#i'm starting to see where the bsgs are coming from lol

[zmediaoutlet]

They don’t hug, so much as Sam drags Dean in by his biceps and holds him very tight and close for five seconds. Their foreheads together and Dean breathing shocked against Sam’s mouth. Adrenaline shocks up from Sam’s guts and he wants—to throw Dean on the ground, to pick him up and push him against the wall, to do—what he can’t, when Bobby’s calling down, saying boys! Dean gets his hands on Sam’s chest and pushes off, looking up into Sam’s face with this wide-eyed weird expression, and Sam realizes he still has his finger on the Colt’s trigger. He crams the gun into his belt and yells back, “Down here!” and ignores how Bobby says I know that and watches Dean’s face instead, watches how it shifts and locks down, a problem to be dealt with—later.

Later comes after they’ve dug two graves out back of the girl’s house. Whether her real name was Casey or not, Sam doesn’t know. They plant the bodies the demons had used and burn them and Sam thinks that Dean’s going to bitch about the Impala’s windshield getting shattered yet again, but he just watches the flames licking up out of the hole in the dirt. His face set and his eyes steady in the glare, looking past it at something Sam can’t see.

The motel, then, pre-dawn. Bobby’s somewhere. Sam locks the door behind them and watches Dean drop his jacket on one of the beds and set the keys down on the table and then he watches Dean sigh, long and kind of quiet. Not the kind that’s meant to be heard so he can loudly complain about something dumb and distract them both. More just—tired. Long day in a long life.

“You hurt?” Sam says. Not surprised when Dean shakes his head but relieved, anyway. Dean drops to the bed with his back to Sam so Sam comes and sits on the other one, and Dean’s cheek hollows deep on one side before he drops all the way onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. Sam looks up, too. Weird view. Dean mirrored, distant. Like he’s in some other place already.

“What’d you do, anyway?” Sam says. For something to say mostly. “When you were stuck down there. She seemed…” He bites the inside of his lip. “I don’t know. Not like a demon.”

“You an expert?” Dean says. It stings at that deep raw place that’s always open to be stung, but Dean’s not saying it to be an asshole, or not any more of an asshole than he usually is by being Sam’s brother. He tucks his hands behind his head, meets Sam’s eyes in the mirror. “I don’t know, either. Guess she kind of didn’t. Didn’t try to use weird mojo on me or anything. Other than her rack hanging out of that shirt.”

“If we start calling that demonic we’re gonna have to exorcize every bartender you’ve ever asked for their number,” Sam says. Dean grins up at the ceiling and some coiled hard thing in Sam’s stomach loosens, slightly. He stretches out his legs, doesn’t pretend he’s not sort of tangling them with Dean’s. Dean doesn’t move away but his grin softens. “She say anything?” Raised eyebrows and Sam shrugs. “I don’t know. You were together a long time. I’m guessing you weren’t playing canasta.”

“Jealous,” Dean says, half-singing. Sam rolls his eyes, but Dean’s grin is all gone, now. He bites his lower lip and then turns his head, looking toward the headboard. “Said a lot. Not much worth listening to, though. No worries, you didn’t miss out on the demonic church sermon.”

Tired, again. Expression shuttering, turning inward, again. Sam looks down, not at the image of his brother but the one in real life, warm. Still here.

He kicks against Dean’s ankle, not all that gently. Dean says ow! and sits up on his elbows, glaring at Sam. “The hell was that for?” he says.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Sam says. He glances up at the ceiling. “Thought you wanted to make use of the decor.”

Dean stares at him and then huffs out a laugh. “Well, damn, Sammy,” he says. “You can pick your moments, huh?”

The adrenaline’s gone but Sam still wants Dean as close as he can get him, as long as he can get him. Here, not looking for the echo of flames in the dark. Where Sam will keep him, no matter the cost. “Sin’s not really my forte,” he says, “but I figure we could give it a shot.”

“Wow,” Dean says. “Okay, you’re banned from trying out lines.”

“That worked!” Sam says, and Dean sits up all the way, says, “It really didn’t, little brother,” but he’s looking Sam in the face and he’s grinning and he’s maybe thinking about the mirrors over their heads and not about anything else, so. Maybe the line did work, after all.

