#like i'm rewatching a lot of old shows that i've never wanted to fic for

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

This probably isn’t the right place to ask, but is it normal to just feel a little uncertain about how you view the show now after hearing so much stuff about it or having seen a lot of fan material that elevate the source material?

It just feels weird to rewatch a little of the show that I kind of don’t do that anymore or let it play in the background.

That's super normal, especially in large fandoms where the fan content vastly outweighs the canon content. There are literally millions of words of Miraculous fic out there. You can read a new story a day and still have thousands left because there are currently 73K fics on AO3. That's over 200 years of fics! An episode a day will take you about half a year. If you're the kind of person who likes to read fanfic or participate in fan discussions, then it's not shocking that you're at risk of getting a warped view of canon because of the way fanon often works.

It's pretty common to see fanon go where canon never dared to tread. This can lead to an interesting disconnect between super fans and canon where popular fanon takes get treated like canon by fans as those takes just straight up consume the fandom. Then you go back to canon and it's jarring because you've spend so much time in fanon that you've internalized all that fanon, creating this alternate, idealized view of the source that has no real backing in the text.

You've got an Avengers logo as your profile pic and I was in that fandom for a while, so let's use that as an easy example. Avengers fanon is found family central! Fans love to bond the team because of course they do! Superhero teams generally should be found families! But canon never actually did that, so watching the movies after reading some fics can be disheartening because you're suddenly reminded that canon never gave us a found family. That's just in your head and the heads of many other fans.

Miraculous does this to an extreme with Ladynoir. Read some fanfics and you can internalize this idea that they're partners like no other with a close bond of love and trust. Then you go watch canon and it's like, oh, right, that never actually happened in the actual show. Ooops. Time to readjust my expectations for the new season.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's generally a reflection of people longing for something that the source will never give them so they go, "fine, I'll do it myself!" And can lead to wonderful things that bring us great joy because you're rarely alone in that longing! But if you're finding that kind of joy in fanon, I've found that it often - but not always! - means that you probably didn't like canon as much as you thought you did.

I know that I personally only seek out fan content when something about canon is lacking. I don't seek out fan content for works I adore because canon is giving me everything I want. Sometimes the thing that's lacking is pretty minor, sometimes it's a major flaw in the source. When it's a minor flaw, fanon is just there to patch a few cracks and I'm still happy to enjoy canon. When it's a major flaw or major flaws? Fanon is my canon now.

That "fanon is my canon now" take only becomes a bad thing when we start blaming the creators for not giving us the things we internalized from fanon, which can and does happen when the fanon disconnect becomes more extreme. Like when fanon takes a character and warps them into a new version of themself with only minor backing in the text. That's always an especially jarring thing to come across.

Miraculous isn't too bad about that one, but there are certainly popular fanon takes that don't come from canon like Marinette keeping the identities a secret because she's afraid that Chat Noir will be disappointed by plain old Marinette compared to the amazing and cool Ladybug. I don't think that's a huge stretch for a potential conflict, but it's got almost no backing in the actual text. Canon Marinette keeps her secret identity for safety reasons and she's generally pretty confident in her role as Ladybug. But if you've read a bunch of fics with secret-identities-only-exist-because-I'm-insecure Marinette and fallen in love with that concept? Then it's gonna be hard to watch canon and follow the actual conflict.

This was a bit of a ramble, but hopefully it was reassuring! I totally get where you're coming from and find it particularly hard for media that you genuinely loved at one point. I never loved Miraculous, but I had genuine hopes for The Avengers and still feel a little sad that the MCU never gave us any found family content outside of the opening of Ultron. It makes it less fun to rewatch even the good movies knowing that it will never deliver the things I was hoping for.

[anadrym]

Extended Author's Notes for Left Behind Ch1.

(I'm really gonna try to do these for this one because I have so much to say about it.)

Work title is from "Still Here" from the League of Legends 2024 Cinematic. Absolutely love that song. Got into a car accident while listening to it and I STILL like it.

Chapter title is from "Going Down Fighting" by Phlotilla and Andrea Wasse, from the Old Guard soundtrack. Another really good song.

Vi is 26 in this chapter and Caitlyn is 25 (That age difference is according to their wiki stats).

I'm so proud of some of the wording in this chapter. I think it's kinda cool to use really poetic language during such a horrific scene.

As I said in the original AN, this is set post-Arcane S2, but there are some changes. In LOL, Caitlyn is the Sheriff, so I've kept that for a lot of my fics, including this one. I didn't change it because I think it makes her more of a target, which is what drives a lot of this chapter.

