#eh who knows maybe i'll write something about it anyway if i can put my words together right =w=

[juney-blues]

if i write hard enough i'll finally come up with the post that expertly skewers some of the transmisogynistic shit i see on here so hard that everyone realises it's stupid and learns their lesson and i never have to see another post like it again. just one more post june just one more post come on. keep making yourself miserable i'm sure you'll get through to them with this one, #neverstopposting

[idyllcy]

from one admirer to another : blanched?

pairing: leon kennedy x reader || masterpost: from one admirer to another

synopsis: from one admirer to another, an online penpal service, allows for two people with common interests to write to each other without ever revealing their actual address! Luckily for both you and Leon, you get matched up! What do eggs and Christmas even have in common anyway? sure hope it's that modeling business and NOT that Ada Wong addiction.

featuring: reader as scrambled eggs // leon as christmas

Dear steamed scrambled eggs,

I'm so sorry it took a while to get back to you. I landed and immediately started working full-time again. Ugh, the modeling life does not let you down with bookings. My manager told me something about how I'd be busier from now on since I got to walk in Paris this year. My resume is popping... did I use that right. I can't keep up with all this young people lingo and I'm not even old.

I doubt your face card is that bad if what you brought up in our early letters is true. If nearly all of your friends wanted you to get into modeling, then surely there's a reason. It's not like your friends sound like typical models either, so I can only assume that they're actually higher-ranking models or whatever.

Oh. Yes, after this walk, it seems Ada's officially reached supermodel status. She's about to get so much busier... I miss when she had time to attend her local fan events. Well, maybe I'll be like that one day? Who knows. I'm not even big enough for fan events yet.

I'm also starting to have suspicions of who you are. So, if you end up with a stalker... sorry (for reasons this is a joke) but I do have suspicions. I bumped into that roommate of yours while in France. I could put two and two together, but I'd much rather just bump into you again. Surely you won't dodge me when I ask for your number again?

Which brings me to my next point. I did bring you to Paris with me. I had nearly all of our letters boxed up in my suitcase, and it drove my manager mad. My agent didn't care as much since he was seeing his girlfriend, but my manager was going through it. "You don't need a box that big." he said. Skill issue. That's why he's still single (I am too). Oh, oops. My internet persona seems to be seeping into the way I write to you now. Shame.

Which brings me back to the point. No gift this time? Seems I need to step up my game with you a bit. Mm... should get some help from a friend. Ah, right. Favorite flowers?

See you soon (threat) Christmas

It's not hard to put two and two together. If Ada had pointed out the letter with that kind of look in her eye, then there was definitely something she knew. Considering everything about her, it's not hard to deduce that he's been writing to you. You. Literally. From day one, the universe sent you right to him and he didn't even put two and two together until Ada had made it somewhat obvious. It's a little silly of him considering that he did graduate top of his class in the police academy with perfect grades for everything, but it's fine. He's just rusty, or something.

Well, he can't ask her for your address since you probably live with her, but he can most definitely ask someone else who happens to know the two of you rather well.

"Sancho!" Luis laughs. "Fancy seeing you here, eh?"

"Yeah." He hums, closing his eyes as the makeup artist touches him up. "I had a favor to ask of you, Luis."

"Oh, of me?"

"I'd like to send flowers to the model I walked with last time. Surely you can help me out?"

"By doxing them? I don't think so, sancho." Luis shakes his head. "Told 'em you had a crush on them, but they told me there was no way back then. Seems like I was right, hm?"

"Yes."

"Aye... shame. I can't help much. But, I can extend an invite to a certain something." He sends an image to Leon's phone.

"It's like... August right now."

Luis shrugs. "Invites went out a week ago. You'll be our guest of honor. I'll send you further details as we get closer. You can meet them there, sancho."

Leon doesn't have a particularly good feeling about it, but anything to scare you shitless, he assumes.

"Why are you so willing to help?"

"You're a nice man." Luis waves. "You owe me, though."

"Didn't realize we were keeping count."

prev letter : masterlist : next letter

[pygmi-says-hi]

Hi! I wanted to ask some pointers on humour writing, as well as *ahem* angst/injury writing. I'm writing a story where the very beginning will have some descriptions of a serious injury. After that, it will turn to humour. I KNOW you already did one about blood loss so if there's nothing more to add, you can ignore the injury part of this lol. (Still would love angst pointers)

Anyways, thanks so much! You're amazing for giving these tips!

OH! additionally, advice for emotional writing? I'm currently writing a story where a couple end up breaking up, later becoming friends. I am struggling writing the emotional phone calls and things.

Again, thanks so much!

hello!

SO this is long so there'll be a divider in the middle. I'll do the humor/injury part and then the second bit.

humor

so you think ur a comedian, eh? Humor is really hard to write and I'm gonna be honest, it's something you just gotta roll with. Not everybody has the same sense of humor. Not everybody is gonna pick up on the humor you are trying to write. It's just a fact. That being said, when you consider the intelligibility of your writing, you don't wanna think about that too much.

Like most of my posts, for example. I'm pretty sardonic and affectionately aggressive, which is kind of a theme on tumblr, so most people understand it. If you read the comment section however, you can also pick out the people who just have no fucking clue what's going on.

that's gonna happen! it's fine.

When you are thinking about the kind of humor you want to put in your story, think about the role you want it to play. Are you writing an honest to God, Jim Carrey slapstick or is the comedy a vessel for something more poignant? either is a good choice, but each has its own pointers.

when you are writing in the humor, the biggest guiding point I can say is 'does it make sense?' the audience might not share the sense of humor, but as long as they can clue into the subtext and still follow the story, that's what matters. Otherwise nobody will be able to follow it.

The humor also needs to make sense for the kind of story. Unless you are intentionally playing with social stereotypes, frat boy jokes don't make sense in a dramatic romance. Just like sarcastic 'tumblr' humor won't make sense in a victorian era, even if your main character is quirky.

At the end of the day, it's your story. Whatever makes sense, still pulls off the funny bits, and tells the story is a-okay.

major injury

yes i already did a post but it's okay! I've actually muted the notifications on that one because oh my god.

I digress.

angsty injuries are great because it's a good time for some poetry. I like describing open wounds like moldy fruit because they both smell bad, squish if you step on them, and the bloody pulpy stuff kinda looks like raspberry jam. Or pomegranates! describing it like a pomegranate is actually symbolic because of the association with death.

wow that was graphic.

well anyway, describing injuries that are angsty is best with prose and a lot of really sentimental moments. I also did a post on my other acct @pygmi-cygni that I unfortunately haven't transferred over yet about sentence structure? or maybe it was linked into my grammar post? I don't remember but one of my most recent asks also brought it up; playing with sentence structure to convey emotion.

hope that helps?? i confused myself so maybe not.

emotional writing

lovely stuff.

dig deep into the character mindsets. Do a lot of yes/no up/down. Like character one has one opinion/emotional feeling and the other one directly parallels it. it adds tension and makes the readers pine after the relationship.

the characters are confused too. like, this person they used to share a house and sleep together and eat together and now. don't?

It feels like a gaping wound. They'll feel maybe lost, a bit disoriented. Probably a lotttt of awkward calls. maybe slip in an accidental pet name? Just, really highlight the sad nostalgia. As if you think of something and understand fundamentally that it's gone forever. that kind of acheyness in your chest.

dual POV works great here too to get both sides of the story.

