#it’s a big achievement for a crossover ship of all things

[givelightningherharem]

Lightis finally hit 100 works on ao3, I’m so happy to see it finally hit triple digits 😭😭 I know there’s definitely more than this on ffnet, maybe even scattered among other fanfic sites, but for ao3 of all things it still feels like such a great achievement 🥺

I hope people who love this ship can still continue making content comfortably(I myself plan to, I have fics in the works for them!!) and keep showing their love for lightis!!

[penvisions]

in search of honor {series teaser}

Fandom: The Mandalorian / Alien VS Predator Crossover

Pairing: Younger! Din Djarin x Sacrifice! Reader

Summary: As Din prepares for the ritual of swearing the Creed, he contemplates his past and the future he wants to achieve. On another planet, the one his people are headed to, you are told of your role in the hunt to take place. In the pyramid that everyone knows means death for those that visit. A sacrifice to be made for the Mandalorian's to perform their ritual.

A/N: this is the first tentative writing i've done for the idea that i shared over here. it's just a silly little thing helping me destress from everything going on. no warnings, because i don't have any big ones outlined yet. essentially this is mando'a culture, but the creed is the hunt that takes place for the predators in the alien franchise to prove themselves, fighting aliens and all that fun stuff!

O'r echoy par ijaat.

In search of honor.

It echoes in his head as he stares at the helmet handed to him from the armorer. He's had it in his possession for nearly ten years now, to be worn at all times. never to be removed. not unless it was around his family, his partner, his children. All of which he doesn't have, having been adopted into the culture he is now devoted to. He had been raised by them, taken in when he had nothing. It's finally his turn to earn the title of Mandalorian, after years of training, of sparring, and learning the weapons praised for protection and defense. It's his turn to prove his worth and earn his signet. If he survives the trial, the hunt, devoted himself to the ritual and solidify himself as a true member of the people who had given him everything he could ever remember. Then he would have achieved what they anticipated of him, proved himself.

The weight of his armor had been heavy like his thoughts when he first dressed in them, the heavy padding beneath it adding even more to his then small frame, just a boy. He had barely been seven when he had first been given it, each year it increased in weight as more of the precious beskar was needed to decorate his growing body. But it's something he's gotten accustomed to. He now feels it's absence when he readies for sleep each night and before he dons it each morning. feels the loss of it when he's bathing and eating alone in his room. He's hopeful the thoughts become less so just as the beskar had. A comfort rather than a daunting new reality.

He wants to survive; he wants to earn his place. He only hopes he's strong enough.

It’s not a death sentence, it’s an honor.

And it’s now on his shoulders and the only path he sees to follow.

You're in disbelief. The summons that called you has you standing beside six other eldest children of the most renown families of the city, two other girls and four boys. All varying ages, the youngest is a boy, not even ten. The first child of the family you know heads the cultivation of food for the city. He's openly crying, though his father and your own ignore the shine of the tears on his still chubby cheeks.

It's an honor, a way to serve your family, your community. The sentiment is repeated over and over, in the face of each of you as you're dismissed. The day is tomorrow, has been marked for nearly as long as you've been alive. The pyramid in the middle of the desert an entire night's travel away, even on the fastest ship. In the midst of the never-ending desert that surrounds your city, the only on the planet. To ensure should anything go awry or the hunt go wrong, there was no risk for it to get to the population.

It will become your tomb as you heed the commands of your culture and family, as you lay still and allow for an alien creature to attach itself to you, to use you as a host for the chosen species the Mandalorian’s have honed over centuries and use in their own ritual. A way to prove that their training and fighting is either the best or to see the flaws in which they could improve them in order to continue to develop some of the strongest warriors in the galaxy.

It's a cruel cycle, that you must give your live for another to gain meaning and status in their own. you loathed the life you were born into, the injustice of it. the inability to have control over your own autonomy, raised like cattle and given without argument to further another's notion of honor.

An honor and a way to show your devotion to those that made it all possible for your way of life to flourish and thrive.

A sacrifice you should be happy to play a part in.

But it was death, that much you were certain of. Even as they dress you in the most extravagant fabrics you've ever felt against your skin. Soft silt, plush pelts, heavy jewelry. It was too much to handle, the meaning behind it all, the reason for it all.

It’s not an honor it’s a death sentence.

A weight on your shoulders, but you’d be damned if it’s the only path for you to take.

taglist: @beefrobeefcal @clawdee @hellfire-state-of-mind @tuquoquebrute

@sawymredfox @kiwisbell @morallyinept @itsokbbygrl @sp00kymulderr

@jessthebaker @hiddenbabynyc @littlemisspascal @mosssbawls

[risunsky]

2023 review

So, was it a good year ?

I think so, I've enjoyed challenging myself, I've tried Beksinski for a second time, Klimt twice, I've done a crossover hellraiser which I'm quite happy with… I made cement for the first time and it was great!

At the 2022 review I said I wanted to do more horror, so I went for gore with all my emaciated skeletons and I'm very happy with that.

September is my favorite of all.

Outside of my fanart world, my biggest freelance achievement has been completing a big comic commission on time and now that the book is out and I've had good feedback from both commissioners and readers I'm relieved and quite proud. It's been a stressful time so it's nice to see that it hasn't all been for nothing. So, even though I'll never stop considering myself as a learner and experimenting with new things, I think that this year I've finally managed to settle on a style, or a range of styles, that I like and that I think I'll stick with for a long time. I've been drawing for a very long time but this is the first year I've felt so strongly that I've found MY style. As for my universe, it seems that somewhere in the horror area of dark fantasy it is my home.

What's planned for 2024?

In terms of priorities, the gift commissions, yeah.... I'm soooo late. I've finished one, but two are still on hold, and have been for at least a year now. I'm terribly sorry about that, because I haven't been overwhelmed like that for a long time, and I intend to sort it out as soon as possible.

It should also be the year I finish the Goya remake. Ideally, I'd like to finish in February because that's my birthday month, or March because that's the anniversary of my discovery of Ghost.

For the rest, don't take it as a promise, because I tend to let myself be carried along by my desires and they are constantly changing. For example, I was planning great things with Nunussy but the poor thing was left on the side of the road. My interest in it just died. it seems that shipping characters and writing an alternative universe for them is not my thing. I have at least 3 shorts comics ideas, more or less ghost related but always mixed with something else. I really really want to work on it but it's a lot of work and this year I need money, like more than usual so I don't know... I also want to do Bloodborne fanart.

The fails

I haven't kept to my plan to draw the other characters in the Ghost lore, oopsy. I still haven't had the time to open any commissions, but last year was really special, working on a big contract that kept me busy for months and that was something new, it was stressful enough. 2024 should be different. I had to show a bit more of my traditional technique, let's say I do it with the Goya project, it's a semi-failure.

Not really a failure: I still haven't come up with a design for an official t-shirt. I think that's because I'm more of an illustrator than a designer and for a good design I need to find a special thing. It's not a big deal for me, just, if it happens it's cool, if not, well, not the end of the world.

