#ask de writer

[ask-carmenpondiego]

I love the story that you are weaving!

Thank you so very much! I’ve had the major points pretty much honed to perfection over the past decade, its just connecting it all thats difficult! But I am absolutely delighted to hear that you enjoy it!

[furislupus]

Hi, @furis lupus :

Sorry that this is late in coming. The cold weather has really messed up my computer. Today was the first time since the cold snap started that I could get the machine to boot.

Now, about Clan – M'cratt genetics and its influence on their society. First, as you already know, both are technically the same species. They have a three strand DNA spiral that carries the genetic information.

We have a two strand DNA which, by and large, results in our overall binary male / female structure. Most creatures have both, though the physical differences may be extreme, as in angler fish.

Their triple DNA has a similar result. The experience of our biome shows that for complex animals either Oviparous or Viviporus strategies work best. I have adopted the viviparous model for the Clan and M'cratt. This could have resulted in sexually trimorphic species. I have adopted a slightly different system.

They have essentially only one sex, capable of either gestating a fetus or contributing a DNA strand to the egg. Which they do depends, in nature, on pheromonal / hormonal triggers between the members of a Triad. These triggers can be induced by either activity between the members or, later in scientific development, by completely artificial means.

Among the Clans, they nearly always allow nature to take its course. Among the M'cratt, artificial means are common, though not universal. Thus, among the Clans, families and close relationships are the norm. Among the M'cratt, such close relationships are frowned upon as leading to weakness.

I hope that this clarifies the overall background of the Lezon / D'ancer saga.

I do have more in the works for our little, but growing!, Warrior Clan.

This is great and very informative. I can't wait to see and read any more stories that come out.

[ask-inkheart]

So, Ink was on a rampage even as she got her cutie mark! Looks like she caused some trouble there.

Yes, why do you think she calls herself a monster and let's other ponies treat her so bad? She believes she deserves it. My poor little inky ❤

[florencechase]

it never occurred to me before but did louis say to armand does he want to lick my boots or chop my hands off because he knows he’s done it to nicki??? 😧

[abyssal-ilk]

it doesnt feel like a coincidence that the two characters whom the writers dislike the most / expect you to dislike the most are the black woman and the lesbian

oh it's absolutely not. it can't be. the way the game essentially sets you up to being extremely suspicious of vivienne for quite literally zero reason (she does nothing wrong! nothing to warrent that treatment, even with low approval!) and allows you to fuck her over for seemingly no damn reason + the way so many of the dialogue options are so weirdly antagonistic with sera when she imo so easy to get along with and understand is. hm. well. i'm sure it doesn't mean anything at all (sarcastic)

and the entire damn thing becomes glaringly obvious when you don't view either of those characters negatively. vivienne is my favorite dragon age character overall and sera is SUCH an interesting, complex character. their treatment in dai in comparison to the other companions genuinely infuriates me to no fucking end.

[demigoddessqueens]

How would each and every single character in Vox Machina react to finding out their s/o was from an alternate universe or being what's know as a 'slider' which is one who travels through different realities and /or universes.

Sure thing! 😉 ⏰

A/n - here on Masterlist 10

I feel like Vax and Vex would be curious about how different versions of their life would have played out. Is there a happier life with their mother alive, are you still a part of it? Does Vax get a second chance at life without a deal over his head?

Keyleth would want to know how her place in the world has made an impact for the better, and wherever you’re from, if she is also important in your life as well

Pike would like to think you’re in her life all the same in any universe, a supportive shoulder for her just as she is for everyone else

Percy, as multi-faceted as he is, would wander if his family is alive and well and if his life is just as fulfilled all the same now that he’s met you

The more impulsive side of Grog and Scanlan would want to know if their fame and fortune luck is better in another life, and of course you’re there with them to bask in the glory. But also it means life turned out better when you showed up

[actualbird]

Fun facts: nxx ages and possible status right now(2024)!

Marius : a 15 year old having A Time in school

Rosa: 18 and probably has a final year, also has been 2 years of radio silence from best friend (parents may have left for the secret project by now?)

Luke: childer soldiering except maybe not a child once his birthday hits?