Vi is right. If they had left immediately, they probably would've made it. But neither of them could've left Tobias behind.

I haven't seen any of the Purge movies, BUT a few years ago I went on a 10-house tour of Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, and the Purge House was the only one I made it through with my eyes open the whole time. The scenes at the manor are loosely based on that.

The vandalized portrait was such a strong visual to me, I was scrawling notes about it down in the middle of the night.

One of y'all noted that Vi still has Tobias' wedding ring at the end of this chapter. That's important. :)

If you re-read the fight in Caitlyn's bedroom, you can see the part where Vi gets hit. The guy with the meat cleaver backhands her (empty hand) and then hits her in the gut (meat cleaver hand). In the next paragraph, the blade is bloody. I'm super proud of this, because it's Vi's POV and she didn't realize, but I wanted to make sure it was in there as a kinda rewatch bonus.

"But Vi's head is starting to spin from the - stress? adrenaline? fear?" Actually, babe, it's blood loss. :)

And then the "stitch in her side, the kind that comes with too much running" - I was trying so hard to make sure Vi wouldn't notice that she was seriously injured until it was too late.

I don't know if it came across, but the line "Your dad --" is Vi immediately thinking that Tobias can help (he's probably the only doctor she trusts) and then realizing/remembering that he's gone.

Even if both Vi and Caitlyn had managed to escape Piltover, Vi's injury would have been deadly - either from blood loss or infection.

The line "for me" is kind of a reference to some of my other works. Whenever Caitlyn says it to Vi, Vi caves. Here, Vi tries an Uno Reverse and it doesn't work, because Caitlyn won't leave her to die.

Not willingly, at least. >:)

I did receive questions on the political implications and ramifications of this attack. They will be discussed, but in a background sense. This is for two reasons: 1. I am not good at writing political stuff. 2. One of the things that really stuck with me was a comment from one of the crew behind the show that basically said that neither Vi nor Jinx ever wanted to be in the middle of all of this. They never wanted to be symbols or leaders or someone's legacy. They just wanted to live their lives. So this work is going to be more focused on Caitlyn and Vi and their relationship, with all the political upheaval mess happening in the background.

[crows-murder]

2024 writing roundup

thanks for the tag @bobtheacorn !! 💜

words posted:

127, 796!! which is a little pleasantly surprising to me because i felt like i wrote so much less this year lol

but a win is a win!!! that's my second highest year!!!!

additional words written:

*kicks all my unfinished wips under the rug* lets not focus on that lol

fandoms:

- rise of the tmnt

- batman

- psych

- macgyver (2016)

- lord of the rings: rings of power

highest kudos + highest hit one-shot:

doubt comes in and kills the light for both! 2, 567 hits and 337 kudos!!

new things I tried:

writing-wise i mostly stuck to what I know and generally like (whump and some flavor of hurt/comfort). i did write a fic in a slightly different, more experimental style since the character was drugged to the gills and hallucinating, but i don't know how well that turned out lol

fic I spent the most time on:

this year? i'm a little ashamed to say this title doesn't go to alll the ashes in my wake, my largest writing project in years, but a fic I HAVEN'T EVEN POSTED YET

its a tales of the tmnt fic I've been working on since the show came out and kind of my second brain child (sorry, number one spot still belongs to ataimw, my baby. my beloved <33)

its a very ambitious project bc its essentially me giving these boys a farmhouse arc, which means adding in shredder, AND ALSO CASEY!!! i created a casey for this show, specifically for this fic, and i actually love her so much.

it's been so much fun plotting out this fic and i've written a whole lot for it (and yet i still haven't finished writing the first chapter lmfao)

i kinda had to step back at some point bc i was genuinely tweaking out anytime i thought about it. i genuinely stated going a little crazy ahdjfkkf. and also the hyperfixation shifted a little, but im determined to post at least the first chapter sometime this year!!

fic i spent the least time on:

For sure paris brest + catacombs. It's 1k, my shortest fic in a long while and I wrote it in like an hour or so, barely edited it before sending it off into the void.

favorite thing i wrote:

a hard question to answer, as always, but i think i'm gonna go with it's the fear not the ghost (that keeps me haunted) bc i always love writing steph. she's my fav girl ever <33. and this fic is generally very dear to me. its actually a pretty old wip, from 2022 or something, that i never actually got to finish, but it was one of my favorite dc fics and i wanted to post it to motivate me to actually go and finish it so!! here's hoping for chapter 2 in 2025!!