To finish

I'd like to thank all those who follow me and who like and share my drawings, including those who remain silent in the shadows - I'm myself a lurker so I understand! Of course, a huge thank you to those who have supported me on ko-fi, it's the first time I've tried this system and I'm happy to have had some support pretty quickly!

my apologies if there are any English mistakes in this text, which is still too long

Have a great festive season!

[hypnotisedfireflies]

Fic Writery Thing

I haven't done this one in awhile. Thanks for tagging me, @adhdprincess!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 22! 2. What's your total AO3 word count? 967,602 3. What fandoms do you write for? These days, just TLOU, but I used to write a lot of LOTR, DW, SW ... there used to be variety. 4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Drifter's Dawn Snowqueen of Texas Drifter's Dusk If On a Clear Day A Door Once Opened 5. Do you respond to comments? Yep, always! 6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably Dawn, I guess? 7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? ... The Legend of Charro? 8. Do you get hate on fics? I don't get hateful comments, no. 9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yeah, I write smut, but it's usually plot-driven. I'm not writing smutty one-shots these days. 10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? No, not my jam. 11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yeah, and it was a fic I'd taken down, and the person had only posted as many chapters as they'd saved and swapped the fandoms. That was pretty hurtful, because they'd obviously liked my fic enough to save it, and it was in a very obscure fandom so I guess they thought nobody would see it and tell me. Also, readers really liked the story and were heaping praise on this person for it. Ouch. I contacted AO3. 12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No. 13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yeah, I love collaborative fic writing. 14. What’s your all time favorite ship? I don't deal in absolutes, okay. :p 15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? If On a Clear Day, but that's only because I lost all my notes and I have no idea where that story was going anymore. 16. What are your writing strengths? I'm persistent. 17. What are your writing weaknesses? I'm persistent. 18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Big yes! Thank you @bignosebushybrows who translates my Spanish dialogue in Snowqueen and makes the story so much richer for it, and to @flckrsoflight who translates into French for IO. With their help, I can add a layer of detail and authenticity I cannot achieve myself. xx (Can I also point out the work they actually put into it? Neither just blindly translates, they check with me for context and make sure it has the right flow and meaning, and say things like, 'okay but it would make more sense if...' etc. So like, major effort and care goes into it.) 19. First fandom you wrote for? I want to say Star Wars? By it honestly may have been Police Rescue. 20. Favourite fic you’ve written? That absolutes thing again! I really don't know. I try to challenge myself in a different way in each, so I feel they've each got favourite components for me?

Tagging @march-flowerr @seethesunny @ameerawrites@oliviassunrise

[saynomorefic]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

thank you @darktwistedgenderplural <3 so sweet of you to tag me hehe

How many works do you have on Ao3?

15 - 5 YR and 10 one direction that I wrote like 10 years ago lol

What's your total Ao3 word count?

81,454 :0

What fandoms do you write for?

Young Royals, that's it <3

Top five fics by kudos: (I'm doing my top 3 young royals fics because I reaally don't want people re-reading my old 1d fic lol)(It is in the [public] archives)

Falling for you

All the rules to this game I bend

You Kill Me & Like birds do, I need to fly south (tied)

Do you respond to comments?

YES always!! I tend to have pretty long responses bc I love learning what people like and having a conversation <3

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'd say I won't treat you like you're oh so typical. However, this is a WIP and so I'm just going off of where I left things.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm most of them have happy endings! My fluffiest fic is Like birds do, beginning to end.

Do you get hate on fics?

No

Do you write smut?

Yes I do! Not all my fics have smut though. I will say I prefer writing my characters talk about sex, and exploring their sexuality as a major theme, to writing actual smut, not because I don't enjoy it but because it's hard!! I sometimes struggle to be creative.

Craziest crossover:

None

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No although I'd love to

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've gifted works, but never co-written anything. That would be so fun!

All time favourite ship?

Wilmon ofc <3

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

That one's hard. I hesitate to say because sometimes I get inspired by old ideas. I had one that is Wille as a new cat dad with a rascal of a cat who keeps breaking things, and Simon is called as a cat whisperer. The catch: Simon's methods are unique and involve him spending three days 24/7 at Wille's apartment. I just am not capable of this level of fluff lol

What are your writing strengths?

I think I develop really elaborate ideas and worlds in my head, and I do try to make them as convincing as possible. I only write AUs, so I think this is a big part of that. I like writing descriptively bc of my liberal arts degree, and I also try to work in as many life experiences and make things feel relevant to the world around us, aka writing from a critical perspective even if it's fictional. I hope I'm achieving this even slightly!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh god lol. I get writing exhaustion pretty hard because of idea overload, and I look back at the page and feel like I've lost my voice or style completely. I think I struggle with varying the sentence structure so things feel natural. I'm also working on incorporating metaphors and symbolism effectively - I've been writing papers for so long in college that metaphors don't come as easily anymore.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I think it's great, although sometimes I won't do it because google translate is unreliable and I don't have a beta reader currently. However, I like throwing in phrases here and there we see on YR a lot :-)

First fandom you wrote in?

One direction

Favourite fic you've written?

It would have to be You Kill Me, although it's not done. I put so much into their world and have so much more to show!! I'm proud of directly tackling a lot of the power dynamics and their intimate effects (on Simon especially) that I feel weren't addressed fully in the show, albeit in another universe. (Also yay for Felice and Simon's friendship and talking about racial issues together <3) The recent love for it has been so amazing and inspired me to keep going.

I tag: @nothingadoaboutnothing @youngroyalsforeversposts <3

thank you so much! <3

[chewydolls]

QSMP x Ever After High characters that remind me of them

Quackity x Duchess Swann

Bitchy ™

Quackity/ElQ and White Swan/Black Swan parallels

Yearning for romantic love

Resented guys who think they were doomed from the start to be unlovable, cursed to stay at the sideline watching with jealousy as their peers get the happy ending they could never hope to achieve

They actually have the means to take agency over their fate, but this requires some healing and introspection that the respective villains from their worlds are direct or indirectly preventing them from doing

Still, happiness most likely won't come in the way they fantasize bout

Feathers? Birbs??? Idk

Jaiden x Briar Beauty

They're both associated with roses

Their arcs are shaped by grief: in Briar's case the certainty of outliving all her friends makes her mourn the life she knows while they're still alive; and Jaiden was deeply shaken by Bobby's death

That doesn't stop them from aligning themselves with the very oppresive organization that stood by and let the tragedy happen, but:

a) They are hurt and going with what is familiar to them

b) They will be chaotic af about it

Agent of chaos aligning with Order can you picture that

They're bffs with figures that uphold the status quo, to varying degrees of how much power they actually have in the grand scheme of things (Cucurucho and Apple)

Isolation is a big theme in the Sleeping Beauty story, and that resonates a lot with Jaiden's arc and how she got close to Cucurucho at her lowest point vs how Briar tries to stay loyal to the Royals even when it hurts her and her closest friends, because Apple is her bestie and was always there for her

Roier x Briar Beauty (again)

A mimir

The whole Animations family is very Briar-coded, actually

Everything I said about Briar's grief works for him, especially the part of mourning people who are still alive bc the threat of being the last person standing weights over them

Just... the concept of being the last person alive as your kingdom is ruined and the vines break the beautiful stained glass of your castle and your bed is covered in thorns ✨️

"Living in fear is not living" vs "If I'm gonna sleep for a hundred years, I've got to live it up now!"

