#cause of death: niche crossovers only i ask for

[between-two-fandoms]

Because I'm a nerd: what if Tommy Kinard was apart of operation Lightspeed Rescue?

[fandom-star]

Writer’s Tag

@its-all-ineffable tagged me to do this, but it’s a long one so I’m doing it in a different post! Thank you very much! I love doing these so much!

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How many works do you have on AO3?

164 (possibly 165 by the weekend if I post the Witcher one I finished the other day)

What's your total AO3 word count?

181468

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

It’s Okay (Merlin: Merthur) - 569 Kudos Pulchra (Night At The Museum: Jedtavius) [NSFW] - 286 Kudos A Father’s Wisdom (Merlin: Merthur: Uther-centric) - 270 Kudos Crush (MCU Spider-Man: PeterNed) - 262 Kudos Comfort Blankets For Sleepy Gods (MCU Loki Series: Lokius) - 245

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Sometimes. I try to if I’m not in a non-social mood. Mostly, if I start off on my page before reading any fic and see that I have something in my inbox and it turns out to be a comment on my fic, then I’m more likely to reply to it. Idk why it works like that. Otherwise, it’s kinda touch and go whether or not I’ll reply to something, you’ve got a 50/50 chance, but I always read and appreciate every one that I get.

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

*Looks at my abundance of angst fics* There’s... a surprising amount of angst without happy endings in my repertoire. Um. I’ll give you three that I vividly remember. (All of these are Star Trek and Spones) Written In The Stars - This is one of my really early works, and was gonna have a sequel that made it have a less angsty ending, but I could never get into the rhythm of writing it. I won’t spoil it, but this is probably the only fic I’ve written where Sarek is a straight-up dick. Battlefield - As the title suggests, there’s war with no real context. And major character death. It’s sad. I genuinely made people cry with this. I am both proud and apologetic of that. Unreal - This is probably one of my more complex concepts, and I’m really proud of it. Features ooc Spock with contextual reasons I won’t spoil, defensive/protective McCoy and major character death of a sort.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending

This is kind of difficult, bc while I have excessively written angsty endings (see: above answer) I do usually write happy endings, and I can’t remember all 160 fic endings left over, and even then it’s difficult to rank them by happiest. I like Nutcase {Murdoch Mysteries: Watts-centric) a lot, oh and also Blame It On Me (Star Trek Pricard: Hughnor) which is angst with a happy ending (and has amazing art accompanying it). There are many others with happy endings, but like I said I have no idea how to rank them by “happiest”.

Do you write crossovers? If so, What is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

I don’t really, but I have written one as a request that I really really enjoyed. A Good Day is ThorBruce and is set in the DS9 era of Star Trek, in which Thor is a captain and Bruce is his chief science officer. It’s really adorable and features sleepy, over-worked Bruce and a very characteristically happy Thor.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, I don’t think so, unless you count unsolicited advice I felt I couldn’t turn down on ff.net when I was struggling to write Uhura. I’m kind of surprised I haven’t tbh (not that I’m complaining) since I do write for some very popular fandoms and ships (although, conversely, also some very niche fandoms and ships).

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I write it but have only ever posted it thee, four times if you count the exploratory one I posted under a pseudonym that wasn’t really that smutty. I’m hoping to get the confidence up to post some of what I’ve written tho, bc I do really like hat I’ve managed to do with some of it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I’m aware.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, I have! A lovely person found my fic 1967, which is probably one of my favourite Spones fics I’ve written, based around the UK’s decriminalisation (well, partial) of homosexuality, and traslated it into Hungarian here. I’ve not been able to check it out, due to not knowing a thing in the language (tho I could probably ask my friend to) but the translator seemed really lovely, so I trust them to have done a good job.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not something I posted, but before I even started posting fanfic, me and my best friend really randomly started writing a Star Trek TNG x Star Wars crossover whenever they were at my house. We gave up on it after about a year and never wrote much for it, but it was... it was something.

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

This changes all the time with my hyperfixations! One that will always be in my heart is obviously Spones, my og ship and within my special interest. Currently I’m obsessed with The Witcher so I’ve got Geraskier on the mind but who knows when that might change!

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

In terms of fanfic I don’t really have any that I don’t think I’ll ever finish. I have an original script that I started writing months ago but only got about three scenes into and haven’t touched since bc I don’t actually have a plot for it.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue; Is situations one? That sounds like a good and fancy way of saying AUs; Finding synonyms should be one, that’s like half my search history

What are your writing weaknesses?

Description; Despite my talent of finding synonyms I feel like I do repeat words a lot; Planning and outlining, I just don’t do it - it works for me tho.

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

I’m pretty sure the only times I’ve really done it is for Jedtavius (having Oct speak in Latin occasionally) and I might have done it once or twice with Spock speaking Vulcan, both times it’s mostly terms of endearment or Oct wanting to be romantic. Idk, I don’t really care about reading dialogue in other languages as long as there’s a translation somewhere in the work or I can easily pick it up or search it. Just do whatever, it’s your writing. As long as you do it well and it makes contextual sense, I don’t really care.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Unposted: Star Trek: The Next Gen Posted: Sherlock (I actually recently reread my first ever posted fic, it’s a long haul (just over 45k), but if anyone ever wants to see a work where my writing visibly improves lemme know and I’ll email the pdf to you)

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Why would you do this to me??? I love most of my fics!!! I’m just gonna link a few here cause I’ve been doing this for an hour now and it would definitely take me an hour to choose just one! The Relationship Series - modern AU, autistic Spock (written by a self-projecting autistic writer), there’s angst spattered about but is especially prominent in part 6, I just really love this series Promises You Can’t Keep - Loki spoilers, I love this bc it’s based on “what if my finale theory was right instead of being debunked three minutes into the episode”, definitely angst with a hopeful ending I love all of my Charite At War fics, but I’m gonna link my 20 years post-canon fic Grow Old With Me and my modern AU You Give Me Your Light - both have some heavy topics (post-canon is set in 1960s East Germany, modern AU topics are tagged) but I adore both with my entire heart You’ll Never Burn - Merlin/Merthur, again kinda heavy (not as heavy as the Charite ones in my opinion) but short and everything is tagged I love all of my Babylon 5 fics but Secret Rendezvous will always have a special place in my heart. It’s very sweet and essentially follows Vir and Lennier trying to navigate coming out about their relationship to their ambassadors I also recommend all the of the fics I’ve already linked in the post ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now for the hard part - tagging!

