#also remixed canon dialogue

[kudzuoath]

Needful Things

With the reappearance of symptoms foretelling of his arcane hunger, Gale seeks out the party’s paladin to plead his case. He needs help. Hopefully Odette is the kind of person he believes her to be. 

Or, Gale and Odette experience mutual attraction and care. Neither one of them acknowledges it.

—

The party’s paladin was taciturn, and brutal on the field of battle. Not someone he typically would have felt drawn to. But then he watched the way Odette interacted with the tiefling children at the grove. Kindly. With a soft voice and a reassuring hand.

Or in the case of the little helion Mol, with a grin and a witty rejoinder that came to her lips as if it were second nature.

There were other things, too. The way she threw herself headlong into danger, flaming greatsword first, the moment she spotted someone in need. How she treated each battle like a game of lanceboard – or the way she carefully handled and collected the books they came across in their travels.

That last bit was the first thing he’d noticed actually – only someone who loved them the way he did would handle them with such care. Even the copies she set back down. It’s not what he expected from a warrior – though perhaps he was letting his biases get the better of him with that.

There was something about her. Under the blood and the bared teeth and the black tattoos covering her neck and forearms. A cleverness. A curiosity. And tying it all together, a surprising kindness.

So one evening in camp he approached her. She was sitting close to the fire, hunched over a tome they’d found in the ruined temple of Jergal.

“That looks like a fascinating read,” he said, unable to help himself.

Odette startled. She nearly took his leg out with her tail when it whipped back and forth. “What?”

“The book?”

“Oh – oh. Yes.” With a faint frown, she closed it and gave him her full attention. Her mismatched eyes were curious – but wary. Not unusual for her, he’d noticed. Though he had also just managed to sneak up on her.

“Did – you need something, Gale?”

“Well, all this travel and adventure has made it somewhat difficult to find my moment, but there’s something rather important I need to speak with you about – if you would be inclined to listen to me this fine evening.”

“Isn’t everything these days?” She gestured at the log she’d perched on, the faintest of half smiles breaking through her stoicism. “Have a seat. Unspool your woes. You won't be the first.”

He itched to ask more about the book. But that wasn’t what he was here for. “How shall I begin… ah! Yes! The beginning. You see, since you freed me from that stone I found myself trapped in I have seen you demonstrate remarkable guile and courage –”

Her smile dropped for some reason. And – was her gaze a little frosty all of the sudden? Did she not believe him?

“ – The way you diffused the tension between Aradin and Zevlor! How you convinced Kagha to release the girl. Or charged in to save that boy from those harpies. And you’ve demonstrated a fair amount of temperance as well – many a paladin would have run that fellow at the bottom of Jergal’s temple through, even though he’d shown no will to harm us! In short, I’ve grown to trust you, Odette.”

Silence. For several seconds that, by the third one, were starting to send prickles of unease down his spine. My but didn’t this woman have a stare on her that could freeze fire! The thing was, he couldn’t see what he’d done to invite it.

Though… perhaps it was just her face? It wasn’t the first time. She only really seemed to gentle around the very young, or very vulnerable. Perhaps it took conscious effort to do so.

“I see.” Another pause. “You’re being genuine, aren’t you?”

He balked. “Of course I am! I am many things, but I’ve never been accused of lying about my feelings towards others.”

That faint smile returned, and she let out a soft little laugh under her breath. She shook her head and ran a hand through her short raven curls with a sigh. “No, you wouldn’t would you? You have my apologies, Gale. I’m not particularly used to people being so complimentary.”

“With how often you save people?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“Gratitude and… flattery are different things, I think. Or… compliments, isn’t it? That’s what they are when they’re genuine…” This last bit was to herself.

He might have been offended if not for how clearly baffled she was. Personally, he didn’t know what to make of her reaction. It was… odd. And it made him wonder what she’d been doing before the Nautiloid captured them. What roads had their Paladin walked? And what Oath now kept her?

“Well, nevertheless,” he said, pushing forward. “The reason I make a point of saying this is that I’ve grown confident enough to tell you something I’ve yet to tell another living soul. Except for my cat.”

She turned to face him fully now. The only hint of emotion he could glean from her face was in the tilt of her head, and the slight furrow beginning to form between her brows. His heart leapt into his throat as the moment came to bear down on him. This was it. He may well find himself a wizard alone. And he was no Elminster – particularly not now, between the tadpole and the orb.

“You see I have this… condition. Very different from the parasite we share. And just as deadly.”

“Can it be cured?” she asked. Immediate, serious. She was sitting at attention and leaning in, examining him with fresh eyes and real, visible concern. He noted the moment she spotted the darkened veins around his eye, and began to follow them down to where they vanished under his shirt. Surely not the first time they’d been noticed. But the first they might hold her any significance.

The way she looked at him. Ready to leap to his aid. It made his throat feel a little tight. And brought to mind his befeathered and bewhiskered friend back in Waterdeep.

“No, it cannot be cured,” he said softly. Swallowing around a lump in his throat. He cleared it and sat up straighter himself. “And I can assure you I left no page unturned in reaching that conclusion.”

Odette seemed to draw back slightly as he said this, eyes shuttered. Something he couldn’t blame her for, given he’d all but told her his days were numbered. Woe betide them all should she learn of exactly how numbered all of their days might be, purely by virtue of his company.

Though that revelation… that one he’d keep close to the chest a while longer. If he were very lucky – lucky enough to survive the tadpole, and find his way back to his tower – she need never know the extent of the threat he posed.

“I can keep this condition under control, as indeed I've done for a significant amount of time! But that was under different circumstances altogether. Home, in Waterdeep.”

“Gale… stop blowing hot air and tell me what you need.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and her hands were fists in her trousers.

“What it comes down to is this,” he said, holding up a finger. He was patently unable to give up his habit of lecturing. Particularly with his nerves strung tight enough to snap and his heart a throbbing drum trying to choke him. He trusted her. He could only hope she proved worthy of it. He thought she would. Hoped.

“Every so often, I need to get my hands on a powerful magical item and absorb the Weave inside.”

There.

“...Are you telling me you’re addicted to magic?” Odette said. Her voice was flat, toneless. But her hands were no longer fists.

“What? No – no. It’s nothing like that. Magic isn’t some – some narcotic to me. It’s literally a lifesaver.”

She stared at him. “It’s not that I doubt you – only that I’ve seen what can happen to people addicted to drink when they go too long without it.” Her voice darkened. “What they can do to people. And how, ultimately, the lack of it can kill them.”

The unfortunate thing was, she had a point with that comparison. Even if it didn't apply here.

“Were it an addiction, it might provide some other benefit than keeping me alive,” he said. And realized a moment after doing so that technically, it did. In that it was also keeping everyone and everything else in his vicinity alive and intact. But – no. Not that. Not now. “It is more a salve for a burn, medicine for an infection – though it wont cure what ails me.”

