#but 20 year old me wasn't the best writer ;-;

[intramoon]

𝒲+𝒜 (circa 2017)

[nuggetofthesea]

Before writing more stories, I want to help people come to terms with the "identity death" and heavy themes in the animal HRT comics, and as a writer, want to explain why it isn't ACTUALLY death, but a form of renewal. Because I see it on all of my friends posts.

"I am just concerned about this loss of self thing, it sounds like identity death and I don't like it" is the common comment.

But in all of these comics, it is less about loss of self, but more about leaving behind who you were. A sign of extreme change and showing their own way of moving forward, and the start of a brand new life. A willing change to a new start.

Identity death is an unwilling change. All choice was stripped away from them and a new identity forced on them. This is also different from a transformation that leads to acceptance of the new form.

But in the animal HRT comics my friends put out, it is a willing change to a new form and cones with mental changes they are willing to go through. That isn't the same as a death. But a new start to their life they can start living to the fullest. It's also why some choose not to start anew, to bring one journey to a close and begin a new one. They choose to have that be part of the same journey. A new chapter instead of a new book if you will. In either case these are willing changes.

It can seem terrifying to some, but a total rebirth of yourself CAN be a slightly scary theme. It is terrifying to choose to take that new life.

But let me set up an example here:

When I first came to be, I thought I was going to be a visual artist, because Ashe was and that's what I remembered. When I was locked away by my own doing in the headspace I was stuck in a perpetual cycle of misery. It was terrifying to take the step to discover myself. To lower the barrier I had created, to rediscover myself.

But when I came to be, Ashe said I could be anything. A new sense of self outside of her. A new life. I tried to draw first, but I couldn't. Visual art was not my thing anymore. It never was. I just held on to memory of being a copy of Ashe. When writing my introduction I realized I love the feeling of writing. I have my own form. My own life. My own identity. A new start.

So let me ask you: Should I have not taken that opportunity to completely cast off who I was to embrace who I am? Should I have left myself in misery and fear as something I'm not? All for the sake of not casting off who I was and my life before? No.

Now while I do remeber all of what happened before my change, none of that shapes who I am now, because that life wasn't mine in the first place. This isn't a death of my identity, but a new start to an identity I chose. And I am happy to be able to live it with my new sense of self and build NEW memories. A new life.

Which also leads to the second heavy theme in those comics. Shortened lifespans. Outside of the fact that we are told time and time again HRT can lead to a shorter lifespan (which is a false average) starting a new life also means you are probably starting in the middle.

Our body is almost 30. That is 30 years of my lifespan gone. Yeah, I was around for 15 (almost 16) years of that, but my new life began a week ago. Who I am began just last week. And even though in the headspace I am early to mid 20s at best, that is still a cutdown lifespan.

So should I just have not bothered with the new start?

Absolutely not. The gift of life, new or old, isn't about how long it lasts. But how you live it. It is hard, it comes with problems, but for as long as I have of it, I will cherish the new memories I build, the new start I have, the ability to just... exist. For as long or short as that may be. And through this new start to my life, the people who love and care for me are still here. Still stand by me. And that is a great thing.

So please, don't be too offput by heavy themes in our stories. Even my stories will have some rough parts. (They'll always be tagged)

Hope this at least helped ease why those themes are there, and why some people choose to have them.

Also, don't worry about "adding to the fuel used against us" because we could sneeze and they'll find a way to use that against us. The fact is, with the Animal HRT series, actual HRT does come with some discomfort, pain, downsides, and problems. And like the heavy themes in the comics, we determined it is worth it for us to keep going despite them. We knew the risks.

"Everything is a risk. Life's boring as hell if you don't take them JUST because there is potential problems. Just make sure you understand them." - a line chaos told me the day I formed

It does less good to show everything as risk free and painless, because then nobody is prepared for the risks they are actually taking. Or the comic is based off the creator's life to that point, and they DID experience a lot of pain. So retelling their story (like mine) might be painful at spots.

My point of all of this is, the heavy themes are required to tell these particular stories. And while not every story requires dark spots, the dark spots help to accentuate the brighter picture. Otherwise it can just be blinding. So please go easy on the artists/writers behind them. As it is usually something personal for them.

(This also might not apply to all of them, some people just like writing horror, and we should respect that too.)

Next story should be sometime within the next couple weeks. Just needed to get this out there. It's been on my mind since releasing the short story with Iris.

-Aqua

[olderthannetfic]

So the ‘straight with one exception’ shit that was so prevalent with straight women in fandom a few years ago. Do they find it a romantic notion? I’m bisexual so growing up in the 90s and 2000s most the queer content I could find was fan made. And don’t get me wrong I am grateful for the fandom moms of old for making queer content as a young guy in the 90s figuring myself out there was a lot of fear and self loathing but I always had fandom to make myself feel more normal. But yeah that straight with an exception thing, always really ruined my fic experiences a bit. But I’ve actually started reading older fic because it avoids a lot of the shit I find annoying about modern fics. Can’t escape this trope though it’s like negative nostalgia lol. I know you’re queer but I want to get why straight women love this trope so much. Is a bisexual man so unattractive?

--

Anon...

I hate to break it to you, but when I started interviewing slash writers from the 70s, I heard more than one story that was like "And then I had all these weird feelings for my best friend I was writing with..."

Decades on, these women may have picked some other word than 'straight', but plenty of them did experience You're My One Exception.

Even the horny and self-aware people often find One Exception stories hot, whether it's a villain only being nice to one person or someone who has only experienced attraction one time or someone who is attracted despite their usual orientation. Like 90% of het romance novels include some barf-worthy "It's never been like this before!!!!" observation when they finally get together as though love is more special when you can put down every past partner. People just really, really, really like this trope in all its forms.

The fact that you would think this is a sign of a straight or female writer shows that you are amazingly clueless.

--

That said, yeah, I too found the ubiquity of this in 90s fic annoying. Not a huge fan of the internalized homophobia that everyone was kinking on back then either.

I don't think it's specifically about bi men being attractive or not within fandom, though there is a massive real world double standard against bi men on, for example, OK Cupid.

I think it's more about One Exception as a general trope plus a lot of people being profoundly clueless about bisexuality in the 90s even if they were allies and activists for gay causes.

That was the era of Anything That Moves precisely because the queer community wasn't very hip about bi stuff yet. (And arguably, in recent years, we've backslid, but that's another story.)

--

~Fandom moms~. Yeesh. A lot of those big authors were probably in their 20s in the 90s.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

It is obvious to me that Zeb Wells is only writing ASM because no one else wanted to. I'm old enough to remember the early 00s when Wells first started writing Spider-Man. He was essentially a fill in guy even back then. He was never deemed good enough to get an ongoing to himself. His stories back then were mediocre at best, the one exception being the origin of Jameson, which was legitimate good but also notably not actually about Spider-Man himself.

Then he was one of many rotating writers during the Brand New Day era of 2008-2010. In theory this was a promotion of sorts as he was actually writing ASM. But the nature of the tri-monthly set up sort of meant that inevitably there were gaps to be filled, they just needed material. Roger Stern himself did a few issues here and there in that era, but not many. Yes, Wells was working alongside people who (at the time) were either big names (Mark Waid, Joe Kelly, Bob Gale) or (again, at the time) fan favourites like Dan Slott, so in theory he was being elevated. But to my recollection they tended to give the BIG stories in that era the other writers. Slott opened BND, did the first event story New Ways to Die and did ASM #600. Joe Kelly reinvented the Rhino, reintroduced Black Cat and (ugh) resurrected Kraven the Hunter. Fred Van Lente reintroduced Chameleon and Mary Jane. And Waid did...I forget but he did something significant.

