#and maybe posting some old like. tss fics

[ambersky0319]

My sib: I told my friends you write fanfiction and post it on ao3 so if you see someone like it it's probably them

Me:

Me: Do you. Do you realize how often I actually get at least 1 kudos?

[vinbee631]

Prodigal Sons and Daughters Alike

Hey!! Welcome to the masterpost for my contribution to the @tss-storytime Big Bang! This is one of the biggest projects I've ever completed, and the biggest one I've ever posted, so I really hope you enjoy it!

With that being said, chapter links under the cut! I'll be posting a chapter a day on AO3, so I'll be adding those links as I go!

The art inspired by this fic, made by the lovely @nandysparadox

AO3 Link

1 - I’m Never Gonna Not Dance Again - Prologue ~ Welcome to Sanders Academy! And welcome, the creativitwins

2 - I Can Show You the World (I Can Show You this Classroom) ~ Who would have thought school could actually be- not awful?

3 - What Is This Feeling? (So Sudden and New?) ~ Making friends is surprisingly easy and also Roman please calm down it's only the first day

4 - On the First Day of Mock School (My Roommates Gave to Me…) ~ Waking up is hard, at least they have each other now!

5 - Opening Up, Letting the Day In, Pour You a Cup and Say “Hello, How Ya Been?” ~ Now that they've all met each other, things get complicated (in a good way, they're just middle schoolers)

6 - You’ve Got a Friend in Me (But Maybe Not Him) ~ Remus makes new friends! Patton, not quite, but he's working on it!

7 - Ever Since I Was a Kid, I’ve Been a Brooding Basket Case  ~ One stereotypical melodramatic teenager coming right up! (Now featuring a little more trauma than is strictly necessary for a thirteen-year-old prodigy!)

8 - Forgive Me If I Boast… On the Subject I Love Most (Getting to Know You)  ~ Remus' persistence is highly admirable, but Virgil is not entertained.

9 - Why Do You Look at Me When You Hate Me? ~ Virgil is confused, and possibly has more unresolved trauma. Remus does not do art, but for once is okay with this fact

10 - Intermission: How Would You Like a Friendly Competition? (Let’s Take On the Song)  ~ The twins are very competitive, but also very close. Remus gets a well-deserved break.

11 - I Feel Badly About You Feeling Badly About Me, Feeling Badly About You   ~ Remus talks it out, and gets some sound advice.

12 - Looking for Something Worth It (The Algorithm is Perfect)  ~ Conversation One: Virgil and Logan are now study buddies

13 - The Bar Isn’t the Best Place to Find Advice, Thank God We’re In the Hallway ~ Conversation Two: Janus is snarky, and apparently, so is his roommate

14 - You Know Time Crawls On When You’re Waiting for the Song to Start  ~ Conversation Three: Roman has good taste in music, but bad taste in movies

15 - I Don’t Need No Love (All I Need Is a Sugar Rush) ~ Conversation Four/Existential Crisis: Baking Edition, feat. Patton

16 - Fear or Love, Baby? Don’t Say The Answer (Actions Speak Louder)  ~ Conversation Five: Remus' biggest mistake

17 - Being Back Here Makes Me Hot in the Face ~ Conversation Six: Good God these boys need therapy.

18 - It’s the Story of One Who Turned from Hating (The Man Who Only Learned to Love) - Epilogue  ~ There is no official conversation seven, but things work out anyway. At least, Virgil thinks so.

aand, that's all folks!

[ironwoman359]

Soooo I was looking through my drafts because there's posts in there years old, and I found this old fanfiction question list that my dear friend @thuriweaver tagged me in two years ago and I thought what the heck, I'll fill that out tonight because I've been trying to work on writing more lately. So, without further ado...

1.How many works do you have on AO3?

95!

Though I've written more, there are things on @ironwhumper359 and @ironwoman359-writes that aren't fandom related and are only on tumblr, and there's probably some other things on my masterlist that aren't on AO3 either, maybe I ought to comb through it at some point and upload more!

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

333,493! And fun fact, I just counted that up manually from all 95 fics because I thought AO3 didn't display that stat, but it turns out I just wasn't logged in. The stat page says I actually has 335,438 words, so either I missed a fic or it includes the author's notes or summaries in that count.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

 If you look at the fandom list it has 10, but I think 5 is a more accurate count, which I'll explain in a sec. These are the fandoms on AO3:

Sanders Sides (Web Series) (87)

Super Mario & Related Fandoms (3)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (3)

Undertale (Video Game) (3)

Leverage (2)

Video Blogging RPF (2)

Who Killed Markiplier? (Web Series) (1)

In Space With Markiplier (Web Series) (1)

Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo (1)

Markiplier TV (Web Series) (1)

The thing is, the two fics in the "video blogging" fandom are markiplier ego fics and I'd lump those, Who Killed Markiplier, In Space With Markiplier, and Markiplier TV all as one fandom, and also, all the Super Mario fics and MCU fics are actually both Sanders Sides AUs, so those aren't really separate fandoms either.

A better list would be:

Sanders Sides

Markiplier

Undertale

Leverage

Six of Crows

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

So this was fascinating to look at! I'm going to list them in reverse order, for the Drama.

5: How to Catch a Fairy, posted on June 16th, 2020 with 2,918 hits and 515 kudos. This is a very short little oneshot, filling a prompt from a Bad Things Happen Bingo card, "Used as Bait." I really enjoyed writing this one, but I'm surprised it's beat out so many of my other, older fics. It has almost 100 more kudos than Our Own Villain, the (admittedly incomplete) fic that is my 6th biggest in kudos and kind of put me on the map in the TSS fandom. I guess people really like fae, feral protective love interests, and analogical.

