She wonders if there's a flash of panic in his cerulean eyes. A brief flicker of fear. But all she sees is contempt. 

"If I die, you'll be lost forever—"

She pulls the trigger. 

[pertinax--loculos]

November

So, as it turns out, November went quite well for me.

My original goal was to do @winterandwords's CalmWriMo, with the goal of getting some words down and establishing a writing habit with my new job. The start of the month it didn't look like that was going to happen. The new job is kinda overwhelming with study (long story), and I just didn't have the brainpower to do anything else.

Then, on the 18th, I got hit with some inspiration for INUNDATE. And I decided fuck it, I'll jot down that scene, because I've lost a lot of ideas for that WIP from not writing them down when I think of them.

Then I continued jotting down scenes, and I ended November having added a total of 28,600 words to INUNDATE.

Which is fantastic. I'm not gonna lie, study did kinda fall by the wayside in favour of writing, but it's been a couple of weeks where that's not the end of the world. Going forward, I'd like to try and prioritise study a little more; probably do some writing straight after work, have a break, and then get into going over what I've learned for my job during the day.

There's also the small problem that yesterday I was fucking whacked with inspiration for a new WIP (my ultimate curse D:). So it's possible I'm gonna start writing that -- though at the moment it's all Vibes(TM) with absolutely no thought of any sort of plot. But they are, like, super cool vibes, so I'll just see what happens. I have an assessment on Monday regarding the stuff I should've been learning when I was writing rather than studying, so after a weekend of study we'll see how I go and whether or not what I've been doing is sustainable alongside the training of my new career.

(This past week has been a sorta follow-along with qualified employees; like A Week in the Life of what would happen if we pass the training. And that life is very conducive towards writing. Which is exciting. But I have to pass the damn assessments to get there, so, y'know, priorities.)

I will say that it being NaNo month definitely made a difference -- there was a few days this week where I could've not written, but knowing that I was adding words to a total I hoped would be pretty good for starting ~twelve days before the deadline was certainly motivating. I do love the NaNoWriMo energy, even if I very rarely ~technically~ participate.

But yeah, generally speaking, November was a success. I'm really glad I got some words down, including some plotting stuff for INUNDATE.

(INUNDATE in itself is an interesting WIP -- it's basically a romance story, but it only covers like the first two-thirds of the beats of a romance, because the other third occurs during CASCADE. So it's been a fun exercise to write, but I don't think it'll ever be properly, like, 'marketable', because it's so intertwined with another WIP/story and you don't get the conclusion until you read that (notably unfinished) WIP.)

But anyway! I hope everybody else had a good November -- whether or not you were participating in NaNoWriMo, whether or not you're in my hemisphere and enjoying the turn towards warmer weather, whether or not life is treating you well. With any luck I'll be able to be on here a little more often as we head into the new year (which, btw, it's December which is fucking terrifying). But even if I'm not, I'm always thinking of you guys, and almost always lurking to see what you're up to. ;)

[aether-friskets]

wip questionnaire tag game yay

thanks @ap0stle for tagging me in this!! :D

The WIP im gonna talk about is uh. well it doesnt really have a name i just call it "that game i want to finish eventually" or "the survival horror game idea" lol, I'm bad with names so itll prob remain that way for a while

What's the First Part of Your WIP that You Created?

I can't recall exactly when this was, but I remember I was specifically listening to this video which, judging by its age, would've been around 2 years ago now. Something about the black and red blair witch game art used as the cover (which, i... totally legally... played that game out of curiosity later on, wasnt big on it as a blair witch fan or a horror fan in general, but you will see one little element from it as one of a few inspiration points for whats kind of becoming a major mechanic in my game at this point lol) mixed with the music itself gave me this mental image of someone driving on a road through the woods with that very black and red lighting, and i had this feeling that they were looking for someone. That's technically the very vague basis that sprouted into my game idea, which has changed a lot since then, and now I don't think a scene like that will even happen. Aside from that, my first concept that's actually stuck around, is the protag looking for their sibling (usually my brain leans sister so i may go that route, but i tend to imagine characters w/out gender in mind til later lol) and sorta ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time as a result. I have some more stuff in mind of course, but a lot of stuff is still pretty vague lol

If Your Story Was a TV Show, What Would the Theme Song/Intro Be?