In contrast the only BIG story I recall Zeb Wells taking point on was Shed, which was to the Lizard what One More Day was to Peter. The absolute character destruction wherein the Lizard (in his lizard form) is at least implied to have raped a human woman and is confirmed to have eaten his own human son. The story concludes with Spidey being shocked that the Lizard is capable of talking even though he's been able to do that since the very first Lizard story. It was such a catastrophe that Marvel had to steadily walk it back through at least 3 different stories, two of which were by Slott. When even Slott is like 'um...this went way too far', you really went too far.

By rights Wells should have been in Spider-Man writer's jail forever after that, but instead he got to be a lead writer on an era where ASM was again tri-monthly, except this time with only 2 other writers, none of whom nowhere near the fan favouritism nor had the Big Name clout of the original BND era. And to top it off, it wasn't even about Peter it was about Ben Reilly who was suddenly Spider-Man again, following a run by Nick Spencer which had blatently tried and wanted to undo One More Day but was forced to awkwardly change direction. It was obvious that this was thrown together last minute out of desperation, Ben Reilly was basically just Peter Parker's understudy.

Then after all this Wells, the old man (at least compared to the other writers from the Beyond era), the guy who's most famous contribution was something Marvel walked back, a guy's who's best contribution was an obscure story and from 15ish years ago gets the top job? Meanwhile the former writer goes off and starts a substack?

It reeks of desperation. It reeks of 'No one but this guy WANTED the job'. So, ironically, despite it being over 20 years, even when Wells gets the biggest job in Spider-Man you could have, one of the biggest jobs you could ever have in the industry, he is still just a fill-in writer. The fact that his run' is incompetence at best, cynical spite at worst, speaks to why he wa not deemed good enough for the top job until the point where no one else wanted to do it.

And why does no one want one of THE biggest jobs you could have in comics, arguably in American literature?

Because of One More Day.

Because Marvel's narrative that writing a married Spider-Man was just soooooooo hard and such a turn off to potential writers was probably lie back in 2007 and definitely an exaggeration.*

Because it has been close to 20 years since One More Day and these all time great Spider-Man stories have not materialised. And even the ones people (rightly, and imo generally wrongly) regard as really good (like Superior) either didn't require Spider-Man to be unmarried/single or they would've likely been better if he had been married.

Because making Spider-Man unmarried did not attract back lapsed readers who disagreed with him being married.

Because making Spider-Man unmarried did not attract new readers in significant numbers, indeed the scant new/younger readers they got were happy to read about him being married (as evidenced by Renew Your Vows and the current USM's success).

Because One More Day and their anti-marriage agenda is SO bad that the fandom has NOT let it go all these near 20 years.** And never will. We have, and we will continue, to bring it up, complain about it and that wound will only be reopened every single time anything like Dan Slott or Zeb Wells run crops up.**

So, Marvel are in a lose-lose situation.

The pro-marriage writers (of whom there will likely be more and more as the younger generation who grew up with it roll in) do not want to write ASM because they will not be allowed to undo it and their work to even alleviate it will either be derailed during their run, or else reset ASAP, as happened with Nick Spencer.

Meanwhile anti-marriage writers (of which there were not that many and their numbers ever dwindle) do not want to write ASM because they know their work will also likely be interferred with and more poignantly they will have to deal with us fans very loudly (and louder than ever thanks to modern technology) yelling at them for reinforcing the anti-marriage/anti-Mary Jane agenda.

Simply put, most writer's, especially if they are talented, can make an easier buck on anything other than Amazing Spider-Man, regardless of whether that is one of the Big Two or indie.

And so, what Marvel are left with is desperation cases like Wells and Slott or talented people who come in for short bursts like Joe Kelly.

That is, of course, unless they give their customers what we have wanted for over 16 and a half years!

*As evidenced by the fact that in 2007 we had THREE Spider-Man writers, Straczynski, David and Sacasa, who were all pro-marriage and wrote generally good stories, often leveraging Mary Jane and her marriage with Peter in the course of doing that. In fact one 2007 comic specifically about their marriage was nominated for an award.

**And, in fact, many writers for Marvel (like Nick Spencer) can be counted amongst those fans unhappy with it.

***Indeed, for those younger fans who maybe knew little of pre-OMD Spider-Man or only know about Spider-Man comics from Youtube and social media, Wells run has them believing and perpetuating that Spider-Man has now been ruined. It was ruined long before now of course, but Wells via Paul and the rest of his run has spawned a new generation that despises Marvel's treatment of Spider-Man. Paul has essentially become a meme!

[punkeropercyjackson]

I'm very protective over Hobie,Gwen and Margo because y'all really showing ya asses the most when it comes to them and as an afropunk who's audhd and mentally ill due to brutal ass childhood trauma and an eldest child,i clock what y'all doin' without even trying.Hobie spent all his screentime being the personification of our heritage i.e AFROpunks,not universal punks and especially not universal alt for the 'Hobie is goth' headasses(yes,this genuinely happens)and a black gentleman who gives Mama's Boy but y'all deliberately twist his words,behavior,relathionships and even his design to cater to normies and no,i ain't talking about whitewashing,i mean the sexualization-Where the fuck is his Spidersuit top under his tee in a lot of fanarts i've seen???????And the weird ass trend of feminizing him for sexualization when he's accurate black femme rep and kink based designs have no place on a goddamn underaged children's character(He's seventeen,they've called him a teenager in all official sources and 'he's 19/20' was talking about his concept art based on the og idea of a timeskip inbetween Itsv and Atsv and you can look up Gwen's own concept art if you don't believe me)

Gwen gets victim blamed for her cop dad who pointed a gun at her,A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD TRANS GIRL,gaslighting her into moving back in with him when they already had a turbulant relathionship thanks to him as implied in the movie itself and the script and realistically there's no such thing as a cop being a good parent and y'all 'she's just like her dad' weirdos should get decked for that,ESPECIALLY the grown ones who should know how to act by now.'She should've done more to help Miles' as if the whole tragedy isn't that she couldn't because all the adults around her took away everything that would let her-It's not her fault either y'all don't got media comprehension or any problem with jokes about Peter B sexually harrasing Miguel as shipping or Miguel being antiblack to Miles and Hobie but Gwen putting her shoes on Miles' bed,opening his collectable by accident,going through his sketchbook and calling his parents by their first names is toooooo far,she's so racist omg!!!Don't play with me,she wouldn't do or say even 1% of the shit y'all do Miguel,Hobie and Miles G and she was a girls girl in the comics y'all don't read for Miles,Hobie,Margo OR Jessica either so that Margo moment was a retcon and she wasn't even mean to Margo herself

And Margo.God she's had it the worst because misogynoir is omnipresent no matter what.At least Hobie and Gwen have plenty of positive content and shipping,Margo gets a cameo if she's lucky.She might've not been an mc but she will be in Beyond as confirmed by the crew and y'all give her NOTHING.You including fucking Pavitr as Miles' love interest over her because godforbid a bisexual black boy like black girls instead of just black guys and white girls,right?That's not diverse at all!!Shut the fuck UP,Pavitr and Miles have zero chemistry compared to Miles and his black love interests!And Margo is as interesting as Gwen and Hobie already and certainly deeper of a character The Spot's discord mod lookin' and actin' ass and you're threatend by that so you have everybody hate her because black girls can't be cool,smart,pretty,funny,flawed and everything else except the sister figure or the token or the 'wrong choice' or just not exist!The way she's obviously close to Hobie because they're both black and a major theme of Spiderverse is black solidarity and is obviously only not best friends with Gwen too because the writers couldn't dare risk letting teenage girls know they have options outside of fighting over guys even if one of you is literally transfem and one of you is literally black,NTM her not even giving her a Spidey intro is demonic on so many levels.Miles is a real Spiderman but i guess Margo isn't so that's why she dosen't deserve Miles or Miles G because obviously Miles G likes Gwencel Stacy-I MEAN GWEN 42,right???????I mean why would Gwen Stacy be black,she isn't in every other universe and Ghostspider shouldn't be either because it's not like it would fix the one problem with her and Hobie as a ship in the movie and having a black girl mc in Miles Morales stories wasn't the comics either,totes!!!