4: Phase One, originally posted on September 11th, 2020, with 3,575 hits and 532 kudos. Now this is far less surprising, the Marvel AU is one of my most popular stories, with an entire sideblog dedicated to developing it, and it is by far the story I am most asked about continuing. The story is told partly through in universe S.H.I.E.L.D. documents and internal communications, questions on @ask-agent-sanders, and traditionally posted stories. Phase One is the AO3 name for the traditional story portion of the universe, each chapter being an entry in the story. The plan was, eventually, to create a fic called Phase Two for stories taking place post-Avengers (2012) content, but I haven't updated the fic in nearly 2 years.

3: A Part of the FamILY, originally posted on May 9th, 2018, with 5,326 hits and 696 kudos. According to the author's notes, I originally wrote the fic in February of 2018 to celebrate 1,000 tumblr followers, so it makes sense that it would have a lot of kudos. It also leans HEAVILY on a lot of tropes that the TSS fandom was really into at the time, and even has song lyrics in it with links to said songs on spotify. I stand by the quality of the actual story and writing on display here, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that those aspects make me cringe just a bit today 😅

2: A Fiendly Reunion, originally posted on July 7th, 2019, with 7,621 hits and 766 kudos. This story is one of my proudest achievements, both in the TSS fandom and as a writer in general. At 30,000+ words over 10 chapters, it is the longest single fic I've ever posted, and the only multichapter fic over 4 chapters that I've ever completed, outside a Big Bang challenge I did in 2018. It took over a year to write, and was a huge passion project for me. I'm really, really happy that it's at the number two spot, and that my readers loved it as much as I did. I'd honestly be surprised that it wasn't at the number one spot, if it weren't for what IS at the number one spot...

1: Broken Wings, originally posted on September 9th, 2018 with 7,747 hits and 1,159 kudos. This fic is the most popular thing I've ever posted on AO3, and it's tumblr cross-post has over 1,000 notes, which is a lot for a fanfiction on this site. Why? It's short, at just under two thousand words, it's angsty and it's fluffy, it has protective-and-self-sacrificing Virgil, protective light sides, vague and abusive dark sides (this was 2018, ok, the fandom was a very different place then), it has wings, and to top it all off it was actually based on fanart, this amazing workby @asofterfan who came up with all the wing designs and potential dynamics that the winged sides would have, I just took their vision and translated it to words. I kind of love that my most popular work is actually something that's collaborative in nature, I think it says something about the way fandom comes together as a community <3.

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

I do! I used to not as often because I felt awkward, and I'm not gonna lie, I still do sometimes, but these days I try to respond when possible, because I really, really appreciate comments! They're absolutely everything as a creative.

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

I'm not really into angsty endings, very rarely do I leave something unhappy on purpose. Sometimes I start out with something unhappy, only to later go and add more fic to give it a happier ending. I'm Left in the Dark originally was a short prompt fill, chapter 1, but then I went back and wrote chapters 2 and 3 to resolve the plot.

All that to say, I think the angstiest ending out there is actually the ending of an instant of great white gravity, which is the first installment in a series I hope to write more for that I'm calling Before and After, though I haven't made it a series on AO3 yet. By it's very nature of being a prequel to the events of Who Killed Markiplier, the whole thing has big 'doomed by the narrative' energy, and even though not every fic will necessarily have a melancholy tone, great white gravity does, because it's about Will being too late to ask Celine out and having to live with watching her marry Mark instead, and about Damien watching the friend group he used to be able to count on be irrecoverably changed by this tension. Goooood angst, right there!

7. Do you ever write crossovers?

I do! Or, I've written one, at least. The Marvel AU isn't a recasting like most of my other AUs based on existing stories, the Marvel characters also exist and are in the story.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don't believe so, no! I've been very fortunate in that regard, the little hate I have received over the years has all been in my askbox directly, never in the comments of a fic that I can recall.

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

Nope! Sex-repulsed asexual over here, but y'all have fun in your corner of the internet!

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

To my knowledge/recollection, no, but I do know that someone reposted one of my fics on Wattpad once. They credited me as the author though, so I didn't ask them to take it down, but in general, I don't like it when people do that.

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

Yes! Until the Sun Rises, a walking dead style zombie AU, is a collab with @buzz-by-bee, aka @a-valourous-choice, author of the To Build a Home series! We haven't updated it in a long time (oops) but it has a sideblog over on @until-the-sun-rises that has some pretty sweet fanart as well as all the content if you're interested!

You Don't Own Me (You Don't Even Know Me) also started out as a collab with @5-falsehoods-phonated, aka RoseyWinter on AO3, but he has since left the project and left me to finish our plan on my own (which I keep saying that I'll do and then not doing, whoops).

Also, I swear I've written a fic with @theinvisiblespoon, but maybe I'm just thinking of the hours we used to spend rp-ing and all the times we've talked about writing a more structured story together and then just never doing it (have you spotted the theme yet?)

12. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh gosh, that's so hard. Even back when I only wrote for One fandom I was a multishipper, and now I'm shipping in other fandoms? Too many good choices, how dare you make me choose. If I have to limit it to 5 all time favorites though... Analogical, Moxiety, LAMP, Kanej, and the Leverage OT3.

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Undertale! if you go waaay back on my AO3...or, you know, just click on the Undertale fandom link there, you can see the few works that I put out: a series of prompts for Cheer Up the Skeleton Week, an event focusing on depicting Sans as Happy for once, an OC self insert story that I quickly abandoned after a few chapters, and Your Fault, a piece about the multiverse breaking down that I'm still actually pretty proud of, all things considered.

14. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Oof, that may be the hardest yet. A Fiendly Reunion, because I actually finished it? A Sanders Carol, because it was my first ever Big Bang, and my first ever completed multi-chapter fic? The Secret History of the Invincible II, because it's new and exciting? They're Only Children because I have so many ideas for it? I honestly couldn't tell you. I love all of them, they're all very dear to me.

