#like i reread it a couple times when the author posted it a while ago

[sea-changed]

Okay, okay, so. Just finished my first BoB watch after being a long time fan of your posts, and you’ve definitely found a fellow understander™️ to brainrot with because a lot of the points you’ve made in the past were ones I had in mind while I was watching, especially the last couple of episodes. I’d also seen your post about being “Jack Rackham 4x10 speech about BoB” and literally literally that, having also recently finished black sails. (But it’s interesting to me how in Black Sails, that moment comes at the end of the show, while BoB’s “a story is true, a story is untrue” thesis is there from even before the story starts, because the first thing we see onscreen are the old guy interviews)

Will I beat the absolute living daylights out of the 24 year old show to find meaning in corn plate details? Yes, yes I will. And by this I mostly mean the BoB gender studies seminar in my head, and its obsession with the narratives™️/asserting itself as a legitimate authority on the truth while also being aware of its own fictionality. If there’s any write ups on this besides the Emily Hoffman b(r) of brothers article, please point me in their direction because eye would like to see it

(Everything you have to say about Joe Liebgott makes me want to chew glass btw, in the best way, and I will say that he and I, at least the version you write in amazing adventure stories, are a lot alike in that the only Hebrew prayers we know off the top of our heads are the Shema and the mourner’s Kaddish)

P.S. are you familiar with the amazing adventures of Kavalier and clay at all? Because I want to lock Lieb and Joe Kavalier in a room together and see what would happen

Thank you! So much to respond to here, let me see if I can get it all:

I think constantly about the throughlines between Band of Brothers and Black Sails. I think the key difference in how they approach their own storytelling apparatus, though, is not where this thesis enters into the story but whether it enters into it. Jack, after all, isn't presenting a new idea in that speech but rather summing up a (perhaps The) theme that's been present since the first episode of the show. Whereas Band, for all that it's wonderfully fascinating to analyze on the back end, has always read to me as presenting its own narrative as accessing The Truth without a lot of selfconsciousness about the nuances of that. The veteran interviews, to me, are meant to bolster the "truthiness" of the show, not to complicate its own presentation of the "truth" or what story it's telling.

I've had very little luck finding anything intelligent about this show in the realm of media criticism; there's some mildly interesting stuff about Speilberg's oeuvre (especially Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List) that can be extrapolated to include Band, but even that, a much more well-populated realm, I've found to be pretty sparse when it comes to interesting analysis. I've been sort of half-assedly creating a bibliography of this analysis, but the only article I've come across so far that I'd actually recommend is "Subject Positions, Speaking Positions: From Holocaust, Our Hitler, and Heimat to Shoah and Schindler's List," by Thomas Elsaesser, from the book The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television, and the Modern Event. (Obviously not about Band itself, but interesting especially vis-a-vis Why We Fight.)

(I'm so pleased people have responded they way they have to my version of Liebgott and to that fic in particular; thank you for your note here.)

And I am familiar with Kavalier and Clay! I started a reread a little while ago, I should get back to it. I haven't fully contemplated crossover fic but I really should, the possibilities are fascinating.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

First of all I love the new PFP!!

Second of all I saw you posted about having a theory you're 99 percent sure is true about Enchanted Origins and I REALLY want to know what it is, but no pressure!

(based on my tags on this post)

First of all, thanks! Second, sorry for the delayed response, I made the glorious mistake of hosting a game night the day before easter, so my weekend has been booked, and I had to claw my way through a dozen bot messages to get to this ask 😅

But yes yes yes I have a theory! As I mentioned here, of course, I don't want to know if I'm right, and I don't want to know if I'm wrong, and I don't want to influence the ideas you already have for these characters and their stories. However, I have thought this since I first started reading, and I must share:

Rapunzel is Liam's mother.

Now, as you know first-hand (and your so-called twin knows equally as well 😉) I'm not one to come up with a conspiracy without reason— I have to have several tiny hints that I read into and manipulate without precedent. This is no exception. Every time I read back to look for evidence, I become more and more convinced that, hey, this isn't some insane grasping at straws, this actually makes sense and when you read the text through that lens it's glaringly obvious.

We first hear mention of Rapunzel all the way back in chapter two:

Liam paused a strange look passing over his face. It wasn't just discomfort, there was something else that I couldn't quite read. "According to the letter I received from your aunt, your parents had something to do with... Rapunzel."

Listen, I know Liam is a character with anxiety. I know he probably hesitates a lot when he talks. (No, he definitely does.) But I think this one's very intentionally written.

And when Rebecca is like "oh, maybe Rapunzel's my mom!" he's quick to dispell it:

Liam's eyes widened as I rushed to explain... the hope swelling within my chest faded and Liam shook his head, wearing a frown. "No, she's not your aunt, and I don't think she's your mother, either... Trust me." Liam's voice held an unexpected edge, and I blinked in surprise. He seemed to realize it, and looked away. "You're looking in the wrong place."

I, of course, didn't suspect anything of all of this until later. While Liam, of course, keeps many secrets, he's not usually quick to write off Rebecca's theories about fairytale characters without a solid explanation of why her thoughts are impractical in this world.

Then, we get to chapter five. Rebecca brings up yet again her theory that Rapunzel is her mother, and Liam shoots it down once again.

Liam shook his head. "She couldn't be your mother, Rebecca."

"So you claim," I muttered. "We could be related somehow. I could be her niece or something."

"Pretty sure you're not."

This was about the moment that it clicked for me that hey, wait a minute. Liam seems very certain that Rebecca's mom is not Rapunzel. He's almost defensive about it. How does he know? How does he know so much about Rapunzel's family tree? Wait a minute!

Lowkey, though, I brushed this aside, because that's crazy? We know who Liam's dad is, and I'm pretty sure it's not Rapunzel's husband? I don't claim to be an expert on the author, but she wouldn't have Rapunzel cheat on her husband, right? But a couple weeks ago, I realized the text never actually says that Rapunzel was married to Alec at the time Liam was born, right? So, I went back and reread the part where Liam mentions Rapunzel's prince in chapter two, and the wording sounds even more... suspicious.

"But then when I was a kid, Rapunzel and her... her husband, Prince Alec, they rebelled against Goldilocks."

Not only that, he goes on to say later in that chapter:

"She and Prince Alec never had any children."

Now, I'm no expert forest tracker guy, but if I were trying to convince someone that their mom isn't a leader of a covert resistance, I wouldn't leave room for interpretation. Rapunzel never had any kids. That's all it takes. That's all you've got to say to make it not even a possibility anymore. But that's not what Liam said. There's a very important contraction there, and Liam didn't need to inculde it unless it was the only way to tell the truth without telling too much of it.

This also adds a little onto Liam's character and motivation. Liam wants to help Rebecca, not just because he's been sent to do this, but because no one has seen Rapunzel, his mother, since he was a child. He probably hasn't seen her either. But suddenly he gets a letter from someone who says "hey, you need to help your long lost mother's colleague's daughter" (I also think, if I may add, that pointing out her parents' connection to Rapunzel would be an unusual, unnecessary, and dangerous thing to mention, except if it had a personal connection to Liam,) and he realizes there's a chance to uncover some secrets about her. Find her. Learn the pieces of her story that he's been missing.

Anyways, that's all I have right now for the Liam is Rapunzel's Son conspiracy! Of course, you don't need to respond at all, but if anyone else has anything they want to throw on the conspiracy pile, feel free to contribute!