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

Yes, yes, I know it's Tuesday not Monday but shhh.

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but in theory the first Monday of the month I do a little update post--what I'm working on, what's coming further along, just general rambling.

And it also usually aligns with an Open Question Night. My askbox is always open, but tonight I'll be at least semi-actively keeping an eye on it. Questions about any fandom I've written about here or on AO3 is fair game; questions about writing in general; questions about my original stuff...I do take prompts but no promises on how quickly I will fill them.

Okay, here we go!

A fairly short one this month--mostly because I did a kind of half-update a couple weeks ago and there's not much new since then, haha.

Star Wars:

Okay technically I'm not actively working on anything in this fandom at the moment, beyond I haven't left it so Precipice is still lurking in the background. And I do need to catch up on my Year of the OTP list from last year that I got about halfway through, so I have six more one-shots to put out at some point. Hoping to get at least one or two this month? We'll see.

Battlestar Galactica:

Iiiiii ended up outlining both of my ideas for check-in #1 because I am still Indecisive, lol. I have next week off work, so I'll see which one actually starts shaping up into being Workable before story details deadline at which point I'm Committed, lol.

(Option 1, for reference, is Percussive Maintenance, which is Sam getting his memories back due to all the head trauma in Downloaded. Option 2 is The Blood of Angry Men (possibly to be stylized all lower-case), which is a Zarek backstory/character-study piece.)

(And then The Other Battlestar is this Giant Project where Baltar ends up on Pegasus instead of Galactica)

Also need to get back to Year of the OTP for this fandom; and I really want to start posting The Other Battlestar (which may or may not get retitled? I'm not thrilled with that as a title but I haven't come up with anything better sooooo).

Other Fandoms:

Working on some AtLA stuff for pod_together, which I'm excited for. I have a lot of fun with this event usually, and it's nice to come back to one of my forever fandoms.

I'm also working on a SPN AU Outline and I'm mad about it lol.

I have been watching season 2 of Interview With the Vampire and while it is reigniting my fondness for this fandom (and my favorite murder kitten/poor little meow meow Armand. Who is kiiiiiind of getting an Adaptational Villain Upgrade but in a way that is much closer to his book personality than the way the musical did it. Don't get me wrong, I adore the musical and that version of Armand is a lot of fun, but.) ...anyway, I don't have any plans to actually Write for this fandom. At this point. We'll see.

...yeah, pretty short one this month, lol. Like I said, next week I have off so I'm hoping to get a lot done for, in particular/in order of priority:

GBB

pod_together

TOB

Year of the OTP backfill

Precipice

Other Fun Stuff, especially origfic stuff if I get around to it and/or AU Outlines (either the SPN one or a couple of BSG crossovers that I've got kicking around that might work better that way)

...so, yeah! That's me this month. What about you guys? What are you working on/what's on your minds?

[fandomlifechoseme]

So like, could you possibly do batsis or batbro x batfam where they're the youngest and everyone thought they were hiding the bat secret well but maybe something happens and it turns out that isn't the case like... i don't know, maybe they finally manage to go on holiday and reader is surprised that they managed to pull themselves away long enough or... the manor gets attacked... or reader gets targeted for being a Wayne or... you know. I'm feeling pretty uninspired too... lol sorry

Dear Diary

Alfred called from the room next door, My family and I were going on a vacation to Hawaii and I was deadly excited. It had been months since we could go out because of Tim’s injury. Oh wait a second I haven’t introduced myself!

My name is Y/n L/n-Wayne 

I’m the most recent Wayne adoption, When I was only 5 my Mama and Papa were killed by the Joker and Bruce adopted me. I’m now 9 and I have 4 older brothers and 1 big sister! My favourite sibling is definitely Cass! Even though I’m closest with Damian, She just knows EVERYTHING!!! well not everything. Only Alfred knows the secret to the universe!

OH I gotta go diary! Alfred’s getting me to pack my bag!

Dear Diary

We just arrived at Hawaii!!! Dick saw some pretty girls and he left. But Bruce saw pretty women and left as well! Alfred took Damian to the gym while Tim went into the pool to hang with Cass.