@esperata @tallysgreatestfan @iwritesometimes @marlinspirkhall and any other writer mutuals I’ve likely forgotten but I’ve already spent WAY too long writing this post asfdhdskjdgha So I apologise, but if you wanna do it, absolutely go for it, this was so much fun and really made me realise how much I’ve achieved in 4.5 years.

[antagonistchanremade]

So, Sensei Dare, my animesque Doctor Who AU, is a complete reboot of Doctor Who canon, but when I first started it in 2012, it was actually continued from what was at that point the most recent episode, the series 7 episode The Angels Take Manhattan (though I later retconned it so that it actually continued from the series 6 finale, The Wedding of River Song, and other events happened to result in the Doctor splitting off from the Ponds). The AU started with the eleventh Doctor dying and regenerating into the twelfth; but since Peter Capaldi hadn’t been announced yet at that point, I had to come up with my own.

And, like, here’s the thing; I didn’t know that Sensei Dare was gonna end up as some big AU that I’d care for yet at that point. I was just starting a new RP blog. And my theme for RP blogs until that point, out of a desire to stay unique (what was the point in playing a character that someone else was already playing?), had been crossover blogs- my initial RP blog when I joined Tumblr was a Doctor Who/My Little Pony AU, with Rory Williams as a cartoon horse; then, it was a Homestuck/TF2 crossover, where for some reason or another The Condesce basically became the Administrator and so Aradia became the RED Spy; then, my next character was not a crossover AU, but since the series was so obscure (and kinda crossover-y on its own), I figured it was still unique- Kaoru Matsubara, AKA Powered Buttercup, from PowerPuff Girls Z; and then finally, I did a TF2/Pokemon crossover where TF2 took place in the Pokemon universe and so the Mercs were having Pokemon battles, and I played Soldier (my url was “soldierjanedoewantstobattle”, which I’m still kinda proud of).

Anyways, Sensei Dare started with my next crossover idea: Doctor Who/Homestuck.

Namely, the Doctor can regenerate, and each regeneration looks and acts different... so there’s no reason that incarnation’s appearance and personality can’t be identical to a pre-existing character. Like, by doing that, I can essentially play two characters at once, by mixing the core personality traits that stay the same with every incarnation of the Doctor with the more fluid personality traits of the pre-existing character, as well as that character’s appearance.

So, the twelfth Doctor... was just Dave Strider.

And honestly? I stuck with this idea for a long time- where the Doctor would regenerate into a body and personality identical to a pre-existing character- but Dave was always one of my best choices, because A) he’s already heavily associated with time travel and stuff, B) I’d already been a Homestuck fan for about a year and this was when Homestuck was at the height of its popularity so I had plenty of material to work with, C) interacting with other Homestuck blogs gave me plenty of worldbuilding to work with for this early version of Sensei Dare, and finally, D) Dave Strider has very distinctive mannerisms, so it was really easy to communicate this idea of “The character looks and acts like Dave, but make no mistake, this isn’t Dave, it’s the Doctor“.

Initially, I was gonna stick with this idea for 3-4 months before moving on to my next idea, like I’d been doing before, but then I realized that, hey, the Doctor can regenerate multiple times, so why not try this idea with a new character? So after 3-4 months of playing the Dave Doctor, I decided to have the Doctor regenerate again, into a new character.

And here’s a new, equally key thing.

While I was playing the Dave Doctor, I basically had my Anime Awakening. If you’d asked me before if I liked anime, I’d have said yes, but I only knew the really popular stuff like Pokemon and Digimon and a few obscure niche shows like PowerPuff Girls Z; but when I was playing Dave Doctor, I ran into a Haruhi Suzumiya RP blog, and that inspired me to watch it, and then from there everything spiraled out. Before, anime was an interest of mine; now, it was my preferred style of storytelling. And you can bet your ass I was gonna start incorporating it.

The thirteenth Doctor ended up being Ritsu Tainaka from K-On! (when the canon thirteenth Doctor was announced, I was kinda amused to realize that my thirteenth Doctor was also the first female one, funny how that works). I decided to do the regeneration in a series of “Story” posts, and in the first one, I foreshadowed my character choice by having the Doctor encounter a pair of drumsticks in the snow (since Ritsu’s a drummer). Then, the Doctor died and regenerated into the new incarnation. From that point onwards, in both that version of Sensei Dare and the next reboot, every Doctor was an anime girl (with one minor exception; with 17, I experimented with a split timeline where in one timeline, 17 was an anime girl, but in the other, 17 was an anime boy; but I scrapped this idea, and when 18 rolled around, I made the anime girl timeline the canon one).

However, then I ran into a problem. Canon Who states pretty specifically and consistently that a Timelord can only regenerate 12 times for a total of 13 lives. I was on the thirteenth life. And that’s when I remembered the drumsticks. For one, they kinda had just initially existed to tease Ritsu; it seemed a little strange for them to be that noticeable for just some vague symbolism. Also, in canon, the Master managed to exceed the 13 life limit... and the Master was also strongly associated with a drum beat.

So I decided that the drumsticks were a sort of Regeneration-Enabling Tool developed by the Master. Like, if a Timelord that was out of regenerations was dying, the drumsticks would activate and give them the energy they needed to regenerate. And so, I had the Doctor realize this (it wasn’t that implausible that the Doctor would eventually figure this out from a single innocuous encounter, since the Doctor did notice them, and Timelords are regularly shown to have some psychic ability to recognize each other and their tech) and go on a quest to track down those drumsticks. And she found them! So, for the rest of this incarnation of Sensei Dare, the Doctor just carried these drumsticks around at all times so she could keep living.

