#devilyouwere

[twochildreninamoteldemo]

wait, what's brothers by sara necto???

this weecest epic.

Brothers is one of the most difficult pieces of fiction I've ever read, in that (at least for me) it is a story primarily about abuse and love, the intersection of the two, the blurry lines, and especially an unflinching portrayal of cycles of abuse. it's a pretty unkind take on john, so don't read if you're not okay with that. sam and dean are a little more complicated. there's physical abuse and emotional manipulation, and i would argue sexual abuse as well (not with john, though). however, the story's incredible lore-building is something i think about all the time, especially if you like discussions of the incest taboo, sam and azazel's relationship, and more of that. another really well done thing is how bits and pieces of sam and dean's childhood or youth as told by the show get fully fleshed out, including bad boys re: that post and even rhonda hurley and the pink panties. samdean's codependency is INSANE and TOXIC and it's really sexy and really sad. i highly recommend it if it's something you are a) comfortable with, and b) mentally prepared to read half a million words on the subject. i personally had to take breaks while reading it. oh, and there's also some interesting play with sam + gender, sexually but also beyond that as well.

[serpentmessmer]

happy ww! <3 if sam and dean don't get together until they are older, what do you think that looks like for them? how they come to realize their feelings, how they act on/address them, how they even begin to broach the subject with the other?

ohhhhh now this is a question that i don't often think on (i'm a strong s2 get together truther) (and also because i had not watched late seasons til this go round and it's been SLOW)

the more i think about like....in general, everything, the more i love them not even really being able to articulate why they're so upset with each other during the events of season 8, and then the mutual/back and forth learning to trust of 9/10 really to me sets up a bit of a perfect situation for a s11 relationship forming

i can see them really getting into the conversation about sam's dream of john more and how he was with the two of them and the ways that differed but he really loved them both and, "yknow, dean, i've always loved you too. in the 'songs on the radio' way"

which makes red meat a lot more insane when you think about it in the context of "they have been honest about their non-familial love for each other very very recently"

also makes the amara shit more insane but i have forgotten a solid third of that plotline so i shan't expand on it now

[according2thelore]

oooh made up fic title: the cure for death by lightning

hello! :)

i did not forget about you--the fic title was so good i tried for weeks to come up with something as incredible as it is.

i think i'm going to have to go with a fic dealing with sam's loss of identity during the S9 gadreel/ezekiel possession. because from sam's POV, he almost died after the trials in S8, and spent a few days in the hospital. dean is being extra doting now, which is not unusual with what they've been through, and sam is kind of enjoying the extra attention. it's nice--if not a little annoying--to have dean's constant, worried eyes on him and practically spoon-feeding him.

it was intense, even though for some reason sam can't remember most of it, so he's just looking forward to going back to normal. in this fic, i'd probably want it to be an established relationship, so sam is trying to reconnect with dean and reassure him that they're both alive and safe. probably through sex or at least a reestablishment of their MO, but dean keeps ducking out and looking at sam weird and physically pushing him away.

dean won't even talk about it. it's this strange combo of intense care, but no emotional or physical reassurance, which puts sam on the wrong foot--simultaneously more cared for than ever and completely abandoned.

so while sam is trying to move them forward in a normal way, dean keeps pulling back emotionally and physically because he doesn't want to touch sam or talk with him deeply or anything, because there's an omniscient third party there.

how does one recover from that? how does one repair something that's still being actively broken? how does one find a cure from death by lightning?

this prompt is so good there is no way i did it justice. is there an emmy for fic titles? oscars? BAFTAS? any way you cut it, you def earned one darling omg

thank you for this ask, kostas! mwah!

