#i have officially created fan art for my own fics

[neyafromfrance95]

what's wrong with haladriel tag today? everyone is spreading hate or getting baited by the antis. doom and gloom. only a few posts are of the shippers goofing or discussing the ep in a way that doesn't feel like the show ended haladriel for good.

yeah, idk. i try to not scroll down the tag nowadays. i finished the episode and it was fine to me. i understand everyone's complaints and frustrations as i myself wished for sauron to see galadriel being in captivity at least (and my main issue is galadriel's shortened screentime), but i feel like we might be overreacting a bit and ruining our own shipping experience?

what saddens me the most is that i don't see the fan creations getting appreciated. the shippers would make great gifsets, edits, art - no reblogs. write fics - no comments or kudos. maybe the fandom is still small but i look at the stuff from s1 and it had so much more interaction and encouragement from other shippers.

even the metas from s1 aren't all about "when will celeborn appear and can galadriel be shipped with sauron when she is married to celeborn?" it seems like haladriels didn't give a f about that forced discourse back then and were just wholly enjoying the ship.

as i've said, i think elrond kiss is not the worst thing for haladriels. it might indicate that celeborn won't be introduced (yet), so galadriel won't have to "go back to being his wife". elrond/galadriel won't turn any more romantic than this, at most it will be ambiguous. and they might be testing the waters for how the audiences react to canon divergence. if elrond can be galadriel's jacob, why can't sauron be her edward?

listen, so many of the most iconic ships have never kissed or were never officially a couple. if the dynamic is shippable then why stop shipping just bc a season doesn't go exactly as the fans wanted it to go in their wildest dreams? we still have s3, there still might be the mind-palace communication explored in s3. after all we know the whole show was inspired by the idea that sauron ever so gropes to see galadriel and at some point galadriel closes the door on him but he still allows her to roam his mind freely!

+ this season still was like a continuation of sauron and galadriel mirroring each other, it confirmed that galadriel has feelings for sauron and that sauron is obsessed with her. there is still one ep left where this slow-burn build-up is supposed to climax.

my point is, let's try to be more positive? and being positive isn't necessarily confined to being delulu. it means creating fan content or hyping up fan creations, it means taking what we get in the episodes and dissecting it with passion, engaging with analysis, having fun!

i have been in many other fandoms and i know that a fandom can't be longevous if it's sustained on frustration and negativity and discourse 80% of the time.

for what's it worth, let's let the creators know that we want haladriel, not that we hate the show the same way the lorebros hate it. yk?

[solar-halos]

okay so for every piece of ai art i saw i used to draw something bc even though i cant draw to save my life i am still confident that its still much better than ai bc duh ! anyway i ran into a bit of a problem w that bc after i drew johanna and annie i kinda couldn’t do much else so i just decided to draw them in a new context. i went on a modern au fairy costume halloween rant earlier today so that’s what inspired me to do this. u can tell they’re fairies not bc they have wings but bc they’re wearing vidia and silvermist’s trademark colors. ok bye

[lizaluvsthis]

☆ Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! ★ (master post)

SMG4 Template by @bezumnie_nekuda

☆ A Canon / Amateur Artist - Beeg ★

Hello Hello! My name is Liza (without the E)

SMG34 Shipper and a Fan of SMG4's contents!

People are only allowed at my blog if you're 13+ I cuss sometimes and well you might find other things disturbing or not on the way-

Account for Brewing Romance - @lizadoesstuff

~☆ Heres my pronouns page if anyone wants to see ☆~

°• Theres also my Carrd •°

Struggling to find the font?

My Romance Trope For these two

OFFICIAL TWITTER ACCOUNT

I do have a Wattpad account

Persona right here :>

FANARTS + SPECIAL THANKS

INBOX LIST

TOP SECTION:

"Indigo Secret":

AU and Comic by me

Flashback and plot idea by @justin-peudeau

About: "Indigo Secret":

How long was is planned?

Coffee N' Bombs / Brewing Romance AU:

Design created by me

AU and Fanfic by @shygirl4991

SMG4's Uni CnB outfit

SMG3's CnB outfit

Confused who owns the AU?

ABOUT CNB BR AU

Whats so good about it?

Pride Bombs! - aroace too

My Arts for CnB BR: CLICK HERE!

.

Snowtrapped 3.0...:

For somereason.

ITS DISCONTINUED!!!

Moving Out - A short smg34 comic

Hyperfixations and Research

My SMG34 headcanons

Boundaries + Shipping + Sexualities

Fanarts/Animatics I made for Fics

Artistic Family

UPDATES - LINK

(Following gifs are from- Blinkies)

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Works/Projects:

"Indigo Secret" - (purple notebook obsession)

Brewing Romance - (Coffee Shop AU)

A Spark Beneath Hearts - (Strange Magic AU)

The Frog Prince - (Princess and the Frog AU) THE AU IS CANCELLED!!!

Shadow Vision - (Puzzles AU)

Mario and The Mysterious TV - (Marware)

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My discord account is open btw!

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If you want to make fanarts from my works you can! Just mention me in the tags. My ask box may or may not be open frequently, I dont mind what ya guys send ^^

I also do bunch of researches and analytics, I'm busy at the moment in sometimes I won't be there to respond quickly!

(Again I'm a minor student who's still studying)

I've been aware that other people steal arts without permission mind doing me a favor to not repost mine somewhere else okay? (I WILL immediately shout that person out)

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I'm Semiactive- I dont mind spam likes or reblogs (well appreciated with love)

♡♡♡♡

[carlos-in-glasses]

I'm having some thoughts and feelings, for reasons.

The feelings are that I'm so grateful for this beautiful fandom and the beautiful couple in the picture above. The thoughts are beneath the read more and can be taken or left. The picture cannot be left, however. Taken is the only option. You need to see it because look how cute they are!

For prosperity:

Something I always 'explore', if you will, in my own writing is how people process the concept of time. Endings, beginnings, the past and the future linking up. Your past self always being with you like a spectre. The present feeling like a marble rolling around a tube... I think this is because I'm not good with change or saying goodbye, but I do know that endings always lead to something else. Which is scary, because you don't necessarily know what that will bring.

Thinking about all of the above in terms of Lone Star is a different beast for me personally, because I've never had this kind of experience with a show or characters before, where I'm so compelled by it that I found my way into the fandom and have been creatively stimulated to the point of writing 25+ fics for it (which isn't nearly as many as others have produced! But to me it feels significant). So for that reason I want to say: When the show ends -(WHENEVER THAT MAY BE) - the characters don't. They don't end, not really. As long as we choose to keep talking about the themes, sharing meta posts, writing them or drawing them or creating gif sets, and revisiting them in rewatches or YouTube clips - there they are. Always. Either suspended in their moment and so easy to revisit in all their glory, or put in new situations in fic and art even years into the future. If this hiatus has taught us anything, it's that even without the show on air, there are still plenty of stories to tell and interpretations to be had, based on what came before. When the show ends, the thing that will unfortunately go is the speculation aspect, but what we have instead is a beautiful completed work that can inspire and be meaningful forever to those who already love it and for those who will find it in the future - and it will be found. Anything that exists can be found. (See: deep sea fish that glow in the dark (!)). And things that don't exist can be imagined.

We're so lucky to be the ones in the know when it comes to the show and to Tarlos. We know how special it is, what a gift it is. I'm not a spiritual person but I do feel oddly spiritual when it comes to this. Idk.

Something I've always hoped (as I'm sure we all have) is that we would know ahead of time that it's over. The show not being renewed between seasons is a thought that horrifies me to my core. I remember thinking towards the end of season 4: "At least if it doesn't get renewed, it ends with Tarlos being canon-married." Which, as a Tarlos super-fan, was my no.1. concern, but I love and care about the other characters too of course.