It was just me and Jay-Jay

(Cut scene!!! Not written in diary format) 

“Hey sparrow! wanna go get some ice cream and chase some birds on the beach?”

“HECK YEAH”

“LET’S GO THEN!” 

(Cut Back)

Jay-Jay and I had So much fun chasing the birds we didn’t even notice it getting dark. When we did we headed to the Bonfire Tim made, I think it was Tim. When we got there I pulled out my diary to write in and Dick stole it from me. He got very sad when he read the “Cass is my favourite”

(Cut Scene)

 “How can Cass be your favourite???? Your favourite has to of changed by now??”

“Yeah, my favourite is now Jay-Jay cause he spent the whole day with me!”

“LE GASP”

“I FUCKING KNEW I WAS THE FAVOURITE”

(Cut back)

Damian demands he be my favourite and Tim threw me a smore so he is my favourite! I got to go diary see you soon!!!

Debakjbr DidighjkRy

HELPEEE

I WOKE UP AAND I CAN’T SEE S+AANTYTHINGQ EVENWW THOW I HTAVE A NIGGHT LIGGHJT 

I’M GEGTTING YTHROIJN ON THE GROUNFWDF???

I’M IJN A BSG?

I CAN GJHEAUR WHRAT EYTTHEY ARE SAYINFFG

“MR WAUYNE WILL PAY A LOT TO GEAVE HSI PREACIOUS LITTLE CHILD BACK??” HGSV 

I’M SVCCARED

I WANT BRUCE! ALFRED! DICK! JAY-JAY! TIM! CASS! DAMIAN!

(Cut Scene)

I make the mistake to cry out for my family because quickly the bag is being kicked, So I cry out again in even more pain then before

“BRUCE! DICK! JASON! TIM! CASS! DAMIAN PLEASE ALFRED!” and suddenly the kicking stops. Then starts the bullets. I’m so scare that they are going to shoot me I didn’t notice the bag opening and I see Nightwing peer down to me

“Are you okay, Y/n?”  He reaches out to grab me and I retreat

“How do you know my name?” He simply looks at me and takes off his mask to reveal DICK???

“Dick?” He once again reaches in to grab me and this time I let him, Once we get out the rest of the batfam comes out. Bruce was wearing the Batman suit.

“Since when were you batman Bruce?” 

“You didn’t know?” He knelt in front of me and gave me a tight hug,

“You’ve been inside the Batcave Y/n How did you not know?” Tim laughs

“You know what Timmy? With that attitude Dick is my favourite!” “NO!”

“YES!”

[hooryayy]

I'm gonna go off on this (deleted) scene because there's so much spaceparents going on in season 3 that begs to be talked about more and also we need new content in the fandom

Btw this scene is definitely canon because this was a conversation they for sure had, whether we saw it or not (as I think is the case with all bsg deleted scenes but that's a post for another day)

So the way this scene is cut to is somewhat abrupt and if yall remember its a continuation of the scene left in the ep.. but what kills me is that it's abrupt because they slip into personal intimate mode so fast, even though they are still doing the "fleet business" thing. And we get to see this slip a good amount between them, usually in public or semi-private spaces with other close working professionals around, but here it's just them in Bill's quarters and it's gentle and loving.. until its not

Bill is 100% on edge leaning in to hang on her reaction and laura is like "thank the gods" and then "ut oh" in a second because our girl can read a room and ever the stalwart starts spitting out short, affirmative facts. Our Easily Emotionally Overwhelmed Admiral sits just long enough to realize he is gonna lose his shit if he doesn't dip out when laura begins to tell him why he should just accept what she did. And he's already in his quarters so where tf will he go? Ah yes, the head but with door wide open, mood: "im overwhelmed and i need to shave Right Now so i can feel grounded in and distracted by something but since you are already here.. please come talk to me"

I think it's hard to say how much of which things he is feelsing about ranging from "i have a dead child" to "i have been lied to about a serious fleet security issue" to "laura hurt people i love in a way i have been hurt" to "laura didn't trust me/shut me out after all we'd been through" but i think i tend to side toward his nature to empathize with the Agathons more than anything, which is where he settles eventually even if the question of trust thing is at play because nothing matters more to him than family.