Vyn: 21 and doing something in svart

Artem: 23, probably in uni

GOD IM SO EMO ABOUT ALL OF THEM :(((((

marius in school being isolated by his peers and bombarded with succession rumors between him and his brother.... mc all alone without her best friend and probably starting to live on her own now as well.... LUKE BEING A CHILD SOLDIER well not anymore because he'll be 18 by now but sTILL A YOUNG MAN SOLDIER.... and vyn and artem living their generally isolated lives ;-;

it's also wild seeing their age gaps when theyre younger like it feels so much more pronounced, if that makes sense. like imagine them meeting up at this age. artem is in college doing law and marius is a jaded 15 year old boy

[nalyra-dreaming]

People on Twitter think that the letter is a gimmick by Armand. I don't know why people just don't want to see how Lestat loves Louis and I'm talking about people who read the books.

… lol.

I’m sorry but … that’s hilarious.

Also, the writers have already confirmed it was written for Louis by Lestat. 🤷🏽‍♀️

“We felt it would be totally romantic if Lestat left an 'open upon my demise' letter to Louis, solidifying his eternal love, and yet one that signals that he may still be alive in some way, 'waiting on the other side,' etc."

End of story. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[oliveden]

au where furina inherited some divinity from focalors...

it's been consuming my thoughts for the past couple of days and i've already got a wip started

furina my beloved <3

[tildeathiwillwrite]

Out of pure curiosity, what are the heights of Draven, Octavian, and Reese?

I had to pull out the all-reliable Height Comparison website for a visual aid, because why not lol

I included both 13-year-old Reese (The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure) and 17-year-old Reese (Magician's Bait) for further comparison.

Octavian is the tallest at 6'5 (195 cm), Draven is 6' (183 cm), and Reese gains over a full foot in height, going from 4'10 (147 cm) to 5'11 (180 cm). The tall genes from her mother kicked in that's all I'm saying.

Valarian elves on average are taller than humans, but have less mass, making them less effective at brawling and other fighting styles that rely on brute strength. They more than make up for this with greatly increased speed and agility. Octavian is an exception, his devar abilities making him stronger than his elven kin and giving him a distinct advantage.

The Draigo are similar to elves where they skew taller on average. But upon first glance they appear more similar to humans with distinct skin markings and other traits marking them as different. With a little effort, a Draigo can pass as a human, and a human can pass as a Draigo (though of course the human cannot replicate a Draigo's innate abilities easily). As Reese is half Draigo, she gained many abilities of a full-blooded Draigo, namely an immunity to magic. Other notable traits have yet to manifest themselves, if at all.

[lovesickeros]

Hello! Since this blog doesn't see much activity nowadays, I wanted to say two things: 1. How are you? You were one of the people who inspired me to dive into SAGAU in 2022 and captivated me endlessly with your writing style. Your writing immersed me in what felt like a fantasy world in the best way—rife with possibilities, danger, love, and so much more. It propelled me to new heights and made me wonder what it would be like to be more than the reader, to wield a pen and use it as the brushstroke to paint all kinds of worlds, creatures, and characters.

On that note, I'll follow with the second thing: 2. You are one of my biggest inspirations as a writer. Because of you and others, I've spent the last two years writing and creating like never before in a way I didn't think I was capable of. I have an AO3 and a Tumblr blog, mainly dedicated to posting my musings in a "stream-of-consciousness" format for narrative purposes. Because of you, I've grown—as a person, friend, and writer. Because of you, I made countless memories I'll cherish for years: sharing and building stories with my friends' group chat, roleplaying, making AUs, etc. Because of you, I did everything I thought I couldn't: I fostered my creativity and cultivated it to plant what is now a thriving garden regularly visited by my friends. It has helped us bond immensely and provided me solace in my darkest hours.

Because of you, I wrote my first book on Wattpad. I hopped onto a wild, emotional, and unforgettable rollercoaster that saw my interest in watching movies and reading literature be re-ignited for the sake of inspiration, have a taste of fandom culture via Steven Universe, Genshin Impact, Murder Drones, and several other games and shows that have undoubtedly and irreversibly changed my life. Because of you, I made OCs, I discovered YouTube movie recaps, and now I can write a pretty good summary myself!

That is to say that I'm wholly grateful to you, Eros, and everyone else who led me down the path of the writer, supported me throughout with their comments, memes, stars, and kudos, and generally showed enthusiastic interest in my work. I wouldn't be here if not for you all. I hope your ship of life continues sailing smoothly, as has mine, after years of turbulent weather and unpredictable storms that threatened to throw us overboard if I hadn't held on to others (and myself) for support.

