#i'm a total multishipper in case you can't tell

[linka-from-captain-planet]

Fanfic Writer Questions

thanks for the tag @siyurikspakvariisis!

Since I love compartmentalizing, I have 2 AO3 accounts I would consider "active": teefling (BG3 only) and Linka_From_Captain_Planet (Stardew Valley and Arcane) so I'll tally up the results for both so I sound more impressive.

How many works do you have on AO3? teefling: 8 (BG3) LinkaFCP: 24 (18 Arcane, 6 SDV)

What is your total AO3 word count? Teefling: 33,928 LinkaFCP: 209,399 Grand total: 243,327

What fandoms do you write for? Actively, just BG3. I could fall back into Stardew Valley at any moment (still eating up my new farms), but Acane is parked until Season 2 comes out, probably.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? - devil in disguise, snake with blue eyes (Arcane, caitvi) - An Anthology of Trib...ulations (BG3, shadowzel) - when my blue moon turns to gold again (BG3, shadowzel) - Goddess of the Hunt (Arcane, Cait/Brothel Girl) - come knock on this wood, get rocked by this thunder (Arcane, Cait/Sevika) These range from like 600 (high outlier) to 200. Honestly having a high kudos count is sort of embarrassing to me, as a mostly rarepair fan. My ideal amount of kudos is like, 50.

Do you respond to comments? Yes! I try to match the energy and give more detailed replies to more detailed comments, but I'll always respond to say thanks (even if it takes me a while). The only type of comment I might intentionally ignore is one asking for updates.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I think most people would say "when my blue moon turns to gold again" (BG3) because it involves a major character death, but for my taste it's pretty optimistic! I'd say it was "couldn't we reach inside and find that world of me and you" (Arcane), covering my take on Vi's time in prison and finding, and losing, her first love.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? "Courtship Traditions of the Stardew Valley: A Case Study", which was the last installment of my Haley Hates Prismatic Shards series. It's my designated tooth-rotting fluff fic.

Do you get hate on fics? Somewhat surprised to say no! I would just delete it/block without acknowledgement if I did.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yep! It really varies by whatever agenda the fic has. Sometimes PWP, but usually still with an elaborate setup/backstory, which I like-- I'm always hornier for a Concept and Why Are They Fingering than the fingering itself. Not to tell on myself, but sometimes I get annoyed at the meager and/or gross offerings whilst trying to cruise a kink tag, and just write my own damn fic. But mostly, I just like to use sex in fics to inform the characters' dynamic in a kind of saucy and gripping way. I wouldn't say it's low-hanging fruit, but definitely a fast track toward a high-emotion dynamic or situationship or whatever it is that I really want to portray. Writing the actual sex part is often a bummer for me.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I lack the whimsy for a proper crossovers (mixing Arcane and League like I do when I want to be horny about Corina Veraza doesn't count). This is why all my fics take place firmly in the original media's universe, and I can't do AUs either.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, and I don't think I really could. I'm happy to bounce ideas around, but actually collaborating on the actual writing would drive me crazy. I was the group project control freak for way too many years of school to do it again.

What's your all-time favorite ship? This is hard to answer as a relentless multishipper who fixates on one fandom at a time. Currently I'm in BG3 and it's Minthara/Florrick. In Arcane, it was Caitlyn/Brothel Girl, and in SDV, it's Leah/Haley.

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Realistically... I will probably never finish the Arcane series I started, which was about Vi and her "prison wife" unless I fall ass first into that particular insanity again. I will probably also never update my shadowzel kink ficlet collection.

What are your writing strengths? Concept, mood/atmosphere, POV character voice I'd say.

What are your writing weaknesses? Getting caught up in minutiae that don't really matter but need to be *perfect* before I can move on, being a control freak and over-explaining things because I can't stand the possibility of being misunderstood

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? This is such a random question, but it depends on whether it's a real language and how much dialogue it is. My works take place in fantasy worlds with fantasy characters, so it's whatever. If I'm writing in Minthara or Lae'zel's POV, I throw in commonly-known (to the fandom) drow or gith words with no explanation and usually not even italicized since it's a part of that character's usual diction. If I needed them to have a whole conversation in their tongue, I'd write it in English with italics to set it apart from the 'common' dialogue and prose.