They're so good at keeping a "silly guy" act that few people can tell when they're actually sad

Outgoing and charismatic personality but still end up feeling isolated

Special little guy shipped with the confrontational, off-putting little freak (Spiderbit, Briar/Faybelle)

Pac x Blondie Lockes

I'll give it to you they're not that similar but:

Chisme? Gossip?? Fofoca???

Pros at breaking and entering

Drawn to scary creatures with sharp teeth

Cellbit x Alistair Wonderland

You thought I was gonna pair him with Raven, right? Wrong!

Men only know how to do 3 things: solve puzzles, play chess and be absolutely smitten for their partners

Came to the island/eah by accident and immediately got in the nerves of the authorities

Both were abandoned in a dangerous land by the people who later became their found family (not his friends fault, in Alistair's case, totally justifiable in Cellbit's)

In the unlikely scenario where I did pair him with Raven, Felps would 100% be his Maddie, k?

Felps x Maddie Hatter

I'm not doing 1:1 crossover but Alistair/Cell being besties with Maddie/Felps works too i guess

Chaotic, unpredictable, barely comprehensible, they will encourage their bffs to be the best version of themselves while also enabling them to do the dumbest shit possible

Part of a weird polycule that by all means shouldn't be there but they decided to make it everyone else's problem

Signature Food (pasta/tea)

Tina x Cerise Hood

Deeply self-conscious about their identity, hiding under a semblance of innocence so no one notices their monstrous/demon heritage

Actively hiding a part of themselves (horns/ears)

Despite that, they still instigate their friends to be unhinged, as long as they can be on their good side

[dividawrites]

Tagged by @cindle-writes 💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 44, but some are collabs

2. What's your total A03 words count? 403,445

3. What fandoms do you write for? Harry Potter

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A Future Without a Face (114k, complete)

What Happens in Vegas (14k, complete)

Pancakes (5k, complete)

I Could Send You to Hell, I Know You (6k, complete)

Oversight (21k, wip)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I used to, but I'm not really active anymore, and my inbox got too big, so I gave up. I do read and appreciate every single comment I get, though!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? How am I supposed to pick? Judging by the comments some have found the ending of Let Me in the Walls I Have Built Around You rather devastating. Or maybe To the Moon. I'm not a fan of boring marriage-kids-growing-old-together -endings so some people find everything I write sad and horrible. I write mainly Tom fics, and in most of them happy endings simply aren't achievable for him without ruining his character

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uhhh.... depends what counts as happy? I guess all of my collabs are relatively happy. And What Happens in Vegas is probably one of my most popular fics because it's very light

8. Do you get hate on fics? Of course I do. But who cares

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind? What else is there?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? To write a crossover I'd have to find another fandom I like

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't know, I don't keep track of them

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes. I'm very flattered when someone wants to spend time and effort to translate my works, so thank you for these:

A Future Without a Face [Chinese translation by Aureus_1859]

A Future Without a Face [Korean translation by bear0730]

To the Moon [Korean translation by bear0730]

Let Me in the Walls I Have Built Around You [Spanish translation by Mixsys]

Let Me in the Walls I Have Built Around You [Chinese translation by Rowo]

In Just a Moment, You'll Be Mine [Chinese translation by Ocrane]

Generational [Chinese translation by AvinlIfol]

Till Death Do Us Part [Russian translation by io_mann]

Until Midnight Comes [Chinese translation by tyughb]

What Happens in Vegas [Chinese translation by withoutqueen]

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Multiple. Mostly with @duplicitywrites, and especially if co-writing means me writing some random shit and then throwing it to her, so she can make an actual fic out of it. She's a miracle worker, really

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Tomarrymort

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? All the wips I currently have

16. What are your writing strengths? Funny porn I guess. Weird crack. I don't know. My Tom characteristics have been praised a few times because I don't pull punches. I enjoy writing flaws, and I'm not scared of making the main characters ruthless and possibly even unlikeable

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Writing

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I wouldn't add lines in my native language, and even less in a language that I don't speak well. In my opinion, lines that most readers don't understand do not add any value.

And I have to add that I have seen some words in my [small and therefore exotic] native language randomly dropped into a fic, and it makes the whole thing absolutely unreadable. Sorry, but it's too unexpected and just—well—awful.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Harry Potter is the only fandom I have ever written. Or even read tbh

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? I don't have a favourite. But I think Cloudy is my most underrated fic, along with A Mother's Love (but that's bella/delphi rarepair so I didn't expect it to get even this much attention)

[fantasyinvader]

The idea Claude is "morally flexible" is a very disturbing claim. When people talk about being as such, it's often described as them being able to turn their morality off, that if the situtation calls for it they're willing to do things they'd normally say are wrong. But this carries implications.

I think one of the best examples of this inadvertantly saying something about a character is Kira Yamato, from Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny. After getting the Freedom, Kira says he won't kill anymore but he continues to fight. But the thing is, Kira doesn't stop killing. After this point, he's shown to be able to kill if he feels he needs to. Shoot a ship in order to protect Orb (his countries)'s soldiers? People are wrong to be upset at him despite us seeing the bodybags. He's even been shown cutting a ship in half, or taking a swing at the Impulse's cockpit when pressed (despite him later saying he wasn't fully focused on the fight). The show treated Kira like a paragon, and people holding things against him was meant to say that they're in the wrong.

In crossover games, Kira is treated differently. He's called out for ATTACKING people out of nowhere, hurting others in order to fight for what he believes in. They ask him what kind of example does he set when he fights people to make them stop fighting, all while protecting what's important to him. His fighting style is called self-aggrandizing, that it's meant to make him look powerful and important, while saying that his actions would put a lot of blood on his hands. If he disables an enemy mobile suit on an active battlefield, leaving the pilot unable to defend themselves surrounded by enemies, if that pilot ends up dying Kira shares the fault. That Kira's actions would only serve to make him more enemies.

Kio Asuno, from Gundam AGE, also vows to stop killing but he's shown protecting pilots he's disabled, he's shown to constantly hold back against enemies as he tries to talk them down instead of just overwhelming them with his power, while his comrades call out his actions alongside a number of viewers…but Kio also gets treated with a lot more respect in crossover games than Kira does. Re:Creators, which had two of the leads of SEED Destiny who were screwed over when the show brought Kira back, even had scenes which called out this exact same mentality. That beating someone up and expecting them to be your friends afterwards is the kind of thinking from a show for little kids, and that deciding to kill someone when they give you no other option isn't that far removed from killing someone for fun. After all, you still decide to end someone's life because they made you struggle.

