#kepwell

[nammikisulora]

I'm sure this has been done, but why not a repeat! Has the SI-5 ever had sex with each other?

Please do elaborate your hcs in the tags ^^

[arctiidaes]

Kepwell, Minlace for the ship bingo

kepwell (i personally hc maxwell as a lesbian so this is like. theyre fucked up platonic thing bc they make me INSANE!!!!!)

minlace. hey w359 can we please talk about the needlessly horny milace treadmill scene?? whats up with that

[imperial-evolution]

i enjoy thinking of it as a very inconsequential act of. not necessarily defiance but Pointed Silence maybe 'i know exactly how devastating her loss was. probably more than you. i don't need you to explain it back to me' in a way that i see as protective both of maxwell and of si-5 in general. kepler works with cutter out of necessity - means to an end - but he knows exactly how corrosive and horrible he is a futile act of keeping them away from him which would be funny considering that maxwell is Dead and cutter literally rewrote Jacobi's brain going really well for you huh??

@wurmzirkus your tags are Very Good To Me

Just finished listening to Idle Hands, so I'm thinking about Kepler's performance review, right? And, like. There's the obvious tragedy behind "She was 28!" but like. I'm more interested in the fact that Kepler didn't answer how old Maxwell was.

When I first listened to it, I thought Kepler simply didn't know, but I don't think that's true. As Cutter says, Kepler himself recruited her. More than that, given how weird everyone in the SI-5 is about dates (see: No Complaints), there's no way there weren't birthday celebrations.

So why the silence? Is it because it is dawning on Kepler exactly how young she was? Or is the mere notion of her name in Cutter's mouth (talking about her like an asset, and not a person he loved) enough to shut it up? It is fury he's swallowing? Grief? Guilt?? Does he force his voice smooth and logical because Cutter is there or is that simply what he needs to tell himself?

[heroforge-official]

What if we sparred pirate style on the high seas and we’re both trans?

[wurmzirkus]

twenty questions for fic writers

@raylangivins tagged me in this!! TWICE! thank you sm and thanks for waiting so long, i love you

How many works do you have on ao3?

48! wow time passes quick

What’s your total word count?

354.554

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

unprofessional (432)

we are the next time around (312)

comet (159)

harder to hide than i thought (156)

prove it (112)

half of these i dont really wanna look at anymore lmaooo

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

i havent in a while but i DO! bro its the least i can do, getting comments is the nicest thing. i really love nerding about writing thoughts when they get a little longer...... imperial-evolution if youre reading this your comments mean everything to me

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

trying to figure out if there's something more angsty than those fics that just play with w359's canon ending. probably the kepler phonecall one.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

probably the kiradax fic i wrote that one time?? i really don't write many happy endings. the kepcobiwell timeloop had a pretty much perfect ending but like, the absolute trauma of it all puts a bit of a damper on it maybe

Do you write crossovers?

the last crossover i've written was in probably 2013/2014? which was a fic i wrote using my friends' and my ocs for their specific eyes only. the fandoms that i crossed over were uh. soul eater and the arthuriana. twas a jolly good time

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nah, just one of those "ai content detected ☝️🤓" trolls

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

ive tried many many times. im bad at it! experience has shown im much better at erotic poems than prose :/

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nnnnnno? most likely not

Have you ever had a fic translated?

nah

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

YEAH nammikisulora and i wrote the sequel of one of my fics together. it was soooo much fun, she's such a clever writer. as always, if you like kepcobi and youre not reading her fics.... what the hell are you doing

What's your all-time favourite ship?

i dont think i can indefinitely answer in an All Time way, but kepcobiwell sure did mean a lot to me. i havent written in a very long time and there probably wont be much of them from me in the future, but man. theyre something special

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

there was one kepwell fic i've been working on for i thiiiink over a year now, maybe longer. just the last sequence was missing which inclued kepler watching maxwell maim a guy and enjoying it wayyyy too much. i don't think it's happening but man. sure was a sexy image

and this is more of a wip than an idea, but i'm really sad i probably don't have it in me to write the wolf 359/severance crossover with kep undergoing severance... mo i think you and cherish and i were the ones talking about it agesssssss ago, and i think it would have been so good. alas alas.

What are your writing strengths?

i've been told i'm pretty good at writing intimacy and longing, and i think i'm good at putting multiple layers into characters' action and thoughts if that makes sense. also dialogue

What are your writing weaknesses?

ACTION................... terrible. i'm an all vibes no plot kinda writer :/

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

i've literally never thought about it before. is this a big thing people do? i guess it depends on the context lmao?