First fandom you wrote for? Stardew Valley was the first fandom I ever published a fic for! But I would write for myself sometimes before that, I think it was probably Zelda (OOT) when I was really young. I didn't write at all between probably 13 and 25.

Favorite fic you've written? Super hard to say. Some of my older writing makes me cringe, but I have a lot of affection for older works that got me into the fandoms that have given me a lot of joy over the past few years. Best I can do is break it down by fandom. For Arcane, it's definitely "venus flytrap". For SDV, I'd say "Maybe Prismatic Shards Are Okay". For BG3, I'm torn between "mirage" (my favorite concept even if I think I could have executed it better) and "hold you like a python".

[takaraphoenix]

C, M, and W?

Thanks for playing! :3

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

The probably never will is the tricky part. There's pleeenty of NOTPs to go around, but I have also encountered versions of ships I didn't like that made me like them in the end, or there are aspects of the ships that I do appreciate.

So something that I'm really sure of nobody/nothing could make me like and I never liked. Let's go with the very first ship that comes to mind there. Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince. Just does not work for me and I'm very sure I'll never come around on it. I also have veeery solid OTPs for both characters too; I'm a multishipper at heart so it's rare for me to have an actual One True Pairing for a character and those are both characters where this rare instance applies, so that weighs heavy in too.

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you)

This is way harder unprompted, like that I'd have to think of a ship too, to say something nice about. xD

Uuuhm so let's go with shippers. Despite not sailing the ship itself, I do like Karadox shippers - Brainy/Kara - because they're a real nice bunch, the ones I've met through the Supergirl fandom? And I also think they're really, really chill.

Because their ship, despite being a major ship for Kara in the comics, was not endgame - or even a brief ship - on the TV show. And they didn't go about harassing actors and fans about it. They're happy with the crumbs they get and while obviously disappointed their ship didn't sail, they didn't get nasty about it?

That just stood out all the more prominently in comparison to certain other shippers within that fandom? Not to name names, but I think if you are familiar with the Arrowverse, you know which shippers in the same situation acted wildly different. *clears throat*

So, especially contrasted by these, it really stood out to me how friendly Karadox shippers are? And generally also more open to other ships, like multishipping themselves or generally accepting that other people may ship these characters with other characters.

(Mind you, I can not speak for all of them, I'm sure there are some rotten apples in the bunch too, but that's always the case. The overall fandom behavior though, and the lovely individuals I've met have given the ship a very good name.)

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

Oooh. Huh. Mh. Damn these are very hard when I have to also decide on ships. It's like suddenly my brain remembers not a single ship I have ever sailed... xDDD

Okay, let's go for five ships with different kinks too. Since I, uh, like to pile my favorite kinks onto my favorite ships... <_<

Shadowhunters: Malace + pet-play.

PJatO: Nicercy + praise kink.

BtVS: Spuffy + strength kink? I dunno what you'd call it but you can't tell me that Spike doesn't totally get off on seeing Buffy throw people around and stuff

RotG/HTTYD: HiJack + temperature play

DCMK: KaiShin + Shinichi having a thing for Kaito's hands, I don't know what you'd call that, but I know that's a thing and I'm sure our very talented thief would make that work ;D

Fandom Ask Game

[space-cat-in-a-teacup]

Oh hey thanks for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

14! This will change!

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

53,592, which is pretty neat considering most of them are oneshots.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently focusing Bungou Stray Dogs! But I dabble in many, having an ongoing My Hero Academia fanfic that has outlasted my fandom presence, and some TMNT works on the way... I'll also probably end up writing

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

"That Awkward Moment When You, Your Class, and Your Worst Enemies Get Stuck in a Timeloop - 691

"In Candlelight" - 75

"The Greatest Problem" - 74

"Case of the Criminal Copycat" - 59

"The Inconveniences of Illness" - 56

5. Do you respond to comments?

No, but I've been thinking of changing that. I really do appreciate the comments left on all my works, and I'd like to make sure people know that I do.

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

That's difficult to say, especially since it depends on what kinda angst we're talking about. But if I had to choose, it's between Winner Takes It All or The Wanderer of Hissui- and I'm personally inclined to say the latter since it tells a complete story, while the first is part of a much longer narrative.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say The Greatest Problem, honestly. It's not even 1K words, making it short and sweet.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! I did get spam once though.