So, take that and apply it to Claude. The idea that Claude is "morally flexible," that he can turn off his morality if the situation calls for it. Why? Hopes makes a case that it's him trying to achieve his own vision for how the world should be but in a more unrestrained due to the trauma of killing his brother. That in order to make the world CLAUDE wants, he's willing to do scummy things. Just like how Edelgard is willing to do anything in order to make the world SHE wants. That they're willing to put their own desires above the lives and safety of countless others, and even worse they're freaking wrong. Devs have literally said that the world was built to support Silver Snow, a story where Rhea is the good guy, and Claude's arc in VW is in part him realizing this and recognizing his own prejudices.

Hopes, instead, sees Claude want to destroy a religion so he can shape the world HE sees fit. Or in short, Hopes Claude is committing genocide against the Central Church so he can… build a world where people aren't "othered" for being different. This isn't Claude being "morally flexible," this is Claude being a goddamn monster. This is Claude being compared to Nemesis, someone Engage uses to represent the big bads of Fodlan, and that's without Thales and his cronies playing him like a fiddle like they attempt to do with Edelgard.

Hopes Claude isn't a hero, that was the "pure good guy" version in Houses. He's just a dumbass villain.

[riversofmars]

20 Questions for Writers

Haven't done one of these in ages so let's have a go, thanks for the tag @capybaraonabicycle :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

207

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

2,039,066

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Doctor Who (179) first an foremost. <3

Some of the others include:

Holby City (12) - that was a long time ago lol

Last Tango In Halifax (8)

Happy Valley (TV) (6)

Collateral (TV 2018) (5)

Spooks | MI-5 (2)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

It's called Marriage, Honey (1064): A collection of River/13 oneshots.

Home For Christmas (760): My first advent calender fic! River/multiple Doctors, mainly 13.

When The Doctor Comes To Call (696): One of my first River/13 oneshots but a bit of River/11 thrown in.

When the Wind stands fair (489): My first River/13 multi-chapter and library fix it.

World Enough, And Time (485): A pretty elaborate River/13 fic in which River had a child with 12 on Darillium but hidden it from him and gave it to Vastra and Jenny before heading to the library. Only, the baby gets kidnapped and 13 is the one who deals with the fallout.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely! When someone took the time to comment, it's only polite to at least say thank you!

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

I think probably Drowning and Fracture.

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

Almost all of them have happy endings, I couldn't possibly pick!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really, thankfully.

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

Yes. .... occasionally... spanning quite a range of femslash.

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

Yes, though I wouldn't call them crazy. I like writing AUs of other worlds, i.e. Liv/Helen versions of Chess, Bodyguard, Lord of the Rings, Tár, Hijack, London Has Fallen... But actual crossovers would be writing Happy Valley/Collateral together (cause it just makes sense!). I also once wrote a pretty mad crossover of multiple Big Finish ranges (8DA, Gallifrey, UNIT, DoRS, War Master...) and put them in the Land of Oz so that was fun.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so and hope it stays that way.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I could translate them myself into German but don't really see the point when most people read English anyway.

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

Yeah, done quite a few with @calunalilly now, like our most recent project, a Doctor Who-Lord of the Rings AU :D Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Liv Chenka/Helen Sinclair. There is no contest. 179 of my fics are them and will continue to write for them!!

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

Years ago I had started a Liv/Helen Hogwarts AU The Shape Of Things To Come but as it's since become unacceptable to engage with that content anymore. I doubt I will get back to it sadly which is a shame cause I hate leaving something unfinished but alas.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue I think? Seems to flow very easily but action too, I think, when I want to take the time for it. I'm always surprised afterwards with how exciting it is :D

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing enough grounding around the dialogue. I have to remind myself to do that half the time.

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

If there is a point to it, sure, but not just to show off you speak multiple languages lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

That's a tough one... there are a lot I am very proud of for different reasons.

A Numbers Game for probably being my biggest achievement to date in terms of length and complexity. I spent so much time on that fic and love it!

What The Future Holds packs such an emotional punch, I cried writing it. And it's the only way I can make sense of the ending of Stranded and fix it properly.

The Bodyguard and the following sequels just work so so well as an Alternate Universe, I'm super happy with how it all came together and it just works.

But I think, overall, my favourite thing I've ever written and that I'm proudest of is Romance In D Minor. Just in terms of how well it's written, I've really thought about it, structure, pacing and it's just- Yes. It's the one.

Tagging some people I think might be interested but anyone who sees this and fancies it, please fell free! @calunalilly @meluisart @sircarolyn @elizabethshaw @serenbex

[weekend-whip]

-20 asks for Fic Writers-

hey-lo!! I was tagged by @rainofthetwilight for a fun ask game!! Thank you!! ^-^)/

for tags, any fic writer that comes across this and feels compelled! You have my blessing! Go forth and rant about thy fics!!! Share your words with the world!! Give people new stuff to read!! Flaunt your beautiful achievements!!

. . .

1.How many works do you have on AO3?

19! And counting!

2. What's your total AO3 wordcount?

...791,937 and counting *lies down* (at least most of it is just one fic? Ahaha? ha?)

3. What fandom(s) do you write for?

right now, just ninjago! I wrote for some other fandoms back in the day (with...equally ambitious endeavors) and I initially made my Ao3 account for Definitely Not Ninjago...but, here we are :d

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Born to Be a 21st Century Ninja: 1116

Thank You, For Giving Me Wings: 560

Way of the 21st Century Ninja: 546

Assorted Thoughts and Feelings: 201

Married to the Sea: 161 (which I'm sure will get beat-out by GNL here soon haha)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I TRY, REALLY, MOSTLY, AND USUALLY but sometimes I get too excited and things shift through the cracks (hence why I generally make it a habit to respond to stuff I missed before/around/after a big update! That way it's on my mind!)

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

i haven't written it yet I MEAN WHAT it's Married to the Sea. I'm not big on writing overly bad/sad/tragic endings yet

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

Paper Plate Moon, the only fic without an existential crisis of some kind (just a slightly lovesick Kai with a smaller scope crisis) Orrr, A Little More Than Sixteen Candles, which is also about Kai! Except he cries. But it's a happy cry!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet

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

No

(...wait, there's 'kinds' of smut?!?! do i dare even ask)

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

Braaaaah I looooooooved crossovers when I was younger. My biggest story from my youth was a crossover. ...I won't be telling you what it is, though. It's part of my dark, mysterious past.

(I also don't count Legacyverse as a crossover, either. It's more of a...fusion! But. Y'know. The roots are there.....)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Only once, and it was the aforementioned crazy crossover fic from above. They were dealt with very swiftly tho :3

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

Longest that I've finished would be Born to Be; that took me technically almost two full years to write x-x

Shortest would be all the Aftershock oneshots I manage to speedrun in a few scant hours on holidays lmao

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I've triiiiiiiied a couple times in the past; only one attempt was successful though.

14. What's your all time favourite ship? From all the fandoms?

Destiny's Bounty! Man, I adore that ship so much.

