#i'm not an authority for anything but i've been semi active in some fandoms for a time yes

[dragon-wolfie]

are you a fandom elder or something

I guess? For a couple fandoms I've been there a while yeah.

[thirteenemeraldcats]

Answer the questions and tag five fanfiction authors you know!

tagged by the terrifyingly talented @kvetchinglyneurotic and the impossibly incredible @sighonaraa

1. How many fandoms have you written in?

One! Uno! Eins! All of the ridiculously emotionally evocative writers in the Ted Lasso fandom completely broke my brain and launched me into the undiscovered country (fic writing).

2. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Since January, so about .3 years 🤗

3. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely read. I am perpetually mentally exhausted in my free time and usually can't concentrate enough to write. That being said I also haven't had much time to READ fic lately. So. Help???

4. What is one way you've improved as a writer?

Hmmmm. I'd say embracing the draft process? When I started writing fic (OH SO LONG AGO I KNOW) I was very 'this needs to be good' and now I'm appreciating the 'this needs to be FUNCTIONAL' mindset more.

5. What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Definitely not weird BUT I did accidentally fall down a research spiral for ONE WORD in 'i learned to walk while he was away'. For context: I am not Jewish, but I head-canon Roy as Jewish and there is ONE LINE that references this in that fic. I wanted to double check if there was any significance to the different spellings of Hanukkah, lest I accidentally step on a cultural landmine. Cut to a day later where I'd fallen deep, deep down an equally enjoyable and educational rabbit hole about Jewish holidays, (fostered my ongoing vendetta against the English language,) and found a Jewish bakery that's local to me because I wanted to try Challah very badly. (It was great.) (There is not a large Jewish population where I live [in case that wasn't obvious] I'm blaming my now-semi-remedied culture blindness on that. But Em, you took an elective on world religion in University? SHUT UP I KNOW.)

6. What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

ANY COMMENT. I made an ao3 account last year because I wanted to not lurk quite so much, stop being a 'consumer' of fan-creations, and LEAVE SOME COMMENTS. And I'd seen authors talk about how great getting them was but holy guacamole nothing could have prepared me for the feeling of people liking something I wrote enough to leave a comment or a heart or an 'ah'.

7. What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Errrrrrrr. I guess just gen-fic? Looking at the numbers of ship-fic in the archive, it certainly feels fringe-esque to write gen.

8. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

I was going to say 'short' because things just keep happening when I try to write succinct outlines (somehow NONE OF THOSE 'THINGS' ARE PLOT), but after applying a bit more scrutiny to anything I've ever written; it's action. Fast-paced action. I don't know her.

9. What is the easiest type?

Assorted emotional whacks! When I was writing original fiction a solid decade ago as a teen-bean I favoured physical-whump, me now has found it a lot easier to write emotional-whump. Not sure why??? But here we are. (Either way someone's suffering.)

10. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

Okay this is actually a very involved story that I might tell later, but I just changed what platform I was using. SO! As of about a week ago I've been writing on google docs. Beyond that, it's a laptop/couch combo whenever I have the brain power (which is almost never 😭).

11. What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

OOOF. There are a few wips in the assorted-mountainous-pile of non-active development that are. Heavy. Heavier than the various fics/wips I've published/am actively poking at. I'd like to write them one day but I am also very 'hmm' when I look at them.

12. What made you choose your username?

So 'Em' is a real-life nickname, smash that together with my love of the colour green and tada! You get 'emerald'. 'Cats' is about... cats. I am obsessed with the little creatures, despite never owning one. (Initially I spelt it as 'kat'- no idea why??? I think I just like the letter 'k'???? Potassium?????????? B A N A N A???????????????) And 'thirteen' is my favourite number, just because I find the concept of a number being considered 'unlucky' hysterical and the idea that some airlines genuinely leave out a row thirteen because of superstition always makes me grin like an idiot. The order is purely because I like the image of a bunch of green cats running around together.