A new tension in her shoulders drained away. “I see.”

“I would not burden anyone other than myself with this were the stakes not so high, and the means of obtaining such artifacts challenging for a humble wizard to face alone.” He leaned forward. Fear sawed at him now. He hadn’t expected her to agree outright of course – he still didn’t. But he had to absorb something, and soon. Elsewise all might well be lost, tadpole be damned. “It’s been a tenday at least since I last consumed an artifact – since before we were abducted. It’s only a matter of time before my craving returns.”

In truth, he could feel it already. An unpleasant tingling numbness deep in his chest. One that made his heart beat just slightly out of tune. That froze his lungs. It was only a bit of morning frost at the moment. But all too soon he would be reduced to gasping on his back, hands pressed to his chest as if that might hold the snarling demon within at bay.

“That is why I turn to you, I need you to help me find magic items to consume,” he said. Intense. Unable to help himself even though he’d planned the rational facade. His hand was pressed over his hammering heart, fingers clawed in his shirt. The memory of what was soon to come biting under his palm. “It is vital. Dare I say it, critical.”

There weren’t words to describe the danger. His panic at perhaps being rejected. He would turn to petty thievery if he must. Not for his own sake, but for the sake of every living being around them, should it come to that. He would need them, if only to clear enough ground so as to minimize the hells he would unleash in his death.

Odette was watching him with a new wariness. His intensity had perhaps been… a little much. But once he’d noticed that creeping hunger in his chest… the panic had taken root in his tongue. Though it might prove needful. And may well have served to illustrate his genuine need better than if he’d managed to remain collected.

“Where are we going to find these items?” she said.

That wasn’t a no.

“We’ve already done the finding – in fact you have one in your possession as we speak.” He gestured to where her greatsword lay. It glowed like a dying ember, even sheathed. “You know for yourself how hardwon such an item was and it will be no easier when even more are required to assuage my hunger.”

As he’d said before – he was no liar. He wouldn’t pretend this would be easy. The least of what he owed her was that honesty.

“There will be danger involved. Or great cost.”

Odette’s eyes had remained on her sword as he spoke. He’d heard the tale of how she’d gotten it. On the Nautiloid. From a devil. His understanding was that it had been a difficult battle, barely won and only undertaken out of sheer desperation with the temporary alliance of her illithid captors. Giving her allies the time they needed to reach the alien transponder that had ultimately dumped them all into this wilderness.

She let out a long sigh, and unsheathed the weapon. Flames danced up and down the blade, merrily viscous. Its sudden heat made the night air steam slightly around them. Very carefully, she offered him the hilt, and met his gaze.

“Take it."

Gale’s mouth didn’t quite fall open, but it was near thing. He stared at the sword instead.

And then his panic melted away like so much snow falling on a wildfire. He’d expected… well. He hadn’t known what to expect. But Odette disarming herself was not among them. He’d been right. As he typically was of course. Right to trust her. Right to tell her. Like his panic, his tension drained too. And all at once the symptoms of his hunger felt far less pressing.

For indeed, they were less pressing. It was the fear. There was still time. And to feed it too soon… it might upset the balance. Might increase its need to consume. He would have a hard enough time keeping up with it as things were. No need to tempt fate.

“I knew I could count on you!” he said. “And – and utterly pleased as I am by your enthusiasm, there is still time. I did not leave things quite until the last moment. I’m a good deal cleverer than that! Keep your weapon for now. Perhaps we shall find something less dear to be parted with. Faerun overflows with magically infused treasure after all!”

Odette considered him for a moment, but re-sheathed her sword.

Then, in a move that made his heartbeat stutter she set her hands on his shoulders and squeezed lightly.

“Thank you. For asking for help, Gale. I know… it’s not an easy thing.”

Her gaze was as true as her heart was. And he found himself wondering how he’d written her off, no matter how briefly. A wizard she was not. But perhaps she was something just as good. A truly, deeply, decent soul. No matter her viciousness in a fight.

“Nor your promise to sacrifice these items, Odette,” he said, his voice dropping with softness unfeigned. “I know what I am asking –”

“There’ll always be magic daggers and enchanted rings,” she said, cutting him off. “You’re the only Wizard of Waterdeep I know, though. Don’t…” she swallowed. He caught a glimpse of an old pain on her face. One that made those eyes – one brown and one purple – look so lightless he might have been frightened had the emotion not been so clearly one of hurt. Her grip tightened slightly on his shoulders and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. When she finished her thought, it was in a whisper soft voice. “Don’t kill yourself with your silence.

He lifted his hands to cover hers. “Believe me, I shan’t be quiet should my need arise.”

“Good.”

For a moment, they watched each other. And Gale couldn’t help but think of how long it had been since mortal hands – or the hands of anyone at all – had touched him. There had only been Tara. His heart beat stuttered as he looked at the planes of her face, illuminated by the firelight. It was a beautiful sight. He found himself wishing to stroke his thumb over the black flame tattooed on her forehead for some odd reason. Or better, to follow the curved pattern of dark flames along her jaw with his fingertips.

Odette was smiling back at him, and there was a softness there. But then she seemed to notice their closeness. She let go of him abruptly and pulled back. Put distance between them as she busied herself with setting aside her sword, with repacking the book.

He was all at once given the impression of many doors closing and locking one after another. By the time she turned back to look at him, her face was settled back into its normal vaguely intimidating neutrality.

“I should try to get some sleep,” she said. “And so should you. We need to find where those bloody goblins have holed up with the Druid. Interesting as that ruin turned out, our new friend is not the cure we’ve been looking for.”

“Indeed not,” he agreed, standing. He recognized a dismissal, no matter how kindly given. He made a dramatic gesture and half bowed. “Dear lady, may you sleep the sleep your kindness so richly deserves!”

She let out a surprised laugh, that mask breaking again. “And may you rest your eternally wagging tongue, dear wizard.”

A dig, but she said it with a fondness he found gratifying. He wasn’t unaware of his talkative nature, when he’d been given half the chance to chatter. Good that she seemed to like it.

“I shall do my very best to oblige.”

Gale returned to his tent with a lightness in his heart most unfamiliar, and a smile he would have been hard pressed to extinguish.

[ranger-kellyn]

cool ur jets bro you’re talking to a lesbian

[bad0mens]

Things about Octopath Traveler 2 that I think about WAY too much 2/????

Under the cut for late game spoilers, loose and speculative nonsense

So the four sacred flames and their connections with the gods connected to each one.

Brand and Sealticge to the Ku Flame

Alephan and Bifelgan to the Crackridge Flame

Dohter and Draefendi to the Toto'haha Flame

And Aelfric and Aeber to the Flameschurch Flame

Going to go ahead and put it out there, that my head canon is that the Moonshade order successfully completed the sacrifices line out in the Book of Night in this manner: Pontiff Jorg (Cleric, Temenos chapter 1), unnamed apothecary in Canalbrine (Temenos Chapter 2), scholar in Canalbrine (who's name I don't remember, also from Temenos Chapter 2) Tanzy (dancer/Sealticge aligned), Petrichor (Hunter), Ageha (Warrior), Ori (merchant), and Crick (Thief, as mentioned in some dialogue in Stormhail about his background).

