#for the 2 people who read this fic and hadn't realized that it's gay as hell

[laugtherhyena]

I love making stupidly long chapters due to always misjudging how long scenes turn out to be

[generalluxun]

Hey! I've been loving your Chloé/Alya AU story as well as enjoying your posts a lot in general, I'll be reading Dog Daze too when I can because it seems like it's your "main story" and I'm curious about the dynamics of Adrien/Sabrina as a ship (which I hadn't thought of before seeing your blog!) - I also just enjoy the way you write the characters a lot, especially because you're both a Chloé defender and a gay Chloé enthusiast like me lol. And your dunking on Astruc is delicious too, of course! Do you have any upcoming fics/vague ideas you've been considering that you feel comfortable sharing?

Thanks for the question and for your followup clarification, I'll answer both parts here.

First off: Thank you for reading! The Chloé/Alya fic was an experiment, and a bit of a gift to @flightfoot who is a big Alya fan, and a treasure to the community. I've come to love the dynamic as I've explored it.

Dog Daze is the largest AU, yes. Chock full of one shots after the main fic. It *Does* start with Puppy Love, which was supposed to be a one shot, then oops, I had an AU. Fin fact:Dog Daze was supposed to be endgame Adrienette, but the goobers just didn't want to let each other go. Oops. 🤣

Adribrina is my comfort ship. They are just so... 🥺 It's sweet, it's gentle, it's supportive, and they don't even realize it.

I wouldn't call myself a Chloé defender. I just don't like anything that belittles/justifies/ignores choild abuse. Chloé happens to be an abused child blamed for her own abuse by the narrative. I fond that particular aspect of ML reprehensible and so am vocal about it. If they had just left her as a 1D bully the entire time, it wouldn't be an issue. Once you demonstrate child abuse *on screen* then certain expectations change.

I do think Chloé as a character is in an amazingly dynamic position, teetering and able to go in many directions. This is why she features so much in my writings.

As you said in your followup, I do put Chloé in both het and lesbian ships(even some bi) for me, her attraction has a lot more to do with the person *giving her attention* and the plumbing is actually largely secondary. Not knocking anyone else's headcanon, that's just my take on her.

I don't set out to 'dunl' on Astruc, bit he has positioned himself as the voice/aithority/control so questionable narrative lands in his lap. He also seems to be ill suited to engaging on online discourse (no slight there, it can be hard!) But also seems to want to enjoy the access to praise it offers. This makes for a volatile mess. In all honesty I would love a chance to corner him and just ask 'why' for a lot of choices. I do fear though many of hos answers would boil down to 'Who do you listen to, me, or your lying eyes?'

I was thinking of actually doing a LoZ TotK fic in the near future.

If ML there are cirrently 3 options spinning.

1)Continue Dog Daze Continuity with a story set in the final year before university and bringing Kagami back into the mix.

2)Continue Gothic AU continuity with a story focusing on Adrien's acquiring of the Pig, and Sabrina's akumatization with the Goat while continuing to explore the other dynamics (like Ladybug/Peluche and Chloé reason for being... Lile she is)

3)Chloé comes back worse. Post S5 fic where Chloé is actually putting in effort to be a chaos demon, not just other people's pawn.

Thanks again for the ask!

[raggscat32]

[this got incredibly long winded about like nothing i'm so sorry??? no need to read it in full lmao idk what good juicy info there is in here anyway]

legitimately it's been SO long LMAO but lemme see what little i remember in the heat of the moment ... so I wasn't actually on Tumblr yet, and i'd been a starkid fan for only a few months at that point. most of my interactions with the fandom were based purely in instagram and some very embarrassing wattpad fics I can't divulge the details of for the sole reason of some things just need to stay between me and my limited use of wattpad.

(((and also i realize I said july in the initial post, it was fully june through august.)))

i'd been watching tin can skits for a minute because I was kinda obsessed with Brian for a moment (idk i was 14 also he's great let's ALL be honest) so when they announced this musical's internet release I was SO damn excited because firebringer hadn't come out yet so it'd been a bit since we'd gotten new starkid content, and I was again, very very new, so this was like an intervening divine gift. (by that point I had already worked my way through the entire catalog of starkid content.) anyway backstory aside here's some fun facts about the upload schedule and the general vibes as best as I can recall.

the first upload was part 1 and part 2, so naturally we all thought ok it's gonna upload two parts at once each week. WRONG. these jokers uploaded one part per week for the next months (MONTHS) EXCEPT act 2 pt 6 and 7, thank god, which nowadays everyone's like well that's not a big deal! it was only a week wait! girls (gays and theys) these parts are in like 15 minute segments if not shorter it was HELL.