[bigriceenthusiast]

i was gonna make a vent post about how fandom etiquette is changing and discouraging fan creators both old and new but instead i wanna express my gratitude to everyone who interacts with my work, especially people who leave comments and put kind stuff on their bookmark notes— you're the backbone of ao3

one of my one shots got so many comments asking about plans to write more (i didn't have any + they were very sweet about it) that i wrote a sequel that ended up being nearly 70k words long

one of my repeat commenters just posts !! (Not a bot, i checked) every time i post a chapter of a specific fic and i reply <3 every time but i always check for their username in my inbox after updating that fic

another of my repeat commenters comments under everything i post and i genuinely find myself posting like omg..... i hope they like this chapter because they always make me so happy (they don't post on their profile hence no shout-out but i also know their name by memory)

another person gifted me a fic years ago because they liked my work so much they wanted to give me something and i left several comments just saying how honored i was because i had no words, it made me so happy (i'm pleased to inform you that ao3 user Candyp01, whose username i still remember by heart even if i haven't been in the fandom since 2023, is still posting if anyone likes tokyo revengers)

someone who'd never commented before wrote a whole ass essay under the last chapter of a fic i just finished and i kept rereading it because it made me so happy

another commenter never says much but they always wish me good luck for my exams or happy holidays at the end of my comments (in reference to my author's notes) and seeing their username makes me so happy

someone told me i inspired parts of their own fic and now i'm reading theirs because i just think that's the sweetest compliment

one time i got a mean comment (the only one ever because thankfully my readers are lovely) and a couple of other readers replied defending the fic before i even could and it made me feel so much better and were the reason i didn't delete it or stop writing for the fandom entirely

other times i get comments telling me about really personal stuff and explaining how it made them connect with my fic and i get this very solemn feeling of solidarity and human connection like wow!! you feel this too!! we're gonna get better together!!! i love you!!!!! i'm glad you're here

sometimes they just make me laugh— say some silly thing about smooching me on the lips or crying hysterically and i just giggle and read it ten times after

one time a commenter i'd never seen before and haven't since just said i was adorable and i kept grinning. i think about that to this day

and i do recognize their usernames and their profile pictures and i remember them even when they've been quiet for a while and i think about commenters i haven't interacted with in years because it truly means so much

you make fandom feel like a community and every one of the stories i shared are things i think of often because you make us authors so happy

SO BASICALLY KEEP COMMENTING EVEN AS GUESTS ILY

[wordsofasarcast]

It’s your gal sophie here, and I come bearing a sorta long ask. I’m going to pack a lot of things into this so it might feel a bit rambly-

Firstly, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NOMINATIONS!!!!

You deserve it, really. The amount of time and thought you put into your fics is absolutely unfathomable, and updates literally make my whole week. 

Secondly, the latest Dolce chapter has me literally spiraling, I’m so excited for the next one! (take your time btw, there’s still a good two weeks until I start rereading and making theories about what happens next)

(You’re really dropping chapters like Nico drops surprise songs tho)

I also went through your ENTIRE tumblr just now, so here are a few observations I had.

You’ve said that in the Dolceverse Silena is a singer/songwriter under the name VALENTINA. I don’t think you’ve mentioned it in Dolce, so I was thinking that you could just plop that name in there sometime.

The song ‘Free Now’ by Gracie Abrams was suggested for Will on JULY TWELFTH. It’s been half a year, and just now it’s been mentioned in Chapter 43. I would’ve forgotten it at this point

Your first post was on June 27, 2024. It’s been half a year-ish.

Lastly, I have a request. The two chapters of ‘stars, hide your fires’ that have been released are pretty lengthy, and I’ve had to read both chapters over the course of a couple days to finish them. (Still working on the second one.) Could you possibly make them shorter? I know they aren’t always going to be this length, but right now it’s really hard to start them because of the rather intimidating word count. 

Love your works, love your writing, and love your personality. Mwah<333

P.S. I know I sound like a stalker, I PROMISE I'M NOT, I’m just really invested. Plus pls excuse me for any weird grammar, I am writing this at one AM.

Hi Sophie!

First off, I love rambles—they are so fun to read and answer. Here's a ramble in exchange :)

I'm still in shock over just how many nominations I got, especially the Author of the Year nomination in my first year of posting fics! LIKE WHAT?!! Whatever the results, I'm super proud and very grateful to everyone who votes <3

The latest Dolce chapter marks the beginning of the very last act of Dolce and that is such a bittersweet feeling. (Also, I smile every time I see your rereading comments, I think you've read Dolce more than I have at this point!)

I don't mind a bit of good natured tumblr stalking, though it might expose how frequently I've pushed back chapter releases lol. Anyway...

Good pick up! So Silena (or VALENTINA) actually had a fairly big part in the secondary storyline for Dolce Dissonance that I decided to cut. So, she won't appear and there is a reason why I've chosen not to mention her at all. I do still have plans for her in the Dolce universe though (eventually).

Has it really been half a year?! That tells you how long Free Now has been sitting in my chapter outline waiting for the latest chapter to be written. Shout out to @solitaire-addict for the great song rec! <3

I started posting my fics on April 20th, 2024 which feels like SUCH a long time ago but really it hasn't even been a full year. And then it took me a few more months to get on tumblr, but I'm so glad I did, I think answering asks might be one of my fav things.

And lucky last: 'stars, hide your fires'. The chapters are intimidating to write, too. But I've been wanting to challenge myself to write a long-chaptered fic for a while now, and Stars felt like the perfect opportunity since its very action heavy. So TLDR, they're kind of intentionally long? Future chapters will continue to average around 10K. This won't the case for all my future fics, I will continue to have a little mix of everything to suit different readers. If you'd like I could post a version of Stars that splits each chapter into 3-4 shorter chapters over on my wattpad? Would that make it less intimidating? Let me know...

Also sorry in advance for when you finish Stars Chapter 2 :) Thank you for the ask and of course, for reading along x

More stories to come,

~ Sarc

[otsuki-mii]

#海辺のエトランゼ • Seaside Stranger 🌊

Author: Kanna Kii Publisher: @sevenseasentertainment Tags: Boy's Love, LGBTQ+ Themes, Slice of Life

~~~

"To be in the arms of the person I love... I thought that was an unobtainable dream... On an island off the coast of Okinawa, two young men meet on a beach. Shun Hashimoto is gay and aspires to be a novelist. He is interested in Mio Chibana, a somber high school student, and starts to flirt with him. Day by day, the two of them grow closer, but then, suddenly, Mio decides to leave the island. Three years later, Mio returns and approaches Shun. However, when faced with the prospect of finally becoming lovers with Mio, Shun cannot take the first step towards commitment..."

~~~

Today I reread this for the first time in a while and I ended up crying the same way I did the first time I read this years ago.

This story holds a lot of feelings and maybe you won't feel so strongly to the point of crying like me, but as someone who relates to the character's feelings and struggles… It's a pretty emotional volume.

I wouldn't refer to this as the peak of LGBTQ+ exploration but it does show what feels like a very genuine representation of dealing with coming out, homophobia, loneliness and feeling alienated.

I love that a wlw couple is also represented and I wish we got a spinoff of their story. I love the art of them all together, like a family picture.

If you want a comfort (even though it might hurt) read with cute characters and beautiful art, I would absolutely recommend this and the sequel, which I'll talk about another time!

Check out my Instagram post for more pics!

[librarylexicon]

20 Questions for Writers

EDIT: Now with question 17!

Tagged by @cuephrase (ty bb!!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

32 (that are attached to my account).

