#does anyone know any fics like this? or am i just unique with this idea? 😿

[wishchip106]

sighh thinking about cherik going to the mutant containment centre again 💔💔😔

lmao the quality difference 😭 you can tell which one i took from pinterest and which one i took from youtube

thinking about my last reblog with this one too

imagine all the mutants that got captured are being experimented on and then something goes wrong and one of them got turned into a monster

so now we got cherik being some of the last survivors in this big facility trying not to die from their friend-turned-monster

i feel like one of the problems they would have to deal with is finding Charles a wheelchair cause i just know those humans would be disrespectful af and not give Charles a wheelchair 🤨

i feel like that would make things difficult what with a monster seeking out their blood

how about they’re both also wearing collars so no powers until they find a way to get them off 🤯

why not lets have Erik be injured as well. he’s gonna be very slowly bleeding out during most of this

i’m turning down the survivability rate for these guys damn

but yk happy-ish ending they escape its all good but also everyone else is dead so… 👀

[phantomato]

Tom Riddle As A Parent: Why So Compelling?

(to me. Not meant to generalize.)

Tom-as-parent runs counter to canon in possibly baffling ways. He despises his own father and has no respect for his mother. He doesn’t have a confirmed romantic or sexual attachment to anyone at any point in the story—I’m disregarding Cursed Child here, as my canon is the original seven-book series.

Tom is ill-suited to parenting: we see him in a challenging job or unemployed but busy with his pursuit of power. His personal qualities include a lack of bedside manner, and he’s shown to tolerate putting on a polite face only when it serves him with people who have more power. Yet I’ve written Tom as a parent multiple times, including my longest work. The idea continues to compel me. What gives?

Canon Tom has no business being a parent—let me make it his business

Partly, I want this because it is just so unlikely to fit the character as we know him. Whenever a fic idea or characterization choice seems incongruous and wrong, my impulse as a writer is to wonder how to make it right. What shifts must take place for this person to do this thing?

I’ve long held that I am interested in a Tom Riddle who can feel love. Not that he loves easily or admits it to himself, but that he is a person with the ability to feel that emotion. Given that Tom can love, a child is an interesting place to explore that. How did the child come into his life? How did he reconcile himself to loving it? What shape does that love take? No matter the universe, some parts of Tom will always struggle to be a conventional parent.

This is a great path for Tom as an unintentional parent—kidnapping Harry of course, but also (my favorite) partnering with a single parent and navigating the family he gains as a side effect of that romance. Particularly coming into a teenage stepchild, which was an interesting writing experience because with an older child who remembered a deceased birth parent, I was free to give that Voldemort less personal responsibility for the kid. He could create something other than full parenthood in his relationship with Theodore Nott, where they came to understand and care for one another through their shared love for Nott Sr. I let Voldemort recognize his own unsuitedness to parenting and thus make compromises with it, and the relationship was overall more emotionally moving to me as a result. 

Tom Riddle will have an impact on any parenting that I force him to do. Because he’s not traditionally fit for it, the unique form his parenting takes is a chance to say so much about his character and the choices that he’s made in that universe.

Forcing Tom to reconcile with himself

It’s no mystery that Tom Riddle has parent issues. His mom dies while birthing him. He was raised in an orphanage. He kills his father. There are a lot of obstacles in the way of Tom having a healthy relationship with parenting.

In making him a parent, then, I’m asking his character to get with it real quick. There is a baby or a small child only growing older and more independent by the day; they are pulling their ideas of the world from him like a sponge sucking up water. He will have an influence on them. And what has Tom Riddle ever wanted more than influence?

Part of what I like about parent!Tom is asking what would happen to him if he took the prospect seriously. He is responsible for this kid, so he takes care of them. There must be many feelings there. After all, Tom went to his father seeking something. Magical heritage, sure, but he knew before he walked up that hill that he wouldn’t find it, and still he went. We can’t know anything with certainty (except in fanfic), but when writing him as a parent, I like to think that he might be changed when he’s forced to play the opposite role.

Tom with a child is a Tom who can possibly come to understand his parents or regret not getting to know them. He might see his mother’s care, to deliver her baby where he would live. He might see his father’s fear, at confronting his own trauma through the form of his child. He never got to learn what his mother might have taught him, and my own dislike of her aside, the character of Tom might miss her, forgive her, or never learn about her abuse. If he does know that his mother assaulted his father, it might spark his regret over committing that murder. And he Mrs. Cole as a caretaker as well, whose faults do not erase the intimacy of their relationship. All of these emotions can be explored via reflection as Tom experiences raising his child. He is making his own choices about being a parent, dissimilar or not to those made by Merope and Tom Sr. and Mrs. Cole, and facing unpleasant facts about his sympathy for their positions.

And all of this is equally as interesting to me when Tom is the child, or when he considers his feelings about his parents and mentors later in life. Tom’s hope to be a teacher likewise takes on more dimensions if we consider mentorship and influence on young people as relating to how he might feel about his own childhood, or what must change to make him suited for that responsibility. Tom-as-parent is particularly special as it features in fics that have helped define my characterization of him, and it is because the role is so unnatural for him, not in spite of it, that it inspires this kind of consideration.

[wixenforever]

Hey Wix! Two questions today. 👀👀👀 One botl related, the other about your writing and planning.

The first is related to how Harry and Theo might want to keep each other at arms length, in case they get caught in each others issues. Now that Hogwarts is starting, is there a chance that Harry will be worried about how being involved with Theo might affect Theo? Theo already told Snape his thoughts about it, but maybe Harry DOESNT know that Theo is cool with them still being seen together.

if its spoilers, its fine if you dont answer. Im mostly curious whether any of it will be discussed.

and the other question is about your storyplanning. How did you plan everything? The plot and the arcs? I tend to have issues with building up a plot, and your world has quite a lot of worldbuilding, and themes, and characters. Did you get inspired by anything in particular and it all snowballed, and then you kept adding stuff down the line, or did you have it all planned since the beginning? Like, where did the idea of John come from, for example?

Have some art for your troubles :)

⬆️ Me usually when I'm writing

Answering this will have a lot of spoilers for stuff that's already happened in Burning of the Library so I'ma put it below the break for anyone scrolling by.

💕Thank you for even asking these questions! I feel so special hah. Okay - first thing's first, you're right that Harry DOESN'T know that Theo is cool with them being seen together as friends. He doesn't even know that Theo has already decided This Is A Thing That Will Happen.

That will get settled pretty quick in the next chapter or two, but without going too deep into spoiler territory, it won't be that easy in practice. For reasons.

Some of the reasons are obvious (Umbridge stress, judgmental housemates, friendship drama) but the biggest reason is that, basically, Harry will bottle up his issues and hide them from Theo because he thinks Theo has enough to deal with and shouldn't have to put up with Harry's problems. This whole conflict is what I would describe as the next "arc" in his and Theo's friendship.

It's a short arc. I am not a fan of like, misunderstandings and miscommunications being drawn out for a long, long time, but it does need to happen. And it's not really miscommunication as it is a deliberate withholding of communication...but that whole little arc is so good! It's full of angst, anger, drama, revenge, hurt, comfort, all the good stuff that makes me itch to skip ahead and write it right now!

Now - as for Theo...Theo's going to have a very unique hangup about his "closeness" to Harry that I'm sure you'll be able to guess once a certain thing in the plot gets revealed on the train.

The Writing Process

This gif is how I feel about my storybuilding sometimes. OKAY! Going back in time to September 2023, I created the very first document file for "Burning of the Library" (the name never changed, btw!) And I only had ONE idea, which was that Theo's house would be burned down by fiendfyre, and Harry and Sirius would find him surrounded by a mysterious bubble of light that was sentient and asked Harry to protect him.

So, I wrote that, because I could not get it out of my head. From there, I tried to write backwards to create some kind of plot. I wrote a lot of scenes of Harry being rescued from the Dursleys. Stuff about Houses and Lords and Ladies and old magic. Stuff about him not trusting Dumbledore. Stuff about Sirius fixing his mind. All things that changed (mostly).

At the time I was working on a Powerpuff Girls fic and also my original work, and so I would just kinda take breaks in Harry Potter because it was easy to write.

Anyway, the moment when the story became a Story and not a collection of scenes was when I thought about something I think of often - which is One Piece (my other great obsession and love). Oda famously KNEW how he was going to end this insanely long story right when he started writing it. And I have always, always, always had a problem with endings in my stories, so I basically had this thought experiment where I tried to figure out how I would end this HP story that I had no investment in whatsoever.