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

first fandom i published on ao3 for was detroit become human, first fandom i ever wrote for.... well i wrote plants vs zombies fic when i was 10 or so, i think that counts

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

it's very rare that i get invested enough in something to actually write fic, so it's probably not going to happen again for a long ass while. it's been lots of arcane brainworms lately though. i really wanna write about sevika, i just don't think i could get the characterisation right very well. however. she's on my mind

What's your favourite fic you've written?

i dont know about favorite, but man i'm really really really proud of the comet sequel i finished + posted this year. i did so many things in there i was so pleased with, i could talk about it for so long. i think i really gave every character an interesting little arc to go through, i think i handled the emotional stakes of it really well. i watched the thing kinda go completely off the planning rails while i was writing and just, kept getting more and more excited about where it was going. and i was really unsure about how to wrap it up for a long time, so now i'm especially proud of the end. i think the final chapter is some of the most impactful fic i've ever written. just really happy with it all around :')

mo this was so much fun thank you for tagging me!! i shall tag @agentmika, @imperial-evolution, @unsureprincess, and anyone that would like to give this a go!!

[baeba]

Kepwell:

[throwsprose]

I didn't understand kepwell until you tagged the lentils wife guy post with it and now it's the funniest thing I am delighted oh my god

I’m glad you appreciated it! I think the magic of Kepwell is that they’re both very weird people, and they have the potential to bring that out in each other. Also, in cannon Maxwell seems to like Kepler but is not impressed by him at all, and I think that would bother him so much! I wish we had gotten more casual interaction between them!

[bananawanis]

i think the relationship between maxwell and kepler in every single one of its forms is criminally underexplored and here are my reasonings ? arguments ?? as to why as well as my own opinions

(spoilers: i like them a lot and think they deserve better, maxwell especially, cause she gets done so dirty)

before anything else - before looking at how any sort of romantic relationship between the two would work, considering the dynamic between kepler and maxwell as it is in the canon given to us by the show is the more important thing.

kepler and maxwell are presented to listeners as the leader and almost “baby” of si5 (despite the fact she is in her late 20s, largely because she is younger than the other two members of her team), respectively, and are therefore introduced as antagonist figures. while there is plenty to consider between the two during the events of the podcast itself, most of my focus here will be on the exchanges we see between the two in the mini-episodes set before the events of the podcast, language mapping, kansas and happy holidays most of all, as well as things that break other things and the script from the kickstarter for unseen, courtesy of @shinraco

si5 are introduced and, from the off, it’s clear that there is a strong connection between the three of them that, for the most part, goes unspoken and unaddressed. all three of them have been working together for a good amount of time before the events of the podcast - jacobi having been on the team since 2011 (four years) and maxwell since 2013 (two) - and as such have that trust squarely in place, as well as a strong sense of respect for each other.

this trust is demonstrated several times: when kepler has an unquestioned faith in jacobi that he will be able to do the job he has been told to do (overture).

and when he is more than happy to acquiesce to maxwell’s authority as an expert on a subject compared to his relative lack of knowledge on a topic (limbo, regarding working on hera).

the kickstarter script also brings this point up (as well as maxwell referring to her position as an “expert” further on):

this on its own goes against many of the expectations fans seem to have regarding a figure like kepler in that he gets angry when he isn’t the absolute authority on a subject, and that he will snap when things don’t go his way. in fact, the only times he really seems to “snap” in the podcast is when he’s lied to and has his personal belongings lost in space (a matter of perspective) or during the mutiny, which is an understandable reaction (desperate times/desperate measures).

so - there is an implicit trust between the members of si5 that, here, goes unquestioned. of course the events of the season 3 finale and season 4 go on to challenge this, but the focus of this block of text is to be on the relationship between kepler and maxwell, not on si5 as a whole, no matter how much i like them.

as a character, maxwell is often subject to almost a sort of sidelining, where she is brushed aside or her existence largely ignored in order for the focus of a piece to be on kepler and jacobi. other times, when she is included, it is to serve as a kind of “token” female character, or purely to further the plot of kepler and jacobi’s relationship. this comes as no surprise to anyone who has been involved in any fandom for any period of time - the tendency of fans seems to be focusing on the most obvious pairing between two men, at the expense of female characters - and for the most part fans of wolf 359 is no different, but nonetheless is disappointing.

when maxwell does get a focus in fanworks it tends to only be when she's alongside either jacobi or hera (and largely only to further the storylines for the two of them) and rarely if ever with kepler - which is ignoring one of her most important connections with another character in the entire show.

i’ve seen people say maxwell is underdeveloped as a character and that she has no real backstory or depth, when in fact the reverse is true. maxwell’s backstory is laid out to a listener in language mapping, by kepler, a fact she is unimpressed by.

what bothers me a lot about fandom portrayals of maxwell - a topic i didn’t entirely mean to get onto during the writing of this but, hey, here we are, i’m going to roll with it - is that they seem to relegate her just to the role of “smart girl” or “nerd”, rather than paying any attention to how she is actually developed as a character. language mapping shows her as someone willing to get into conflict with others regarding what she cares about and believes in. alana maxwell is someone willing to fight for the things that she wants. alana maxwell is willing to push, bully, and fight her way forward for progress.