I feel like, in a lot of ways, these flames would have been great spots for boss fights. I feel like, for a game like Octopath Traveler 2, just getting to relight the flames with ease was a bit too easy. There's a couple of different routes I personally would have taken with them.

Option 1 (least favorite) - the party fights a shadow creature of some type (excluding in Flameschurch because there is already a boss fight there). Alternatively, remix the chosen travelers' final chapter boss fight.

Option 2 - the party fights the shadows of the sacrifices associated with that flames gods (so Ku would be Ageha and Tanzy, Crackridge would be Ori and the scholar from Temenos Chapter 2, Toto'haha would be Petrichor and that unnamed apothecary from Temenos's Chapter 2, and Flameschurch (after Arcanette), would be Crick and the Pontiff (not a fun fight for Temenos especially)). Standard boss fights would be cool, but you could go a step further and have it a two on two fight with the chosen travelers against those shadows where path actions and skills came into play in defeating the shadows. Also makes the relighting of the flames a bit more personal. You've got potential either way with this option for some really cool character exploration and thematic resolution. This one is probably my personal favorite.

Option 3 - the party (or just the chosen travelers for that flame) fight the gods themselves (as a test). There's a few ways to do this too: 1. fight images of the gods. 2. the statues of the gods by the flames come to life and you fight those, not dissimilar to Osvald's chapter 4 fight with the Golem. 3. You fight a being of combined powers of the two gods, a strange and otherworldly combination of Alephan and Bifelgan for example, staff and scales in hand, plying magic and calling allies, making it rain in leaves as easily as flashes of magic lightning, or Brand and Sealticge (which I think would look something akin to Hinoekagura). This is also a personal favorite just to see how when faced with the gods, our travelers might act, when within the world itself the gods are mostly pretty hands off. The situation with Vide is an urgent one, and I think the gods would be willing to test their chosen in the final hour to make sure that they are truly ready.

I just think it would have been neat

[monstersinthecosmos]

20 Qs for fic writers

Tagged by @jacqulinetan

1. How many works do you have on A03? 46 public, 3 private, 2 anon.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 692, 623!

3. What fandoms do you write for? VC and Sheith with a few YOI fics thrown in. 😊

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Star Eater, THE FRONT, Tonight the Stars Revolt!, Wayfinder, and Zero Hour!

5. Do you respond to comments? YES! I only share fics because I want comments lmfao. I want to talk to you!!! Sometimes I do like a quarterly roundup so I let them pile up and then answer them all every 3 months lol but I do try to reply to everybody!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I think for Sheith it’s C O A G V L A and for VC it’s The Lotus Eater or Gallows Bird? (The Lotus Eater and Gallows Bird have the Armand & Marius versions of the same ending bc Gallows Bird was a TLE remix LOL) Sfaíra Ti̱s Fo̱tiás also has a really bleak ending but it’s a PWP so it doesn’t hurt me as bad LOL.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? For Sheith it’s THE FRONT I think? For VC idk maybe Right Where it Belongs or In the Trials of the Heart?

8. Do you get hate on fics? I’ve gotten a lot of hate in fandom at large but never really got flagrant hate in an AO3 comment. I do occasionally get a rude unsolicited critique and I like to use that as an opportunity to write meta about why my decision was correct LOL

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I only write smut, thanks! WHAT KIND? idk I lean into BDSM but there's a few that aren't BDSM. I also write canon-compliant VC smut so it's either a vampire servicing a human or me trying to make blood drinking sound as horny as possible.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I used to when I was a teenager on my old accounts but it doesn’t really interest me anymore outside of like maybe a cute lil homage Easter Egg or something.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don’t think so!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I haven’t co-written in a long time but I used to! One of my fav fics from high school was written with my best friend where we alternated chapters and it was so much fun!  

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Sheith and Marius/Armand and Armand/Daniel and Marius/Pandora !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those are my fav ships to WRITE, I don’t really read a lot of VC though. I have lots of other fav ships to read.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I don’t start stuff that I won’t finish adsgjl when I was in high school my FFnet page was a DISASTER just like 60 fics, none of them finished, and so when I returned to fic writing using AO3 I promise myself not to post stuff that I wasn’t confident I’d finish. Ideally I don’t even begin sharing something until it’s finished but TTSR was an exception bc it started as a PWP and got out of hand.

16. What are your writing strengths? I get complimented the most on tension and pacing! Also on emotional meta like characters' behavior around trauma.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I really wish I was better at writing long fics. It’s been a goal of mine forever and I’ve gotten a little better but I’m not where I want to be.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Gjkaldsg I don’t think it’s necessary and often comes off as cheesy unless it serves a real purpose. I've seen it done really well before! (Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo came to mind!) And I think we’ve all seen this done badly enough in fanfic to kind of learn what not to do. I think there are times when the beauty and cadence of another language can add texture or say something that you simply can’t say in the default language, I also think it can be used to create a distance between the characters, even between the reader and the character. I used a lot of Latin in So Falls the World for example, because Marius and Pandora are reciting an ancient poem to each other, and it was important to me to leave it in Latin because I wanted to communicate their age, that they’re clinging to something archaic because it’s familiar to them, when it’s incongruous to the world around them and also the text around them. Same with the misinterpretation of silence and its disastrous consequences, where Louis is reciting a French poem. I mean do we assume that Louis and Lestat speak French to each other at home anyway? But putting the poem in the original language AT LEAST FOR ME created a sense that Louis is playing a role, that it’s something outside of himself. Basically I think media does this all the time and we are smart enough to know that the language we’re consuming might not be the language the characters are actually speaking, we all know that! So the question is, when people sprinkle random words into their stories or dialogue, I ask: What purpose did this serve? Is this how bilingual people actually talk? Is it written for bilingual readers as a shared experience or is it meant to confuse monolingual readers for effect? Is it used sparingly to add texture, is it just a fun word that you want to use? Do whatever you want but I think we need to ask ourselves these questions before writing something that’s a sloppy mess at best, and a racist caricature at worst!

19. First fandom you wrote for? Pro wrestling =P

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Tonight the Stars Revolt! is my fav Sheith fic, it’s like my magnus opus that I do all my meta work for, everything I’ve thought deeply about was ultimately for this fic, I HAVENT UPDATED IT IN ALMOST 2 YEARS IM REALLY SORRY LIFE KINDA GOT AWAY FROM ME IT’S BEEN HECTIC but I think about it constantly, more than you know, I have 3 playlists for it that I listen to all the time, it’s just always on my mind. For VC it used to be So Falls the World but now that I wrote Gallows Bird I think it’s that, too. I can’t tell if it’s because Gallows Bird is just newer and less sloppy LOL but jkdlhakjgsd I THINK I AVOIDED WRITING MARIUS FIC FOR A LONG TIME BC I WAS INTIMIDATED BUT THE TIMES I DO WRITE HIM I HAVE SUCH A BLAST and I just love him so much!

