#i honestly haven't written for a fandom this large before so i want to put my all into making it stand out

[crimeronan]

On the topic of How Do You Handle XYZ Comment, I've always wondered how you handle terrible responses on your toh takes. Like I know the toh fandom doesn't lack piss on the poor reading comprehension and they also really enjoy wildly out of touch takes, but I've never seen any comments on your princess luz stuff of that nature. I'm sure they must be there but maybe I'm too early? But anyway, how do you tend to deal with the "acktually shipping luz and Hunter is incest" and the "ur not a real lesbian because putting amity in a poly ship is lesbian erasure" and the "as a white person kinda sus you make the poc woman an empress" kind of responses? Ones that are technically not hate and maybe if you squint could be from people who aren't inherently trying to do bad but just lack the maturity needed to engage with the internet at large?

this ask made me giggle. honestly, i haven't received as much pushback as you might expect! way less pushback than i expected. in the princess AU, i've gotten a LOT more "this is actually too grotesque for me to stomach" comments than "this is problematic" comments, which is fine. horror-thriller isn't for everyone, those comments do not upset me.

i have had a Few run-ins with bad faith people, whom i mostly block. there's one prolific commenter in toh tumblr fandom who would repeatedly write angry essays on my humor meta posts -- essays that were all about how belos is too evil to be sympathetic and/or about how hunter is a soft gentle boy who shouldn't be jokingly referred to as evil. then they'd go "i can't help my active and conscious decision to type a bunch of rude fucking words and then my active and conscious decision to send those rude fucking words because i'm autistic :(((" around the fourth or fifth time this happened, i was fucking done with that nonsense and finally blocked them. shoulda done it after the first comment tbh!! no more autism exceptions.

as for the rest of it, my main management strategy is to simply.... preempt the bad faith comments?

i had a LOT more unpleasant and conflict-filled fandom experiences when i was in the raven cycle fandom. that was my first exposure to "you can't ship multi-gender polycules if anyone involved is gay" and "queerplatonic het relationships are just heteronormativity shipping that you're trying to get away with." having dealt with those takes before, i've found a few different ways to disarm bad faith readers before they get started.

first is to be super open and honest about my interests. i talk about what i find compelling in different relationships All The Damn Time. it's really hard for anyone to accuse me of only wanting hunter to fuck amity if they've seen, like.... anything i've said about hunter and amity.

same with hunter and luz. the only negative reactions i've really gotten to how they're written in the princess AU is like.... two people being squicked by camila thinking they're romantically involved. i REALLY expected more pushback on the touchyfeely bed sharing stuff, but from what i remember, there's never been Any....? not even from people who consider them siblings.

i expected a lot of pushback on how mean hunter and amity are to each other, since it's taken So much farther than the canon. but it turns out that there's a very large overlap between people who like dark horror AUs and people who like hunter and amity murdering each other. (in a fluffy fic i don't think this characterization would fly Nearly as easily.)

i find that being funny really disarms people, too. when you look at any of my toh meta posts that could be controversial, they're basically all funny. people are a lot more willing to listen to what you have to say if you make them laugh, and it's harder for them to get angry at you.

and then the last thing is that i think i'm in sort of a privileged position in toh fandom. i've written a lot of controversial subjects and relationships and characterizations.... but i've also written some WILDLY popular mainstream fic. and people who like the mainstream fic don't really want to beef with me about differing niche opinions, bc there's a level of respect there. which they might not have for a writer they don't like.

but anyway. when things Do happen, i almost always just block and move on. there are so many people here who get what i'm talking about that there's no need for me to try to convert people who don't, you know??

[voylitscope]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @somanywords and @zenaidamacrouras1 💞 Thank you both for the tag! 💞

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

34.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

438,009

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily MCU (17). I've also got Original Work (12), and there are a few fandoms I wrote one/two fics for.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

All Stucky:

1. There Are Strangers I Have Yet to Become 

2. We Set a Precedent, and Now I’m Living With It

3. I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go)

4. There’s a Light (I Find It at Your Side) 

5. If I Could Stop the Clock With You Tonight  (Technically, this isn't true. There is a fic I wrote in 2015 that is my Fic That Blew Up fic. It is my all-time most kudos'd fic by quite a lot. It's a one-shot I wrote in about four hours. It is in pretty small fandom. This fic is, to do this day, one of the top fics when you sort by kudos both for this ship and in the fandom in general. I still get kudos on this fic all the time. I got 5 overnight last night. So, unless I write something else that completely blows up, nothing will ever catch this fic. There's no chance. It will always actually be my number one most kudos'd.