I’m also just remembering some of the ways the Doctor died in that version of the story. 12 fell off a building because he was chasing someone and it was all icy and slippery. 18 locked herself in the TARDIS and starved to death (that one was, in retrospect, really dumb; but it’s dumb enough to be noteworthy). 16, in a Timelord Victorious moment of fury and recklessness, tried to attack a totalitarian government, but they shot a missile at the TARDIS, and the Doctor, out of said recklessness, had the door open, so the missile exploded in the console room. 14 got shot by a nazi (not even a neo-nazi, a normal nazi, since she was in 1940 Germany at the time).

19 and 20, the last two, were particularly fun; for the 21st Doctor, I decided to go with a Kantai Collection character, and I decided to lean super hard into the crossover, and so I decided to have the Kancolle Doctor come into existence via the Doctor fusing with the actual ship during regeneration. Like, the Doctor was Nenohi, so the 20th Doctor drowned in the middle of the ocean and encountered the remains of the IJN Nenohi, and because Shintoism (or at least my vague understanding of Shintoism), the ship had a sort of “spirit”, and that spirit reacted to the Doctor’s regeneration by integrating itself into her, resulting in her being both the 21st incarnation of the Timelord hero known as the Doctor, and being the living personification of an old warship.

Meanwhile, with the 19th, well... the Doctor died by getting hit on the head really hard. But while the cause of death was in hindsight kinda boring, the circumstances of her death were less so. I actually kinda jumped right from the 19th Doctor to the 21st, because I wanted the 20th to exist primarily for one storyline: Sensei Dare: The Movie (or rather, Sensei Dare Ka: The Movie, since I was calling it Sensei Dare Ka at that point). SDK:TM was a huge event; it was a huge RP with multiple RP partners of mine being involved in the story. I had multiple SDK:TM threads, for different parts of the story.

The plot of SDK:TM? The Timelords were returning. Since I split off from canon before the 50th anniversary special, I also decided that the 50th special wasn’t canon to Sensei Dare, so Gallifrey was still somehow locked off from the rest of the universe and still didn’t want to be. The Doctor realized this, and recruited allies to help suppress the scenario; but she failed, and even died and regenerated again during the whole mess. She was, however, at least able to stop the worst-case scenario (the Timelords just conquer the universe) from happening.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING YEARS

Galleries are not especially prone to waste money. But that prescription, though sufficient, is too narrow. Hence such parodies as Pets.1 The EU was designed partly to simulate a single, large domestic market.2 All you need from a launch is some initial core of users. But if ephemeralization is one of the most immediate evidence I had that something was amiss was that I couldn't talk to them. Microsoft will have a significant effect on our returns, and the rest are just a cost of doing business. So you start painting.

For users, Web-based applications, you'll find that delighting customers scales better than you expected.3 My hypothesis is that all the programmers have to be aggressive about user acquisition when you're small, you'll probably get something better. Google, and Facebook all got started.4 Stocks will generate greater returns over thirty years, you had to be pretty convincing to overcome this. If you want to keep an eye on things you've changed recently. People who majored in computer science generally tried to conceal it. The main significance of this type of profitability is that you're no longer at the mercy of investors. The other major technical advantage of Web-based startup is food and rent. A new concept of variables. The most common was some combination of a blog, a calendar, a dating site, and Friendster. It was a sign of an underlying lack of resourcefulness. Most startups fail.

He meant the Mac and its documentation and even packaging—such is the nature of platforms. In startups, developers are often forced to talk directly to users, whether they want to work on ideas that few beside them realize are good. When you interview a startup and think they seem likely to succeed than not.5 But I think that a lot of variation in the incoming stream, but instead of pursuing this thought they tended to suppress it, in the sense that all you have to do it, even print journalists.6 But the Collison brothers weren't going to wait. At the time there might have been. Maybe it's just because knowledge about them hasn't permeated our culture yet.7 The best thing would be if it were inherently stupid to invest in Microsoft. If you're ramen profitable this painful choice goes away.8

It's Parkinson's Law running in reverse. The problem with India itself is that it's still so poor. Grad school makes a good launch pad for startups, because you're only replacing one segment instead of discarding the whole thing.9 The worst thing is not the optimal time to do it was turn the sound into packets and ship it over the Internet. It seemed the perfect bad idea: a site 1 for a niche market 2 with no money 3 to do something called price discrimination, which means charging each customer as much as they used to. The number of users and the problem they solved was an urgent one. The fact that you can get at least someone to pay you, getting incorporated, raising money, but you can't expect to hit that right away. Values are what have types, not variables, and assigning or binding variables means copying pointers, not what they point to. But that is at least the next Chicago.10 There's selling, promotion, figuring out what those problems are.

It used to be aware of death to a degree that violates our expectations about variation. The test drive was the way to create wealth is to make more than you spend. But success has taken a lot of money.11 You can change anything about a house except where it is. It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it may be just as likely to feel life was short if we lived 10 times as long?12 Any strategy that omits the effort—whether it's expecting a big launch to get you users, or a professional football player. And really it never was.

I asked some friends who work for big companies.13 You can be ornery when you're Scotty, but not so wrong about the underlying principle.14 Otherwise you'll have to make something people will pay for? Imagine how depressing the world would be if it were all like school and big companies, you'd need an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it would be possible to reproduce Silicon Valley in Japan, because one of Silicon Valley's most distinctive features is immigration. Why don't more people do it? David Filo and Jerry Yang started the Yahoo directory in February 1994 and were getting a million hits a day by the fall, but they don't realize it.15 The traditional break everything and then filter out the uncommitted. They've spent 15-20 years solving problems other people have in their heads. The good news is, choosing problems is something that has a 90% chance of failing, if you don't solve all their problems. You can be ornery when you're Scotty, but not when you're Kirk.16 Yes. A lot of would-be founders.