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

THE MERMAID AU or the Jesse Fanseason or all the little prompt things from June '22 that still haunt me to this day or some of legacy!sidestories I should've done ages ago or-

16. What are your writing strengths?

*grabs some stuff from comments* I have strength in character development and providing emotional depth for scenes! *I* also think I write some kickass fight scenes, thank you.

17. What are your writing weaknessess?

BASIC GRAMMAR LMAO and probably using too many commas and ellipses but I am trying to ween myself off of it and incorporate shorter sentences. I always forget to vary up sentence length until the end waaaah

(I also miss typos a lot but I am of the camp that believes it keeps one humble~ *should probably just get a beta reader but hnnng*)

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

Intimidating

19. First fandom you wrote for?

...something video game related

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Probably Born to Be just because of how darn big of an achievement it is! and I reread it a lot <3 <3 <3 <3

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Talking about AU's, a while ago I had like the most foul assassin's creed brainrot because I completed ezio's collection

So I was like thinking what it would be like a AU/crossover Assassin's Creed with Detroit become human.

The idea works better with the ezio's Ac2 story cause it's more easy to fit ships and stuff and originally it was supposed to be about a AC ship but then I thought the basic idea might work as fine with dbh ships.

The general idea is basically that templars are trying to get their hands on cyberlife so they can use them to achieve their own goals.

Taking advantage of the fact that deviancy is not a very known thing, and the only androids who deviate decide to keep it a secret, humans don't really know much about how it works and what it means. Given that androids are seen as basically servants and objects that can't say no to anything, the idea of them suddenly being able to make decisions is obviously going to make people panic.

What templars do is that they manage to somehow understand how deviation is achieved (which in most cases is by a really big traumatic even) and make androids pull a Daniel here and there, overexposing the incidents in media ecc making everyone believe that androids are dangerous. What they want is people to believe they're going to help when in reality their just going to basically use cyberlife to create a bunch of nines type of androids to fuck people up and get to control things better

Idk if you have ever played assassin's creed but like a lot of historical figures in the game are part of the Assassin's so I could imagine kamski being part of it which would explain why he had to leave cyberlife when he notice they were associating themselves with templars.

I can imagine the creed already knowing about the deviantion (cause Kamski duh) and like some deviated androids being part of the Assassin's too

IDK I HAD TO LIKE STRETCH THE IDEA FOR A AC SHIP I WANTED TO WRITE BUT THE GENERAL CONCEPT WOULD BE THIS. SORRY IF IT'S SUPER LONG I JUST WANTED TO TALK ABOUT IT WITH SOMEONE LOL

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE ASSASSIN'S CREED ARE YOU KIDDING??? THIS IS AMAZING AHHH I WOULD LOVE TO READ THIS

Kamski being an assassin. ALL I WANT.

The templars aligning w Cyberlife makes PERFECT SENSE. In fact if an assassin's Creed game was set in the dbh universe, Cyberlife would absolutely be the organisation that's riddle w templars

This is genius and I love it a lot. If you ever write it, lemme know👀👀

[haroldgross]

New Post has been published on Harold Gross: The 5a.m. Critic

New Post has been published on https://literaryends.com/hgblog/animated-trek/

Animated Trek

This was originally intended to cover just Star Trek: Lower Decks’ third season, but as I started to consider it, I realized there was a broader conversation to be had.

I don’t think any live-action show has ever spawned so many series, both live action and animated as Star Trek. Trek, and science fiction generally, was ripe for the animated opportunity. It’s way cheaper from an effects point of view to draw it rather than create CGI or, in the old days, mattes. But the show quality and the range of the audience reach has also been quite an achievement; and it started 50 years ago. It took them a long while to get it right and to find their audience, but the franchise finally found the balance in story and media recently.

Star Trek: The Animated Series The short lived 1973 show was a smart attempt to continue the franchise, but without the costs. And that includes keeping the original actors to voice their drawn characters. Again, something I don’t think had been done before as show. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a great curio, if not a great show. At 30 minutes each, and aimed at the Saturday morning young audience, it also didn’t have the depth and bite of the original series. But it could do things the live action show couldn’t because there were no effects limitations.

Prodigy (cancelled as of 23 June but to be revived on Netflix) Admittedly, this is a kid’s show. The emotions, the plots, the explanations, and the dangers are all geared at a young audience. But it still manages to take on big questions and have relatively complex stories.

Lower Decks This is by far the most successful animation of Trek ever made. It not only has survived 3 seasons on its own, it was officially brought into canon, thanks to Strange New Worlds, this past season. And that is likely its reason for success. Not that it had a crossover but that it was able to have a crossover.

Lower Decks expands on a tradition in the live action show of those occasional glimpses into the shlubs that keep the ships going…and gave them their own adventures. It embraces the full scope of Trek and has many guest stars from the live action shows on to voice incarnations of their original characters. For all intents, it is another Trek series… albeit one with silly humor, unlikely adventures, and the ability to do crazy things that would cost too much even as CGI to pull off on a regular basis. Also, at 30 minutes a pop, it satisfies without eating up too much time. Even when I roll my eyes at some of the humor, the inside jokes and the deep heart of it all always pulls me back in.

Where to watch

[concubuck]

((buckle up kids today you have to read about the onceler on my alastor hazbin hotel roleplay blog

((I threatened promised an essay on Why The Heck Was Onceler Fandom Like That, & Why Alastor Selfcest Is (And Isn't) Similar) here it is:

Now, I wasn't a part of Onceler fandom, but from what I've read other folks say and from what I've seen in other tumblr RP fandoms, it was basically a perfect storm of of factors that still take place to a lesser extent in other RP circles:

crossovers with slightly AU duplicates being more frequent on tumblr as opposed to Discord or forums or other RP venues because the lack of divisions between RP groups allows duplicates to rub shoulders

favored characters getting so many multiples that people start shipping them with each other

characters that meet Tumblr’s Preferred Archetype (the sexyman) getting more attention than other characters

... Onceler fandom didn't do ANYTHING that doesn't happen in normal tumblr RP fandoms. The difference that made Onceler selfcest such a big phenomenon is that these normal fan behaviors were pushed to an extreme, because the source material was a movie with ONLY ONE character that met tumblr’s (sexyman) standards.

A perfect example of a fandom doing the same thing but to less extremes... is Mr. Alastor Hazbin Hotel.

Now let's go into an explanation for WHY below!

Imagine that when a character with the right traits (Tumblr Sexyman) is picked up by the right demographic of fandom (fans of Sexymen), the fandom collectively has 100 units of Fan Energy they can spend on ships for that character. When it’s a character like Alastor and there are other popular characters that people can ship him with—Angel, Charlie, Vox, to a lesser extent Lucifer Husk Niffty Mimzy Rosie Whoever—then that 100 units makes a tower 20 units tall and 5 units wide—the width of the tower is from spreading out the popularity across multiple ships.

There’s still energy getting poured into Alastor selfcest (most common example: demon!Alastor x human!Alastor shippy fanart) but that ship won't get very tall because the Fan Energy is being spread across multiple ships.