Going into season 5 and fearing it could be the last season, I had a huge tummy ache wondering if Tarlos would be on the rocks. If they ended on a cliffhanger having assumed season 6 was on the cards, we'd never get a resolution. But Rafa's Cameos have really eased my mind in that regard. Based not only on the tiny amount he's given away, but the way he talks about them loving each other, it sounds like they're going to be okay - and we're going to see it for ourselves that Tarlos really is endgame. In a time when hope is needed, we do have this. AND we have each other! As long as Tarlos ends happy, I for one intend to keep dancing, even if it means I'm the eccentric up on the table on my own doing the robot. But I would always like others to dance with.

Whatever happens, which we don't officially know yet, we can get through it together.

[slythindor100]

Hello friends! I, along with my co-mod, timothysboxers, are thrilled to announce that 25 Days of Draco and Harry will run again in 2023. We want to thank @navi1088 for creating this art for our banner.

For those who may not be familiar with this challenge, I have included the rules at the end of this post, and I encourage you to read these.

And for the loyal fans of 25 Days of Harry and Draco: In 2023, we will be doing both Early-bird and Traditional prompts as usual. Again, we're running on LJ, DW and tumblr – the rules will be the same as last year.

Because it seemed to work out quite well last year, the Early-bird Prompts will once again be available in late October, and we will be including the Image Descriptions along with the prompts.

Early bird prompts will be available no later than Sunday, 22 October, allowing creators over 5 weeks and some change to work on their posts.

Also, we will have the Discord server specifically for 25 Days of Draco and Harry participants. Like last year, this will be a place where early bird participants can discuss (in a channel just for them) the prompts and how they might use them. Traditional participants will join the general section of the server in December.

The 2023 rules at a glance, for those familiar with the concept:

25 Days of Draco and Harry 2023 - Traditional

No changes from prior years. A photo prompt is posted starting at midnight EST 1 December, and you create a work based on that prompt and post before the next day's prompt goes up.

Each of your posts can be part of a larger work or they can stand alone.

25 Days of Draco and Harry 2023 - Early Bird

You receive access to all 25 photo prompts no later than midnight (EST) Sunday, 22 October. This is the same time frame as last year. Hopefully this will give you time to prepare and create for 25 Days before the insanity of December starts.

You will post one work per day for each prompt. This can be a stand-alone story or each day can be a part of a bigger story. We may even get a pod-fic this year of a past 25 Days fic and that would be posted a chapter a day. ♥

The advantages are this:

1) you can use the picture prompts in any order you chose

2) you can start creating early and have many of your posts ready to go before December 1st.

3) you get the prompts all at once so you can pre-plan your story or your use of each day's prompt.

The basic rules of 25 Days of Draco and Harry – Traditional Edition:

The challenge is to write a drabble, ficlet, story (whatever) for the pictures posted each day from 1 Dec to 25 Dec. Your fic for each prompt must be a minimum of 100 words – but there is no maximum. They can be twenty-five one-shots or each one can be a part of a bigger story. Pictures will be posted at midnight EST and you have until the next midnight to complete your work.

Yes, you may combine this with other communities or tumblr prompts.

Your fic does not have to be a story of the picture – you can use a part of the picture or whatever that picture says to you. We're pretty flexible around here.

Traditional Prompts must be used in their posted order. If you fall behind, you can post more than once a day to get caught up. You're also welcome to post as life allows, meaning you don't have to worry about being on time. You can also combine a few days or prompts into one fic/ficlet/drabble/etc. But the true challenge is to post every day for 25 days within the 24-hour time frame.

You do not need to sign-up for the Traditional edition, the prompts will be made available beginning 1 December at midnight EST.

While you're not required to, you are encouraged to add your story to the AO3 collection by adding "25 Days of Draco and Harry 2022" to your submissions, under collections, when you post them to your own AO3 account. A link to the collection will be provided in the official rules post after it has been created.

The basic rules of 25 Days of Draco and Harry – Early-bird Edition:

The sign-up period for Early Bird participants will be from 15 October to 20 October 2023 via AirTable.

After signups close you will be given access to the 25 picture prompts no later than Sunday, 23 October. You may use these prompts in any order you choose – but each prompt may only be used once. The challenge remains to post a daily work from 1 Dec to 25 Dec using one of the provided prompts. Each should be posted between 12 midnight (EST) and 11:59 PM (EST) the next night. For written works, the minimum word count is 100.

While you're not required to, you are encouraged to add your story to the AO3 collection by adding "25 Days of Draco and Harry 2022" to your submissions, under collections, when you post them to your own AO3 account. A link to the collection will be provided in the official rules post after it has been created.

FOR BOTH EARLY BIRD AND TRADITIONAL. IF YOU ARE POSTING INDIVIDUAL STORIES FOR THE 25 PROMPTS, PLEASE CHECK "THIS WORK IS PART OF A SERIES". THIS WILL PUT ALL 25 STORIES TOGETHER UNDER ONE HEADER, RATHER THAN 25 INDIVIDUAL POSTS (which can be difficult to find).

IF YOU ARE POSTING ONE BIG STORY, PLEASE CHECK "THIS WORK HAS MULTIPLE CHAPTERS". AGAIN, FOR THE REASON LISTED ABOVE.

The early bird prompts and the traditional prompts do vary. Some may be used on both but mostly they are two distinct sets of prompts.

If you have any questions, please email the 25 days mod account at potionsgod@gmail.com or DM one of the mods if you're on the Drarry Discord server.

@sassy-cissa and @timothysboxers

[2aceofspades]

4.) When did you become a fan of TMNT?

18.) Who is your favorite villain?

19.) Who is your favorite ally?

27.) What is something you love to see in TMNT art/fics?

28.) What is one thing you would like to see explored more in TMNT art/fics?

33.) What is your favorite thing you've made for TMNT?

35.) Which character relationships are your favorite to write/draw?

Sorry there's so many 😅 you don't have to answer them all if you don't want to.

I absolutely ADORE your art btw, it is so amazing and so nice to look at and it's just ✨✨✨

Anywizzle, I hope you have a great rest of your day/night :]

4.) I guess I became an official fan a little bit after the Rise movie came out. Of course, I had known about TMNT when I was pretty little cuz my older sib was a fan. I also watched a bit of the 2003 show and 2012 show growing up ✨

18.) I really like Big Mama. She's such a slay 💖 I also really like Rise!Shredder and the Mud Dogs

19.) Cassandra 😭💙✨ that's my girl 💙 Also April cuz she kicks major ass and is such a good friend fr fr 💚

27.) Angst 😌 but like, relatable angst~ So, written or drawn trauma that speaks to me, I suppose. It's a major reason why I adore EMD so much. It makes me feel seen and understood in a way that hits so hard in such a good way augh yess

28.) That's a good question, and one that I can't say I've thought too much about, to be so honest. I think, for me, I would like to see more of Big Mama's assistant on my dash, but that's more so me just being out of the loop hehe 😅 There is another more serious topic that I would like to see be talked about, but I don't really have the words to articulate it currently.

33.) Whew, um...if not the 3K celebration I did for EMD (cuz that was so fun to create hehe~) then maybe some of the more rendered pieces I've made for my own au (rip TWFTB). Although, I love a lot of the stuff I draw for EMD for many reasons <3

Here are some of my overall faves in no particular order~

I don't yap about or draw for my own au anymore, but that's okay/gen

35.) I love drawing f!April and f!Cassandra being all lovey-dovey 💕 It seriously makes me so happy and I should draw them more 😤♥️ Also, I loved drawing f!Raph and f!Leo co-leading in the resistance in my au.

No worries at all! I love these ask games and I very much appreciate your curiosity 🤗✨

Also AAAWEEE!!! Thank you so much!! 🥹💙 I really appreciate it 🙌🙌 I hope you have a great day/night as well 🌟 Thank you again!!