favorite thing(s) i read:

FUCK YEAH FIC REC TIME

I'll Be Right There by Smuffly is probably my favorite psych fic i read. it is SO good and really well written. had me invested the WHOLE TIME and i even read it two more times anfkfkfk. i absolutely love shawn's characterization as well as all the other side characters, it felt like it could've straight up come out of the show. the fic was really well-paced and the mystery and intrigue had me HOOKED.

i wonder if your therapist knows everything about me by paperclipbitch is a queen's gambit modern au. I recently rewatched the queens gambit and immediately went on ao3 to read fics. I would sell my left kidney to get the second chapter. I loved their fake marriage au as well, their writing is always sooooo *chefskiss*

More recently: Travelling Incognito by roseveare. its an fma fic I definitely wouldn't have found without my good friend @sassydefendorflower (who has been witnessing my descent into insanity as i watch fma) recommending their stuff. i, personally, am a BIG fan of outsider pov and this one is genuinely so so good. i also really like their other fma fics, their writing style is so wonderful and i love the way they write ed.

writing goals for 2025:

finishing all the ashes in my wake is honestly my biggest goal for this year. motivation kind of died a little bit, and also life got insanely busy for me, but it should calm down a little and i hope i'll have more time to write!! i really haven't had a lot of time to spare for my hobbies like writing and reading and i've been really missing it, so i'm going to make an active effort to write more as well!! i really miss it

another goal is to finally get to 100 works on ao3! i'm currently at 92, and i really think this year will be it 💪

also, and this is something i doubt i'll achieve in only one year, but i'm at about 500k words and i'm aiming for 1 million 🤞

new works:

so many!! i'm working on a prequel series for fmab centered around ed and becoming hero of the people. i also have a more introspective fic in the works focusing on the tma-esque horror of the fact thst ed and ling straight up got eaten and stuck in an endless void full of blood water. fun time!!

i also have another big project lined up, the totmnt farmhouse arc fic i mentioned previously!

tagging @sassydefendorflower @goldenraeofsun @aeligsido @witchofthemoss @pickledcarrotsandradish @a-canceled-stamp @cuephrase <333

[fayedartmouth]

Too many but im a curious person <3

🥸 🫘 🦷 💥 🛏

I'm gonna put my answers beneath a cut because whatever. I talk a lot, lol.

🥸 Does anyone in IRL know you write fanfic or original fiction? If not, do you plan on telling anyone this year?

Yes! Though KNOWING is not the same as letting them read it, and I've gained a significant amount of comfort in telling people that I write and that I write fic over the years. I'm old enough now that I know who I am and what I like, and I'm not super keen to apologize for it. So I've told my sister-in-law that I write it but when she asked to read it, I politely laughed it off and she never brought it up again. I told my daughter (who is 13) I write it, but I'm definitely not ready for her to read anything.

My husband knows and he's read a limited amount of it. If he had the wherewithal, he could easily find my stuff online but he hasn't for whatever reason. He would like me to talk more about it, but that's just hard for me to do. I think it's not so much that I write fic, but like the very specific type of fic that I write. I don't feel like having to explain why I'm obsessed with whumping my faves.

I have one coworker who knows and he does seem to read my stuff from time to time and talk to me about it. Which is surreal and kind of neat. He's been very chill about it and doesn't seem to think I'm a complete weirdo for the fact that I write as much as I do or what I do.

But like people like my parents? They will never know. LOL, never.

🫘 Spill the beans. What's a new project you're doing this year?

I wish I had a new one to talk about it! But I think I've blathered about the big ones already. The fix-it is a huge project for me, and that will preoccupy me for a while. At some point, I have to get back to Best of a Bad Deal Book Three, but I think my goal is to finish the first fic of my fix-it series.

Beyond that, there's nothing "big." I'm writing a Sarah and JJ as siblings fic for a friend, and I've got a bunch of other WIPs. I also have like two-three other really pressing ideas for shorter fix-its I'd LIKE to write but it is unclear if I'd ever have the time.

But yeah, I don't think I have anything dramatically new I haven't talked about.

🦷 Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're dreading to write (but is necessary to your plot)? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

Yes, I think so. With the fix-it, I ended up basically supplementing all of the back half of S4 because I just needed to for context and balance and in my head it was the only way to approach it. My problem is that I don't want to rewatch those episodes at all. In fact, at this point, I don't want to rewatch anything. Writing fic is great -- I'm good with that. But watching the show is still just too hard and I'm not sure I'll ever get to the point where I'll enjoy it again, even in small sections. Which kills me. To never watch Midsummers again? To never watch JJ's hot tub scene again? But it's just hard.