Okay but laura... knows she has to give him all of her reasons to make sure he knows it wasn't a matter of trust which is why she immediately gets up despite the "im upset" mode of bill. Oh, and she's stupid comfortable with hanging out at the door, having a conversation and making eye contact through the mirror while he is going about his private business, you know, like this happens often. No sense of feeling as if she is invading his space. She's also very physically presenting herself as open, not forceful, but very secure in her choices. It takes her a long time to fully face him which is a way of letting him know she unterstands his feelings in the matter.

She saves the main point of "why i didn't tell you" for last to make him hear her good. It also seems like she knows that's gonna be the big one that matters long term. and her reason was that she knows him sooo well and cared about him enough at the time to recognize how fucked up it would have been to drop this in his lap knowing he would not have been able to be part of or allow it to happen due to his tendency to let his personal relationships drown out his calculating mind (see: at least 6 eps in each season dealing with this exact problem).

BUT she legit spared him this personal turmoil in exchange for a potential bad fallout between them later on from it, like what a selfless babe!! She also knows she has to continue to inhabit that role of making the hard calls and cannot apologize for it, and the tough old bird comes around real quick once she says she's about to leave lol

But of course he's gotta have his say and he's gotta go right for the gut and really drive home the point that she is the cause of some fucked up trauma to really good people he considers family and ughhh they always tell it like it is no matter how harsh

Spaceparents really out here having a hard time at this point. They'd finally got a chance to explore the romance and then the four months of occupation and now they are back assuming power and trying to put the fleet back to "normal" living with the knowledge that things like this gotta pop up every week and it just reminds everyone of those certain responsibilities (which will be addressed a few eps from now) and not that this scene makes it seem impossible to balance bc they actually handle it very well, but it does illuminate the central complication to them more than other scenes or conflicts, particularly because of the intimate setting and their uncertainty about where they are at with each other and they really just kill me yall. 90% of their relationship makes me feel deep sadness at just their separateness and the unfairness of it all

So much of this scene is holding and pacing the energy and none of this would be possible without the absolute brilliance of mary and eddie tbh. They are playing a simple game of catch with each other while their characters are both having important emotional developments... nbd

[shadowsong26fic]

Random Crossover Notes

I don't intend to actually write this (even as an AU outline; at least not yet; I'm hoping it will either die and/or interest some of the maybe five people who are invested in both fandoms enough to be worth exploring further, lol).

But it came bursting back into my head tonight and in an effort to get it out, going to ramble a bit!

This is a Wheel of Time/Battlestar Galactica crossover. (Of the...it's not a fusion exactly; and it's not a 'the Fleet stumbles across this world' direct crossover; it's 'characters from BSG exist and have always existed on this planet and fit into the fabric of this world'. That kind of crossover. the second kind could Also be interesting but that is another problem I Do Not Need

This includes decisions about:

Baltar

Caprica

Tory

Roslin

Billy

Starbuck (though not much)

Some speculation/vague thoughts about Lee and Zarek

Also includes an OC of mine.

Part of why I don't intend to actually Write It is I don't...really have all that much yet.

This did originally exist 10-15 years ago; back when I wrote a single one-shot and had plans for a much longer AU in WoT and was active in BSG fandom. Accordingly, it's more aligned with book!verse than show!verse, though I'd probably bring in some show!verse stuff I liked if I were actually writing the thing. How many of the original details I'm actually remembering (beyond the First Concept Idea) and how are new as of the past few hours, IDEK. It does also involve an OC of mine because screw it, this is my self-indulgent BS, I wanna.

((She could probably be cut in this case but. Again. Mine. I wanna. XD))

Anyway.

So, as with a lot of my initial Concepts, this starts with Baltar. Obviously, he's a channeler.

He's also Seanchan.

He's da'covale, but da'covale to a Very high-ranking High Lord, meaning he has higher status than some of the Lower Blood. He has yet to be identified as a channeler.

My OC, as usual, is Atia, his daughter. She's marath'damane and is well aware of what she is. She's...been raised in this culture, and wouldn't resist the searchers/sul'dam when they come for her...except she's aware of what her father is. She doesn't like the idea of him being gentled/killed and while there's only so much she can do to help she feels like she has to do Something.