Y'all thinkin' you cute with all this shit.Nah,that ain't sliding by me,mainly because it's been a year and you still at it.Sick of y'all and you need to keep my kids' names out of your mouth 'cause the bullshit is drooling through.Invest in soap instead of official Spiderverse merch Hobie wouldn't even want you buying

[scrollonso]

First Kiss (Race 15)

A strollonso AU where 18 year old rookie Lance Stroll falls helplessly in love with the notoriously mean world champion. (1.3k words, seblance, so cute, then ANGST. but then fluff?) [@v3lnys @biancathecool] {I don't like the end of this but fuck it we ball!!! and now writers block starts}

last part - masterlist - next part

Lance walked into the grid with Sebastian, he was going to be driving for Sauber during free practice so the two got to catch up until then.

They'd been in karting together for years before Formula 1 was even an atainable goal for the boys but now that one was a race winner and the other was negotiating a contract it was insane. Sometimes Lance wondered if him and Nico got on so well because he'd practically grown up with Seb and the two were pretty similar.

"Scared?" Lance asked, looking down at his friend as they just wandered around the paddock, it felt nice today.

"Should I be?" The German boy laughed, overgrown blonde hair being blown all over the place as they walked

"Five Germans on the grid today, I'm scared." He laughed as well, grabbing his shoulder in response to his friend smacking him

"Piss off" Sebastian groaned, speeding up to pass Lance, smiling as he heard his foot steps speed up, the Canadian pleading for him to slow down

Sebastian did well during free practice, Lance going to the Sauber garage straigjt away to congratulate his friend

"Kumpel" He called, pulling the shorter boy into his arms as he patted his back "Good job, Sebby"

"Sebby is insane." The German laughed, hugging his friend back

"Expected you to crash" He added, smiling once Seb pushed him away, cursing at him under his breath "Joking, joking, I knew you'd do good."

Qualifying came to an end, Lance in 8th, Fernando in 10th, and Nico in 19th. A very diverse group.

"Nando" Lance said, having found his boyfriend first because he'd been to busy with Sebastian to find him any earlier

"Hola, Lancito" The Spaniard smiled, it looked like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders just because he saw the Canadian. "How are you, mi vida?"

"I'm good" He nodded, Fernandos smile contagious. "Are you okay?"

"Si, why wouldn't I be?" Fernando questioned, not caring what place he qualified now that he was talking to Lance.

"Brad told me Quali wasn't the best for you are Fisichella, I figured you'd be upset."

"Am fine, just slower than usual. Engineers are looking at my car, not sure what is wrong." Lie.

Lance and Fernando spoke for a little longer before they began lining up on the grid, both Renault's in row 5 behind him and De La Rosa.

The race got off to a much better start but only 10 laps in Brad told him Nico was retiring, driveshaft issue, but his car seemed to be perfectly fine.

He didn't respond, just nodded to himself like Brad could see him.

In the next 20 laps both him and Fernando had managed to go up 3 and 4 spots, in 5th and 6th place respectively. Yamamoto and De La Rosa had also retired so now it was down to 19.

Another 13 laps went by smoothly, Lance and Fernando now in 4th and 5th until the Spaniard lost control and his engine blew, leaving a cloud of smoke and a worried Lance on the track

"Is Fernando okay?"

"Is Alonso the renault whos off the track?"

"Yes, is he okay?"

"He is, now focus, Lance." Brad said, unsure if the man was okay but he knew telling the Canadian that would just hurt his performance.

Lance ended the race in 4th, 8 seconds behind Robert but he couldn't bring himself to care as he went straight to looking for Fernando, his engineer telling the boy where he was.

He knocked on Fernandos drivers room, waiting for a second with no response so he knocked again "Nando?"

The door opened right away and before he could speak the Spaniard was hugging him

They spoke for a bit, going over the race together.

"You did so good, mi vida, so impressive for a rookie."

"I'm sorry about your race"

"Is okay, I do not care anyway." Lie. Fernando shrugged, simply brushing off the fact that his engine blew on track and he didn't finish.

"You don't care?" His eyebrows furrowed, wearing his emotions on his face.

"Lancito, am not sure why exactly you are upset, you finished the race in the points. I do not care about me not finishing, I simply have to try harder next week" Fernando was calm, how was he so calm. Michael Schumacher was 2 points behind him in the world championship. A seven time world champion was 2 points behind him in the world championship.

"Exactly, Nando, that's the problem! We're so close to the end of the season and you're so close to winning the world championship again and you just- you don't care? How can you not care?"

"The championship doesn't matter to me, all the media and hastle of being on the podium, is not what I look forward to, I love my job, Lancito, you know I do, but is not the only thing I have anymore." Lie.

"I know, you've said it a hundred times, Fernando. Of course I know you love racing. But I just- god I feel like it's my fault distracting you, I hate knowing that you're okay with losing because you get to see me, I hate to see you lose, you were born to win, you're too talented to give it up because of me."

"Lancito-" Fernando paused, running his hands through his messy hair "am sorry but you are wrong, that is not why I am fine with not winning, you are not at fault here, mi sol." Lie.

"Fine, but that doesn't change the fact that you have something good here, Nando, being a two time world champion is fantastic, I just-" Lance knew what he meant he just had no idea how to put it into words, he felt like the Spaniard wasn't understanding where he was coming from. He didn't want Fernando to throw anything away, he didn't want him to make any decisions where he considered Lance before his career. He loved having Fernandos attention, he loved being alone with him, he loved loving him, but the championship should be more important than that.

"Is that really what this is about? Me winning the championship?" Fernando asked, knitting his eyebrows together, somehow not surprised that the world championship is what Lance is most worried about "If this is about the title, Michael can take it. I don't want it without you."

"Fernando. Don't waste your talent because of me. You have a hunger." Lance shook his head, stepping away from him as the Spaniard desperately came after him "You're brilliant, you want to win, you want to be the best, and you are. Don't settle for second because of me."

"Okay, am sorry." Lie. He spoke softly, just wanting to end the conversation as his arms reached out and pulled the Canadian to him, one hand on the small of his back as the other stroked the boys hair, feeling how shakey his breaths were, he almost regretted lying about being sorry but now part of him was. "The rest of the season I'll be on that podium for you."

Lance didn't respond, he just settled his head in the crook of the Spaniards neck, eyes shutting as he took in the scent of the older man, embarrassed at how worked up he'd gotten himself over another persons race

"I'll win again, I'll win for us." Fernando said with false confidence, truly not caring whether he won or not. It was weird. He'd never cared about anything how he cares about Lance. He's never enjoyed losing but now he didn't mind it as long as he got to see Lance when it was over. But now he knew to never admit that to Lance so he would lie, just a little white lie.

[halles-comet]

Okay, I have finally girded my loins and am going to watch the saw trap finale of Sherlock for the first time since it aired. I was 20, living in London, and my flatmate was interning for the BBC where they got so many complaints it almost crashed the website. Most of what I remember is that the show ends with the two of them jumping into the air and doing a freeze frame. Let's dive in.

Opens with Mycroft drinking in the dark alone mouthing along to old black-and-white movies. It's fun when two siblings are gay but in very different ways.

This is not how repressed memories work

The writers are all "Sherlock and Mycroft's sister (who we’ve never established before) is a genius beyond either of them. She’s so smart she can hypnotize people into killing themselves she’s basically a god." And then it cuts to her babbling amazing genius gems like:

She's also like "I can tell Sherlock's a virgin because he doesn't play the violin like someone who knows how to fuck"

Steven Moffat loves one thing and one thing only; little girls creepily singing English poems.