15. BONUS QUESTION: Do you have a WIP that haunts you?

Dude, all of them. If I've filtered things correctly on AO3, then of the 24 works in progress that I've started, only 9 are actually complete. That's 15 unfinished stories floating around in my mind, and I know it's actually at least 17, because there are two that show up as completed because I'm doing multiple single works in a series instead of chapters in a single work, so they look complete right now but I know that they're not, plus there's a few that never have been posted to begin with. SO many unfinished stories.

But the one that haunts me the most has to be Our Own Villain, because it is quite possibly my oldest wip, over 5 years old at this point, and it's still not finished but I want it to be so badly. Other wips I've kind of made peace with potentially not continuing, but I swear to god, OOV has to finish before I die, even if Sanders Sides as a show has changed so much since January of 2018 when I first had the idea that the whole premise is now fundamentally flawed, I just have to finish. It's my fanfiction white whale.

---

This was fun! If you've never read any of my work before (tho let's be real, if you made it this far you probably have), I do have a masterlist pinned right at the top of this blog that you can check out. Most of this post was sanders sides because it's what I've written the most of, but I'm actually focusing more on some in space with markiplier and six of crows stuff fic wise, as well as my own original writing. Thanks for reading, I'm not going to tag anyone specific since this challenge is so old. Any writer who sees this and wants to do it, go for it!

[lucifers-horror-harem]

okay so from ur profile pic I assume Freddy is the #1 villain you wanna smash and TEA, same, however Dabi is becoming a close second now and I ask myself. what the SHIT is up with characters who have been burned and why are they so HOT? *ba dum tss*

Oh anon ur absolutely right that Freddy is my main man haha He's been my fave for so long we might as well be an old married couple lolllll

And second holy shit anon same like okay I don't talk about anime a ton anymore just cause I don't keep up with it as much but MHA is probs one of the last ones I kept up with. And honestly my fave thing about the show has to be the villains and character designs cause they really didn't need to go as hard as they did but they did anyways and I love them for it. Like I still lurk sometimes reading fics but I don't interact with the fandom as much cause some people got absolutely deranged if they found out you likes the villains or certain characters, which speaking of fire and burning, one of my faves who has the most discourse about him, Enji Todoroki. Like listen I know he's BEYOND an asshole but he's a DILF and jacked as all hell and he shoots fire and listen that's all my possi wants hahaha

Also there was totally a time in my life where I tried to write some Shigaraki smut and maybe I'll throw it up one day who knows whsjshhdjs

But yeah since I'm already weeb posting on main here's some more dudes I wanna [REDACTED]

Okay okay im done. Just don't get me started about Bleach or Naruto or DBZ I get fucking deranged about those lmao

[onthevirgeofdestruction]

35 Q’s for Fanfic Writers

From this post

I’m having a shitty, rude alter-y, crap night so I’m just going to answer all of these to distract myself and focus and to not bother anybody just making my own post and putting it under the cut btw, notice to anyone not aware: since I’m moving I won’t likely be updating anything until I’m done doing so.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing?  (No downplaying yourself!) 3/5? Could use more editing and description and can be weirdly paced.

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Because it’s better than focusing on pain 24/7. 

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? I don’t seem to have a specific narrative voice that people recognize but I’m pretty proud of mostly organic dialogue. 

4. Are there any writers that inspire you? as a rule i never look up to anybody for inspiration but there’s some stuff in my ao3 bookmarks I fawn over.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? Right now, none of them. It changes normally, anyway. If get too proud then I’d get my ass kicked by RSD if someone didn’t like it so it’s safer this way

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Dialogue. 

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Organic description, poetic language kind of stuff. I can paint a scene but I’m not so great with bring out out a feeling with description alone.

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write? Janus and Virgil are probably tied. They both have things I struggle with but I don’t have to go back and do much adjusting of language and tone with them. Though admittedly my Virgil is signifigantly more foul-mouthed than canon and I tend to prefer pre-AA feral asshole Virgil.

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Patton. I write him the least, so people can probably tell. I love Patton, I really do, but it’s so hard to keep away from fanon Patton. 

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for? Angst w/ H/C obviously. Or if you’re talking about regular book genres, Fantasy. I fucking love fantasy world building.

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most? Trauma. I blame Daeram. As if Ayri isn’t a giant Angst Demon.

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Slopes. I’m really into it. I’ve got three one shots running right now. Patrons can read the first part of the unnamed cat remus one, there’s also a coffeeshop au tropey nonsense one like eglantine & lycoris, but Slopes is addiction angst. Mmmmm. Virgil is addicted to coke and alcohol and will listening to his friends even be in time? Who knows, especially not me, but there’s already over 30k. 

13. First fandom you ever wrote for? InuYasha. Or was it Harry Potter? Or shit, The Blue Sword? Fuck, I’ve been writing for a long time, I really have no idea.

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for? Sanders Sides. The characters are the perfect dynamic for writing since they exist in balance of each other and the popular, easy to project on archetypes featured are incredibly fun to do basically any scenario with.

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Weird storywise? Kingdom Hearts? I can’t even follow the plot anymore. Weird Fandomwise? Sanders Sides. Its simultainiously the fluffiest and angstiest nonsense at the same time.

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Vampires. Gay ones. Gay Vampires. I also love calm tol and angy smol.

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for. Any tropes that normalize incredibly toxic behaviour or tropes that are inherantly ableist, but I can’t think of any.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? Incorrigible continues to be complete nonsense.

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between? AUs. I mean closest I even have is canon-divergence other than a single short.

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff? I like it when there is gay nonsense along with a plot that is treated as more important than the relationship the most. But I like both. There’s more shippy stuff in tss so i read more shipping action by default.