TAGGING: @hekateinhell @apoptoses @mothmage @nothing-but-paisley @covenofthearticulate @lovevamp @bubblegum-blackwood & EVERYONE ELSE

[meggie-stardust]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks to the ever lovely @lucky-bishop for the tag! <3

How many works do you have on ao3?

74! Which feels both like a lot and not that much at the same time.

What's your total ao3 word count?

270,119?!

What fandoms do you write for?

Right now primarily Teen Wolf and I recently revisited my first fandom of Gundam Wing. I've also written a ton for BBC Merlin, Percy Jackson/Heroes Of Olympus, BBC Sherlock, Harry Potter, Newsies and random other things...

Top five fics by kudos:

Act of Man | BBC Merlin | Arthur/Merlin

Nightmares | PJO/HoO | Percy/Jason

Looking for the Thing We Lost | Teen Wolf | Peter/Stiles

Here I Am (Stuck in the Middle With You) | PJO/HoH | Percy/Jason

Know How A Man Becomes a Beast | Teen Wolf | Peter/Stiles

Do you respond to comments?

Yes, on all of my stuff from the past few years. There are older fics that I've opted not to respond to comments on for varying reasons, but I do read them all.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

When I have angst, I like to have it with a happy ending, but I would probably say this fliclette I wrote based on the prompt: "Can you do a Jasercy fic where Jason is trying to comprehend the fact that Percy's gone, preferably death, but it doesn't have to be."

A Slow Deep Panic | PJO/HoO | Jason/Percy

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

I really like the end of Stuck Between Stations. After putting Stiles and Peter in the Wild Hunt and in time loop, the least I could do was give them a happy ending.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not hate, but I have gotten weird comments. I usually just ignore if they are just odd, but I have also deleted comments that are boarding on hate.

Do you write smut?

Yep!

Craziest crossover:

Aside from one HP/Sherlock fic that was co-written with my bestie and that we both abandoned, I don't really do long form crossovers (and that one wasn't crazy anyway). That said, there was a tumblr prompt game years ago, that was for 3 sentence fics and almost every prompt I got was a crazy crossover:

Dean and Castiel. Fight Club

MJN crew (bonus points for including Herc Shipwright). Supernatural hunters.

Sherlock/John. Teenagers working at Mooby's (View Askewniverse).

Jack/Spot, Night Vale AU.

Arthur and Eames. Exorcism.

You can read all of these and a few others: 3 Sentence Fic Collection. And actually, this was a fun trend, we should bring it back.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of, and knock on wood it never happens.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! A few actually, and it's always so, so, so flattering:

Acts of Man was translated into Chinese

Black Sails in the Sunset was translated into Português

Looking for the Thing We Lost was translated into Russian

This is a perfect time to say that I am always open to my fics being translated, podficced, remixed, etc. Just let me know so I can gush about it!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, the aforementioned abandoned HP/Sherlock fic, but it's been ages. @punchedbymarkesmith and I have kicked around some collab ideas, which I think would both be a blast and also for a potentially niche audience. Maybe 2024 is the year this happens!

All time favourite ship?

Steter is the one I've stuck with the longest, but I do have a few that I will always return to in the same way you might eat a comfort meal.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Look, I really, really want to finish It's Only Forever. I have like 1, maybe 2 chapters left. But it's been so long and I feel like my writing has changed, and idk. Every year I say I'm going to work on it, and every year I don't... le sigh.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm really good at finding a small moment in canon and then diverging from that. I also think I'm good at authentic dialogue and I think I'm pretty good at world building.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Action/fighting. Keeping things short unless it's a drabble/other restrictive format.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I am not fluent enough in any language other than English to do this confidently. Instead, I would write something like:

Stiles cursed at them wildly in Polish.

or

Peter responded in French, then turned back to Stiles and resumed their conversation in English.

First fandom you wrote in?

Gundam Wing. All of my old fic from *cough* 20+ years ago is lost to the annals of time (actually some is still on archived GW 1x2 sites if you look hard enough). And if you are one of like 7 people who remember my username, you can find my Newsies and Harry Potter fic (my next two fandoms) still on ffn. After I got out of a bad relationship that kept me from my own interests, including fandom, I returned with BBC Sherlock fic, which you can still find on AO3 if you scroll to the beginning of my profile.

Favorite fic you've written?

Gosh, I feel like this changes all the time, but I am particularly proud of At This Truth We Have Arrived. I loved exploring certain aspects of Peter's character, and doing a different take on Nogistune Stiles. I was also able to incorporate a lot of different themes and elements into it, as well as get my own closure with Monroe, something that has bugged me since the finale. Plus, I think I was able to accomplish a reveal that would add extra elements if anyone went back and re-read the story (even if I somewhat show my hand if anyone paid attention to the epigraph).

I have no idea who has done this yet, since I sat on this for a bit... so no pressure tags for @lolahardy @mirrorthoughts @myletternevercame @punchedbymarkesmith @midmorning-bomb @like-lazarus

[mikkeneko]

Tagged for the 'fic writer interview' by @veliseraptor!

I feel like I may have seen this meme going around before? Some of these questions strike me as familiar, particularly the 'thoughts on foreign language dialogue?' one, since I'm puzzled as to what this question is asking and I remember being stymied by it before. I think that I want to fill this one out with any answers that have changed since last time and any questions I like to talk about, and skip the questions that don't have interesting answers.

Fic Writer Interview

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

207 as of current!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

2,939,672. Getting close to the 3million mark there -- possibly, as with Lise's case, this year's MDZS big bang may put me over the top. (If not, that + other current project probably will.)

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Without even looking I'm pretty sure that the top two spaces will be Loki fics and the third will be Ceru's fic, lmao. *checks*

Close! Loki fics take up first, third, and fifth place, and Ceru's fic is in second. However *yakety sax arrangement for guqin and xiao* has crept into the top five, at place 4, making it the first of my Untamed fics to do so. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

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

Yes, usually. There are some factors that may lead me to not respond including 1) too short or had no content for me to reply to (i.e. a string of emojis), 2) it's on a fic from a fandom I don't really consider myself part of any more, or 3) too negative, such as when people for some reason have chosen to use the comment box as a space to rant about how much they hate a character, oftentimes with little to no connection to what I actually wrote.