As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because they know that as you run out of garages. It's easy to let the days rush by. For the first week or so we intended to make this an ordinary desktop application. The more versatile the tool, the less you need the money. The amount of time you have. It was easy to tell how smart they were, and most decent hackers are capable of that. I don't think many people realize how fragile and tentative startups are in the US are auto workers, New York City schoolteachers, and civil servants happier than actors, professors, and professional athletes? We felt we were good at organizing groups and making projects happen. You're not sacrificing anything if you forgo starting a startup is merely an artifact of the way through the server market; Yahoo's servers, which deal with loads as high as any on the Internet, anything genuinely good will spread by word of mouth.

For a big company, it's good news.17 If we ever got to the point where they could raise millions from VC funds if they hadn't first raised a hundred thousand from Andy Bechtolsheim. Viaweb was a typical larval startup. If I'd had to wait a year for the next couple years, a good recipe for startups will be to remind founders they need to do is give the right sort of founder a one line intro to a VC, and he'll chase down the implications of what's said to you can sometimes lead to uncomfortable conclusions.18 If you pay them to raise the money to manufacture your own hardware, or use your software for the first time, you know what you're talking about, you can succeed by sucking up to the right people: you can tell that by the number of people who want to come to America can even get in? You never really know what's happening inside it.19 What they want is easy. Technology is a lever.

Notes

There's a sort of investor who says he's interested in each type of mail, I would be a quiet, earnest place like Cambridge in that. It's hard to predict at the time required to notice them.

Delivered as if you'd invested at a discount of 30% means when it converts. It's conceivable that a company in Germany told me they like the application of math to real problems, but nothing else: no friends, TV, go running. On the other hand, a market of one investor who says he's interested in us!

For example, would not produce a viable organism.

If they no longer working to help the company they're buying. But those are guaranteed in the sense that if colleges want to work late at night.

If not, greater accessibility. Even college textbooks is unpleasant work, done mostly by technological progress is accelerating, so presumably will the rate of improvement is more important for societies to remember and pass on the young Henry VIII and was troubled by debts all his life.

These points don't apply to types of startup people in 100 years. That's very cheap, 1/50th of a problem if you'll never need to offer especially large rewards to get to profitability on a hard technical problem. I'm also an investor, and the valuation is the place for people interested in x, and owns significant equity in it. In 1525 he was exaggerating.

You have to turn down some good proposals too.

The Industrial Revolution was one in an era of such regulations is to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a few VC firms were the impressive ones. For example, the only companies smart enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes. Possible doesn't mean a great thing in itself deserving.

I've deliberately avoided saying whether the 25 people have historically done to their stems, but he refused because a there was near zero crossover. Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. Com in order to win.

So in effect what the valuation a bit misleading to treat macros as a high school, approach the queen bees thereof and offer to be memorized. However, it was so violent that she decided never again. 25.

92.

Most were wrong, but the nature of server-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. Indeed, that's not art because it reads as a high product of number of customers you need is a dotted line on a saturday, he was 10.

A termsheet with a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of this essay, but I don't want to believe your whole future depends on the y, you'd get ten times as much as people in any era if people can see the old version, I would take their customers.

Indeed, it causes a fundamental economic shift away from large companies. William R.

But in this essay talks about the cheapest food available. It took a back seat to philology, which either desperately tries to munge what I've said into something that was killed partly by its overdone launch.

Dan was at the exact same thing twice. The reason not to. Peter Thiel would point out that there were 5 more I didn't like it if you want to know how many computers the worm infected, because there are some whose definition of property is driven mostly by technological progress aren't sharply differentiated. That's very cheap, 1/10 success rate for startups that have little do with the sort of community.

Many think successful startup? They each constrain the other is laziness.

Considering yourself a scientist. 43. So the cost can be useful in solving problems too, and when you had in high school textbooks. Innosight, February 2012.

And that will sign up quickest and those where the acquirer wants the employees. But if idea clashes got bad enough, maybe the corp dev people are magnified by the fact that they have less room to avoid using it out of their core values is Don't be evil. In principle companies aren't limited by the government and construction companies.

[billyggruff]

How to do a Crossover Fic justice:

You’ve thought about writing a crossover fic more than once. However you’ve heard the horror stories about the poorly thought out fics that just turned out so wrong. “Crossover fics are just bad.” People say. However they can be done well, just like any fic can be done well. You just have to think it out first. Here is a few things I do when I’m writing a crossover fic.

As an example, I am going to do an On The Spot Brainstorm Session crossing over lets say, Steven universe and the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magicka, because who doesn’t like a challenge. 

1) Ask yourself what you want to say about both these fictional worlds by bringing them together: 

All good fiction begins with an end goal in mind. It is no different with a crossover fic. Before you start writing, ask yourself why you want to bring these two worlds together? What story can you tell with the both of them together that you could not do with them being separate? What would the characters learn from eachother? How would they grow meeting eachother? What conflicts would arise from their worlds colliding? How would they meet? These are just the few of the questions that should be asked before you even start making the plot. 

Example: 

Why bring Steven Universe and Puella Magi worlds together: They are both deceptively nice and innocent in the beginning of their series, and then there is a turning point where not everything is what it seems. There is also duel themes of their gifts and powers coming at the price of always being in conflict with monsters that turn out to be corrupted versions of themselves. There is also another connection to be made between the “Soul Gems” of the Magical Girls, and the Gems of Steven Universe, including similarities like

-Their (soul)gems contain everything they are as people

-When their (soul)gems are shattered, they die, and that is the only way they can be truly killed. 

-They can use their (soul)gems to summon weapons unique to themselves 

-They are all female due to how they are made/chosen

-They don’t age (not really confirmed with magical girls, but definitely inferred to the nature of their bodies, speaking of which...)

-Their physical bodies are not really who they are, but merely avatars that represent them, either as a hard light illusion like with the Crystal gems, or as a flesh puppet commanded by their soulgem in the case of the Magical girls.

-Their nature is fundamentally alien in every sense of the word, and it comes from a species that does not fully understand humans, nor views them as equals in any capacity. Even the Crystal Gems whom have lived among humans for thousands of years have a very limited grasp of how they work, though they are more empathetic to them than kyubey

Note: Finding these similarities in the early brainstorming process can help figure out what the themes are going to be later on. 