FLASHBACKS. to the relationship, and then to the exact same situation but they're not talking/not like they were. like 'oh I'm making pancakes, we used to make pancakes on saturdays and then cut to the other character eating pancakes alone also.

or something.

oof i want to cry now.

thanks I hope I helped??? it's 6 am I might revisit this lmao

[junemermaid]

nirvana in fire for the meme thing!! 💙

Unironically, thank you for reaching directly into my brain b/c I will never climb out of this hole apparently.

my favorite female character — Nihuang, Nihuang, Nihuang. This show is full of delightful complicated ladies (Consort Jing is fucking fascinating and I could write whole essays on how she works ingeniously in her extremely constrained circumstances to change the fate of the empire), but Mu Nihuang hits my thing for warrior ladies and my thing for tragic love that endures but is not enough, and Liu Tao has the kind of face that writes poems for the camera when you just point it at her. She is strong and tender and temperamental and multifaceted and yeah, have you considered that sometimes the woman is the blorbo.

my favorite male character — Okay, Mei Changsu is my problematic fave but also protect Xiao Jingyan at all costs. This is a harder question because I love both of them, and there's also Yan Yujin and Marquis Yan, the unconquerable father-son conspiracy duo we did not deserve but got anyway, and also Meng Zhi, without whom we would all be even more lost and confused amid all the Schemes. But I am going to say Jingyan, because he's such a Type for me (the repressed yet short-fused Lawful Good character who sticks to his morals but also has to grow beyond his narrow views), and also a Type flawlessly executed in both writing and acting. He suffers beautifully but also I don't want him to.

my favorite book/season/etc — Plot arc, maybe? This is everyone's answer but the Spring Hunt arc is gorgeous and has everything. Nihuang returns! Consort Jing is flawless! There's Strategy and Plotting and Desperate Last Stances! (Everyone gaslights Jingyan to a mildly disturbing degree...) I have too many favourite moments to count, though.

my favorite episode (if its a tv show) — I admit a great fondness for that part where Mei Changsu and Jingyan wait for the rescue team for Wei Zheng to get back. It's functionally just two guys in a room waiting for news, but the incredible tension strung between them and the fact that they're both helpless and can do nothing but wait for time to pass as other people's actions decide their fate make it riveting to me. They are generally characters who always have ways and means, but there, they're at the mercy of time. Together. Something something this scene is the show in a microcosm.

my favorite cast member — Honestly I don't know enough about the actors to say, but they all seem like they had a great time filming the series.

my favorite ship — As anyone with eyes can see, jingsuhuang is where I plant my flag, but I am pretty much a multishipper. The OT3 compels me because both Jingyan and Nihuang have such amazing chemistry with MCS and also because I feel like either of them alone runs the risk of being almost... overwhelmed by his sense of purpose and his stubborn self-denial. It balances better with three. Plus, as a friend perfectly put it, two of them is great but what about the spice (narrative, not merely erotic)? Eh. I could write a novel. I also enjoy Mu Nihuang x Xia Dong, Mei Changsu x Lin Chen, Yan Yujin x Xiao Jingrui (x Gong Yu), and pretty much anything if the writer has put a compelling spin on it. My shipping philosophy in this fandom is that I'll try anything once, and twice if I like it.

a character I’d die defending — Obviously, Consort Jing, but also, protect Xiao Jingyan at all costs. He has, after all, never done anything wrong in his life.

a character I just can’t sympathize with — I don't think there are any in NiF? Many of them do horrible things but the show generally always lets me understand why. Even its villains are written as people. (That said, Xia Jiang is the worst, and the Emperor reaches similar depths of infamy before the end for me.)

a character I grew to love — Lin Chen crept up on me! I think it was the 40-episode absence after the dramatic introduction in ep. 1 that made me feel like he was stealing scenes and intimacy from characters I had spent 40 episodes watching (while they failed in various ways to get close to Mei Changsu). He is also, ah, the kind of comedic that doesn't usually works for me. But rewatching a little, reading some fic, and thinking about it further, he's a vital part of the story and someone that Mei Changsu sorely needs, i.e. a friend he made after the Meiling massacre, who won't always reflect him against the image of Lin Shu but cares for him as he is now.

my anti otp — IDK? There are various awful men in this show that the women around them Do Not Deserve. Poor, poor Consort Jing, working herself into the Emperor's favour. So maybe it's just that some of the canon marriages are really sort of terrible.

[thessalian]

Thess vs The Last Demos

Yeah, I skipped a movie, but this title makes more sense given that these are the last of the Steam Next Fest demos I picked up.

Artist Life Simulator - This is a card game in the style of Book of Hours, sort of. You're building a reputation as a painter, with all sorts of various cards to denote feelings, actions, inspirations, etc. It's not exactly Zen, since it requires a fair bit of thought to figure out next steps, but it's definitely interesting.

30 Birds - This one's a little hard to describe. It's sort of a puzzler, sort of a rhythm game, sort of interactive story... The art style is gorgeous and they took a very unique approach to area traversal and ... I guess background is the way to put it. It's another one where I got to the end of the demo and was very disappointed because I wanted more game, and honestly, any game that does anything that unique probably deserves to be talked up.

Death and Taxes - basically, take Papers, Please, and make it both more and less grim at the same time? Also easier to figure out what you're doing, and at least in the early stages of the demo, no time limit. You're basically a Grim Reaper who's deciding who lives and who dies based on dossiers that get faxed to you. There are obviously consequences for not fulfilling quota, or not fulfilling it properly (or just going berserk and marking everyone for death), and getting those updates on your phone at the start of a new day is interesting.

Hollow Cocoon - Yeah, I had a feeling this one was going to be a nope right away. Got mentioned because Silent Hill 2, but is first person and there's a lot of bounce when you walk (worse yet when you run) and I had to turn it off after several seconds. Which is a shame, because gaki felt like my jam, but ... eh. The number of games I had to skip demos for because first person or roguelike or ARPG was staggering. You think I have a lot of demos now? Imagine if I wasn't disabled. Anyway, probably worth checking out but I cannot.

Plot Twist - I was doing these in more or less alphabetical order, but this demo has been updated three times today so I figured I'd get it done now because the updating is just getting annoying. It's an interesting sort of writing-career simulator, and I like it more than I expected to. Another one where I got to the end and went, "Nooooooo!" So I guess it goes high up on the wishlist. Amazing the demo's getting that many updates when its release date is Q1 2025...

LightBreak - Musical puzzle game ... and not-so-musical puzzle game. Fair bit of messing with the set dressing. It's a "Coming Soon", and looks like a nice little Zen thing, but not a priority the way some of the others are.

Lore Restore - Another code-words thing in the style of Prose and Codes, but you can never have too many of those.

Magic Inn - Looks cute, as another eatery management sim, but the keyboard refused to work. Soooooo I can probably live without it, given how many games like that I already have on the wishlist, and I liked Critter Cafe better anyway.

Pilo and the Holobook - This one's more my jam than I thought. I'm a sucker for games where I can collect stuff, and this one's all about that. Basically you're this adorable little fox dude who's apprenticing for a scientist, scanning things in a holobook to get stickers as a research aid. And of course its release date is To Be Announced, even if I kind of want it now. Then again, there are enough games that I want Right This Second Now that come out in November that I should probably be grateful.

A Stranded Spark - Well, if the person who made this game wanted it to be played, maybe they should have had the demo actually do something other than talk to people who are not interested in talking back and attempting to interact with things that do nothing. I don't know what this game is about beyond being cute and some wonky-ass camera angles, but I think I'll pass.

Sword and Seek - Hidden object game with added "messing with the set dressing" mechanics. That's another one where I got to the end of the demo and went, "Noooooooooooooo!" I seem to have saved the best ones for last.