On the other hand, I will almost always reply to a comment that poses a direct question, also incl. requests for permission to translate or podfic. I love when people ask questions. It used to be an ongoing source of angst to me when people would leave comments with questions on Fanfic.net, but without any way for me to reply. ╯︿╰

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

Probably Rise From Ash, a downer ending Loki fic where Loki got caught in a timeloop trying to prevent Ragnarok from happening. More recently, probably nostrum. In both cases though the Bad Ending is simply a reversion to canon mean, so it probably could have been worse.

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

I do love happy endings! There's usually at least some element of melancholy or bittersweetness, but the ones I'd say are most happiness-loaded with that regard would probably be either One Elegant Solution (which was literally written for the purposes of giving the characters the happiest possible ending) or the coda ending of the refrain series (where I literally spell out at the end what I think the ideal ending for each character would look like.)

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not in the old-school understanding of the term crossovers, where the characters and settings of series A and series B literally meet and interact, but I write a lot of fusions, where characters of series A are placed in setting of series B or are otherwise remixed together. Modern fandom seems to have largely elided the distinction.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few times. I'd put these into three buckets: 1) people who didn't like what I was doing with the character/story and told me so, but were civil about it and merely stated they were not going to continue reading; 2) people who write unprompted character hate in my comments, usually unrelated to whatever's going on in the text, which I don't enjoy but don't really take personally; and 3) people actually writing callouts or otherwise putting me 'on blast' for a specific fic. That last one has only happened once (that I know of) and while it wasn't particularly upsetting to me either then or now, it sure was A Trip. This is already a long post, so I won't elaborate here unless someone asks.

9. Do you write smut?

Occasionally. It's one of my less favorite things to write, but I'll do it if the story seems to call for it.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

This rings a very very faint bell, possibly sometime in the aughts I have a vague recollection of encountering one of my own stories on some geocities site under someone else's name, but I don't recall who it was or which fic. Not since then that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Enough times that I have lost track of all the specific instances, but I think maybe once or twice a year I'll get a request by someone to do a translation or podfic. I do not recall any instance where I said no, but I do prefer to be asked first.

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

Yes! With @faux-fires, a Tsubasa Chronicle sci-fi AU, many years ago. Alas the currents of life took us in different directions before we could write the next part.

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Don't have an interesting answer for this.

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

I do have lingering regrets over my abandoned WIPs from Critical Role fandom, Molly's Moving Castle and Fjord Mustang's YEEHAW! Fun and Pony Ranch, both of which fell victim to the march of canon and my eventual departure from the fandom. The latter fic in particular was going to go some wild places.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think my pacing is excellent, my character voices are usually solid, I can do humor very well and action competently. I can spin a coherent plot and an exciting adventure. I both enjoy and am good at AU worldbuilding and can convey exposition without infodumping, and can do melodrama and angst that packs a solid punch.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Mostly those of career fanfic authors everywhere: I'm weak at developing original characters and largely unmotivated to write plots that don't shadow or mirror the original text in some way. I've also noticed a recurring and growing difficulty with romance; I like romance, but when trying to write a romantic story, often fail to move the romance arc convincingly forward. (See also above answer re: smut.)

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

Don't have an interesting answer for this.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Gundam Wing, baby! I feel like there was a bit of a GW revival on tumblr recently? Man, now there was a fandom whose fanon vastly overshadowed its canon.

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

Fandom - I have a half-written draft for an Encanto fanfic lying around somewhere, if you can believe it; I'd also like to do some ZhanChengXian work, but haven't figured out an approach for it yet. If a romance with two principals is hard for me, imagine how much harder adding a third participant must be!

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

Not gonna pick one! I like some fics more than others, for various different reasons, but none of them stand out as an All Time Favorite.

And that's it! For tagging people... @cerusee, @faux-fires, perhaps @tavina-writes or @nyoomerr?

[anonymousdanganronpaconfessions]

If you look closely, you can get a pretty good idea of Tsumugi’s actual plan for how V3 was supposed to go. It all starts with Kaede meeting her. Kaede’s reaction is so ridiculously horny that Shuichi calls her a “dirty old man” for how she’s acting. Kaede is a blonde with a twin sister. Tsumugi is a Junko fangirl.

Furthermore, Kaede has several free time events with each character that you have to reload Chapter 1 repeatedly to be able to do. Obviously most people miss them. Surprisingly, they can have variable outcomes. The ending dialogue choices clearly have a “good end” option based on the length and depth of the scene. Tsumugi’s good end? Asking her on a date. Additionally, the optional scene with Rantaro and Kaede has an upset Tsumugi in the background.

A common plot in Makoto/Junko fanfiction and doujins is her breaking him and bringing him to despair, which goes in tandem with them fucking. Tsumugi created a girl who’s extremely into her, she’s clearly also into, and who is meant to both openly lust for her and ask her out. Said girl also happens to fit details of Tsumugi’s waifu. Tsumugi created a waifu for herself.

The obvious plan she had in mind before V3 quickly went off the rails was to use a standard ship fic/doujin plot of “break the hope protagonist and become her girlfriend”. Makoto was incorruptible because of his strong moral absolutism. So, Tsumugi made Kaede more morally flexible, more normal, and a little more like Komaru. Problem is, that ironically is what made Tsumugi’s plan fail.

Compare Kaede to the conflict between Makoto and Munakata. She is a synthesis of the two perspectives. She wants to be fully on Makoto’s side, but if a situation presents itself where killing is seemingly the only option, she has the ability to do it. It’s an unintentional side effect of making her a little less like Makoto. If Kaede were just like Makoto, she wouldn’t have ended up executed. But if Kaede were just like Makoto, Tsumugi wouldn’t be able to break her and make her her waifu.

Tsumugi is bad at her job. Everything in V3 is an intentionally sloppy copy, because it’s being made by a poor craftsman in universe. Kokichi? Literally just 2010s Fandom “that’s not even the same character anymore” Komaeda. Kokichi has so much in common with how people flanderized Komaeda and made him OOC in fandom. Miu? Combine Teruteru and Metal Devil Horns Sprite Junko. Tenko and Himiko? Remix of Mahiru and Hiyoko. Korekiyo? He’s not copied from a prior series character but rather a “the writer is a fan of this other thing” type character. He’s NBC Hannibal. Seriously, do his FTEs as Shuichi if you can’t tell just from the stuff everyone sees (complete with sister motive). Korekiyo’s FTEs are pure Hannigram.

In short? V3 is a Fanganronpa gone wrong. It’s playing on all the tropes of a fangan, but it fell apart in Chapter 1 and is trying to recover after that. Knockoffs and remixes of prior characters (sometimes based on the Fanon Version rather than canon), imported characters from other works, the plot written around the writer’s kink/obsession, and ridiculous attempts to try to tie it back into canon.

.

[bmblboop]

Reaping what I've sown lol: 2, 14, and 19? 🩷 -TKSS

2. Rank the soundtracks!

Ugh, the volumes aren’t on Spotify at this time so I can’t check the playlists easily. Sorry for the delayed answer!                     