Caprica is a sul'dam, in service to the same High Lord/Lady as Gaius and Atia. She and Gaius meet and fall in love with each other; at some point she twigs onto either him or Atia, and the three of them run away together. Not sure if they manage to find a place in the Return fleet or if they cross the ocean All By Themselves, but.

And then at Some point they run into some subset of the WoT cast but...yeah, this is pretty much as far as I got XD Gaius would probably eventually end up at the Black Tower. He and Caprica would probably be Very Into the idea of Warder-bonding each other when they get there.

...and yeah, that's about as far as I got, lol. Figuring out where other BSG characters might fit into this world is...complicated, lol. Partly because only half-remembering the tapestry of cultures/alliances/etc.; partly because in a couple of cases there are roles that would fit An aspect of a character but Very Much Not others (e.g., I can honestly see Lee aligning himself with Galad's subset of the Whitecloaks except there is zero chance of Bill as a Whitecloak sooooooooo yeah. Athena would be either another sul'dam or Aiel, I can't decide which works better. ...actually, Aiel; she and Boomer are both Shaido but Athena breaks with her clan when the Aiel fracture? Or something...)

Anyway, if anyone else has any thoughts I'd appreciate them XD

ETA: So I myself had some additional thoughts, lol.

First--Starbuck and Mat. They just. They would either be Instant Bros or Thoroughly Despise One Another there is no in between. They're just. Like. If I was doing a Fusion, Starbuck would 100% fill the Mat role, they are so much alike and I love them both for it. Anyway, I lean towards timelining it so they can be Bros because that's way more interesting/fun for me personally. See above re: self-indulgence, lol. (They have also slept together at least twice.)

Second--Zarek might actually be interesting as a Whitecloak. Not in the sense that he fully believes/buys into their rhetoric, but...I don't know, it could fit his blend of 'I believe some of this, but I'm also using it as an avenue to gain Power.' And again with the Lee vibes, especially if Lee starts Considering joining as part of the storyline, even if he doesn't start there? IDK though, I keep going back and forth on this one.

Next, Roslin. I toyed with a few different options for her. She's definitely not an Aes Sedai; initially I was thinking she might be the head of one of the groups like the Kin (if I'm remembering the name right? The women who were rejected by the Tower and formed their own quiet underground networks) or an Aiel Wise One. But then I realized--you know who absolutely is an Aes Sedai?

Tory (probably Grey ajah, maybe White).

So then it all falls into place. We squeeze a little country/principality somewhere onto the map; normally the ruler there wouldn't merit an Aes Sedai advisor, but after a messy/disputed succession, Siuan did agree to send someone, and that someone was Tory. Billy, of course, is Roslin's son/heir.

Still thinking about where anyone/everyone else might fit, but also this line:

Caprica--In the end, we're not much more than thieves. We stole a damane. We stole an a'dam. ...we stole ourselves.

...so yeah. XD And now opening it up for additional thoughts.

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

First Monday of the month (and year!) so here we go!

I'll tag an Open Question Night onto this, too--anything I've posted about here or on AO3 is fair game! I do take prompts but am not necessarily quick to fill them lol.

A little different than the others, since it's January and that means Resolutions of a sort, lol. But first, a quick regular post:

BSG Fic:

Didn't write or post any, but I did podfic for a few Galactica Big Bang/Mini Bang fics, and that was a lot of fun! I had a great time running the event, and am looking forward to doing it again next year (and maybe writing for it as well lol).

If I do write, the two ideas that are foremost in my brain right now (that would work for the event; as opposed to crossovers and/or projects that are Way beyond the scope of an event like this) are:

The Blood of Angry Men Zarek character study in the form of him looking back on his life as he faces his execution after the mutiny. Partly about the question of where does he land on the spectrum of actually believing his rhetoric vs. using it/the way people believe in him to achieve power; partly about this really great quote of his from Kobol along the lines of "it's a lot harder to get blood on your hands than to wash it off later"; partly about his relationships with his inner circle/followers (there would be some stuff about before he went to prison; about Gaeta; about the friend of his who died on Kobol whose name escapes me).