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

283,405. I very nearly posted 100,000 of them last year, and only noticed when I looked at my stats in January. If I'd known, I would have posted something else to get it over that line!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, just Batman, but in the past I've written for Harry Potter, Anne of Green Gables, Little Men, Tintin and a handful of other fandoms. I have a Road to Avonlea fic tentatively in the works, and might return to any of these fandoms if inspiration strikes.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

All the Corners That Are Left is an outlier in my stats because it has more than three times as many kudos as the runner-up. It's an exchange fic that was my first foray into posting Batfam fics, and I liked writing it so much that it actually sparked a loose series of Post-Crisis oneshots, currently called Corners.

Family Crisis is my beloved canon divergence AU of War Games. It's the first fic I started writing for Batman, and I'm so happy that people are reading it. It's very comics-oriented, but still easy to follow without having touched a comic (imo).

Harry Potter and the Time-Turner is the first multichapter fic I ever wrote and completed, back when I was in my early teens. I won't reread it, lest I die of cringe, but I'm bemusedly grateful that it still gets hits and kudos.

Home Assignment is a Dick whump fic I drafted quite a while ago, and finally had an opportunity to finish and publish when I signed up for a Dick Grayson event. I had fun playing around with unreliable narration in this one!

In Retrospect is a HP fic that was written for a challenge where I was given five prompts and a week to produce five one-shots. I chose to make mine interconnected missing scenes set during and after Deathly Hallows, and particularly like how Painfully Abnormal turned out.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! It's a habit that's carried over from my fanfiction.net days, and I receive a manageable amount of comments, so I try to respond to every one. (The only reason I might not is when someone leaves a string of comments that are all very brief. In that instance, I tend to reply to the final comment only.) I adore reading and replying to comments! 🫶

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

I've always been an angst lover. The Last Enemy, one of my oldest fics, ends with (canonical) apparent character death, and For the Sake of Our Son ends with both main characters (canonically) dying. How fun!

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

Other than a shipfic that's now anonymous, I don't know! I tend to go for uplifting or satisfying endings without necessarily aiming for happy ones (although I rarely have unhappy endings). Maybe You Know I Love You? I do also have a handful of Batman ficlets that I recently wrote for a zine, and there's definitely fluff among them.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I think I got some on fanfiction.net back in the day, but the most hate I've received that I can remember is people being salty about a couple of fics I began when I was a teenager and never finished. I'm sorry, but it's been almost a decade! Yes, you can and should resist the urge to tell me that you don't respect authors who abandon fics!

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

Nope!

10. Do you write crossovers?

While I've toyed with quite a few crossover ideas over the years, I've only published one, which is a Rise of the Guardians and Peter Pan one-shot called Lost Boy.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I can't recall any specific instances, but many of my fics have been on the internet for a long time, so they've definitely been scraped for knockoff sites, if nothing else.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, three times! Harry Potter and the Time-Turner has been translated into French, Shirley Not has been translated into German and At Home, They Call Me Tintin has been translated into Chinese. (Links to these translations are in my fanfic masterlist on Dreamwidth.)

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

No, but I'm open to the idea! I'd have to really know the other author and get over my control freak tendencies, though...

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

I don't ship much (to the point where I have plenty of NOTPs), but I do love TimSteph, and I have soft spots for DickBabs and BatCat (Bruce/Selina) as well. All-time favourite, though? That would have to be Anne and Gilbert from the Anne of Green Gables series.

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

Before the War(drobe). Narnia fandom, I really want to return to you someday, but I have a couple things to do first!

16. What are your writing strengths?

My most positive comments almost always mention characterisation. I also think I write dialogue pretty well. In my mind, well-written dialogue is essential to good characterisation.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Even though I write about characters who are superheroes, I rarely write about them BEING superheroes, because I struggle with action scenes. Also description, but I like to think I've grown better at it.

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

I don't like to use non-Latin characters in my fics for readability reasons, and I don't like to include dialogue in another language if I don't know the language. So, when my characters speak a language other than English, I either just use an English translation with a dialogue attribution (e.g. She said in Spanish) or just use the attribution without the dialogue, depending on whether or not the POV character understands the language.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter! I wrote for it before I knew what fanfic was. I also joined the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum on fanfiction.net back in the day, which led to my most prolific ficwriting period.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

My favourite fics tend to be my most recent ones, because they're the ones I've spent the most time on and am most proud of. I can never pick one of anything (as you've probably noticed), so my current favourites are:

Family Crisis – longtime labour of love and Bruce character study

All the Corners That Are Left – Dick character study feat. Jason

Flight Mode – Tim character study feat. Bruce

Phew, that was a lot of questions! I think a lot of people have already been tagged 😅

Scrolling through my mutuals and no-pressure tagging @silverwhittlingknife @geevesthevieve @batrachised @freyafrida and @silent-silver-slip and any other fic writers who see this! 🫶

[carriagelamp]

Found some excellent horror-related and horror-adjacent books to read this month! Not a common genre for me, so this was fun. Really can't recommend Grady Hendrix as an author enough, Horrorstör was definitely my favourite novel from this month

Eric

I hate saying it because I love the Discworld and Terry Pratchett is easily my favourite author, but man Eric did not do it for me. You could see some good bones in it, but as far as I’m concerned all the interesting bits that appeared were done significantly better in later books. It had some humour moments, but the only bits that I really enjoyed were when the Luggage was around.

This story followed a young, teenaged, would-be demon summoner who, instead of summoning a demon, accidentally winds up with the incompetent and fearful wizzard Rincewind. Obligated to answer this kid’s wishes, they end up bouncing through time and space while attempting to survive what each wish had to throw at them. 

Fantastic Mr Fox / Esio Trot / George’s Marvellous Medicine / The Enormous Crocodile

I went on a Dahl kick this month, I wanted to work through some of his shorter works that I’ve never bothered to read before. All of them were honestly delightful, I had a blast. Esio Trot was probably the weakest of the lot, but the other three were so much fun. The Fantastic Mr Fox may be my favourite just by virtue of being the most fleshed out, but listening to The Enormous Crocodile be read by Stephen Fry is an unparalleled experience.

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy

A story I enjoyed more than I expected. I have a strange soft spot for hockey narratives, but that might just be the Canadian in me. Alix’s one true love is hockey, it’s the one place she feels competent and happy, but her team captain is making the space increasingly hostile until, unable to take the bullying, she strikes out and punches her captain. Shocked by her own violence and given an ultimatum by the coach to get her temper under control, she ends up going to popular and poised Ezra, hoping that he could show her how to deal with harassment without losing her cool in a way that scares her.

Horrorstör

Easily the best book I read this month, this book was amazing, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a “haunted house but in a knock-off Ikea” and I mostly picked it up as a joke because the premise sounded hilarious. But I was familiar with the author (I’d read The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires a couple years ago) and trusted him to do something interesting with the premise. And wow. Just wow. It is very much a classic, grisly, nauseating horror premise, but in a way that explores capitalism, exploitation, and treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill. It’s been  a long time since I read a book that actually gave me chills, but I had to put this book down and walk away from it occasionally, it was intense enough.

The Kaiju Preservation Society

As a Pacific Rim lover, this book was everything I’d ever wish for it to be. It’s such a love letter to the kaiju genre as well as environmental conservation, and it’s speculative biology is fascinating!

After being fire from his job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown in New York City, Jamie Gray is barely making ends meet by acting as a delivery driver. He doesn’t know how he can possibly continue on like this, until he runs into an old friend who offers him a strange and intensely secretive job offer. With nothing to lose, Jamie agrees and finds himself on an alternate Earth, helping to study creatures that he only knows from campy monster movies, now very much real.