-lizzy

(this is from the “give me a made-up title of a fic” ask game that i reblogged here)

[cchapsticck]

6, 12, 19 and 29 for ao3 wrapped <3

6. Favorite title you used

phlegethos: the 4th hell (or: honesty, a similar hell) Despite being a title taking itself very seriously for such a silly concept it combines some of my favorite things: deeply nerdy references to dungeons & dragons and being needlessly verbose (so technically I wrote this in 2022 apparently but it came in right under the wire 12-28 so I'm counting it)

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

If I'm honest with myself about which WIPs realistically have forward momentum I'm going to say: 3 (there's a 4th that's a bit of a dark horse, I don't want to count it out just yet but...) 2 ST and 1 CR

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Damn that's a good question. There's a lot of fertile ground in the Baldur's Gate characters (which I have been playing a lot of lately) that I certainly would like to get into character study territory with, and their relationships to each other. I still feel like I'm rotating Steddie around in my head like a rotisserie chicken, ways I want to approach that pairing (make them worse) and different canon divergences. I don't know! I guess is the answer, I never really know what's going to hold my attention, let alone manifest a little kernel of something enough to write about it. I'm just as surprised as anyone else is when it happens.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

I still go back and forth about how I feel about dog, it was an undertaking that really challenged me in a lot of ways but I think there are still some strong moments in it, despite my discomfort with the writing process. I'll spare everyone and I won't quote the whole thing but the Boards To The Back Door segment of dog at the door stands out to me most. In part because I ended up doing some interesting research to write that segment and in another part because I felt really satisfied with the process of synthesizing that research into the bigger metaphor of the segment.

Dogs have earned our trust - the family pet, something you get used to being in your home - those stories all seem to say, we are used to their unsolicited companionship; what better vessel for evil to exploit? They all kind of sound like stories everyone’s telling about Eddie, these days. Like he was something that snuck in the back door. Something everyone should have known better about. Something that should have been put down a long time ago.

ao3 wrapped

[hearthouses]

21, 47, and 99!

21. ache by fka twigs

A very sensual, soft song that also is on my smut writing playlist.

47. don't blame me by taylor swift

There should be an edit to this song, as well as a fanvid. I one day may make the edit. I already made on for Seth/Richie, so only fitting.

99. wedding song by yeah yeah yeahs

I have a retirement/having kids style playlist for Sam/Dean and this is on it. I played it a lot while writing both we could live forever in each other’s faces and when you're smiling and astride me. I tend to vibe with softer songs when I am writing, but the lyrics to this are really intense and lovely.

send me a number 1-100 and I’ll tell you the song it corresponds with on my top 100 playlist

[liamgallaghermpreg]

🎁 metatron

[emiliosandozsequence]

ohhh a season 4 dean web weave would be amazing 🙏

on it boss!! 🫡🫡🫡 i already found the perfect quote and know some screencaps to use and everything <3

request a moodboard/web weave before i take my nap!!

[thediktatortot]

🎶✨️when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, publish. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers🎶✨️

I'll give ya'll my On Repeat list lol

Have some more of my repeated songs

[queerdiazs]

8, 22 and 59 for writers ask 🩷

hi kostas <3 i love u sm

8. do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

beginnings are a pain in the ass to write, the middles always oscillate between terribly fun or agonizingly indulgent, and the end is always a full-circle of everything, hopefully, so... definitely the ending, yeah. not only is it, like, an accomplishment, but 9/10 i am feeling 78 different emotions at one time

22. are there certain types of writing you won’t do (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)?

okay, so. i won't write from first person, i hate fics made of one-sentence paragraphs, and i cannot stand women bashing just because said woman is in the way of a mlm romance that isn't canon. i won't write major character death or love triangles or abuse or cheating or anything along those lines, and i chop 500+ words from every fic/chapter i write. i am simply all over the place!!!

59. does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?

yeah, actually! a lot of people know i write fic + even read it, lmao, and let me tell you, the face-to-face comments i get on my porn is to die for. i used to be embarrassed at being found out i write fic and then i turned 23 and stopped giving a shit??? it makes me happy and that's all that matters!

fic writer questions <3

[imsodishy]

🎧

[greatunironic]

✨ Fic Writing Review 2023 ✨

thank you to the lovely @sharpbutsoft for the tag!!