And, it worked! I came up with an ending! Or a "final scene", I guess, that led to an idea for a sequel. And then I was like, well fuck, I guess I have a "complete" story idea, I should try and write this.

As far as outlining plot and story arcs, right when I started writing I built waypoints in the plot to basically help me get from "Library Burning Down" to "Wixen's Classified End Scene". They live in my notes as vague titles: "The Train", "Cheering Charms", "The Apology", "The Forest", "Yule", "Quest", "Quidditch", and several more.

But my writing process is entirely character-driven. Sometimes, unexpected POVs will be written to expressly move the plot along, but I love developing these characters so much so I try to incorporate some kind of growth or conflict or revelation in their POV section, if I can. I basically let the characters take me from point to point, which is why my estimate of when we will finally escape summer is always wrong lmao. These people just have a lot to say!

John is kinda funny - he was a totally unexpected and late addition to the story. Originally, when I published the first chapter, John was a TEMPORARY character! He was meant to drop lore about druids and mages and then exit stage left after bringing Harry to the bank. But, I knew I wanted Harry to have a familiar in the story - I just hadn't decided what kind or when. And I hadn't ever seen Harry with a cat in a fic before, so I thought it was a unique idea that might be fun to play around with.

Developing John's character was really fun. I knew he would be a cat-sith almost instantly, and from there I created this life he had with Johanna and then, later, Desmond to figure out WHY he would choose to hang out with Harry.

As far as themes and stuff, I guess I have certain sensibilities in HP fic I wanted to write but don't often read? Like an honest exploration of the Order's actions as a resistance group. And giving Harry more agency, and dreams. I feel like Harry never has a dream in canon. He just...moves from crisis to crisis. I want my Harry to WANT something, something bigger than revenge.

That's how I am for most of my fav characters, Sirius namely. The Slytherins, of course, all have developed backstories and motivations because I think they're criminally underdeveloped. But most of all I wanted to write a story that was not strictly good versus evil - I wanted it to be messy.

Characters WILL do things they think are right but for terrible reasons, or make mistakes, or do the wrong thing that they KNOW is wrong because that's simply the choice they made...yeah. I don't like sanitized stories, I guess lol. Part of my horror background bleeding through I think.

Last thing I'll say...[I'm so long winded...no wonder I wrote 300k words already 🙈] some characters have fates or character arcs I've already decided on. Like Bill, Sirius, Snape, Remus. Others are undecided - mainly Ron. He's a real problem for me right now because I can't decide where he fits in further along, unlike Hermione. Harry and Theo - their WHOLE relationship is planned out. Oh boy. That's the part I spend the most time on, to be real.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ You art is PERFECTION as usual! And I loved your whole thought process on your Blaise comic, that was really awesome to read. You're so thoughtful in your work and it really shows!

[clockwayswrites]

OKAY, so I have been rereading some of your stuff, as anyone with a wonderful taste does /j. And I got to the One Stop Soup Shop? I hope that titles right lmao; anyway. So rereading that, and I got to the part where Jason and Danny are talking right after Jason wakes up, right? And I managed to overlook it for the first few rereads but the conversation where Danny is explaining what he used to be and what Jason is now makes me think of a couple different theories on what Danny could be now? Because he's almost, or he is implying, he isn't a Halfa anymore.

So, Fascinating. And I have a couple theories on that? So; here they are,

My first thought was Danny is the ghost version of a liminal. Like the opposite of a liminal. Ghost with human traits, instead of a Human with ghostly traits.

My second one was that whoever had him/captured him basically forced him, either permanently or until something can be done ie with Frostbite the yeti doctor or some other means, into his Ghost form, unable to turn back into human/living form.

My third was that, on the basis that a halfas core is connected to their heart, they tore Danny's heart out from the core, Either by the Fentons misguided attempts at believing Phantom was hiding in their now dead-from-the-portal-opening boys body, so taking his heart out to both kill Phantom, seeing him as some kind of parasite now, and allow Danny to be laid to rest, or the GIW got him, saw it, was wishing to experiment on it, did so, and when Danny was escaping, he tried grabbing it, and the pieces wouldn't rejoin, having been apart for a little too long, leaving Danny as this Halfa Husk, almost but not quite. A Core with a human body but missing the most vital piece of being alive, a heart. So he's essentially stranded to be a ghost, unable to turn human without dying slowly, and painfully. Again.

.... As you can see, I am so normal about OSSS. Clearly. Lmao, anyway, yeah I have gone slightly insane but it is so good, it's worth it, honestly. I think i have said enough to last a thousand years about OSSS. But I will leave with the fact that I am so excited to go reread, and spin in my head with OSSS, LBFD and BWAO. Hope you've been taking care of yourself, all the writing and head thinking you've been doing, okay? Great writers must be kept happy or something like that

I had to sit down and reread the first fic of this just to make sure I was thinking right LOL which was enjoyable, so thank you for that. It's always nice to have a reason to reread my own work, even if it's at the cost of your sanity I suppose? ^_^;

Like most of my fics, I have the scaffolding but not necessarily the details. Bobi esp was written more on vibes than on a plan. That said, your third one is closest.

Spoilers, I guess lol

But Jazz talks Danny into revealing Phantom to their parents, who go the route of being convinced that Danny is dead and his corpse is just being puppeted by Phantom. And in their experimentation he tips from being balanced to being more dead. The details I don't know, though your idea of heart is chilling! Basically Danny has a 'living' form that breaths and bleeds and is solid, but it's only that way because he started as a halfa. Unlike before when he had to transform to use some of this powers, he's always basically more ghost than not and so can turn off any of that. And he's still alive in his unique way.

JLD would have a fit meeting him lol.

[raidergamerspice]

Here's yet another Spy x Family ramble post since those seem to do well here lmao

It's about Yor this time!

Originally I just wanted to talk about one headcanon I had for her, but then I figured, why not talk about a few while I'm here? Considering how much I talked about Twilight in the last two posts alone, Yor deserves some rambles from me.

Anyway, first headcanon: she's autistic. Like, I got some vibes when I first watched the anime, and saw how she took her coworkers' joke to blow snot (I watch it dubbed, don't judge me) in someone's coffee seriously, then being told she's "unique". Then she constantly worries about appearing normal in front of people, and not just because she's a single woman at 27 (which happened to be the age I was when I first got into Spy x Family). She even has "unconventional" hyperfixations (on knives or other sharp weapons), and clearly has major social anxiety. Basically, Yor screams autistic/neurodivergent vibes. Honestly, the whole Forger family does, but Yor is especially blatant for me as I'm also autistic. So, yeah. Yor is autistic because I said so 😂

Another headcanon I'm projecting onto her is that she's part Filipino (I know the series takes place in a semi fictional world where even though it's inspired by our world, it's not exact). This came from a fanfic I found where Yor takes care of a sick Loid and, thinking he's sleeping, opens up a bit about her mother being from the Philippines. Even the author was projecting this because they too are Filipino, and guess what? So am I! Well, only by a quarter, but that still matters! I also know I'm not the only fan that headcanons Yor (and Yuri) to be Spy x Family's equivalent of Asian, so my interpretation (as well as the author of that fic) is just one of many 🥰

Here's that fanfic if anyone's interested: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46420426

Next, here's a headcanon that I'm NOT projecting onto her: she has a rose tattoo on her abdomen. This idea came about after listening to Victoria Beckham's song "Not Such an Innocent Girl", specifically the lyric about having a secret rose tattoo. I was struck by the thought that Yor would totally rock a rose tattoo (especially if it had thorns, 'cause Thorn Princess), and that it would definitely be kept a secret for several reasons. It clearly can't be on any of her limbs, so it would have to be somewhere on her torso. I looked up several examples for ideas, and this one is my favorite:

(Can you just imagine, when Twiyor gets intimate for the first time, Loid kisses the tattoo? 'Cause I can 🥵)

Also, I realize that this particular headcanon is the least plausible of what I talked about here so far, but I don't care. I'm letting the Yor in my head rock this tattoo 'cause she would look great with it! 😤🌹

Now this one, I'm not sure if it's merely a headcanon or borderline canon without being explicitly stated, but I have seen this topic come up every now and again. Without getting too deep into it for now, I'll just say: Yor is a virgin, but she still knows what sex is 😳

ahem, moving on.