That said, I will do it because I need to ground the fix-it in what we saw on screen. I'd post a snippet but this answer is getting kind of long anyway. If you want more snippets, just ask. I'll share anything.

💥Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're most excited to write? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

Always! I'm excited about so many things. Most of the time, I tend to be most excited about upcoming whump. There's a scene in the second fic of the fix-it that I'm obsessed with but I feel like I shouldn't share it yet because I don't know. It seems like it gives too much away.

So I'll post a snippet at the very bottom here from JJ's recovery bit of the fix-it, when he's holed up in Morocco without the Pogues. Let's just say he's not doing well and his self destructive tendencies become a lot more overt as he takes a knife to his own stitches.

This fic is largely about JJ's downward spiral. The scene below isn't even his rock bottom, the poor guy.

🛏 Is there a new trope you'd like to write this year?

I don't know! I haven't actively thought about it. I think I've been doing fic a long, long time so I feel like I've been there and done quite a few things. I'm also guilty of going back to the same tropes that I love time and time again. So nothing is on my mind right now? But I'm really easily persuaded and I love new idea and new things. I love writing, so being challenged to do something new is always up my alley, even if right now my focus is nearly exclusively on making sure JJ isn't dead.

Here's the snippet:

It wasn’t as much a conscious thought as it was an inevitability.  His fingers were unusually steady as he reached the blade down, catching the first stitch and teasing it out–

And with a single, hard motion, he jerked his hand up, slicing clean through the stitch with surprising ease.  For a split second, the shock was all.  Then, blood welled up almost in protest.  And finally – belatedly – the numb echo of pain as it shuddered through his body.

The pain felt different, though.  It felt good.  It felt <i>right</i>.

At the very least, he decided, it felt real.

His lips twitched up with an unfamiliar rush of satisfaction.  The relief felt like the best kind of high, and it took nothing to catch the second stitch and rip it clean, too.

These quick fixes.  These temporary patches.

They didn’t work.

If they saved his life for a day, two days?  A week?

Even a year?

What did it matter?

They were just prolonging the inevitable.

Everybody knew it.

<i>Everybody</i>.

Luke couldn’t raise him.  John B’s friendship couldn’t save him.  Pope’s sacrifice was lost on him, and Kie’s love would never be enough to redeem him.

His mama had left him.

Groff had seen him, small and needy, and knew it wasn’t worth it.

Now, all JJ could do was let it bleed.

He had to let it bleed out.

There was no one left to hold him together.  He was alone, just like he was meant to be.

So he would take himself apart, stitch–

He cut the next one, slicing deeper with a grimace–

By stitch–

The pain hitched and his breathing tightened as he cut through the next–

By stitch–

The blood was weeping now, covering his abdomen.  He could feel it, trailing down his back and soaking into the sheets.  He watched, morbidly fascinated, as it left him, and the thrum of his heart rose tremulously in his ears.  His cuts were getting sloppier, reopening the wound and cutting into the healing skin.  He didn’t stop, though.  He couldn’t stop.

He grappled at the stitches, pulling the threads clean out of the skin until there was nothing left for his bloody fingers to grab.  His vision began to swim, and he had to put down the bottle to finish the work, pulling out the frayed edges until the blood made it too hard to see and there was nothing left to grab.

JJ exhaled, feeling light headed again.  His fingers were like lead weights as it slipped away from him, and he narrowed his focus as best he could, but it was a fleeting, impossible thing.  It hurt more than he thought it would, but the pain was part of it.  It defined him, and he held onto it as long as he could until he exhaled again.

His bloody fingers fell away.  The sound of his heart grew faint, and he lay there, open and exposed.  It was okay now.  He’d held on too long, he’d fought too hard.  He could let it bleed, let it go.

Until there was nothing left at all.

[languidlotus]

tagged by @aleng-neng. What are my fave top 9 shows in no particular order. (All of these I have at 10/10.) I'll only pick recent shows, as they're the ones I have listed on MyDramaList and thus have a ranking for. XD This means it's mostly bls and cdramas. 1. Moonlight Chicken.

One of my feelgood shows, even though it's still new. It feels comfortable and adult and grounded, with a bunch of amazing actors who are clearly comfortable with each other. As an 'older queer' it resonates with me a lot and I didn't dislike a single thing about it.