Words and Fics

308,791 words (jesus christ)

17 works published, and at least one more before year's out in the drafts (including on not published yet on a03)

7 were multi-chapter (not including "Never So Young", because i don't think the track listings + lyrics count)

the eating in the underworld series was eight fics long, and a third of my word count for the year

also the other hand knocking is my longest thing i've ever written (another third of the total word count)

3 podfics recorded -- in this house with you, the way i move in my mind by @silverkat1620, brutalist masterpieces by @chilledbuttotallyforgettable, and scheming on a thing by @daysarestranger

Top 5 Fics by Kudos

dogfish

leave the children behind

"Never So Young As That": 20 Years of the Boy with a Bat

folktale

the other hand knocking

My fandom fic events in 2023

@steddiebang - scheming on a thing

a fic for the digital NSFW edition of @steddiezine

the rare pairs mini bang over on twitter - saint of ongoingness

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2023

a twitter holiday exchange

the tiktok au + the martian au, though those will probably be 2024 things...

Rules & Tags below the cut!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

Tags: @aidaronan, @daysarestranger, @palmviolet, @devilyouwere, @sparklyslug, @artaxlivs, @ruthofrhythm -- but no pressure, and apologies if you've already been tagged!!

[toburnup]

writing poll!

rules: make a 24-hour poll with the names of your wips and then for whichever wins, write one sentence for every vote it gets (but you should also write 1 sentence for every vote each of them gets)!

tagged by @devilyouwere mhm devil indeed

i'm not including ALL the wips but just the ones that are like. fairly close to being done.

some of them don't have titles yet but!! vote away and make me finish all these <3

no pressure tags: @beetlesandstarss @theamazingbard @3minsover @mojowitchcraft

[serpentmessmer]

🔐🍐🍅🌺

HOIIIIIIIII

🔐 something no one would guess about you (i'll answer this again bc i'm a man of many secrets)

i'm really good at poker lmfao

���� if you could make one character real, who would it be

see the problem here is that basically all the characters i really love would be a bad id- leon kennedy. leon kennedy sex homunculus real when leon scott kennedy in my mouth

🍅 least favorite food

i can't do cooked fish. idk what it is about cooked fish but it's all of them i just can't stomach it it's a real loss for me tbh

🌺 what is the best gift someone has ever given you and why is it so important

a few years ago for christmas my mom gave me a photo album with a bunch of pictures from my childhood and a lot more specifically of my dad and a bunch of pages empty for more photos and i think that'll be one of my prized possessions forever, especially considering how many people in those photos aren't around anymore

[according2thelore]

"you're pretty when you don't speak" + 1, 3, 9, 11 & 13

(i really, really adore this fic, it was one of the first ones i read coming back into fandom after ten years and it knocked me on my ass. i think about it a *lot*)

hello! :)

thank you so much!!! the link to "you're pretty when you don't speak" on ao3 is here! (quick recap: it's the one from blurry wife pov)

1.What inspired you to write the fic this way?

so for this fic, i feared that the second person pov would automatically disqualify it to some folks, but i really thought the fic would benefit from it because so much of sam's anonymous wife is just that: anonymous. she is literally just a vehicle through which to give sam his happy ending, a non-player.

to forcefully give her a perspective, and to force the reader into her headspace was important to me, because so much of her life is completely isolated, even if sam tells her about the life. she is the crucible in which another dean is created, and doesn't even get a face with which to do it.

and i wanted this fic to feel kind of like a montage. things happen too fast to process, and just kind of slip by, like water through your hands, or switching locations in a dream. she isn't given time to process or understand things, and neither are we.