Oh man this is such a fun thing to think about conceptually, I feel like the WIP is almost too much of a WIP to be sure... But it'd probably have to feel very 2000s, maybe have some kind of industrial edge? Something to capture the idea of an ordinary person descending into something they couldn't possibly be prepared for i guess loll Those things aren't necessary, but the setting is mainly going to be in this as yet unnamed city during the mid-late 2000s? I haven't settled on the exact year yet so that may not be fully accurate lol. The game probably will get some kind of intro style thing, because I absolutely LOVE that in the silent hill games (and also twilight princess had something like that!! which is very nostaglic for me lol) so I think it would be awesome to do in mine lol I feel like the closest I've heard to the vibe I imagine are like. 1. Into to The Mine from Lost in Vivo 2. Broken ALSO from Lost in Vivo (i swear something abt the music in this game just has the vibes) 3. Theme Of... by Drackfreeee I guess it makes sense because it's a silent hill inspired song that you can even hear bits from the game's intros in there but. man. it's got a dreamlike quality that fits the more surreal elements i have in mind well, plus i can totally imagine it playing in an intro thing showing a bunch of scenes from the game and setting that scene of descent When i get to that point in making the game, ill probably look back at songs like these for ideas on what'll work

What Are Your Favourite Characters You Made, and Why?

Since this thing is still so much a WIP, I don't have a tonnn figured out about the characters, so it's kinda hard to pick. But I can talk a little about what I DO have figured out! As I said previously, the protag is gonna be looking for their sibling. The basic idea being that they're visiting their sibling in this new city they've never been to before, and things go all wacky sideways real fast. I feel like I'm either gonna love 'em or hate 'em because due to the unintentionally personal nature of this story that I've been embracing more as time went on, they're probably gonna be the most like me out of the cast. I'm hoping to make them an enjoyable protagonist to play as tho, not annoying but not TOO bland or anything. The sibling is probably gonna end up reflecting a lot of my sister, cause, as i said, accidentally personal story that I'm kinda just embracing at this point lol. I wanna not make any of the characters 100% like a single person I know, so I'll probably mix in traits from other people I like lmaooo. but we'll see what they're like by the end. One thing i already DO know is I really wanna circumvent the idea of the person you're trying to find/save being this "damsel in distress" type, so I think it'd be great if when you finally reunite, they're dealing with the whole situation way better than you LMAO. or at least on par. The hardest part about that tho... Is I'll probably have to make a half-decently competent partner NPC for that part of the game... I've also had this idea for a guy based on a dream I had. I think they will be playing a part but I'm not sure yet, as stuff is still very vague at this point. The idea is of someone who is "helping" you for part of the game, only to fuck you over later on because, what can I say, I love the heartbreak of getting totally screwed over by a character you trusted sometimes :3 The idea being you'd make remote contact early on and they'd promise to help lead you to your sibling but in reality either A) they've just been trying to lead you to your death subtly lmaooo or B) more likely option, theyre tricking you into helping them instead, and then will leave you for dead once you actually help them. I feel like it'd be fun to write a guy who is a total opportunist and probably a smug asshole, idk lol There will probably be other characters? but these are the only ones I have in mind so far, and as you can tell, they arent very fleshed out at all yet

What Other Pieces of Media do You Think Your Fanbase Would Share?

Jeez, the idea of garnering any kind of fanbase in and of itself is kind of cool but scary lol I figure they'd probably like a lot of the stuff that's inspiring me in the first place, like Silent Hill (duh), Cry of Fear, Jacob's Ladder, a bit o' Twin Peaks... Basically if you like some guy going through some weird fuckin' psychological shit lmaoo More specifically, i want the vibes of stuff like. standing in a subway station at a weird hour, feeling like the only person left on the planet. Opening a door into a room that shouldn't logically connect. Cryptic phone calls and texts that don't seem like a person would make them. Desperately trying to reach someone, to find the answers, but it seems like the place itself is fighting against you. Stuff like that, I guess

What Has Been Your Biggest Struggle With Your WIP?