As opposed to the Onceler, where all that energy got poured onto a singular point (selfcest ships), because there weren't really any other appealing shippable characters in the movie; so Onceler selfcest was a tower 100 units tall and 1 unit wide, and you could see that motherfucker from two hundred miles away.

All the shipping energy poured into one ship, instead of spread around.

And we can see more similarities between how the Onceler got treated and how Alastor is (and has already been) treated in Hazbin fandom!

Most of y'all here are familiar with the the 2P/3P/4P Alastor phenomenon, right—making AU versions of Alastors with a dozen different colors assigned different personality traits and such. (Although aside from the single super-popular 2P design, there's no fandom consensus on what any of the other versions should be like—but suffice to say that a lot of people are making a lot of them.)

VERY LOOSELY, that’s what happened with the Onceler on tumblr. An unusually large fandom hopped onto this movie but the Onceler was the only character they liked out of it, people started making RP blogs and art askblogs for the Onceler, but they couldn’t all write the EXACT SAME CHARACTER, so AUs reminiscent of the 2P phenomenon started naturally developing.

“This AU of the Onceler failed in his objectives and got depression,” “this one SUCCEEDED WILDLY and now he’s, like, king of the planet,” etc.—fans starting with normal, expected, slight AU versions of their character, and then branched out into more and more divergent AUs as they started looking for fresh ideas.

And then they started going “these two AUs are now totally different characters, what if they *meet?* what if this dude who’s depressed because he failed meets the version of himself that achieved all his wildest dreams, how do they interact with each other?”

You see the same thing happening with Alastors in tumblr RP. "These two Alastors meet and they get along because they have a lot in common." "These two Alastors have NOTHING in common and they're fascinated with each other because of that." “This Alastor got EVEN MORE POWERFUL and became a god, that Alastor went insane from the boredom and started wearing ahegao hoodies, then they met and now they’re fucking”—this is all stuff that's happening naturally in Hazbin RP circles. Except, with the Onceler, it happened in a fandom where EVERYBODY was doing the same thing with ONLY ONE CHARACTER.

And so the Onceler selfcest phenomenon became big enough for outsiders to notice and go “hey what the fuck.”

And so now any fandom demonstrating similar behavior is talked about like this character is "becoming like the Onceler", because the Onceler is usually the only/biggest example of this phenomenon that folks who haven't been embedded deep in tumblr RP ever hear about—when really it's the biggest example of a common dynamic.

Any time you see somebody going "hey, is this character going to end up like the Onceler?" what you need to do is look at the fandom where the character is from. Are there other interesting characters that the fandom sees as shippable? If there ARE, then that character's never gonna end up like the Onceler, no matter how popular they are—because the selfcest shipping will be diluted by other ships with other characters.

The Onceler selfcest phenomenon was running concurrently with Homestuck's peak popularity—at the exact same time the Onceler was making waves, I could have told you about five separate Karkat RP blogs that were stuck in an on-again off-again polycule. But it was Homestuck, where there are over 50 designed-specifically-for-tumblr-to-love characters that were all sharing attention, so things like that didn’t stand out in the broader sea of Homestuck RP. There are so many potential ships in Homestuck that Karkat fans took their 100 units of shipping energy and made a tower 2 units tall and 50 units wide, with much less attention poured into any one single ship (including the selfcest).

In Transformers fandom, with HUNDREDS of characters to choose from, every once in a while you'd find some folks RPing Starscream/Starscream or Soundwave/Soundwave because they're popular characters with a lot of folks RPing them (and because Starscream's an egomaniac who WOULD make out with himself—characterization's an important factor in who selfships!). I've heard about Sans & Papyrus selfship polycules out of Undertale fandom. I've heard of it with Handsome Jack (the most fandom-popular character and also an egomaniac) in Borderlands. I've been told it happens in TF2 fandom (which in the source material has the potential for characters to run into "themselves", and so ease of duplicates interacting & thus selfshipping opportunities is baked right into canon). I saw it during Wreck-It Ralph's brief burst of popularity with alternate versions of Turbo.

And same, I’m sure, for all the other similarly as-large-as-Onceler fandoms out there that *no doubt* had selfcest but to a less dramatic extent. Only Onceler fandom had the 100-unit-tall monster, every bit of energy poured onto one ship and one character.

So, in conclusion: Alastors interacting on tumblr sometimes selfship with AU versions of themselves, just like Onceler RP blogs do. This isn't because Alastor is following in the Onceler's footsteps; it's because Alastor has this in common with the Onceler.

This "AUs selfshipping" thing is common in fandoms with one or two super popular characters. It arises naturally from what fans naturally do (gravitate to writing/drawing the characters they like; make AUs for the characters they like; interact with other people's AUs for the characters they like), and the only reason the Onceler stood out so much is because ALL of the fandom's energy was poured onto only one character. It's not possible to have a full-blown repeat of the Onceler phenomenon in any fandom where there's multiple interesting shippable characters. Alastor/Alastor, even if it gets really popular, is never going to be as attention-grabbingly huge, as long as there's similarly interesting characters like Angel & Charlie that people very frequently ship Alastor with.

[zerokogane]

I need to scream about certain fics so here are some of my favorite persona 5 fanfics (be warned most of these of not all are going to be shuake and ongoing)

Pt 2 https://zerokogane.tumblr.com/post/652917516478349312/lappel-du-vide-xov-persona-5-archive-of-our

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26995579

Ongoing, shuake, rated M, 300k+

Description:

What do you mean?” Ryuji tilted his head.

“It’s called Just Die. It reduces the SP needed for Insta kill skills like Mudoon or 'Please Die for Me' to zero.”

Ryuji and Ann blinked and blinked again trying to figure out what Morgana is trying to say. He watched as the gears churn in their head and they come to an epiphany, their faces growing horrified at the implications.

“Wait, you are saying. Joker can insta-kill literally everything in this palace. WITHOUT using SP at all?!” Ryuji clarified in astonishment because there is no way there isn’t a catch to this. “Without repercussion?!”

“Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying.”

Or the NG+ au where Akira knows more than he lets on, the Phantom Thieves start to suspect one of their own, and Akechi is in for a wild ride.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767610

Series 6/7 completed, no ships, ratings vary per part. 700k+(all 7 parts)

Discerption or first part in series :Forewarned

When Akira Kurusu is ten years old, his parents die in an accident.

One year later, he comes to Inaba. He doesn't expect to find family there, and he doesn't expect to find a hidden world of monsters inside the TV.

He finds both.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227510

Shuake, ongoing, rated T, 300k+

Discerption:

In the Present...

...Akira and Goro are the famed Detective Princes of Tokyo! They've solved countless crimes and brought justice across the city, gaining allies and confidants wherever they've roamed! As election season approaches in the distance, and ominous warnings are whispered into their ears, will they be able to weather the storm to come?

In the Past...

...two young boys, abandoned by society and family alike, find each other. Will they be able to handle everything else they find, in the years to come?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23989186

No ships, ongoing, rated T, crossover with bnha(sorta ? jokers in their universe but he doesn’t know why ) 280k+

Discerption:

“Foolish mortals!” Yaldabaoth’s shadow fell over them like a death shroud, “The sin of rebelling against a god is severe. As punishment, I banish you to other worlds unknown!”