What story could you tell with both of these worlds united that you couldn’t with them separate? 

-Puella Magi brings to the table the concept of the Faustian Bargain, and the promise of power. Kyubey in an effort to save the universe from Entropy offer power to teenage girls while they are in the height of their emotional turbulence that only puberty can bring. They use that emotional turbulence to generate magical power that goes against the laws of thermodynamics. In order to entice these girls into such deals, they promise to grant them any wish they desire with the energy generated to create the soul gem. The more important and influential this girl is, the more powerful this wish can be. 

-There are several characters in Steven Universe that would be interested in such a bargain. Steven is half gem, and although he is male, there may be a case to be made that Kyubey would make an exception for him, given how many threads of fate are connected to him. Connie Would also want to make such a bargain to be a better fighter for Steven. Sadie would like such a wish for any number of reasons, maybe some of which would include Lars. The issue is, these wishes by their very nature come at a terrible cost, which would ultimately result in their soul gem being corrupted, and them turning into what Puella Magi calls a “witch” 

-Kyubey is all about correcting Entropy, restoring energy to the universe. The Diamond Authority and gem production on the other hand infect planets and bleed them dry of their energy, leaving them barren and their gems filled with seemingly limitless supplies of power. Kyubey would therefore see their production as something dangerous to the universe. They would see the gems as speeding UP entropy in fact, accelerating them all to the heat death of the universe at a break neck pace. The creation of Magical Girls therefore would be a countermeasure for their work. While they have been sucking the universe dry of energy, Kyubey have been using living sacrifices to replenish the what the Diamond Authority stole. That would definitely be its motivation for being in Beach City, where many of these such gems come. 

-Steven may play a part in restoring entropy now that I think about it. Givin that his power is healing both organic and inorganic life, he can restore the damage left by the diamonds, which is something that the Kyubey would definitely be interested in, though they would not go about it in a nice way. 

Note: Already the seeds of a crossover fic is coming together by just comparing their similarities and differences. We have a story about restoring balance to the universe and what costs are worth bringing that balance together? Is it worth the lives of your friends? Yourself? Is the Kyubey in the wrong for sacrificing human girls to restore energy to the universe, or is it the Gems fault for stealing that energy at an alarming rate with their kindergartens? That is a fantastic place to work from that doesn’t cast either universe in a positive or negative light, but rather looking at how they would interact with one another and the realities of said universes. There is a Yin and Yang metaphor to be had with the Gems and Kyubey here. 

What would the characters learn from eachother?

-Looking where this line of questioning is leading me, bringing the world and the concepts of Puella Magi into Steven Universe, along with Kyubey, may be a more apt idea than bringing the characters themselves. Their story was very involved and focused, and having it branch into beach city would not necessarily make sense. 

-So to answer the question, it would be what would they learn from interacting with Kyubey and his faustian bargains, and how do the gems answer for the acceleration of Entropy that they are causing as a species? How would Steven react knowing that his whole kind were responsible for basically speeding up the death of the universe itself? What would he do to fix such a thing? We know he is the self sacrificing type, so he would definitely deeply consider Faustian bargains, regardless of what that could mean for himself or Earth itself. 

-This would place Steven into the role of Madoka. Madoka and him would definitely have rhyming character arcs. She wants to save all magical girls from the fate of being witches, and Steven would want to save the universe from the accelerated entropy that his people is causing. 

-If Steven is to take the Role of Madoka, then it would be quite apt to think that Connie would be the one to take on the Role of Homura. She wants to protect Steven, help him. Save him, maybe even from himself. This could translate into her becoming a Magical girl to prevent steven from making that Bargain. 

-However this idea is very close to the story line of Madoka itself, so we would want to find more ways to differentiate it from that story line. Last thing you want to do is just retell someone elses story, even in a fanfiction. 

How would they meet? 

-If we are going to seamlessly integrate the Steven Universe and Madokaverses together like my train of thought is leading me down so far, then you have to assume that they know about the Kyubey to some degree. 

-Maybe in this version, the Kyubey are the ones who made the Gems in the first place. They are certainly intelligent and curious enough for such a venture. Perhaps they were searching for ways to artificially create emotions and intelligence, but their creation ended up being a virus unto the universe, sucking up all the energy, killing all the organic life they could find, and accelerating entropy by an alarming rate. 

-It would explain why Gems and Soul Gems behave so similarly. 

-They could also have worked to prevent Steven from ever hearing about Kyubey, as they know what his faustian bargains can lead too. They could even be scared when he said he met one. That’d be interesting. 

note; Such speculation doesn’t necessarily need to be true for either canon, but rather it should be as plausible as possible. 

2) Is there an audience for this fic idea? : 

Now if you are writing this for fun, then this question should not really play a factor for you. However if you like having those views and likes and reblogs and all that jazz, this is a very important question to ask. You may have a fantastic idea about two stories meeting, but understand that with each new story you bring into this universe, the more niche your audience gets. If you want a story that gets views, a pure single source fic would be the way to go, but if you think there is enough crossover of their fandoms to garner interest in your fic, then try out your idea!

Example: Now is there an audience for this SU/Puella Magi fic? Probably not. Anime and Cartoons rarely have the interplay with their fandoms like they do in their own spaces. This would affect my decision to continue the brainstorm if I’m writing this with the desire to reach an audience.  

3) If you decide to go through with writing the crossover, choose your characters and their roles:

Crossover fics bring with them an abundance of characters from both series to work with, however it would not be a wise call to make a fic involving all of them. Much like with any work of fiction, fan or original, focus with the plot is vital. Therefore you want to focus this story on a handful of characters with one being the main protagonist. Don’t just go with your first instinct either, see what kind of story you could tell with each characters unique perspective and find which avenue works best for the brainstorming you’ve had so far. 

Example: 

- One clear example for choosing a main viewpoint for this entropy story is Steven himself. Seeing his struggles, perhaps his decision to sacrifice himself for the sake of the universe (which is a direction this fic could take), all of this could be a good vehicle for the story. However, This also brings up my previous assertion that this would be too similar to the Madoka Magicka plot. 