Welp, that's the autumn Next Fest for this year, anyway. Surprisingly few duds - but then, I've generally got a good grasp of what I shouldn't even be trying to download or demo at this point. I'm definitely going to have to whittle down the wish list, though, because that list is nuts. I mean, okay, about 70 of them aren't even out yet, and a few are DLC, but still.

Right. This has been a moderately relaxing day. I do love the Next Fest, I have to say. Not that I don't excavate demos from Steam normally. Just having that focus on them makes it easier. Now I should contemplate dinner and probably descale the kettle. You know, adulting stuff. To make up for the fact that I spent a fair bit of the day asleep and then more of it playing video game demos in my pyjamas.

[trashmammal69]

I love your mitsuru and yukari fic had me pacing around my room (aaaaaah the meeting back up again !!!!) (Kotone!!!!!!)

Ahhh!! Tysm!! Also, HOLY SHIT I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while! Did not expect writer's block to hit me so hard! But I *have* started writing ch 3! As an apology for the uhh... delays... (and as thanks for the kind words!) you're getting an extra special sneak peek at the opening of ch 3! It's still wip, but I hope you enjoy, and that it *somewhat* makes up for the drought. Enjoy!

Yukari hopped up the stairs of the dorm and stepped inside. She was greeted by the familiar ambiance of the building, the cheap fluorescent lighting and mildewy wallpaper making her feel at home. She made sure to give Koromaru a fond pet and kiss on the forehead before strolling into the lounge. The only person there at the moment was Junpei, who was mashing buttons on a small handheld.

"Yo, Yukari! 'Sup?"

She sat down on the sofa across from him, and dropped her shoulders, "Not much..."

He looked up from from his game, "Somethin' on your mind?"

Yukari bit her lip, wondering if Junpei was really the best person to talk to about this, but she replied anyway, "Um, Junpei, what does it feel like when you talk to Chidori?"

At the mere mention of her, Junpei's face lit up, "Chidorita, eh? Well, I'm always excited to visit her, obviously, and each time we talk, I feel a bit antsy... but like, in a good way!"

"Huh..." Yukari fidgeted with her hands.

"Anyway, why do you ask?" He gasped, and put on a sing-songy voice, "Yukari, do you *liiike* someone?"

She groaned, "I don't know! Maybe? I mean--no! I think..." She put her head in her hands, "ugh, this is so confusing..."

Junpei chuckled, "Tell ya what, you tell me how you feel about him, and I'll use my *Ace Detective* skills, and give you my expert opinion."

Yukari snickered, "Alright, 'Ace Detective' I guess I'll tell." She drummed her fingers along her knees as she explained her feelings, "Um, this is *so* embarrassing, but... I'm always really looking forward to seeing them. Which is something I don't really feel about people? But with them, it's different. I feel so light every time we hang out, or even just talk. It makes me happy, just being with them."

She looked up, and was met with a shit-eating grin plastered across Junpei's face.

"Dude, you have got it *bad*."

Yukari leaned her head back over the sofa, and sighed, "I hate to admit it, but you're probably right."

"So," he said, "who is it?"

She considered turning back now, considered waving the details aside and never bringing up the matter again. But... she had already come this far...

"It's..." Yukari groaned. "I can't believe *you're* the first one I'm telling about about this."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" He sputtered.

Yukari shot him a glare.

"Know what? Never mind. Continue."

"It's..." She winced. "It's... a girl..."

Instantly, a toothy smile formed on Junpei's face, "Oooooo, you got a hankerin' for the ladies, huh?"

"Ugh, shut it, Stupei! You got a problem with that?!"

He laughed, and raised his hands defensively, "Not at all! You should like what you like, y'know?"

He leaned forward, "So, what lovely lady has caught your eye?"

After rolling her eyes, she relented, "It's... Kotone."

Junpei seemed elated, "Dude! I totally get that! She's super sweet, and a real cutie, to boot."

Yukari flushed, "Jeez, you don't need to lay it all out like that!"

"But you do agree, right?"

"I mean, yeah... she *is* really cute."

He beamed, "Man, this is great news! You two would be perfect together! Oh! Can I be your wingman?!"

"Not in a million years, Junpei."

"What?! I'd be great at it! I'd even teach you some of my pick up lines!"

She snickered, "I don't know what's worse, your pickup lines, or the fact they might actually work on Kotone."

"Now you're talking!" He laughed, "Seriously though, you need any help with her, I'm your guy." He shot her double finger guns and a wink.

"I'll think about it...."

"I'm not hearin' a no!"

"You know, you are super annoying sometimes." She chuckled. "But... thanks. I think talking about this really helped."

"Anytime, dude."

Before heading upstairs, she snapped around and jabbed a finger at him. "Oh, and if you tell *anyone* about this, it's curtains, got it?"

Junpei made a zipper motion over his mouth and gave a thumbs up, "Your secret's safe with me!"

"It better be! I mean it!"

[thedevilsmemes]

ASTARION ANCUNIN QUOTES ~ BALDUR'S GATE 3 SENTENCE MEME!

"Hello, darling. Don't be shy, I promise I not to bite until we've been formally introduced."

"The tadpole's influence broke his dominance over me, and now I can finally pursue the one thing I've hungered for these long dark years."

"I'll be the last thing the bastard ever sees."

"Given that my choices were 'eternal life' or 'bleed to death on the street', I took him up on the offer."

"It was only afterwards I realized just how long 'eternity' could be."

"By the Hells. Sex, my dear. A night of passion."

"I'm out of wine and flowers, so I hope an introduction will suffice."

"And I wish I was drinking out of the skull of everyone who's ever wronged me. Life is tough."

"I've been waiting. Waiting since the moment I laid eyes on you. Waiting... to have you."

"Yes darling, that's what we call a lie."

"All I want is a little fun, is that so much to ask?"

"Why hello. Welcome to my humble party."

"Oh, we're lying to each other now? Excellent."

"But... you're no stranger now. Just strange."

"I hate it. This is awful."

"Wait! Don't interrupt them. Let me do it. They sound disgusting."

"I don't know, I'm sure a vampire spawn could still rip out your heart."

"My, My. Who knew our friend had so much blood in them?"

"Oh, you're such a sweetheart."

"I'm just glad you're being sensible about these revelations. I was worried people might turn up with torches and pitchforks."

"Although, there's still time."

"I already apologised. What more do you want? Unless you're looking for another nibble?"

"Yes, darling? Do you need something?"

"What in the sweet hells were you THINKING activating that lance, I was right there!"

"Next time? No no no, if there is a 'next time' I'll be the one aiming the all-powerful weapon."

"Although, I do appreciate you trying to fix your mistake, just don't do it again!"

"It's just that I happen to be a... what's the best way to put this? A vampire?"

"Oh my honour, the only thing on my mind, is depraved carnal lust."

"You couldn't wait ten seconds before being an absolute freak."

"Oh, good, puns. Because clowns aren't enough of a horror already."

"What? Was it something I said?"

"Really? - Anything in particular?"

"Now, I can't help but notice that one of us is positively drenched in blood. So..."

"At least the smut peddlers of Sharass' Caress will have a field day writing erotic verse about us when we're both dead."

"Hundreds? Urgh, it'll take hours to kill them all. She/He's right, we should just go."

"Oh? Then what do you want?"

"Five seconds into this relationship and I already want to break up with you."

"Oh the one hand, killing Gortash will be fun. On the other, Halsin can be very annoying."

"The man can't stay quiet about 'enjoying the freedom of nature's gifts'. I bet he'd outlaw clothing if he could."

"Good Morning. Thank you for not killing me the other night."

"Of course, what fun! I'm going to fucking kill you."

"I am. And beautiful - not enough people mention that."