Something changed in the air, like the snap charge of electricity after a thunder strike. No, this was more than that. The world shifted and changed and contorted, the weave of fate was unnaturally pulled by the God Of Control, creating fractals in the flow of time and space.

Joker’s teammates gasped as bizarre, otherworldly doors came into existence.

One, a pair of silver doors with alien markings, cracked open just a hair to reveal a large, terrifying eye. Another, a glowing paper door that would be at home in any vintage Japanese mansion. The third, a grand golden gate decorated with eyes and horned demons, bubbling black sludge dripped from its maw like tar. The final one was a fluctuating cloud of purple and black mist.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27656152

Shuake, ongoing, rated T, 250k+

Discerption:

From a young age, Akechi Goro was forced to accept that life is not fair. When the world is full of injustice and seems determined to throw that in your face at every chance it gets, what are you supposed to do? Sometimes you just need to tear the whole damn system down.

Meanwhile, Kurusu Akira just wants his friend back. He never meant to become a delinquent, much less the leader of the Phantom Thieves, but he supposes he’s never been very good at staying out of other people’s business.

(A soulmate au where writing gets transferred to each other’s skin. As a result, they become long-distance friends… until Akechi lets his jealousy and anger get the better of him, that is.)

( if you turned off by soulmate au’s trust me it’s good and it’s not as big part of the story as you would think, or not used in the “normal” way....idk your just gonna have to trust me one this one if the story sounds interesting cause it’s really good rant over)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26781733

Ongoing, shuake, rated M, 300k+

Discerption:

"Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticule, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds."

In which Goro Akechi joins the team during Kaneshiro's palace arc instead of Makoto.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30827231

Ongoing, will be polythieves but we don’t know the specifics yet, rated M, 29k+

Discerption:

Yaldabaoth had been told of the Mythical Trickster. He had laid out the plans for his game expertly, all the pieces and threads in place, ready to pull the Trickster into the trial that would determine humanity's fate.

His plan, however, did not account for what he actually received: Twin Tricksters.

No matter... surely, this would not lead the game too astray. Would it?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19818682

Ongoing, no ships with Akira but there is ann/shiho, rated M, 44+k

Discerption:

When Suou Akira is arrested for a crime he didn't do and sent to Tokyo for probation, all he wants to do is live as quietly as possible and return to his family in Sumaru City. Of course, things don't work out the way he wants them to.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31362848

One-shot completed, shuake, rated T, 7k+

Desertion:

'Akechi takes back his initial thought about this being an absolute pleasure to watch as the man, who was only a few mere feet away from Akira, whips his hand and flinging the freshly brewed two hundred and five-degree boiling hot coffee straight into Akira’s face.

Directly hitting Akira’s Glassless bare face.'

Or the one where Akira deals with a nasty, entitled customer and Akechi is perpetually in denial.

(For Akeshuake Hurt Comfort Week, Day Three, prompt: Illness/Injury!)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30837995

One-shot completed, Shuake, rated T 21k

Discerption: Pretending is part of Goro's daily life, masks hiding his true intentions and feelings are things he uses very often.

However, the idea of lying about his relationship status never occurred to him.

Yet, now he is in a "relationship" with Leblanc's barista to trick his colleague and the therapist who doesn't know that they don't know each other.

And between medical appointments, dates, and his personal investigations, Goro must now manage the storm that is his emotions when it concerns Akira Kurusu.

Where is the line between pretended and true love after all?

or

A Fake dating couple therapy story where Goro and Akira use lame excuses to date.

[weirdoldmanhoho]

do u have any fic recs?

Sorry it took me years to answer this! The truth was I really hadn't read many FMA fics (at least not since the FF days) and was waiting until I actually had some recs to give.

And now I have some! My list will surprise no one, I'm sure.

Soul Friends by KyberHearts

“They were not always, and simply, two minds in one body. Towards the latter part of their alliance, especially in the heat of battle and warmongering, their souls could not distinguish where the prince began and the sin ended.”

Ling Yao returns to Xing to seal his fate as the next Emperor and sets his plans for reunification and peace in motion.

Elsewhere, Alphonse Elric reconciles with the very Truth that stole his body.

I absolutely love the way this fic writes post-canon Alphonse and his relationship with Truth.

--

Damaged by xmypandabear

'"He's still in the hospital too, with the Lieutenant," Alphonse said dully. "Blood loss - someone slit her throat..." Ed stared up at the ceiling, remembered the scientist with the gold tooth, and shuddered at the image his brain conjured of the Lieutenant lying on the floor. "But Mei helped her! So, they're sharing a room - the Colonel and Hawkeye, I mean, not Mei, 'cause the Colonel can't use his hands yet, so she's helping him..."

"His hands?" Ed tried to remember.

"It's how they forced him to do it," Al whispered. "They pinned him down so he couldn't move."

Ed fought back nausea. The sense of wrong, wrong, wrong pervaded every sense of his being. How the fuck was any of that equivalent exchange?'

Love me a good post-promised day healing and processing fic. This one focuses a lot on how Al, Ed, Winry, and Roy are all doing immediately post-promised day and the relationships between all those characters.

--

Joining of Hands by ehmazing

If you're not breaking a couple of laws, is it really an Elric wedding?

Truly, the best thing about an AlMei wedding is all the hijinks and complications the come from foreign customs and marrying into royalty.

--

Legends by Elfpen

Alphonse Elric has been living and studying in Xing for a little more than a year and a half. Now, Ling has asked him - ordered him - to take on a new responsibility and fill the shoes vacated by Van Hohenheim four centuries ago. But what use are legends, really, when they're all frauds? The Son of Heaven and the Son of the Western Sage see it differently.

You ever find a fic that just feels completely catered to you and your interests? I love everything about this fic. Alphonse in Xing and the weird politics he has to maneuver as not only an incredibly skilled foreign alchemist but a close friend of the emperor's - all at a young age. His relationship with Hohenheim and the grief and confusion that comes from never really getting to KNOW Hohenheim and now having to come face to face with the lasting impact his father left on a foreign country. Ling scheming. It's all very, very good.

--

The Principle of Mentalism by The-Immortal-Moon (LunaKat)

There’s a woman with a wrench and a penchant for alcoholism, and what he doesn’t know is that she’s going to change everything.

Another fic that feels like it was written specifically for my interests. This one explores Pinako and Hohenheim's first meeting and how a rowdy mechanic from Resembool and a reserved guilt-written immortal from Xerxes ever became friends in the first place. Features Hohenheim and his one million soul friends and a young awkward Pinako who I want to give SUCH a big hug to. I love it so much.

--

We'll be Holding on Forever by zipadeea

"Hohenheim left them to save the world. But Dad loved them more than everything in the world."

AU where Alphonse gets his body back a little earlier on the Promised Day.

It changes nothing.

It changes everything.