2. The Blood of Youth.

A really fun show with gorgeous, engaging characters and the right mix of beautiful scenery, beautiful people, and creative storytelling that I like. Sprinkle in some excellent fight scenes and a bunch of my favourite actors and I'm sold!

3. Old Fashion Cupcake.

I talked about mature stories earlier and this is another one of those. I could see myself in the main lead just a bit too much for me not to love this. Nozue recognizes that he's maybe stuck in a rut and complacent when he doesn't have to be. And, maybe, that handsome junior at the firm could help him get out of it (and make him recognize he's not straight).

4. KinnPorsche.

Look, I know it has its issues. I know. And I know people have an issue with some of the fandom. I get it and for the most part I agree. However, this was the first BL in a long time that I had the urge to write fic for. I enjoyed the complexity of the universe and the characters that much. (Even if some of it didn't make sense. but that's half the fun!) And that's why I like it. It got my brain involved. (And I just adore Tankhun, okay.)

5. Word of Honor.

Years ago I watched a few cdramas and then...somehow forgot about them? (I don't know how I did that.) However, back in 2019 I got back into them and eventually stumbled upon The Untamed. 'This is the pinnacle of cdrama for me and my tastes!' I thought. But then Word of Honor showed up. Look, everything about this show is stunning. The story, the characters, the setting, the clear and unadulterated love between the two main characters. Everything and everyone is beautiful and I've never gone through a cdrama as fast as I did this one. It's beautiful in ever sense of the word. And so, so queer. Don't believe me? Just search 'word of honor cdrama' in the gif section on tumblr and marvel at the art.

6. A Tale of Thousand Stars.

This is not the first Thai BL I watched, but it almost feels like it? Because ATOTS is the first one I remember going crazy about (and it set me on the road to basically loving everything EarthMix are in together). I was super invested and wanted to draw art and everything. It's just such a nice, soft, romantic story and the characters are so fun. This is probably the one I've rewatched the most.

7. Semantic Error.

As you can tell, I generally like stories that feel far away from home. I like magic and fantasy and settings that aren't typical. However, this is one of the few exceptions. I think it's the characters and their journey and the perfect execution of tropes that would have felt stale in any other show. It's a fun story with excellent characters and I get why it's so popular.

8. Mysterious Lotus Casebook.

Technically, I can't say this show is 10/10 yet because it still has a bunch of episodes to go. However, I can tell it's going to get close at least. (And will probably get to 10.) I keep comparing it to a perfect blend of The Blood of Youth and A League of Nobleman, in that it's a fantasy world with a master swordsman who's dying (and begrudgingly adopts a cute puppy who loves him) and a bunch of cases that need solving (to unravel the overarching plot). It's so much fun and the settings + characters are so beautiful. (And I may or may not heavily ship the loyal, eager puppy with the stoic, lying dying man who tries to push him away (and literally abandon him) in an attempt to keep him safe (from harm and heartache).) The hurt/comfort and love against all odds is strong in this one! He gave up his lifelong dream to protect a man who's been lying to him ever since they met and whom is at that point a wanted fugitive!! Because he trusts and loves him so. Also, it has a bunch of very handsome and gorgeous actors/characters in it, whom I love (and who suffer beautifully).

9. ??? I only have 8 shows that I've given 10/10 to (or a prospective 10/10, lol), so I'll just leave you with some other recommended shows that came close! Bad Buddy

Between Us

Choco Milk Shake

Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms

My Only 12%

Ancient Love Poetry

That's it! I invested way too much effort into this, but...it was fun? Sorry for clogging up your timelines with this, though!

[voylitscope]

Catch up tag

Tagged for this one twice @thisonesatellite and @dharmasharks! Thank you so both much for the tag! 💞💖

Last song I listened to: Nightshift -- Smallpools.

Last thing I read: I've been doing this thing where, in addition to working through my TBR, I've been hunting down + reading fics from old fandoms that parts of have lived in my brain for years and years. A couple days ago, I found this fic that I was pretty sure had never made the LJ-to-AO3 transition, but I was wrong. So last night I read this fic for the first time since about 2008.

Last movie I watched: I went to a showing of His Girl Friday last week. I'm always a big fan of seeing classics/favorites in theaters.

Last TV show: I've actually been watching a lot of documentaries lately. Show-wise, so many things I'm interested in have an intimidating-feeling number of episodes. So many of the most recent things I've watched, or even rewatched, have been pretty short-watches. I've been hesitating on committing to watching something with a lot seasons/episodes, ha.