I wasn't so much theorizing as spewing a lot of again, mostly incredibly embarrassing comments on every single act. i was actively losing my mind in all of these comments, I've looked back on them to respond to this and it's actively killing me. who let 14 year olds be loose on the internet.

a lot of the thrill for me mostly came from 1) getting to be a part of something like this in it's initial release stages (even though I did not get to watch the livestream they did during the release of act 2 pt 6 and 7 unfortunately I probably was busy being a teenager) and 2) getting to read other people's comments as each part came out. some people had gotten to see it live and they'd be like "during my show ___" and other people were doing more theorizing than I was capable of. the twist legitimately got me, i'm not gonna lie, owen's reveal was INSANE and frankly it still gets me every time i rewatch it.

pretty much every time a part came out I watched it immediately. I remember the final parts being dropped while I was at my grandparents and having to watch it and not scream because there were other people in the house. the end all be all of it for me as someone who wasn't super active in the fandom was that i got to BE there while it was released. and then ofc the cast album release was a whole other thing that i was super pumped for because obviously this entire musical slaps (I do not remember if it came out before or after the youtube release at this point, but that's neither here nor there).

anyway if i ever think of anything where i actually Was theorizing...I'll update lmao i honestly can't remember anything super specific but i think it's important to mention i was a gravity falls fan as well right before this time so I wouldn't be surprised if I Was in my head and just forgot. or saw any posts from anyone else (debatable given my limited online scope at that point).

showed my roommate SAF last night and was instantly whiplashed by the reminder that 8 years ago i watched this thing come out live over the course of July-Aug of 2016. truly nothing compares to the absolute insanity of being there for every upload of each new part and watching the story slowly unfold.

[areseebee]

Hi!! Just reread all of Maybe Someday - 😍😍 It is SO amazing and completely canon in my mind! Cannot wait for the rest of Someday!

I love the bisexual James HC and love to see it here too, and I know it won't be a focus of the fic, but I have been wondering - there is no way James "I support gay people even though I am not actually gay myself" Maguire didn't have a huge-ass crisis, right 😂? Did you have any thoughts on what that might've been like for James?

thank you!! 🥰 also thank you for this ask, i didn't realize how much my brain would light up to get asked questions about the story itself and my headcanons! here is my very long, winding, should-have-been-more-succinct answer to this:

james being bi was mostly something i sort of kept to myself as my hc of choice from the minute i wrote in smoke break chapter 1 about james having tried menthols before. it was the most minor detail, but, while michelle is convinced he tried the methols because of a girl, i chose from erin's POV to have her always think about a possible partner of james in terms of "someone" or "them." because, in truth, in my head, james did try menthols because of a crush at school, but it wasn't because of a girl (and he really doesn't want to talk about it because 1. it's just a crush and 2. he's not sure how he feels about having this crush).

it wasn't until i was chatting with @derrygirlstrash one day about where the story could go after smoke break that she was like "so, to me, james is bi" and it was the loveliest thing in the world for me to be able to say "me too!" that's when i decided to make it officially a part of how i write james.

i read james's sexuality through my own lens of experience - for a while, he's not really sure how he identifies, he's not really sure if his friendship with this crush with the menthols is because he hasn't really been friends with a lad for a long time because all his closest friends are girls, or if because he just admires and respects him, or if it's because he really likes this guy - all he knows is that he wants to be noticed by him, wants to spend time with him, goes out of his way to put himself in his crush's path. ultimately, however, it is something he sort of puts away in a box - he goes to derry for the summer and things happen with erin, and then goes back to london and meets his post-smoke break gf, faye. maybe he had a growing awareness of his sexuality, but it sort of took a back seat because he was with partners who he loved so it didn't really matter that much what he identified as. it's sort of a "i'll think about this later" sort of thing.

i like to think that him being so close to clare and observing her get more comfortable in her identity softened the "realization" of it all. he knew he had people around him that would be accepting, he knew it wasn't some end-of-the-entire-world kind of thing, and he just organically gets more comfortable with himself as he gets older. also - it probably helped that faye is bi, too, as hinted with mentions of with her and clare dating later on during the someday timeline. it just becomes increasingly a part of his ecosystem during the formative years of his life.

my experience is, of course, not everyone's experience. but i vibe with the part of me that figured it out over time without it being much of a struggle with my identity, that it was something that felt like welcoming a new color to my own identity that i hadn't seen in myself before, that also felt like it was about the individual i cared about/crushed on, rather than their gender identity. so that's the experience i choose to imagine for james too.

ultimately, to me, it doesn't really become a thing for james until he meets someone who sort of makes it a thing: miles, who he meets on a set of a film shoot, and who is disturbingly handsome - patrick swayze/john stamos lovechild handsome; the perfect 90s heartthrob, basically.

incidentally, i wrote a short little thing (very unedited) about the first time miles and james meet, which i am happy to share here. i gave him some bi panic, as a treat. but it’s because miles is absurdly hot, not because james is necessarily fighting against or even all that surprised by the attraction. i am not sure if it will show up anywhere "officially" in the future, so here it is now:

“Has anyone ever told you that you look like Patrick Swayze?”