There are two other older fics of mine that would slot into my top five by kudos -- one would actually be two all-time currently. But in the case of those two, that's largely because they've got time on their side.)

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

Always! Sometimes it takes me a little while, but I always do. I love comments.

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

I was going to say I didn't really have fics with angsty endings, but that's a lie. I forgot about these two pre-war, unreliable-narrator-Bucky one-shots: But You Can Hold Me (Only 'Cause It's a Cold Night in Brooklyn)  You're a Gem but Not a Saint

And thinking about it, I guess Darling, Let's Take Our Time (While It's Still Ours To Take) is probably also pretty angsty, just because of the circumstances.

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

I think some of my fics are just really happy overall, tone-wise, so the ending hits happy, too. Most of all We Set a Precedent, and Now I’m Living With It, I think? And i feel like the ending of I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go) really cements the rom-com vibes there. Also, in my original stuff, people seem to really like the ending of Secretly, I’m Hoping for the Dare Again, and I completely get that. It's a very happily-ever-after sort of ending. So, I'd say those three.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't. I occasionally get comments that make me uncomfortable, but nothing I'd call hate at all.

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

I very much do. As for kind, I use the porn with feelings tag a lot, if that counts as a kind, ha. I think. I do get a lot of comments about my smut being sweet, or romantic, or sometimes even oddly wholesome, ha. I mean, like I said, Secretly, I’m Hoping for the Dare Again, has one of my very happiest endings, and I wrote that as a gift fic for the 2022 BDSM exchange. So, that probably says something about my smut style? I think?

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

I haven't. Unless you count putting characters into other universes as a crossover, even if they don't interact with that universe's characters? But I feel like that's more just an AU than a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not one that's on my currently being-used AO3, but yes.

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

Yes, a few times, but not in years.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Honestly, it's Stucky.

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

I hate to say never on anything, but there are several things sitting in my drafts that I haven't touched in so long. It's probably equally unlikely I'll ever finish any of them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Tone/mood-setting and character voice, probably?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I find describing some actions so difficult, especially when specific things need to happen for plot purposes. Like, any sort of action sequence/confrontation/athletic event/etc sequence is a struggle. It's harder when there are more people involved. Transitioning in and out of scenes is also Not My Favorite.

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

I've done it, most heavily in Will You Keep a Candle Burning? (Will You Let Me Come and Stay?)  and its prequel one-shot. Although, there were also several more Wanda lines in my earliest draft of I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go) but I think only... one? two? of those ended up in the final version. I enjoy including it, and I think it can really add a lot for characters/characterization.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

This was a question on a similar meme months ago, and I honestly didn't remember. I've Wayback Machined myself since then, and my very first fic ever up on fanfiction.net (in November of 2006, apparently) was a Harry Potter fic. I'm not positive it's the first thing I ever wrote, but it is the first fic I ever put up online, so.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is so difficult! I am always tempted to just say that Will You Keep a Candle Burning? (Will You Let Me Come and Stay?)  is my favorite/the best thing that I've written. It's 116k! There is a lot of plot! There is so much character development! It's also the story I wrote and liked so much that it pushed me to get back on AO3/sharing my writing on line. Because I just wanted someone else to read it. So it's hard to separate it from the way writing it has impacted my life over the past couple of years.

But there are a few others I do like. For two that aren't in my top five by kudos or mentioned anywhere else in this post so far -- I'm so fond of the Steve and Bucky in We Were Strangers for Far Too Long, and I loved writing this one. I also really like this The Secret Garden fic I wrote for an exchange: So I Could Blend in With the Sky.

No pressure tags for @dharmasharks @sparkagrace @dontcallmebree @musette22 and @thisonesatellite

[killin-these-shots-like-r-i-p]

❣️ SHIPPING INFO ❣️

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSES SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG.

Tagged By: Stole This

Tagging: Anyone That Wants To Do It!

1. WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER(S)?

Vox, Angel Dust, Velvette

2. HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

It depends for me. In Hazbin, with Sinners, I don't care too much about the age gap on when people were born. That said, if the younger character is under 18 I won't write any usft with them.

3. HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?

I would say once the pants are coming off or things go beyond second base, usually. I'll put things in a community thing for sexual content. I will put things under a read more, too.

4. ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

Not usually! My muse may be low for certain ships, though.

5. WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

Assume that OCs are welcome with everyone provided there is chemistry! Any of these can be threesomes/moresomes.

I will literally ship him with anyone. Val's type is vaguely bipedal and possibly a heartbeat.

6. DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?

I prefer that we talk a little outside of the rp before we assume we're shipping, but most of the time I will say 'yes' even if we haven't written much/at all. I'm pretty flexible with shipping and I always love seeing how dynamics grow!

7. ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?

Obsessed. I am so not normal about shipping. I will ship all the things, please hit me up if you want to try a ship. I will most likely say yes, even if it is a crackship. Sometimes even especially then.

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?

It's hard to pick between VoxVal and ValAngel, honestly. I love both ships so much!!

9. FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?

¯\ _(ツ)_/¯

I'm quite literally a ship whore and a collector of ships I really like. I have had like, twelve Voxes and Angels for Valentino, for example. It's not hard to ship with me, really, just follow these guidelines.

[residenthesitant]

fic writer interview!

Snagging from @definitelynotshouting because I loooove talking about my fics lol

How many works do you have on AO3?

between my two accounts and including all my anonymous fics, i have published 115 fics since 2014. if we're only counting ones visible on the residenthesitant and hesitantresident pseuds, 58. 

What's your total AO3 word count?

Again, counting both accounts, it's 630,517 words total. On RH alone, a whopping 498,925. jesus christ. i did not think it was that much.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

With the ones just on RH/HR, they are:

Look at the World So Close (And I'm Halfway To It) (DSMP) - 1,777 kudos

Like Begets Like (DSMP) - 405 kudos

END PRINCE LEARNS TO BE NICE (NOT CLICKBAIT) (OSMP) - 314 kudos

That Bitch is Back (& We're Gonna Have A Chat) (DSMP) - 258 kudos

Static (Danger Days: True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys) - 219 kudos

honestly, im kinda surprised by this one. i fully thought there'd be at least one of my anon fics in here. wild.

rest of this is under the cut!

Do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to comments, but have had difficulty in the past. most often i do because i want to talk about behind the scenes stuff.

What's the happiest ending you've written?

I prefer happy/bittersweet endings,  but I think my happiest is world so close, since it basically has a fairy-tale happily ever after to it.

Do you write crossovers?

Nah. I'll do AUs, and maybe there's some crossover due to the nature of the MCYT fandom, but I largely keep characters in their own casts. It feels weird to put them elsewhere.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, but someone did delete a nice comment once, which was kinda weird lol

Do you write smut? What kind?

i did kinktober last year! if "toxic fucked up manipulative puppetduo sex" is what this means by "kind," thats generally what i do. i uh. i wrote 1/3rd of the fics in that tag. so.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not officially, but I joke that the writers of the Homestuck Epilogues stole part of one of my fics to write about how dirk felt about his own death. The fact that they read exactly the same means that I Understand the character ig.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! World So Close started a collaboration with my beloved friend Jinx but largely fell to me when they got too busy. I also have a couple Frantic Fanfic collabs and a co-written zine piece coming up.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Very hard question. I don't think I have an All Time Favorite out of all the fandoms I've been in, but if we go by fav per fandom, they'd have to be dirkjake (homestuck), a rotating selection of c!eret ships though I am extremely fond (understatement) of dreameret (dsmp), shadowgast (critical role: mighty nein), zoethian (yogscast), and a PC/PC romance from my dnd game.

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

sighs. For Every Failing Sun. it says its marked as complete because i have the rest of the plot in not!fic form, but the fact of the matter is that i dont think i'm gonna get around to completing it unless the danger days hyperfixation grabs me again.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue all the way. if i dont have a character voice right, i will simply perish

What are your writing weaknesses?

i will use the same words and phrases within two paragraphs of each other and then miss it in the edit, and i'm a fiend with an em dash. take those things away from meeeeeeeeeee

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

this one doesn't really come up for me, though i get a little annoyed when it's worked in very clunkily. dark shout out to 14 yr old me doing this with a tumblr snk fic.

What's the first fandom you wrote for?