"Hmm. Hmm. Thank you for helping me. It was very kind."

"I can't even tell if any of you are acting strange because you've been replaced or because this group is full of weirdos!"

"So... I was wondering if maybe - perhaps - you might be able to..."

"Can you read what's on my damn back? Please?"

"Well, hello... Looking for a cuddle?"

"What are you? No. We are not jumping down there!"

"Oh - eh - Hello again?"

"Easy now. Let's not do anything Hilarious."

"You have a manner of irresistible desperation about you. I like it."

"I'd trust a devil over a vampire any day. I think he likes us."

"Oh, bravo! Encore!"

"Why she sounds positively demented."

"I love it! let's tell her everything!"

"Don't be touchy. I'm sure he meant 'better off dead' as a compliment."

"I'd shake her hand, but she can still snap me in two, so... probably safest to skip it."

"Anyway, it's a brand new day. I'm sure we'll find lots of people for you to kill."

"I must see this. Don't you dare say no."

"Well, this seems like a lovely little spot. The sense of impending doom aside."

"I suppose it was only a matter of time until [ insert name ] took vengeance."

"For the Lady/Lord of loss, She/He does not like losing."

"Come to kill me again, darling?"

"Guilty as charged. Sometimes literally."

"What? No! Don't you dare! This isn't funny!"

"Huh, thank goodness, I was almost worried."

"Nice as it is, she still doesn't have the best hair in the camp."

"Well, I mean... kind of? It's a long story, honestly."

"You'll get back to me? This is important, devil! When?"

"It's not enough we have a gallery of villains to look out for, but now we could be infiltrated by a shapechanger?"

"But you're serious about this? About... us?"

"Tailor's mannequins? I never figured [ insert name ] for a follower of fashion."

"Well done again on besting Baal and all that. It was very twee."

"You filthy devil. I'm shocked."

"Haha! That's - Oh, you're serious."

"Well, of course we can leave him, it's the easiest thing in the world. We just have to keep on walking."

"Well, at least you purr for me..."

"The thing that will decide my fate forevermore? Yes, it has been on my mind, why?"

"Who knows how long before the others go feral without us there to guide them?"

"Let. Me. Go! - Ah... Hello!"

"No, as much as I'd like to become a Lord, ruling over the Underdark's vampire spawn, we have unfinished business with the mind flayers."

"I'm glad you had your fun then. I am here to provide an endless array of delights."

[snarkythewoecrow]

20 Questions for fic Writers!

thanks for the tag @mammameesh @underwater-ninja-13 💙

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

184

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,391,678

3. What fandoms do you write for?

9-1-1 (mostly buddie), MCU, dabbled in Torchwood, Sherlock, HP, and Old Guard, oh and supernatural for a while too, though I don't have a lot of my supernatural and Torchwood moved to ao3, something I've been working on since like 2012 (there aren't that many more to move, I am just amazing at procrastinating)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Overall, these are my highest: Unexpected Finds (MCU, irondad)- 5 206 If I Could Do It All Over, I'd Find You Sooner (MCU, stuckony)- 2 593 emergencies only (MCU, irondad)- 2 154 between wanting and needing (MCU, stuckony)- 2 087 abuse at your hands, broken at your feet (MCU, irondad)- 1 960 But since I'm mostly writing 9-1-1, I'm going to include my top two from there, cuz I can: I choose you, Pikachu (or the ways two idiots finally say you’re mine) - 1 595 sometimes an onion really is just an onion (and that’s all there is to it) - 1 302

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

I try really hard to respond, but sometimes I get behind, and there are times when I'm low on spoons and I put them off, and that doesn't mean I don't love them all, seriously, people who comment are so generous and sweet, but it does mean that sometimes they will get a random reply from me two years later lol

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

honestly, not super sure, cuz I can't remember them all off the top of my head, but I guess the one I wrote for irondad, where peter was using hard drugs and it didn't end with a promise of things turning out good, hugs didn't fix things in that one

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

no idea? they are mostly all happy to some degree

8. Do you get hate on fics?

eh, not often, but sometimes, more in the mcu than other fandoms

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes, and mostly gay, many kinks, from vanilla to wtf are you even writing type things, but i do seem to lean toward bdsm dynamic in smut, daddy kink often, and a/b/o (tho i really love writing non-traditional dynamic, a lot of omega/omega and alpha/alpha)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

yes, and probably sam wilson/harry potter, honestly, I really still adore that one, it worked, I swearm, harry was older and fucked up with ptsd, and sam was awesome, as usual

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of? well, i mean, i've once found them posted on small fan sites serving other countries and tbh, it didn't bother me too much, like it wasn't great, but like, hey, life's too short and they obvs liked them, and they did give me credit, sorta

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yeah, a handful over the years, maybe 5 on ao3? and i know i gave others permisson over the years, but they never linked back so idk

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yeah, totally, done it a bunch and had fun

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

steve/tony, then stucky is a close second, like they are the true standbys, I'll always love them, but I have a armada of other ships that also serve me well

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

we don't talk about bruno, dude

16. What are your writing strengths?

description maybe, or writing emotional shit? and like with dialogue, I'm either a god of it or a pathetic feral creature that has never spoken aloud

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

depending on the day, the same as what is written in prior answer

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

honestly, i try not to do it anymore, cuz I don't like making it harder for readers in anyway to consume, so unless I can keep it short and clear enough that you can still gather what they are saying without knowing the language, then I leave it out. I will try hard to find other ways, and i'm not super into translations posted after the text, looks clunky, and not super into translations at the end, but yeah, to each their own

19. First fandom you wrote for?

dudes, i dont know when i ate last, no idea, like maybe some MASH or like Highlander in notebook as a kid? probably my first shared was interview with the vampire, resulting in much anxiety as a teen

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I'm picking from more recent fics, and I kinda love this one atm: sometimes an onion really is just an onion (and that’s all there is to it)

tagging @buckybeardreams @limetimo @painted-doe @psychiccatpanda and anyone else who wants to do it!

Blank copy under cut for you to use 💙

20 Questions for fic Writers!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

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

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

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

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

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

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

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

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

[anangelcalledinquisitor]

Can we have spoilers for the SCP fic? Pretty please??

If not then here are some random asks! (you can answer them anyway either way hehe)

What are your favorite places to go when you have the time (like museums, malls, aquariums, parks, gardens, cafes, etc)

Do you have any intricate dreams or nightmares you remember well?

What got you into writing?

Are you into any shows/games/books?

Sugar, honey or neither?

What's something that made you smile today, if anything?

Hmmmm if this is who I think it is, I'll give you exactly one spoiler. Directly.

Favorite places to go: Libraries, malls, museums, and aquariums/zoos! I am allergic to a lot of plants so parks and gardens are less fun, but I do like amusement parks? Anywhere I go with my wife, really...

Dreams: I have recurring dreams/nightmares around my childhood home, actually. I lived in the basement for a few years (I was put down there to be out of sight of my mom's bf), and my room was next to the furnace room, and the doorknob didn't work so you had to keep it shut with this hook-and-eye latch, and sometimes one of the kids would be assholes and would kick the door open (instead of, ya know, undoing the latch) and I would have to make a new hole for it so the door could be shut because THE DOOR WOULD CREAK OPEN AND SHUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and that shit is terrifying, okay??? Anyway, so I have nightmares about The Thing That Lives in the Furnace Room, where I have to go down and shut the light off in the furnace room and shut and latch the door, and it would eventually open again and I would have to go back down again. Frequent nightmare of mine.

What got me into writing: Originally, Digimon. Then I just started having these recurring stories with my friends and those turned into original characters and then new fandoms and hyperfixations... well, I'm here now.