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!) Anxceit/Sleepxiety, but in general, give me darksides or give me death/j

22. Do you listen to anything while you write? Almost everything I write has a special playlist I listen to to help me write it, but otherwise I listen to my Nyan playlist, an alter is picking the tunes, or a voidfam playlist. I never have music off. When my internet is down I just listen to the songs I own or Anxiety’s theme on loop.

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I’m fine with all of them. I love working with prompts but I tend to deviate. And I’ve never done a challenge since I can’t do deadlines and bad things happen bingo never sent me a card and I applied three times.

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works? I am generally multi-chaptered stuff, but I’ve been working on a few one-shots lately that are much longer than most one shots.

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them! I was originally thinking of doing some little 13-year-old Dreaming!Roman (y’know, the one with a job) shorts but it turns out I just had an alter of that little bastard and that’s why I inexplicably know more about him then I ever even considered. I still might do them after Dreaming is done. But that’s paced so slowly who knows when that might happen. Otherwise I put stuff in my notes and just do shorts of it if I’m like “oh you know what’s cool???” but since I can’t daydream maybe this question doesn’t apply to me.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? I want to do more autism stuff, and I’ve had it demanded a few times, but I’m scared of being that explict about it for some reason. Possibly because I might be, possibly because I’m scared of doing it wrong even though I’ve accidentally coded multiple characters autistic. I’m scared of explictly tagging them as such, too. 

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? That I can remember off the top of my head? I’m going with one from @a-genz-with-trauma-and-kins. It really helped me out and was just so kind and literally the best christmas gift I got in 2020. 

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? I can handle it alright but Daeram is a little fucking pissbaby about it. Constructive criticism helps people get better, so I appreciate it. I can’t handle critism that is incomplete, though. “i just don’t get it” or “I don’t know I don’t like it” kind of things. If I can’t understand the why to fix it then things get out of control. And then I spiral and RSD for like four days minimum. If it came from an anon or a troll, too, It might not bother me for as long. Things that are just like “this is shit and you should feel bad” just make me laugh. Couldn’t even bother to read it long enough to insult me proper? I don’t care.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? I have a few times. Mostly in shorts and prompts, I think. I think they turned out okay. They’re not particularly inspired or anything.

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst? Depends on my mood. Am I triggered? give me the fluff. Am I vibin? Angst. 

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! Fuck, fam, no, I can’t, I have so many. I have multiple original stories and some of them have very large casts and like holy fuck. Or do you mean in Sanders Sides fandom? Um, Morgan and Thorn in PD. The lesbian and her himbo dynamic. I love them. They’re dorks. Morgan is strong person with sharp tongue and soft romantic heart and Thorn is just so kind and so dumb and so exciteable he’s like a puppy. They were just filler characters and I got attached to them. Felton even gets redemption for being an ass later in PD, like oof i never intended to include so much OC content, especially for names I just picked randomly. 

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less. nope I’m doing all of them because these are fun plea for my new self: 2 gay vampires, 4 humans, 1 braincell dreaming while I wake: trauma child needs therapy and so do you break: big oof, oh dragons, oh why, go virgil go rebuild: virgil is so not okay there’s more virgil to deal painful death: gay teens drink themselves into a new religion stargazing: whoops we didn’t realize people actually cared whole castle: everyone will throw down for kid!patton, even you incorrigible: found family with a shot of psychological horror and crack dangerous instincts: wholesome crime syndacite action  slopes: addict gets mugged and thinks that’s just fine with him conflagration: logan avoids everything ever like a champ cat!remus: bored fae shifts gay pining from one person to another  caffeine cyptids: caffinated gay panic goes faster than regular gay panic eglantine & lycoris: more tropes than you can toss a shoe at storytime: overpowered virgil also overreacts literally always

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? an alter and I write together and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, what I’m writing about, or even what year it is. I often don’t even remember what I wrote. There’s no outline. I have an idea and I pick things at random for it. There’s just notes and an evil gleam in a demon’s eye. The only reason I know more than readers is because I take a long time to edit and some of these stories have fucking alters up in my head who can tell me things. Daeram tells me nothing. The writing demon supposedly has all this knowledge but I have absolutely no clue because he does not talk to me, he just fronts and slams out 9k in a few hours or we cofront to write and I’m like “oh no she didn’t” while typing 

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of. i’m fond of the entire painful death series and I tried to find something I really liked without spoilers in stargazing and I couldn’t so here’s a random thing from incorrigble: “So, what do you do with your friends?” Patton continued on with a megawatt smile. “Grand larceny,” Virgil deadpanned and glared at Patton, who was taken aback. Remy and Andy just broke out laughing while Virgil tentatively sipped his still-too-hot-cocoa. 

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!  slopes my dudes slopes i have learned so much about cocaine! like wow! I thought for a minute it was going to end with MCD around 30k but it swtiched from whump to hurt/comfort and I still don’t know if it’s going to be MCD but look at that funky little coke/alcohol addict go, it’s a medical wonder he’s alive! It’s not like there’s what seems to be a little talked about interaction between alcohol and cocaine that causes a toxic chemical to build up in the liver which can result in liver failure and sudden death at basically any moment! Which is part of why it may result in MCD but this time no ghosts! maybe it’ll be h/c with whump elements or maybe it’ll be whump with h/c elements we can’t know for sure

[the-evisceration-station]

Can't believe your getting hatemail for writing dark fics, as if DM isn't already a dark story. Addy and Beth are not girlfriends made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and they don't spend their time having cuddle wuddles and feeding each other cupcakes. Colette, love her or hate her, is a huge part of the story so ofc she's going to be in fic. Anyway, I love your writing. You keep doing you, ignore the haters.

Oh jeez, I hope my post didn’t make you guys think I’m getting a ton of hate. It’s not a lot, really. Most of the messages I get are prompts, or questions about the book, or nice messages like the last sweet nonny sent. 