Unofficially, Peter and the Starcatcher when i was 7, hand-written. Officially, House of Anubis on the nickelodeon message boards circa 2011.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I want to maybe write a perc’ahlia fic sometime soon? Depends on how the mood takes me? Like, I've officially now written for critical role, but perc’ahlia seems like the next step. Only took 8 years of being in the fandom for the blorbofication of Percy de rolo to happen. It's kinda funny, I've been a fan of shadowgast for so long but have never felt the need to write for them. It just hasn't felt necessary. 

What's your favorite fic you've written?

this one's easy. It almost certainly has to be bring a little rust, slow the gears, which i, coincidentally, wrote for TJ for a fic event! genuinely one of my favorite things i've ever done, i'm extremely proud of it and it has some of my favorite c!eret dynamics at the forefront. OTHERWISE, it'd have to be Le Roman de la Couronne, which is a c!punz/c!eret courtly love au, which really just means i spent 33k infodumping about medieval and elizabethan literary tradition, with blorbos on top of it.

anyone who wants to do this, say i tagged you. i love when people talk about their own shit. ok love u bye

[dreaming-of-mossballs]

hii so I'm like a super ultra silent reader of your content bc I am deathly afraid of my liked posts showing up on my friends' feeds. but I had to somehow let you know that even though you seem to be having some sort of burnout and unhappiness with your writing, as someone who's very very picky about what writing I even enjoy, your writing style and skill is definitely some of my favorite on the app at all. I totally understand being unhappy with your own work since I'm an artist too (albeit a visual artist so, not quite the same here but the idea applies), and I can relate to being unsatisfied with whatever it is you're putting out there. but basically, I just wanted to let you know from an outside view, your writing is extremely eloquent and well-put-together and organized. you can tell your writing is created with a lot of thought and time put into it, which is why it's so easy to enjoy. and side note, I LITERALLY haven't been able to stop thinking of your last post since I read it yesterday which almost never happens 😭. honestly even though there's like 5 gepard fans on here so he gets practically no content from anyone, I'd still prefer to have your writing carrying the "fanclub" of sorts over a large crop of posts from lots of people that isnt very well-done or thought about. I know you said this recent post may be your last one for a bit, so please, PLEASE take your time with whatever's next!! your stuff is always very much worth the wait ❤️ and please do take care of yourself and don't push yourself too hard.

(by the way, you totally don't need to post this on your profile or respond to it at all, I just wanted to send in some kind of message about it since as I mentioned, my paranoia prevents me from interacting with your posts directly 😞)

CRYINGB UGLY SOBBING OMGOMGOMG

It surprises me when people say I don’t need to respond because I can’t keep such a nice note to myself 😭 but I do the same thing when I’m sending asks so I totally get it (I’d get this tattooed on my forehead if no one stopped me)

i had NO IDEA I had a super ultra silent reader so this was an absolute joy to get. There was a post I saw earlier about how in fandoms, it’s either you talking with a small group of friends or your door is open and people come in and listen to you ramble. I’m definitely the latter. I’m so fortunate to have so many people invested in my story lol, because like most things I write, they start off as daydreams in bed. I’ve never written one out before, but I’m SO GLAD I DID.

And honestly, if I were to release something the quality I wanted it to be, it would take ages of rereading and refining. Unfortunately im not a very gifted writer, but all the practice I’ve gotten due to being obsessed with gepard has helped me a bit. I just have to remember that haha

Some less coherent thoughts

ITS EASY TO UNDERSTAND???? YAY IM SO HAPPY AHHHHHHHH

i actually based my style off the wings of fire series, i don’t know if y’all are familiar with it, but the introspective humor was so fun to me as a child. (Also I love using Chekhov’s gun as a crutch I’m sorry guys) it also stemmed from the worry that readers wouldn’t be able to visualize what I was picturing, so that ended up in a LOT of describing scenes early on. With no metaphors so it was just like. (Y/N) set the cup down, (Y/N) put the laundry in the washer, etc. hahaha it makes me laugh looking back on it

it also makes me absolutely kicking my feet giddy that it’s invaded your brain. I love giving people brain worms and inflicting emotional damage on them. And gepard ALWAYS shares posts with other Hsr men like. The absolute middle child treatment. But I’m glad I’m doing my part to bring something to the table that’s different than the usual 1k words he gets sandwiched in between five other people.

it makes me so so happy you think my writing is organized and well thought out, because I do put a lot of thought into it!

I’ve run out of words to say but i might come back to this to ramble pfft

i hope that fic gives you a good supply of serotonin for days to come 🩵🩵

[a-krogan-skald-and-bearsark]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? Seven. Although that's going to go up soon.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 43,425. Although again, that is likely to increse.