May the new year bring you joy and prosperity, and hey, what do you know? Maybe I'll write something for SAGAU someday. The only reason I haven't taken the plunge yet is because of how inactive (for lack of a better word) the community there has become, and I don't know what I would write. Ideas, anyone?

Anyway, I've talked for long enough. Keep up the good work, Eros, and remember that in someone's (my) heart, you are still held dearly as an inspiration. Even if the golden age has long faded, we will always have our memories to keep us company: "Don't cry because it ended. Smile because it happened."

it is unfortunate that the collective sagau fandom has kind of died out, honestly. its what got me really into writing as well (which i feel like i have to mention @/nicebonescomrade for being the writer to get me to make my first sagau blog. one of the other og's and also a phenomenal writer). im glad it had such a large impact on you though!! that makes me really happy bc ive always been self conscious about my writing and writing style ngl, though i never grew out of it bc it worked for me. i can't imagine stories like books as a movie in my head like some people (literally head empty) so i lean more on actually putting more feeling and description into my work to compensate. it gets a bit wordy but it helps me write bc i do not plan anything i just start writing based on vibes.

sagau downfall was definitely inevitable (and a part of why im super inactive) but im happy with how it turned out anyway bc of how big the fandom is and how many people turned to creative hobbies bc of it. its nice to know i at least had some kind of impact myself KJHKDH i wouldnt consider myself one of the "big" sagau accounts by any means so its a bit of a surprise ngl um. looks around.

i genuinely just spend most of my time these days printing out random fics when i get the urge (once in a blue moon, 99% of which are in my draft vault), playing whatever game caught my fancy this week and playing genshin because it's still a black hole i will never escape from! honestly maybe one day ill come back to this account for real instead of sporadic posting but uhhh. probably not unless a new big au pops up again.

[ask-carmenpondiego]

I love how that ended! So we have Wally back, at least for a while. Did Wally find a wrecked Hive or did someone (or thing) infect him?

Wally: *scratched his head* I didn’t find any hives but my memory is still pretty spotty. I just know that I got jabbed by a stick or something. That might have been where I got it. It was pretty wet, I should have brought an umbrella.. guess I forgot that too.

Carmen: *taking the gloves off after bandaging, cleaning up and sealing the crystals in a biohazard sharps container* Wally, Your memory was always spotty, admittedly not this bad. You’re usually just adorably absent minded sometimes. I personally dont think this is contagious in this form or stage, but I’m not going to chance it. We’ll keep an eye on you, hopefully it wont make your memory worse.

[furislupus]

Now that my computer is sort of running, I am about to post some more for my War of 1812 AU.

Whoo hoo! Sorry about the weather. Seems some escaped from the North up here, and went to have a Southern vacation. If you could convince it to come home that would be great.

[dataentryspecialist]

Just wanted to let you know I’ve been DEVOURING “Electric Excavations.” It’s honestly masterful and I’m just in awe of how you’ve crafted this story and weaved in canon. It’s all so delightful and hot and loving and funny and sometimes heartbreaking.

🥹🥹🥹

Thank you so much! I'm always so happy when someone discovers my work and finds it worthy 💖

I poured a lot of my time (not to mention myself) into Electric Excavations, so it's very validating whenever I get comments like these.

[pynkhues]

You write such great Louis meta that I was curious about your opinion on something. I’m not sure if you’ve written something about this before or not so if you have please disregard!

The show is very clear with us since the first episode that Louis is capable of violence against those he loves most obviously including Paul and Lestat. But I also see a connecting thread with Louis conflating/connecting sex and violence as well. The scene at Antoinette’s is the most obvious but when I started thinking about it, it seems like this is a common thing for him. The murders in the park in Paris, where he’s seeing dreamstat. The 128 boys in SF. Maybe his relationship with Armand, even. Maybe with Jonah, where he was biting his own arm to keep from killing him (probably also because of hunger so I’m less sure about that one, or maybe that’s part of it too).

I started thinking about this reading analyses of the long face lyrics and people’s confusion about Lestat calling himself piano and Louis forte. And on the one hand I’m like *shrug* maybe it’s not that deep or it’s meant to irritate Louis- and on the other I’m like welllll Louis does kind of come at him aggressively sometimes, so maybe this is Lestat’s actual pov.