This is the last headcanon I'll share for now, and it's something I briefly mentioned before: Yor is bisexual. Like, I'm a major Twiyor, obviously, but I'm not blind to how she and Melinda interact with each other (also, Melinda is straight up a lesbian, but I digress). I have a love-hate relationship with this phrase because reasons, but I still think it's valid to say that Yor has two hands. She deserves a husband and a girlfriend 😏 (let's just hope that Melinda doesn't turn out to be evil 💀)

Well, that's all for now! I know I said in my last Spy x Family post that my next one might be about Twiyor having twins, but I promise that will come soon! What do you think about these headcanons? Agree or disagree? Valid thoughts or delusional rambles?

[fayedartmouth]

Any more ideas or drabbles for the groff resurrect JJ fic? It's such a unique concept

I am not actively writing that fic, but I wrote a snippet of it. This is sometime late in the fic when JJ is starting to question everything.

With the setup of this one, I highly think JJ is suffering from Stockholm syndrome of sorts -- and that the fact that Groff saved has really messed with his head. Not to mention any magical aftermath of Groff wishing back the perfect son for his own purposes. In other words, JJ's got to mentally break out of it, and it's a process.

Sometime soon I'd love to write the Pogues reflecting on their treatment of JJ.

And lol everything else.

“I know, I know, but that’s why I’ve kept him around,” Groff says, in that singsong way of his.  

It’s familiar, the way it sounds.  When he uses it with JJ, it sounds like love.

When he uses it like this, it sounds like what it is:  a ploy.  A tactic.  A trick.

A feint.  A slight of hand.

A lie.

But it’s not; it can’t be.  It’s real with JJ.  He knows it’s real.  Because Groff came back for <i>him</i>.  Groff used the crown <i>for him</i>.

“He’s a liability,” Dalia mutters back, sounding less than impressed.

JJ holds his breath, waiting for the answer, on the other side of tehh wall.  His dad loves him; his dad came back to save him.  His dad chose him, his beautiful, beautiful boy.

“He’s an asset,” Groff says, almost insistent.  JJ can <i>hear</i> him smile, almost giddy with it.  “He’s my son.”

It’s a thing to hear, isn’t it?  All JJ’s life, he wanted someone to want him.  He wanted someone to choose him, to go out of their way <i>for him</i>.  He doesn’t want to be left on someone’s doorstep.  He doesn’t want to be anyone’s last resort.  He doesn’t want to be a burden to carry, someone to drag with them to the end.  He wants to matter.

He’s always wanted to matter.

And his dad <i>loves him</i>.

His dad chose him.

His <i>beautiful, beautiful boy.</i>

Dalia grunts.  “I’m still not seeing the point.”

“I mean, he’ll do what I say,” Groff says.  “And I can tell him anything I want and he’ll believe me.”

JJ goes numb as his ears start to ring.  That’s not –

His dad doesn’t–

He blinks as his head starts to spin.

It’s not–

He can’t breathe, he can’t catch his breath.

“I gave him life, and I’ll use it as I see fit,” Groff says.

There’s nothing singsong about it now.  There’s nothing familiar.

JJ feels cold and hot, and suddenly his side aches.  He reaches down, hand ghosting over the scar, where Groff’s knife found purchase.

“I’ve killed him once,” Groff concludes with a confidence JJ has never had.  “And I can do it again, if necessary.”

Dalia makes a sound, something in the back of her throat.  “You really are an asshole, aren’t you?”

“Well,” Groff says.  “Let’s just say I’ve never been father of the year.”

And JJ does the only thing he can think to do.

He <i>runs</i>.

-o-

He doesn’t make it far; he can’t.  He doesn’t know where he’s going  He doesn’t know anything.  One of the men grabs him, pulls him to a stop before he can break camp.  “Shit, kid,” he says.  “We keep close quarters.  No running off now.”

JJ wants to scream, but can’t form the sound.  He lets himself be led back to the and sits down numbly while he stares at the crackling flame.  He lets it burn and tries to understand it.  The way the flame takes and takes and takes–

He shouldn’t be here.

It’s a strange thought, something that comes to him as the logs shift and sparks fly.  There’s something wrong; this isn’t right.  He’s not right–

<i>But his dad loves him.</i>

The Pogues are wrong.

<i>His dad chose him.</i>

He’s lying to Dalia.

<i>His beautiful, beautiful boy</i>.

The men throw another log on the fire and snicker amongst themselves.  About the crown and Finch and the payday they’re going to have.

What if he’s wrong?  What if he’s wrong about his dad?  What if he’s wrong about the Pogues?

The thought tickles the back of his brain, the doubt he can’t quell.  Because JJ’s life is before and after, left behind and gone ahead.  What was and what is.  Pogue – or Groff.

It’s an answer he used to know.  It’s an answer he thought he knew.  It’s an answer he’s not sure about anymore.

The fire burns to ash, in the end.

[andypantsx3]

I’ve written to you before a very long time ago about things not going very well for me, and things are better now. Thank you for your compassion to a stranger then. It’s given me ideas as someone who also enjoys writing. I’m sure you’ve got variations of this question before so I’m sorry if I’ve missed those somehow but any advice on how to start writing and sharing your writing publicly? Like I created an account to send you this but I have no clue about anything really. Will I seem like a random interloper in the fandom who has arrived out of the blue 😭 I guess my concern is I’ll realize I’m actually not good at writing at all or worse nobody will read any of it. I feel awkward about actively promoting my work too. I don’t want to be famous or anything but it would suck if nobody wanted to read my stuff. You’re something of a stalwart at least for the fandom/genre/pairings you regularly write for and while I won’t aspire to that, how did you deal with self-doubt as an early writer? I know it’s not like I hope to earn money out of this or anything so opinions are just opinions but all my writing feels so personal to me that I’m worried about being convinced nobody cares about what I have to say. How does one really get their start at all. I’m sorry to bother you with all this but I’m super lost. It’s just that if someone’s terrible day or week could be made a little better because of my work, as your work regularly does for people, that would be nice. I hope you’re doing really well and randomly find something you’ve been looking for!

Hello my love!! I'm so happy I could help you out a little when you were in a tough spot!! I am very very happy that things are looking up for you now and I hope things only continue to get better and better!!! 💕

And oh my gosh, I don't think anyone will think of you as an interloper!!! Fandom is a community and the more the merrier imho! The x Reader community in particular is super welcoming and very nonjudgmental and the perfect place to get your start; almost everyone here is super nice and really chill. People will surprise you with how much nicer they are than you expect; I think you should just take a leap of faith and jump in!!

But just in case, let me give you the most realistic and straightforward advice I can. It's easy to dip your toes in and test the waters but I think you will need the below pieces of advice if you plan to battle self-doubt and continue writing & publishing fic without burning out or going nuts in the long term lol.

1. Find balance in the source of your self-worth

With publishing anything online, you always hope that people will like it and will want to engage with it. On tumblr the best measurement we have of that is notes, and on ao3 kudos + comments. Notes/comments/kudos are incredible and will make you feel more cherished than anything in the world. I will always appreciate them more than I can say, but one thing it is essential to know is that they are external sources of validation, and it is extremely dangerous to attach your sense of worth solely to the actions of other people.

If you want to publish fic, you will need to also find some internal sense of worth in your writing. You will need to finely balance that with how much you treasure the feedback of other people in order to stay afloat long term.

I recommend really sitting down and thinking about what you are writing/what you want to write, and why it is worth it to you. What makes your fic interesting to you? What are you doing differently than other people that makes you unique? What does your authorial voice sound like? Answering these questions will help you identify what you are bringing to the table as an author, so you know what it is that you do well, even if people aren't engaging the way you want, or even if you're receiving criticism.

For me, I really find value in the places I diverge from other fic authors. People really love writing powerful hero readers, but I usually write quirkless side characters who have somehow found themselves the main character. Chaptered/long fics are also less common in our fandom than oneshots, but I typically write chaptered fics! And I have a stylistically simple and light voice which is easily accessible.

All of these help me know that I'm bringing some fun distinct stuff to the table, even if what I'm bringing isn't perfect or necessarily as popular. And even if I enjoy other peoples' fics and authorial voices more than my own; I'm still bringing something unique and valuable!! So even when people aren't picking up every single thing I'm putting down, I still know the value of putting them down anyway.

2. Manage expectations

I think it can be easy to compare ourselves with one another, especially if you follow some well-established authors or people writing for super popular characters. Even I succumb to jealousy on occasion; it's just human nature. But it's important to know people will engage with different types of fics in different ways and that other people's success has nothing to do with your own.