The Last Wish

Felt an urge to reread a Witcher book, so I’ve been picking my way through the short stories. They continue to be a lot of fun, and it felt good to reconnect with the original narrative voice again after reading a lot of fanfiction over the years. For anyone who has someone existed post-Netflix version without picking up the general premise: Geralt of Rivia is a "witcher", a person who was specifically trained to wield weapons and magics to hunt dangerous monsters that threaten humans. This is a collection of short stories that show Geralt on some of the various hunts he's had during the decades of his over-long life. (It's significantly better than the Netflix version, very much worth the read if you like classic high fantasy and/or fairy tale retellings.)

Mortimer: Rat Race to Space

A very dull youth novel. Mortimer is a lab rat at Houston who has aspirations to go on the space program and prove that rats are better suited for colonizing Mars than humans. If you’re a seven year old who wants to consume space facts, this is the book for you. For everyone else, it’s a bit of a slog.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism

Another Grady Hendrix book. This book was undeniably well-written, just as masterful as his others, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. A bit too much high school narrative and not enough all out horror. The conclusion was pretty decent, but the rest was… fine. A fun love letter to the 1980s though as you learn about two best friends and how they grow up together. ...A bit of a debate whether or not it warrants a queer marker or not, I'm not even going to make that attempt.

The One and Only Ruby

The newest book from the One and Only Ivan series. Much like The One and Only Bob this book was… fine. The original of the series was really wonderful and felt quite inspired, inspired by the real life story of a gorilla that’s kept in a small cage in a mall complex. The next two books take place after that one and each follows one of Ivan’s friends (Bob the dog and Ruby the baby elephant). A fun enough addition to the series, the art is still cute, and it has decent things to say about the hunting of endangered animals, but it was nothing amazing. 

Paperbacks from Hell

Look, I really just felt the desperate need to read a bunch of Hendrix novels after being so violently consumed by Horrorstör. This is a nonfiction book in which Hendrix dives into the evolution and popular tropes of horror novels throughout the 1980s, with the cover art being the driving thesis throughout. You can tell how much he loves these weird, pulpy horrors and it makes you want to go and find a bunch of these and read them yourself. It really is an interesting book, even if you aren’t a great horror lover (which I wouldn’t consider myself).

The Salt Grows Heavy

Now this is a fucking novella. An absolutely unhinged, body-horror rich retelling of both The Little Mermaid and Frankenstein. Yeah. After the complete destruction of her husband’s kingdom at the hands (and jaws) of her own children, the Mermaid finds herself travelling with a mysterious Plague Doctor. I won’t go further into this except to say that the way it portrays morality, life, death, and the mutability of flesh is just… something else. Would recommend. But not if you have a weak stomach.

Scott Pilgrim

A classic. I watched the new animated series with my brother and felt the need to go back and reread the entire original series. Absolutely perfect, no notes, continues to be one of my all time favourite graphic novel series. The magical realism is just *chef’s kiss*.

[cowgurrrl]

ok what am I supposed to do now the one for the money, two for the show is done!!!?! I would love more lord while I go back a reread everything from the beginning!

If you’re taking requests maybe quick snapshots of the year apart? Not to get too personal but I have a crush and I’ve been stalking their social media but like in a chill way (or I’m trying to) I imagine reader and Joel both seeing each others accomplishments or posts or being tagged in things and just being happy for each other but also….the longing

A Soulmate Who Wasn't Meant to Be

Pairing: rockstar!joel miller x actress!reader

Author's note: this is so angsty i'm sorry

Summary: This ask

Warnings: angst, yearning, oh it's so sad

Joel Miller's New Album Set to Break Records

Everything We Know About Joel Miller's New Album Glass House

Glass House Expected to Go Platinum Before Next Month

What Songs on Joel Miller's New Album Are About Famous Actress Ex?

You almost text Joel about the headlines and theories flooding your timeline. Almost. You actually started typing out a message before reading the last message you sent him almost four months ago and quickly deleting it. You're happy for him. You really are. In the pictures from his album release party, he looked insanely happy, posing with Ellie and Sarah and hugging his musician friends in celebration. He even played one of his newest songs, "Love-in-idleness," at the party with only his acoustic guitar and that deep voice of his. You think you would know it's about you even if he didn't tell you about it before you left. Love-in-idleness is the flower used in A Midsummer Night's Dream to make a love potion to unite the couples. It's common knowledge, but Joel might be one of the only people in the world who knows how much that play means to you. The song quickly becomes one of your favorites, but you don't tell him.

You scroll through his social media unashamedly. Dave Grohl and half the world congratulates him on his album release. He's making the music he's always wanted to make. Sarah told you she got into UCLA, and Ellie is drawing again. He's happy. They all are. So, why do you feel so shitty? Neither of you has deleted the pictures of each other from your profiles. It feels like a staring contest, seeing who will hold the torch of your relationship longer. It doesn't help that people are screenshotting the pictures of you together to "add context" to Joel's lyrics. The one that makes you break down is a quick snapshot someone took of you leaning on him in Central Park when you were watching the guitarist with lyrics from "The Yellow Subway." 

She knows more than me. You better believe

That city couldn't hold her right, but then

I couldn't either.

Despite the heartbreaking lyrics, you two look comfortable together— your head on his shoulder and his hand in yours. You cry in between scenes, ruining your makeup and having a mini-therapy session with your makeup artist, Saoirse, as a result. You don't post anything about his new album, but you put on a happy face and post snapshots from your time spent in Ireland thus far. Pitchers of Guinness, the Cliffs of Moher, stunningly green mornings, and a picture of you and the film crew hiding out in a tent while the rain comes down around you. Joel likes the photos but makes no other move to communicate with you.

You wonder if he's torturing himself in the same way you are. You wonder if he's waiting for a headline about you dating someone new like you are for him. You wonder if he's hurting the way you are. Selfishly, you hope he is because that means he still thinks of you. You also want him to hurt because he hurt you. You still love him, but you can't be the woman who crawls back to someone who can't trust her with things, like telling her the mother of his child is back in town. 

This is what's best. It's what needs to happen. You need to be here, working, and he needs to be there, being a dad and making music. It doesn't make it any easier or soothe the ache in your heart, but it's necessary. It's for your own good. Right? 

Right?

[acoazlove]

Answer and then tag three or more creators to keep the game going!

Thank you @velarisdusk for tagging me <333

1. How many words did you publish on AO3 in 2024?

I haven’t posted anything on AO3 yet! but I am hoping to put my fics on there at some point!

2. How many fics did you complete this year?

Only 4 😞. But 8 if you count the chapters for A New Place. Which isn’t much but i only started posting a few months ago!!

3. How many in progress or ongoing fics did you start this year?

I currently have 2!!

4. What was your favourite thing you wrote?

Definitely Mornings Like These. It was my first ever fic and I’m not sure if I would’ve continued writing, but it was received well and gave me the confidence to keep posting.

5. What piece was your most experimental or different from your usual style?

I’m not sure if I really strayed far from my usual style, but if I had to pick one it would probably be Spiralling Inside. I was going through it when I was writing it. So what I wrote were my real thought and what I was feeling. It didn’t really get too many notes but I’m proud of it anyway.

6. Did any fics surprise you - either while writing or reception?

I’m seriously gonna have to go with my fic series A New Place. It got me to where I am now with writing. Although I didn’t like it when I first posted it, it got lots of notes, and they keep coming in!! Every new chapter I write for it I don’t like it. I always struggle while writing because I have a fic idea and it doesn’t come out how I want it, and this fic was no different. But I’m still writing it, and my mindset is that I can always fix them in the future. But I really do appreciate how well it was received.