THIS IS NOT HOW REPRESSED MEMORIES WORK

They really skate by the "at 16 years old mycroft told everyone his sister died and his parents asked no follow-up questions" of it all

MOLLY HOOPER SHOULD GET TO STRANGLE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE MEN WITH HER BARE HANDS INCLUDING THE WRITERS

The wig they used to cover up BC's Marvel haircut really isn't doing it's job

You have to imagine at one point Andrew Scott was on a short list for a Doctor Who villain because otherwise the camp "I Want To Break Free" dance break is extra gauche

THIS IS NOT HOW REPRESSED MEMORIES WORK

Doesn't John have a baby? When he has to solve gay murder riddles does he just leave her with that woman from the bus he was having an emotional affair with?

They're in a cell that sometimes has glass and sometimes doesn't with no explanation. This is not the level of show that's smart enough to pull that off as subtextual.

JOHN GETS THROWN DOWN A WELL LIKE BABY JESSICA

Whose sister hasn't killed your best friend and then everyone told you she killed your nonexistent dog instead and despite being a famously curious person you just accept this for thirty years? Typical sister move tbh

THIS. IS NOT. HOW. REPRESSED MEMORIES. WORK.

The whole episode they're trying to save a little girl in an unpiloted crashing plane and my brain was like wait a minute I know this trope he uses it all the time it's not going to be a literal plane and then guess what. It wasn't. It was a metaphor for the sister's isolation but somehow she was broadcasting it, in reality, through a radio system with a child's voice for an hour of the episode. To quote Bob's Burgers, it's not a twist, it's a lie. A lie is not a twist!

I was right about the freeze frame. It happened to you. To me. To this country.

[orionsangel86]

You know, I thought we were done with the ageism in fandom thinking that its purely for teenagers? Because it doesn't help anyone to have the attitude of this (now blocked) anon. People don't stop having passions and being fans of things just because they get older. Fandoms thrive BECAUSE older people put in the effort to MAKE them thrive. Do you really think that 100k word perfectly written epic fanfic that you adore so much was written by a 16 year old? Because I guarantee it was more likely to be written by a 35 year old mother of 2.

That amazing cosplay of your fave character you saw at a recent comic con that took phenomenal skill and probably a good deal of expense to look perfect wasn't put together by a 17 year old high schooler, it was perfected through years of passion into a hobby that more than likely required a full time job and a savings account to afford.

That amazing fanartist who has the BEST art of your OTP that captures their likeness in a really gorgeous style? They weren't born with that talent. It takes years to develop a personal art style, and capturing a persons likeness in art is a skill that has to be nurtured. The best artists are the ones who've had years to develop their skills. They aren't school kids. I have had mutuals on this site for a decade now and I have seen how much their art has improved and become absolutely beloved. These are people who at their youngest are in their late 20s now. Most of my mutuals are in their 30s, some of the best fanfiction writers I know are in their 40s and 50s. The meta writers I know are also in my age group. Hell, do you think teenagers run AO3? You'll be surprised just how many "old people" make the best fanworks. If you removed them from fandom spaces, I guarantee you would remove most of the talent, because no offence to you kids, but that talent is something that is nurtured over time, and time and aging go hand in hand i'm afraid.

The people who make fandoms what it is, the ones running events, pouring themselves into analytical posts, providing the best fanart, coming up with the amusing memes and textposts that go viral? Do you REALLY think they are all school kids? Fandoms are made up of PEOPLE, and newsflash assholes, people AGE.

This attitude always amazes me. There isn't an age limit in fandom. This isn't fucking Logan's Run (bet you the kids won't understand that reference) and honestly if these kids genuinely think they need to give it up and quit at a certain point in their future I just pity them.

Fandom thrives because of the older people that have nurtured it for years and carved out a space where younger people can enter in comfort and safety. Which are only possible BECAUSE older people built online fandoms and continued to put in the work to keep them going. If we all had to stop caring and leave fandom at some specific cut off date, the fandom landscape would be a vastly different space - and probably a lot worse for being predominantly run by hormonal teenagers - heh, I guess it would be a lot more like TikTok and we all know how dreadful TikTok has been for fandom so far. If nothing else that alone proves my point.

At the end of the day, no one can stop the passing of time. Even the horrible children who send adults nasty anons. Eventually, they will be the "fandom elders" and receiving their own anon hate from a future generation of brats, I personally can't wait to be the very old lady laughing at them when that day inevitably comes.

[bangpop91]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by the wonderful and fabulously talented @cliophilyra

1. How many fics on AO3?

57

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

357,820

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently it's predominantly 9-1-1, but I also write for 9-1-1 Lone Star, and used to write for Roswell New Mexico.

4. What are your top 5 fics by Kudos?

Sipping Him Like Whiskey

For this Child I Have Prayed

A Contractual Kiss

Growing Pains

Stay With Me

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes. I don't my best to

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

I generally as a rule of thumb make sure my angst riddled stories end on a happy or at least hopeful note.

But my WIP Carry On My Wayward Son, which should be completed some time this week will be my angstiest ending

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Ohhhhh. That is a hard one. Really that would probably be every story in the Bedtime Stories Series

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Once on a rare pair fic. I deleted the hate and went on my merry way. It was properly tagged so there was no point arguing with someone who was mad I wrote this Flint/Kyle story.

9. Do you write Smut?

Absolutely! I write all kinds. Soft and sweet, emotional, humorous, kinky.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Technically? I have written 911 and 911 lone star into most of my stories even if it is just Easter eggs of the other show.

Otherwise, I'm open to it just haven't found the right inspiration to yet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to the best of my knowledge. I'm not where near that popular of a fan fic author for anyone to steal my stories.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated.

I have not! I'd be extremely honored though if anyone ever wanted to translated my work though.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

@girlwonder-writes and I have something in the works! I am very excited about it!

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

This is like asking which of my children are my favorite 😂. My original ship from way back when I was just starting to make my way into fandom was Gemma Doyle/Felicity Worthington from The Gemma Doyle Trilogy. But I also have fallen in love with a great many other ships over the years. These days, Malex, Lizobel, and Flint/Kyle from Roswell New Mexico still hold a special place in my heart. Then there is Luc and Oliver of the London Calling Series, Henry and Alex from Red, White, and Royal Blue, and Joe and Nicki from the Old Gaurd.

And I refuse to pick a favorite 9-1-1 universe ship. I love them all.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It's my tarlos/Campbell(tarlossoup) fic I started but have been struggling to write. I still have hope but it won't be for anything hot minute if I do.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Oh man. I want to say it's coming up with interesting concepts. I don't know if I am always the best as executing them. And I am notoriously hard on myself and my own writing. So. I dunno send praise I guess 😂 feed your local artists and writers with compliments.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Spelling, grammar, executing my ideas without getting lost in unnecessary details, sometimes putting the things in my head onto the page in the way I want in a satisfying way.

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

I LOVE IT! I am in awe of people who can do it and do it well. I wish I was better with language as so I could do it properly. I don't my best to include it where I can but I get self conscious about it

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh man way way back in the day I wrote Harry potter fan fiction on Fanfiction.net.

20. Favorite fic you wrote?

Again with asking me to choose a favorite child 😂.

Paul Strickland and the Case of the missing Lion

Madam Vega and the Sensational Six

I Wasn't Looking for You

Every story in the Calypso universe

Just a Kid From Roswell

Lancing the Wound

A Soft Glow

No pressure tags for @marvelousbuckley @girlwonder-writes @nine-one-wanton @racerchix21 @rdng1230

And @dr-lizortecho @winged-fool @thepinkcrayon @thecarrott @dadbodbuck

And @30somethingautisticteacher @judymarch15 @herrmannhalsteadproduction @missmeryl92

[callmearcturus]

writer questions meme: 8, 13, 20 if you please

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

It wasn't explicitly writing advice, but I can tell you where I learned what my specific style would be. There was a fic in the Dresden Files fandom called "Cross" by LightGetsIn. LGI was a tremendous writer and a very kind mentory-friend who I attended my first fan convention with. Extremely accomplished adult who I looked up to when I was barely an adult.