3. What fandoms do you write for? On AO3? Battletech, Mass Effect, 40K, and I also have a Skyrim AU of Eaters of the Dead that I need to get round to finishing.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? In order.

The True Dark Elves; Or An Account of My Travels Amongst the Nords of Skyrim, by Professor Petroclus, Imperial College. - Professor Petroclus gets tasked with writing a treatise on the geography of Vvardenfell and instead gets roped into accompanying a band of Nords as they save The Reach from Falmer Last Krantt of Kreshan - The Last Battlemaster of Clan Kreshan during the Reaper War Weath's Saga Stormsinger - The story of Weath Stormsinger, Rune Priest of Fenris. Coen City Clawtake - Part of @is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not's Operation Touchdown story event.

Tak aff these bands (Aroond me hands) - the story of Donncheadhn Mac A Phearsain, Skye Marcher, and his role in the Rasalhague Independence Movement.

5. Do you respond to comments? As soon as I see them! I love comments! I totally do not crave external validation of my writing! Whyever would you say that?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I am not a big fan of writing angst. Probably a Wolf with Cats Paws but that's largely cause it ends on a cliff-hanger

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? - When it actually gets finished, I would go with The True Dark Elves. Cause while not everyone is going to survive, the ones who do will get their happy endings. And the one's who don't will be in Sovngarde.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I suspect my writing would need a bit wider audience to get hate. Haven't yet, hope to not.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I have written smut precisely once. Only two people have ever seen it, and I am one of them.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Does The True Dark Elves count? Don't think I've done any serious crossovers, but I've occasionally done stuff with what a story would be like if transposed to a different setting

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Well, the Operation Touchdown stuff is all collaborative, but apart from that.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? I am a sucker for enemys to lover tropes. And also the trope of "These two are amazingly competent at everything except each other". I know this doesn't answer the question, but I am fickle, and my all time favourite changes all the time.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Most of my work is stand alone shorts? There are some longer-form worldbuilding concepts I would like to explore, but I'm not very good at putting the meat on them as it were.

16. What are your writing strengths? Apparently I write combat REALLY well, people keep telling me.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? My dialogue always feels stilted to me. At the moment I am writing a lot of Battletech Clanners, so it suits, but I wish I could write it more fluid.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I am afraid I lack fluency in anything other than English or half-remembered high school french. I would LOVE to be able to use Gaedhlig and Cymrw in dialogue, but alas.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Mass Effect maybe? Or Skyrim? It might have been Valdemar. I honestly do not remember.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I am VERY much a fan of The True Dark Elves, although I will admit to having cribbed shamelessly from both Eaters of the Dead, and it's film adaptation, The 13th Warrior.

Thanks for the tag, @frogblast-the-ventcore

Now, who to tag... @falasteeniferret, @galahadwilder, @alexseanchai, @that-wildwolf, @dispatchwithlove I think will do for a start.

20 Questions for Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 49. I have a few options for #50…

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 299,440. Ok, I hadn’t realized I was that close. Now, my answer to #1 might be “a new 560-word drabble.”

3. What fandoms do you write for? I’m nearly exclusively writing for Avatar: Legend of Korra, with a little bit of Last Airbender, where it fits in.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Rainstorm - Su is there for Lin, for once. 2. The Well of Need - My first long-form story, with Lin taking care of Kya. 3. This is My Anchor - A mid-sized Kyalin story where Lin doesn’t make Kya take care of her. 4. I’m Sorry I Need You - An angsty one-shot that fits with a couple others in the “marriage is hard” domain. 5. Walk With Me - A longer-than-intended one-shot variant on a Tumblr joke.

5. Do you respond to comments? I do, as soon as I can. Sometimes, that means getting off work. Sometimes, that means giving a response as meaningful as the comment was to me. 

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? For complete stand-alone stories, that is likely Something Changed, where the last words are usually joyous. I can’t find the link for the worst-worst ending I have, so just pretend that never happened.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The happiest ending? I like my happy endings, so this is tough. But I think I’ll go for Elemental Changes, because that launched my collaboration with @slowdissolve on Red Jade.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not hate, exactly. One reader informed me that I had ‘let them down’ on a follow-up story because I didn’t write the story that was in their head. 