Man, what hasn't? I don't have much experience making games so I'm learning a lot mechanically as I go, but I also have never properly finished an entire original story before. I think the main thing, is like... I'm scared whatever I create will feel too derivative of the works that inspired me, that the thing I create will ultimately fade into the shadow of other things that did it better. So every time I have a new idea, I worry about if it'll come off too much like [x thing] and that's been making the process even slower loll Aside from that, I know the character's primary goal, and I have certain locations I think would be cool to include, but I don't know SHIT about any of the details of getting from the start to the end and what will fall in-between, which does make it tricky lol. I need to really consider what kind of path I want them to follow, and what will happen after they reach their goal, stuff like that. It's all just very vague right now and trying to work out the details is almost intimidating even tho thats the main part of making a story.

Are There any Animals in Your Story? Talk About Them!

At the moment? Not that I'm aware of. There may likely be enemies with animal-like appearances, though. I could see that being a thing I do. But I haven't really gotten into monster design just yet.

How do Your Characters Travel/Get Around?

At the moment I'm suspecting primarily on foot, however my concept for the intro of the game involves the protag taking the subway. So there may be some subway shenanigans too, idk.

What Part of Your WIP Are You Working on Right Now?

I'd say the main reason the story is still so vague, is I've been trying to get the main technical/mechanical elements set up before I get too much into the details. Or maybe I'm just stalling. So, I'd say I'm mainly working on stuff surrounding the non-story parts of the game. But in terms of the story, I want to flesh out the protag and the sibling more into proper characters first and foremost, I'd say.

What Aspects (Tropes, Maybe?) do You Think Will Draw Your Audience in?

I'll be real I got no idea but... I guess if I think about it from the perspective of what I think would draw me in from an outside view...

Use of classic survival horror stuff like fixed camera angles (plus I'm going to have both tank and analog controls so more people can enjoy it :])

Putting a guy in A Situation

The general atmosphere and setting (as I sorta said, mid-late 2000s urban enviro with weird illogical stuff happening and potentially kind of dream-like elements, i hesitate to say liminal but maybe a bit liminal? I also want to go for a ps2-ish graphics quality cause i feel like its criminally underrated lol and some people may feel like me on that part and like that)

Vaguely queer protag? like i said i dont have much fleshed out but if they're gonna be based on me at all u KNOW that bitch aint gonna feel cis or straight i'm sorry it's simply fact (also admittedly I've been wanting to make them like some kinda genderqueer or somethin because its my video game and i can do what i want, and seeing human protags that are nonbinary in some way gives me life)

Weird-ass shit??? like if you vibe with weird silent hill dialogue or the weird stuff that just. happens in twin peaks, im hoping to bring a similar energy in my own way

Possibly more stuff as I flesh things out more lol

What Are Your Hopes For Your WIP?

Honestly I just hope I make something that I feel proud of. I wanna make something that makes someone feel the same way that stuff like Silent Hill, Cry of Fear, Lost in Vivo, Twilight Princess, hell, UNDERTALE did, where that shit changes you. Where you can feel the love for the genre or medium it's based upon. But at the very least, I just hope at least one person likes it, I guess That'd be enough for me

Uhhh erm I have no idea who to tag I am so bad at this part.... If you want to do this consider yourself tagged :]

[ishganytoja]

WIP

I'm becoming silly because I was in bed with my thoughts for a day and the ideas are making my brain go crazy so yeah hehe hihi new OC sorta kinda idk yet tbh gimme a break you can guess the species of this gal though in your free time or something

another thing i wanna add, this is an oc which will be a lot more accurate to what i am irl, appearance wise at least.

my own transition has very much been purely social thus far, it's been 3 years of living in a closet with a few very specific outings where i've presented myself to my friends and the rest of the world as a woman, there's reasons for this (duh). meanwhile my main OC - Ieva is absolutely amazing and i love her but she is also someone who i cannot completely relate to looks-wise. this oc is a lot about depicting ieva the person (through my twisted furry mind of course). to depict and no longer be shackled by the damage of puberty, to make peace with the fact of who i am and most likely will be. it's not healthy to set out unrealistic transition goals and meanwhile ieva the owl is not quite "unrealistic" she's also just very far, it's like drawing myself becoming a formula 1 driver and saying "yup, I can do that" when i am 18 with no money or serious prior racing experience and with an eating disorder. TECHNICALLY it would be possible (see: Pastor Maldonado) but it's not really happening y'know. ieva the dog is just, laid back, imperfect, silly, edgy... imperfect. she'd be me. she's still someone i wish to be, but despite her dog form she's so much more human than my imagining of ieva the owl, she's so much more imperfect, which is why she's so me.

lastly, i'm sorry. i'm sorry i like this. it will keep happening.

cya.