(:

[callsign-relic]

rambly personal thoughts, nothing bad but no need to read, just want to put it somewhere

I saw a tweet just now from a popular tf content creator (Keyan Carlile) saying how it’s his dream to eventually write something official for transformers one day. And lowkey he’s already been building up to it so much. He made the combaticons pilot. He made the tfa fan comic the headmaster levels up. He’s done so so much, and yet he’s still so motivated to keep improving. Keep going. All the way until he’s where he needs to be.

And I can’t help but think about myself. How really, creativity is my life. I love writing. I love drawing. I love coming up with ideas and creating worlds and putting lines and colors to a page and seeing it come to life.

And yet.

I haven’t really been doing any of that recently.

I haven’t properly written a fic in months. I’ve been drawing a little more sure, but most of my time has just been spent… literally doing nothing.

I was gonna go to college at a really great art school to learn 3d animation, but I had to withdraw my application. It was too expensive, for a career I knew wasn’t going to be stable. Plus the industry is shit atm. Plus with how much pressure I put on myself, I didn’t believe a school environment would be good for me anyways. I wanted art to be the thing that would always keep me happy.

But right now I just feel stuck in a cycle.

I love art. So what I make has to be great. So then I intimidate myself out of doing what I love, and feel bad when I don’t make anything.

And then there’s the matter of… if I love art, but I’m not going to do anything with it, then… what am I going to do with my life?

Right now I don’t really know. I don’t have a goal I feel passionate about. I feel passionate about some things, yes, but… for my own future? The road looks unclear. And I guess that just worries me.

I’ve been feeling more motivated the past few days more than ever to keep making things with my ocs and stuff. And one day I would love to make a bigger project. I really love the creative process.

But, idk. I feel stuck in a dilemma of it being the thing I’m most passionate about, yet cannot pursue.

I can do it in smaller ways, true. I just worry that it won’t be enough. It’ll be too much work and effort just for a result that isn’t worth the work. I know you can only improve the more you try, but idk.

Damn this turned out more vent-y than I meant hahaha. Just had to put my thoughts somewhere since I haven’t really had the time to think about them with how much I’ve got going on in my life anyways. I just feel a little bit stuck :/ but it’s okay. I have my whole life ahead of me. I just want to figure things out for myself one day.

[i-want-a-bagel]

Fandom Trumps Hate 2024

Bidding has officially opened for FTH 2024! What is FTH? An event where fandom creators offer a gifted fan art/fan fic/fan labour of all kinds as a thank you for a donation to a charity! Each creator has their own page with what they're offering, and here's mine!

My Auctions

This year, I am offering a translation from English to French (or French to English) and fan labour as a beta for French! It is my first year offering beta services through FTH as I saw there was a demand for French beta readers (and I am very excited!), as for translations, I have done many over the past years, you can find all of them on my AO3.

My AO3

There are offerings in dozens and dozens of fandoms, with over 1000 auctions this year, and the charities picked for this year cover trans rights, abortion rights, relief for Palestinian children, and many other so important causes.

If you want to participate as a bidder, or even if you're just curious, you can browse all the FTH auctions here either by fandom, by type of art/labour offered, or by some specific tags.

All the FTH 2024 offerings

Also! When we get close to the bidding time ending, the official FTH account @fandomtrumpshate usually posts a list of auctions that have no bids on them, so if you want to participate but can't afford to donate a lot, that could be a way for you to find an auction you can afford and at the same time make sure all creators get at least one bid on their offering!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me! This is my... 4th? 5th? year participating as a creator, and I have also bid and won auctions in the past, so I can help with all steps of the participation!

Wishing all my fellow creators a happy FTH, and as always thank you to everyone who participates, whether by creating, bidding, or just sharing our posts around.

[olderthannetfic]

I'm curious, do you have any opinion on copyrights and expiration? Since starting to write fanfiction, I've felt like ff as an artform mostly exists in this form because of copyright law and capitalism, which I thought was unfair. Now after creating and selling my own original works, building a small amount of wealth for myself and my family, and having to deal with greedy suits who just want to screw over every original idea to turn a profit, I've started to have a different perspective that maybe copyright should be indefinite and never expire in the cases of small creators but not megacorps. I'm not sure how this would change the handling of fanfiction and fanart as a whole, though. For a small creator, I actually think the current copyright standard of creator's life+70 years is pretty good and encourages more people to be original or pay artists for their work. I think of things like Star Wars, which mostly exists because Lucas couldn't obtain the rights to make the adaptation he wanted of Flash Gordon. It does seem especially heinous, then, that a huge company like Disney could have theoretically swooped in (if we had copyright protection for, like, 30 years after publication) and made Star Wars VII which became one of the top 20 highest grossing movies of all time, and they wouldn't have to pay Lucas or his family anything. Or giant companies (if copyright was limited to protection until the artist's death) waiting for a small artist to die so they can make an adaption without having to pay anyone royalties. As it currently stands, current copyright seems pretty good for indie artists in society but bad for megacorps in society.

As someone involved and familiar with fanworks who also writes original fiction, do you have an opinion?

--

As far as I know, the historical motivation behind copyright existing at all was to stop big companies from just stealing shit from smaller creators that got popular.

I think some form of copyright is necessary, and policing the boundary between small time and big time is difficult. We should just roll back the stupid shit Disney pulled to extend it.

I see no reason someone else should be able to sell competing works or merch for my thing without my permission. Whatever I've come up with probably isn't that original anyway, so the main thing they want is my marketing and networking I've done and my audience, not the concept of such-and-such a set of stock figures in a romance. Build your own brand! Do a collab with the other creator and make it official!

I think it would help if people outside of fandom were more broadly aware of fair use (and if all countries had fair use) while also being more sensitive to when powerful creators and companies steal. Right now, the attitude seems to swing towards everything my sort of people do being "stealing" but anything some ballsy dude or big company does being probably legit. There should be some wiggle room, but it's often applied in the wrong direction.

Most people should turn a blind eye to very small scale sales of physical items, but I'm talking small. A lot of fan art merch businesses produce way too many copies of things, and people trying to support themselves as fic authors on Patreon should knock it off and write something original (with all the extra work to build an audience that that entails).

[ask-rockstar]

Hello and welcome to ☆Rockstar☆

An AU created in early 2023 by yours truly: @tanuki-moon!

Asks are: OPEN

☆Rockstar☆ is a complete 45 chapter long (1000< words) LightBrush Band AU featuring many characters from both Inanimate Insanity and Battle for Dream Island! Also, I have six of my own characters sprinkled in for the cases of both Lightbulb and Paintbrush’s parents, Paintbrush’s manager, and Test Tube’s sister!

Only SOME asks will be answered with art, and that depends on if I feel like it or not. They will probably be little doodles rather than fully rendered art. So, sorry about that!

☆Rockstar☆ is posted on both AO3 and WattPad, and I also have a discord server! All three will be linked at the bottom of this post :)

You can ask questions to both the future versions of the characters, and the original ones seen through chapter 1-44. Tag characters from the FUTURE with “F!” For example, “F!Paintbrush”

Now, here are the MAIN characters you are able to ask!

Paintbrush Canvas

Lightbulb Bright

Fan Wind

Test Tube Vial

Bot 

LED Bright (Lightbulb’s Mom)

Neon Bright (Lightbulb’s Dad)

Pastel Canvas (Paintbrush’s Mom)

Dr. Pallet K. Canvas (Paintbrush’s Dad)

You are also able to ask me (the author) things! My OOC tag will be “-🦇🎨”

Side characters, established relationships, and other random info under the cut!

And of course, side characters that pop up along the story (some show up physically, others are just mentioned. Apologies if I miss any). I plan to explore them more in this blog!