Percussive Maintenance Joke title that would Not remain lol. But yeah this is basically...so, that bit in Downloaded, where Sam is trapped in the exploded parking garage with Boomer, Caprica, and Three insert tangent about 'are there one, two, or three significant Threes it is Unclear' and he gets knocked out like three times? What if. What if all those concussions. What if they unlocked his memories. Probably building up to where he is before he has to be hybridized if not there initially but. What If. (The problem with this one is it miiiiiight also be out of scope, also there's the moment he wakes up and then going back to the school and having a Chat with Philosopher!Cavil and then...not sure where to go from there.)

I also really genuinely do want to get TOB off the ground this year (I know I keep saying that but). And maybe one of the crossover ideas I have floating around in my head, but We'll See. Hopefully I'll have Something out this month (but I'm also waffling a little on How I want to start it--I think it probably makes the most sense to just go in show order and bounce back and forth between the Pegasus and Galactica plotlines once I get all the miniseries setup out of the way there is so much setup omg but every so often I ask myself 'but do I really want to do that? XD)

Also, since I Obviously fell way behind and didn't finish the Year of the OTP project, I'll pick that up and do the rest this year XD

Star Wars fic:

Going back and forth about participating in SWBB this year. I need to actually get on that because deadline for signups is on the 10th, lol. If I do participate it would be the one I planned to do last year (Anakin never joined the Order and meets Ahsoka halfway through the Clone Wars) but never got off the ground.

Note about OTP fills applies here as well, lol.

Also hoping to finally dive back into Precipice this year, so fingers crossed lol.

Other Fandoms (mostly Les Mis, LBR):

I do plan on doing Pod_Together again later in the year because I generally have fun doing it! Will probably adjust my fandoms list though because I keep getting matched on secondary/tertiary fandoms and while stretching myself to write for them is fun, I'd like to do something a little less Stretchy this year if possible, haha.

And I will be updating P&J, I promise XD I know where it's going, and I know what Ari is going to learn, though the specific order/circumstances in which the information comes out I'm still sorting out exactly when and how. (I think there are going to be some Previously Unpublished Letters when Ari gets to the Marseille exhibit about Thierry that give a Name to J, but I'm not sure if Ari's going to go there first or go to Dover or Paris first. And then Calais which is Relevant and Important). Goal is to get At Least one more chapter out this month.

Provenance will come when I finish that--it fills in the gaps Ari can't because Certain People decided to Burn All Their Correspondence, lol.

And then I'm also working on Acheron which is a Groundhog Day AU that I'm excited for. May or may not be other things coming in this fandom, we'll see XD

I do also want to get back to Incinctus and/or other Castlevania ideas I had. May be rewatching that series and/or finally watching Nocturne to jumpstart my brain? So maybe that'll happen this month but it's definitely a lower priority than the other things.

Original Fic:

I think I had a fairly good year where this is concerned? Year of the OTP plus a series of anniversary challenges on Rainbowfic got me to put out a fair amount! Hopefully next year will also be good (I do still have to finish the Year of the OTP for the three ships I was doing here as well, lol.)

...yep, that pretty much sums it up!

So, on to Resolutions! So to speak.

2023 goals:

Post at least arc 8 (and ideally also part 9) in Precipice!Verse as well as at least half of the Preludes stories. ....nope. XD

Write at least 10k of origfic content. Nearly doubled my goal with about 18.7k words!

Complete SWBB and participate in at least one other challenge/exchange Half-completed--I ended up dropping out as a writer from SWBB, but I did Pod_Together and also Ran GBB so XD

Continue posting Incinctus and start posting The Other Battlestar and at least one other non-challenge fic project. Well, I didn't do Incinctus or TOB, but I did do other non-challenge fic projects? Lol XD

Write at least one holiday fic (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, New Year’s, Etc.) and post on the appropriate day I actually did do this!

Bonus Goal: Update the origfic archives already. Bonus Goal #2: I have at least one half-finished AU outline I should actually finish and post that. And maybe update the Ventress and Luke time-travel one Yeaaaah neither of these got done, either XD

2024 Goals:

[basically repeating myself, NGL XD]

Get back into Precipice; post at least three chapters of Protectors and at least one Preludes one-shot.