-Connie would bring a more down to Earth perceptive to the story. She’s a smart character who is still very new to this whole magic business, so she’d be skeptical of what this Kyubey is saying. Maybe this Kyubey even tells her that the Gems aren’t what they seem, which is what brings to their attention that a Kyubey is even there. There is definitely something you could do with Kyubey whispering in her ear that the Gems cannot save the world like she could, that a magical girl is better equipped to save the universe, even though he means this in a different way than Connie thinks. Perhaps taking Steven Off the faustian bargain table since he’s a boy would help fix the sameness this plot could have with Madoka, and make Connie’s ties with Steven be the source of its interest, as Steven is quite magical. Also could bring up the possibility that Stevonnie could end up taking on this burden instead of just Steven. That could work. 

-Sadie would definitely be a B plot, and maybe there to show the dangers of taking such a Faustian bargain. Given her propensity to give into anxiety and despair, she’d definitely have potential to become a witch.

-Lars would be a B plot too related to Sadie’s arc. Not sure if he should be pink or not. 

-The Crystal Gems would definitely be supporting characters in this case, and they would have exposition about Kyubey and witches and the like to dish out. Considering starting the Fic with a Witch fight, and Although Steven is confused the Gems know exactly what it is. Maybe they even forewarn him about kyubey, a warning that doesn’t get to Connie before she actually meets him. This suggests a duel story between Connie and Steven, especially since we may be taking a Stevonnie ending. 

So the main characters are: Steven and Connie 

main themes: Kyubey and his Faustian bargain, and questions of who really is the true evil in this case, Kyubey for the human sacrifices through Faustian bargains to restore energy that was lost, or the Gems for causing the accelerated entropy. 

Supporting cast would be the Crystal Gems, Sadie and Lars(though we need to find a reason for him to be in this. Hell he could be off world....oh, thought!)

-Lars is going to be on Homeworld, fighting for survival, and Sadie is going to consider making that bargain to help him by fighting along side him. There’s your B plot right there. 

4) Once you have brainstormed your general reasons why you want to tell this story, who the characters that are going to participate in this story are, and general conflicts that these two series coming together can bring, then you make your plot outline:

By this point in the process, you’ve already developed an idea of where you want the story to go and who is going to be involved. You’ve also made piece with the fact that you may not get the audience you would with a normal fic, because having a crossover by nature makes it a more niche market for readers to even think about searching for. With that in mind, make the first draft of how you think the story should go.

Now when you are outlining the plot of your fic, here is what you are going to be looking for: 

First you are going to start with setting up the Status Quo. This is the area of comfort for your main protagonist, their usual, normal everyday life that they would have on any other day. However, Something is going to make them want something. This want is usually seen in things like wanting to achieve something, wanting to live up to an expectation, wanting to indulge their curiosity, anything that compels them to take action is what you are looking for to take you from that point of contentment and status quo to the plot proper. 

Note:It is absolutely important that they choose to follow a desire instead of being thrust into a situation. Passive protagonists that just have things happen to them outside of their control is simply not a good way to go, and will rarely endear anyone to your character (outside of Twilight anyway). The advantage of fanfiction is you already have their wants and desires prepackaged for you, so this should not be that hard to figure out. 

Once they follow that desire they will enter a situation they’ve never encountered before. THIS is where you begin your crossover. Its the perfect place in the plot to introduce foreign elements that fundamentally change everything. How this unfamiliar situation plays out is up too you, but make sure it informs the direction of your story. 

Then, you let this New status quo shift simmer and boil for a little bit. Get the characters used to this new change to their lives, the rising temperatures and tensions, let them interact with the crossover side and see what scenes you can build from there with quick snappy ideas rapidly shot onto a page. 

Have it seem like this is actually almost a good thing that this crossover is happening, have conflict sure, but make sure that your characters feel a bit more fulfilled in what they were desiring initially in the story. However they will soon find when the other shoe falls that there is a heavy toll to be paid for what has been going on. Something that rattles them to their core. This will lead them to the climax of your story and ultimately the conclusion, where everything is different than it was before, and the characters are changed for it, be it for good or for ill. 

example: 

Status Quo to Desire

-The fic is going to start with Steven being home from Homeworld and the gems responding to a dangerous threat. He wants to go with, but they seem adamant about him not going. However his desire to do something, especially with his guilt of leaving Lars on Homeworld, spurs him into demanding to go with them to deal with what they are going to deal with. 

-Meanwhile, Connie felt powerless to help Steven, and almost lost him when he was taken to homeworld. While he had been gone, she had begun to be visited by a certain strange white creature by the name of Kyubey, who has been offering her a way to help protect Steven. She has been reluctant to take his offer, but not reluctant enough to tell the Gems about him just yet. 

Desire to Catalyst Event

-The Crystal Gems and Steven find themselves inside of a witches Labyrinth, a pocket dimension filled to the brim with creatures that seem straight out of a twisted child’s dreams and nightmares. Garnet and Pearl know exactly what is going on, but Amethyst and Steven are entirely in the dark. They engage the witch in battle, and when the grief seed is revealed, Garnet bubbles it without a word, then demands Steven to stop asking any questions about this anymore. Even Amethyst is left out of the loop. 

-Connie’s suspicions for this Kyubey rise when he says that he would rather she didn’t tell crystal gems about his presence, and that the Gems and Kyubey have a complicated relationship with one another, and that the gems are not the benevolent beings in the universe that she thinks they are. He says that he cannot stop her if she so chooses, but be warned that they may not like what they hear. This raises doubts in her, especially with how bad Jasper and Aquamarine were. This urges her on to talk to Steven about it, and their conversation is subsequently overheard by Garnet, whom promptly loses her cool and demands to know exactly what this white creature looked like. Pearl is also very concerned. 

Rising tension to start of Climax 

-Have more witches Labyrinths start to appear all over, signalling that Kyubey are active on the planet once again. 