I'm into a lot of K-dramas and C-dramas right now, I really like fantasy stuff with happy endings and magic. I'm also very into LGBT fantasy, especially lesbians. It's so nice to see lesbians getting happy endings omg...

Sugar, usually. Honey tends to have a floral taste to it, which I'm not a fan of, and there's always a risk of a mild reaction, so real honey is kind of eh. But I like raw clover honey in my chai tea cider drinks!

What made me smile: Listening to my wife's laugh. I had a pretty rough start to my day, and my wife laughed at something my cat was doing, and it made me feel so warm and light in my heart. I've gotten so many wonderful and lovely comments on my latest fic, and I'm trying so hard not to give in and turn it into a longfic (yet)! I have a couple of little ideas brewing, but not a ton, and no overarcing storyline yet, so, maybe later for that. My duckies were all warm and sweet today, and they always know how to cheer me up when it's being a rough one. And tonight, my wife laughed because I had a total English fail (English is my first language, so sadly this was all on me) and said the wrong word and we both laughed. So I had a lot of smiles today, and I appreciate them all.

[blankticket]

7, 17, 19

7) If you could “borrow” one aspect of Vash and apply it to yourself or your own life, what would you borrow?

plant powers tbh. wrt the lifespan thing, for the record im pretty staunchly anti-immortality anti-singularity etc. bc as i've made vash say as much, none of us will need forever. plus any sorta tech like that if it's ever possible is going to prioritize, if not exclusively save, those who can afford such a thing. but anyway the idea that i would get to live for as long as i want is appealing.

i'm not thinking of a longer lifespan as a safety net for failures, cause i think i'd appreciate being imperfect with a longer lifespan, but rather thinking of it in terms of how i could then guarantee there's more good that i'll be putting out into the world. i'd probably have to take a page out of vash's book and travel around a lot so that people don't realize the same 20-something's been around for centuries but eh. idk maybe my feelings would change 300 years in, who knows

17) Why do you think you connect to Vash?

made a face like i licked a lemon reading this question bro i wont lie. the same reasons i connect to vash are the same reasons i avoided trigun for many many years. i was afraid (trigun maximum) vash's character would hit too close to home. particularly the twin stuff, even before knowing that vash would lose his own brother, too—being a lifelong lone twin myself. in comparison to maximum, stampede emphasizes much more on the twins, and even besides that, a lot of vash's deal in stampede feels uncannily similar to my own experiences. um you ever bump into a fictional character you feel completely #read by and just want to fucking run and leave and forget for as long as you can. well. yeah it was like that except now i'm much more able to handle this shit so i'm here now

sharing the same personality as him (in vash so far i definitely see a lot of who i used to be as well, when i was so much more of a self-deprecating people-pleaser bc i believed so much in my own worthlessness), the twin bereavement thing, wearing glasses (myopic deadeye), preferring revolvers (when he spun the cylinder while loading bullets in i was like omgg hes just like me fr), thinking nicholas d wolfwood is hot, all these connections definitely inform my interpretation and portrayal of vash. and i kin the guy but that's obvious enough

19) If you had to judge Vash and sentence him to a “fair” fate, what would your judgment be? Would you punish him? Reward him? How?

ok in my opinion. and also this is going to sound hilariously ridiculous without the context of trigun maximum but whatever. it looks like orange is ultimately going to turn vash into a giant apple tree or otherwise use the last of his lifespan to save his brother. i'm not completely set on how i feel about that, given that not even a little teaser for the final phase season is out yet! but for how i feel right now at least, i think that fate is pretty fitting. can't say whether that's exactly either a reward or punishment though

spirale-wise it's so much harder to say lol, i'm not writing vash keeping an ultimate endpoint in mind or ever considered one for him…

hm. well, if i come up with something, it'll be a hypergiant challenge deal. i have considered doing something like that for him 2 years after last year's giant challenge, to mirror how in-canon the timeskip is 2 years post-julai. but idek if i'll still be writing him by then. stay tuned?

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

Im here because ive had Reimu thoughts and been wanting to make a post about since a few days ago. By some psychic chance, that ship tierlist happened and gave me further excuse to brain on it.

(Speaking of, on twitter i had fun doing that ship tierlist purely for reimu ships and tweeted that. And then i did it for every pairing on the list but im hesitant to reveal what ships im eh on so if anyone cares to know they can just ask me personally...!)

Anyway, heres me writing out a lot (But Not All) possible reimu character dynamics, be it romantic, platonic, or something else, going roughly by game order or by 'factions' because this is just the kind of thing i think about on the regular

So first among sdm, i like reimu/sakuya, thats a ship ! There's a Lot of reimu pairings where its the grumpy/begruding reimu with another who is unflappable and shady (yukari The biggest example but i'll get to her) so sakuya is just one of many that fill that role. So while its a 'common' dynamic among reimu pairs, what makes this unique is what it offers for sakuya. She's an odd person, the most youkai-like among a group of youkai despite being the only human, and even now can throw them off guard with her quirks. And i think while the likes of patchouli and remilia have long since come to find that charming about sakuya, and the likes of marisa and youmu would be put off even if they otherwise like her, reimu would be the only one who like, doesnt care or think sakuya 'strange' at all. The shrine maiden treats humans and youkai equally after all, and she's hardly a 'normal' human herself, so she doesnt see anything sakuya does or the way she acts as 'strange' for humans. Just a pair of normal women n_n

Speaking of remilia, i dont ship but i do think she and reimu have a funny longstanding relationship as frenemies. Remilia was one of, if not The very first to start regularly visiting the shrine after causing a headache-inducing incident after all. And reimu best represents the wonderful parts that gensokyo has to offer remilia and her whole crew (Marisa too but the witch regularly visits the mansion anyway)

Also while its on my mind, i know there are a few out there who like reimu being a sort of surrogate sister to flandre. The only reason i dont really think much of that myself is because i already completely assign that role to marisa (and uh, i guess okina now too?!)

I'm kinda only mentioning Youmu now because i will be mentioning every other playable character and itd feel weird to exclude her, but its a pretty straightforward friendship in my mind. Both youmu and reimu are (usually, at least on surface) dutiful and semi-serious about thier jobs, and get along decently. I think youmu's always looking to improve herself and sees reimu in particular as a standard to surpass, despite being very aware of all the shine maiden's many faults. 🤔

Also i think it'd just be fun if reimu gets along fine with yuyuko and doesnt ever get irritated with her antics the same way she would with yukari.

Wait back up, i totally forgot to mention Marisa at the start of all this. Uuuuummm!!! Maybe controversial but reimari isnt a romantic ship that excites me much, if at all? 😅 i mean its fine! They've known each other forever! They see each other almost every other day! They're the best of friends who consult one another for almost anything! They're rivals and compete every incident! But its like... they're so close and solid and understanding that i feel it really limits the kind of interactions or stories you can do with them. No hate but 99% of reimari fanwork is like super basic stuff where they enjoy each others cozy company. Not saying its impossible to introduce spice or conflict into it, but it can be hard to not make it ooc, at least in my perspective. 😅😅 so i acknowledge it as a ship but im not looking to get on board or anything.