Write at least 10k of origfic content.

Participate in at least two challenges/exchanges.

Start posting The Other Battlestar; complete P&J; and start or post at least one other non-challenge fic project.

Complete the Year of the OTP fills.

Bonus Goal: Write at least one holiday fic (Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, New Year's, etc.) and post on the appropriate day Bonus Goal #2: Update origfic archives Bonus Goal #3: Post at least one AU Outline.

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

First Monday of the month, so here we go.

As per usual, this also means an open question night--my askbox is always open, but I'll be actively keeping an eye on it tonight. I do take prompts, but am not necessarily fast in filling them. Any fandom I've posted about here or on AO3 is fair game, as is any of my original stuff.

Short one this month, because I didn't get much done last month, whoops...a big work project took up more brainmeats than I expected it would, ah well.

Mostly moved, mostly everything is sorted; a few things I still need to finish organizing/putting away/etc. But that should also free up some brainspace hopefully!

Anyway. Actual updates.

Star Wars:

Pretty much the same as last week--need to catch up on OTP meme fills; poking back at my original plan for last year's SWBB so I can use it for this year. Not a lot of progress, but hopefully this month will be better!

BSG:

Big Bang matches have gone out! I'm excited to see how everything turns out. And hopefully get actually back into writing the many plotlines that are floating around in my head, lol...particularly The Other Battlestar which still needs an Official title and has been waiting to come out of my head and get Shared for like. over a year. even discounting the like 8-10 year gap when I wandered away from the fandom...

I should be picking up my rewatch soon, too! I have the back half of season 3, plus season 4, and maybe the webisodes (I have access to Face of the Enemy but not Resistance, so we'll see if I actually watch those). Which does mean we're coming up on my absolute least favorite episode in the entire series, haha. I haven't even gotten to it yet and I'm already mad about it (and have found an Additional Reason to be mad about it that I hadn't had before! Yay!) But also after that I get Lampkin, who I love, and while season 4 is a mess in terms of cohesion/continuity it has some of my very favorite episodes in the entire series, So.

Castlevania:

I haven't actually sat down and watched Nocturne yet (mostly because of the aforementioned work stuff), so I haven't quite fallen back into this fandom yet. I do want to get back to Incinctus, and I had one other plot thread idea for another fic based on the first series (essentially, shifting Alucard's S3 timeline by six weeks so the night Sumi and Taka plan to attack him is the same night Greta's messenger gets there, and then see where things go from there).

It's kind of interesting--I have approximately zero knowledge of the games, apart from a few bits and pieces I've picked up from reading fics and/or hanging out on a discord server. Which, of course, has been talking a lot about Nocturne...but almost entirely in the context of how it relates to the game characters/plotlines it's drawing from. Which means I'm both...more and less hyped for it? I don't know, I'm not sure how to word how it's impacted my interest/excitement/etc. for the followup series, because a lot of the comments about certain characters/choices completely fly over my head but they Dominate the server and I'm like "...okay?"

Anyway, we'll see how I feel about it when I watch the series. And if I do end up building a VC crossover in my head (because like. armand and the theatre are right there and while I was able to confine myself to a quick Easter Egg reference in Incinctus...lol.)

Les Mis:

The next chapter of P&J is coming, I swear. Also planning to debut Acheron this month because...I mean I know it's technically a Groundhog Day AU set in June, but it feels appropriate to start posting it around Halloween? IDK XD

Original Fic:

Again I do need to catch up on OTP memes. I do like the one piece I put out this month, which was about the Horsemen in Lux. They're a Delight and I love them.

...yeah, that's about it. Like I said, short post this month because I didn't get much actual writing done last month. Hopefully October will be better for me (if nothing else, hopefully I actually will catch up on all the backlogged OTP Meme fills, lol...)

[shadowsong26fic]

10. How do you decide what to write?

11. Are you partial to a certain character/pairing or are you more equal-opportunity? If you are partial to any character/pairing, why do you think that is?