Miles paused before a slow grin came over his face. James swallowed, his mouth feeling very suddenly dry. “Flattery will get you everywhere, mate,” he said, before turning back to his sound board.

“Not trying to flatter, just…wondered if anyone had said. Cause – Patrick Swayze’s great. And you definitely look like him.”

Miles glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, his smirk remaining firmly in place. “Big fan then? What’s your favourite Swayze film?”

“Er – Ghost. I guess.”

“Classic,” Miles answered. “Want to know mine?”

“Sure,” James shrugged, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets just to have something to do with them.

“Dirty Dancing,” Mile said with a wink. James immediately felt hot all over.

He cleared his throat and tried to sound nonchalant. “That’s…good choice,” he said. Miles nodded, and continued connecting cables. “‘I carried a watermelon,’” James offered.

Miles’s hands had been moving quickly, setting up for the day’s shoot, but they stopped as he glanced questioningly at James, “What?”

“Oh. Er,” James started, feeling exceedingly stupid. “It’s what Baby says. When she first meets him.”

“Oh. Right,” Mile said, chuckling, and turning back to his work. “Good memory.”

“I can’t help it. The lines just sort of stick.”

“And see, my brain’s just like a sieve. Goes right through. Maybe I need another watch sometime soon. You can tell me when all the good lines are coming up,” Miles said, another smirking glance sent James’s way.

“Oh. Yeah. Maybe.” James’s cheeks felt very hot. “Well…I should go. Do my…job. Or whatever.”

“Sounds good, mate,” Miles chuckled again. “See you around. And – if you ever want to get lifted like that, well…you know where to find me.”

“Um. Ok,” James said, knowing for certain now that he must look like a tomato. He turned exactly 180 degrees and walked for too long in that direction. It was only when he ended up on the outskirts of the set by the makeup trailer that he realized he’d gone exactly the wrong way. He had to call Clare.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hello there! I think I’m one of those peeps who appears to have just randomly ended up here bc my blog is many things, but it is not primarily a kotlc blog, and I show up and like your posts once in a blue moon - I’ve been lurking in the fandom tags for months (and whenever I’m in a lurking phase I’m always hesitant to like or rb things because anxiety is mean) after not really interacting with keeper fandoms for years (I think your analyses were some of the first posts I came across when I was rereading the series) and seeing other people post about my gay elf blorbos is so wonderful :)

Also, getting to the point here - I stayed up past 2 AM reading your fic because it was just. Anskdkfjdklsjf. Incredible. The stars-space-dark-light and finding each other motifs were so poignant and TIERTICE PROPOSAL (especially Prentice being the one to initiate affection and reminiscing and everything because Tiergan is so scared of getting so close just to lose him again and just. Oh my god the tenderness) and Tam rescuing Wylie from the light and them becoming brothers (brothers!!!!) and Linh and Rayni making amends and FAMILY and love and I absolutely love your writing style and this is just sleep deprived gushing but tldr: your blog and writing are wonderful and I hope this doesn’t come off as too weird! -🐳 (not sure if you already have a whale anon?)

Hello! I do not have a whale anon yet! Lurkers and not quite involved people are wonderful, it's so cool to see people who enjoy the same things I do even if you haven't made it practically your entire personality online. I'd put you in the "kinda unexpected but understandable" category, where I wouldn't peg the blog as a kotlc blog but they're involved in enough middle grade/ya fandoms that I can assume they partake in keeper casually.

There's just also this other category of "unexpected and I don't fully understand why you're here." This happens with like poetry and art aesthetic blogs run by adults, where they don't seem like someone who'd read keeper? And that's why most people follow me? But who am I to know their interests? So it perplexes me sometimes. I assume it's gotta do with my popular sibling post or something

But! back to your point! I am so sorry you stayed up late but also so flattered by that at the same time? wdym my silly little fic was worth losing sleep over? that does mean you got to read the fic at the same time the fic was set at though! I think that's fun.

Thank you for all the compliments!! i love the consistency the different motifs bring to each story, it feels like they're all intertwined in a deeper way. Like they're all on similar wavelengths in ways they can't even recognize but we can from the outside. It's so satisfying to write.