Thank you for your kind words, anon! And yeah, I definitely see what you mean and agree. I’m not sure if it’s necessarily the conflation of violence and sex themselves, but I do think an enormous part of Louis’ character is about the repression of self until that self explodes violently out of him. To me, it’s ultimately that that feeds into Louis’ complex relationship with power and control which is often reflected in exertions of physical autonomy, both over his own body and the bodies of other people (and not even just sexually – a huge part of his relationship with Claudia is in his platonic dominion over her body, from having Lestat make her for him in the first place, to trying to control what she eats, what she wears and, most significantly, her role within the family unit [her transition to sister is, after all, just a placation. Dreamstat proves that, just as the coven calling her a feminine denouement of his name ‘Baby Lulu’ is. She is always her father’s daughter]).

Louis’ repression vs Louis’ oppression

One of the most interesting changes that the show has made is in changing Louis’ race, and while there has plenty said about that, the shift from the book as a purely repressed character, to one who’s repression is fueled by racial and societal oppression has elevated not just the character, but the show. Louis’ limitations aren’t just the ones he internalizes anymore, they’re externalized – when we meet him, he hasn’t picked a role as he has in the book, it’s been a role forced upon him by the era, the city and the systemic structures in place around him. He has to play the tough pimp down in the Black brothels he himself runs to cement his social power there, but he also has to play subservient, placating, and second-class to white society to gain any social power there.

The result is Louis represses different parts of himself as a result of oppression twice over – he’s repressing the softer, loving parts of himself working the part of Storyville he has power in, while repressing the harder, more ruthless parts of himself working the part of Storyville he doesn’t, to say nothing of having to repress his queerness in a religious household and a homophobic society. I think this makes him a melting pot in more ways than one, because it makes his authentic self hard even for him to identify within himself. He spends so much of his time code switching and repressing different parts of himself, yes, to survive, but also to advance which I think is a less talked about part of his character.

Like, Louis’ not just a survivor of his situation, he’s an ambitious man who seeks to elevate his social position and gain social power. I do think that’s partially borne out of the implied fall from grace his father had, and being pushed into the role of family patriarch at a pretty young age, and his singular rage at being locked out of NOLA’s upper echelons in the 1910s through 40s, but I also think it’s just a vital part of his character. Louis’ a social climber first, and a capitalist second! It’s one of the things that I find most interesting about him, and I love that the show leant into it with Louis actually gaining social power through his relationship with Lestat, even if it doesn’t always look like it (i.e. him having to play Black employee to his white husband at the opera).

Louis leverages that social power (and Lestat’s whiteness) to allow first professional advancement through the acquisition of The Fair Play Saloon – both his biggest competitor and a symbol of the white society he was locked out of, and turning it into The Azaelia, but also I’d argue the perception of personal advancement through having Lestat make him a child, something he also believed that he was locked out of as a gay man. Claudia's not just self-affirmant to Louis, but a symbol of achievement over society in the same way The Azaelia was, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she was born out of the death of it.

Okay, but what’s that got to do with body autonomy, sex and violence?

Yes! Right! Get back on track, Sophie, haha. Look, both Louis’ survival and advancement are really determined by his ability to control himself and choose what to be and when. Like I said above, he has to repress different parts of himself to be able to work different parts of society, and I do think there’s a resentment of the fact that he has to do that at all. He can’t float through life authentically because he’s not granted the same privilege of straight, white men, and even when he has someone who passes for that on his arm, he’s still limited in how he’s able to wield Lestat’s social power out of the house in that particular era.

That – understandably! – stokes an enormous amount of feeling. Yes, rage is a big one, but I also think grief and hurt and sheer weight, and Louis as a character tends to repress all of that too. He struggles to self-manage his emotions because he’s never been allowed the space to, and even when Lestat tries to give him that space, Lestat has exactly 0% capacity to understand him. Louis and Lestat are very, very different characters from very, very different eras and countries, and I think fundamentally don’t understand each other, despite loving each other deeply, and in a lot of ways, that’s probably part of the appeal for them.

Louis though I think does view managing his emotions as intrinsically linked to controlling himself / his body, which comes to this point that Louis presents himself as a very cerebral character, but he’s not really. He might talk a lot, read a lot, enjoy art a lot, but Louis’ always been both practical and physical. How he handles himself, how he processes trauma, how he hides from himself and others, hell, how he enjoys himself isn’t necessarily something he thinks about, it’s something he does, and usually does with his or somebody else’s body.