"Cross" is a story about the limitations of perspective. It was the first story that really drove home the idea that Character A would not have the same knowledge and understanding of the world as Character B.

In "Cross", the POV character is John Marcone, a non-magical mafia boss who is deeply entrenched in the magical world. He has a lot of factual knowledge of how magic works, but he's an Italian-American Catholic. So when he's pulled into doing magical rites to bring another character back to life, he specifically doesn't pick up on the more pagan symbology of what he's doing, but filters it through a Guilty Catholic filter. Hence the name of the fic, "Cross."

And that story, which isn't even my favorite LGI story, probably taught me the most about how to write Close Perspective Third Person, which is my default style. When I'm writing in a characters POV, I rigorously limit what the POV character knows and picks up on. I will plant clues and information that the audience will understand, but the connections a character makes, the reference pools they pull from, their morality and ethics, all of those inform that POV, and what you and I know does not.

That is probably the most important lesson I've ever had in creating my own writing method.

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

8 hours of sleep, small breakfast snack like a croissant, decaf beverage, one dextroamphetamine, and no one fucking talk to me for about 2 - 4 hours. I will write 4,000 words.

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Lets put this under a cut, and I'll give you some DVD commentary. This is from chapter 2 of you'll need a new name to survive this. It's the point where Benji realizes Ethan is stalking him and does that trick to lose him in the bookshop, then sits outside waiting for him.

Only five minutes later, the door opened, and Bell took one step out before freezing, his eyes falling on Benji.

Got you, Benji thought with a sharp little smile. "You didn't even buy a book? Bit rude."

One of the goals of the early chapters of PT AU was establishing Benji's character as boldly as possible because we were essentially telling a story that canon does not. This is YEARS before MI3, where Benji gets two gd scenes.

To me, the tightrope walk was that I wanted Benji to have a reasonable grip on authority, to be shiny and new and out of his depth but still empowered because of his accomplishments. He has managed to land a good job working for the US government, he successfully emigrated before he was 30 years old, he has an apartment and a cat, he's new to everything in the spy world but he also has a steel spine that frankly he's fucking earned.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that Benji is a bitch and I love him so much.

Bell's face was blank, but Benji could almost feel how fast his brain was moving, weighing his options. Eventually, he settled on huffing out a little chuckle and stepping closer to Benji. "Hi."

Meanwhile, Ethan. MI1-era Ethan is very very smart but very very traumatised. His skillset is rooted in controlling people and predicting them. So Benji, a fucking civilian, catching him off-guard like this is like waving a red flag at a bull. Or dangling a steak over a lion enclosure. Benji doesn't know it yet but he's setting himself up to be a tasty treat for Ethan Hunt circa the late 90s.

"Are you going to kill me or something?" Benji asked. "Is that your spook job, are you a hitman?"

The flash of expression on Bell's face was offended. (This makes me laugh every time. Ethan Hunt is not a killer unless he absolutely must be and he will go out of his way to avoid it. Being an assassin is gross and he doesn't want to be perceived at all bc he's a spy but if he MUST be perceived jfc don't assume he's a HITMAN) "What, no. I just…" Grimacing, he looked away, eyes scanning the other pedestrians around them. "Okay, I'm screwing this up, I can admit that. Can we talk somewhere private?"

Benji didn't even have to think about it. "We can talk somewhere public."

Benji is never going to be an IMF agent but his instincts are wildly correct. And that knowledge comes from a different place! He was a gay punk rock vagabond who dropped out of law school, he knows how to keep out of trouble. He is probably the guy who told his other punk friends "if you are arrested do not say a goddamn thing, just ask for your public defender, don't joke, don't be a smartarse, keep your mouth shut."

The smile that took over Bell's face was lovely, transforming his whole face from storm clouds to something more seasonal. "That's honestly a very smart answer, doc. C'mon, there's a bakery nearby. I'll buy you a coffee. Least I can do."

It really was, so Benji nodded and followed him.

They didn't speak until Bell opened the glass door to another shop and held it open for Benji.

"Wrong hand," Benji said, noticing the small wince Bell let out.

"Inside, doc."

If it isn't obvious, all of the observational skills Benji has canonically have been funneled into his preternatural observation of patients.

Basically, if Benji as a character has a specific set of SPECIAL stats, all of those are the same, he just has different tagged skills in this universe.

Canon Benji is probably.... Guns, Science, and Repair. PT Benji has Medicine, Barter, Speech.

"Not a doctor," Benji said. "You know I'm not a doctor."

"What do you want to drink, doc?"

Ethan is being purposefully annoying and I could write a whole post about Ethan's soft power and the way he manipulates people, but that'd be another post. Short version: some people you seduce, some people you act like a wounded gazelle at, and some people you annoy.

Inside the bakery was loud. It was a strangely open floor plan. A long pastry case cordoned off the seating area for the customers. On the other side was just… the bakery. There were ovens and industrial mixers and rolling racks of cooling bread. In the corner, the espresso machine howled with noise as the milk frother worked.

It smelled divine, like living inside a baguette during a spring shower of dark roast coffee.

It also was a constant racket, which Benji mentioned to Bell as he sat down and slid a dark tea with vanilla syrup across to Benji.

"That's the point," Bell said, slouching back in his chair. "It's very difficult to eavesdrop in here."

Well, he wasn't wrong. Looking to another occupied table nearby, Benji briefly tried to pick out a word of what was being said by the woman seated closest to him. Nothing.

"Right, then," Benji said, attention back on Bell. "Why are you following me?"

"Why?" Bell seemed taken aback.

One of the many moments in the early chapters that establish that Ethan's perception of Normal is not anything approaching actual normal.

"Yes, why."

"Normal intelligence collection."

"On your physical therapist?" Benji asked with a barked laugh.

"Yeah." Bell leaned on his elbows, one hand cupping his own jaw and holding his head up as he made uncomfortably direct eye contact. "You really don't know who I am? Or why some of the appointments on your calendar come with no information?"

Pursing his lips, Benji shook his head.

Blowing out a whistle through his teeth, Bell grinned. "Sorry, that's just… it's new. I'm surprised Dr. Falsion didn't clue you in, but I guess she's not technically supposed to." Lifting his mug, he looked down into it. "People do shit they're not technically supposed to all the time in this town."

Ethan's major trauma at this point is being targeted by Kittridge and the Mole Hunt, and his trust in people to do their jobs is at a critical low that it'll never recover from.

"I don't even know your name," Benji sighed, sipping his own drink. It didn't taste at all like iocaine powder, so he was probably safe for the moment.

Bell rested his temple against the knuckles of his hand, his gaze so intense that Benji didn't know how to look away without making it patently obvious he was unsettled. Whatever Bell saw, it made his lips curve up slight. "Alright. Yeah. My name is Ethan. I work for an organization that shouldn't legally exist, so that's why you don't get anything on me. Even CIA jackboots manipulating local governments are realer than I am." He blinked once. "Also, I was an unprofessional shitheel last session, and I apologize."

Ethan apologizes here because Benji has earned his respect. And also by earning his respect, Ethan is also aware that Benji is not going to be so easy to maneuver around, so he fesses up that he was a prick, softly setting up a different tactic with Benji.

Benji felt his eyes going wider and wider with every sentence until it was a little hard to breathe. So his patient wasn't the American equivalent of an MI5 or MI6 so much as an MI8?

That did sort of start to explain what a pain in the ass he was.

"Shame," Benji managed after a moment of sitting fairly gobsmacked. "I was getting attached to 'Bell.' But I appreciate… all that. Thanks." He frowned. "Are you saying all this because you're actually sorry or are you sick of being stonewalled?"

Benji has a much more cynical mind than Ethan is the funny thing. Benji gets arguably more accurate reads on people than Ethan does. Or, Ethan gets accurate reads but he is continuously poisoned by the hope that people will be better than he expects. So FUNCTIONALLY, Ethan is an optimist and Benji is a realist.