Volume 4 is probably at the top, followed by Volume 5. 6 is very close behind. 2 and 3 have the same issue in that they are a mix of absolute bangers and one or two songs I don’t care for. 7, 8, and 9 are very solid but I haven’t listened to the whole thing recently. I do like a lot of songs from them, but I haven’t added any songs aside from ‘The Sky is Falling’ to my personal RWBY playlist.

Volume 1 soundtrack is great because of all the character songs, but I could never vibe with Gold or Wings. Also no other soundtrack remixes songs that also debuted on it. Which, I understand from a ‘back then’ POV since they didn’t know how big this show was going to get, also I understand the Black and Yellow trailers needed full songs of their new music since most of their trailers were dialogue. The original character songs still go hard. I’m placing this soundtrack in an honorary ‘You’re the reason this show got big’ category, even though I don’t listen to half of it nowadays.

14. Favorite background character design?

Trifa (the spider Faunus that attempted to restrain Blake in v5) has a simple but very cool design, and I love to see the creative integration of animal traits in this show.

For an unnamed character, there’s this mom and kid in Mantle with lynx ears and I LOVE their design despite how simple it is. Justice for Lynx Mom.

19. Favorite Weiss ship?

I don’t think I have any OTPs for Weiss, now that I think about it. I like her as part of Frosen Steel or Bee’s Schnees, but more as a “Ruby (or Yang) has 2 hands” situation, and I doubt it would ever be canon. And her celebrity crush on Pyrrha by that same token, which is probably my favorite wlw Weiss ship (Whiterose is very cute too, but I could never get into it). Funny enough, I think Volume 9 has warmed me up to Whiteknight, which was thoroughly dismissed at the start of the show. It’s kinda neat to look at it as a ‘right person wrong time’ situation, and now that they’ve changed so much, they could be a good partner to each other. It’s possible she won’t be romantically involved with anyone by the end of the show, and that’s good too.

[freneticfloetry]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

Thanks, Lola! (And T - @chaotictarlos - who also asked.) 😘

1. to build a home (9-1-1: Lone Star) | My favorite baby about my favorite baby. As I finish up the final chapter, I'm so proud of how this fic has turned out. There are so many Tarlos bunnies running through my head (and bits and pieces of quite a few things in various states of completion), but this was always going to be the first story I told, because the world can't have enough Carlos beginning.

2. scenes from an unfinished story (told by the lost and found) (The Magicians) | My first true AU, my first Big Bang, and the first Queliot fic I ever finished. Writing this kind of consumed my life at the perfect time: for the first five months of the pandemic, this is how I distracted myself from the lack of human contact and all the impending doom. And even better, posting it put me on a path to meet some of the most wonderful people in the world.

3. By Any Other (Lucky Number Slevin) | This is one of my favorite films of all time, and I offered to write it for every Yuletide since 2007. When I posted this, there were seven fics in the fandom (and I'm sad to say, the number hasn’t even doubled since), and only one of them had any Lindsey at all. Writing this fic from her point of view challenged me in a way I hadn't been, stylistically, since I wrote And To All A Goodnight. The dialogue, the plot, the dialogue, the research, the dialogue, the dialogue, the dialogue… Lindsey has such a distinct voice, but beyond that, she and Slevin have their own cadence that's unlike any banter I'd ever written. Until I turned in "scenes", I had never felt more accomplished as a fic writer than I did when I finished writing this fic.

4. Shells of a Long-Ago Lifetime (Faces That Once Were Mine Mix) (Supernatural) | Remixes have always fascinated me. With fic, you're already playing in somebody else's sandbox. But remixing someone else's fic is like playing in the sand with someone else's hands. I've never been able to sign up myself, but when a pitch hit opportunity presented itself, I couldn't resist. I had two days to do this, and it ended up being one of the most rewarding writing experiences I'll ever have. I ended up focusing on one sort of stray detail from the source fic I chose, and writing the symbolism and impact of that detail, and it still fascinates me, how clearly tied to the original this is while still feeling like something of my own.

5. Past Perfect Future Tense (The Magicians) | When I first started writing fic (in the year of our lord I shall not specify), I'd always joke that canon was my crutch and I couldn't plot to save my life. The more you do, the more you grow, and my plotting skills got stronger with time. PPFT is still a WIP, but even my outline feels like an accomplishment. Plotting this fic damn near broke my brain, while being intrinsically tied to canon, and it's kind of the best combination of everything I was in the beginning and everything I've learned since.

There are two upcoming Tarlos projects in particular that I have a feeling will take spots on this list, and I can't wait to get them written.

[kolajmag]

COLLAGE ON VIEW

Venus in Furs

at Spazio Arte Contemporanea in Robecchetto con Induno, Italy through 6 April 2024. The group exhibition “Venus in Furs” brings together twenty-four women artists who express their creativity and their artworks by projecting them as a life-driven energy, the famous Eros described by Freud, named from the Greek god of love. Each artist is in dialogue with a large fresco where different areas of research investigate the contemporary fabric of existence using different mediums. Women and how they are represented today is contrasted with their classic role as angels of the hearth. The female image is painted as being trapped in suffocating domestic settings permeated with flowers or while dealing with common chores. The artworks are also linked to current events, to social issues involving anti-speciesism and the female world, outlining painful paths that lead to rebirth and self-discovery. Read More

*****************************

Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

SIGN UP TO GET EMAILS

[zalrb]

i don't care if it's just an opinion re willow and willow/oz it's an opinion on the sole queer character in btvs. let's not act like you don't know saying your fave ship of a lesbian character is the one ship that canonically was her experiencing comp het was gonna rub people who saw themselves in her the wrong way. let's not play dumb here. now i just stated you are condescending and here you are proving my point for me. i read the ask, i know the context. that wasn't my point.

my point is the one time you speak of xena (THAT IVE SEEN) you speak of an het ship. no again condescencion part 2 the fucking remix i guess. i don't think you've said you're the authority on anything and meant it literally you just act like it over and over and then give turn into the pikachu face meme when people point it out to you. now onto spartacus am i supposed to praise you for noticing a m/m ship and two others that involved characters who died? and gloss over you ignoring the others? ok then congrats on noticing the main canon pairing on the show next to naevia/crixus (after season 2 at least) which you've raved about way more than the former. now all your blah blah about all the queer characters you do talk about. your masterlist is a nightmare for anyone neurodivergent to navigate. stop expecting people to comb through it anytime they have a question for you or make it more accessible to everyone. and even ignoring that you still talk about more het characters and to your last point i know fandoms tend to ignore black characters and black women in favour of white and m/m ships in fact they do it for poly ships too like in the show siren that had a white woman, a black woman and a white man and the fandom hyperfocused on the white man and white woman part of that triad. silver/madi/flint doesn't exclude madi in any way though you just don't like flint. if i've been condescending replying to you i'm only using your tone back to you. goodbye."

if i've been condescending replying to you i'm only using your tone back to you. goodbye.