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I’ve done a little, but it hasn’t been a focus for me. And, aside from the polyamory aspect, it’s all as vanilla as it comes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Not unless you count LOK + ATLA a crossover, which I don’t.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to date.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? @slowdissolve and I wrote Moonsigns together, and we published two versions. One is told in first-person language and color coded, on Tumblr. We then followed it up with a more traditional third-person version that does not rely on color, on AO3.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Kyalin is where everything opened up for me. 

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I’m taking quite the long view of all of this. I haven’t added to Their Sacred Year in a while, but have the outline for the next installment, so I don’t consider it abandoned.

16. What are your writing strengths? Folks seem to like my dialogue and plotting.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I struggle with the final rising action / climax / falling action, to keep the pacing appropriate to the story.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I don’t plan on it, given I am uneducated in the languages appropriate to this setting. 

19. First fandom you wrote for? Legend of Korra.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Saving the hardest for last. Naming the favorite child. Ok, fine. In that case, I’ll have to choose <wrestles with self> Elemental Changes (see #7), mostly because it’s a completely off-the-wall idea that I was able to see through and complete. And to have Slowdissolve illustrate the ending was an absolute capstone.

So I get to thank both @krastbannert and @wishingforatypewriter for their invitations!

Now, it's time to throw the floor open to folks like @yell0wsalt, @dont-blame-it-on-the-kids, @linguini17, @frogblast-the-ventcore, @badlucksav, @cdlunee, and of course,

you.

[fenrirgodspeed]

i’m writing my first mysme fanfic as we speak! wish me luck bc i am afraid!

[twstlotus]

Hi there! 👋 Nice to see our fandom growing, more writers joining and trying their pens out with twst boy~ I'm here to wish you a nice day and leave a request, if I may. How would Epel, Malleus, Trey and Rook react to their s/o being well versed in a sword fighting? Seeing her(or them, I don't mind) in an act, maybe even protecting the boys? The s/o haven't disclosed it to them before and took a stance only because she had no other choice. Thank you very much💓

Before we begin, I apologize if I had written Epel a bit ‘off’, for lack of a better word. I have not played through Pomefiore’s chapter thoroughly let alone get to the important bits of said chapter (I’m only on 5-9..)

If I did mischaracterize Epel, please inform me! I will try to perfect how I write him as soon as possible.

Now, onto the headcanons.

Epel Felmier

Epel is astounded to see you swordfight. Perhaps his amazement is a bit inappropriate considering the context being that you were fighting off a few Savanaclaw boys for teasing and mocking Epel about the rumors that he wanted to join the Savanaclaw dormitory—but they did it right in front of your face. Saying how “a pretty boy soft as he is could never join Savanaclaw!” and continued.

You didn’t find violence necessary in the situation, but you weren’t opposed against it either. So when the Savanaclaw members began taunting both you and Epel, you quickly drew your sword and began fighting them, all while Epel walked in at the perfect moment and hid behind a wall and watched you.

The beastmen tucked their tails between their legs and ran off soon after you had your sword pointed to them on the ground. Once they were gone, Epel quietly walked out of his hiding spot and asked if you were okay, to which you hesitantly replied with a “yes”.

Quickly after, Epel began to somewhat gush about your sword fighting abilities and how great you were. Yet, he’s also curious about why you never told him about your skill in such. You explain to him that you never thought of a reason to why you should inform anyone of it, but you were also a bit afraid that he might find your talent in it ‘weird’.

He shoots your suspicions as completely incorrect. You were amazing out there! Epel has never seen sword fighting up-close and done so well! It makes him stagger through his words. He also states that you don’t need to hide anything from him and that he’ll accept you whole as a person and as a lover. The reason why he even fell in love with you was because of how free-willed you are, you know?

“Well, I think your sword fighting is great, (Y/N). I don’t think it matters what other people see you as, especially the negative ones—you’re great and that’s all there is to it!”

Malleus Draconia

Malleus first saw you sword fighting a handful of the Savanaclaw boys, or, well—it looked more like you were deflecting and inflicting minor wounds on the beastmen until they eventually ran off out of cowardice.

The fae was completely stunned. He had never known you were so skilled in sword fighting, and you fight with such gracefulness and elegance, too! The only other time he had seen sword fighting up close was when he and Lilia trained Silver as Malleus’ knight. Even so, his fighting style was merely that of a normal knight’s—but you, you looked like you were dancing with the sword.