Camera (Paintbrush’s Manager)

Trophy

Microphone

Soap

Cheesy

Knife

Pickel

Balloon

Nickel

Suitcase

Baseball

Marshmallow

Apple

Bow

Silver Spoon

Candle

Yin Yang

Goggles (Test Tube’s sister)

Dough

Pin

Coiny

Ruby

Gaty

Two

Professor Four

X

Professor Seven

Professor Eight

Coach Six

Coach Nine

Now for established relationships (Familial and romantic)!

Paintbrush and Lightbulb are dating (obviously)

Test Tube and Fan are dating

Test Tube, Fan, and Bot are a family

Camera is a mother figure to Paintbrush

Candle and Yin Yang are cousins

Candle and Silver Spoon are dating

Gaty and Two are in a QPR

Coach Six and Coach Nine are married

X and Professor Four are married

Trophy and Cheesy are… well, no one knows what they are. Not even them.

Soap and Microphone are dating

Pickle and Knife are dating

Test Tube and Goggles are Sisters

Phew, that’s a lot of bullet points! If your favorite character is NOT on this list, not to worry! You can still ask them questions! You can ask “Hey, (character), what are you doing?/ How are you?” and I’ll answer in character! BUT they MUST have to be from either the II or BFDI universe.

As of this post being released (I am writing this on August 29th), it will have been a YEAR since I released the first four chapters of ☆Rockstar☆! Being on this journey with everyone involved was such an honor, and it is really fun to see just how much my book has grown!

[lord-aldhelm]

Welcome to my blog!

I decided to create this thing to keep all my insanity contained in one location. This currently encompasses a laser-focused obsession and hyperfixation on the above ↑↑↑

Springtime in Saltwic (AO3): Aldhelm x Aethelflaed post Season 3, 115k words, 27 chapters, Rated M

Calm Before The Storm (AO3): Takes place just after King Ceolwulf's death in 2.03, Aethelred and Aldhelm's history together. 3.2k words, Rated T

Loyal Guardian (AO3): Aldhelm's rise to captain of the guard. 2.8k words, Rated T

Darkest Before the Dawn (AO3): The story of how Aldhelm fell in love with Aethelflaed. Post Season 2. Rated M. IN PROGRESS

Get To Know Them Alphabet (Tumblr)

My Collection of Essays (Tumblr)

Aldhelm Character Analysis (Tumblr)

Recommended Fic List June 2024

Recommended Fic List Sept 2024

Season 2 (2.03, 2.05, 2.06, 2.07, 2.08)

Season 3 (3.01, 3.02, 3.03, 3.04, 3.05, 3.07, 3.08. 3.09, 3.10)

Season 4 (4.01, 4.03, 4.04, 4.05, 4.06, 4.07, 4.08, 4.10)

Season 5 (5.01, 5.02, 5.03, 5.04, 5.05, 5.06, 5.07, 5.08, 5.09, 5.10)

Seven Kings Must Die

Lord-Aldhelm Edits (which includes caps and memes)

Season 2 Gifs (2.03, 2.05, 2.06, 2.07, 2.08)

Season 3 Gifs (3.01, 3.02, 3.03, 3.04, 3.05, 3.07, 3.08, 3.09, 3.10)

Season 4 Gifs

Season 5 Gifs

SKMD Gifs

All Gifs

Aldhelm Fanart (including my own)

TLK Gifs (others mostly)

TLK Memes

Official Promo Photos

Behind the Scenes Photos

Con Photos

Northcotej Photography: All of James BTS photos for The Last Kingdom

Archive for more

LadyAldhelm: for reblogging writing resources and other things

James Northcote Fan Blog

TLK-Kingdomsource: Source Blog for The Last Kingdom

About this Blog:

So, I originally started this blog so I could reblog all the Aldhelm posts I had been bookmarking over the past year and a half, keeping them all in one place since I did not want to post them on my main art blog. I also wanted to use it to post my fic, since I finally decided to take the risk and publish it for better or for worse, and also share all the screencaps I had been taking for drawing references (and just for my own pleasure let's be honest here).

I am rather late to this fandom, having binge watched this show in the middle of last year (2022) just as season 5 was released. It was sitting in my watchlist on Netflix for a few years, but I neglected it, thinking it was just another Vikings ripoff. Boy was I wrong. This show has really gotten to me in a way that no other TV show or movie has. I have never been so obsessed with a TV show or movie in my entire life.

But what compelled me to make an Aldhelm blog? Well, for starters, it had become apparent to me that, although many in this fandom like his character, very few consider him to be their favorite character, and far fewer still are obsessed about him in the same way that many are about Sihtric or Finan, for example. I still can't wrap my head around that, but maybe I am the weirdo, so oh well. I will create another post about why I love him so much at a later date if anyone cares to read it.

There are tons of blogs for the show in general and for other characters, and most of Uhtred's "pretty boys" get lots of love on here, but not so much for Aldhelm. I don't know if anyone else will really care about anything on this blog, but it is honestly not why I made it. This is more for my own sake than anyone else's, and if anyone else gets anything out of this that is great too.

[crescent-dreams]

Creator's Corner - JulyTheArtist

How did you become a fan of the Inuyasha fandom?

A friend from school in 2012 introduced me to anime, and I fell in love at first sight.

What do you like most about creating art?

Fanarts, ship content to be more specific, but I like character exploration, like clothes, scenery, etc. Sometimes I like to write, and if I write, I draw about it at the same time.

Do you have a favourite fanfic trope to draw?

Smut (of course), including courtship, mating season, domestic, family, and soft moments.

What is the hardest part of creating art?

Myself! And I’m not kidding. Sometimes my own limitations, whether personal or of resources to produce art, get in the way. But I always try to manage and deliver good content.

Which piece of your art is your favourite?

I don’t really know, but I like “Mating” on Patreon (and my other art there), my commissions, and my big fluffy dog with Kagome wearing blue.

Snacks, Music, Silence: what does your creative setting look like?

Music! I wear headphones all the time.

Paintbrush, Pencil, Photoshop: what is your weapon of choice?

Clip Studio Paint and sometimes paper and pencil.

If you could draw an Inuyasha character live, which pose would you choose?

Posing relaxed, these characters need peace.

Is there another artist you look up to? 

@m2moon94 and @razdazberry!

What will be your next project we can look forward to?

My art fic, but it’s still in process. I don’t even have an official name yet.

You can find @julytheartist on Ao3, Tumblr, Ko-fi, and Patreon! And please check out our Creator's Corner Masterlist for all our past creators!

[harrypotterfesthub]

Sign-Ups Officially Open for the HP Dark Festivus Gift Exchange!

Holiday gift exchanges are a time to bring on the fluff – unless you’re participating in this one. The Dark Festivus Gift Exchange is where the holidays get dark and gritty, from angst and smut to Death Eater schemes.

Important Dates

October 6, 2023 Sign-Ups & Matching 12:00AM Eastern Time November 3, 2023 Sign-Ups End 11:59PM Eastern Time November 4, 2023 Writing Continues December 18, 2023 Fics Due 11:59PM Eastern Time December 19, 2023 Reveals 12:00AM Eastern Time

How it Works

Sign up here. To stay up to date on any and all Dark Festivus announcements, join Harry Potter Fest Hub on Discord.

Fest mods will match you with a giftee. We'll tell you all you need to know about what your giftee likes and doesn't like in fanfiction and/or fan art.

You'll create a work for your giftee and submit it to the fest collection.

Wait for reveals! Your job is to keep your gift secret. When it's time for gift reveals, you, your giftee, and other fest participants will see what's been created for you all.

Rules & Information

Do not create a work featuring your giftee's dislikes/triggers, and try to stick with ships/characters your giftee suggests.

All works must be kept anonymous until reveals. This means you may not tell people which work is yours, nor hint at it, until your name is revealed.

You may have one alpha or beta. Your alpha or beta may NOT be your giftee.

