#essence0fsilence

[gaycey-sketchit]

For the ship ask game... since someone already did Oakshipping, how about Palletshipping?

(Also Secrets Kept ch 12? The trip home to Pallet from the Orange Islands, I think? I remember enjoying writing that chapter! I love our inspiration loop with our little ship, it makes me so happy! 💚)

Yeah, that's the one!! And I love our inspiration loop too, it's so fun. This is how rarepairs thrive.

Anyway PalletShipping go brrrr

What made you ship it?

I was always a big ContestShipping guy, and I think I was drawn toward PalletShipping because of the similarities between the two ship dynamics. Rivals to lovers is a good trope.

I also remember reading a lot of PalletShipping fic in 2016, and I think that must be when I started shipping it. It brought me a lot of comfort when I was struggling with internalized homophobia, and with my family's very external directed at me homophobia, and helped me accept myself as bi. Thanks PalletShipping for my life.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Pallet really has it all. Childhood friendship, rivals to lovers, sun/moon dichotomy, narrative foils... this ship goes hard.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Hm... it's hard to say. I mostly hang out in my little social circle so I barely know what the popular opinions are cmchj.

[kohakhearts]

i was tagged by @swankitty to post a few paragraphs of a wip!! tysm swan <3 i am still working on this epic of an au (have reached the 30k mark for better or for worse) so :3

“Does it matter that I do?” He gives Pikachu one last pat on the head, then straightens back to standing and levels Ash with what he can only hope is a steady gaze. “I’m a busy person and I don’t have the time to take care of a bunch of Pokémon. Cinderace serves a purpose for me, or I wouldn’t bother keeping him around, either.”

Ash frowns. “I have a hard time believing it’s just ‘cause he…serves a purpose.” He pulls a face at that; it’s the first time Goh thinks he’s shown a genuinely negative emotion since he got here. “Don’t you care?”

“Care,” Goh echoes. “Care about what?”

Ash just watches him, though. Waiting.

He sighs. “Fine, sure. I care about what I do. I care about doing things well. I care about achieving my goals. If Cinderace is a function of any of those things, then yeah. I care about him.”

Pikachu looks up at him, head tilted.

Ash says, very quietly, “You’re lying.”

Goh wants to laugh, but the sound gets caught somewhere in his chest and does little more than sharpen his words: “You don’t even know me.”

i’ll tag @magiwou-meowvin @soulsilversprings @essence0fsilence @crush3dmary @tricksterlatte and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it (tag me so i can see!!) to share a piece of a wip, recent fic, anything else you’ve been working on (if you’d like ofc!)

[notamobboss]

Thank you for tagging me! I love being tagged in things! Also this is now my favorite picrew I've made of myself! Yay!

@theoogtree @miqwertyy @essence0fsilence @undoubtablyhuman @oracleocelot @aceomega @beautifullyheeled @bellemyers @zippythezebra @sunflowerkittycrafts @rooksandravens @kateybug @theyarnmaidstale

i found a cool tag game on twitter and i really wanna import it (o^ ^o)

this picrew + the last song you listened to :]

no pressure tags: @blood-loving-leech @overtaken-boredom @lesbianthatyaps @kameonerd566 @hexedvampire @laczki @anonymous-shxtposter @fleurafae @flovqy + anyone who wants to do it <3

[gaycey-sketchit]

29 & 30 for the AO3 writer questions 💚

Thank you!!

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Oh my goodness I didn't realize how much I wrote this year until I was looking through my works to remind myself what I wrote. Anyway I had the time of my life writing my hanahaki disease fic Choking On Love and it shows. I'm really pleased with this passage:

Gary looked at his grandpa miserably. “Have you ever had it?” “No, but I’ve known a few people who have.” He rested a hand on Gary’s. “That’s why I’ve always told you it’s not healthy to bottle up your feelings. When you do, sometimes they manifest in ways that hurt more than talking about it would.” “I didn’t know you meant it literally,” Gary groaned. “All the same, listen, Gary.” He gave Gary an affectionate look. “I’ve known since long before you were born that romance isn’t for me, but love in all its forms is a beautiful thing. A beautiful thing that’s hurting you to keep to yourself. Whoever the flowers are for, maybe you should tell them.” “I can’t,” Gary said, voice cracking. “I can’t do that to him. It’d put too much pressure on him, and I might lose him for good if he doesn’t feel the same.” He coughed, and his grandpa patted his back. “And what if he does? Wouldn’t you rather know? How would it make him feel to know you’re hurting yourself like this because you don’t want to risk pushing him?” Gary couldn’t bring himself to answer the first two questions, but unfortunately, he knew the answer to the third. “He wouldn’t like it.” That was an understatement. Tracey was so gentle, it’d break his heart to hear one of his friends was in pain because of him. And even as difficult as he was to offend, he might be angry that Gary had decided to suffer in silence instead of giving him the choice to answer. But still, Gary couldn’t bring himself to do it. Tracey stood to lose so much, and Gary stood to lose Tracey. He blinked back tears. “Isn’t there another option?” “There’s a surgery, but it’s risky. You have a whole root system in your chest, tangled into your lungs and heart, and getting that out is dangerous.” He pulled Gary close, protectively. “You’re old enough to make your own decisions, but please think carefully before you go through that.” “I will. It’s just…” Gary buried his face in his grandpa’s shoulder, feeling like a scared little kid. “It hurts. I’m scared, Grandpa.” “I know,” he soothed. “Don’t think about it for now. I’m here for you no matter what, sapling.”

Biggest surprise while writing this year?

After I stressed myself out a lot with perfectionism last year, I decided to ease up on it, and I surprised myself with just how much I managed to write for Sicktember when I wasn't getting lost in the weeds of like, editing the same paragraph over and over. And with how much I still liked my writing when I wasn't trying so hard to make everything perfectly polished! No regrets with that decision.

[gaycey-sketchit]

Trick or treat! 🎃

You get a snippet from one of the last couple Sicktember WIPs I'm taking a million years to finish!!

----

Tracey curled into himself, shivering. Maybe the flight had done more of a number on him than he’d realized.

All he wanted to do was curl up with Gary and soak in his boyfriend’s warmth, but Gary had left the room after arguing at length with someone—presumably a colleague for the research project that had brought him to Kalos—over the phone. While it was very touching to hear Gary insisting that he was busy looking after his boyfriend and nothing was more important to him, eventually Tracey had gotten a headache. For the sake of his pounding head, he’d assured Gary that he would be fine.

And he would be. He had Marill, and Gary had left Umbreon with him too. Umbreon settled at his back, front paws kneading the space between his shoulder blades as if trying to massage warmth into him, while Marill snuggled up against his chest with a sympathetic squeak.

He breathed in Marill’s familiar, comforting scent and sighed. Marill had been there for him since the both of them were just lonely little things with no idea who they were, and to have his partner with him now made it easier to bear the chill that had managed to seep to his bones.

[gaycey-sketchit]

🕯and 💎 for the writing asks

was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

I don't outline my oneshots, so they've definitely taken me in directions I didn't expect as I just sort of... let the characters take the lead and followed the flow of where they were taking me. Sometimes I plan to write fluff and then whump sneaks in--a funny little example of that is in Something in the Way He Moves, where I was largely winging it with the premise of "Gary teaching Tracey how to dance" and then they fell and Tracey ended up nearly breaking his nose on Gary's collarbone.

As for things that have been hard on me to write... the first draft of my multichapter Something New was written when I was a teenager, and revising it in my twenties has proven a challenge for a lot of reasons. One of them being that Drew's arc in particular parallels a lot of stuff I was going through back then--I first came up with and started the fic the year after my mental health took a nosedive and I dropped out of high school, when I was beginning to heal but still not in the best place mentally, and it's been... a little painful sometimes, going back to the frame of mind I was in back then and tapping into the memories of what I was feeling.

why is writing important to you?

I have too much love and passion and emotion in me for my little body to contain, and all I can do is write and write and write as an outlet for it all so I don't short circuit or explode or whatever. And giving my rarepairs the love they deserve means a lot to me--once I've read everything that exists for them, including Japanese fics on Pixiv via google translate, all I can really do is revisit my favorites of those fics about a million times and write my own.

And then there's just the fact that my writing is something that's uniquely mine, that nobody can take away from me or do quite like I do. There wasn't much I could say that about when I was growing up with three siblings.