When he snaps out of his amazement, he quickly comes out of the shadows to your aid and checks if you have any wounds. Humans are very fragile, after all. You reassure him that you’re fine and he eventually brings up your talent in swordsmanship, to which you bashfully deny ever being skilled in such a thing.

Malleus can obviously see through your lies, and after a while, you admit that you do. You kept it a secret because you were afraid that he might see you as improper or ‘strange’ and the only reason you even fought those Savanaclaw boys were because they were ridiculing your beloved fae.

He’s visibly surprised by the notion. Fighting...for him? Of course, he has literal knights who fight for him, but he always considered it as the two merely doing their jobs. You, on the other hand; you didn’t need to do such a thing for him, yet still, you did it anyway. He’s touched, to say the least. Afterwards, he comforts you regarding your talent and says to not be shameful of it, for it is a talent one could only look up to and that he’s always welcome to talk about anything.

“You’re not required to put yourself in dangerous situations, Child of Man. Trust that I can fight my own battles, so please, do not burden yourself with mine. Though I must say...you did well.”

Trey Clover

‘Surprised’ would be a bit of an understatement to describe what Trey felt when he saw you sword fighting with a fellow Heartslabyul member. Just a little bit.

The way you made your sword swings seem effortless renders him speechless. Just when did you learn to swordfight? And how will Riddle react when he sees you, battling a Heartslabyul member, with a sword!? The consequences may be severe… (and even so, when did Heartslabyul C-kun learn to swordfight!?)

Trey quickly steps in and stops the duel between you and the other dorm member. Heartslabyul C-kun leaves with a scoff while small wounds decorate his otherwise clean skin. Meanwhile, you seemed completely fine. There were only a few cuts from C-kun’s sword but it wasn’t at all serious. Still, Trey treats your wounds so they don’t get infected.

The entire time, Trey is almost quiet as he tends to your wounds until he releases a sigh of defeat, for lack of a better word. He tells you that fighting by yourself isn’t safe, you know? That would just end up in both you and him getting your heads chopped off by Riddle (thank goodness he brought you out of the scene of the crime).

You explain to him that the only reason you had done it was because C-kun recently found out about your talent in sword fighting and wouldn’t stop bugging you until you agreed to duel with him, knowing it was against the rules, so you denied his every demand. However, he brought Trey into the story by mocking him and that was the last straw.

Quite honestly, Trey doesn’t know how to feel about it. On one hand, he’s afraid and a bit worried for you and what could have happened. And on the other...he’s grateful and rather enamoured about the fact that you tried to defend him. Still, he shows appreciation for what you did in his name but reminds you to be careful next time.

“Don’t run off fighting other people, okay? I really appreciate what you did for me but I don’t want you getting hurt. Plus, I can’t have my favorite cupcake get in trouble with Riddle!”

Rook Hunt

Saw you sword fighting another Pomefiore member, but it didn’t look intense if at all. From afar, it did look like you and Pomefiore B-kun were simply practice-duelling—and from afar, it stayed as such. Rook continued to watch you from the bushes with a keen eye and a smile tugging on his face.

However, B-kun just had to do it. During your duel, he began taunting you about Rook, your Hunter of Love. It started small; calling him a weirdo and other nicknames Rook had likely grown accustomed to. But B-kun just went on and on, his small taunts grew to harsh insults, and you weren’t having any of it.

You swiftly defeat B-kun in the duel. His sword flying out of his hands and landing on soft grass, piercing the surface. You quickly tell him to scram and he leaves without a word, not even to retrieve his sword.

You let out a sigh before turning to the bushes, where you know Rook is. You call out his name and after a few rustles from the bushes, he walks out with a large smile on his face and claps for your performance, stating that it was marvelous! ....However, this does spark curiosity in him—curiosity on why you never informed him of your talent in the art of sword fighting.

You say that you never found the reason to tell him of it, though you weren’t exactly ashamed, it was just what it was also because you knew Rook wouldn’t stop pestering you about it once he found out that you were skilled in sword fighting.

Non, non! This is wonderful news to him! He’s happy to know that you’re confident in something you’re skilled in and he would be all the more glad if you wanted to speak to him about sword fighting, should you ever wish to do so.

“Your swordsmanship is fantastique, mon cherie! Though, I must ask…,” The self-proclaimed hunter steps towards C-kun’s sword and picks it up. “May I request a few sword fighting lessons from you?”