I can count on one hand the insulting messages I got. It was just that I didn’t feel like responding to them individually, so I posted the one sarcastic gif instead. And it honestly doesn’t bother me! Like, I’m in my early 20s and I been in fandom spaces since my preteen years. I am familiar with fandom hate. I don’t get offended, maybe just a little annoyed. 

I actually think it’s totally cool if you want to read about Addy and Beth being sugary, nice girlfriends and eating cupcakes! I actually see the appeal in it because Dare Me is dark and some folks want light content to decompress and lift their spirits, and whatnot. But if that’s the content you’re looking for and instead you click on the fic that has explicit tags and warnings that say it contains the exact opposite, and then you want to complain about it?? LMAO, that’s when you’re just looking for reasons to be pissed. It’s literally as simple as scrolling past or hitting the back button. 

As for Colette, like yeah, you’re right, she is a huge part of the story so it does naturally lead one to conclude she’ll probably pop up in a fair amount of fic. Maybe more so in mine, because as I’ve admitted before, I kinda relate to Addy having a Colette type in her life and maybe I’m even projecting a bit. 

I am very much one of those people who believes your fandom experience is whatever you make it. I don’t like discourse, so I avoid it. I don’t want that to be part of my experience. I do like shit posts, so I seek them out. I want that to be part of my experience. I also like exploring dark content, so I clickity-clack away to explore it. 

I think of fandom as a whole, and fanfic included, as a playground or a sandbox. I did not invent those comparisons, but I’ve seem them before and I think there’s a lot of value in them. Cause you play on the equipment you want to play on, and you bring the toys you want into the sandbox. 

Do you interpret Addy as a heterosexual who’s so fascinated by Colette because she’s secretly pining for Will and wants him for herself? 

I don’t, but you’re totes within your right to go write it. I’m not interested in that, I’d never click it. I especially would never read it and then barge into your inbox telling you you’re a horrible person because you wrote it. 

Do you think cheerleading is boring? Would you rather the story revolve around softball instead? Go forth and make that softball AU! Then they’d be Batty Baddy, am I right? Ba dum tss. 

You know what might be neat? If Addy and Beth reunite when they’re in their 70s, and space stations are now offering civilians trips to the moon. So Baddy goes to space and get married as old women in the middle of a fucking moon crater. 

Sounds wild? Fanfic can be wild cause it’s literally whatever you make it. Your fandom experience can be whatever you make it too. 

I think I’m gonna go ahead and write a Stella/Beth crossover fic, because the idea’s in my brain now and it sounds neat. I’m the only one who wants that, I’m the only one who’s gonna read that, but I don’t care, because it sounds fun!

I’m here to have fun! Not to fight with other people over different interpretations of a TV show. Not to please the anons who call me names because I explore dark things. 

Sorry that this turned into some rambling rant that lost its direction a little bit, but I appreciate your support. I am not receiving a lot of hate and the little bit I am receiving is kinda annoying, sure, but it’s not new. Fandom just be like that sometimes. I’m grateful that you went out of your way to send me support, but I want you and the other nice nonnys who send good vibes to know hate mail doesn’t really bother me. 

I hope you guys go out and cleave whatever it is you want from your fandom experience, explore what you want to, avoid what you don’t, and at the end of the day, enjoy yourselves. Because that should be what’s most important. 

[general9chaos]

Symmetries in Mauling Snarks and Hook, Yarn, Sinker

Mauling Snarks and Hook, Yarn, Sinker are two fics that have a bunch of interesting similarities and symmetries. They are both Slice of Life stories about aesexual-spectrum people in long-term queer relationships. They both are lighter and fluffier AUs of their respective source material (Worm and Teen Wolf, respectively).

Their symmetries are even more striking. I'll start with gender stuff: CmptrWz, the author of Mauling Snarks, is a man writing about Taylor Hebert, a bullied girl who becomes the hero Maul, with the power to talk to snarks (the things that give people powers) and hit things at a distance. pprfaith ( @wordsformurder), the author of Hook, Yarn, Sinker, is a woman writing about Stiles Stilinski, an artsy man who owns a craft store and is really good with children.

Both of these descriptions are incredibly reductive, but this highlights one of the symmetrical differences: Mauling Snarks changed Taylor's power, and retroactively changed the world so that this power fit well. HYS changed Stiles' setting, aged him up, and removed all the supernatural powers because they were not necesary for the story, because these are people who could actually exist IRL. Mauling Snarks is driven primarily by Taylor's power and connections, while HYS is driven primarily by Stiles' character and friends.

As they meet their partners to be, the authors tell very different stories.

Taylor meets Amy Dallon when she's in costume as Panacea, the world's greatest healer, because she has TSS and other injuries from the trigger event that gave her powers. She's delirious, and says "You should buy a greenhouse." This is because a lot of Amy's depression is because of her snark's boredom with always healing humans. Playing around with plant biology will make her snark happier and improve her mental health. Taylor starts out by giving Amy useful advice to make her happier, which looks like incoherant rambling at first, but which contains a life-changing bit of well aimed advice if you look past the surface.  

Stiles meets Peter Hale after Cora, Peter's toddler neice, runs headlong into his leg. He picks her up and starts looking for her adult, and finds Peter. He's immediately struck by Peter's "stressed dad doing his best to take care of three kids" look. Stiles demonstrates his kid-distracting skills by giving Cora a crochet ball with peas in it, and then starts to help Derek, Peter's 6 year old boy, get over thinking that crochet is for girls, pick out yarn and learn to crochet. He demonstrates that he is good with kids, and that is what catches Peter's attention. He tells Derek his advice straightforwardly and follows up with a real life example of a manly man whose knitting a baby blanket!