I think you should set realistic expectations for how people will engage with your fics depending on what it is that you want to write. Some fandoms are much larger than others and therefore have a wider built-in audience. Some characters are also wildly more popular than others so it is likelier fics for those characters will go a bit further. In my experience, people really gravitate towards smutty scenarios or headcanons, sometimes oneshots, and less so chaptered fic. And some authors have been around for forever, or post constantly so that they are regularly drawing people in, and therefore have a larger reader pool than other authors.

So think about what you are writing, for which characters, and in which fandoms, and level your expectations accordingly. For me, even though Shouto is fairly popular, he also only has roughly 1/3 of Bakugou's level of popularity. So I never try to gauge the success of a Shouto fic in comparison to a Bakugou fic I've written, or even the Bakugou fics of other more established Bakugou writers.

This, combined with my own internal sense of worth as a writer, helps me feel like I'm doing pretty good for myself, even if I get like, 30 notes on a fic compared to someone else's 300 or something.

3. Understand that writing is a growing process!

One other essential tip is to understand that writing is a skill set than can be refined and honed. What you write one day is not indicative of where your skill level will sit the next day. And so critique you receive, or mistakes you have made, are really less indicative of failure and more tools to help you get to the next level.

This is one I've personally struggled with, but it can be worth it to be open to feedback that is not necessarily complimentary, with the caveat that you should know what is objective constructive criticism, and what is more subjective/personal preference. The latter you can disregard, because tailoring a fic to some random person's arbitrary tastes is not going to help you tell a good story lol.

But people telling you what they would like to see more of or things that didn't make sense to them can help you understand where you can make improvements to your writing. And it's not to say your writing is not good enough where it is; only to say there are avenues for you to develop even more experience.

For me, this has largely been in the area of smut lol. I liked my lil vanilla smut scenes, but I used to commonly get a fair amount of feedback wishing they were spicier. And, after initially getting defensive lmao, I could see how that was a common piece of feedback across multiple critiques, and I understood how drawing those scenes out might help contribute to the feeling of intimacy, satisfaction, and closure I want to develop at the end of a fic!!

I think being open to feedback while understanding that critique does not in any way take away from your talent overall, can only help you preserve the satisfaction you have with your writing, and help you refine in the future!! It keeps writing interesting, and keeps your sense of self-worth tied up in the process of writing, not necessarily the product of the writing, if that makes sense.

Anyway that's what I can think of for now. Even with all this advice listed out, I think you should just have hope and trust in people and dive right in. It sounds like you are an earnest person wanting to make heartfelt connections, and in my experience people will reflect that energy right back at you!!

I am sending you all my best vibes and looking forward to reading your stuff, if you end up going for it and posting!!! 💕✨

[galacticnova3]

In regards to the Master Crown, it seems everyone else has shared their piece in regards to your take on it. You know what I think, though? Your take is relentlessly blasé.

You took something with so much potential to be unique and interesting and turned it into your average one-note Uber-powerful force of nature bad guy. It’s gory and violent and edgy for the sake of shock value, and it shows. I genuinely do not understand the praise you’ve been given about it; other parts of your writing are strong but it isn’t one of them.

Oh thank god I thought you were a new anon about to regale me with your ideas for how to fuck or get fucked by a crown/tree demon.

Anyways, your criticism has been noted. Though, since you seem to be referring primarily to the fic… Keep in mind that all of its appearances there have been in the vivid and often fever-fueled nightmares of a lucid dreamer who was personally targeted by it. It’s over-the-top yet comparatively simplified because that’s what tends to happen in recollections of horrible events/things/people. Some parts will be accurate, others will be either given more focus or influence while others will be reduced. Like how people who are terrified of spiders often imagine them being far bigger or more aggressive than they actually are— that’s one of the things fear does.

One of the biggest differences between the one that’s shown up and how I would actually write it as a character in, say, a roleplay, is the fact that in Magolor’s nightmares it almost always immediately made itself and its goals known. Magolor has an idea of its motivations and mannerisms when it’s gone “mask off”, so to speak, because that’s what he was exposed to after getting almost fully assimilated; at that point it didn’t have any perceived motivation to keep that hidden because it believed it had already won. Plus, having had the line between himself and the crown blurred for a time, he may or may not have also self projected onto it a bit. But elaborating on that would be a spoiler…..

In reality, for the Master Crown, acting like that toward anyone it isn’t already assured is under its control is counterintuitive. It wouldn’t openly speak to or threaten someone, nor immediately jump straight to trying to devour their soul the instant it was on their head, nor boast of its power or how many hosts it’s already used and discarded. That leaves too much room for resistance, which is inconvenient and would be inefficient insofar as obtaining a body is concerned; shutting down that resistance usually also means sacrificing some of the host’s utility via injury, if not outright skipping the usage stage altogether and going straight to devouring to prevent its true nature from being revealed to others who might be able to do something about it. It’s whole modus operandi is lulling its targets into a false sense of security as they power trip, then gradually taking over from there until the host isn’t the one making decisions or acting anymore, or if that doesn’t work or would take too long, taking control away from them by force and snuffing out their sense of self more directly. That wouldn’t work if it was openly advertising “HEY I BUFF ALL YOUR STATS JUST IGNORE THAT I’M AN EVIL BODY SNATCHING SOUL EATING CROWN AND THERE WON’T BE ANYTHING LEFT OF YOU AFTERWARDS!” before it even had its metaphorical foot in the door.

Basically: I know what I’m doing with my writing even if it hasn’t been shown yet. Don’t worry I am trying to do the crown justice as an antagonist that’s far more complex than your average cursed object.

[takeariskao3]

Hey Hannah, could we get some headcanons of Hinny in TPFY and AG? I just want to see how they differentiate between the two stories.

it's so funny to me that this time last year i was asking myself this exact question. but i haven't done this little thought experiment for quite a while because pretty quickly the two ginnys solidified into very different versions her and they definitely take up very different headspaces throughout the stories. honestly even in my own planning and perceptions of them.. they are two very separate people. that sounds so weird because in theory they ARE the same character, but at the same time i did have to find some differences to make the fics unique, and for the prose and narration to sound fresh.

with that being said, this is going to be so disorganized and disjointed. i already know half of it isn't going to make sense to anyone but me, but life is nuts, it's where my head's at right now, and i can't change it.

here goes nothing

i guess i can start with how they are similar? in both stories, the seven books are canon. they are a great foundation and framework for me to work in, i know each book like the back of my hand and i really had no desire to try to tweak or change anything in the original text.

HOWEVER, the main difference between the two, is the path from you is not epilogue compliant. and that was born from several questions that haunted me for about a decade before i even had the idea or the inclination to write hp fanfiction. but the main two i wanted to explore and answer were 1) did ginny really know it was harry that walked past her on his way to the forest? i'm pretty sure she did. so how does she react to something like that? how does that fit into their relationship arc and how does him not stopping parallel other things in their relationship? and 2) what happened to her at hogwarts in her 6th year? how did that affect her in the weeks, months, years afterward?

so why do those questions need to be explored and answered in an canon (read: epilogue) divergent setting? mostly because i didn't really like the epilogue (🤷) but also because it seemed like a two birds one stone situation. i needed time and space between 'the end' (chap 1, which really exists as a prologue?) and 'the beginning' (chap 2, which is when we pick up after the time jump). for maximum angst, tension, and storytelling potential.

so in short, tpfy!ginny is defined by her reaction to harry's march to death/faked death, and her reaction to her own experiences (trauma) during the occupied year at hogwarts.

once i had that story/plot idea in mind. i really started to try and shape ginny into a coherent personality. i mean we have the framework, right? we know what she's like at school, we know what her family and what her classmates say about her, and we know how she acts and interacts when she is in scenes with harry. but how does that become a person. i settled on five (ish) defining character traits (which are basically just a textbook enneagram 8)

Ginny is self-reliant and self-confident. she want's to prove her strength and resist any weakness, she wants to be important in the world, she wants to be a decision maker in her own life/situation, and she wants to be in control of those situations.

the main conflict then became, the way tpfy!ginny feels about harry makes her feel out of control, or another way of putting it, is she can't control how she feels about him. it's instinctual, overwhelming, and it scares her a bit because she doesn't feel like she is in control of her decisions when it comes to him. loving him, caring about him, putting his needs before hers, are all things that she does that don't feel like conscious decisions. this is directly at war with her base personality.

which i've got to say, has been so fun to write. i just torture her, i know i do.