Last thing I googled: My pharmacy's hours, because I've been putting off running over there for, like, three days. Mostly because I've also had a fever for the past few days, so leaving my apartment has been a been a bad idea and also everything has felt like The Most Effort! But. Still.

Last thing I ate: A bagel.

Sweet, salty, or savory: Salty, usually.

Sleep: A nap would be nice, honestly.

Currently reading: I am currently in the middle of several things, but I'm most actively in the middle of Peter Cabot Gets Lost now that @booksandabeer has inspired me to prioritize finishing this trilogy of books.

I feel like I am very late on responding to this, and I don't know who has already been tagged. So I am open tagging it back it out to anyone who wants to do it/hasn't done it yet!

[stupidlittlespirit]

Your most recent post abt writing Ford was so fun to read!

I feel like you just reached into my brain and yanked out a lot of things that I use when I write too! (Although I do write fanfiction, I never really post it anywhere bc it's really just a selfish thing, so no one ever knows lmao)

Esp the parts about familiarizing yourself with the canon material. I do this so much, sometimes I feel like I need to rewatch something even when it was just last week, but I've been thinking about it and writing from it so much that it starts fading in my mind.

And the voice thing! Yes, I do that too! I thought i was the only one as well. It really helps to read back what I've written and imagine it as if it were canon (loosely) so the voice actors are playing it out for me. If this character wouldn't use those words or verbal mannerisms, it goes! Ford is really hard for me to write since he is a wildly complex character that I don't have down pat yet, but im getting there!

Have good holidays, friend. I know being alone for them might be lonely, and I understand. But it may be better to be alone that being around people that aren't kind. (And even if it's only online, I can say I'd be here for you if you ever want to chat.)

❤️

Oh god I'm so relieved it made sense loooool I worry I'm just throwing words at a wall and hoping people will understand what I'm saying sometimes.

The voice thing is so weird, right?! That's exactly the same process as me with the 'playing X scene out and seeing if they'd actually do it' and then changing it if it feels wrong. It's a really helpful way to run dialogue when you have no one to beta with or to test with because you've technically got like 4 people in your head already and they're all having a nice chat haha!

Ford takes time to work with, I think. You'll get him eventually. I have actually thought about showing you guys some of my cringe old fics so you can see how I used to write him but idk man I'm too embarrassed to do it ajdkhsjhs

And thank you so much! I'm actually really enjoying being on my own, I stayed home alone by choice and it's pretty chill actually. Just eating pizza and relaxing, which is much better than being uncomfortable around other people, I agree with you. Plus, I get to talk to all of you guys which is my favourite thing to do!

[craetor]

What are your top 10 favorite media ever (can be anime/manga, tv series, books, movies, games, etc)? Why love them? Thanks ⭐

Hehe thanks for the ask! I'd be happy to comply!

I can't pick dude. If you just want me to ramble about media, I'll start by talking about some pieces that have positively surprised me.

• Spaceman

Tuned in for the hot spider from the instagram clips, stayed for the interesting social commentary. I'm sure it would help a fuck ton of cis men if they just watched it. I loved Hanuš even more than I expected. Turns out an emotionally wise & relatable alien is better than one that would gut me after all.

• Pop Team Epic (season 1 especially)

It's one of those out-of-pocket pieces of media that have a ridiculous production value and passion behind it. Like, genuine production value. It's like anything Studio Trigger has made. An old friend and I were obsessed with PTE during the pandemic and pretty much made it half our personality to like it and other media like it (e.g. Way of a House Husband, nyan neko sugar girls, Backstreet Girls (That was a solid 6/10. Good watch dude). I also have Cromartie High School on my watchlist we'll see how that goes)

Now onto some books & poetry

As some may know from reading my fics & following my Lawlight obsession, I'm a big fan of poetry. I enjoy Goete a lot. He's the only name I've consistently been satisfied by. Naturalism is just my tea, as is pretty plain to see in anything I create. I'm bad at reading due to ADHD but I get it done sometimes. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is insane. Paradise Lost is great. Can you tell I get my book recommendations from Wendigoon? Holes by Louis Sachar reminds me of kids at Wammy's House but also I like it because every plot point in it leads to a perfect circle and I never fail to be amazed by good writing like that.

My favorite music genre is anything that counts as goth music. Sometimes emo if MSI is emo (I know and I'm sorry. Guilty pleasure). Darkwave & Post-Punk are my go-to for over half the year, but I listen to anything if it captures a vibe well. Anything from Mitski & Penelope Scott to Depeche Mode, Twin Tribes, Vestron Vulture & Bragolin to Lady Gaga (empress of my childhood) to Odetari. Oddly enough, however, my favorite band is Glass Animals. Zaba is a masterpiece, but I love several songs from their other albums too (Hot Sugar, Pork Soda, Life Itself...)