-Although the gems want to stop Kyubey from doing what he is doing, they cannot readily get rid of him. Though they may be able to destroy his body he can just come back 

-he reveals things that the Gems want to keep secret to both Connie and Steven, like how gem production accelerates entropy, and how they have been systematically wiping out organic life for thousands of years. 

-Sadie ends up taking a Faustian Bargain. maybe to bring Lars home, but he ends up being angry because the off colors need him to stay alive. (this could cause more drama than her just going to homeworld, and it would make sense that she’d want to bring him back.). Alternatively She could be visiting lars through lions mane, and trying to figure out how to help, and her wish to bring him back forgot to include the off colors in a spur of the moment. 

-Sadie’s in danger of becoming a Witch due to the rocky relationship she has with Lars and the mistake she made with her wish. Kyubey informs them all that only the Grief seeds they’ve been collecting and bubbling can save her from that fate. 

-Steven is thinking heavily on what Kyubey is telling him about the accelerated entropy, and what the gems are doing to the universe, and Connie is wanting to help the gems like Sadie is now doing. 

-Connie is finding Sadie, now a magical girl, is capable of fighting way better than her on almost an instinctual level now. She’s pulling moves even Steven is impressed with. It makes the Faustian bargain even more enticing even though Garnet is having none of it. 

-Garnet gives Steven a vision of Sadie taking the bargain and eventually becoming a Witch they have to defeat. It kills him seeing it, but Garnet felt it necessary to show the costs of what Kyubey is offering. 

-However he sees it as a sacrofice he’s willing to make if it means fixing the entropy problem that his people have caused in the universe. 

Climax to conclusion 

- A particularly powerful Witch is heading for the Cluster. 

-Kyubey sees the potential magical output of a Witch who gives physical form to all those shards could very well fix the entropy problem for a little while, at the cost of the planet. 

-If they do not stop the Witch from reaching the cluster, the resulting witch/cluster fusion would be so powerful that it could fundamentally change the universe in ways even Garnet can’t see 

-They move to fight the Witch, and the grand battle begins in earnest, trying to keep the powerful witch at bay. 

-Steven and Connie end up making a decision together, and they fuse into Stevonnie before making their bargain with Kyubey. They wish that no new gems will be allowed to be made from this point forward, and to gain the power to restore life and energy to the universe that was lost . The resulting power gives them the ability to be a force of creation in the universe, but only when they are Stevonnie. When they are unfused, their massive soulgem does not exist, as that is for Stevonnie and Stevonnie alone. The longer they stay as Stevonnie, the more they run the risk of becoming a witch to end all witches, so they make sure to keep their souls balanced with meditation as much as possible to stave off that day, while still making sure to fight the entropy that the gems started. 

Now this is just a rough idea for a fic that I’ve developed over the course of this post. If I were to take it from here, it would go through more drafts, things would be tightened up, and perhaps things would even change. Such is the nature of refining your work. However I hope that those that read this get the idea now of how to create a crossover fic that works, and what to expect audience wise if and when you do make one. 

[aplusjaybirdie]

OK I got some requests for this rather niche crossover thing SO here are my thoughts, copy and pasted from what I texted my friend who knows about good omens and not much the arcana (thank you @vowsatthewake for listening to me) and so it’s all over the place

I'm cherry picking from aspects of book and show crowley as I see fit so here we go!

both are tall overdramatic red heads who dress mostly in black and don't know how to walk properly; they both used to be involved in the sort of upper society(in Crowley's case Heaven) but were arguably unjustly cast out due to something they said (crowley asked questions, Julian confessed to murdering a corrupt count who ruled the country(evEN THOUGH HE HAS NO MEMORIES OF THAT DAY-)) and they also hide their eye(s) due to something related to them being cast out.

If you don't get to know them, they seem like clear bad guys- a demon, and a plague doctor who murdered his patient, BUT that's just an outward projection. crowley is, at heart, just a little bit of a good person, and Julian's patient was not only a corrupt, spoiled count, but was also the cause of the plague as part of a deal with- get this- the devil.

their speech patterns oscillate between "death cast her gaze on this wretch and turned away" and "ngk"

also Crowley's snake eyes are hidden by sunglasses, Julian wears an eyepatch to hide his red sclera(a telltale of the plague), which he got trying to find the cure for the plague (which ended up being killing the count-)

the main conflict of both gomens and the arcana is that supernatural entities, including the devil, want to end/take over the world

ALSO they both have chubby curly haired people who care about them but have to be careful interacting with them because of who they work for(crowley- aziraphale, Julian- his sister Portia who works for the count's widow)

(also an interesting thing- Julian is terrified of snakes)

thinking about the similarities between Anthony J. Crowley and Dr. Julian Devorak and if ONE person asks me to elaborate I will. there might be diagrams.

[theplaguezine]

DEATH ANGEL

Interview with Dennis Pepa by Daniel Hinds

(conducted April 2004)