7. Do you have a fic you wrote and loved and went under the radar? (This is your sign to reblog/repost it!)

Spiralling Inside, again. Beacause like I said, I wrote what I was feeling and not many people knew I posted it lol.

8. Who is an artist that inspired you?

I’m not sure if music will count, but there are way too many songs that have inspired me, whether that’s while I’m writing or while I’m literally just day dreaming 🤦‍♀️ I can’t really think of anything else.

9. Who is an author that inspired you?

@illyrianbitch, @tadpolesonalgae and @daycourtofficial are a few of the author that have inspired me! all inspired me to start posting my writing and I always go back and reread their fics and love everything they do! They’re all incredible writer and deserve so much love<3

10. Who is a new author you discovered?

@halo-hanging, not a new author but I only stumbled across their stuff a couple months ago, and love everything they’ve done <3

11. Did you start any collaborations? How did you start it?

No, but I would like to at some point!

12. What accomplishments are you proudest of?

I wish I could say I finished my fic series but I haven’t :( I haven’t had much time and when I did have time I didn’t have any motivation. But I’ll say my biggest accomplishment is that I started posting and writing instead!

13.what did you learn about writing or creating this year?

I have learned to write for myself and enjoy what I’m doing. To not burn myself out by trying and failing to post a new chapter. To take a break if I feel it’s too much. That if I put myself out there I’ll meet new people and mutuals <333

14. What is your advice?

Just do it! Put yourself out there and post what you want. But especially, write for yourself. Not for anybody else, if you enjoy others will enjoy it!!

15. What are your creative goals for 2025?

Keep writing. Keep enjoying what I’m doing, and find motivation to post more. Maybe do seomthing like kinktober and @sjmxreaderweek hopefully. Also to start and finish one or two of my courses by the end of the year!

If you’d like to, @illyrianbitch, @daycourtofficial, @utterlyazriel, @prythianpages, @writingcroissant, @itsswritten no pressure, and happy new year! <333

[dreaminghour]

WIP Whenever - QuiAni Modern AU

story context: Anakin a college student who develops a little bit of a crush on the tattooed self-defense instructor he meets at a workshop — so he signs up for his karate class and declares his interest by giving Qui-Gon a link to his OnlyFans. Cue the angst and fluff.

author's backstory: so I've been working on a modern AU for these two for a couple months now, I wasn't satisfied with the one-shot I had written... and maybe a week or so ago I figured out out it needs a chapter two and started writing it 🤣 Keeper can tell you that this has been plaguing me for a while so I'm glad about this development.

oh and here's an excuse I have to share this edit I made ages ago 🥰

600~ words of texting (possible flirting) after Anakin is dropped off as rain interrupts their 'friend date' getting coffee. scene break after the jump.

~

As soon as he was through his front door, Anakin pulled off the damp sweater he was wearing and took his phone from his pants before those came off as well. He hung both sweater and jeans on the towel warmer in the bathroom and quickly sent off a text.

Let me know when you get home :)

It was another twenty minutes, while he was deep in focus editing photos from the night before, when his phone chimed with the reply.

Safe and sound! Just need to dry off before Bishop will let me near him.

Bishop? Anakin texted back.

My cat, was Qui-Gon's reply.

You have a cat??? Anakin shot back, but his phone remained stubbornly quiet. After a moment he went back to editing.

It wasn't until he was done queuing up his posts for the week that he finally got his answer: a photo from Qui-Gon showing a little Siamese cat curled up in his lap, fast asleep. He melted a little, not only because of how small the cat looked in Qui-Gon's lap, but just thinking about the entire scenario. Did Qui-Gon take the picture just for him? Was the photo from another day? He put the phone aside until his heart stopped hammering, tried to focus on pulling up his schoolwork instead.

He lasted five minutes before he finally sent: So pretty! Does he like meeting new people?

I think he'd like meeting you :), Qui-Gon replied.

Anakin nearly combusted.

~

Qui-Gon sat down on one of the benches on the other side of the room from where his friend was testing a guitar, and pulled out his phone. He soon found himself rereading his texts with Anakin. He flicked open Anakin's 'family friendly' gallery and began to scroll before he stopped himself and flicked back to his text messages.

Do you have any pets? he asked.

He put his phone away.

It was a while later, as he was packing a refurbished bass guitar into his trunk, that his phone buzzed again.

Not at the moment, but I grew up with this three-legged mutt.

And attached was a photo of a much younger Anakin (he assumed) with a blonde bowl-cut holding a sleek looking dog who was trying to lick his face off. Qui-Gon chuckled and thought a moment before replying.

Adorable.

He didn't check his phone again until he'd dropped [friend] off, unloaded his equipment, and was back in the car.

You can't just say things like that!

You made me blush in front of my classmates

Now they're teasing me

Truth be told, the thought of Anakin blushing just because Qui-Gon had said a childhood photo of himself was adorable made heat rise to Qui-Gon's cheeks as well.

I'm sure you can handle it, Qui-Gon replied.

The afternoon was a blur, getting himself changed for class, heading to the dojo, so he didn't have time to check his messages until after class had ended and he'd helped wrap a students sprained ankle. Once student and parent were out, and Jango was setting up for his class, Qui-Gon pulled his phone from his locker.

No new notifications.

He opened his messages with Anakin and asked: Busy day?

He didn't get a reply until he was just zipping up his jacket and waving goodbye to Jango.

Yeah, been in the robotics lab all afternoon working on a project

Wbu?

Qui-Gon replied: Went to the music store with a friend and then had classes, nothing unusual.

He walked to his car and then added: Now I'm on a tight schedule though because Bishop won't stand for a late dinner.

Oh so HE'S in charge, I see, was Anakin's near immediate reply.

Are you surprised? Qui-Gon asked.

No, just making note of who's good graces I need to be in

Qui-Gon laughed out loud at that, and the entire drive home he imagined what Anakin's robotics lab must look like.

[track-five]

Hey my fav author! It's been a minute. I've been meaning to leave comments on your newer fics or the older ones whenever I reread them, but here I am instead!

Wanted to tell you that when I saw Harry on tour (almost exactly 6 months ago now) I was waiting on barricade with 4 or so hours more for the concert to start and I was reading your newest update then. It struck me how crazy it was that I was reading a fic with Harry in it when I'm literally about to see him in person in a couple of hours haha! Anyway the fic kept me company (because yes I was by myself there) and I thoroughly enjoyed it and the concert of course!

Fast forward to today, I saw some larry receipt asks floating on here and went down a couple of hour long rabbit hole and I am typing this whist being in the middle of a massive larry breakdown. Going through all of the receipts reminded me of your fics because the way I imagine how they are to each other, and what we see and hear of how they are to each other, align so well with how you portray them in your fics. So it really reminded me why I LOVE your fics the way I do.

I have been rereading your fics whenever I can because to me they're like comfort personified. The fic equivalent of a warm hug and soft blankets. So I wanted to come over here and let you know, again, how much I adore your writing and your brain for coming up with those wonderful fics! I am truly grateful.