Taylor doesn't go out of her way to make her advice understandable. She just gives it and goes on with her life until she meets Amy again. This comes up over and over again in the story: Taylor doesn't want to be easily understandable. She likes to confuse people, to give them misleading answers, to see how long they will run in circles before wising up and asking her for more information. She doesn't often lie outright, but loves to mislead or just not give people the information they want. Also, telling someone that something is classified is not lying, but also doesn't give them any useful information. Add in the threat of making you fill out hundreds of pages of Non-Discloser Agreements, and not many people push her.

Stiles likes to give good advice, to make himself understood. When he talks about grief with Laura, Peter's 10 year old niece, he figures out the right metaphors to get her to understand. He goes into detail about how that loss is like a bomb went off. There's a crater in Laura's heart where her mom and dad died. That crater will not disapear, but as life goes on grass and flowers will grow there, until it doesn't look like there was a horrible explosion there at first glance anymore.

The authors' interests often shine through in their characters' interests. Taylor is a systematic thinker who enjoys reading bureacratic documentation, who knows what forms to file before pulling a prank, who gets really into computers and tech as the story goes on and she builds up more and more connections with powerful people. Stiles is a craft store owner who crochets and knits, who loves taking care of kids and hanging out with his tight-knit friend group.

Both of these characters are not typical of their genders. They have interests, personalities, and interaction styles that are more typical of the opposite gender. When I first started thinking of these stories as symmetrical opposites of each other across gender lines, I grappled with the idea that Taylor is more masculine than feminine and Stiles is more feminine than masculine, even though Taylor's a girl and Stiles is a man. At this point, I just accept that gendered traits are population level and there absolutely are masculine women and feminine men.

Taylor is possibly demisexual and possibly aesexual. She has an aversion to romantic and sexual relationships with non-parahumans, because her snark is social and wants a certain level of compatibility with her partner's snark. She doesn't care about physical form, but about trust. Her relationship with Amy is non-sexual as far as CmptrWz has written, but much more intimate. Because of some powers bullshit after they became friends, they share powers and snarks. Both of them can feel the other's body using Shaper, Amy's snark. They can talk easily at any distance with Broadcast Administrator, and are basically always aware of the other. They have both upgraded the other's body, in collaboration with Riley, a biotinker who's really good at human augmentation. The process involves taking the patient's skin off to integrate nanoweave armor into it, as well as improving basically all internal organs, including the brain. It doesn't get much more intimate than that. Can you see how the powers drive the story and relationship here? I get that I'm barely scratching the surface of their relationship, but Mauling Snarks is 1.5 million words long and I've got a few paragraphs.

Stiles is aesexual and doing romance backwards with Peter. He thinks that sex is gross, but loves taking care of Peter's kids. His first date with Peter was a crafts festival that was just as much a business trip for his store as it was an opportunity to hang out with Peter without the kids around. They already knew each other for months by that point.

I'm kinda running out of steam on this essay for tonight, so I'll just post it and maybe revisit it later. Also, @olderthannetfic, thanks for the kind words and curiosity about Spacebattles. I hope you enjoy this, and I'll have some more comparisons between these stories whenever I get around to it. Also, I should reread HYS again and get back to rereading MS. Have I mentioned that MS is 1.5 milion words long? I’m not doing justice to these characters in a short essay like this.

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

Author Questions

thanks for the tag @thevikingwoman!

Author Name: @a-shakespearean-in-paris and AParisianShakespearean 

Fandoms You Write For: Currently: Game of Thrones and Red Dead Redemption 2. Formerly: Dragon Age and Detroit Become Human. (though that’s not to say the door on those two fandoms are closed--I’ve just finished with my two main works for those fandoms.)

Where You Post: Ao3 and tumblr

Most Popular One-Shot: On tumblr it’s a Cullen smut piece called Shapes and Plains and on A03 it’s my interpretation of the smut that followed after Jaime’s good old line of “it’s hot in here” and “i’ve never slept with a knight before” in episode 4 of GOT called A knight to remember (gotta love them puns)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:Love song on Sapphire Isle, my GOT fix it fic and exploration of the Jaime x Brienne relationship just beat out my Dragon Age Cullen romance In Waking Dreams. 

Favorite Story You Wrote: Honestly I’m proud of some elements of my main works while I am not so proud of others. Like I love moments in my DBH fic Our Immortal Longings but dislike others, same thing with In Waking Dreams. My current favorite is the one I’m working on the most often, Love Song, but I do have a soft spot for OIL--it’s most similar to a piece of original fiction I would like. And my OC is a great protagonist, if I do say so myself :p

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Probably Water and Skin, my very first piece of smut I ever published.I worried I wasn’t doing it right, felt silly at first to talk about arousals and...yeah. It went away real quick, I promise, haha. Not embarrassed anymore!

How Do You Choose Your Titles: Shakespeare sometimes (Our Immortal Longings, The Sweetest Sorrow are derived from Shakespeare quotations.) Or I just play around with things that thematically fit the story and sound nice together. (Love Song on Sapphire Isle, my recent commission called When Rainbows Won’t be Temporary.) 

Do You Outline: Yes but I don’t consider the outline a hard and fast thing I need to follow. I need to know kind of where I’m going to end up to properly seed things so they cultivate into what they need to be, but I also like to have the freedom to not feel stifled by a strict schedule.

Complete: Well not counting one-shots I have three completed multi-chapter fics. I did start fics I have lost inspiration and passion for, I won’t lie, but I think I have a good track record of finishing things.

In-Progress: The Sweetest Sorrow for Red Dead and Love Song on Sapphire Isle for GOT. 

Coming Soon: I have no idea. I had no idea I would write for anything other than Dragon Age two years ago. Hopefully my own original fiction. 

Do You Accept Prompts: When I ask for them. I used to do a lot of prompts, but that’s kind of waned. Maybe I’ll ask again soon?