this, here, is where the biggest parallel between her and kepler can be seen.

what maxwell works for, what she wants, the reason she still works where she does before goddard - is explicitly stated to be because she is the one willing to push them for progress. she brings up how ai being developed to the level of full-minded intelligence is an inevitability in the universe of wolf 359, and how there’s no point avoiding it out of fear.

there are similarities in how they speak here, with how they refer to the people they work with as “scared” and as a “coward”, as well as later in each respective mini-episode, when both are faced with something that completely changes their perspective on what they are doing. the main similarity here, and the one i want to focus on as it says the most about their characters (not just how they react to situations) focus they both have on working towards something more. in maxwell’s case she explicitly refers to the goal she strives towards whereas kepler’s is something vaguer, about working to always be improving.

of course, kansas has a much darker tone to it over all than language mapping, by merit of the characters involved (i’m sure the inclusion of cutter in maxwell’s recruitment would have made everything that bit more sinister and uncomfortable), but the similarities between the actions of the two characters are striking.

kepler and maxwell are both logical characters. they both value the logical answer above others - compared specifically to jacobi, whose primary concern skews more towards “what will get me and the people i care about out of this situation” - which has them stand out against the majority of the other characters. out of the two maxwell is more emotionally driven (kepler makes a point of having to remind her they are on the hephaestus for their job above all else) but, when it comes down to it, her core is logical.

the similarities between the two make the relationship between them fascinating to look at and recontextualise, to peer at through a different lens and wonder how that would change their interactions with one another. i think that there are various avenues worth considering with the two of them, mainly two branching paths of something platonic or more romantically driven, which are both relatively unexplored in wolf 359 fanworks.

as i mentioned earlier on, maxwell is frequently pushed aside in fics for the purpose of working on kepler and jacobi’s relationship. occasionally this is not the case and she is part of it but cast in a meeker role fulfilling many stereotypes of the “nerd” role often seen in fiction when in reality all that does is flatten her character. while she very much is a nerd - i’m not going to deny that, she’s a prodigy, she went to MIT at 16 - she is also driven and working towards her goal, something kepler respects in her.

i think that maxwell and kepler should kiss, is what i’m saying, and it’s hard to think of how to word why exactly without just sort of shrugging it off as them being two of my favourite characters in the show. probably one of the main draws of their relationship being romantic, to me personally, is the similarities i already mentioned and how they compliment each other, how each of them have their own goals and drive to reach them. i think that their mutual respect for one another, and the unspoken trust forged by merit of working in si5 also turns into this aspect of a relationship much easier than might be expected. i think that kepler values competency and people who are good at what they do, which maxwell is a perfect example of.

plus, he likes her. he respects her, he knows she’s smarter than him (at least in specific areas). i think kepler and maxwell is a relationship that’s interesting no matter the way you spin it, but a romantic interpretation isn’t one that should be off the table.

[kepcobiwell]

jacobi, maxwell and kepwell all isolated at rough points in their lives, faithless, joining Goddard to have something to believe in, finding purpose in each other instead, something something

[autisticbisexualemaskye]

also can i say something. herawell is a bit. i dont want to say cringefail bc i do like it but the herawell girlies are ALWAYS the ones who are like maxwells betrayal was ooc and the writers did us dirty for it and like. you just were not paying attention. i think its because a lot of people dont really understand the relationship between kepler and maxwell which like. they dont really show a lot of them interacting but like. its weird that people dont see it as the same or similar to the one kepler has with jacobi. whcih i think is the kepcobi nonsense TO BE HONEST like kepcobi girlies i agree its kind of coded but like. i think using an implied or potential romantic attachment as an EXPLAINATION for the loyalty jacobi feels for kepler is like. sigh its BORING first of all second of all it misses the point and if you miss the point of the kepcobi dynamic you miss the point of the kepwell dynamic. also it was literally foreshadowed so fucking hard in memoria. maxwell straight up tells hera that shes not above doing things the hard way. its literally just because maxwell was able to hear pryce's subliminal messaging at the very end that she didnt kill hera or start altering her brain against her will way earlier

[nammikisulora]

thinking about the SI-5 gang again. how Jacobi buys into the image Kepler tries to project of himself, but Maxwell never does.

"he's not that scary", she says in e31, because she gets what Jacobi doesn't yet: at the end of the day, Kepler is just a man under all the layers of performance.

if she has to be a goddamn human? so does he.

[heroforge-official]

Auldbert Kepwell! Captain of the SS Auldbert Kepwell. I know we’re all super stoked about the new facial decals, and I was inspired to make she who ferries fellowships across the seas for a small fee. (She was originally created on the fly as a joke, named for her old-but-kept-well ship, and with the voice of one of my customers from work, but she’s since become something quite special)

[baeba]

I’m going to list some Kepcobiwell moments (plus some kepcobi, kepwell and maxcobi separately) and you’re going to tell me what’s the most “they are so married/divorced” moment;