[gaycey-sketchit]

10 and 17 for the writing asks 🙂

Do you enjoy writing dialogue, exposition, or plot the most?

Definitely dialogue. I particularly love writing banter, but in general all I ever want to write is talking and cuddles. This is why I'm such a fluff writer.

What fic are you most proud of?

Either/Or (Or Not) is very close to my heart, a lot of my personal relationship with gender written into it, and I was thrilled that it resonated with people. My beta reader told me I should be proud and I believe them.

[gaycey-sketchit]

#1, 13, and 16 for the writer's asks 🙂

When did you start writing?

My very first attempts at writing were when I was in the single digits, and I've been coming up with stories in my head to occupy and entertain myself for about as long as I can remember, but I was probably 13ish when I started making serious effort about it.

What feedback did you receive for your writing that stuck with you?

Four years ago I posted on AO3 for the first time, and one of my friends left a long and lovely comment that ended with this paragraph:

im historically bad at writing reviews but i am just SO smitten with this. its gonna be one of those fics i come back and read over and over and over, i know it fdghgf. you have a lovely grasp on the charm of these characters and this world and it's one i dont see as often as i'd like!!! dude, please keep writing. i'll read everything you put out if its anything like this.

And it was LIFE CHANGING, after years of feeling like I wasn't really getting anywhere as a writer and having pretty much no one in my life taking an interest in my writing, to be met with that kind of appreciation. It meant so much to me. (And this person, still a friend of mine to this day, did in fact stay engaged with my writing for years!)

Where do you find inspiration to write?

All sorts of places! Personal experience, songs, TVtropes wiki walks, Tumblr prompts, revisiting my lifelong special interest for the millionth time and getting my attention captured by some aspect that'd be fun to write about, just straight-up wish fulfillment/escapism... the list goes on.

[inkymkk]

WHAGR THANK YOUU FOR THE FROZEN TREAT!!! 🥺

Tagging moots/blogs in general that arent here yet HI!!!

@weepidipdoo @skyarly @n3koexpl0sion @sillymewcario @thesilliestofallqueers @sleepyyeepyy @asherthecrasher @essence0fsilence @savebatsfromscratch

(And this is the part where I got too nervous to tag more because ive never done thing before)

ICE CREAM DELIVERY. !!!!!!🍦♡ྀི give ice cream to your favourite bloggers and help them stay cool this summer. 🍧♡

Tysm<3333

@coffee-is-my-oxygen @123letsgobestie @cherryswift13 @vintagetee13 @fernlessbastard

[gaycey-sketchit]

OOOOOH SHIP ASK GAME oakshipping, assuming this one hasn't been sent to you yet lol- but if it has, how about appeal?

I'll answer both!! I ship both of these!!

Oak:

What made you ship it?

I took an interest in their dynamic around 2021, because their contrast is so fun. It was @essence0fsilence who really sold me on the ship though, when I stumbled upon their fic Secrets Kept and curiosity led me to read it. I can pinpoint the exact moment in this fic where the ship really took hold of my heart (it was in chapter 12) and as you can see, I kind of lost my mind about it.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Gary and Tracey are such good foils to each other--there's a fun contrast between them, but they also have quite a few things in common. I think that helps with how they have the potential to bring out the best in each other, and how their influence on each other could help them grow as people--Gary inspiring more confidence and boldness in Tracey, and Tracey in turn bringing out a gentler side of Gary.

And I've talked about this before, but I love how flexible the dynamic of how they get together is depending on how much tension and drama you want in the narrative--it can be a very smooth and natural friends to lovers transition, or you can use the riskiness of it being a workplace romance with higher stakes because they both live there, and have them both acutely aware of how much they stand to lose if they pursue a relationship and things end badly somewhere down the line. The latter also gives you the opportunity to show Gary's growth as a person from someone pretty self-centered to really seeing how much Tracey in particular would be risking (because while Gary was born into his place in Pallet and the Oak residence, Tracey had to work for his place there, and who even knows if he has another home to go back to) and putting that over his own feelings. I primarily lean towards low-stakes fluff, but when I write them pre-relationship you'll still see me lean into that sometimes, and have Gary putting the choice in Tracey's hands because he's aware that Tracey is risking more.