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

I am physically incapable of doing so. The most I've done is the vaguest paragraph known to man which doesn't detail the act, just communicates that it's being done, and even that makes me embarrassed talking about it.

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

That I do! None posted to AO3 just yet, but I have some TMNT iteration crossovers planned, as well as one BSD fanfiction that's heavily inspired by Clue 1985.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know, and I certainly hope not.

12. What's the longest you've spent working on one fic? And the shortest?

I've been working on my timeloop My Hero fic- which is still ongoing- since June 2021. It is November of 2023. I do not see this fic ending anytime soon, so the answer is: Years. (And this is just counting from my published fics, not a certain WIP that has yet to see the light of day.)

As for the shortest... if I'm feeling particularly good, I can finish a oneshot in just a couple hours, but I don't do that as much as I used to.

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

Yes! Though as of writing this it isn't ready for posting, I am currently working with some friends one one.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? From all fandoms?

I'm a massive multishipper you can't just ask this. We'll be here all day.... that said, here are some are particularly clingy:

Mushiango (BSD)

Tokoraka (MHA)

Aidesse (MCSM)

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

Though I have had to lay down some WIPs to rest, I generally like to leave myself open to coming back to my fics/WIPs, even if it's been a long time since I've touched them. If there's one in particular though, it's an almost 10K My Hero oneshot that's been untouched for 2 years that probably only needs another few scenes in order to be complete- I even have part of the ending written already. I haven't given up on it yet, but... I don't know if that means I'll ever actually finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and character development! Aside from being some of my favorite stuff to write (or rather, letting the characters wander off to write themselves) it's what people have usually complimented about my work.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Get myself too write. But for writing itself, action sequences. Trying to write things quick and fast-paced when you're very wordy and like to get specific imagery across is very difficult, but I'm practicing to improve on them.

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

Cool! With non-fanfic and stuff too, I always like seeing people adding those kinds of details since it often comes from something unique to the author.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Probably Pokemon, as it was one of my childhood stables I would create for constantly.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I don't think I have one? Even if I did, it would probably change in a couple months. I really like my latest BSD oneshot Nowhere to Return though, if that counts?

Tagging @a-problematic-writer and I suppose anyone else who would want to!

20 Q's for Fic Writers

thanks for the tag @spacejammie-eimmajecaps!

How many works do you have on ao3? Officially 8, but I have one on anon and one currently unrevealed in a fic exchange

What's your total ao3 word count? 61,996

What fandoms do you write for? So far I've written for Death Note, Tangled the Series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Haikyuu, plus a couple of crossovers. Haikyuu is definitely my main rn though

What are your top five fics by kudos? #1: Frosting and Freckles: 69 (nice) #2: Draw Me Near: 39 #3: [embarrassing anon fic]: 35 #4: Varian Is Not a Wizard: 25 #5: Midnight Coda: 21

Do you respond to comments? Yeah, I love to! I don't get a lot so they always make me happy :)

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? probably the anon fic sdfsk but other than that, Midnight Coda is kinda bittersweet because of what happens later

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? hmm idk but the sappiest is definitely Frosting and Freckles

Do you get hate on fics? Not so far, thankfully! I don't think I have a big enough readership for that haha

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I have not; not sure what kind it would be if I did

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I love writing crossovers! A PJO/HP crossover was actually what got me into fanfic. Unfortunately most of them are merely concepts or abandoned (for now), but as for crazy, I think my Lunar Chronicles/PJO one is the craziest in terms of how the plot grew out of control from a simple "what if these two characters interacted" to "I could rewrite most of this series," which is why I got stuck and put it on hiatus lol but I do want to get back to it someday. Maybe once I finish my other active crossover

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge

What's the longest you've spent working on one fic? And the shortest? Uhhh well if we count "working on" as "having it in the back of mind to get to but haven't worked on in months," probably Sent from the Heavens lol. If not, then Varian Is Not a Wizard (just over two years since I published the first chapter). Shortest is definitely Midnight Coda, since I wrote that pretty much in a day iirc

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, but it sounds like it could be fun!