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: The parts of TSS and LSOSI that are coming up really tickle my fancy, so I’m excited about that. 

tagging @muse-of-nightmares @skyholdherbalist @agentkatie @deviantramblings @out-of-the-embers @ladymdc @laraslandlockedblues @bearly-tolerable @briarfox13 @gottaboopthesnoot annnnnd anyone else <3

[reveriesofawriter]

omg hi!!!! lemme hit you with some Qs: D for all too well fic but other than all too well, E for starlight fic, merrikat elevator fic, and street lightning fic, F, I, J for psycho fic AND atw fic/series/whatever, N, R, V sorry i just love ur writing what do you want me to say XOXO UR FAVORITE ARCH NEMESIS

you made me put the answers under a read more bella that's how many letters this is (I've written an essay for you)

D: I do not have an all too well fic playlist but sam might? if I did it would only have all too well on it for the first part and then how you get the girl for the second half, we stuck so close to the lyrics for the plot that it would have been hard to add more songs to the playlist

E: I can't think of a worthy sequel to starlight fic like I could extend it a bit but it's a certain kind of magic that wouldn't last beyond the night elevator fic worked that well because it was based on tweets, it wouldn't be half as funny if it wasn't So based in real life so I don't see a sequel for that either unless there's another incident they all live tweeted that I don't know about yet 👀 street lightning sequel is based on what music tss releases next honestly, it's such a specific vibe that no other band could do justice. I guess I could write a non-songfic sequel but that feels more precarious as far as capturing that same feeling

F: favorite dialogue (from what I've posted) would have to be something from What are you after? Some kind of disaster (I haven't been tagging fics I've mentioned but I have it open to look for the dialogue so might as well)

“Jesus, Jack why can’t we just tell them they’ve already basically been dating all tour? And probably have been for even longer?” “We have to let them figure it out on their own! After all, no one told us.” “I think a lot of people told us and we just didn’t listen.” Jack waves his hands dismissively, so Alex starts listing. “Zack and Rian both, our old manager definitely tried to tell us, I think your sister said something one time—” “And that was all unsolicited.” “We made out in Rian’s bunk one time just to piss him off, I think it was solicited.”

their banter writes itself honestly, plus this is the first jalex fic I wrote plus I adore malum so I have a soft spot for it, also this part just flows well

“Shut up. You’re a fucking sap.” “Hey, you said you like sensitive boys.” “Yeah, I like horses too but I wouldn’t want one telling all his horse friends to date each other with reckless abandon.” “That’s cause your horses are prudes.” “My horses could get dates if they wanted.” “Oh yeah, I’m sure Tino’s a player.” “Tino is a distinguished gentleman, thank you.”

I: guilty pleasures... I don't feel guilty about much that I enjoy? I will gladly admit to reading every one of bella's jalex prompt fics when I'm having trouble sleeping

J: oooh psycho fic alternate ending okay I had one written that was basically just the last line changed that made it clear that they killed dickhead and the image of alex and cutie making eye contact while blood spatters across alex's face and the wall behind him is vivid in my mind but it made the tone darker than I wanted, esp considering it was in the end a sam bday fic all too well alternate ending 👀 imagine if we left it without a sequel. alternate ending: no redemption arc ahhhh that's a nightmare I could never do that to them, we did briefly discuss a sequel where alex had a ring in his glove compartment but we decided it would be too hasty (but not necessarily out of character for alex to overcorrect like that ((and then regret it)) ) and that jack wouldn't be able to say yes after six months with no visible growth

N: I can't think of a fic I want someone else to finish however I do wish I hadn't written so much of the core adventures in babysitting fic so fast bc I really would have loved for that to be a co-write with you (we brought up the idea in passing I think but by then I'd already written like 2k of it) maybe... it's not too late 👀👀

R: my leap back into fic writing was bc of helen like not only reading her quar fic but also some random tags she left on a post that I was like I could write that. you have this wonderful way of hearing a song and catching the tone of it perfectly (like daydream, the tone of which was indecipherable to me until you wrote the fic) and I admire that, also you write banter in a very fun way that I always aim to emulate. writing with sam made me a better writer I think in a lot of ways 🥰 not limited to finding something closer to balance between dialogue and description

V: I was thinking about this the other day with one of yours what was it omg I can't remember but every now and then I think about helen's holyverse malum and I'm like... what if I wrote ficfic

[potentiality-26]

What I’m Writing

Do Dis: List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever. 

I was tagged by @zombiisheep!  I’ve had to tweak the formula somewhat to fit my particular process. 

Tagging: I feel like most people have either already done this or been just tagged, but if you’re reading this and you want to do it, do it and tag me so I can see!  I will tag @futuredescending, though, mainly for expressing an interest in some of the fics that I list here.

(I put it under a read more because wow, it got long.  All the fics are for Kingsman, most are Hartwin but some not)

Fics I’m Actually Writing Editing/Reworking Now

- The Hartwin fic I previewed in my latest Sunday Six.  As you could probably tell from that, it involves Eggsy waking up in the hospital wing with Harry at his side and thinking he must be hallucinating, but I think I’ve done a fun twist on it.  Both amnesia and possible time travel are involved.  It’s already jossed by the trailer, but such is life.  Posted!

- A short(ish) fic also jossed by the trailer.  I wondered what (if anything) Merlin and/or Roxy might have done to keep the other Kingsman agents from doing what Harry did when Valentine turned the SIM cards on.  I came up with the idea of Amelia being assigned to get as many of them as possible somewhere safe, and discovering that Harry isn’t dead in the process.  It’s mainly focused on the interactions between her and Harry (and the other Kingsman), but there’s Amelia/Roxy (Roxelia?) and Hartwin in the background.  Posted!

- A companion to the above that picks up in Eggsy’s POV where the previous fic left off.  Mainly Hartwin with a side-order of Eggsy + Roxy friendship.  It’s shorter than I want it to be right now, so further shippy stuff might happen.  Maybe a little Merlin/Tilde?  Who knows.  Posted!  (Also two more originally unplanned sequels here and here, one from Harry’s POV and the other from Roxy’s.)