I don't think anything about this was condescending, I'm actually just confused. Anyway, this isn't to continue a dialogue, this is for the rest of the people who check in on my blog.

now onto spartacus am i supposed to praise you for noticing a m/m ship and two others that involved characters who died? and gloss over you ignoring the others? ok then congrats on noticing the main canon pairing on the show next to naevia/crixus (after season 2 at least)

I don't want praise or congratulations, I don't even know you, anon and you don't know me. I just want anons to stop projecting onto me and to stop saying that I didn't do things or I did do things when I did do them or I didn't do them. You literally said I talk about Spartacus but don't mention Agron and Nasir and I was like what is this person talking about? Because I do. And I only talk about canon ships on the show, which goes for quite a bit of the shows I talk about anyway??

and two others that involved characters who died?

What does them being dead have to do with anything when Lucretia and Iliythia and Gaia are also dead? Everyone is dead! Except for Nasir.

which you've raved about way more than the former.

Yeah, I talk about Blood and Sand Crixus and Naevia more because they're the ship that I like the most. How does that in anyway invalidate Agron and Nasir? Or invalidate that they're a ship that I also like especially when I've mentioned repeatedly that I like them?

and gloss over you ignoring the others?

If you ship Gaia and Lucretia or Ilityhia and Lucretia then go for it but I don't see why I have to ship them or why me not talking about them is a stain on my character, like I'm required to like or talk about these ships?

now all your blah blah about all the queer characters you do talk about.

I don't even ... what? "You don't talk about queer characters" "Actually, I do and here are--" "Blah Blah who cares" lol OK.

stop expecting people to comb through it anytime they have a question for you or make it more accessible to everyone.

I don't control the way that tumblr works. I have been on this site for nearly a decade and was asked repeatedly by anons for, like, two years to create master lists so they can easily peruse my posts and wouldn't have to keep sending me asks for links and then when I do create master lists and explain what's in the master lists, they aren't used.

I explain ways to search tags or to go to the search engine so people can find tags. I do not think it's asking too much to search a blog before sending an ask.

silver/madi/flint doesn't exclude madi in any way though you just don't like flint.

I was talking about how in the tags, at the time anyway, it was difficult to find anything just about Madi and Silver's relationship but it wasn't difficult to find things just about Silver and Flint, the fandom was indeed excluding Madi.

my point is the one time you speak of xena (THAT IVE SEEN) you speak of an het ship

Well I didn't really speak about Xena or the merits of any of the relationships, I don't even remember Xena that well, I was just trying to find a pairing that conveyed what I wanted without using the same ships that I always used so yeah, I used Ares and Xena because of the context. If I found gifs of Gabrielle and Xena that conveyed what I wanted, I would've used those gifs. That's why the context matters.

i don't think you've said you're the authority on anything and meant it literally you just act like it over and over and then give turn into the pikachu face meme when people point it out to you.

All I can do is laugh at this.

i don't detest your opinions i detest your condescending tone which you employ liberally with everyone regardless of how they first address you. an anon will earnestly ask your opinion on something or state their own and ask if you agree and you'll just respond with a question as if that in itself isn't condescending bullshit

I've literally explained why I ask questions and that it helps me better engage with anons because I want to have a conversation about what they're really getting at so I've explained my thought process. This is your projection, this is your bullshit because I've made myself clear.

[konggodzuko]

Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender... is fine

(Minor spoilers ahead)

Finished it yesterday, and honestly I enjoyed it. Is it perfect? No. Some of the VFX aren't great, some of the costuming is a bit, uh, costume-y, many of the wigs are real bad, the dialogue is sometimes clumsy or corny, and the acting is a bit wobbly (though this is excusable since it's mostly young, inexperienced talent). And from an adaptation perspective, it kinda messes up Katara and makes some odd choices with more minor characters like Bumi.

But it's far, far far from being bad, as either an adaptation or its own show. When the show's writing is on point, it's on point, delivering both funny and heartbreaking scenes. The actors are doing an overall good job (Gordon Cormier is perfectly cast as Aang), both in line delivery and action sequences.

One of the most surprising aspects of the show is that it's actually really good as an adaptation, for the most part. It hits most of the important plot beats from the original Book 1, but remixes them so you feel like you're watching something new instead of a direct retread. They mixed in a lot of lore we only got well after the original show (actually naming the Water Tribe settlements we go to, for instance). I also appreciated a bunch of the new ideas introduces. Azula doing counter-revolutionary espionage, the Air Nomads being concentrated at the temple(s?) for a comet festival, and (slightly more major spoilers) Zuko's crew being the 41st division all come to mind as ideas I actually PREFER over original canon.

Again, unfortunately they kinda screw over Katara, giving her less to do and less of a defined character. She lacked the righteous anger that so defined original Katara, and lost several of her best scenes. It's a real shame, but it doesn't sink the whole show for me.

7/10 I actually hope we get another season just because I want to see their re-imagining of Book 2, and live-action Toph especially.

[icemankazansky]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by dear, wonderful @boasamishipper 😘😘

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

466

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

753,612

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Current fandom count is 68. I have fic for a boardgame, so, y'know, try me. I mostly write for Top Gun rn, though.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Ship to Shore (TG, Icemav, M)

i am writing graffiti on your body (TG, Icemav, M)

The Eye of the Storm (TG, Icemav, E)

Hurricane Blues (TG, Icemav, E)

What's the Problem? (TG, Icemav, M)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I always try to, but sometimes my health makes me drop the ball on that.

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

And 'round his heart one strangling golden hair. (MCU, Tony/Wanda, M) It was for Trick or Treat, and my recipient specifically requested something dark and kind of fucked up.

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

Well, I prefer happier endings, but I'll admit that bittersweet spice is in my cabinet. Maybe i am writing graffiti on your body or i fall in love whenever we meet.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have, on occasion.

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

I do! I write lots of flavors, lots of pairings... I've written a lot for fic swaps and requests, so I have (and will) tried a lot of different stuff I may or may not have any personal interest in. I write a considerable amount of BDSM or D/s-flavored stuff.

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

Sure. At first, I was thinking the craziest was my Gay-Perry-is-Danny-Parker Kiss Kiss Bang Bang/The Salton Sea crossover, but then I remembered I wrote a Thunderheart/MCU crossover for Carla, so. (I did also write a Captain Marvel/Top Gun xover, but canon was BEGGING for it.)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes! Several. In various ways, in various fandoms, over the past two decades. In fact, a fairly well-known author has ripped off several of my works, but they're not full copy-and-paste jobs, so I cannot report them and am just, as the French say,

I think that's the shit that makes me the maddest. The straight up copy-and-paste plagiarizers are just kind of sad.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I have eight translations on AO3, into Russian, Mandarin, and Korean. I also have eight podfics and some number of remixes.