Fellow magician Alice is a fun pairing too for Reimu. Now mariali takes 'priority' to me, but i do also like reiali. Theres a lot of similar beats, like theyve known each other forever (even though Reimu forgot because shes bad with names and faces of those who dont regularly visit 😅), and alice also sees reimu (alongside her fellow magicians) as someone to challenge. the difference i think is that reimu's apathy towards any sort of 'rivalry' genuinely irritates Alice who already has insecurities about her abilities as a youkai magician. So kinda similar to reimari and even mariali, except alice is a little more... neurotic when it comes to reimu, maybe? Might need to cook this one in the brain a bit more but i do like it! (And then reimariali has plenty of potential just as ship in of itself but also for messy complicated and unrequited different feelings across all three of them... 🤔)so...

okay really quick regarding the yakumo crew as a whole. Reimu thinks Chen is cute enough, like a niece. And Ran... There's a lot i could imagine under the layers where Ran is on the surface a lot more straight-to-business about the barrier duties compared to Yukari, and Reimu can appreciate that straightforward approach and respects it. I dont think i have it in me right this moment to come up with more on the spot, but there's Something there if i ever dig deeper.... ⛏️❓️

and oh my god finally yukari. 👁 Classic ship for me... Now let me just get one thing out of the way, one common idea among fans is that yukari played an active part in reimu's upbrining and training as a shrine maiden, basically playing a mentor/guardian role since she was young. I'm not against this idea in a vacuum, but for reasons which I hope are obvious, i dont subscribe to that headcanon. Now instead of trying to summarise yukarei, how about i just spin a tale...

You're the great youkai sage, Yakumo Yukari, trying to maintain gensokyo for the sake of all youkai. You've got lots of youkai allies ( some of whom you are in love with and some of whom you are divorced with but lets not get into that right now...). You also 'work' with humans on occasion but being a youkai means you gotta make sure to be exceptionally mysterious around em and keep em guessing 😎

Other than the child of miare, the most important human is the hakurei shrine maiden, who maintains the barrier among other duties. You're always aware of generally how the shrine maiden is doing through hearing about it from others, but otherwise theres no reason to actually get involved or meet them personally. Would be weird if youkai were seen interacting with the shrine maiden after all!

One day you hear about the latest shrine maiden, named reimu, helping to put together some kind of 'spell card' system? You go along with the idea, signing it off with the other sages, though it sounds like a fanciful idea and you have doubts if it'll truly change anything in the longrun. The nature of humans and youkai is pretty set in stone after all, so you have to wonder about the shrine maiden's mindset behind such a thing? And later, apparently she solved an incident with these rules too? Maybe you'll wait like another decade or so before you'll find out more about this reimu yourself.

You dont need to wait though because soon after yuyuko's big incident calms down and you think theres nothing more to worry about. That shrine maiden (and two other humans) have crashed into your home, harassed your shikigami, and picking a fight with you just as you woke up from a nap. And then after a chaotic fight, she yells at you to do your job.

So all around, a really striking first impression is left on yukari, who comes to realise, maybe not right away all at once, but gradually, that reimu is not only special, but she can be trusted for any kind of trouble that befalls gensokyo.

Tangent but i wish i could have been there with others during uLiL's release when reimu's urban legend is the gap woman and i could have been like 👀. And that was nothing compared to later acof where the classic barrier team end up being the ones to resolve the incident. The strongest pair?!?! Reimu actually said that!!?!

Anyway this post is too long i'll have to get into Reimu and Literally The Entire Rest Of Gensokyo in other posts later... if i feel like it 🫠

[perexcri]

As a fic writer, how do you stay positive and not stress yourself out with constantly comparing?

I've been really struggling with that. I start spiraling when a certain chapter doesn't get as many comments as usual, comparing my hit counts and kudo counts to other fics, and it's really not healthy but I'm struggling with knowing how to stop, how to just be happy and proud of the response I've gotten. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

ahhh hello anon!! apologies as this will probably be long alsjdlkasj, so i'm gonna put my answer under the cut~ 💜💜💜

first of all, i'm sorry that's something you're struggling with right now, and i'm here to tell you that i struggle with it all the time too, as i'm sure almost all fic writers do. which isn't to say your pain isn't any less - just know that you're not alone :]

it's something i struggle with, but tbh, i think it's just gotten less painful because of lots (and i mean LOTS) of exposure to it lol. half of the time i'm posting on ao3, it's me stumbling up to the posting portal's doorstep with a bloody nose and two black eyes, barely able to stand on my own, waving my fists around going "yEAH i can go another round!!"

here, let me tell you a story:

ok, so i started writing this fic called to hell and back again in like August of last year, right? and it was a silly little byler fic for me - just picture me typing away at my keyboard and going "hahahah but what if they got trapped in the UD but it was like a ROMCOM??" anyway, flashforward three weeks later, and suddenly it starts getting a lot of attention, and i start seeing it shared around. and then, for the rest of my time posting that fic, it had a lot of attention. i got very used to each of my updates getting like 20 comments, bare minimum. it was exciting, but also scary, because i was starting to go through a Not Great time in my own mental health, and i could see the cliff coming the closer that fic drew to a close.

so that fic ended with a bang, it had a lot of attention, etc. but before i'd finished writing it, i had come up with another fic idea and started working on it. i thought the concept was super interesting, and i was really excited about the emotional themes i was gonna get to explore in it, which, coming off of to hell and back again, where i had been so scared for it to end, i was excited about because i had something to look forward to again! plus, a bunch of people had commented on to hell and back again and said they'd gladly read anything else byler-related i would write. so, i was excited, wrote 70k of a fantasy au, and when i posted the first few chapters, i didn't hear a whole lot back. some, but definitely not as much as i had been used to (even though that other fic was more an anomaly than the norm tbh). every update just made me feel awful because i felt like people were looking at this thing that i'd put a lot of my heart and soul into and going "eh i think i'll pass." which is fine, of course, because i shouldn't expect people to automatically read something i write simply because i wrote it, right? it didn't change the amount of pain and embarrassment i felt posting it and maybe getting one or two comments, though

but i kept posting!! at that point, i'd worked too hard on it to give up on posting it just yet, so i kept it up, and i was grateful for the people who did leave kind words, even if i truly did feel embarrassed crawling onto ao3 once a week and posting chapters in a fantasy au it felt like very few people actually cared about. eventually, i hit a point where i was stuck on the writing, and i figured that a lot of people weren't reading it anyway, so what if i just let it fade out, yeah?

well, then my own mental health woes kinda leveled out (medication is a beautiful thing✨), and even though that fic still wasn't getting a whole lot of engagement, i kept working on it, and a few people did eventually find it that became super invested in it. this fic is a flower that resembles you, btw, and there's a reason why it's been gifted to 4 people: i legitimately wouldn't have finished it without just having those few regularly there to encourage me and offer their predictions for what they thought the next chapter would hold. they're the only reason i was able to get myself to finish it. even better, i've made a lovely friend because of this fic that i now talk with every day, and i wouldn't have had them come into my life without that fic. and now that it's been finished for about a couple of months, i've received several lovely and thoughtful comments from other readers about how it's made them feel. people have made art for it - hell, somebody just wrote a song for it!

this is still one of my least kudosed fics btw. it's not my most popular, but for the people who have read it, it's really resonated with them.

idk if this anecdote is helpful at all, so i'll just condense it to this: as long as it's not completely destroying any joy you receive from creating, don't stop posting. that's honestly my best advice, to just keep posting and writing, and know that your story will find the right people that it's meant to find. if it hits a point where it's seriously affecting you, then take a step back from it so you're not causing yourself pain, but if you can go on posting, i think, in the end, you come out the winner, no matter how many people interact (and at least that pesky little voice in your head telling you you're not good enough doesn't get to win, right?)