This is in no way an attempt to guilt you into updates or posting on here, just genuinely wanted to say hi. I've seen what's keeping you occupied and I am truly happy for your little love story, and the fact that you're happy! That is just the beginning of all the amazing things you deserve and I hope your days are getting happier, brighter and lovelier every single day! 💕

this has been in my inbox for a while now. when i saw it earlier in the year, i’m pretty sure i cried - i guess that’s why i never answered. i’ve said it a thousand times, but knowing that anyone has read anything i posted (or had so many wonderful things to say about it) is still unbelievable to me. hearing stuff like this will never stop making me emotional, because i’m just some person. i didn’t think i’d leave even the smallest mark on the world, really, because what could i possibly do? i’m just here! i truly can’t thank you enough for your kindness and for inviting my work into your life.

can i legally say i’ve been on barricade at a harry show now? is that how this works? thanks for bringing me with you! :)

xx

[nereidprinc3ss]

been so busy i haven’t had a chance to sit down and write this but dybmn we are SOOO back. u know i was actually planning to hold off on reading it for a bit like i was gonna reread the rest of the parts and soak it all in and make it a whole thing and set time aside for it and everything cause that’s what i usually do but then when i saw that you posted it i rlly just couldn’t hold myself back LOLLL and i dove in immediately. it kind of didn’t hit me how much id missed dybmn couple until i started reading again LOL like i love their dynamic i love how they’re kind of like their own thing if that makes sense like i love all your works and i love the way you write them both in each one but like you can kinda tell dybmn is in its own universe if that makes sense like in all ur fics they have special little quirks in their dynamics that i think are lovely and it’s been a while since ive read dybmn and seeing them again i was like 🥹🥹 i missed yall LOLLL idk if that made any sense at all but anyway point being i missed them. also i love when you write in spencer’s pov so much. and this new plot was so unexpected but i adore it like i have no idea what the neighbor could have said/did to her and i like that cause it really does put u in spencer’s shoes instead of being sort of omnipresent like the author like whatttt i’m completely clueless too rn i wanna know what happened!!!! so excited for the next part also psa that nobody asked for but like i love how sweet he is to her too like even when it’s not sex i love soft dom spencer period like why is it getting so much hate recently like hello what is everyone’s damage (kidding joke don’t be mad i know everyone has their own preferences just saying though this is mine put the pitchforks down plz) anyway so cute as always also the part abt the fight seeming like months ago made me smile was that a play at how long it’s been irl that’s not shade at All btw it just made me giggle. ok the end yayyyy nereidprinc3ss i love u 🧸

Yesss yayyy that part was SUPPOSED to make u giggle hehehe I’m glad u caught that!!!!

I missed them too<3 I agree dybmn has a pretty distinct vibe from my other fanfiction which makes it rlly fun to write cause I can tap into something I can’t always w my one shots!!

I also love sweet Spencer all the time he’s sooooooooooo I jsut love him and I love YOU mwah!!!

[batmanschmatman]

3, 6, 23 ❤️❤️❤️

what are some fics that you go back and read again and again? one of my absolute favorites is Give Me Light, Give Me Life which has been orphaned but has all my favorite Winnix tropes and is extremely cute, I literally reach for this one first every time I want to reread something. I also love More Than a Team, which has some great outsider perspective on Dick and Nix as a couple and Nix being a great BIL to Ann. Also Cats & Dogs by some author you've probably never heard of. :3

what's a headcanon that you will die on that hill? tbh I'm at that point in this fandom where it's hard to clearly ID headcanon vs. Things That Are Just True, so here are some of my favorite "not technically clearly defined in the show" things in no particular order: Dick's shallow foxhole in Bastogne is just where he hangs out during the day when he's not actively at the CP, he shares Nix's more palatial one to huddle for warmth regardless if they're a couple yet. Mary Frank Sledge and various other close family members of The Boys are clumsily accepting of their relationships - or at least very don't ask don't tell about why Babe moved to Louisiana to live with a war buddy - because it did historically happen (read Coming Out Under Fire by Allan Berube if you haven't already!) and the world is depressing enough without needing to drag it into my pretendy fun times. Joe genuinely does like to read and while isn't as formally educated as Web does grow to like swapping books with him and getting into heated debates about them. When they move in together post war, he's a very critical but ultimately constructive editor of Web's articles and books. Ron becomes penpals with Lip's mom while he's in Korea. Not explicitly headcanon but it's historical truth that Gene Sledge would occasionally send the paper letter version of an angry group chat to Burgie, Snaf and their other friends when he didn't like folks interviewing him for books about the war and that is 100% a thing he and Dick both do lol. Harry often house sits for Dick and Nix's dog when they're off on adventures. Harry has also clocked them as a couple from the instant he stepped in on them arguing in "Currahee" and is just The Ultimate Bro and never says anything.

what's your favorite wip of yours? as you well know, I don't have a lot of wips currently, but I have been meaning to brush off some old finished unplublished fics including a sequel to the sledgefu soulmate au fic I posted on AO3 a million years ago and a daemon au thing with Snaf and Mary Frank Sledge.

[nedjemetsenen]

Why do Fanfic writers generally hate “constructive” criticism?

This is a topic that comes across my dash a couple times a month, but those posts generally focus on how unsolicited criticism is rude. Today, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the ways that it’s also generally useless even if you’re trying to be helpful. To do this, I will be using examples from my own comment section, but please do not seek those comments out. This post is about informing, not about creating a hate mob.

Issue One: You don't know if your criticism is already known

No story is perfect. There will always be flaws. Sometimes you find a flaw that the author can improve on. Sometimes you pick up on something that the author accepted as a flaw during the writing process for whatever reason. It may have been because they're writing for fun. It may have been because they liked the flawed version of the story better than the story without the flaw. It may be because they genuinely didn't know how to fix it, but still wanted to tell the story flaw and all.

To give an example of this, here’s an excerpt from a truly lovely comment where the person also tried to give some helpful feedback:

you did a fantastic job with the characters you altered to fit the story. They were mostly rounded and felt like whole people instead of cardboard cut-outs. However, this made the characters that you didn't change feel very flat. [List of characters] often felt like window dressing, like they were included solely because they were part of the original show.

This is exactly why those characters showed up in that fic and the issue of them being window dressing isn’t something that I introduced. It’s a flaw in the original work. To fix this issue, I would have cut these characters or merged them into one character. But this wasn’t original fiction. It was fanfiction, so I decided to sacrifice quality for the sake of honoring the source as it felt wrong to remove these guys when they’re a classic part of the roster. I also actively chose to not develop them more as it would have killed the pacing and added nothing to the story I was trying to tell. There are characters that I arguably should have given more screen time to in that fic, but these were not those characters.

Issue Two: Timeliness

Unless the story is newly published, you have no idea if your criticism is still useful. Even if it is newly published, how long has the fic been going for? Are you critiquing a chapter from 3 years ago or last week? Unless it’s the latest chapter, you don’t know. Even if it is the latest chapter, you don’t know when it was written. Sometimes people find an old work of theirs and just post it without editing because they don’t want to edit and they know people will enjoy the story as-is. Sometimes people write the whole fic and then post it week by week while they work on the next one.

I recently had someone ask me for some feedback on a section of dialogue and I pointed out an area for potential improvement. The person who asked for the feedback has read some of my stuff and pointed out that I’d used a similar technique in a fic and they were absolutely correct. I had. But the fic was a few years old and I simply haven’t yet taken the time to go back and edit all 100k+ of it. I write at least a quarter of a million words every year and that means that I’m always learning. It’s incredibly rare for me to reread an old piece of mine without finding something to edit. It won’t always be something major, but it’s there. Waiting. Taunting me.

Along similar lines, if you're pointing out a flaw that's specific to the story, I'm not sure what you're expecting to happen next. While some writers go back and edit old works (I certainly have), a lot of writers consider older works done and prefer to focus on new ones.

Issue Three: Most people are shockingly bad at giving good constructive criticism.