[voltstone]

AYDF | scene comparison

Episode 1: BLOOD-STAINED | Original vs Remaster

So I've decided to release a few posts comparing scenes from the original/abandoned version of AYDF to the remaster for like. Funsies. Namely because I think it's nifty to see how far my writing's come since 2020 (…technically 2021), but also to see how far the fic itself has.

— — —

Original | Last Edit: Aug.28.2021

Remaster | Last Edit: Mar.15.2024

— — —

Yes, the remaster is highly indulgent, hence why it's longer. But. I don't care. So. Yay.

Anyway, I will do this up to the interlude since that's where the original left off. But, rather than 4 total posts (including this one), there will be 6 because instead of avoiding S3, I'm actually trying to address and kinda sorta "fix" the season. Hence why it's now 4 chapters instead of 2.

These also won't be things I necessarily post after the remastered is updated. Some of these will include WIPs too. This one, however, is posted. The chapter's been up for a while now.

Ah well. >:)

[maybeimamuppet]

2, 5, 9, 11, 16 for the fic asks?

hello darling friend tysm for the ask!!

2, will you participate in any fandom exchanges or fic challenges, etc?

if i’m asked to absolutely!! i think they seem so fun but being in smaller fandoms i think they’re a lot harder to figure out. i’ve actually considered forming a few of my own for like halloween or the holidays and stuff but i’m kind of the only cadnis writer still somewhat consistently active and everyone else who writes for mean girls is into very different things (which is great we love to see it but it makes group stuff hard lol) and matilda i haven’t checked up on in so long i have no idea what’s going on in that little corner anymore whoops

5, which wip is first on your list to complete this year? will you post a snippet?

we are continuing my beloved series of ‘someone has to write all the cliche fics for this ship and by golly it might as well be me”! from the looks of things the first one to be finished will be a college au (professor/student) that i’m honestly really proud of. i’ve been hammering away at it for a while lol. but we also have a few more like that and obviously plenty more that aren’t that i’m not gonna spoil just yet but i’m very excited for them :)))

“As long as I’m your professor, this can’t happen, no matter how badly I want it to,” Cady says with a sniffle. She gently presses a kiss to the corner of Janis’ lips before she pulls away and takes a couple steps back. “I’m so sorry, Janis.”

Janis watches her go for a minute, barely feeling the frigid rain slamming against her face. Cady hunches in on herself and clicks off. “What about when you’re not my professor anymore?!”

Cady freezes and turns to look at her. “What?”

“Once I graduate,” Janis begs. “Can we be together then?”

“…Technically, yes, we could,” Cady says. “But-”

“Wait for me,” Janis says. “Please.”

Cady bites her lip, but she nods after a second. “Okay.”

“You will?” Janis asks, finally feeling hopeful enough to smile for the first time in what feels like years.

“I’ll wait,” Cady agrees. “If you’re willing to do the same. Come to me once you graduate, and… we’ll see what happens. Okay?”

“Okay,” Janis says, smiling around a sob. Cady does the same before she continues walking away.

unproofread snippet brought to you by maybeimamuppet :)

9, short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in january?

i’m really hoping to have that and the next chapter of pt done by the end of the month!! my third writing birthday is at the beginning of march and i’m really hoping to have a batch of fics ready to crank out by then :)) matilda is kind of wonky for the time being bc i have very few wips and i need time to sort through which requests i can actually do/want to do so they might be a while but focusing on my meanies for a while will be a nice change i think!

11, would you like to try any new fanfic genres or tropes this year?

i don’t think i do!! at least not in fics lol i’m good with my romance and family fluff sorta genres i’m in but i am trying to write a few publishable like real actual books that are a little different so we’ll see how that goes!

16, do you have one fanfic that you wrote a ton for, ages ago, but never posted? will this be the year come hell or high water that it WILL get finished and posted?