I'm not a huge fan of irl shows but I have enjoyed all 6 seasons of Peaky Blinders for the second time last month and have seen Interview With The Vampire a couple months back. That one also left me extremely surprised with how good it was. I've been disappointed by 'queer' stories before. They were scrubbed of any realism and dumbed down to make them more palatable, which I just couldn't watch for the life of me. As you may know, IWTV is the complete opposite of that lol. I've also peeked into Hannibal a couple times. It was good but I don't have time like that.

Animated shows & manga that I enjoy are:

• Death Note ofc

• Kakegurui (I rewatch s1 & s2 every year. Last year twice, I think)

• [Naoki Urasawa's] Monster (animated by Madhouse♡ I've been considering rewatching that too...)

• Paradise Kiss (just hits different in summer. The outro is Do You Want To by Franz Ferdinand. Love that song)

• Madoka Magica (the themes are Crazy.)

• Chainsaw Man (as fucked as they are, Mappa's creative team absolutely devoured. The outros are all incredible)

• Buddy Daddies (>>>>Spy X Family)

• Dandadan is looking pretty good

• The Summer Hikaru Died manga (impressive pacing, stunning art work, stellar character writing👌)

• Over The Garden Wall🎃🍂🌲🖤

• Arcane (a masterclass in character writing)

Aaand • Gravity Falls because it's literally so good, not just as nostalgia

My favorite movies:

• ARRIVAL (man I have to rewatch that)

• every single Pirates of the Caribbean movie (how had I never seen them as a child? Kinda happy about it though. Now i got to enjoy it with my adult mind spoiler-free)

• Princess Mononoke (to the surprise of no one)

• Spirited Away

• Ponyo (the implied 'children can consent' part is iffy but it's magical. My first Ghibli movie)

• Shawshank Redemption

• Disney's Atlantis (yup. That's what I was super into as a child. Had those on cassette. Every Sunday... I'm convinced the whole experience of the misty town from the second movie has singlehandedly made me who I am today)

• Dou Kyu Sei

• Godzilla 2 (THE CGI???? Also I'm a monster enthusiast)

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire

• that fucking Czech Cinderella movie that's on TV every December

Thank you again for the ask, OP🙏🏻 I love sharing these things. Now my arm hurts

[starofhisheart]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR OFMD S2 EP6-7 under the cut

Ok, that was A LOT. I have so many feelings but no coherence so i'm gonna do this bullet point form but def not in order, just in order of me remembering wtf happened lol

-IZZY AND WEE JOHN IN DRAG!!!!! Wee John looked STUNNING with that Divine-esque appearance and Izzy had that transmasc drag king kind of thing going on (iykyk) that made me love him even more

-Izzy singing LA VI EN ROSE took me tf out!!! i'm glad he got to finish it after the *ahem* distractions bc Con's voice is so beautiful I could listen to it forever. We better get it in the album!!! Also someone posted the lyrics translated and i cannot get over the lyrics:

"It's him for me,/And me for him, for life/He told me, he swore to me, for life"

-But not only was he singing the second half had fucking gentlebeard doing the dirty in the next room asdfghjkl which.....was hot, ngl. The passion was electrifying. I'm sorta glad we didnt rlly see it with everything that happened after bc it all kinda left a bad taste in my mouth.

Also Stede Bonnet canonically gets turned on by violence confirmed

Or trauma. Whatever.

-What else happened in ep 6 cause all i can think of is drag and singing and sex-

-oh yeah there was that shortlived sexually-charged torturer who i distinctly recall him being in another scene in the promo so unless that got the cut perhaps he's not dead...?

-Lupete missing all the action cause they were doing the nasty all night lmao so real

-Jim best wingman (gender neutral)

-Stede...Stedey boy, can I call u that? Now i'm gonna say this nicely, but WHAT THE FUCK DUDE? Stede in his white guy w undue confidence era fr. Zheng Yi Sao was so right for what she did truly

-But in all seriousness i feel like this whole thing in ep 7 was such a parallel to s1 but also a very necessary bit of conflict in their journey together that was bound to happen. THey want different things and neither is wrong or right for that. Stede did react poorly tho but like he just had sex w the love of his life, his first man, and Ed the very next day is like "aight i'm out". I'd be pissed too. After killing someone which we know is a big trigger for him historically.