Constructive criticism is a skill that you have to learn and practice. It’s also genuinely difficult to learn as it's the difference between helping a person tell the story that you want to read and helping them tell the best version of the story that they want to tell. The first is not good crit, but it is the crit that most people give.

There are times when I’ll beta for a fic and think “that character would never do that”, but that’s terrible feedback because I’m imposing my version of the character over the author’s take on the character and they’re not trying to tell a story with my headcanons. They’re using theirs and my job as an editor/beta is to accept that and help them tell their story as best they can.

I've also been given feedback like this. Here’s an excerpt from a comment where someone pointed out something that they didn’t like in one of my fics:

it's cute to see him like this once in a while but he's a grown man and "adorable" feels a little out of place in this situation

This is utterly useless feedback and I will die on that hill. In my opinion, I wrote this character perfectly because this is how I see him. It’s my headcanon and the version of him that you'll see in all of my fics. What’s funny is that I actually think that I got the female lead in this story a bit wrong. I should have toned her down, but this was early in my journey to learn these characters and then we’re back to issue two.

Final Thoughts

If an author asks for constructive criticism, then absolutely feel free to give it to them, but if you've ever wondered why most authors don't, the above is probably why. It's why I only welcome grammatical corrections and historical/cultural accuracy corrections on my own fics. Those are the only comments that I've ever found useful.

There are times when I seek out other types of feedback. I just don't get it from random readers after the story is already published. I get it from select individuals during the writing process and that's the feedback process favored by most writers as it's the one that's most likely to lead to improvement.

If you ever come across a fic that you love, but you feel like it could use an editor, my advice is to leave a comment saying how much you love the story and then offer to beta read (the fandom word for an editor. No I don't know why fandom has a different definition for that word than the definition used in the publishing industry. It just is what it is.) And if you don't want to take the time to beta for someone, that's okay! But if you don't want to make the massive time commitment to truly help the person improve, then maybe don't give unsolicited feedback that's more likely to make them stop writing altogether? I promise you, that person will improve on their own just by writing more. I certainly did! If you read the fanfic that I wrote when I was 13, you'd be shocked by how bad it is compared to my current stuff.

I personally consider that fact a source of pride.

[fearowkenya]

Winds of Change

Chapter 4: Stemming the Tide

It’s hard to hold onto hope when panic and fear take root and start to spread, climbing the notches of his spine and weaving back and forth between his ribs. But Ryo knows now, that hope and fear can both exist at once—he’s seen it for himself.

The group witnesses something that looks a lot like a miracle, but it's still not enough to chase away everybody's fears. Ryo and Shuuji each find themselves with separate demons to battle as they resist the pull of despair.

ao3 link in source, extended end-of-chapter author's note below!

editing this chapter took WAY longer than usual. I do two proofreads per chapter before i post, and if i edit more than a couple of sentences at any point, i start the entire proofread over. needless to say, i did a LOT of editing and rereading before finally making it to my posting checklist. ultimately though im pretty happy with it. mostly im just so glad to have finally posted the scene that was jokingly titled "labramon the egg wizard" so i could talk about how much I enjoy the title "labramon the egg wizard". jokes that are for me

anyway, "labramon the egg wizard" is one of the first parts of this fic that i wrote! there's a skeletal outline of the events in that section in my replay notes, though a lot about that scene has changed since then. it was always going to be labramon who was gonna help out though! why labramon..? … … well she's a dog , and it made me go 'heheh' to think of her doing pointer behaviors. no other reason (:

i know we get renamon egg in moral, but i don't actually remember much of what that looked like because it lasted like 2 seconds. thats absolutely NOT what i wanted for shuuji - i wanted it to be a scene that completely bodies him, where hes got this unexpected second chance hovering just beyond his reach, but he has to confront exactly what he's done in order to get it. i dont remember a lot of 02, but that one episode where ken goes looking for wormmons egg has this very specific vibe where its like, "here's some hope for you when youre at your lowest but never forget that you seriously fucked it up". it was brutal but beautiful and then i cried a bunch i think. idk it was a long time ago. maybe im completely misremembering that scene, who can say. thats how it lives in my memories tho

in any case, i definitely wanted it to be from ryo's perspective for the same reason that the aftermath of wendimon was from his pov. he's so much more observant than shuuji, who would not take notice of what the others are doing and saying while he's in the middle of getting pingponged between hope and gut-wrenching remorse.

the middle section, titled in the draft as "mcfreakin losin it", was a lot of fun too! the Plan(tm) at the beginning was something i edited in pretty late in proofreading. having an itemized list like that might feel more like a "shuuji thing" than a "ryo thing", but i think ryo's active effort to take responsibility and try to help kunemon with what hes stressed about would lend to him trying to come up with something a little more concrete. unfortunately for ryo, he has no backup plan for when the first one is turned upside down, and we all know what happens when something catches him off guard lmao. it was actually really interesting to write ryo in a position where he's witnessing more or less what he himself is like when he shuts down. being the one who has to snap shuuji out of this state has ryo realizing that this is what takuma and kunemon have to deal with when he's the one freaking out. i think that's kinda fun.

the last section has what feels to me like the most editing. it really wasn't a section that i spent a lot of time fiddling with until now because the bulk of it was quoting or paraphrasing existing dialogue from the start of part 6 for context, then diverging into what that scene looks like in a world where lopmon isn't around to be unable to explain what happened. like i said on ao3, as i was reading over the canon dialogue in truthful for reference, i realized i really just…didn't like it much. the argument escalates and de-escalates several times but never to a degree that feels all that extreme, and ends up feeling like it's just dragging out for no reason. people make their points at times that feel WEIRD, particularly ryo. lemme see if i can explain this.

so ryo doesnt say this til the latter half of this argument, and i HATED THAT because it's like… after everything he's been through with kunemon, it doesn't feel right that he's having those doubts. but i thought about it and i actually think it makes sense for him to have a momentary lapse where he slips back into old habits - letting fear take over and pushing away anything and anyone that has even the slightest chance of hurting him. he spent a LOT of time in that mindset, and even though he's working on reversing it, it's not gonna happen in a day. that said… the placement of ryo's doubts in the canon dialogue still feels super weird. i think it makes a lot more sense for him to panic at the very beginning of this argument, and then calm down as he remembers how solid his bond with kunemon is before sticking up for the digimon a little more aggressively. it just feels so passive in-canon when i think he would have taken a much more active role in defending falcomon and the others once 1) he remembers the context surrounding what happened in the waterway, and 2) he's reminded of how kunemon has helped him change.

i know some of the weird pacing of this dialogue is because the player needs to have input at some point, but i think takuma could've been much more powerless during this argument - the game has no problem taking away agency, since saving ryo is the only thing that will save shuuji, no matter what the player does. maybe im nitpicking, idk.

regardless, minoru's dialogue makes the most sense, but i still think it could have been condensed into a much sharper and more sudden escalation. it keeps being like "(minoru voice) IM MAD IM MAD" "(takuma voice) chill" "(minoru voice) oops sorry. … … … IM MAD IM MAD IM MAD" "(takuma voice) calm down" "(minoru voice) oops. … … … IM MAD IM MAD" etc etc etc. it just made the argument feel weak and drawn-out instead of intense and explosive.

i did keep some of it though! i thought that minoru's paranoia and sudden fear of trusting his partner was pretty compelling, which is why i kept those doubts in and quoted the lines about him wanting falcomon to prove his loyalty.

i chose those lines specifically because they say a LOT about minoru once you connect this argument with what i think is the root of his insecurities - his parents' divorce.