UHHHH honestly most of my wips are kinda like that lol. i hyper focus on one and then get bored with it and move on to a new one and herein lies the cycle of Big Issues. so i have a lot of like half-done oneshots (including requests i literally got in 2021 and am sobbing trying to get done i feel so bad). i do have an entire folder of ‘unpublishable fics’ that will never see the light of day. they’re mostly just writing exercises but some of them are just really embarrassing so most of them stay there lol. and i have a multi-chapter The Good Place au i started years ago and couldn’t figure out other than the title but i only wrote a couple scenes for it but that probably also won’t ever see the light of day. ce la vie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

I'm not writing a new cool wip with fae in it or anything haha anyway completely unrelated: Need a name for a Goblin King TM that's edgy but on purpose, like sorta tongue-in-cheek edgy.

His parents were the fae version of Morticia and Gomez Addams, so like edgy but loving. She was a kelpie who ate people and was technically a cannibal and he was a goblin who was generally normal and honestly his biggest crime was marrying a naked bog woman who ate people, and together they had a beautiful edgy son who doesn't eat people but loooves to sit in a bog and play the violin, whenever he's not doing king stuff or otherwise failing to do king stuff because that's the plot, he needs help, he needs a girlboss wife STAT because his previous wife died for not being hardcore enough (His mom's sword ate her. Don't worry about it.)

He's green and his hair looks like it's wet all the time but it's not or is it? Kinda greasy but in a sexy way. Green all over. Too many teeth when he smiles but he's got dimples so it's ok. Did I mention he's green? Also has a tail with a little tuft of hair on the end.

Name would ideally be nature-related. Potentially a word name, or even a virtue name but like edgy. Bonus points if it can be turned into a cute and non-threatening nickname.

Please and thank you<3

Forreal though I'm struggling so hard

[broken-everlark]

Fic Tag Game!

I was tagged by the lovely - @nouklea thank you for tagging me in this. I saw everyone else doing it and was excited when you tagged me🥺💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21

2. What’s your AO3 word count?

93,466 -- holy shit.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I write for The Hunger Games and Wednesday. I have fnaf movie drafts. For, of course, Mikessa/Schelly.🥰

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Black Cat

Does to Me

Pretty Little Poison

High on Me

Doubt & Trust

5. Do you respond to comments?

Almost always. Usually, delete or freeze the hateful ones.

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

You are Mine. -- I guess you can count this as angst? I wrote an everlark Halloween related fic, but that was back when I tried writing in first person, and it's not good😅

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

Doubt & Trust. -- I guess. Since I haven't really posted or updated any of my longer fics.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yes. I used to get anons on here talking bad about my fics, I used to get a lot recently with my wyler fics, but I usually read and delete. Because if I don't delete or block, I usually will continuously read them and torture myself.

9. Do you write smut? What kind?

Yes, I just recently started writing smut. It's not the greatest, but I used the entire Wyler Kinktober to try & get better. I write any kind I'm comfortable with or one such as Non/con where it's not too graphic, I usually don't write a lot of non/con

10. Do you write cross-overs?

Not really. I don't enjoy when characters meet other characters from other universes.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

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

Nope.

13. What WIP would you like to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably Captive in the Darkness. An everlark fic of mine and a few drafts of everlark that I have scrapped because I just lost motivation.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmmm... that's really hard. I recently have absolutely love Petroclair & Wyler, schelly. Everlark will always be one of my first ships. I used to love stony & spiderwitch but sorta fell out of those. I guess Everlark can count as an all-time favorite.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Honestly, I think I can write some good gore and horror it's just kinda hard to get the right words sometimes.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Foreplay & Kissing. It's so hard for me to try and write sexual tension. Honestly, writing sexual intercourse in general, I feel like I'm pretty bad at. Also, it doesn't help that I'm constantly doubting my writing.

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

I can try but definitely need to use a translate app or something.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

If you want to be technical, I guess IT (2017), but for Ao3, it was Everlark.

19. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

To the Ends of the Earth -- THG fic with httyd au. because I absolutely love httyd & I have so much going for this fic, I just need time to write.

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day?

Definitely Black Cat or Captive to the Darkness.

(Literally, the only reason why Black cat has so many kudos is because that's when the wyler fandom actually.. nvm.. & it was my first long wyler fic. Other than that, it wasn't great.)