moving on

already gone was born from a place of curiosity and literally took on three or even four different forms before it was an amenesia fic. i had spent nearly a year working on the path from you and was trying to find ways to piece harry and ginny back together again in this altered timeline, and one night i was just like.. 'how the fuck did they do this right away??' i really honestly just wanted to figure it out, for my own peace of mind. how did they get back together within a canon (read: epilogue) compliant timeline.

so i started brainstorming, and i wrote a really angsty post-war oneshot for @hinnyfied's birthday and i thought... this might be something. i might have something here.

but then i was like HOW is she different from tpfy!ginny? because she has to be... but she also still has to be ginny!? but for all the wonderful characteristics she possesses, those same traits can be her own worst enemy (which in tpfy they are)

so in already gone, what is the catalyst that sends her down a different path? i decided it was mostly pretty simple... ag!ginny, didn't make the connection, or at least didn't know for sure that harry walked by her on his way into the forest. the rustle she heard was just that, a rustle. i also decided that the events during her 6th year maybe weren't as horrifying(?), trauma inducing (?), specific to just her(?), as they are in tpfy.

but these were all decisions i made when i was just attempting to write a summer '98 a story.

i really didn't settle on the amnesia plot until two or three months later, because as much as i wanted that summer to be an angsty will they/won't they... it just wasn't. harry and ginny took on a completely different relationship arc than what i had planned and it became, not a story of reconciliation, which i so desperately wanted, but a story of mutual dependency, and the idea that home for them isn't a place, but a person. their relationship (and i do mean both of them, this isn't exclusive to just harry) post-war wasn't born out of shared interests, and sense of humor, and similar values, but of a deep understanding that some wounds don't heal, and some grief can't be quantified. but with that understanding, they can still move forward and live with it. as long as they're together.

so then i was a real bitch and i took it away.

whoops.

BUT THEN THE REALLY FUN PART STARTED HAPPENING

because while i like to assume ginny is deeply affected by her experience with the diary, by order of the phoenix she has either buried it so deep in an effort not to process, OR processed it enough that she can hide any lingering thoughts or actions that might still plague her because of it. she is not defined by her trauma. she has outwardly overcome.

she is also in her peak "i am over harry potter" phase.

like c'mon. that's hilarious. because she wakes up married to him.. and she is also thrown back into an (outwardly) well-adjusted mindset. which could possibly (i will neither confirm or deny this at present because spoilers) throw a big wrench into her relationship that is rooted in shared trauma and the understanding of that trauma. cannot stress this enough, already gone harry and ginny were and are co-dependent. but i sort of love that for them?

ANYWAYS

i've rambled enough. i hope this makes at least some sort of sense. and thanks so much for reading both stories!

[mortifying-macaroni]

Okay I'll be honest with you... Being morbidly curious I opened the link to your fic not really expecting much.. having the idea that it was just going to be a vapid retelling of the Sabbat route in cqm with a Soulmate AU slapped onto it, but oh my damn stars did you prove me wrong, miss Macaroni/Vida! Your writing is so clever, descriptive and more engaging than I had first initially thought. You balance out grittiness with humor just as well as the game itself does (Mitsoda would be proud). Yesterday I finished reading all of the chapters so far in 1 sitting.

I'm in love with Gretchen's wit, her sarcasm and her occasional gaming references. Her personality is so entertaining despite her 'bratty' nature and now when I look at your art of her I have more of an appreciation towards her character than I did before going into Soul Inmates and I can say the same for the Andrei/Gretchen ship itself. Before going in I thought it was just a fun little crack ship until your writing dragged me deeper and now I've also grown attached to the idea of them as a couple (I hate and love you for it)

And may I add that I've never read any story that contains the kind of soul marks you've put in. Maybe there are some out there but I still haven't come across anything like this. Anyway, It's so interesting to see how they treat each other before and after finding out. Simply bravo for nailing the characterization of every included character and literally everything else I've read so far! Gretie and Andi earned a new fan and I'm looking forward to reading more content of them in the future <3 <3

Anon, I can't begin to express how gleeful and over frickin jubilant you've just made me!!!!! I'm SCREAMING WITH JOY and I'm also quite close to crying!!! 🥺🥺😭😭 I'm so happy and speechless that I don't even know what to say because just saying "thank you" doesn't even begin to cover it, but let me tell you just how grateful I am that you've taken the time to even give my silly monsterfucker fic a chance! It fills me with absolutely colossal joy that not only you started liking Gretchen more, but the Grandrei ship itself too! AND OMFG SHUSH! Brian Mitsoda would be rolling his eyes at my attempts to be both funny and dark. That's still very bold of you to claim that, legend (and I may end up printing out this ask and taping it to my bedroom wall beside my head for motivation). Tbh I'm also highly unsure if the kind of soul mark I implemented has been written anywhere, but I don't mind if it ends up being un-unique (also huge thank you for not spoiling the soul mark for anyone that happens to be interested in reading). Anyways, I could go on forever, but I should keep this short. Huge thank you for reading and liking my fic and my cringe crack ship. Gretchen and Andrei have been my favorite losers for 2 years now and I'm slowly entering my 3rd year of Grandrei madness. The next chap might take a while, but I hope you'll stick around regardless. LOVE YOU!!! 🖤🩷💘💝💖💗💓💞💕🖤

[mamamittens]

Well, did some adulting today. Got a handheld air tire... Pump thing and took care of the most deflated tire. The others need touching up but I started fumbling the second and decided to take my victory where I could. Slower than a station but also doesn't charge 2 bucks to embarrass myself in the cold ass 5 AM air.

Do recommend if you don't mind airing up your own tires but hate trying to find an air pump that won't lead you to getting mugged. I imagine it's even handier as an emergency pump if the tire is punctured and you need to limp to an auto shop without paying a tow truck.

Anyway! New ramble when I should be sleeping ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

This time I was zoning out thinking about an intriguing character backstory that I've only seen a few fics do. And that's have the MC have parents (usually just one) be serial killers. Or some kind of hobby murderer where that's really not the norm.

Kinda made me wonder if there are any serious serial killers in OP, not pirates just... Dead ass killer by night types. They've got so many problems, it feels mean if they also gotta worry about their own version of Ted Bundy, you know?

Anyway! I was having fun designing this character, at first having them be a kid for their plot but the "this kid is really fucked up and unsettling in a uniquely preteen girl way" growing up into a "only somewhat better at hiding it but distinctly unsettling to be around teen" is a fun dynamic to have.

WBP cause they're the best equipped to do the "found family" thing but I'm flexible enough to consider others, ngl

Anyway, design wise I wanted her to be small and lanky. Maybe naturally pale for spooky vibes, we'll see. Perpetually smiling and close eyed expression that almost never feels sincere but people are too uncomfortable to point it out. Thought it'd be fun for her to have curly white hair with red tips that swirl so her hair pulled up looks like an artistic cascading bouquet of white roses stained red. For the dramatics.

And her eyes are unsettling (hence her closing them and basically using very limited observation haki to see without looking), red with white pupils. Very piercing by nature and not helped by her vampire ass canines. Hence her carefully smile and if she talks a lot she covers her mouth.

She's not strictly self conscious about the way she is, though she's not naive about her effect on people, but rather finds it polite to try and hide as many odd quirks in public. A leftover of her secret killer parent(s?) Raising her to hide in plain sight.

Unusually brutal, does NOT fuck about. She doesn't right people so much as slaughter them. Very cautious about engaging with anyone because she doesn't understand the concept of "friendly fighting" and "sparring". ONLY goes for the kill, why raise her blade/hands/teeth otherwise? You don't fight someone unless you want them dead.

Had the fun idea of her being taken in after an incident with a slave ship as a apprentice gardener or librarian with a little flower garden herself. Seen being polite and friendly though still unsettling. And then there's a serious fight and when all is said and done, one of the "defeated" enemies starts to draw a gun and she just

Slams a shovel into their neck, severing it. Same placid smile.

"if you're going to make a mess, finish what you started"

They're naturally horrified this child just committed cold blooded murder and knows she can't stay. It's a miracle nothing's gone wrong until this point with someone so obviously off to the average civilian.

But she's just really pragmatic about murder. Doesn't see the point in making others suffer but also doesn't practice much mercy. Not cruel, very calculating in whether or not she's interested in seeing someone die before acting. Her version of "I like you!" Is basically "if you drew a knife on me, I'd disarm you not gut you".