What's your all-time favorite ship? From all fandoms? Dude I have no idea how to narrow that down. Best I can give you is my current fave is Tsukkiyama from Haikyuu

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably my "Leo Valdez ends up in the ATLA world" one :sob: It never made it past the word doc and about three pages of story and I haven't looked at it in like two years

What are your writing strengths? I like to think I'm pretty good at dialogue and grammar/spelling

What are your writing weaknesses? Everything else (jk). I am awful at describing scenes/settings; I get bored writing them so I don't put as much effort in as I should haha. I also tend to ramble and use passive voice too much

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I haven't done it, but I think it's fine as long as it fits the context

First fandom you wrote for? Published: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Unpublished: Percy Jackson

Favorite fic you've written? I think it's still Bent Out of Shape. It's so niche, but I had an idea and I executed it, and I'm proud of what I accomplished. Although once I finish Varian Is Not a Wizard, that might take the top slot.

No-pressure tagging: @supermarine-silvally @starrynightarchive @litterateur97 @palant1r @soreiya @lilac-writes @oloreandil @kandybarkreepshow @ellegamgee and anyone else who wants to!

[startinginorange]

Trans RvB Week - Friday

Prompt - Social Media -

Trans Wash, Trans Tucker, mentioned Nonbinary Maine, Tuckington, past Mainewash

Tucker would tweet in an actual firefight if he could. In fact he has, occasionally, taken a quick selfie with an armor cam when he’s been pretty sure of his cover and position, and posted it later.

When Wash asks him what the fuck he was thinking later Tucker shrugs.

“It helps me keep calm.” He tries to explain. “It makes me feel like I’m not alone and like, you know, this is just another part of my life. ‘Cause I’m tweeting about it, right? And if I’m tweeting then like I’m fine.” He shakes his head. “It’s hard to explain but it works, okay?”

Wash sighs. Under the pressure of being a leading figure of the Federal and New Republic Alliance he finally caved and set up a twitter, but he still barely posts there.

He used to have an Instagram during Freelancer days, one he’d mostly use for shots of nice food, whenever they got any on the MOI, and pretty nature whenever he was on shore leave. He hasn’t used it since before Epsilon.

The paranoia that he developed to survive the downfall of Freelancer doesn’t have room for social media, and Wash doesn’t particularly care to change that. There are other things in his life worth more than social media.

(And whenever he posts pictures it makes him think back on Freelancer, of York teasing him for it and the triplets telling him to post a picture of them. York teased him even after North told him to stop because it was part of how York dealt with stress, and Wash had been considering deleting his account and growing up when Maine of all people told him not to.

"You like the account,” Maine said with his usual brief eloquence. “Fuck York.” He signed at the end, and even though Wash was still learning sign language he knew that much. It’s one of the first things he learned working with Maine.)

Wash shook himself out of his memories.

“Just be careful,” He tells Tucker.

“It’s fine, the base has its own secure network,” Tucker says. “Anyway I’ve been posting this much for ages, nothing bad happens because of it. I mean, come on, look how popular I am!”

“That’s why I’m worried,” Wash grumbles, but he looks at the screen Tucker’s holding up to him. “I mean, I guess that follower count seems pretty large?”

“You guess!?” Tucker repeats. “This is the most followers I’ve ever had and you just-”

“Well it’s not like I have context for how many followers are a lot,” Wash points out. Tucker sputters, but Wash gets distracted by something on the screen.

“What’s that?” He asks, pointing to the side.

“Oh, that?” Tucker looks at his own screen and pulls up what Wash was pointing at. It was a series of photos of Tucker standing taking waist-up selfies in various bathroom mirrors, wearing nothing but a binder in each one. “That’s my hormone series, I documented all the effects of T over the first year I took it.”

“You posted all that online?” Wash asked. It was his turn to be flabbergasted.

“Well yeah,” Tucker shrugs. “Why not? I’m not ashamed.”

“I mean, I’m not ashamed either, but…” Wash couldn’t imagine even telling the entire Internet that he was trans, much less posting photos of him transition. He didn’t even like telling people he wasn’t sure he could trust. “I guess I can’t imagine being that out.”

“It didn’t seem like that much of a big thing,” Tucker looked away and took his phone back, suddenly seeming self-concious. “Everybody who mattered already knew, ya know? Who cares about strangers.”