Tagging (idk who has done this😅) --- @iamfandomcrazy @thee-antler-queen @mega-aulover @pookieh @mellarked-katnisseverdeen

[literaphobe]

i do not watch mlb but i follow you, i always check the tag when it is trending on tumblr, and i watched a video about it once, so i kinda sorta get what is happening and gather info through gifs and essays. i know now they are dating and are very cute, but i'm confused whether they still do not know that they are ladynoir? how does it work regarding their love square, when one side is fully together? it's some sort of emotional cheating with their alter egos but not really??.. really confused but very curious. fuck adrien's dad though. stream sadf

hello my darling!!!!! tysm for checking on my silly little show <3

no they don't know that they are ladynoir! and ifl the s5 finale set up things that could really rock their relationship as adrienette (namely the very many secrets she is keeping from and about him). ladynoir currently see each other as justttttt buddies but imo. i think them emotionally cheating would be very funny. just because like. this is the ONE place where technically it wouldn't be cheating but also it would. and the layers of that would be very hilarious to me in a fictional setting. it is also technically a y7 show. so i dont expect it at all. theres also a chance that adrienette doesn't break up. which yknow! will be fine! but this is a very dramatic show so i def do not rule it out, esp since they can frame the break up as a 'i still love him but im BAD for him!' thing fdghaksjgjsh anyway. yes. adriens dad sucks. every bad thing that traumatizes love square can always be traced back to him. hes dead now but that doesn't stop him. hes like an expert at causing trauma

also yasss so true stream sadf but um please also do stream my new album (fic that is approaching 80k atm as a wip) when i drop it!!!! (post on ao3 and cry)

[coles-scythe]

Very very rough WIP of my man 2D for a redraw of a redraw of a screenshot of a virtual live performance. Sharing on here bc I don't want this to get much attention and I wanna gush about him a lil. Old art + screenshot and f/o gushing under the cut.

AAAA the improvement from the sketch alone holy cowwww. The drawing is August of 2019, so nearly 4 years ago. Very excited to finish this one, hopefully I can tomorrow.

Anyways-- I wanna talk about my history of listening to Gorillaz and my slowburn crush on 2D. Plus a little of what I've figured out about my S/I.

2D is one of my older F/Os by technicality. I never actively self shipped with him until recently, but I've had that big crush on him since I was a freshman in high school. So around 2016/17. I was vaguely aware of Gorillaz before then, but only because my cousins had shown me two different music videos. One of Clint Eastwood, and the other of Devil Inside by Slipknot. Watching those back-to-back + having a phobia of eyes did not turn out well and for the longest time I was terrified of 2D because my cousins told me he didn't have eyes at all. I later learned from a friend I met in my freshman year that isn't entirely true, his eyes just have eight ball fractures and are drawn to look like they're gone. I had also apparently confused the Slipknot music I had heard for the Clint Eastwood video, so that friend made me watch the video again with them and I realized I actually really like the song lol. From there I fell down the whole rabbit whole for Gorillaz and 2D quickly became one of my favs. Russell is sorta still my fav because I'm biased towards drummers, but Stu is a very close second LOL. I read a bunch of fanfiction, mainly X Readers of him on Wattpad. Fun fact, this is also around the time I started seriously questioning my gender, and started reading/writing male readers to explore those feelings lol.

So then I listened to their music and doodled them occasionaly when I was first starting art in my sophomore year, but I didn't really get involved in the fandom or anything besides reading fanfiction on Wattpad. 2017 was peak for me since they dropped Saturnz Barz after years of silence from Plastic Beach. Despite all the new music I was constantly listening to, my mini-hyperfixation on the bad quickly faded. Two years passed before I realized it, it was suddenly 2019 and I was a fresh high school graduate with a massive hyperfixation on Splatoon. Phase 5 had concluded a few months prior and my brain decided it was a great time to have a little redux of my Gorillaz hyperfixation.

I started drawing them, mainly 2D, more often and got very into the fandom on Insta and Tumblr. Met some pretty chill people, a few of whom I'm still mutuals with on my main :D!! But the entire time, I was still in my "self ship is cringe" phase and kinda ignored anything I was feeling towards 2D. I was still reading and contemplating making my own X Reader fics of him on Wattpad, but that was all irrelevant to me I guess. Eventually that hyperifxation on them passed and I returned to my regularly scheduled Splatoon hyperfix.