Takes a horrifying incident for there to be a rule only Marco is allowed to spar or fight her. She dead ass almost slit a dude's throat because she cut his chest pretty good and thought it was kinder to end his suffering. Didn't even occur to her to get a medic. She's... Not usually concerned with her victims surviving, after all. Dead ass offers to end Whitebeard so that none of his sons have to do it themselves or see him suffer prolonged illness. Ready to take on that burden because she doesn't have an issue with the act itself.

Genuinely thinks that's a sweet offer and everyone is horrified.

Idk, it's just a fun image of a Yonko crew trying to teach a budding sociopath tenderness that doesn't involve a killing blow. She can be really nice! But it's definitely tempered with an unnervingly easy willingness to rip someone's throat out with her teeth if needed.

It's... Definitely different from their usual problems. Typically the sweet, familial kindness is buried underneath angst and pride. Not left at home entirely.

Her real kindness is akin to a feral cat. Bringing dead things to their doorsteps and rendering meat stock with unnerving efficiency and comfort for anyone else's comfort.

[crackinglamb]

Questions for fic writers: #7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of? (*bonk*)

From this list.

Just one? All right, lemme think...

Magic as music in the DA setting. (Did I just write out what the acronym Thedas means? Yes.)

Oh man, this got long. I know, I see your totally unshocked face from here. 😁 Also, spoilers for What a Wicked Game to Play.

Now, at least part of this is not worldbuilding I created, since it's broadly and heavily hinted at in-game. Several characters equate magic and music, calling it a symphony, talking about how it sings or hums or gets into the back of your mind like an earworm (ie the Calling and red lyrium, both Blight magic things). I mean, it's called the Chant of Light, and one doesn't recite it, they sing it for goodness sake! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance. Thanks Flemythal. That's not at all ominous to consider regarding what might happen if the 'music' stops.

Anyway, moving on.

All I've done with it is take it to a natural (to me, as both a scientist and musician) conclusion. Music and math are intrinsically linked, after all. Eight notes in a scale, in several octaves, means innumerable combinations. Some are melodic because they have patterns, some are just noise. Imagine playing a segment of pi on a piano. It would have no rhythm, because none of the numbers are a repeating sequence.

But the idea led to this:

There is a scene in WG where Imogen, dreaming in the Fade while her body lies unconscious, maps the mathematical signature of the Veil. And she does it by converting the pattern of magic into soundwaves. Yes, I put trigonometry into a fanfic. Yes, I am unashamed and remorseless about this. To this day I'm proud of the fact that I got to use 'asymptotic' in a sentence.

She discovers some interesting and horrifying things in the course of this. As she is the one carrying the Anchor, she can feel its presence within her, especially while dreaming, because all things are possible in our imaginations. And the Fade is a real place to her, as an MGIT, so her perception of it makes it tangible and malleable even though she isn't a mage. (And there's a bonus worldbuilding thing I'm super proud of.) She discovers that at one time it was a seamless resonance, which makes epic magic performed by people like Inquisitor Ameridan even more impressive. Each Blight has weakened it, distorting the music until the math starts to turn irrational. She discovers that the tempo of the Anchor and the Veil no longer sync up because of all the 'holes' in the music (rifts, thinning, etc). As of right now, she hasn't fully figured out what this means for Solas's plans. But she will; that's why I made her this way.

And finally, she learns that regardless of what anyone, Solas included, does, the Veil will fall because the music of it will simply disintegrate at some point. The Veil is less of a physical barrier than it is a counterpoint of music that 'blocks' the Fade from being part of the waking world. This is a real concept, by the way. Using sound to create images: sonar and radar. Using different sounds to block those images: jamming. Resonance is fun.

For most beings on Thedas, magic comes from the Fade, and some of the 'signal' must still pass through the Veil or there would be no more magic left in the world at all. But if the Veil falls due to disintegration, the consequences are incredibly damning. Magic will be unleashed in unpredictable and cataclysmic ways. She likens this to waves on a beach. Each wave is unique, each leaves a different effect in the sand. Her hypothesis is that if Thedas is the 'sand' here, and the waves are the Fade, without the Veil the world will become uninhabitable due to the disruption of things like gravity and the atmosphere and the fabric of reality. The Veil needs to come down in a controlled manner to prevent this. The steady surge of a tide rather than storm breakers. And she does feel that it needs to come down; Thedas was not meant to be separated from its inherent magical nature forever. The Veil was a stop-gap solution for a specific problem, but now it's choking the world. (And oh yeah, it also failed to contain the problem ultimately, but that wasn't Solas's fault. *points to the Sidereal Magisters*)

Okay, that was a lot of words to say something rather simple: the entirety of WG was really just to set this up for Imogen. The next major arc for her is how it all fits together and what she's going to do about it. I'll be writing that as soon as I figure out what that is.

Thanks for the ask, you knew what you were getting into. *bonk* 😘

[librathefangirl]

Hi Libra! Hope you're doing well!

I forgot to tell anyone but!

Some elements of Meliodas's "more demonic" character in my new au are heavily inspired by you in particular. A demon having a unique system of thermal regulation is straight from that one fic of yours, I thought it was a crime I haven't seen such a concept played out in anything else I've read. I feel grateful to have read so many interesting ideas for how demons and goddesses are, biologically and culturally, and I hope you and the mutuals can feel the respect I have for your work and creativity when I reference your headcanons in my own.

Hope you have lots of fun with the new writing challenge! I am right there with you (spiritually).

Does this mean I'll be updating my fics, especially that first one I haven't touched since April? Hopefully 🥲

we really chose the "good luck with all that" fandom to write fiction for. serious kudos to everyone doing this (the canon character writing and nakaba's weirdness are haunting me.)

Have a lovely day :D

Hiii!! I'm doing pretty good all things considered. Been making some real progress on chapter 2 of A Debt to Pay these past few days, so I'm really excited for when I'll finally be able to share that with you all.

Ahh, I feel so honored 💜 You know I love more demonic Mel, so any time I can inspire more of that is a win in my book!

I think that's one of my favorite things about writing for this fandom and one of the most frustrating things about canon, because we've got this whole fantasy world with all these different races, not to mention a main group that are all different - there's just so much potential there, but so little is done with it in canon. Like, yes there are differences between the races, especially when it comes to what they can do; fairies can fly and transform, giants have their connection to the earth, demons have their dark power and goddesses have their light and healing. But I also feel like there's much more that could have been done, especially when it comes to physically attributes. Like Meliodas' demon form (because yes that still annoys me). We have demons that definitely don't look like humans, and with Meliodas being the son of the literal Demon King, you'd think he would look a little more, idk, demon? I mean, Chandler and Cusack get human-looking forms and definitely-not-human-looking forms, so why lot Meliodas and Zeldris too? And the Demon King as well. For someone with demon in his name, I expected something... more?

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. What was I talking about? Oh right! One of my favorite things about writing for this fandom is that you can take a look at canon and then go "you know what, this is actually what demons and goddesses are like". It really gives you the opportunity to explore creatively. And, while I can only speak for myself obviously, I feel honored if someone goes "this is a great idea, I wanna add it to my story as well, so that I too can explore it!"

YES! I'm excited to get started on this challenge once the poll is done. And I'm really excited to see how everyone's been voting! Because, as I haven't voted in the poll myself, I can't see how it's going. So, yeah, living in the dark until the week is over. But last time I checked I've gotten 30 votes so far - exciting!

Until then I'm working on my other wips. Like I mention, I've made some real progress on A Debt to Pay (finally). This chapter's gonna be a lot longer than chapter 1 too (6 scenes instead of 1!) Not sure how much longer yet though, I've only written about half of the chapter so far and have actually been going at it old school for the most part (so I have no clue about the word count). Yesterday I spent most of the day sitting on my sister's balcony writing in a notebook. Hoping to get it done and up soon! :D

"Does this mean I'll be updating my fics" <- This! I feel this 😂😅 Hopefully we both get some writing done this summer. Excited to read the continuation to that fic whenever you get back to it! Or any other fic you may write/update before then! 💜

Yeah, there's definitely some... some things to think about while writing for this fandom 😅 Agreed, kudos to us all!

Hope you're doing well too!!

[starpaths-writing]

Author’s Note for “known, unknown”

Summary: Seokmin and Mingyu used to date. Which apparently means they can't go back to how they were before, to Mingyu’s frustration.