And the tiertice proposal! now they can be true antenna husbands <33. Was nervous to write their dynamic because I will be honest, I did absolutely all of it from memory and that memory was not very strong. Did not really pay attention to them at all when reading. And then when I realized "hey I didn't pay attention to them at all maybe I should double check what their dynamic is" I was too far into it and decided no we're winging it. If I just make this really good people will be too busy screaming to notice if they're out of character. I'm very glad I went ahead with my idea to add it (a proposal was NOWHERE in the original plan) because everyone seems to enjoy it if not find it absolutely adorable.

Yes!! Tam rescuing Wylie from the light! I hadn't even realized at first the meaning that could be found in that, I wrote it and only later realized that Wylie had been trying to get away from the light about found comfort in Tam, a shade. But I think it's an interesting comment on the importance of family to the two of them and the bond they've fostered, how something that can be seen as so threatening (all the things in the dark) can be utterly meaningless when it comes to someone you love. They're brothers and fiercely love each other, and it transcends expectations and social norms and they do it so casually. They fell into that life together, and I am. Endlessly fascinated by them.

Then there's Linh and Rayni!! Full disclosure I wasn't a huge Rayni fan going into this fic (she was fine, but I had more appreciation for her when she was Glimmer), but she grew on me. I admire how unapologetic she is, how thoroughly she's cast off her care for what other people think. I'm working towards being like that, but am not nearly as casual about it as she is. That whole section was an experiment with them

and don't worry, none of this comes off as weird at all! I think a lot of people fear they're weirder than they are, and if they are weird they should embrace it more :). I'm absolutely flattered you like my writing style though, so lucky for you I have no intention of stopping writing. Telling stories is so fulfilling I have zero desire to stop! so thank you for the encouragement, which I will use as writing fuel whenever I start up my next project (which is the dialogue prompts, but breaks about to be over and I just wrote that other fic so I'm chilling atm)

[couch-house]

What I read of it is good but there was a lot of content in that fic i cant really stomach. Ironic I had to stop reading an mpreg fic for casual homophobia and r*pe trivialization of all things lmao (I'm not critisizing anyone who enjoyed it btw. I doubt the author would have written some of the characters and dialogue the same way if it hadn't been the early 2000s)

ok when i first saw this message i got big mad and Hurt Butt Disorder about it but now that I’ve had some time to calm down I can see that yeah, although those things never bothered me, I can see how that type of content would be upsetting, especially coming from a character you like enough to bother reading fanfic for. for the benefit of other people who might similarly want to avoid these type of things, I’m going to put under the cut what (I think) you’re referring to, as best I can remember.

EDIT: the author is currently planning a rewrite of iss, so some of these content warnings will likely change in the future. from the replies: “fwiw, when I keep saying "I'm not going to start uploading new stuff or crossposting to AO3 until I've finished writing the fic AND EDITED THE FIRST THIRTY CHAPTERS"—this stuff is first and foremost among the things that I'm editing, and why I don't want to either post new stuff or present the fic to a new audience until it's edited.”

1) the rape mention has to do with repeated mention of a side character that was raped offscreen. most characters are sympathetic towards her (and gaz later beats the shit out of the rapist so that’s nice), but i think only once, it’s brought up around zim, who dismisses rape as “not real.” this is explained in-fic as being because irkens cannot be raped or commit rape, and zim is just a selfish shit that refuses to believe as a result that the same would not be true of others. this is framed within the story as wrong, judging by the reactions of the other character present, but this kind of thing in a fic can of course still be very jarring and uncomfortable. there may be another offhand comment by another irken character at some other point, but this is the only example I can recall. rape does not otherwise play any major part in the story.

2) I’m really uncertain about the homophobia but the closest I can recall is a scene where dib realizes zim’s in a m/m relationship and asks him if he’s gay. zim’s response is a very dismissive “no, too limiting.” again, this has an in-fic explanation irt irken sexuality, but I’m aware that many people may have heard these comments irl and be reasonably upset by them. as far as I know, there aren’t any other examples of homophobia, and if there are more they would likely be similar comments from other irkens.

anon if the scenes that you’re referring to aren’t here, shoot me an ask and I’ll correct this post.

EDIT: Anon added that: ““casual homophobia” was just Dib expressing disgust, his reactions to gay things being described as “disgust” explicitly, a handful of times. F slur being used in a swollen eyeball transcript, etc.“ 

My understanding of Dib’s reactions were based more on general disgust of ZIM being in those situations, but it’s entirely possible I’m forgetting/mis-remembering those scenes. I do recall the swollen eyeball bit, though I can’t be more helpful here with exactly when that was. I thiiiink it was in reference to an original character in the story and took place in-fic near christmas, if that helps people avoid or prepare for it.