Also on a less deep note, coming from writing ships where I had to come up with a Reason for the characters to be in the same place or do exercises in Implications for how they even know each other in the first place, writing this ship is like a million times easier. They literally live under the same roof. Gary comes home sometimes, Professor Oak leaves sometimes and I can use that if I want the boys to have some alone time, or the boys can be taking a research trip together or something. It's so easy! And then I can just focus on the stuff I want to write!!

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

There's like 12 people who ship it and most of us do because of each other, so I don't think popular/unpopular opinions for it really exist dftdh.

Appeal:

What made you ship it?

I am a sucker for rivals in love, and Dawn and Zoey are so cute. What's not to like about them?

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Rivals to lovers is a consistent banger, and while I love the banter and tension in Pallet and Contest as much as the next guy with taste, it's a nice change of pace that Zoey is at most just kind of blunt and doesn't even use the facade of antagonism to hide that she cares about Dawn and wants to help her improve.

Also fuck yeah lesbians

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I can't think of anything! I'm a very casual AppealShipper and the fanworks I've seen for them are consistently just Good.

[gaycey-sketchit]

6 and 24 for that ask game?

Thanks for the ask!!!

What's your absolute favorite work you read this year?

@essence0fsilence wrote some fics about Gary/Tracey this year, the cherished rarepair they got me into in the first place, and I am so smitten with all of them. Rainy Day Perfection is probably my favorite, it's just so cozy.

Where do you read the most?

I'll read fic anywhere since I do most of my fic reading on my phone, so it's hard to say. Probably my room though cdhndc.

[gaycey-sketchit]

Gary/Tracey is in the top 3 relationships within Tracey's AO3 tag now (after Ash/Misty, which has 119 works, and Ash/Gary, which has 34; surpassing Daisy/Tracey, which has 25) and I am so stoked about it! The little ship that could!! I am so proud to have contributed and I want to keep going forever because I love them!!!

Also everyone read @essence0fsilence's fics please!! They write the boys so well and they're the one who sold me on the ship in the first place.

[rgbyshipper101]

👀

Last Song: Stamp On The Ground by Italiobrothers (specifically the animation by Zarla)

Currently Reading: Danny Phantom FanFiction

Currently Watching: Just finished Spy X Family season 2

Currently Obsessed With: Danny Phantom (pitch pearl mostly)

Tags! @essence0fsilence

Get to know you game! Answer the questions and tag 9 people you want to know better.

I was tagged by @captainhunnicutt (thanks!).

Last song I listened to: "Ghost River" by Nightwish. Such conflicted feelings to this band. Admittedly, they were one of two that got me through grad school, but firing Tarja and Anette, losing Jukka and Marko... I don't know.

Currently Reading: Okay... so... how much I read is based on two factors. How much work is interfering with things and where my headspace is. And, uh... yeah. I'm really behind on 3 series. The last book I read was Unbreakable by Mira Grant. I need to catch up on the Wayward Children and InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire. And a whole bunch of others on my to-be-read pile (spreadsheet).

Currently Watching: In terms of anime, Nana. In terms of movies, this weekend if *John Wick* 2 through 4 and probably The Glass Menagerie since Sam Waterston is in it. Live action TV: I tried Bates Motel and I stopped after six episode. I'll try to get back to it.

Currently obsessed with: *gestures at mess of a blog* Arcane, Blue Eye Samurai. Pretty much been, "No thoughts, only Arcane/Blue Eye Samurai."

Tagging: @albatrossisland @radarsteddy @anisaanisa @blue-scorpion-king @claremikas @haxo-wolfie @s0lareuat @ancientrimer @wallowingnewt

[hopefullynobodyhasthisname]

The last song I listened to was Weeping Dawn from the Baldur’s Gate soundtrack. That and Down by the River have been stuck in my head for a while.

@channelrat, @samsclubhotdogs and @essence0fsilence

No pressure to do this, only if you want to. Feel free to ignore this if you don’t want to participate.

i found a cool tag game on twitter and i really wanna import it (o^ ^o)

this picrew + the last song you listened to :]

no pressure tags: @blood-loving-leech @overtaken-boredom @lesbianthatyaps @kameonerd566 @hexedvampire @laczki @anonymous-shxtposter @fleurafae @flovqy + anyone who wants to do it <3