Link to fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63117052

Wanted to write a longer author’s note/end note re: my brainstorming/concepts for this fic… Usually I would just put it in the fic end notes but then it would be 2 fics in 1 because I don’t know how to stop talking… In order, I’m gonna cover [1] stuff that was actually IN the fic and then [2] my earlier ideas for this fic that never made it into the final piece :)

[1]

College Setting

I don’t have personal experience with schooling in Korea (if it wasn’t incredibly obvious already) so I heavily relied on Reddit posts talking about the college experience/language in SK and, honestly, just modeled the setting after SNU specifically. Why SNU specifically, sorry I don’t have a reason why, I could have just used any of the other big 3 tbh.

The departments and classes mentioned in the fic are ones on SNU’s undergrad website… the “Comm Eff” class DK and Hoshi run off to is “Studies in Communication Effect” in the Dept of Communication, which I shortened because nobody is referring to classes by their full title if it's that long

If you search “SNU korea sweater” on a search engine, you can probably find the uni sweater I was thinking of for this fic :)

The SNU departments I had in mind for each member mentioned in-fic:

Mg – Architectural Engineering. Could also be double-majoring in International Relations?

DK – Education

Hs – double-majoring in Political Science + Business Administration

Sk – Communication

Dn – undeclared, but leaning towards Social Welfare

The enlistment schedule in this fic was one I made specifically to get certain members to be attending uni at the same time for another skgy/gyky story (which is likely never going to be finished tbh) while also matching what I felt the members might do if they enlisted at the usual age, so I just pulled it again for this fic… If anyone’s curious,

Enlist before starting college: Sc, Ww, Wz, Dn

Enlist after 1 yr: Jh, Hs, DK, Sk, Vn

Enlist after 2 yrs: Mg

Js, Jn, & Mh are not included obviously (either does college not in SK or does the 4 years straight through if they study in SK)

With the above schedule, if I did it correctly, then I am able to get everyone from Hoshi and younger (except for Mh) attending uni the same year. 

Perfumes

I am not a perfume/fragrance person, so I truly felt like this ProZD video researching it. No hate at all, but I just never thought about smells like that before and I am interested in reading/smelling more now !! 

Anyway … shout out to the following references for DK’s perfumes !!!!

https://x.com/kyeomties/status/1672667438343757825?s=20 (ref of DK’s perfumes given along with prompt)

https://x.com/kyeomties/status/1796880782276825323 

https://x.com/KEYMRICH/status/1825517143045312999

https://x.com/dokyeom_closet/status/1825449780509872287

https://x.com/mistbornx/status/1826002195453718742

Using the above refs, I genuinely spent days trying to figure out what perfumes I wanted to have DK use in this fic… thank you to Fragrancia and the r/fragrances subreddit for saving my ASS because I cannot describe scents/smells to save my life esp since I have also never actually smelled any of these IRL or was not aware of it if I have……. 

Anyway, below were the options I hopped between. Also I will note in advance I do vaguely discuss my usage of gender conformity/stereotypes, which I feel play a role in AUs where these men may not have as much room to explore gender expression or thoughts.

Le Labo Another 13 – I’ve seen this one around prior to this fic, I think it’s a perfume DK recently revealed he uses? Basically supposedly it’s a “skin perfume” so it draws out one’s personal scent (??)... so either a pre-breakup familiar scent or a post-breakup unique scent. However, the descriptions of this on Reddit did not sound appealing to me (even though most said it smells good IRL albeit needing to get used to at first) and ultimately I do not think college AU DK would be willing to try this one based on the descriptions… I can see idol DK being into this one but I think college AU DK would want to go for a “safer”, universally-liked scent

Byredo Bal d’Afrique – A Reddit comment described this one as “nice on days you want to feel really clean. Like a vibrant, productive person… who has their shit together” which would be good for post-breakup DK’s fronting. I actually don’t remember why I didn’t choose this one, likely because I wanted more of a “sexier” scent to “seduce” Mg

Kilian Playing with the Devil – I really wanted to use this one because of the name and how it would fit into the fic plot (exes getting back together), but 2 reasons why I decided against it: (1) the Fragrancia website labelled it as a women’s perfume. I think the Kilian website did list it as a unisex perfume but I feel like college AU DK would prefer a perfume advertised for men as a man; (2) It feels like this perfume would be worn for date night or something, not an everyday perfume (for someone identifying with conventional masc traits) or casual drinking

Kilian Moonlight in Heaven – the signature skgy/gyky perfume since both of them explicitly stated using it…… I think I didn’t choose this one because DK himself described it as “light, sweet, and romantic” which is not the vibe I wanted. Also if I'm using it for pre-breakup, it's p expensive for a college student who doesn't have much experience with fragrances before LOL, but most high-quality/brand perfumes are expensive I feel (never have actually bought one myself, I wasn't joking when I said I'm not a perfume person)

Ralph Lauren Ralph’s Club Parfum – masculine and sexy based on the positive descriptions. However, based on comments and DK himself, I didn’t feel like this was an everyday/casual-drinking kind of perfume.

Demeter Fragrance Baby Powder (example for DK’s supposed baby powder fragrance) – the pre-breakup perfume DK used. I chose this as the pre perfume because I feel like it’s generally an inoffensive scent and fits the refreshing image I tend to associate DK with. Also I believe it’s like the cheapest perfume in this list?

Dior Sauvage – THE post-breakup perfume that DK is wearing in the fic. I chose this one because (1) universal appeal which would appeal to college AU DK imo, (2) most comments said people (especially average people without strong fragrance knowledge) found it an attractive scent, (3) feels like a scent one can wear everyday and at casual social events, and (4) needed to be distinctly different from his pre-breakup perfume.

Non-Svt Idol Appearances

I don’t usually include non-Svt people based on the fact I actually don’t really follow any other Kpop group like I do Svt, but I had to pull some others in this time because with the enlistment schedule, there was no way I could get Svt members filling in for all roles… I did watch some edits and interviews of the folks below so hopefully I managed to capture their characters somewhat… if not, then uh they’re just OCs who coincidentally share the same names as idols……

Tbf, the choir club members could’ve just been OCs, but I have a weird personal thing where I don’t like putting OCs in fanfics… I was running up against the fic submission deadline by this point so honestly I did not do a lot of research for those two, I’m sorry…… I didn’t want to name-drop because of that but it just felt awkward to never refer to them by name plus it would make Mg seem like a jerk for not bothering to learn their names

Jungkook (BTS) – it’s funny to write his name as “Jeongkook” in this fic because I do use the common stylization normally, but I have to get all my Korean romanizations to match up…

Doyoung (NCT) – for the club member sitting next to DK, I wanted an upperclassman, so I was searching for Kpop idols known for singing… and this was the first guy I managed to find who was not born in the early 1990s or 1997 LOL

Park Jihoon (Wanna One) – I wanted the club member sitting across from Mg to be an underclassman, and when I found out his YOB was 1999 I was like “alright, in you go”. I personally have a soft spot of sorts for this guy because right before I got into Svt, I was into the TV show adaptation of Weak Hero Class 1, and I was SHOCKED to find out the guy playing the main actually used to be an idol who had a cutesy persona… I honestly don’t know if he would join the choir in a college setting but I mean would Sk (could have joined a sports team) or DK (could have joined the archery club, and yes while I'm here I’m gonna plug the renowned college AU fic of weightlifter Mg x archer DK in the off chance you have not read it)? It’s all fiction

If you’re still reading, thank you very much for your interest !!! I really appreciate you reading my fic AND another essay of notes, and please feel free to provide any constructive criticism or thoughts on ao3 or here on tumblr if you want! The rest of this post will cover the brainstorming/initial ideas for this fic so if you’re not interested in that, feel free to exit :)

//

[2]

So I did consider this prompt during round 1 of dkfest, but I ultimately chose another prompt because I didn’t have enough of a plot idea for this at the time :( (yes I am going to self-advertise, if you want to read my round 1 fic it’s here ;) It is 16k words though so if you have time to spare…)

The initial ideas I had for this prompt were more in line with what I think the prompter wanted – a canon compliant fic where DK suddenly decides to rob Mg’s closet and Mg is horny-grip-meme over it. Snippet from that idea below from July 2024 since I likely won’t ever finish this idea:

"You always look good in my clothes, Dokyeom-ah."

Seungkwan's head snapped to him so fast Mingyu was vaguely concerned he had given himself whiplash. Seokmin grinned at Mingyu, either not noticing or ignoring Seungkwan's reaction.

"Then give me all your clothes!" Seokmin declared. With sleeves hanging past his palms, he put his hands on his cheeks, framing his face in a cutesy way. "That way, I can have a bigger closet without having to buy new clothes! Shua-hyung has really been on my case recently."