I have done a quick investigation and everyone I know has either already done this or already been tagged. (I have once again shown up two days late with iced-coffee to a tag-game. [At least I showed up, I forgot to do like three of these things despite loving them, I'M SORRY 😭])

If anyone sees this and they HAVEN'T been tagged, consider this your green-for-go flag and feel free to tag me as your tagger.

[rockyroadkylers]

20 Questions Game for Fic Writers!

I was tagged by @ssmtskw! thank you bud <3

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

23!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

204,389

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Technically, Marvel (specifically Iron Dad) and Red, White and Royal Blue, though I've taken a huge step back from Marvel.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Baby's Firsts

Domestic Life Was Never Quite My Style

Starlight, Star Bright

Two Worlds, One Family

Tony Stark vs. Babies "R" Us

(um... ok, they're not bad fics, but they're all super old. the fact that they're my top five is due to age more than anything else. I was a semi-popular writer in the height of the Iron Dad fandom's activity. My writing has significantly improved since these were written, so if you've read my most recent work and decide to go back and give these a try, just keep that in mind 😂 most of them are five years old.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Almost always! There are a couple of unfinished fics that I ended up turning off the comments for, though, because I don't plan to finish them, and I kept getting comments on them that are written with the best intentions but come off as discouraging and kind of obnoxious instead - "update when?" "i know this is a longshot but please update" "it's been two years, will you ever update?" Aside from those, I do try to answer every single comment that comes to my inbox.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Um... I don't really write angsty endings 😂 "I Will Soften Every Edge (I'll Do Better)" is probably as close as it gets? It's not pure angst, but it's not pure fluff, either. "Oh, Little One, You Just Need to be Brave" is another kind of vaguely hurt/comfort angst-adjacent ending, I guess, but please don't read that one 😂 the only reason I haven't deleted it is because I know how frustrating it is when authors delete stuff.

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

Maybe "Baby's Firsts" or "Before, After, and Beyond"? Like I said, angsty endings are hard to come by in my fics, but if you want pure fluff...

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nah. I've gotten a couple of comments that were confused by something and asked for clarification, but they were very polite about it.

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

LOL, no 😂 I'm comfortable talking about it, but I don't think I'd ever write it myself.

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

I used to write wild crossovers all the time when I was a little kid just learning how writing works for the first time 😂 I don't write them so much, anymore, it's not really my thing, but I think one time when I was a kid I wrote a Harry Potter/American Girl crossover? 😂

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, actually! Or, at least part of one. Someone translated two chapters of "Before, After, and Beyond" into Russian. I think they forgot to translate the third? It was still pretty cool, either way.

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

Yeah, a couple times. I've taken my name off the published ones, but I'm working on another project with a bunch of people from the Brownstone server, at the moment, and I'm super excited about it!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

At the moment? FirstPrince. It changes depending on my current hyperfixation, but Alex and Henry are my #1 right now.

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

Ugh. Probably the birthday fic in my "Tony Stark adopts Harley Keener and Peter Parker" AU. I've just completely run out of steam on anything Marvel-related, and I feel bad about it, but there's not a lot I can do. My mood completely plummets whenever I try to sit down and make myself work on any of my old Marvel WIPs, so I've just been giving myself some grace and telling myself that if I never finish them, it's okay.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Ooh, I don't really think about this very much. I feel like I'd need an outside opinion 😂 I've been told by several different people that I'm good at nailing characterizations, which always makes me pretty proud of myself, haha. Every time I get a "this is so in character!" comment I puff up like a peacock 😂

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions, maybe? I can do them, but I feel like they've never quite as interesting as they could be.

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

I love multilinguism in fics! It's a little intimidating for me personally, because I never quite managed to grasp a second language myself, so I have to rely heavily on translators and asking people who speak the language "hey, does this make any sense?" but especially when I'm writing Alex and his family in RWRB fics, their bilinguism is so important and I don't want to skip it just because I'm scared, so I'm willing to put in a little extra work to make it more authentic.

19. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Well, technically, if we're talking about writing that never even got published, the very first fanfic I ever wrote back when I was probably around six years old was a Harry Potter self-insert 😂 But my first published fic was for the MCU.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

"It's Nice to Have a Friend" 😊

---

tagging @inexplicablymine, @hgejfmw-hgejhsf, @happiness-of-the-pursuit, @littlemisskittentoes, @movetoheavens, @affectionatelyrs, @read-and-write- and anyone else who wants to! (sorry if you've already done it lol)

[unforth]

Fandoms I'll write for (in vaguely alphabetical order):

Fandoms in Bold are those I'm currently most interested in/active in/invested in/wanting to write.

2ha (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun)

Babylon 5

Check Please

Disney (almost any of movies, including Pixar; I'm familiar with but won't write for most Disney Jr titles, too)

Doctor Who (9th and 10th Doctor specifically)

DMBJ (books 1 - 6, UN, TLTR)

The Elenium (book series by David Eddings)

Fake

Final Fantasy 7, 9, 10, or 12 (esp. 12)

Firefly

Fushigi Yuugi

Golden Stage

Guardian (show or book)

Gundam W

Hercules

Horatio Hornblower (BBC 90s show version)

Jane Austen (all except Northanger Abbey)

Leverage

Love Nikki

MCU (movies only, have seen most of them; Deadpool also okay, and non-MCU Spiderman; haven't seen Venom)

Miraculous Ladybug (but I've only seen 2.5 seasons)

The Muppets (esp. the original show and movies)

MXTX Fandoms (MDZS, TGCF, SVSSS)

Psych

Rurouni Kenshin

Sherlock Holmes (books or Jeremy Brett version)

Slayers

Star Trek (ToS, TNG or DS9)

Star Wars (movies only, excluding Solo)

Supernatural

Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine

Thousand Autumns

Tokyo Babylon

Voltron

Wheel of Time (I've read through...11? and seen part of s1)

The Witcher (I've only seen s1)

Word of Honor (including Qiye)

Xanth (mostly Bink generation)

Xena

Yuri on Ice

Note 1: I am NO LONGER WRITING HARRY POTTER FIC I'm sorry I tried to separate the fandom from the author but she's just being so awful that I can't in good conscience be involved in anything related.

Note 2: I haven't been "actively" in a lot of these fandoms for many years, and so I can't promise to remember every canon character or event, but I'm always willing to try, especially if it's only for a ficlet.

Otherwise, if it's not on the list, you can still always try. I'm old. I've been a fan of a lot of things over the years.

I am a multishipper and tend to be open to anything except incest and villain x hero (ie Samifer in SPN, Xuexiao in MDZS) - no judgement, you do you, I'm a pro-shipper, I just don't want to write that stuff. But, if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of what I will and won't write for each, I tried to make a semi-exhaustive list. (read more)

I'll write most ships, and honestly, you can always try me on anything - you won't offend me, I just may opt not to write it. Fandoms are in vaguely alphabetical order.

A few general notes:

I will virtually never write incest (as in literal blood relatives - adoption, raised together, known each other since childhood, none of that is incest) EXCEPT for twincest (idk brains are weird I can brain it for twins, I think because somethingsomething power dynamics)

I don't write RPS except for Yizhan.

Generally, I don't like shipping villains, especially villains x heroes, and especially if the villain committed extreme violence and/or sexual violence and/or massive mental manipulation against the hero in question. (I know that their relationship can be super different in AUs or if events diverge I'm just not personally comfortable with it anyway. See again: brains are weird).

I usually avoid intergenerational shipping (for example, a parent and their kid's friend) because, again, somethingsomething power dynamics.

I'll write underage, but again, I sometimes have power dynamic concerns, and I tend to prefer not to write CANON underage (like, I'll age up or age down characters, but if they're underage in canon I'm often less comfortable with it.)