All Wizarding World characters are allowed, including characters from the Fantastic Beasts series, Hogwarts Legacy, and Hogwarts Mystery.

Visual arts (art and comics) may NOT feature characters under 18 in sexually explicit scenarios, even if reference models are of age. This is for legal purposes.

You may not receive any extensions. We recommend starting early.

Art Requirements - Minimum: 1 character, B&W, Undetailed; Maximum: 5 characters, Color, Detailed

Fanfiction Requirements - Minimum: 1000 words; Maximum: 12,000 words

FAQs

Help! I love angst but I can't go too dark. Be clear about this when you sign up, so the person gifting you a work can work within your likes and dislikes. This fest is for people that love angst or dark works. The only content we can't accept is tooth-rotting fluff. How dark does my work have to be? All themes must be angsty, grey, or dark. The level of darkness will be dependent on your giftee's dislikes and your own comfort level. Not all works need to be Dead Dove here; in fact, most probably won't be. When you sign up, be sure to tell us what you like to write and what you absolutely will not write. This will help us match you with someone appropriate.

What if I can't finish my gift work in time? If you cannot finish your gift work in time, you will need to inform fest moderators via Discord or email as soon as you know you won't be able to finish. Please do NOT wait until the last 48 hours to tell us. To ensure everyone gets a gift, we will have pinch-hitters trying to fulfill outstanding gifts, but they need time to create.

Can I create multiple works? If you would like to create multiple works, sign up for pinch-hitting. You may be able to save the day for someone who wouldn't be receiving a gift.

How do I contact fest mods? You may ask generic questions in the #dark-festivus channel on Discord. For private questions concerning your giftee, please reach out to LadyVoldy or Kate Thorne via Discord. This is the easiest way to reach us.

[fractualized]

I totally see where you're coming from with how you like your mix of comedy and seriousness and I think I'm really similar! I can definitely tolerate a lot of cheese but I'll almost always consider it a one off situation. I recently rewatched Batman and Robin while my wife was making a cast of my body so we could make cosplay and it was just so funny and silly that like it reminded me of what one of those really campy comics would look like in real life and I respected the fact that they could commit to it that way and make an artful movie that brought that to life but there were a few elements that didn't make sense to me like Barbara being Alfred's niece that I was just like whatever man and I knew I couldn't like... use it as a foundation for my basis of characterization, like I can with other media! I really love the animated series too, I grew up with it being my first experience with Batman and I always really respected it as a medium that I could trust to be satisfying and whole. I also really really liked Batman beyond because it felt like the closest continuation of that story even though I know it's really not canon and it kind of doesn't work, I like to view it as like a semi-official what if fan fiction from the original writers lol

I completely get what you mean about the comics, cuz I kind of view official comics like fanfictions even in their own right? I mean when you think back on like Bill finger and Bob Kane like eventually every other writer is going to be writing fanfiction of their characters but it's really fun to go through all the different Batman media and see whose stories you kind of like more and then whose stories you kind of tend to avoid

and when I mentioned I knew you liked comics, I was also speaking more from the perspective that you seem to have more knowledge about them Rather than I thought you had a preference for them, because you put together that comic PDF with batjokes moments and I was really impressed with that ☺️

i love your telltale fics and the games as a beautiful breath of fresh air into the life of batman so sometimes I like to imagine the animated series would be a great way to say where is juce 10 years later, if those universes were more cohesive setting wise lmao

Yeah, Barbara randomly being Alfred's niece is definitely one of the aspects of B&R that just… I guess it breaks up the campiness? That and Ivy being in love with Freeze for no discernable reason. And teaming up with him even though he'll kill her plants. And poor Bane! And then that weird bit at the end where Freeze is sort of forgiven but Ivy can't be? And Alfred almost dies. Should taken all that stuff out and added more camp.

I really enjoyed Batman Beyond too! I didn't even realize a lot of people didn't like it until recently. Honestly it's one of those things where I don't look into the reasons too much. lol I liked it and I'm fine with having liked it, no notes!! (OK I sorta lied. That bit in JLU where they made Bruce Terry's bio dad, that was bizarre.)

I am definitely in the "anything not created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane might as well be fanfic" camp. Like, sure, if DC puts resources behind a project, it has a better chance at being worth your time, but when I get down to it, I can't put a lot of weight behind the idea that someone's official derivative story is more valid than another someone's derivative AO3 post just because there was a cash exchange with a company that owns the original "asset." People who want to lean into that idea, that's their business.

The wild thing about the batjokes spreadsheet is I know that it's only a fraction of what's out there. I have read hundreds of comics at this point and I still feel like it's not enough to totally have a handle on things. Especially knowing how little I've retained. 😅 But that's another reason for the spreadsheet!

Thank you for enjoying my fics! And for implanting the idea in my head of a Telltale universe animated series… Just hijinks and maybe a little more murder with John and Bruce, bestest buddies.

[bsd-cherish-official]

BSD: Cherish Second Anniversary Interview

On September 21st, the second anniversary of the fanfic, Bungou Stray Dogs: Cherish, a post was made on this account by myself, its author and first artist, @linklethehistorian, stating that in celebration of the big milestone, I would be running a poll-based interview consisting of 10 polls with five questions each — which fans of the fic could vote on and have the most popular questions in each poll to be answered at the end of the voting period.

This is the result of those polls, and my responses to the winning questions that were determined therein.

Full interview below the cut for minor Cherish spoilers. Proceed on to read.

Q: Why did you choose to have four different artstyles used throughout the fic?

A: Well, in the beginning, you know, for the first…almost a year or so, I didn’t really have a co-artist on the project with me; it was just me, myself and I that was working on Cherish alone, and I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to have artwork for — and included in — the fic, so in that first year-ish that it existed, I basically just had to make do with using my own artstyle that was based on the BSD anime.

So, you already have that going on, and I was pretty happy with that, but the truth is that from the beginning, I’d always really wanted to have at least some of the art — especially the cover art I’d sketched up years and years back — resemble the actual official art from Harukawa-sensei in the BSD  manga and light novels. After about a year of procrastinating and overthinking everything about it, I finally worked up the courage to ask my friend, Asachuu, who was not only a fan of the story but also had a very lovely artstyle and was very good at recreating the look I wanted, if it would be possible for us to collab on a piece, and sent the old sketch for the cover, and from there things kind of just…took off. Pretty soon, one single collab had very happily turned into me suddenly having a dedicated co-artist who could contribute some absolutely beautiful BSD manga-reminiscent artworks for certain chapters.

Then, after the Storm Bringer Stage Play had come out, I ended up extremely inspired by a lot of the very cute and lighthearted official chibi artworks and merch that sprung up from it, and thus, by the end of last year, I ultimately wound up endeavoring to create some chibi artwork of my own for Cherish; originally, this was not intended to be any sort of long-term staple for the story, as I expected it would just be a one-and-done thing to surprise fans with during the holidays, but…as I’m sure most of you have seen, after discovering how fairly quick and easy yet still adorable the end result was, I made the choice to continue with that style of art for all of our little celebrations, events, and milestones. 

Lastly, those little chibi drawings also unintentionally came to invent a brand-new style of coloration in regards to my methods, which resulted in the final type of my artwork that you see involving Cherish — a sort of lighter, softer way of coloring that results in an almost crayon-like effect. This was initially a complete accident, as it was nothing more than me using a random brush for the first colored sketch of the holiday 2022 piece, but after some experimentation with keeping it for the finished work, I found that I really liked it quite a lot and later began using it for more than just the chibi-style artworks, as it brought a certain warmth and light-heartedness to the scenes, and reminded me a tiny bit of this one still image from the first season of the BSD anime:

And so, there you have it! Although the gorgeous manga-reminiscent style of my co-artist may be the well-known face of the fic in a lot of ways given that our collaborations are reserved for and make up the bulk of many of the most intense or important scenes and chapters of the story, every artstyle that is involved with Cherish’s official art has its own special and equally important part to play therein.