Fast forward to another year later in 2020 and into 2021, I finally embraced my cringe and started self shipping again for the first time since I was like 9. First with Erik from Dragon Quest, then several Persona characters (most importantly Adachi lol), then Happy Chaos, and I've been jumping around from crush to crush I've had since I was a kid. Very good for the soul, 10/10 would reccomend reconnecting with childhood F/Os lol. As of a few months ago I starting thinking of 2D as a potential F/O before officially naming him a romantic F/O!!

All this time I've been tossing around different ideas for a self insert, but haven't really explored it until I named him my F/O. I'm still figuring that stuff out, but I at least know they knew each other before D-Day! Not too sure about Phase 1 stuff, but I do know they'll reappear in Stu's life during the band's break between Phases 1 and 2 and maybe they start dating each other by the time Phase 2 does roll around OwO. And then my insert also gets kidnapped by Murdoc and gets shipped off to Plastic Beach with 2D. They become the stand-in drummer for the band while Russ is MIA. Then for Phase 4 and beyond? I have no idea lol.

Sorry for just rambling about this, but I like sharing the origin stories for my F/Os and 2D is one of those that has a very long and somewhat complicated story. I've liked him a lot since I really got into the band's music, but I was so absorbed into cringe culture and avoiding being called cringe that I just ignored any potential story I could tell between us. Plus all the gender dysphoria and less than stellar reactions I got from my friends didn't exactly help matters lol. But I'm no longer an egg, those unsupportive friends are out of my life, and I am cringe and I am free babey!!!

[waywardsou2]

Oh this is fun! Imma tag my writer friends at the end because this is going to be so interesting!

Here we go!

14...wow that is a lot more than I thought (how many of those are unfinished tho lol)

I tired getting into real whump like going deep into it and actually formulating it well, which...I tried but it didn't last too long

Deadpool and Wolverine is where most of my interest was based for a while in terms of writing. But more recently it's become Arcane

Only 3, my writing goes through fluctuations depending on the hyper fixation so I haven't had much difference in fandoms recently

5. DeadClaws was a big one for me for a while but Jayvik has stolen my heart most recently

6. Bucky Barnes was a big one for me even though I never ended up writing much for him. And now recently Jayce and Viktor (obviously)

7. Yes, Arcane was a new one for me. I don't count Deadpool and Wolverine because that is technically Marvel

8. So far my fic You and Me and The Music I make which is almost finished has meant the most to me to write. It's been a hug comfort honestly

9. Again, You and Me and The Music I make has made me extremely happy, it's all fluff which is something I never do. It has been so uplifiting

10. Welp I have a habit of not finishing my works (so many WIPs collecting dust right now) but when I finished You and Me and The Music I make I know I'll feel so amazing about it

11. I feel like my Summer of Bad Batch prompt challenge works were the hardest mainly because the hyper fixation died half way through which made it difficult for me to continue, but I did get it done in the end

12. Probably my one-shot series, because it was just shit posts here and there of smut. So it wasn't anything that big

13. Shortest was: My post movie head canon one, mainly because it was two chapters and it was just very basic

Longest was: Was Lost but never gone which was one 5 chapters (incomplete) at 15k words already

14. None just my general playlist but when I started You and Me and the Music I make I made a playlist specifically for that ship with songs that were actually included in the fic

15. The Sun will Set on Another Day and I will Still Sit in my Cage, which is super fucking long but it felt right? Idk it was just stupid for me to try and figure out how to name this one I ended up going with a fallout boy song title (LMAO)

16. "Fuck you" "Do it yourself, coward" was pretty funny but I also like You and Me and The Music I make, just coz it's sorta romantic? And I'm a sucker for romance

17. Tbh none of my opening lines particularly stand out to me...I find it hard to write good eye catchers, I mainly focus on the body content but since I'm in love with You and Me and The Music I make I'll have to pick that one

Viktor tuned out the methodical tapping of his shoes and cane working in tandem across the polished floors, he was well adjusted to the sound by now. The day was at its end and his bones had begun to creak. The hallways felt cavernous in the black with him unable to see the expanse of the celling or the depth of the hall. It only stretched out into more darkness.

It think it's nice and descriptive, sets the tone

18. I haven't finished any of my workssss I don't really have one

Their presence was the only thing that brought the other peace.