Other than that - I'll try almost anything. This is NOT a list of what I ship, but instead a list of what I don't ship for any given fandom:

* 2ha: fuck Shi Mei. Not literally of course, but I really ain’t out here shipping Shi Mei with literally fucking anyone. Other than that I think I’m mostly game? Though I don’t remember some of the side characters that well, there were just too many names in that one big reveal about Xue what’s-his-name and Luo something-or-other.

* Check Please: I basically only write Zimbits. I’d try other things, especially with Shitty, but no Kent Parson at all please.

* DMBJ: I haven’t seen Mystic 9 yet so I don’t know those characters and can’t write for them yet; stick to folks in UN and TLTR and I’m probably good for most stuff? Except Wu Sanxing, and the villains, big ol’ nope. I'm also part-way through Sha Hai, and I can write those characters (not Wang Can, haven't met him yet) but again I'd rather avoid intergenerational ships.

* Guardian: I see Chuguo more familial/brotherly, and I haven’t really thought about other ships but idk try me? It’s fun to experiment.

* Leverage: anyone in the team x anyone else in the team, I’m game.

* MCU: No HTP, and I'd really rather avoid most of the villains, but I'm open to basically any hero x any hero. I do ship Thorki.

* MDZS: no Xuexiao or really any Xue Yang ships (though I think I’d be okay with Xueyu). No Lancest, Niecest, Wencest, or Jiangcest. I’m a little reluctant on most Jin Guangyao ships too tho I’ll do 3zun and variations there on. As I mentioned, intergenerational stuff often makes me uncomfortable so tend to avoid older folks x juniors but I’ll ship the juniors together and depending on the ship I’d probably be willing to try?

* SPN: no Wincest or Samifer or Lucifer x anyone. I tend not to ship villains in general. I prefer a ship with either Dean or Cas or both but I’m open to Sam ships too.

* Star Trek: No Gul Dukat or Kai Winn. They should suffer alone. No Voyager or later series, I just haven’t seen them so I don’t know the characters. Other than that...idk try me? I haven't written much shippy stuff for Star Trek so I don't have many strong opinions yet.

* Star Wars: mostly I ship JediStormPilotRose and permutations there of but idk I’d try other just about anything other than villains and LukeLeia. I am not familiar with Clone Wars or the Mandolarian and have only seen the movies (not Solo).

* SVSSS: other than family/relatives (like Tiankang jun x Luo Binghe) I can’t really think of any no’s? Im especially a proponent of Shen Qingqiu/Yuan harem rights. I’d rather not write Shen Jiu or Original Luo Binghe but…eh, I’m open.

* TGCF: …I kinda don’t get Qiurong but I’d be willing to try? But otherwise I think I’m good. I’d even be willing to do Bai Wuxiang ships as long as it’s understood it’s gonna be dark as fuck. No Xianle cousins as a ship. I think I’d struggle with Qi Rong in general but I’d give it a go. No Shicest.

* Thousand Autumns: until I reread and get a better sense of the side characters I’m pretty Yanshen only.

* Voltron: I don't ship Lance with anyone, mostly because his fandom led me to hate him. I also don't really get Lotor ships. I'm mostly interested in Keith, Allura, and Shiro.

* Word of Honor: note I haven’t read TYK yet, but I’m open to virtually anything I guess? I’d prefer no Zhang Chengling x older folks. I favor Caoxiang, Wenzhou and Wenzhouyi. I've also read Qiye; I can't really think of any solid nos for that except maybe Helian Pei, Helian Qi, and/or Helian Zhou x like...anyone. Fuck those guys in no fun ways.

* Yuri in Ice: I don’t really like Otayuri, Yuri’s just too young for me to personally be comfortable shipping him. But the older folks I’m pretty open to multishipping them.

(if you're wondering about ship restrictions for fandoms not listed here just drop me an ask; I just thought these were the ones people were most likely to care about/I was most interested in writing in general).