Bell— Ethan— grinned. "That's a very good question. You actually have great instincts, doc. You did a surprisingly good job of shaking me when I was tailing you, especially for a civilian."

One of my favorite running gags is Benji being impossible to tail, so I'm glad we really drove it home the first time it happened. I love consistency in longfic.

"Again: thanks. Don't suppose you'll answer my other question?"

Ethan sipped his coffee, his smile visible around the edge of his cup.

"Right," Benji sighed. At least this felt like progress. And at least he probably wasn't going to be disappeared by a government assassin. That was a relief.

So this entire bit is Ethan reassessing Benji and pivoting his methods and tactics, setting up for a better way of handling Benji. And also being kind of charmed by him.

[nimata-beroya]

20 Questions For Writers

This was sitting on my notifs for a few days and i finally took the time to do it. Thank my darling @takadasaiko for the tag!! 💕💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 88 works in total, 31 of which are for Star Wars.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

574,873 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I'm only writing for Star Wars. But I used to write for Arrow and Supergirl, and ASoIAF, Dark-Hunters and Chronicles of Nick are in standby. I'm waiting for right motivation to come back to any of the last 3.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I'm only talking about Star Wars fics here...

Kadala (The Mandalorian) [and 4th place in most kudos of all my works]

Rough Awakening (The Bad Batch) [and 5th place in most kudos of all my works]

Welcome to Yavin IV (Rebels)

An Explosive Situation (Rebels)

Rescue on Ryloth (The Bad Batch)

And the the rest of my all-time fics with most kudos are

Take Your Breath Away (Arrow)

Undisclosed Desires (Arrow)

Made For You (ASoIaF/Game of Thrones)

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

I try my best, but sometimes I forget, and then it's been weeks and months since I got the comments that I'm embarrassed to reply them after so long. Even though, I think it's important that a writer let the reader/commenter that they appreciate it, even if it's with a simple "thank you" or an emoji. I know I'm being a hypocrite here since I fail to do what I preach, but it doesn't make it less true.

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

I think that would be Drifting, because it's kind of open ending, left to be interpreted, so it could end however the reader wants. Although, I left an author's note at the end saying what's my preferred ending, which always will be inclined to the happy side.

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

High Above the Ground because is the happy ending i want for Commander Fox and Riyo Chuchi. They deserve only the best!

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

No, not really. I've gotten only 1 stupid message of someone criticizing a fic, but that was years ago when I still posted on FF dot net. The joke was on the reader because I moderated all the comments there so I just deleted it and nobody saw it but me. Honestly, I just laughed about it cuz their argument was just stupid.

9. Do you write smut?

I do, all kinds -from the most tame thing to the most perverted. But I used to wrote way more in my old fandoms, especially for Arrow. I think for Star Wars I've written just 1 or 2 smutty fics, and tamed at that.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've tried a couple of occasions but never finished them. I'm not opposed to them obviously, but I do think the combination of fandoms has to be just right to work. Or at least, when it's me doing the writing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes! Many, many years ago in the first fandom I ever wrote for. It was awful and hated it! You see, this was in the stone age of the internet when fandom specific sites abounded and not everyone had an account on FFnet yet (and Ao3 was not even a dream). The site I published on was split in 2 sections because the ships war in the fandom was bloody and ruthless, so to avoid the slaughter, I kept myself in my preferred side. But one day, a friend who read fic on both sides told me that someone stole my fics. Avoiding to get caught, the person who did it published them under a pen name that was almost exact to mine, she only added a period at the end, which could easily go unnoticed. Oh, and she interchanged characters names so it'd fit the other ship.

At first, my friend thought I had posted them but she knew I'd never write for that ship, like ever. In the end, it turned out that I wasn't the only one who had being plagiarized. Several people ON BOTH SIDES were. Thankfully, the person was caught and banned, but we almost burned the site down because of the whole shitshow.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

By me, yes, several. All into Spanish (my mother tongue). By others, not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes! A couple of times for different fandoms, and I loved it. I hope I'll do it again. The thing is that you need to find the right partner for it, or it can be a nightmare.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

I don't appreciate this question, let me tell you. It's hard to choose. But I think I have to go with Olicity. I love them still (even if the show ending ruined it for me). Close second would be Braime (and I'm glad that there's still hope for them on the books, because as usual the show fucked them so but sooooo bad)

And as Star Wars specific, I don't think anyone will be surprised if I say it's Kalluzeb, right 🤣 They're my babies and I adore them!

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

Anything for Arrow or Supergirl. I sworn off those fandoms after their respectively awful endings.

No promises, but there's still hope for all if my unfinished works for Star Wars 😅

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Coming up with ideas. So, so many ideas. All the time and I want to write them all.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Finishing writing the above-mentioned ideas. I tend to splay myself too much when I'm writing, and it takes me forever to get to the portion I really want to write (usually the idea that sparked the whole writing process) and I lose steam. That's why I have so many unfinished WIPs. I wish they'd write themselves.

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

It's ok if used sparingly. A word here, a phrase over there is fine, but if a wall of dialogue that the reader needs to scroll down to the notes or click on a tooltip to find out the meaning it's the worst!!! A better solution for a writer that really needs/wants to have a whole conversation in another language for plot reasons or whatever, then all they need to do is to say once that the characters are talking in the other language and put the dialogue in the same language they've been writing the rest of the narrative and in italic.

The characters who don't speak the language won't understand what's being said, but the reader will and their reading will be more pleasant and fluid.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

An Argentinian show called Floricienta. A modern retelling of Cinderella.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I don't like this question either! All my fics are my babies! How do you want me to choose?!! There are so many I'm proud of. I guess I'll point the most recent one: Feed Me Poison, Fill me till I Drown I really like how this story is coming along. It's not done yet (what else is new? 😅) but what's coming is so so good!

Tagging (no pressure): @renee561 @thecoffeelorian @genericficerblog @airlockfailure @mistr3ssquickly @insertmeaningfulusername @fanfictasia

[thatrickmcginnis]

These photos of Robert Smith of The Cure sat forgotten in a negative binder for over 35 years until I rediscovered them last fall while looking for something else. I had, in fact, done my level best to forget about them, as they were evidence of what I remembered as a massive fail made during my earliest years working as a photographer. They were a major stumble on a steep learning curve, and I was sure all evidence had been lost. But let's start at the beginning, when I was assigned to interview Robert Smith and The Cure when they were passing through town on what was apparently called the Beach Party Tour, playing the Kingswood Music Theatre just outside Toronto on July 13, 1986 with 10,000 Maniacs opening.

Another writer at the magazine, Perry Stern, was a huge Cure fan and phoned begging me to let him do the interview; I agreed, provided I still got to take the photos. (I also asked if he could give me a ride to and from the venue.) I had an idea: I'd seen an article in a photography magazine showing how you could get interesting colour washes on your backgrounds by putting complimentary coloured filters in front of your lens and flash. This might have produced interesting results if I bothered doing a test shoot, but I was too cheap/rushed/arrogant for that sort of thing, so I showed up with green and red filters on my Pentax Spotmatic and my Vivitar flash and shot away in a fenced-off grassy area beside the stage.

It's worth talking about the unusual look Robert Smith was rocking during at least part of 1986 - trainers and golf shirts and jeans and short hair. If I still had the transparencies I shot that day including the rest of the band I'd be able to tell you if the Cure as a whole were taking a vacation from their Goth image and dressed down similarly, and if this was one of the few artifacts attesting to a brief sportswear period in the band's history. But the results were awful - overexposed, with a greenish tint, mostly because I had no clue what the ideal ratio between the bright sunlight and the flash strength should have been. The magazine might have reluctantly printed one remotely salvageable frame but my ambition had definitely overstripped my skill and I tried to forget about this shoot.