Fics That I’m Returning To Soon Making Slow But Sure Progress On

Note: if anyone reading this sees a fic (or two or five) that they would desperately like to see ASAP, please feel free to say so and I’ll try to put on a little more steam!

- A superpowers AU.  Pretty much every character has powers and appears in this fic, but the core group all live in a mansion together and work as private investigators.  It’s Merlin’s POV, but he’s a telepath with boundary issues so there’s quite a bit of Hartwin, Roxelle, and Percilot going on in the background.  Some Jamal/Ryan/Tilde also seems to be happening?  

- A Merhartwin(ish) fic.  In it Merlin is aro and he and Harry have a friends with benefits thing going on that really works for them.  The fic is mainly about the three of them figuring how Eggsy now fits into it.  It’s been tricky to make sure it isn’t too Hartwin + 1, but I really relate to Merlin in this fic so I think I can do him justice. 

- A Hartwin Angel Eggsy/Demon Harry AU that I actually started work on before Hope and Good Intentions, but it got stalled.  Hopefully I’ll figure out where I’m going with it soon.

- A Hartwin fic where Harry is the writer of a successful series of spy novels and he’s receiving threats.  Eggsy gets hired as his bodyguard and would you believe it they fall in love.  There’s a twist here but I don’t want to spoil it (how I will tag the story without spoiling it I do not currently know). 

- A Hartwin (+ Roxlin) regency AU.  Harry is a gentleman and war hero who takes Eggsy and his mother and sister under his wing.  It’s not based on any specific story from that period but the vibe is there, lots of slow burn and misunderstandings.  Also gay marriage is totes a thing in this universe because what is the genre without overwrought marriage proposals?

- A Hartwin fic based on the Star Trek: Voyager episode Shattered.  Different parts of Kingsman HQ are locked in different time periods.  Eggsy has to find a way to fix it, and he teams up with a version of Harry who is roughly his age and also another Galahad from the future. 

- A young Merlahad fic where Merlin is a scientist working for a potentially evil organization.  Harry is hired as his new muscle, but there’s more to him than meets the eye. 

- A Harry/Roxy (Harroxy?) marriage of convenience fic.  Harry needs a wife for Reasons.  He and Roxy get hitched and find it works for them.  Posted!

- An A/B/O AU with Harry/Eggsy/Merlin/Roxy (I know right?).  It’s alpha!Roxy’s POV because I always see people talking about the cool potential of lady alphas in this trope but I’ve never actually read a fic about one.  There’s lots of everyone figuring out their individual relationships and also how they work together as a group.  

- A Merwin-to-Merhartwin fic.  This is really just me trying to work through my hangups about Merwin in fic form, and though they’re both really crazy about Harry the story is largely about them figuring things out together while Harry’s busy being... like... Catholic (it makes sense in the fic).   

Fics That I Keep Putting Off 

Note: some of these are actually closer to finished than the ones above, but I’m just not feeling the mojo for whatever reason so they’re stalled.  Do feel free to poke me about any one of them too though.

- A 5 + 1 style Hartwin fic about the many times Harry and Eggsy get mistaken for a couple before they actually are.  I ended up putting a ton of my dog test angst and like all the PTSD in it, so it’s way less fluffy than that summary makes it sound.  There’s also some D/s.  IDEK. 

- A Hartwin magical realism AU where everyone has a fairy godparent who gives them a “gift” at some point in their lives.  That background is really just window dressing in a fic that’s mainly about Harry being a virgin.  Don’t ask me why that happened. 

- An established Merlahad fic about Merlin coming to terms with losing Harry and then finding him again.  It’s also jossed by the trailer but maybe it doesn’t have to be?  I don’t know.  I’ve mainly been putting off finishing it because I have some scenes written for a Merhartwin sequel to it, and in a perfect world I’d like to know where I was going with that before I took this one any further. 

- A Harroxy fic about Harry and Roxy being regular mission partners and eventually more than that.  It’s planned as part of a larger Harry/Eggsy/Roxy OT3 series, and therefore slow going. 

- A Hartwin Cinderella AU set in the Jupiter Ascending universe.  That makes sense in my head.  I also have a Gazelde The Little Mermaid sequel in mind, a Sleeping Beauty one with Eggsy and Gazelle being BFFs and saving their respective spouses, and a Beauty and the Beast one maybe with Roxlin. 

- A Hartwin soulmate AU?  Actually I’ve got three different Hartwin soulmate AUs.  One of them is like my soulmate magnum opus that starts before the first movie and then goes through it and changes the events quite a bit.  I’m thinking I’ll save it until after TGC because a) it’ll probably take that long to finish it anyway and b) since the plot of TSS is tweaked by it anyway, I could carry that through to the second movie and use it as a fix-it if necessary.  The other two are shorter, one set in the same universe as my James Bond fic Heartlines, and the other featuring amnesiac Harry posted here.

- Even more amnesiac Harry and/or time travel Hartwin fics.  I’m going to try to focus on just one or two of each, but I really can’t decide which.  I won’t go into detail about every single one since this is already so long, but feel free to ask for more info if you’re curious.  I’m always happy to cry about all my WIPs. 

- Two D/s AU fics, one Hartwin and one Merhartwin.  The first is classic dom Harry/sub Eggsy and largely mission related.  The other has switch Merlin, sub Harry, and dom Eggsy; it has quite a bit of pining Merlin, but in the end it’s very smutty.  I’m going to try to focus my energy on just one, but I haven’t decided which. 

I’ve also got a ton of shorter stories in the works, some sequels, and even more long WIPs, but these are the big ones I’m mainly hoping to get done with before we’re all old.