Asachuu’s manga-like style lends a certain extra feeling of authenticity to Cherish as having its place among the other BSD light novels, and presents certain scenes and chapters in a uniquely stunning form, and with extra attention to detail that likely wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

The more typical BSD anime artstyle that is my usual signature, with its fuller and more official-looking coloring technique, is used to depict the rest of the darker, more somber-toned scenes that do not receive the previous treatment; this, I feel, not only properly represents the anime artstyle in some form as I had wanted to begin with, but also brings forth a sadder, more down-to-earth aspect than its lighter and fluffier, almost crayon-like colored counterpart, which is conversely used to evoke the happier, more heartwarming moments and emotions within the fic.

And, of course, the chibi artstyle allows me to make much more quick, cute, and mostly much less serious little drawings to share with my friends and fans of the story, easily celebrate special events and milestones, and express my endless gratitude toward Cherish’s continued support. 💖

Q: Who are your least and most favorite characters to write for in the fic?

A: Oh, this is kind of a tough one. I actually wouldn’t say I genuinely dislike writing for any of the characters that have appeared in Cherish thus far, but I guess if I had to pick one that I liked dealing with a little less than the rest, that would have to be Ango; it’s not that he’s a bad character by any means, and I honestly like him in BSD quite a fair bit, it’s simply that he’s the most…I guess you could say “ordinary” or “stiff”…out of the group, in terms of outward personality — at least, under the circumstances in which he was introduced and presented up until now. 

“He was still pleasant to write and there was a moment or two there that was a little fun to do, he just didn’t really have the chance to truly show off the more intricate parts of his soul in that scene”, is I guess how I’d put it.

As for most favorite, that’s a bit harder to pin down. haha I like all of the main cast in different ways. 

Obviously, I’m very, very fond of both Arthurs; not only do I just really love both of their personalities and find them both super interesting, but I also relate to them both in a lot of different ways, and the subjects that often get tackled with their scenes, dialogue, and thoughts are all very important matters to me that I treat with a lot of personal care, respect, and passion, so it would be very hard for me to say that those two aren’t one of the absolute main highlights of writing Cherish to begin with.

At the same time, though, also really into writing for Chuuya and Paul — especially when they’re interacting with each other, because of how perfectly their polar opposite personalities, apparent outlooks, and ways of communicating their feelings play off of each other, though definitely not exclusively there, either. I really just find them fun, well-written, and fascinating to explore in general, too.

And then of course there’s Mori. I guess if we had to talk about pure novelty and entertainment value alone when it comes to writing, then he would have to be the top pick for the most fun and smooth experience overall, since his ability to change from cheerful to chilling on a dime, like the simple flip of a light switch — or even accomplish both at the same time, without even doing anything explicitly threatening at all — is a uniquely cool concept and character trait to play with. 

I don’t know, to be honest, I just think they’re all super neat in their own ways.

Q: Are there any outfits you really want to draw someone in, in a future artwork?

A: Oh God, you have no idea how many, but yes; I have a lot of planned outfits for the future that I want to draw and release some proper Cherish art for, and some that I really already have done and just haven’t been able to share with all of you because it is spoilery.

I think two outfits in particular I’d really like to draw in a full-on chapter artwork, though, are the outfit Arthur was wearing to the restaurant in Chapter 10, and then the cute little casual number Chuuya was wearing in Chapter 11. You can actually see both of those in the Valentine’s and White Day chibi artworks I’ve made for this year, but I consider those to be a little bit different from drawing it in a more properly proportioned piece…

Q: Are there any minor plotholes you’ve had to go back and fix that nobody noticed?

A: Well, technically, yes — if memory serves, at least; I mean, I believe the day that I released Chapter 10, I had left in one instance in which Mori called Paul “Verlaine-kun” right there in front of Arthur, despite that the doctor himself had been the one to insist that he use an alias, and I think I then had to go back and fix that retroactively so that he called him “Marion-kun” instead. 

Granted, they were both speaking Japanese to begin with, so it’s not totally impossible that Arthur wouldn’t have picked up on what Mori was calling him, but…yeah, to be honest, I think that’s one thing that both Mori wouldn’t risk and Arthur wouldn’t so easily overlook or fail to hear.

Other than that…well, this isn’t technically a plothole or anything because it did have a reason from the start — it’s more just a case of something not having been elaborated on as much as I’d like — but there’s currently a scene in Chapter 6 where Rimbaud, in a fit of frustration and emotion, goes off to Paul about how no one back home was worth returning to or would even really miss him if he died or disappeared, and he references his past lover fairly clearly as having been a man.

The possible “problem” that I think there’s potential for someone to take away from this moment is that later on, Arthur acts deeply worried about Paul finding this fact out and being severely discriminatory or cruel to him as most people in his original time were about such things and refusing to continue being there for him or even helping him as a result — thereby possibly making it seem like I’d forgotten that Arthur had had this outburst.

That isn’t really the case, though; moreso, it was originally intended for there to be a scene at some point where Arthur would reflect back on what he had said and inwardly question why Paul had continued to be so kind to him despite knowing that he had been involved with a man, ultimately deciding that it was likely that Verlaine didn’t really pay attention or give enough thought to all of the finer details of all of what he was rambling on about back then, in the heat of the moment, too focused on calming the teen down to be bothered with picking apart every statement he’d made — as Arthur himself simply couldn’t imagine he’d have been lucky enough, on top of all the other ‘highly fortunate’ circumstances he’d landed in, to have also just so happened to find someone who would be that ‘absurdly’ willing to overlook his orientation. (It’s not like he could have imagined that Paul simply wouldn’t think anything of it at all — which was actually the case…)

Unfortunately, I forgot to put that dialogue in, so at present, it kind of just has to be inferred by the reader… I do have plans to go back at some point before the start of the next arc and add this in, in some manner, but thankfully no one so far seems to have cared that this wasn’t explicitly explained, so I’m glad of that, at least.

And if you have wondered…well, I guess you have the answer for now. Sorry it’s not explicitly in the fic at the moment, but hopefully it will be quite soon.

Q: Is there anything you’re afraid you might have been TOO subtle about?

A: Well…yes. I’m going to put up a disclaimer here and now that the response to this question could not only be potentially triggering for some people who have experienced certain types of trauma, but also is kind of NSFW, so…if either of those things might be a problem for you for any reason, you may want to skip over this question.

We alright? Have you decided whether you wanted to keep reading this or not?

Okay. Let’s get into it, then.

So…while I don’t exactly want to say there isn’t plenty of room or time or even plans to perhaps go into it more deeply later, since there definitely is and I most likely will in some manner, given that it is my first time delving into such topics, I do wonder now and again if some of the dark implications made in Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 13 — namely, that Arthur had been through multiple cases of extreme sexual trauma, in addition to the other emotional and physical traumas he had endured throughout his life — were altogether too cryptic to have been picked up on by the average reader at present. 

I did intend from the very beginning to be more subtle about the matter in these chapters and only make little references to it in passing where it was immediately relevant and/or was natural to come to mind for Arthur in light of the situation, but I frequently worry if the things that I see as having been decently clear indications towards that end actually were decently clear or not. I suppose it doesn’t matter if they were or not, since that is something that as I said is bound to be more obvious at some point in the future chapters anyway, but it is something I think about nonetheless.