3. What's your favorite line of narration?

yikes! this was hard. i think my favorite line has to be

He smiles at you, and you smile back. He’s nice to look at, in the way that shards of stained glass are nice to look at. In the way that car crashes are captivating, in the way that a tree can be both dead and alive at once, in the way that homes disappear one room at a time.

because it really encapsulates what i feel like sam would be post-canon--eldritch and unknowable, even as he's amicable and has that patina of sympathetic understanding; or

This is my wife, Sam says, proud. His coworkers smile, but they never ask your name. You don’t have one. That’s alright with you, as long as it’s alright with Sam. You’d hate to embarrass him at a work party.

because it's kind of a fic thesis! sam wants a wife, so he gets A Wife. her lack of identity is an issue because it could embarrass sam, not because she is a person. she needs permission to have a name and to have a face and to have her own personality.

9. Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

this fic was originally longer! i had a few sections added in about what rituals/traditions sam has on dean's death anniversary as opposed to their wedding anniversary, and how that impacts his family. i also had a section about how sam begins putting an escalated emotional burden on dean jr, creating a cycle w how dean was treated by john, but ultimately introducing those ideas was too bulky and took away from sam's wife. i was doing what sam's wife was doing! centering him in a story about her! so i ended up killing a few darlings for this fic.

11. What do you like best about this fic?

i really enjoyed writing this one! it happened almost entirely in one sitting. one of my favorite things about this fic is how destabilizing it is. you kind of feel a sense of impending dread, and you want the wife to leave, to escape, but she can't. she is a fixed part of his narrative, and that is her identity. she is a prop; she is set dressing.

that confusion of wanting things but those things being malleable was awesome to write, and i hope i captured the dissonance well!

13. What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

i was actually listing to Unknown/Nth by Hozier when i got the idea for the fic (unrelated by now inextricably linked), so that def needs to be mentioned! i listened to charlotte's and my playlist on shuffle while writing this one, and so a few that really stuck in my brain and i recommend are City of Roses by Sufjan Stephens, Savior Complex by Phoebe Bridgers, Too Close by Sir Chloe (the title!), and doomsday by Lizzy McAlpine. (just realized how relentlessly indie it is, sorry team)

i ended up YAPPING! i'm sorry! but thank you for the ask, and i am so glad and warmed to know that you like it! it's one of my favorites, for sure <3

-lizzy

(send me one of my fics, and i'll answer some questions!)

[cchapsticck]

like a dog at the door asking for more dog at the door 🐶

🐕

dog at the door wip

More like: he’s not sure he’s cared about anything like Eddie seems to have cared about this. It doesn’t endear him to the game or anything, it might be too late for that particular sale - considering. But it does endear him to Eddie. Which sucks.

[dreamwatch]

WIP Weekend

Thanks for the tag @hbyrde36 and @thisapplepielife!

rules: make a 24-hour poll with the names of your wips and then for whichever wins, write one sentence for every vote it gets (but you should also write 1 sentence for every vote each of them gets!)

When it’s over I’ll post a snippet of any/all wips that get at least one vote!

I’ve removed a WIP because I’m thinking of restarting it and using it for NaNoWriMo.

Summaries under the cut

Like A Stone: Post S4. Everyone has moved on except for Eddie. He's working with Wayne, stuck in Hawkins, withdrawing from life and his friends and haunted by Chrissy. Slowest of slow burns.

Prison Fic: My true love! Eddie gets a life sentence for triple homicide. This is about his life in prison. Happy (ish) ending guaranteed. I'm guessing at about 4 chapters, I have one complete and 2 others on the go (I write out of sequence, sorry!).

Dustin & Eddie: Eddie moves away from Hawkins as fast as he can and cuts himself off from The Party. A few years later and Dustin is having Big Feelings and seeks him.

Steve and Eddie 90s: Started life as a fluffy song fic until I broke it. Eddie and Steve run into each other in a bar in the 90s. They decide to meet up in the bar once a week and every time they do, the song that was playing the first time they ran into each other comes on at some point in the evening.

No pressure tags:

@occasionaloverboy @farahsamboolents @cchapsticck. @devilyouwere. I’ve kind of lost track of who has WIPs they’re working on at the moment, please let me know if you’re writing? Thanks!