it's funny because as far as im aware, The Divorce doesn't even come up unless you choose an INCORRECT ANSWER in an OPTIONAL affinity event with minoru. im not 100% sure thats the only mention though! im currently at pt8 of my replay where the goal is to see every bit of truthful route dialogue possible. if it comes up in other routes, i managed to miss it lmao. anyway, because of that, for the longest time i thought The Divorce was just a popular headcanon, and didn't actually see that dialogue until recently. but as soon as i did i started looking at the stuff he does and says through the lens of somebody who was affected extremely poorly by his parents divorce, and it contextualized A LOT for me. suddenly the way he reacts in pt 6 makes so much sense, because imo falcomon turning around and killing him isn't his only concern: he's also terrified that he was vulnerable in front of someone who doesn't actually care.

pre-game minoru lacks a support system, and is afraid to rely on a new one. im not going to go on about it for too long because we'd be here all day, but im pretty sure that his parents divorce was MESSY, and he witnessed all of it. that same event where he mentions to takuma that his parents are divorced is also when he says that he doesn't think his mom has noticed that he's missing, even though at this point the kids believe that they've been gone for several days. he doesn't see his mother as support because she's too busy working, and since he doesn't even know where his father currently lives, clearly he doesnt get much if any support from his dad. the difficulty minoru has in shedding the goofy exterior and being genuine and vulnerable in front of people makes me think that he never found a support system to replace the one that he watched crumble in realtime when his parents split.

prior to part 6, we can assume that minoru started to see falcomon as someone that he could allow to see his insecurities. i also believe that minoru understood that shuuji and lopmon's relationship was supposed to look a lot like his and falcomon's, or like anybody else and their partner's. minoru could see lopmon trying to be supportive, so the dysfunction only seemed like it was on shuuji's end. so when lopmon flies off the handle and tries to murder shuuji, one of the things that minoru gets from it is that, no, actually, the trust and support that the digimon have for their partners is NOT unconditional. i think that watching this happen looks exactly like how it felt when the support system he'd had in his parents completely fell apart, except the lopmon situation comes with a fun extra "I'm going to kill you" sort of vibe that tells minoru that his relationship with falcomon is just not safe.

or worse, maybe that support system was never real in the first place. what if there was something darker beneath the surface that he just couldn't see?

anyway.

now, as dracmon says, all we gotta do is hurry up and wait. well. you do. i dont, im gonna be editing chapter 5 til the cows come home. im getting the distinct impression that it's gonna require even more reworking than this chapter did.

but that's neither here nor there - id love to hear your Gamer Theories about what im cooking up. there are a few things that are still going unaddressed after four chapters, and i wonder how much of it can be puzzled out based on what i've said so far. obviously im not able to see the story from a reader's perspective, so im not really able to gauge if the stuff that's being foreshadowed or otherwise implied is starting to become clearer. so please consider leaving a comment with what you think, or your favorite part or anything else that stood out to you! I'd much appreciate it. thank you for reading, and see you… mm… nnnnext…week…? ideally.

[aelaer]

“Nobody asked about my writing” meme

Thanks for the tag, @tea-understands :) Thankfully I have a small handful of folks who ask me about such things but I do love these memes.

 1: what are you currently working on? 

The Big Boy Fic! The finale of Earth-197320, which I'm 99% certain I am calling Above the Shadows. And I'll have a fun update on Write Every Day June in a couple days.

2: summarize your current project 

It's the fifth and final fic in a series that I started 4 years ago from an anonymous prompt sent to @amethyst-noir. I really clicked with it and she gave me her blessing to pursue it as a full-fledged fic, and here we are today.

Here's my first stab at a proper summary that I wrote for this questionnaire (tell me what you think y'all??):

2019 starts off in crisis-mode as rifts within the borders of reality begin spiraling out of control, drawing the resources of the Masters of the Mystic Arts thin. Tony now juggles the problems of a suddenly-absent Stephen, keeping his work with the sorcerers a secret, and Pepper's uncertain future. Stephen does what he can to maintain the stability of reality while keeping the promises he made. And somewhere out there, the other Stephen Strange is still hiding, putting his own plans into play.

3: summarize your current project poorly 

An author split up what should have been a single work into five separate stories because she wanted to fulfill Bingo cards in 2019, leading to a series that the readers are probably going to need to reread because there's so much detail in Fic 5 that calls back to stuff that happened in Fics 1-4. Fics 1-3 match the length of Fic 4, and Fic 5 is well over the length of Fics 1-4 combined, making for even poorer fic splitting choices. Whoops.

4: describe your favorite character or characters

I mean. Do I really need to? If you're on my blog you know who my faves are.

I guess quick summary as they are in the series in particular:

Stephen Strange: Has an enormous guilt complex that he's been working through a lot. He got better with the help of new friends. His work has endeared them to him quite a bit.

Wong: Has taken a leadership role, but not the title of Sorcerer Supreme for reasons not yet established to the readers. Carries his own secrets. Excellent poker face, but not emotionless.

Tony Stark: Has been blatantly ignoring the Accords ever since he went against Ross's back to find Steve in Siberia and has been continuing that trend since. Seeing the feds turn their eyes on Peter changed his opinion quite strongly. The Steve Issue is still difficult.

Other Strange: He thinks the Avengers and Masters of the Mystic Arts have failed their duties and that he can protect all of reality by himself. He just needs more power.

5: post a line from your current project without any context 

Closed my eyes and scrolled and went to a random page. This is what came up.

Oh, Jesus Christ. This explained so much about the man.

6: how do you get through writers block?

If it's not something health-related which just makes it physically very hard to work on items, I'll switch projects with my shorter fics. For a long fic like this, I'll put on a sprint and just power through 15 minutes at a time to get the harder bits out.

For health-related stuff (including mental), you sometimes just need to work on that first before you can be in the right space to write.

7: would you want to live in the world of your current work? 

Hell no. Superhero worlds are terrible for normal people.

8: briefly discuss your outlining process, if you outline 

I write an outline with the main beats of what I want in that chapter. Then when I get to the actual chapter, I'll sometimes expand the outline with more detail in that chapter section itself. I often go back to the main outline and add new things as I come up with them, or switch around elements in the story to a new chapter. This is how the planned outline has grown from around 12 normal chapters and 1 interlude chapter to 18 normal chapters and 2 interlude chapters (with potential for more growth seeing as I'm getting into some areas that have original outlining that I no longer am certain I want to use as they were ideas from over 2 years ago and the story's evolved a lot since then).

9: what is the aesthetic of your current project?

So much plot. Rewriting a lot of the end of phase 3 to push my Found Family agenda. Fix it vibes, but I think it's a natural fix it arc from the canon drama that could have happened in canon if the Russos gave a damn. A lot of character exploration into their own separate journeys and growth arcs. Pretty accurate on Marvel tones with action, drama, a bit of snark and humor. An itty bitty dash of canon romance but we all know I'm including it only because it needs to be there due to the plot and character arc reasons and not because I'm all googly-eyed for the genre.

10: what song sums up your current work the best?

Each chapter in the series takes a song lyric from a specific song and I identify that song with the story pretty heavily. For instance, Illuminating the Shadows took "The Light" from Disturbed.

For Above the Shadows, it's "Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy (who I'm seeing live in concert in a couple days, yay).

Tagging those who I know are writing/trying to write: @mckiwi, @sobeautifullyobsessed, @burglarhobbit, @amethyst-noir. No obligation either way. Also if I didn't tag you please feel free to take this (and you can poke me here if you'd like as a reminder that you're still actively writing fic regardless of the fandom and I'll try to remember for these sorts of things).