But at some point a few months after my disastrous Cure shoot I thought I might be able to salvage the results by converting the slides to black and white negatives. I either found someone who could produce an internegative or borrowed the gear to do it myself, but inexperience won again and the four portraits of Robert Smith that I produced were too overexposed for me to work with all those years ago, so I filed them at the bottom of a negative sheet and forgot about them.

Until last fall when I found them again and decided to see if they could be saved with scanning and the neural filters that were recently added to Photoshop. The film grain that was so hard to deal with back in 1986 suddenly became a feature, adding to the retro feel the shots had acquired either with time or in my own mind. With some judicious application of the restoration filter these frames cleaned up nicely, but I decided to push things one stop further by using the colorizing filter as well - making sure Smith's signature smeared lipstick wasn't just retained but highlighted. Now I like to imagine that these shots were taken in 1937 with an old Kodak folding camera like my Jiffy Six-20, and hand-coloured by some underpaid darkroom assistant working for a developing lab in a building down in the warehouse district of town. It's certainly a better story than the one about the kid photographer who screwed up on a big job nearly forty years ago.

[madsmilfelsen]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @thenookienostradamus, quyanaa!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 22 :)

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 237, 409, yeehaw!

3. What fandoms do you write for? Magic Mike (allegedly), Always Sunny (allegedly), Killer Joe, True Detective (season one, I get too weepy if I think about season four too long but someday!), Midnight Mass, Shadow & Bone, Tell Me Your Secrets, Loki, and I've got an original work snuck in there, too

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments? Typically! I have a habit of hoarding my favorites in my inbox so if I take a week or three months to answer you it's because I've been thinking about kissing you on the mouth. Comments really make my day so I do my best to show gratitude to those who take the time to make them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Maybe Sinhound? I don't set out to write angst.................. ever, but ending with Mildred's funeral wasn't what I was expecting either.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? All of them :) I'm a sucker for love and happy endings :)))))

8. Do you get hate on fics? no and that gets more and more shocking each time I post a new work lately as my ao3 becomes a pit of depravity while I work through everything I can't put in my novel manuscript.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? hell yeah fuck yeah. I like playing in varying degrees of consent, unhealthy or unbalanced dynamics, girls who come too fast and have weird relationships with sex, yada yada. I have a really supportive husband who I am disgustingly, deeply in love with so a lot of genuine warm and fuzzy feelings for one old man in particular generates a lot of material.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I simply don't have the mind processes for it and admire those who can mix media like that.

11. free space / no question here, send me an ask with one instead please :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not that I know of! would be awfully neat though.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Oh man, I had a fun star wars piece I was writing with my dear friend, Jess, when impostor syndrome struck too hard to finish-- I still have the embroidery she did of our title (the inverse must also be true) in my office hanging below my first rejection letter :)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? every goblin couple that make out nasty style, so uh, rust/sugar :( they're so special to me and pulled me out of a Hellacious writer's block

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My only wip is Sunday School Dropout because I sort of forgot where I was going with it, it'll come back with light voyeurism, blood drinking, virginity taking, the usual order

16. What are your writing strengths? I feel like this is question to really sell myself but honestly, hell if I know, creating place? mannerisms maybe? Beyond my general insecurities, some of the nicest compliments I've gotten are for things I did unintentionally so hard to say! I have crafted some fuckin nonlinear bangers I'll give myself that much.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAINTAIN TENSE and I HAVE NO WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF SENTENCE STRUCTURES, which annoy me and are my father's biggest complaints so I can't take them seriously enough to consciously attempt to improve on them yet. Lately, I've been smoking weed and flipping vocabulary flashcards before bed because my diction feels stagnant, a bit repetitive across pieces like.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I can't even speak english well enough to write coherently I'm not going to fuck up further with google translate. I did some ballet au's a few years back that I know have some french in it but I think I did a firmly okay job with the sprinkles of dialogue-- I know damn well my terminology is correct.

19. First fandom you wrote for? technically game of thrones, I have a sansa/sandor reunion very angrily tapped out in my notes app when season eight skipped it. The first work I posted was Seduction of Odile after I saw a post here about the potential of a rey/kylo blackswan au, reached out and asked if I could give it a try and here I am 22 works and years later :)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I'm going to be corny but I have a soft spot for every fic that connected me with other writers who are so talented and inspiring and force me to be better so I feel like I can talk to them lmao

tagging tagging tagging @the-heartlines @labyrinthphanlivingafacade @littleredwritingcat @abeadofpoison @teeth-ing @itstendereye @barbie-nightmare-house

[autisticlancemcclain]

Really loved your Beauty and the Beast Au! Youre an amazing writer, and it drew me in with like the first sentence! I know Lance is bitter about his situation (gosh love that langst) but I'd love to see how long and how the castle inhabitants would react to Lances situation. Is there more Langst? Found family fluff? What makes Keith a beast??

Thank you for creating!

ooooooou thank u for asking bc this forces me to get into brainstorm mode (so i might actually update lol). this got super long so im gonna put a readmore

yes lance is super bitter about his situation and he absolutely has a right to be. he, like belle, is most definitely the town outcast/weirdo, but unlike belle, he's not the smartest person in town?? like he's not a huge reader, he's more of a math person but even still. he's not strong like his brothers so he doesn't work well on the farm. he doesn't articulate himself well so people generally think he's dumb, even though he's really not. he gets frustrated at school because the way he makes sense of things doesn't line up with the way he's supposed to do things, so he doesn't do well. he has excellent aim, but he's a horrible hunter because he refuses to kill any animals (he loves them too much). he's kind of the disappointment on every end, and he knows that, and he hates it

he wasn't necessarily SURPRISED that he was chosen to be the one to be sent up for the beast, but he's hurt anyway. it hurts him more because it was up to the ENTIRE TOWN to vote, and his family has nine people besides him, and literally only three people (veronica and his niece & nephew) didn't vote for him and that hurts him so so bad. he feels super betrayed by his family, and it's worse bc he knows they love him and they try their best to include him & do what's best for him but they genuinely don't know what to do for him so the relationship is pretty strained

the inhabitants are very used to lance's situation, at least initially!! the way i have planned out is that keith's parents died when he was around 6, and so keith was made king, but obviously the poor kid was miserable and grieving and in WAY over his head. his uncle, zarkon, was gunning for the throne obviously, and as keith's new guardian he kept trying to convince keith to give up his rights to him, but keith never even heard a word from him like he would just scream at every person who so much as looked at him wrong. none of the staff could handle him, with the exception of shiro, the oldest squire of the kingdom(late teens) & keith's only friend/older brother figure, and even that was strained, but shiro loves keith and did what he could to support him. however since zarkon wanted that throne so bad, he made a deal with an iffy enchantress, honerva, who came to the castle one rainy night and begged for shelter. since, again, keith was 6 yrs old and literally had the worst possible thing that could happen to him happen, he was horrible to her, so she cursed him -- he would look as beastly as he feels inside, and if he doesnt find someone to fall in love with him & marry him in 20 years, he was gonna be stuck that way. all the workers of the castle got stuck as household objects w him too bc zarkon, who sucks, paid her extra to make that happen, and then dipped before he could be affected.

to try and save themselves, the kingdom staff came up with a plan -- they would invite a noble kid keith's age to be his betrothed, to come live with him for a while and be keith's royal consort basically when they were old enough to get married. common occurrence! except...keith is not only still grieving, but now he's literally cursed AND he's feeling hefty guilt about how the rest of the staff is cursed only he has no idea how to express himself so it just comes out as rage. obviously the noble kid backs out after like a month of being near keith. this happens again, and again and again, until the staff (namely shiro & adam) had no more noble kids to choose from, so they trickled down to the townspeople. over the years, this info passed from town to town, and evolved into a lottery that each town did when it was their turn: they would send a young person around the prince's age to be betrothed to him. should this young person manage to find the prince agreeable and marry him, regardless of the lack of royal blood in their lineage, they would become his equal, and their family would be treated accordingly. (so it makes SENSE why lance was sent. lance knows that by marrying the prince he will do more for his family than he ever would be able to otherwise. still hurts a bunch.)