That's all I've got really

19. ...I suck at writing dialogue...so this was a struggle

“Just hold onto me, I won’t let you fall, and if you need to stop we will. Just…try this for me?”

^^^ This was just really sweet, it was so caring and kind in context. Litteral tooth rotting fluff

20. I thought this was pretty funny but I'm not really a comedian

"I will slice your dick off if you don't stop" "Oh kinky" "Fuck you"

21. In Lost but never gone the characters kinda ended up writing themselves. It was very interesting, enjoyable, but definitely an experience

22. I sometimes write in a dedicated notebook if I don't have my laptop on me. But I only use word and them I post on AO3 afterwards

23. Just the brainstorming stage for all of my works, when the idea pops into my head and I realise I can write it

24. No? Do people do that lol

25. I don't really have anything in particular I do. I usually just stop writing and switch to art for a while (I don't always have a choice) and then come back to writing when I feel the inspo again. It's weird

26. Yeah I made some art, though it wasn't very good

27. I took part in 3, I only completed one all the way to the end and abandoned the other two. I also created my own but I haven't participated in that

28. My friend DM and Emrys for being my biggest inspiration and supporters, for giving me ideas and being my beta readers. I would also thank a few of my discord servers for entertaining my bullshit

29. I want to finish You and Me and The Music I make because I genuinely think that will be the only WIP I can finish lol

30. More Jayvik fics...pfft that's literally it. I love them so much I want to keep writing for them

As for my writing friends

@desired-misery @bunnwis @emrys-study @fionajames @kybercrystals94

A slightly revised version of last year's questions! Two ways to play: Reblog and have your followers send you numbers, or answer the whole list!

How many fics have you worked on since January?

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

How many fandoms did you write for this year?

What ships captured your heart?

What characters captured your heart?

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?

What were your go-to writing songs?

What was the hardest fic to title?

What's your favorite title of the year?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share your funniest line

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

Did you create fanworks other than fic?

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

What would you like to write next year?

[bylightofdawn]

I am finally home and lawd I am tired. D&D was enjoyable the second time around. I still want Holga to do unspeakable things to me. Xenk is still unbearably hot and I want him to do unspeakable things to Edgin.

Also one thing I really took away from the second viewing is how awesome the cinematography was. Sure, it definitely had a sorta edgy experimental film student gimmicks to it but it kinda works. And I kinda want to see more big Hollywood movies play around with camera angles and crazy shit.

Like how everyone lost their collective shit in Black Panther when Killmonger literally walks into the throne room after meeting T'challa off the waterfalls and the entire world flips upside down. I want more of that shit.

Take some chances and stop giving us cut to a million pieces herky jerky action pieces. Doric just flipping through the portal and into the wagon was such a badass shot. Give me more of that, plz.

Ugh it's 6:30 and prolly too late for me to try and take a nap but bruh I am sooooooo tired.

I'm going to TRY and get some writing done but I have no idea how that's going to go.

I do TECHNICALLY need to go address the fact I completely skipped over writing a scene with Jango and Obi-Wan in chapter 13.

And yanno not me putting off writing the next part because I know it's going to emotionally drain me.

Or I could go take another shower because my hair is so yucky from the amount of product in it. I'm definitely ready to wash my face.

Honestly, a shower sounds like a winner right now. And maybe that'll wake me up enough I can focus on writing.

NGL that fucking Cody and Slick idea I had yesterday HAS NOT LEFT MY HEAD. The brainrot is super real so maybe I'll just break my own rules and play around with that today. I'm just worried I'll lose focus and then motivation on Seeds. When I think I'm literally like 3/4's of the way there. I have one more major plot thing and then I'll be in the home stretch. Weh. Hopefully, the shower will help clear the cobwebs.

EDIT: The shower did not help, I’ve tried actually napping and I am in this weird place where I’m so tired but my brain just won’t turn off enough for me to sleep. It’s just slippery eels swirling around up there and I can’t quiet it enough to switch off. I’m just not gonna make WIP Sunday or so anything but lay here in bed staring at my phone willing it to turn 10 so I can feee Genji and the ferals and go to sleep.

And I will bet money I will get a third or forth wind at around s 9/10pm because my body hates me.