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

Yes. My latest is upcoming next year, the story @topgunreacts and I wrote for @topgunzine

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Also going to do three: Iceman Kazansky/Maverick Mitchell, Ray Levoi/Walter Crow Horse—oh God does it have to be one I write?!—OUT OF ORDER

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Top Gun Age of Sail AU, I do want to finish you 😭😭😭 have you considered perhaps one of us is cursed

16. What are your writing strengths?

Feels inversion.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing things, evidently.

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

In general, I'm for it, but I dislike extensive foreign language use that the reader can't get to through context clues. At that point, are you as a writer serving yourself more than the reader? (Yes.)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Buffy

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Taggiiiiiiing @victimofthemusic @maverickcalf @topgunreacts @hangsters

[goofballproximitysurveyor]

23 to 26 with Shiori!

23. Favorite picture of this character.

She's just like me fr

24. What other character from another fandom of yours reminds you of them?

Actually idk. One because I don't have a lot of other fandom related interests but also they don't have a lot of characters like Shiori in them lol

25. What was your first impression of them? How about now?

My first impression was oh awesome she's grabbing Mai's boobs my impression now is I'm her number one defense attorney. Yes she did things wrong but not some of the things people say she does.

26. FREEBIE

since u didn't choose a question I'm gonna just talk about her for a sec. A common misconception about her is that she's really just a typical yandere type because people see kills people + obsessive love and just assume the two are correlated when actually it couldn't be further from the case at least as of late Remix Heart (another instance of people not actually reading the hearts series and just playing telephone with hearsay, I could also say extra material simplifying her but afaik BBDW actually portrays her fairly accurately and they also canonize her as a lesbian in some extra talk dialogue which is cool)

I think about this extra scene from RH a lot because man. It really does show that the killing people and her love from Mai are not the same thing but rather a duality of her. For some reason it's not included in mangadex but there are a few accounts on dustloop of this being extra material. I don't have a physical copy of RH (yet!) so I wouldn't know. Idk I'm not saying she's a perfect character or anything but I think there are other characters in BB that are the same or worse that people are fine with and she's really not a lot of the things people accuse her of being.

[lookwhatilost]

it doesn't matter if your thoughts are novel or original. not in terms of the value of their expression. we're nodes. relays in a network. repeating, remixing, recombining. it's all essential to the development of human consciousness individually and collectively. intentionally or not, you might express some combination of ideas, in some combination of means, that even if not original itself, reaches someone new that wouldn't be reached any other way, or sparks someone else to a new idea (even if they're doing it to own your ass lol)

we have a preoccupation with... specialness let's say, originality in a very literal sense, origins. eg it's intellectual and worthy to quote the canon, but vulgar and embarassing to arrive at the same ideas independently and in different, plainer, or colloquial speech. this is a liberal individualistic view, emphasizing personal achievement and aggrandizement, proving your intellectual superiority, your productive utility, your mastery in command of knowledge or essential, exceptional *personal* role in thought's evolution.

now, this isn't to say that originality (such as it is), exceptional contributions or achievement are bad things, nor even dutiful recognition of contribution, nor a defense of plagiarism (which is also about self aggrandizement but without integrity or honesty) only to say that, the mockery people sometimes get, or embarassment they feel, for expressing or iterating on an idea that someone somewhere has had before is wholly undue. we're cells in a brain, nodes in a network, interaction in the memetic evolution of thought, etc...

all that function – iteration, repetition, re-expression, convergent evolution – is simultaneously both necessary and unavoidable. free and public self expression should not be regarded as *necessarily* an embarassing ego gratification for all but the most revolutionary minds. we all must be in dialogue with each other, bilaterally, multilaterally, directly, through voice and writing, discussion and art, to be socially and fully human, and contribute to greater human conciousness and its denser, larger, faster neuronic connections.

it's the problem of commercialized communications, the economy of attention, "social media" which perverts and brings out the worst of this human process, which makes it about "clout" (status, influence, social capital etc...). of course this is far from new, only intensified and manifested in specifically new ways. and it's this competition for clout which shapes our sense of etiquette, propriety and value around individual exceptionalism/liberal individualism and leads us to a stunted, heirarchical intellectual life where independently arriving at or paraphrasing Established Ideas is a cringeworthy sign of someone's lacking education rather than a laudable contribution or opportunity for intellectual development.

instead some guy shares a shower thought and it's "oh, you haven't heard of foucault? everyone knows that, fuckface."

this seems deeply hostile and counterproductive to the flourishing of human thought and conciousness. Intellectual anti-intellectualism. all if does is serve to drive people into ignorance, quiet nonparticipation in intellectual social life, stymie potential development of ideas, essentially cut off nodes of our collective consciousness and letting them quietly atrophy, receiving but never contributing. if the "average person is stupid" it's in no small part because of social conditions which encourage the atrophy of intellect and shame its application/expression when it doesn't take forms suitable to bourgeois culture.

often i suspect that every profound thinker has millions of "ordinary" counterparts who simply never expressed those same ideas, or at least, not in quite the right way, at the right time and place, to get famous and get credit for it. all of us, and our contributions to thought and culture, great and small, arrive out of a social context, a social contingency, in which everyone and everything that informs and shapes us, that we conciously recognize or not, is warranted credit.

[katy-133]

Rick Prime in Pocket Mortys

[This post is copy/pasted/remixed from multiple reblog posts I wrote for the Rick C-137 & Prime Masterpost on Rick and Morty. I'm putting my thoughts in its own post for organisational purposes.]

"Weird Rick" (AKA Prime) in Pocket Mortys (a "Pocket Monsters" style Rick and Morty game for mobile devices) costs 10 Blips and Chitz coupons to unlock as a playable character. Why is this significant? Playable characters are priced by the following tiers (from cheapest-onwards) at Salesman Rick's shop, as of the Dec 2022 update:

2000 Schmeckles

1 coupon

3 coupons

5 coupons

10 coupons

This makes Weird Rick one of the highest cost characters in the game, with some in this tier being characters who had a speaking role in the show's canon (Tiny Rick and Toxic Rick also 10 coupons). Trying to metagame things here, this marks Weird Rick as "canon important." Though we already know this, since he's been shown multiple seasons.

And this metagaming isn't 100% accurate, since unused characters like Chair Rick (up, he's literally an armchair with Rick's face) and Phantom Rick are also 10 coupons, and Crow Rick (which a whole episode was devoted to) is 5 coupons.

So as far as I can tell from my experience with the game, Weird Rick (Prime) is NOT ever used as an NPC you can talk to (unlike Miami Rick, Zero Rick, etc). So there's no in-game dialogue I can grab from him that will provide clues/info for theory-making. But here's his (player character) sprite sheet pulled from the game:

Weird Rick was added to Pocket Mortys in version 2.2.5's Season 3 update (July 24 2017). Source for this is Pocket Morty's app update notes.