10. How do you decide what to write?

I generally start with a question or a concept--I do a lot of canon-divergent AUs and/or backstory fills and/or adding OCs for fanfic, and a not-insignificant chunk of my original work started as a wildly AU fanfic that I decided actually worked better when separated from its original roots, lol.

So, like, if it starts with a question. "What if Baltar was on Pegasus instead of Galactica." "What if Anakin didn't follow Mace Windu and was still in the Temple when Order 66 went out?" "What if Mordred was a daughter instead of a son?" and then it tends to spiral from there.

Or if it starts with an OC and/or Backstory Fill. "Who are [x character]'s relatives who are either implied to exist by That's How Biology Works (i.e., parents) or could exist (i.e., siblings/childhood friends/etc.) or I think it would be Interesting if they existed (often children)?"

And, like...a lot of these pop into my head? Some of them work better in different formats than Actually Writing them for whatever reason, some of them just grab onto me and refuse to let go. So when it comes to deciding which of these threads I'm going to follow...it's sort of an 'I know it when I see it' type thing? It's basically a...what has the Right Level of focus/awareness/etc. And sometimes I write these things for an audience of one, or divert them into freeform/casual RPs with friends, or get it out in like an outline format as opposed to a fulltext fic.

...yeah, I don't actually have like. a Process, lol. It's pretty intuitive and comes from me poking at 'what-ifs' 99% of the time. Sometimes I do one-shots that are missing scenes, but those are pretty rare.

11. Are you partial to a certain character/pairing or are you more equal-opportunity? If you are partial to any character/pairing, why do you think that is?

Yeah, I'd probably have to say I am? But it's usually not just one character, and I tend to prefer writing gen fic with pairings as backgrounds?

So, for example, my Star Wars home tends to be the PT/Clone Wars era and characters, up through Rebels/Rogue One/basically the inter-trilogy period. The characters I tend to write most often/got the most invested in/flow the easiest are (in no particular order) Anakin, Ahsoka, Padme, Obi-Wan, Rex, Kallus, Zeb, Sabine, Bo-Katan...

For pairings, I tend to write Anidala/Obianidala or Kalluzeb; most other things are either situational or involve OCs or both.

AtLA, I was (and am) pretty invested in Zuko, and also Long Feng fascinates me, and I adore Toph; Ty Lee has always been a draw for me as well. I do have a preferred pairing in that fandom (Zuko/Song), but that's a particularly gen-focused fandom for me.

And for BSG, there are just. So many to choose from XD As I'm getting back into the fandom, I'm drawn to some who have always been my favorites (Gaius, Caprica, Helo, Athena, Kara, Felix) and a few who I'm way more interested in this time around than I was before (primarily Sam and the Tighs; although Fleet!Cavil is kind of a joy to write in his own special way--Palpatine is, too, to backtrack; something about digging into their heads is just. kind of fun???).

As for shipping...honestly, apart from Roslin/Adama (who I love, but I find both of them kind of hard to write, so I haven't done as much with them as I'd like), my favorite 2000-year-old robot drunks in love, Helo/Athena, and Gaius/Caprica, I don't have super strong opinions? I prefer Kara/Sam to Kara/Lee, and there was one AU I was working on (that will hopefully get picked up again at some point?) where the goal was Zak/Kara/Sam. And also, like, these are endgame pairings? As other partners along the way, I can get invested in a lot of different things. (I lose patience with the Quadranagle of Why very quickly, though.) ...that also goes for Star Wars, incidentally, though to a lesser extent. And all of this is leaving out how OCs affect shipping dynamics.

...right, there was another part of this question, lol.

Why do I think I'm drawn to these characters/pairings? Uh, well I know I'm invested in complex loyalties/morality. I've said before that I have a Thing for that, and for double-agents. So a lot of the characters I'm drawn to are very shades of grey, depending on the point in the storyline and/or whose perspective you're looking at. But...not all of them? So that's a starting point but not the only thing.

As for pairings...I do like a good enemies-to-lovers that's handled well; the personalities that go into it also matter, they have to fit with each other in some way. Other than that...I'm not sure there's a whole lot of commonality between the pairings I like. Like I said, I mostly focus on gen fic with pairings as a background/fact of life when applicable?

Ask me a writing question!