Read this if you want to cry. It focuses on Ed and Hohenheim's relationship and it is full of pain but also healing and understanding. Great quick read.

--

ticket stubs and your diaries by nerdywriiterchild

Alphonse Elric is almost fifteen. He will never know Xerxes.

This one is short but packs a powerful emotional punch and a really interesting character study into only a few paragraphs. Explores the really interesting question: what is it like to mourn a culture you're a part of but will never really know?

--

Briding Her Time in Wait

The wedding date was set. Winry and Ling had screamed at one another for months during the preparation out of a mutual need for their childhood friend and half-sister to have the most incredible wedding in the history of either Amestris or Xing, and as a result the wedding canopy suffered from a unique blend of western and eastern traditions that left guests from both sides of the desert confused and requesting refills on drinks that didn’t exist. Still, the two wedding planners manipulated the day into running smoothly, Ling pulling his Emperor card when necessary, Winry pulling her, well, Winry card when necessary, while Ed and Lan Fan stood awkwardly around the food table making small talk that mostly consisted of complaints about automail. By the time the golden groom was ushered through a beautification process that left him requiring an escort to avoid the various women—and men—attempting to seduce him at the last minute, the guests were settled and the wedding was ready to roll.

Except no one knew where the hell the bride had gone.

I'm always a sucker for Scar and Mei's relationship.

--

One More Time, With Feeling

In the end the Elric brothers laughed over the irony: The traveller had settled to write books on alchemy while juggling two boisterous children blessed with Rockbell rockheadedness and Elric recklessness, and the settler had taken to travelling between Amestris and Xing for the remainder of his life. It came, really, with having two homes.

-------------------------------------------------------

A bird could love a fish, but where would they live?

This one explores Alphonse's relationship with Mei post-series and is VERY in line with how I picture it. Being in love with a foreign princess in line for the throne with a duty to her people and country would make for a very complicated and often strained relationship.

--

Magic and Mind by Preelikeswriting

Of all things Edward was prepared for as the day of reckoning grew near, being transported from one world on the edge of war to another was not one of them.

AKA: Edward gets accidentally summoned by Death Eaters, and neither party is happy.

(Pre-Promise Day, HP book 5)

Ok so preface: I rarely like crossover fics and I very rarely like HP crossover fics, but this one just works for me. I think what I like so much about it is that Edward doesn't just get thrown into the world of HP and join the golden trio / order and start fighting Voldemort. Oh no. He does not care about their fight at all. He just wants to get back home and will do anything he needs to to achieve that, even if it makes him look like he's working with Death Eaters or going against Harry and friends.

I think the fun of this fic is that it kind of plays around with the fact that the READER knows who the good guys are of each series and would expect them to join forces. Sure, Ed is the Good Guy of FMA and Harry and friends are the Good Guys of HP, but Ed's goals don't really align with Harry's goals and so they're not really working together, and Ed kind of comes off looking shady af to the HP characters despite the fact that the reader knows why he's doing what he's doing. It's a far more interesting take on Ed goes to HP world than "Ed immediately joins the fight against Voldemort."

The series has three works so far and I haven't finished it, but I really loved the first and what I've read of the second. It also eventually heads into Ed/Draco territory which is not a ship I would have initially read but.....kind of works for me here.

[gondalsqueen]

Fic Writer Review

Tagged by @findswoman. Thanks, ma’am! I hadn’t stopped to look at the stats of my writing in...ever. This was enlightening.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

48 currently

2. What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

366,990, yikes!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Uhm...let’s count. Star Trek: The Next Generation when I was 10 (and I have another one for that fandom in the works). X-men in middle school. Xena: Warrior Princess, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Star Wars (Original Trilogy stuff), Star Wars: Rebels, and Castlevania. That’s seven, I guess? 

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Predictably:  Close Only Counts (600) (earlyish kanera) En Route (541) (Han/Leia)  Next Season (503) (Hera-centric, post-Rebels) Lean (407) (Ghost crew)  Continued (297) (Rebels fix-it fic) 

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

The only reason I write is to talk about these fandoms with people, so yes, and I am not above begging for comments (that was the question, right?). If I haven’t responded to yours it’s because I’ve overlooked it in the day-to-day, and you should poke me and tell me so! 

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

Probably The First Night, which was written in the aftermath of “Jedi Night,” before the series even ended. Most of my stories have plenty of angst in the middle, but little at the end. 

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have not written crossovers. Hyperfixation does not allow me to think of more than one fandom at the same time. 

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, which I take as a testament to how lovely the Rebels fandom is. 

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

Ahahaha! I mean...in my defense... not ALL my stories are smut. 

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don’t think so. Guys? No, right? 

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

Not for A03, but the childhood fanfics were ALL co-written. We had these spiral notebooks we’d carry around and pass off to each other in the halls between classes. Ah, middle school. I also lived that roleplaying life for many years, though I’m not counting those as stories. 

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

kanera, oh you came and you gave without taking...  Runners-up:  Trevor and Sypha (Castlevania)  John and Aeryn (Farscape) (though I don’t write them because I’m not sure fanfiction can improve upon the show, which is already...pretty much fanfiction)

14. What’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Uhm... I think I will finish all of my works in progress eventually, barring unforeseen disaster. None of them feels abandoned. I would most like to get working on Fault Lines (the big Castlevania fic that’s barely started), and I have a gorgeous Picard story that I wrote 4,000 words for in three hours and then haven’t had a chance to go back to again. 

15. What are your writing strengths?

characterization and dialogue, I think. Probably smut? I’m not sure that’s something to brag about. 

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot? What plot? Also pacing/phrasing at the sentence level, which is sometimes okay but sometimes wonky. 

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

I say if it feels good, do it. 

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Probably Star Trek: The Next Generation, in terms of things that I actually wrote down. 

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I don’t knooooow! Uhm...  Next Season is not my best writing (it was written at breakneck speed and needs a heavy edit), but it really hits the spot sometimes. Feels real. (Side note, after I dedicated a story to my husband to troll him one time, my son said, “Hey! Would you ever write a story for me?” and my husband told him, “Buddy, Mommy wrote 40,000 words for you.” He doesn’t get to SEE this story, of course.) We also lost multiple men in our family to suicide, unexpectedly and horrifically, just before I wrote this story. It exploded everybody’s sense of reality in some ways I don’t think we’ll ever recover from. So...there’s a lot of real energy in this one.  I think Scenes from Yavin IV is underrated.  Fade to Red is smutty garbage in a lot of ways, but it’s been a huge investment, and it’s really made me think about how and why relationships work--and writing Kanan and Hera at the same time as Trevor and Sypha has made it clear that there are REALLY DIFFERENT ways of having healthy relationships, so that’s cool. Fade to Red has been a massive amount of work for a modest achievement, and I both resent it and am attached to it for that reason. It will end in a 8,000 word blowout next week, and I think I’ll be sad to see it done.  I think Mastery’s doing some interesting things, though it’s a bit retconned now.   

Tagging: @veritascara, @worriedaboutmyfern, @spaceasianmillennial, @amilynh, if you’re interested