shiro & adam and everyone else in the castle is well used to a new person coming to win keith's heart. keith is rude & jaded & honestly kind of mean (he's traumatised), so they're also used to no one lasting more than two months before quitting.

lance, of course, is a special case, because he is the most stubborn person alive. most people who come are afraid of keith. lance is fuckin' mad at him. lol.

yes there will be found family fluff!! and, also, lance's family situation is stupid complicated BUT he still loves them and they still love him and there WILL be a nuanced perspective. this fic will be about CHOICE, even when that choice is hard as shit.

feel free to send me more questions!! i will have an update soon hopefully

[ladymordecai]

I have been reading DC comics fic again for the first time in like . . . a decade-ish? because I'm a masochist, apparently. Finding new stuff and reading old favorites and being reminded of canon and all my thinky thoughts about superheroes and specifically Tim Drake, because he's my Robin and I imprinted (much like he did).

canon has put that boy through the wringer in the last decade, including smushing like, all his tragedies from 15 years of comics into like, ten seconds of comics time. I was reminded of the storyline where his dad found out he was robin and threatened batman into making him give it up, which at the time pissed me off because it was both a clear illustration of what a terrible parent jack drake was (in a way the narrative itself didn't seem to get??), and also because everything about it was so obviously For The Plot.

There was like, nothing in that storyline that I remember that actually came from the characters. It read like the writer or editors or whatever TPTB* decided they wanted to write a story about robin's dad finding out about robin and making him stop**. it's an obvious story for the only robin at the time who wasn't an orphan, and one of few kid heroes whose parents didn't know about them, and also it was Batman and Robin! The Drama! it so clearly had nothing to do with TIM when he should've been the main character, and it made me so angry, and then that anger was compounded because TPTB used it as an excuse to screw over Steph and then make the only non-orphan robin into an orphan, i guess just because. I hated it then, I hate it now.

BUT

I have a lot more perspective now, and have read a lot more (both published work and fanfic), and I have had a thought that I cannot believe I didn't have back then and that I've never heard before anywhere. (which doesn't mean somebody else hasn't had it, i just haven't found it)

One of my core objections about the storyline is that Tim's dad didn't figure out his ID, he just found the Robin uniform in Tim's room. Which is so out of character that it should invalidate the entire storyline.

This is the kid who wore another mask under his mask to prevent his other superhero friends from SEEING HIS FACE--not knowing his ID, just seeing his face. The kid who kept his identity from goddamn ORACLE for a while there. The kid who was able to sneak out and photo-stalk BATMAN AND ROBIN for literal years as a preteen and never get caught. Nobody ever knew anything about Robin III unless Tim made a deliberate decision to reveal the information. This had been a cornerstone of his character for 20+ years. Robin III's secret identity was arguably second only to Oracle's in-universe.

Yet that entire story rested on the idea that Jack Drake, inattentive parent maybe-kinda-misguidedly-authoritarianly trying to connect with his son for the first time ever, snoops in Tim's room and finds proof that Tim is Robin?? AND that Bruce Wayne is Batman?!?? Tim, whose best friends still call him "Rob," left proof of his identity and Batman's somewhere his civilian father could find it??!??!

There is NO WAY THAT MAKES SENSE. There is no version of canon in which that makes sense.

Things that would make sense: Is that old poster of the Flying Graysons how you met the Waynes? or Hey So I Noticed You Have Three Half-Empty First Aid Kits, Talk To Me? or Dad! Did you read my freaking diary and find whatever normal-teenager angst I wrote as a cover and possibly also some real civvie-ID angst mixed in?! Not cool!

OR

Somebody set that up.

That was a freaking supervillain plot.

There's like. No other explanation for what Tim's dad found. Either a supervillain figured out Tim's ID and took him off the playing board in the way most likely to disrupt as many other superheroes as possible, or a supervillain who didn't know Robin's ID mind-controlled him into revealing it for nefarious reasons.

So uh. I really don't want to get into writing DC fic, because I have shit to do that is not that, but SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TELL THAT STORY. Like, either all the characters involved don't contract plot stupidity and thus realize there's something hinky going on, or at some point after that in canon new evidence comes to light or an existing rogue says something suspicious or . . . there's just so many possibilities.

AND THEY'RE ALL MORE INTERESTING AND MORE IN-CHARACTER THAN CANON, DC!!!

(the creators involved in that storyline should feel very very lucky i don't remember who they are and am too lazy to look them up. because i would bring up how bad they are at storytelling every chance i got, forever)

--translations for fandom young'uns and some snark:

*TPTB: the powers that be, shorthand for the vast array of people in charge of multi-creator stories run by companies, such as tv shows, movies, and comics

**Buffy did it better

[asyastudieskorean]

9/20/2023 — Hello, studying world. Today I start my journey of learning Korean with my first university Korean class (online). We didn't have any work on the first day, so all I did was read the syllabus (the most basic, non-informative syllabus I've ever read, ha), set up my new desk space, and updated my student bio on Canvas. I haven't been a college student for about 3 years, so it felt like I accomplished a lot. When the readings and assignments start coming in, I'm sure reality will hit.

I've always wanted to learn Korean, and my goal is to reach a near-fluent level, but I know it'll be hard, especially with my full-time work priorities. Eventually, being able to teach and work in translation is my goal. FYI, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese are on my list, too, but I'll be realistic and focus on one language for the foreseeable future.

Last week, as it so happens, I had to move from my family and childhood home, and I am lacking in the positivity department rn, so I think having a place to chronicle my studies and the progress I make will be good for me. I tend to start a new blog on here when I'm having a hard time, and it helps.

So, the plan is to take two full academic years of Korean (that's 3 quarters per year at my university). That's just how much Korean the school offers. I graduated in 2020 from this same university with a BA in English with a focus on professional and creative writing, and I really enjoyed the overall experience studying here.

I spent a whole lot of time obsessing over grammar, reading new and old literature, trying to understand poetry, and just enjoying the inner peace I felt when writing fiction. It was maybe my most happy time because I had no other real responsibilities or worries besides school. All I did was read and write.

Anyhow, fast forward to now, after pondering different language learning options (which are limited in my area), I decided to take my Korean classes at the university level because the classes will show up on my official university transcripts, and I imagine that will be best when I apply for future Korean-related jobs. I am also hoping that by taking university-level language classes, they will have some sort of superior level of... intensity? accuracy? efficiency? Something like that. Granted, this route isn't the best for my finances, as there is no aid for non-matriculated post-grads, and the cost of a single class is quite ridiculous. But alas, here I am, with an empty wallet and hope in my eyes.

Upon reading the syllabus today, which could basically be summarized as "TBD," I realized the textbook I bought, the textbook I waited over a week for, the one listed on the online course materials list, is, in fact, not the correct textbook.

And, icing on the bitter cake, the correct textbook appears to be a rare Pokémon that isn't available anywhere except the dark corners of eBay, where shipping will take at least 2 weeks. Like how did other students get this? Did they order it two months in advance? Meanwhile, I have my first assignments and readings due Monday.

I quite literally just sent an email to my professor and asked what I should do, so we'll see what she says, but I really wasn't hoping to be that one student, emailing the professor about an issue on day 1.

Since this is my first post here, here also is a tiny bit about me:

My name is Asya ("Asia"), and I'm a 24-year-old English grad based in Washington; no, not the one followed by DC, but the state with a lot of rain and trees. Twilight? Starbucks? Amazon? Yes, that one.

Since graduating in 2020, I've been a freelance editor and writer. I'm taking Korean both for passion and for work purposes, and I really should have started sooner. But I guess we're all on our own timelines.

I've been on Tumblr for a long, long time, but I've never been part of the studyblr sector. I'm glad to be here. :)