and i know that's really contrite and the thing everybody says: just keep at it! even if it's hard! unfortunately, the lesson i've learned the past year is that that thing everybody says is, for better or worse, pretty truthful. if you stop, it won't get any better; if you keep going, though, you never know what will come from it

and that's just it: ultimately, you never know how a story will hit with people or what will come from posting! i know it helps me to remember that i can't predict the future, nor can i in any way make people react to what i write in a certain way. once it's out there, it's out there, and it's up to The People to decide how they feel about it

and i've found that there's a certain flavor of joy i have with my least-kudosed/commented/bookmarked/what-have-you fics that i don't necessarily have with my others. i appreciate and love when people interact with any of my works, but i've found that the responses on my least popular fics tend to be a lot stronger or lead to interesting conversations with others. so i guess that's another thing that's helped me, too: realizing that it's not necessarily about how many people find your work so much as who, because when somebody finds your work who really needs it, or, conversely, somebody finds your fic that you really need to meet (as was the case with my aforementioned fantasy au), i think that's more fulfilling than worrying about how many people are seeing my fics

...which isn't to say that i don't worry about those things. believe me, i very much do, because when you create something and share it somewhere, obviously you want people to interact with it, right? and it's been especially difficult since i had a fic get kinda big so early on in my posting, but i'd like to think i'm getting better. hell, if you like at my ao3 profile, all the fics listed on my page right now don't even break 100 kudos 😆 it's almost kinda freeing at this point, and even though these worries still trouble me, i'm trying to slowly beat them out of me through lots of practice (i.e., posting) and patience (reminding myself that the right people will find my work when they need it!)

i hope this was helpful!! and sorry for rambling about myself - when i'm upset, one of the most comforting things i can be told is that somebody understands what i'm going through, so that's what i tried to do for you!! you're not alone, and i hope things can get better for you.

i know you're on anon, so no pressure, but if you'd like, i'd love it if you sent me your work so i can read it 🥺 you could send me another ask or a just dm me, if you're comfortable!! i'd just love to give your work some love since i know what you're going through right now, and i know it can suck a lot~

anyway, i am sending you much love anon!! i look forward to reading your work, if you're so inclined to share :] 💜💜💜

[rockinlibrarian]

37 and 47 for the get to know the fic writer ask

Thanks for asking! Anyone else is welcome to ask from here!

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter?

I like my chapters to have a complete arc, beginning middle and end, where you can clearly say "This is the chapter where--" or "This is the chapter about--". It's, gasp, ALMOST like an outline. Don't tell me of ten years ago I've started almost-outlining! But yeah, if I know I'm writing something multichapter (and the times I didn't and I ended UP with something multichapter, the first chapter WOULD have been a complete story in and of itself already!), I'll have like a Scrivener page for each beat of the complete story, so I go in, like, "This is the 'Do Re Mi' section," and then I focus on getting that part of the story out-- so if Maria is going to start teaching music to the Hargreeves children, I need to use the beginning of the chapter to show the status quo, then show how Maria starts to play with that status quo by bringing music in, then show her efforts fully taking off and transforming the children's training and lives. What happens next is Sir Reginald's reaction to these events, but that opens up a whole new can of worms, which is why HIS reaction begins the NEXT chapter, which then becomes the chapter about Maria proving the success of her methods to him, ie "'The Lonely Goatherd' Section, In Which The Children Put on a Show." Maybe I'm cheating with this example since I'm using the beats from a movie somebody else wrote first, rather than coming up with these beats myself.

So let's look at "Exploration of the Astral Plane" instead, which has chapters helpfully titled things like "In Which Oliver Goes Dreamwalking and Gets Lost." Originally "In Which the Summerlanders Try to Host an Intervention" and "In Which Astral Walking Is the Only Solution" were supposed to be the same chapter-- In Which Oliver's Friends Know His Astral Walking Is Getting Out of Hand But They Can't Stop Him-- that wasn't the title, it was going to be the Hosting an Intervention Part-- but the story was getting too complicated as I wrote, so it became one mini-arc about them confronting Oliver and (briefly) succeeding, then a SECOND min-arc about how that brief reprieve ended.

Anyway, I'm not sure I actually answered the question. The actual END of each chapter, while completing the mini arc of the chapter, might just hint at things to come-- some foreshadowing of mood, so you get the Intervention chapter ending with Oliver sighing and saying "If only to prove to you that you’re overreacting..." so you get the sense that this really ISN'T the end. Or the Do-Re-Mi chapter, rather than hinting at anything, ends with a somewhat surprising reveal, so it's more like a punchline than foreshadowing, not in a joke way but in an adding some PUNCH way.

I don't do many straight-up cliffhangers. I guess because I like having the chapters self-contained that way.

But yeah, I've spent too long on one question, on to the next!

47. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Eh, I'm one of those people who revise as they go. I can't decide if this is a Bad Habit that keeps me from JUST FINISHING or if it's just the Way I Work. I lean on the former when I find myself just rereading and rereading and not writing anything new! But I also really like revising, it's really just a part of writing, so maybe that's why I do it the whole time.

I do have at least two separate drafts usually, though. When I have MOST of the chapter/story drafted-- there are usually SOME gaps, but I know basically what needs to happen in each of them-- I print it out. Then I can do a sentence-by-sentence close revision-- the change in format helps me see things I didn't before, and often helps me fill those gaps, too. After that revision gets transferred back to the computer file (sometimes with re-revisions added in process), I'm usually ready to post. But there will be additional drafts if I use a beta, which I do usually only when I'm not sure if things are flowing or fitting together properly and need an outside set of eyes to make sure it actually makes sense. (Shouting out to @steeple-sinderby and @versaphile for performing these vital functions in the past!).

So right. I'm a little verbose when I answer ask questions. But don't let that stop you asking me!

[boileddogchicken]

i feel like most blorbos of mine that qualify as oc's are ones made within the context of either a ttrpg or a video game, that's cool and all but i should try to make one not confined by any particular setting tbh, although knowing me i'll inevitably turn said character into someone within something anyways i still have thoughts about the thirsty sword lesbians campaign i gm'ed even though it's over, one of the npc's has become the template for so many characters i've made, so there's the original one, there's the star wars 5e one, the dungeons and destiny one, there's like half of a pathfinder one (i need to play pathfinder fr), also i keep thinking abt the species she was and coming up with more lore abt how they work and in the silly college au i think abt from time to time where all my oc's just get to be normal (except marina of course, she will never know peace) the TSL bird woman and the star wars 5e bird-adjacent woman are dating oh and also my WoL just fights everyone oh yeah i still need backstory for my D2 guardian, also i should throw her into the blender that is the My OC's University™️ AU im new to using tumblr how long is the character count for a single post??? wowww i can just keep typing and just keep going honestly tho, if my brain just wants to keep writing stuff i might as well take the time to write that ffxiv thing i've been thinking abt lately but haven't been able to put together if it ends up being stream of consciousness like this post that's fine, tbh it'd make sense for b'rsh to write in that way but wait i was gonna write in third person. hmmmmm i'll have to think about what i want to do in that case also i need to think more about how exactly b'rsh is connected with all my friend's WoL's bc like *one* has been properly flushed out but the others are almost entirely vibes yknow? maybe i'm just tired and forgetting things since i'm so bad at memory but idk iverelle and b'rsh's dynamic???? or like backstory stuff???? like b'rsh and etrii hang out on weekends and shoot the shit but no one else has been properly developed i mean b'rsh likes to bother narail and also she has an auntly vibe with just abt every other WoL belonging to my friends but how did that come to be yknow??? wtf was this post abt when i started wait it was me wanting to make oc's outside the confines of specific settings/ttrpgs/games eh whatever if i make my own character and i think they're neat who cares right? i think the closest thing i have to a fully independent oc is Dusk, she's a wild west but fantasy outlaw who was cursed with absolute silence, meaning she can't cast spells or speak but also it makes her so hard to track so yeah but also i had been thinking of using her in a ttrpg. but honestly i don't think i will tbh if i'm being honest- but yeah that's the gist of it i'm still not at the character maximum for tumblr- is there one? or can i just keep going until i decide that it's time to stop. hmmmm do i really want to try to push tumblr to its limit or should i just stop now and press post

[mcalhenwrites]

Now that Geckos is out, I plan to work on the side stories for a little collection of them. "Don't" and "Dancing Bones" will be edited, but I plan to post them online for free as well as put them in the story collection.