The boundless energy that defined the thrash metal movement of the 80s was perhaps most evident in the Bay Area's most vibrant and innovative act, the Filipino five-piece known as Death Angel.   This is a band that is just at ease letting loose with a fast thrasher one moment and a somber acoustic number the next.  After a decade absence from the scene, the band reunited (minus original guitarist Gus Pepa) for the Thrash of the Titans show in 2001, a benefit for Testament's Chuck Billy and his cancer treatment.  That went so well, they quickly booked several local and European shows and proceeded to record a new album, The Art of Dying, which effortlessly combines everything the band has done before and incorporates several new elements as well.  Bassist Dennis Pepa brings us up to date with unique outfit… You've always had slightly unusual album titles - how did The Art of Dying come about? It actually came up from Andy watching a Bruce Lee video, a documentary on TV.  I think it was part of an old Bruce Lee proverb and Andy just brought it to us one day and it was definitely on the list on the wall of what album title we were going to use.  After analyzing everything to death (laughs), we thought that would make total sense to put that on the album. Do you have a deeper meaning that you've ascribed to it? Some people look at it and are like, 'Well, you guys are coming back, shouldn't it be The Art of Living?'  But if you look at it one way, yeah, but then the way we look at the title, it is the art of dying - not the art of death, it's what you do before you die, you actually live your life.  So it's kind of a rebirth title, it's got a twist to it.  We didn't want to make it that simple. The production has a pretty raw feel to it - were you setting out to avoid getting too polished a sound on this one? Definitely.  Out of all the Death Angel albums, we try to do that for each one of them, because we've always liked the live feel and we feel we are more of a live band than a studio band.  Brian Dobbs somehow captured it this time - he just turned the right knob and used the right mics and our chemistries just gelled as far as what the goal was.  To me, it's our best production just because he did capture that live feel with a clarity - I mean, you can hear every single instrument on there.  Again, we were trying to do stay away from what everybody else is doing, as far as production nowadays.  The whole Death Angel, just use somebody not too many people are using, take a different path. Can you describe the general songwriting process in Death Angel?  Is it any different from the early days? I think it has actually changed to where more of us are contributing a lot more to each song and there's definitely more input throughout the band.  Rob is still the total main writer of the band, he probably wrote I'd say 75% of the music, but we definitely all have say in it now.  It's cool because we don't take just one formula and write that way.  Sometimes, somebody will come to practice with a whole song written, sometimes we'll all write a song in one go, and sometimes we'll give each other a riff and somebody will add to it.  Each song was written differently, there's not really one formula to it.  I think the break we had was really good as far as our musicianship and respecting what each other does. The arrangements on all of your songs seem very meticulous, very well planned out.  Is that stuff all nailed down before you enter the studio? Yeah, pretty much.  We try to nail that down during pre-production, just demoing and demoing a song.  Nowadays, you can do that in your own studio because technology.  Rearranging songs and playing with how things fall after each thing.  I think that is definitely one of our strong points as far as writing.

I know you did some touring before you recorded this album - did you get a chance to try out any of these songs live before you recorded them? We started playing "Prophecy" and "Five Steps of Freedom" during the earlier legs of the last tours, just because those were the two newest songs to us so we just started playing them live.  We just wanted to see what the response would be and it was pretty cool, people really embraced them.  Aside from that, we didn't really play any of the other songs, we kind of wanted to keep it hidden. I read something about re-issues coming out on Rykodisc. What's happening is The Ultra-Violence is being remastered and the bonus tracks on that are the Kill As One demo, produced by Kirk [Hammett], and that's also remastered.  Frolic is getting remastered and three unreleased Death Angels songs are on that, from that era, and a third CD is coming out that is called Rarities.  It's twelve songs that Death Angel never released.  Some of them are demo versions, some are studio versions, some of them are live garage tapes, but it's going to add up to a new album for us.  It was all recorded in the 80s and it's all songs that were never on any of the three albums.  It's more of a hardcore fan CD versus somebody who wants to pick up a Death Angel album, because it's older stuff and not the greatest produced stuff, but it's songs that we've never released and quite a few people out there know some of these songs from back in the day.  They asked us why we never released them, so now is the chance to go out and buy it.  All three CDs will also come in a box set which will include a DVD which has old interviews with us and I think our older videos, from the first two albums.  As far as Act III goes, nothing is really moving on it yet.  I think what's going to happen is I think Geffen has it right now and they're going to hold onto it until the new album launches and they see what the numbers are.  I'm crossing my fingers, I hope they reissue it. Do you think you'll ever have a proper live album released someday? It's one of those things where we just need to be in the right place of this new career of ours.  We don't want to rush into it and do a half-assed job, we definitely want to plan it out and do it right.  We actually want to do a DVD version of it, too, so we'll probably release the live album as well as the DVD and the DVD will probably have more of the whole concert versus the album.  We're hoping to do that within the next two years. When the band split back in the early 90s, was that a difficult decision to make or was it pretty obvious by that point that something needed to change? Yes and no.  With all the shit we were going through, it wasn't too hard and we just wanted to walk away from it.  But then again, there was all the work that we did as well, so it was both.  I think it was actually easier than not because we wanted it to end and move on.  That's why right after that we started The Organization. When you reformed for the Thrash of the Titans show, was it thought to be just a one-off thing? Definitely, the whole thing was for Chuck and his cause and we only rehearsed two days before that because we thought it was just going to be a one-off   From the audience feedback and people telling us we stole the show and just the way it made us feel on stage, a few months later we re-established the band and announced it officially. Do you get a lot of younger fans coming to the shows? We're starting to.  I mean we definitely want to hit the younger audience, that's always the prime market, but we want to do it with the right bands.  We don't want to go out with any of these commercial nu-metal bands - we want to keep it at a level where it is respectable to us, too.  About four months ago we played a show with The Deftones in Sacramento and the kids went crazy and their whole audience is like 12 to late 20s.  I walked around after our set and all these kids were amazed, they didn't know who we were, they had never seen anything like us.  We pretty much sold out of our merchandise and the Deftones guys were like, 'Man, nobody ever sells merch like that!' (laughs)  I definitely think we have a niche in that market, we just need to be exposed to it.  I think if we did like the Vans Warped tour, that would be perfect. You guys did a video recently? Yeah, for "Thicker Than Blood."  It turned out really good.  We filmed it in an abandoned train station in Oakland.  Hopefully you'll see it on MTV. Death Angel has always drawn on more than just thrash metal, but what are your thoughts on the genre and its resurgence in recent years? To be honest, until we got back together three years ago, I really didn't pay attention to it.  Like I said, I listen to punk rock and that's really my scene.  I would now and then go see a metal band, but until we got back together, I didn't really know what was going on in the whole metal scene.  I just knew that these bands were commercial sounding and they were on the radio and was kind of disgusted by it.  Everybody was tuning down and playing three chords, everybody wanted to be crossover rap kinda metal thing.  It lasted for over ten years but I think it's starting to crumble now, it just seems like so many people are tired of it that nu-metal is just like old-metal or used-metal, whatever you want to call it - it's just not hip anymore.  I think thrash metal is definitely on an upswing and has the potential to be really huge this time.

https://www.deathangel.us