Wash studies Tucker, thinking again of Maine, oddly enough. They were just so different. Maine barely told anyone that he was nonbinary and also went by neural pronouns, even less than Wash tells people that he’s trans. He told Wash days after Wash came out to him, still matter-of-fact and unapologetic. It really meant something to be someone Maine came out to. And here Tucker is, posting even the details of his transition to the world, and even being self-concious about the fact that he’d done so.

They were like day and night, but they both ended up taking Wash’s heart.

“I’m glad,” Wash tells Tucker abruptly.

Tucker looks up. “What?”

“I’m glad you’re so out about being trans,” Wash says. “You’re a role model for any young trans person on this planet, and you’re going to go down in history books as being out and proud. I’m glad that you’re out like this, you-” He falters. “You’re so brave.”

Tucker blushes. “Sure, we all fight in a war and risk our lives for this planet, but I’m brave for being out on twitter.”

“There are different kinds of bravery, Tucker.” Wash is unrelenting. He’s proud and Tucker’s gonna know it.

“Well… thanks.” Tucker says. “And I’m glad, too, you know, that you came out to me. That you trusted me enough, I- the history books will probably remember you as trans too, and all, and I don’t know if they’ll think you were proud or whatever, but it doesn’t matter. 'Cause you are, and I know.” Tucker reaches out and grabs his hand. “And I’m proud of you.”

[lostbutterflyutau]

Why did you stop shipping Gabela? I ship unpopular ships and I don’t care if I’m the only one shipping it. It’s annoying sometimes that what I write doesn’t get a lot of attention but being a content creator means making stuff I like even if it doesn’t get notice at all

The simple answer: Because, Dear Anon, no one cares about the ship and, by proxy, my content.

The long answer: I get what you're saying. I do. But, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way for me. Writing the content may be fun for a time, but once I post and have to wait and wait and wait for comments that never come, it stops being fun. I have said it before and will keep saying it: I expect feedback for my work, especially when I worked so hard to let the fandom know who I am. It honestly hurt (past tense) that they would eat up my canon content and analysis but not touch my creative content with a ten-foot pole simply because I picked an underrated ship.

A hard truth of fanfiction is that a well-written fic is worth NOTHING if you don't use the right characters/ships/tropes. And honestly? I hate that.

Rounding back to Gabela, it's this need for validation that eventually led me to give it up. I tried hard to keep it up. I really did. And I had a few people here and there with me until... THE EPISODE happened. "Norberg Peace Prize" confirmed Gabaomi as a thing and the entire fandom dynamic shifted for the worse. And I honestly felt like the biggest idiot in the world for not SCREEEEEEEAAAAAMING over it when the episode premiered. Its premiere is also the reason I wrote "True Love." And do not tell me that romance was NOT the show-runners' intent. It totally was and they just can't say so publicly. Following that episode, every ship for Gabe and Naomi was abandoned except that one. And with mine already teetering, that was the final thing. The Gabela ship busted in half and sunk, leaving me alone with nothing but a piece of driftwood.

Now, Elenaomi retains a decent following, but for Gabe, Naomi is the top choice. At least in the spaces I frequent. And you know what? The shippers are right. They're meant to be and Carla would be stupid to think she ever had a chance given how incompatible with Gabe she is. I've read so many posts that make wonderful arguments in favour of Gabaomi and, because I'm not a multishipper, I eventually had to concede.

Then, as time went on and we saw more hints in later episodes that everyone kept screaming about, I felt like the universe was telling me that my time was done. That no one cared and there was no point in my posting to an empty room. Plus, considering that there's been NOTHING posted in the ship channel (which I now believe was a mistake) for them in over a year, I think it's obvious there's no interest in the ship.

Also, the later shift in the fandom that brought in a group of canon purists who turned down every ship that "wasn't canon" and all listed Gabela as their NOTP didn't help.

Anyway, in the end, I overhauled the entire Mirror World Timeline post-graduation. And, in case you're wondering what happens to Carla in that timeline now, she remains permanently single. After her crush is crushed, her love life just never pans out. She's a bridesmaid 13 times over by the time she's 26 and stops believing in love and romance and has to learn to be happy with just herself.

So... Yeah. I stopped shipping them because I couldn't take the silence anymore.