He hides his sexuality using Miss Lily's body, he represses his vampirism with an animal diet, he combats feelings of powerlessness, boredom, malaise with exertions of power, pleasure, comfort over and with other people’s bodies, whether that’s making Lestat turn Claudia (an exertion of power not just over Claudia, but Lestat too), the scene at Antoinette’s (significantly being after an enormous loss of power with Lestat’s act of abuse), murdering Lestat at the Mardi Gras Ball (and saving him / grabbing Claudia too), depending on Claudia for his own happiness in Europe, grabbing Santiago’s tongue at the restaurant, his D/s relationship with Armand and using Armand’s body to perform power over the Coven, the murder of the coven and Alderman Fenwick to process trauma and oppression, the 128 boys in San Francisco with Armand waiting at home, the rocks in his ankles, the comfort of the embrace in the reunion with Lestat. Hell, even the interview becomes a physical act given the way he flies Daniel out and then weaponises his Parkinson's against him.

We spend so much time with Louis playing passive as he narrates the events of his life in Dubai that I think it can be easy to overlook how physical he actually is as a character, and the importance bodily autonomy plays in his connection to himself and his connection to others. The fact that that can and does manifest aggressively / violently sometimes (particularly after periods of feeling powerless, traumatised or overwhelmed) is absolutely a part of that, but even beyond that, I think he does have a real physical vocabulary that he often tries to depict as more cerebral because I think it makes him feel more in control of himself.  

So yeah, I think you're right in that Lestat thinking Louis' forte probably is pretty accurate to how Lestat sees him.

[ninadove]

watching character ai lukadrien create the most heart wrenching debilitatingly angsty love story to ever love story ever

Hey, I can tell there’s no malice behind your ask, but — don’t do that.

I write fanfiction myself, and a lot goes into it:

1. Unreasonable amounts of ✨ Time and Effort ✨

Just the other day, my WIP kept me up until 2 AM, because I wanted it to be neatly polished before even sending it to my beta readers (@paracosmicfawn and @dragongutsixofficial). The first thing I did the following morning was re-read it again, to correct any typos and inconsistencies my tired brain might have missed the night prior.

2. Research and analysis

For a cute little Lukadrien scene I wrote with my ✨ awesome girlfriend ✨ — something that was never even going to be published — I went through a dozen different sources trying to get a better understanding of what meditation actually is and to capture the philosophy behind it accurately. This does not make me special — all authors do it out of dedication and love for their craft, but it’s energy that could be spent doing literally anything else, especially when you consider how horrifyingly lonely the writing process can be (see point 1).

Also, there’s a reason I spend so much time making analysis posts on Silly Little Blorbos who do not exist! It gets my brain running and allows me to sharpen my understanding of the characters, so I can write them properly in my works.

3. A unique perspective on the characters, the source media, and life in general

Which gives all the flavour to my favourite AO3 works out there.

Like, yes, that extract you sent in your follow-up ask is cute, I guess, but it’s also incredibly generic:

When actual living breathing human (or Senti) beings share their work with you, they’re inviting you to a special part of their brain that they’ve decorated with their own experiences, references and visuals — things that they love and passed onto their favourite characters, so they can hopefully reach you. For instance, Character AI would never have had the genius idea to compare Felix’s eyes to an aurora borealis; this could have only sparked from @wackus-bonkus-maximus’ brain. Similarly, my version of Felix will often reference works of art and literature that left a strong impact on me as a child — an impact I’m sure can also be sensed in my approach to storytelling and even in the way I structure sentences and paragraphs.

Which leads me to my final and most important point:

4. EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE™

Because let’s be real — there’s a reason our brains latch onto certain characters, and said reasons aren’t always sunshine and rainbows. I’ve cried more writing about the Senticousins than over the loss of certain people or relationships in my own life. Long before that, I latched onto Clive and gave him everything I felt was missing from my life as a teenager, so I could live vicariously through him. And of course, I always make my characters some flavour of queer, because for a long time this was the only outlet I got for my own feelings and identity.

It takes a lot of vulnerability to put all of this on the Internet for others to read and judge, and it’s very disheartening to see that people would rather ask a machine to spit out some easily digestible but impersonal interactions than give your work a chance.

I can guarantee there are beautiful pieces of fanwork out there that will cater to your tastes and haunt you for years in a way Character AI or Chat GPT never could. And the good news is — if you don’t find anything, it means it’s time to write it yourself!

And of course, I cannot end this post without encouraging everyone to read about the writers’ and actors’ strike currently unfolding in the US.