I think that if you were fully familiar with and completely in the current know about the poet Arthur Rimbaud’s life as it unfolded in our world, and especially have kept up with all of the most recent findings, then you might have a slightly better chance at putting two and two together on your own, and in that case I think my words will almost certainly have served their purpose, but for anyone else, I do have some minor concerns that maybe my desire to have been more subtle about it at this stage in the story actually ended up backfiring and making it altogether impossible to assume or even question…

Anyway, that particular heavy subject aside, I often also just in general worry about whether or not I’m coming off clearly enough when it comes to any existing or possible future hints towards anything that is remotely non-traumatically sexual or relating to sexual attraction in nature as a whole, since, as an asexual person who myself doesn’t experience sexual attraction whatsoever, it is a subject matter that on some levels is fairly unnatural to my own personal human experience and sexuality; I don’t think that I’m bad at talking about it by any means, I just don’t know that I’m particularly amazing at it, either.

But yeah, those are…pretty much my only main times when being too subtle might have ever crossed my mind, I think…?

Q: What’s the message you most want people to walk away with after reading Cherish?

A: Good question.

The thing is, I wouldn’t say that I originally created Cherish with any specific message in mind at all; I mean, obviously, there were always going to be heavy themes and topics that I knew it would have to tackle, and there were things that it definitely represented to me on a personal level after it came into being, but back when I first created the headcanons themselves that would eventually become this story, considering that I had absolutely zero plans to share it with anyone at the time, I didn’t really ever consider the idea of it carrying an actual message I wanted to convey.

Even now, I don’t want to define Cherish as this thing that exists solely for the purpose of communicating a particular idea to others, because it isn’t; I’ve known from the very beginning that to some people, this tale is just going to be something they look at and enjoy on a completely surface level — as something that is exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more — and I’m fine with that.

To me, Cherish is both of these things: a story that exists simply for the sake of itself — for the love of its characters, its pairings, and its plot, taken entirely at face value — and something which on a deeper level also represents and carries a great deal of messages and concepts which happen to be very important to me, that I hope other people might see and feel touched by as well.

Given that it does represent more than one thing in my eyes, though, that makes this question a little hard to answer; provided I had the ability to ensure it somehow, I’m really not sure which message I would want everyone to walk away with the most.

I suppose, in the end, if I could only choose one thing, then the message that I would most want my readers to see would depend upon who they themselves are, and what they need to hear most.

As I’ve mentioned in one post before, I would very much like it if some victims of abuse and/or trauma might be able to feel seen and heard by the fic, and maybe even find hope or at least catharsis in reading it. I don’t want to say too much about the matter in this particular interview, as a lot of the commentary I could make beyond that could lead to spoilers for people who would rather not know certain things that will happen or the outcome of them, but I will say that there are many questions and themes in this fic that I would like to believe might strike a comforting note for some people who are going through a lot of uncertainty in their lives, in the aftermath of traumatic and/or abusive experiences.

Likewise, I would hope that for anyone who maybe knows someone who has gone through abuse or trauma but struggles with understanding it, because this story has not only been carefully researched and written about, but also by, someone who has been through certain types of abuse and experienced the lasting effects of trauma, it might be able to help them get a closer look at some of the possible ways those things can present themselves and the things that can potentially go through our heads as a result.

For someone who might be reading this with either a newly budding or already pre-existing interest in the real life Arthur Rimbaud who once lived here in our world, I would like to think that this story — albeit having some minor differences here and there that I will get to in a later question — might show a bit more nuance towards his situation compared to how many other forms of media surrounding the topic (especially, but not limited to, the English ones) tend to present it.

Having spent the many, many years that I have researching his life story in multiple languages and every possible remotely credible source I could find, digging to the bottom to find the absolute truth as best as one can, I have found that in many cases, there is sadly far too much of a focus around sensationalism when it comes to coverage of the individuals and events involved, and far too little of a focus on actually bothering to get all of the facts and the interpersonal dynamics straight in order to present the most accurate and nuanced recounting of history that can humanly be given. 

While I don’t want to get too into it in this little interview, as I’ll probably be making a separate post about it sometime anyway, I will put it out there that it is largely thanks to this failure to share crucial details that for quite a while into my earliest endeavors of research, I myself was led to believe the very much false and yet sadly most widely spread, highly sensationalized narrative that either, at best, both Verlaine and Rimbaud were equally terrible people who were, likewise, equally to blame for what happened between them, or at worst, that Rimbaud was the one to blame almost entirely for Verlaine’s supposed “descent” into a crueler and less respectable person — both of which narratives, by the way, cannot exist without completely ignoring and omitting several key facts that provide much more nuance than most of these various coverages were willing to provide: such as the several extreme power dynamics involved in their relationship coming from Verlaine’s side, the extremely traumatic background that Rimbaud had come from and how that had left him a vulnerable target in numerous ways, and most notably, that Verlaine had a pre-established pattern of alcoholism, extreme abusive tendencies of practically all varieties, homicidal urges, guilt-tripping tactics, and exactly everything else for his entire adult — and to some extent even teenage — life, far prior to meeting Arthur, and also continued on that path for the rest of his life even after their parting, whereas Rimbaud by all accounts prior to their meeting was nothing more than what, by today’s standards, would be considered overall a perfectly normal, if (and understandably so, given his background) troubled, teenager, who would later also go on to be a perfectly normal if somewhat withdrawn, well-adjusted adult once their relationship was over.

My hope, then, in that vein, is to tell this story without shying away from or missing those facts, and in doing so, to hopefully present his life story from an angle that is rarely seen or covered by many of the most popular sources of information out there, allowing people to perhaps step away from the great echo chamber of omissions, sensationalism, and misinformation for a moment and view and understand Arthur from a much more real and human perspective — to see him as a real, feeling, troubled human being who once lived, breathed, loved, struggled, and suffered just like nearly anyone else, rather than some dehumanized, over-exaggerated spectacle spoken of purely to be gawked at and made into a shocking and scandalizing caricature into which only the most extreme of rumors and actions are projected, as is so often sadly the case.

So, uh…yeah, those are my main messages I’d like to get across, I guess. I’d like to return to talking about this more in the future when the fic is complete, since by then I can truly get into the topics more, but for now, there you have it.

…I think at the end of the day, though, what’s most important is that people who need it get from Cherish whatever it is they came for; if there’s a message they really need to hear right then, then I hope they hear it. Sometimes as writers, we see a certain message in our stories and we intend to have that come through, but someone finds an entirely different and equally beautiful one inside it instead — one that we didn’t even intend to be there — and it helps them. I think that’s pretty awesome. 

Q: What chapter are you most/least looking forward to recording for?

A: Well, to be honest with you, despite that by the time of answering this, I’ve already finished what I think will be the final recording for it, Chapter 2 has been a massive bitch to work with from beginning to end — nothing like Chapter 1 — so…yes, that would be the one I was least looking forward to recording out of the thirteen chapters that already exist; I’m honestly relieved it’s over.

I don’t really know how to explain what the problem even was with that one; it’s not a bad chapter by any means, but the first time I recorded it — an impossibly perfect take all the way up to the last third of the fic, by the way — I sadly found out that the audio ended up somehow distorted beyond any repair or salvaging, and ever since then the lines for some reason have just refused to be spoken out loud the same way that they do when I read it in my head. 

As of this moment, I still haven’t listened to that recording more than the few seconds that were necessary to make sure that it took this time, so I don’t even know whether or not I’ll end up completely unsatisfied with the result, but it was really the best that I could do, so whatever the case, I’m stuck with it the way that it is. Let’s just hope it doesn’t totally suck.

There are way too many chapters that I think will be a cool experience to record for me to narrow it down to just one right now, but the closest one that I’m really anticipating is actually Chapter 3; I’ve always been really fond of the whole exchange that happened between Paul and Chuuya there, and I think getting to narrate those lines would be really exciting, since up until now, I haven’t had a great opportunity to get into the more emotionally intense lines. I hope that when the time comes, I’m able to do them justice.

Some other chapters I’m really looking forward to recording, I think, are 6, certain parts of 7, 10, and 12.

Q: Is there anything you wish you had been able to keep in the fic, but couldn’t?