It'll likely only be an ebook, though, and it'll have a few more stories. That includes a finished version of "Late Returns" (what I've posted is only the first part of a WIP). I want to get back to Stargazers' Hill and the Warren/Henry story that isn't titled yet, but right now, Seasons has taken over my brain again. I'm editing and reposting chapters on AO3. I thought people might be upset that I was reposting it, but so far the reception has been kind. ;A; (I still feel bad somehow? But that's on me.) After publishing Geckos and having an amazing day in the next town over, the following day was... not so great. We had storms. I'm gonna be vague for location reasons, but I live in one of the towns hit by a tornado the other day. I saw a map of it, and uh, I could've seen the tornado out my bedroom window if it had hit during the day instead of at night where visibility is shit. And if I hadn't been huddled in the downstairs hallway with my cats and roommate. I was panicked about the weather all day, and that was worse because it was the anniversary of Andover 1991 (a tornado). I lived through that. Uh, very luckily I lived through that, it hit my neighborhood and was scary close to my house, to the point the sirens 50 ft away or so were drowned out by the sound of the tornado. We had no basement and no good inner rooms or closets in such a tiny house at the time. I've been through other tornadoes since then, but none were as terrifying as that one. Before the tornado and after the reminder that it was Andover 1991 aniversary... I also got an email that I didn't get a job that would've been good for my disabilities. Like, worked around it well and not been too straining on me. Plus I would've worked with animals. I'm struggling financially, so writing is the only way I'm getting any income - outside of crocheting, and I don't want to fucking do that for money. I want my hobby back. I want to make gifts. I want to make OC dolls. I want my limited physical spoons for crocheting to be for ENJOYMENT. Not so stressful it makes me fucking hate crocheting. Which... yeah, I'm kind of there again. That said, I have made a few book sales, but... Well, I'll keep trying. I've got other novels cooking. I'll double down my focus, maybe. I will sketch more. Maybe I'll reconsider using something like Patreon, which... don't love, but like. What can you love? Every site is screwing over creators in some way or another. :'( It's depressing, actually, bc I hop on facebook, and I can't see ANY posts of the people and groups I follow, but you know what I DO see? Fucking suggested pages for AI art. I really hope all the people who gentrified the tiny house movement get scammed into buying stupid fake tiny houses due to AI images and end up taking legal action eventually that helps to bring about the (hopefully inevitable) death of AI? I'm mean, but like, tiny houses and mobile homes and caravans and shit like that were houses before rich people decided they were cute and they went up to $200k-$300k. I wanted a tiny house bc I thought, "at least I might someday afford this" but nah. They took even that away. So enjoy your shitty "this is perfect for me" gushing when the fucking pillows are melted into the planks and the switches for the oven and stovetop are underneath the burners! Anyway! I should probably do more writing and take my anemic ass to bed soon. It's been... a shitty couple of days. I'm trying to be cheerful and remain optimistic and just boost Geckos, Automata... but eh. I'm also trying to survive when everything is against that. I had a suicidal thought earlier today that I should just gulp down all the pills I can get my hands on and be done with things. yay. (I won't. It was a passing thought. A desperate "oh god I can't afford to live and I should give up, I'm in my late 30s and nothing ever gets better" thought.)

[danielfeketewrites]

DOCTOR WHO TOP 10 - War Doctor

Alright, his best episode is clearly The Day of the Doctor, but that's actually 11th Doctor's episode. War Doctor's entire era is expanded universe material trying to reconstruct something that never existed. That's at the very least intriguing. In addition to this... John Hurt might be my favourite actor of all time. So yeah, I love the War Doctor. Here are my favourite of his stories.

10. The Shadow Squad

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a fan of the War Doctor Begins range. But this series of blogposts started out around the 60th anniversary and I intend to keep it a positive celebration of my favourite stories, so here's the one story from that series I actually really liked. The Shadow Squad is exactly what a Time War story should be like, with the Temporal Eradicator travelling back in time and changing the timeline, while Time Lords try to Dalek-proof the timeline. Good stuff.

9. Decoy

This is just an Engines of War encore, but it's pretty solid and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

8. The Enigma Dimension

The final War Doctor story with John Hurt in the role... I'm going to level with you - I have no idea what it's about. Right after I listened to it, I rated it very, very highly and then promptly forgot every single thing about it. So I have to trust my younger self, one year into the past, and hope he was right. I'll have to re-listen this one...

7. The Shadow Vortex

A rare example of War Doctor getting a historical romp. And Neve McIntosh is in this! Although she's not playing Vastra.

But I'll admit it - this one is on the list because War Doctor has to get inside a Trabant, which is the funniest shit ever to me.

6. The Eternity Cage

I have a soft spot for Sontarans. And this is a really good Sontaran story. Not much else to say, really. Except maybe that I remember really liking the core concept of this one.

5. The Third Wise Man

I've said it many times already - I love Dave Rudden, I love Twelve Angels Weeping. Again, not much else to add here. The chronology of the war is a bit wobbly in this one, but it can be explained away either by Gary Russell's short story The Stranger or by Russell T Davies' short story Doctor Who and the Time War. Or both, you know. It's the Time War. Oh, and we get an explanation of what "the Nightmare Child" is, so there's that.

4. The Neverwhen

A Dalek army and a Time Lord army are stuck, caught in a fucked up timey-wimey battlefield. Excellent Time War material.

3. Only the Monstrous

Putting the whole first boxset here, as it's basically just one story anyway. Only the Monstrous is simple. Deceptively simple. Which is strange, because I usually prefer weirder, more complicated stuff in my Time War, thankyouverymuch. Only the Monstrous is just Nick Briggs writing a WWII movie... IN SPACE! But it's really engaging and emotional in all the right places. And it's kinda open about what it's trying to emulate - if the Daleks represent Nazi Germany, what about their allies, the other fascistic aliens in the story? Well, they're called Talians. Talians. For real. No one is hiding this and I love it. It's ultimately a story about how appeasement is a bad idea and you can't negotiate with fucking Nazis, which is definitely a timeless, needed message. War Doctor is antifa. Also, the Daleks have yet another extremely silly plan involving planets, and this one is genuinely excellent and very, very stupid. Only the Monstrous deserves more love.

2. Legion of the Lost

While I loved Only the Monstrous, I think I still prefer the variety of Infernal Devices... Here, in Legion of the Lost, War Doctor fights Shadovar, a Technomancer played by David Warner. I'm not sure why, but something about Legion just feels different to me. It feels somehow... special. I really love it and it's my favourite War Doctor story from Big Finish.

1. Engines of War

What else could have taken the number one spot, eh? George Mann's excellent reconstruction of a non-existent Doctor Who era, also known as Engines of War, is a really fun Doctor Who book, a spectacular Dalek story and probably the quintessential War Doctor adventure (if one isn't counting The Day of the Doctor, of course)... I love Cinder, the War Doctor is written really well here and I just enjoyed reading this book quite a bit. It also tries to forge a bridge between the 20th and the 50th anniversary specials, which I think is kinda cute.