Mingyu was a weak man. So weak, he really contemplated allowing Seokmin free access to his closet whenever he wanted, free range to take and never give back. But Seungkwan's bugging eyes reminded him that he did have some strength left in him.

"Don't you want your clothes to fit, though?" Mingyu asked. "Most of my clothes look too big for you." 

Ultimately, I never continued with this because I couldn’t figure out an actual overarching plot. So when I returned to this prompt in December and was reviewing the proposed themes… I decided I was going to do… an omegaverse fic………….. Basically it was beta DK stealing alpha Mg’s clothes, Mg taking his clothes back, Mg smelling DK’s pheromones for the 1st time from his clothes (DK wears scent blockers like 24/7) and being really intrigued by it, and the ending is them hooking up post-flirting at a house party or class outing. Basically the thing I wanted to focus on was DK hiding his scent but Mg finds it out and is like seduced by it in a sense? To be honest, not a very engaging fic (to me) in retrospect, AND I felt I was taking the easy way out re: the scents because I KNOW I'm weak in writing that. I also decided not to do it because I have published 2 omegaverse fics already and I do not really want to become an omegaverse fic writer slash publish another one relatively soon after that 2nd one… 

So I went back to the drawing board AFTER I had already claimed the prompt (I still did want to write a fic about the clothes-stealing & Mg liking DK’s scent/fragrances)... and landed on the idea of a non-omegaverse college AU where they are currently exes but not really over each other. I don't prefer to do stories where the main pair are exes (I'm very vanilla), so I don't have much writing experience with this trope :)

(I will also give a shout out to this chanboo exes fic because I did read it around the time I was course-correcting; I genuinely did not have this fic in mind when I was redoing my plot but I was likely unconsciously inspired by it. Anyway, it’s an excellent fic and boochan/chanboo fans should read it)

OKAY, and I’m done now! Thank you again for reading my fic, and for being interested enough to read through this entire post :) Hopefully you found something in here interesting!!

[aplaceofstone]

AO3: faceofstone

(with treats enabled!)

Dear Yuletide Writer,

All prompts and ideas are just suggestions, if you are the kind of Yuletide writer who likes to follow them. If not, cool, they are certainly not the end-all of what I love about these fandoms and characters.

If you like visual prompts, this entire blog is 20% recipes and 80% aesthetics that mostly fit my requested fandoms…

I like found families, oddball friendships, sympathy toward outcasts, characters who fully embrace being outcasts, melancholy, a sense of place, bittersweet accomplishments, and a stubborn flicker of hope in an overall bleak world. Dreamlike atmospheres that aren’t necessarily scary, some sort of reassurance that can be found in the weird and the profoundly unnatural.

My only ship in these three fandoms is Atrus/Catherine. DNW CW/Farley and Margot/Turner.

Myst: any (Atrus, Catherine, Yeesha, Worldbuilding)

30th anniversary! 🥳🍉 how about "30 years later" as a prompt? Counting from whenever you want. 30 years after Myst 1? After Yeesha left Tomahna? After Atrus (or either other nominated character) first made contact with the people of an Age he wrote? After the ice cream expedition first brought cones to the Cavern? Or "celebration" or anything with a celebratory twist. Atrus and Yeesha reuniting after End of Ages? Catherine having a nice day? Yeesha in Chiso Preniv?

I love the whole cast, so feel free to set the fic in any era of canon, following pretty much anyone along with the worldbuilding or nominated characters. If you want to play with, idk, Ri'neref or the Watcher or Gehn or Esher or Zandi or Nelah or some schmuck on Releeshahn or whatever, go for it! I am not particularly well-versed in pre-Fall D'ni shenanigans - I’d be interested in reading something set anywhere in those millennia, just please write it assuming that your reader may not be already up to speed on what was going on historically at the time.

Obduction: any (Farley, CW, Josef, Worldbuilding)

What’s your favorite spot on Hunrath, dear author? What’s your favorite odd item (is it RIUM+’s Myst book or the Unwritten manual)? Tell me a story about it. Or tell me about how it’s like to live in that new world, humans, villein, arai and so very few mofang, and Farley’s plan was what got them there for better and for worse. Or a night at that cute little pub they added with the patch. Tell me about the differences between Farley’s worldview, since Hunrath is all she knows, and CW who misses his life on Earth so much. What’s Josef’s story in this regard? Or focus on any aspect of Earth culture that got lost on Hunrath, or one that got preserved, or how the 19th century habits of some obductees clash with their neighbors who come from a few centuries later, and how it all eventually becomes Hunrath’s unique culture. Or what are your favorite character’s feelings on the Sorian sky hanging on their head? Is there someone in Hunrath who insists on calling the seeds #spacepinecones, to everyone else's dismay? What's the smallest recorded obduction, a tiny seed that barely got the person from hair to toes, and what's the largest?

I don’t ship any combination of main characters but I am interested in all platonic interactions between the main trio (as well as actually seeing them forced to act like a trio. What would it take?). I am also interested in seeing any of the characters who are only mentioned in the various journals getting fleshed out a little: if your story needs an additional character or two, you could see if anyone there suits your needs! (and if nobody there does, actual OCs are welcome)

Firmament: Margot | The Mentor, Worldbuilding

Journals? Got any journals, dear author? Notes? Codes? Anything to make the Realms feel more lived-in, from the perspective of Margot or any Keeper? Or what do they find after the end, how do they settle?

I'm not necessarily looking for a fix-it for Margot, but if you've thought of something, I'm listening. Or at least, is it possible for the survivors to know what she's done for them, and to understand who she was as a person, what she went through? (which I suppose brings us back to "journals?" ;^; ) In general, has anyone ever tried to hack the memory loss situation through the written word? Were songs composed and shared from Keeper to Keeper until at last they made it back to the ears of their author?

While I didn't request Turner, and I'm not interested in fic about his character pre-amnesia, I'd be good with any worldbuilding idea that features him freshly post-canon coming to terms with being a blank slate with such a weighted past.

If you're into any of the irl Founders, I'd also love a deep dive in-universe on what their angle was in sponsoring the expedition. Like, Marx, I have Some Questions, and I'm sure there's plenty to say about the others as well! What they hoped for, which of their ideals were pivotal to the eventual success of the expedition VS which ones could've been thought through a bit better maybe…

[searchingforserendipity25]

hihi - 🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with? 💥find your least kudos’d fic - say something wonderful about it. 💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Hi! Thank you @cuarthol for the asks <3 

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with? 

Ohh, good question! A fic that took some real effort was The Farewell Feast, for both those reasons.

It’s largely Galadriel and Gandalf chatting while Arwen’s wedding is going on in the background, and getting the emotional and thematic weight of their old friendship, Galadriel’s PoV, and the end of an Age just before they Sail was exasperating. Edited it too many times, I can’t tell if it hits any of the desired beats anymore. Much respect for anyone writing Galadriel, she’s so hard to pin down! 

 💥find your least kudos’d fic - say something wonderful about it. 

My least kudosed fic was very easy to find, it’s my last one!

Gifts of the Dawn got doen in a rush a few nights ago for polyshipweek, and it's got one kudos, and one lovely comment so, but that’s not at all unexpected. I wrote it for Tolkien’s little known the Smith of Wootton Major, and for a rarepair at that. I love this tiny book so much - it’s one of Tolkien’s very last works, and he brings in such a weight of understanding and mastery over the same kind of fairy tale logic than is most present in the Leithian, with a wholly unique twist. 

For something wonderful: I think the fic captured some of that intent and logic present in the text, and I had so much fun going slightly wild with the details of the uncanny world-building. There’s a lot more I’d like to develop about the idea of gifts between the Faery and humans, which the fic in hindsight could have done more with, but that only means there’s more to work with in the future, and I thinks this approach does say something new. Not hard, there are very few (but very good) fics as is!

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Concept: Elenwë = Amarië. Elenwë/Turgon/Finrod with background Finrod/Bëor.  Post-reembodiment domestic warfare and getting-to-know-each-other-again between Elenwë and Finrod in Tol Eressëa.

I am aware this sounds like crack, and it does tend a bit to humour (hopefully!) but I am giving it my all very earnestly to flesh it out, and having a good time setting up Elenwë’s PoV as a grumpy, insufferable, murderously ambitious common-born architect.

Very first draft so far, so fingers crossed that the enthusiasm holds up till it's done! Elwing might show up eventually, idk yet. Turgon is definitely not showing up, however; he can be the fridged wife for a while, that’s what he gets for going with round arches for Gondolin instead of sensible Valmarian steeped roofs to deal with the mountain snow.