A: Well, I definitely think there are some things that would have been more intense and exciting for people who were maybe expecting a more canon-typical plot to what we’ve gotten so far, but I don’t really know that I have regrets about not being able to use them in the fic.

For example, because the very first iteration of the original headcanons that make up what would eventually become Cherish were, well, headcanons, and tied to a much longer overarching storyline with no clear-cut beginning or end, both the way that the story started and, in some aspects, how it will wrap up is somewhat different from how it was back then.

I’m not going to elaborate on that at this time, because there are some aspects of those things that I had to change which I intend to still try to potentially incorporate at a different point in the fic, and thus I don’t want to spoil any of what might happen in the future, but there were definitely things and characters that had to be cut from the final version of Cherish that I do wonder what it would have been like for my readers if I had kept it; I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, though, as I’m quite proud of the fic I have now, and I think it’s probably best as it is currently.

Other than that, I guess my only potential regrets about things I couldn’t keep would have to be some of the deleted scenes and lines delving into certain characters’ mindsets, but I talk about those in the development notes already, so I won’t delve into that here, either. 

Q: Do you plan to find a way to reuse all of the scrapped content for Cherish?

A: As much as I reasonably can without impacting the story in a negative way, at least, yes; it would be utterly impossible for me to keep literally everything in the fic that was ever discarded, but within the margins of good sense, I will try to re-incorporate whatever I feel is important, insightful, cool, or interesting and works with the plot.

Almost anything worth talking about that is left over after that is likely to end up in my Cherish Development Notes, so maybe keep an eye on those if scrapped content tends to pique your fancy.

Q: Do you think Cherish would’ve been as successful if it kept its original title?

A: Honestly? In some ways, I think it probably would’ve been a lot more successful – at least, in terms of marketing. 

The thing about Cherish as a title is that although it’s very fitting for the story, and I do love it a lot, it’s very definitely not even half as marketable as a name like Storm Chaser would’ve been; there’s simply no getting around that fact.

Yes, for a fic, something short, sweet, and romantic like ‘Cherish’ does just fine – it’s expected, even; searching it up as a fic title right now, in fact, there are a total of 764 results, 3 of which by the exact same title are in the BSD fandom – obviously including mine. That’s just the issue, though; sure, it’s a perfectly normal and acceptable title, but that just means that when it comes to marketing, it doesn’t help it to stand out at all from the others.

If we’re talking in terms of more conventional ideas of success and popularity, then for a fic that is meant to be a fully-fledged light novel of the same quality and effort as its official canon kin – and which has been made into such a massive project stretched out across so many forms of media – having a title that sounds like what one would usually expect to be some little oneshot drabble of the most common kind is absolutely a bad move.

Storm Chaser as a title for a fic, on the other hand, has only 29 total entries on AO3, none of which are in the BSD fandom, and it sounds like an actually plausible name for an official sequel to Storm Bringer; there is no doubt that at the very least, something like that would absolutely generate more clicks and hits out of pure curiosity alone than Cherish ever could. 

That being said, though, generating more curiosity clicks doesn’t necessarily mean generating more genuine love and interest, and I’d rather have people clicking out of interest in the summary and description and tags than over something as petty as the title to begin with – not to mention that I decided a long time ago I’d rather make Cherish from the depth of my heart in every way, in accordance with what I want it to be, than to worry about its popularity levels.

Q: How historically accurate do you feel that this fic is in its representations?

A: Well, at least more accurate than a great deal of the more popular sources of information out there, when it comes to irl Rimbaud and Verlaine’s life stories and situations, unfortunately — as I said further up above.

Granted, there are going to be some small differences and creative liberties taken here and there, given that the versions of them presented in Cherish come from a slightly alternate universe to ours, but that’s mostly just to do with the fact that in this alt-world, Paul actually succeeded at making a second attempt on Arthur’s life at the train station where the teen intended to have their final parting; apart from that and the obvious connecting of dots and filling in of blanks wherever information simply didn’t fully exist about the more intimate and intricate details of their lives, great care was taken to ensure that everything was presented as realistically and accurately as possible, according to all of the intensive research I have done about them over the years.

As for the general historical representation of the time period they come from itself, I’d like to think that I’m doing well with it, as I try to do my research on every aspect the very best that I can, but aside from certain highly specific subjects, I don’t claim to be half so much of an expert of the general late Victorian era itself as much as I am an expert on them and their life stories, relationship, and circumstances specifically; if there’s a minor slip-up or two in regards to facts about the era that I somehow managed to overlook or misunderstand, I’m truly sorry about that. haha

Q: What is your favorite fan interaction you’ve had to this day?

A: I’m going to guess that my interactions with my dear co-artist don’t count here, right? In that case, it would definitely be finding out that my new pal, @dazaisshippingcontainer, is making fanart of my fic; that was such a touching moment for me — the thought that someone out there (especially someone that at the time I wasn’t close to) had been reading my fic and loving it enough to actually make fanart for it. 😭 Moments like this are moments I truly treasure beyond compare. Ily Clover, buddy. 💖

Let’s be honest, though; I love and live for every single fan interaction I’ve had to date. 🥺💖 They all mean the world to me.

And of course there’s Art — my dear, dear friend and co-artist, whom I appreciate so, so much… I truly feel blessed by it all.

Q: Do you ever read your own fic?

A: Oh, you have no idea... lol Yes, yes, and a thousand times more: yes. I adore Cherish; it’s not just something I wrote for you all to enjoy — it’s something I wrote for me, too, something precious that I adore with all of my heart, and something that I’m immensely proud of.

Every time I release a chapter, I read it together with my partner, and besides that, I probably re-read a chapter from my fic —if not multiple or all of them — just by myself at least once a week.

Needless to say, I really love Cherish.

Q: How many animatics do you plan to have for Cherish?

A: Ideally, I’d like to have at least one for every arc in the fic, plus one last animatic at the very end as a final look back on the story and a great celebration — which would make for six — but I don’t know how that will actually work out, in the end, given how massive of a project making even just one can be; I may end up making more than that or less — we’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

—

And, that would be all. Thank you for your questions, everyone, and I look forward to the next time we hold an interview like this together!

[bowtruckle]

The difference is that Tolkien literally told the Nazis to fuck off and then adjusted his portrayal in subsequent books after it was pointed out. Rowling on the other hand, uses her money and her platform to promote bigotry. You can like the HP series, but don't fool yourself on this. Any money you spend on official HP (merch, books, watching the movies) is money and influence given to Rowling to further her platform

I have a theory, as an artist, that every piece of work you create is like your child. You love your child, you scaffold them and watch them grow, you do the best you can with the tools at your disposal to make them into something you would be proud of. But when they've grown, it's time for them to leave the nest and create their own identity. That identity will change as they interact with new people, have new experiences, and grow alongside the world as it develops better morals and strives for inclusivity.

There are parents who resent the adults their children have become, and there are artists with work that speaks to an audience that is undesirable to them. I understand an author’s desire to defend their perspective, but no artist has a say in what their creation means to others.

Furthermore, when an artist learns that certain elements of their creation are insulting and harmful to others, it's the artist's responsibility to step back and reflect on which elements of their work were considered to be insensitive. They should apologize and agree to do better.

Harry Potter will find its own way without her. It will grow when she is gone and no longer has her claws sunk into its flesh. It will evolve. It will reflect contemporary morals, and touch just as many hearts as before. That's my dream, anyway.

That being said, it's written in my profile. Fuck JKR. She doesn't get a single penny from me. I watch the films I own. I read the books I own. I make my own prop replicas, art, and fic, and buy them from other fans as well. I never even speak about Harry Potter, as much as it pains me to keep my primary special interest to myself.

There is love to be found in this series, I hope one day a long time from now, the next iteration (not HBO's) will speak to as many hearts as the books did during their highly anticipated release.