But Ed also had a valid reaction. He's wanted to retire for a while and stede knows this but it hasn't seemed to have sunk in quite yet. He fears that Stede only sees Blackbeard and...its fair of him to have that impression tbh. These are two messy, traumatized dudes who have never had a real relationship and there's gonna be bumps. I hope we get s3 so we can better explore that like Djenks wants.

-Ok back to the fun stuff:

-Izzy barging in on GB and the docking joke. love his cringefail ass.

-IZZY IS HAPPY FOR ED EVEN IF ITS NOT WITH HIM

#growth

-the edizzy apology which was so typical of them. i expected it but bc i'd been building it up in my head all week w twitter pals it felt a bit anticlimactic but thats not the shows fault. it was very much in character and if they're satisfied so am i. i always have fic for more

-stizzy commiserating over losing ed pls thats all i've ever wanted!!!!!

izzy: "when i told him i loved him he-"

stede, like he's heard this story before: "shot u yes"

and the look they gave each other after!!!!! stizzy nation how we feelin?!

-izzy being like "stede no" when he was on his macho bullshit w zheng yi sao (also motivated by trauma bc he just lost ed, he cant lose MORE family!!!). i just like how protective iz seems of stede now.

-izzy''s "you're good for him" CRYING THROWING UP ETCETERA

-ed catching 1 fish and deciding thats his life now. adhd realness fr

-the swede whew is it hot in here or is that just jackie's effect on her husbands?

-jackie and ed actin like old friends. swede highkey shading ed adfghjkl

-anyway im sure there's more but i need to rewatch. there r things i wont go into bc its possible spoilers for the finale (tho its mostly just speculation some is based on bts not everyone may have seen). i am looking forward to and terrified for the show to end next week thats all i'll say

[rockinlibrarian]

Hi Rockin, for the ask game, I want to know about How to Catch Up with Your Therapist!!

1, 2, 3, 5 and 15, or whichever you like!

Thank you! If anyone else wants to ask me stuff, the list of questions is here, and the list of fics is here. I get tickled just knowing somebody knows any of my fics by name, so it's never too late to ask! There are 19 different fandoms featured in that list (granted, some of them are subsets of the same, like "Agent Carter" to "MCU" and "Tolkien--works and related fandoms" to "Lord of the Rings" AND "The Hobbit-- and that last one is crack anyway, but STILL), so I'm sure there's something for everybody!

ANYhoo, another ask for last year's Masked Author submission! Here's the link to my answer for #2!

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I tend to draft in dialogue to begin with, and then I flesh it out with all the rest afterward. But considering this fic is just two people sitting in a room, one of them telling an increasingly over-the-top story, there really wasn't much in the way of stage direction to add. And who needs dialogue tags, when it's pretty obvious when Viktor's the one talking and poor Dr. Miller is mostly just saying, "Oh," a lot, in various tones of voice? So I decided to embrace the dialogue-only format!

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

Okay, hmm. I was going to say that technically all the narration is also dialogue, but there are definitely some bits that it IS Dr. Miller's reactions that are my favorite, so I'm looking through for anything standing out to me and I think I'm going to go with this:

“So that’s when Luther and Sloane announced they were getting married. That evening. Since the Universe was imploding and all. And—imminent demise and all, that was the nicest day I ever spent with my family. With my brothers at least. We had a bachelor party just drinking and doing terrible karaoke, and…I have never felt so completely loved and accepted as part of the family as I did then. One of the boys. The Best Man, even. But, I mean, everyone was— it was a big old love fest. It totally satisfied Luther’s wanting to throw me that Welcome to the Brotherhood party, but it wasn’t about me, it was about us."

It's just so happy on so many layers that it makes me kind of teary, and it's the fact that we're looking at this scene from Viktor's point of view, specifically, and you realize how much that moment meant to him in so many ways.

5: What part was hardest to write?

I'm not sure at this point, but I know there were a lot of parts of the show I couldn't remember properly, and I was between Netflix subscriptions so I couldn't rewatch, so I was working from transcripts which are based mostly on closed captions so they don't give you the settings, the actions, or even sometimes who's talking. There are a FEW scenes I kind of glossed over-- the part in between attacking Allison and killing Leonard sticks out as not entirely accurate for one thing. And the actual events of the first (second?) apocalypse-- I was very vague there, but at least with that I could use the excuse that it was still the most traumatizing event of Viktor's life and HE probably couldn't look at it very accurately or in detail, either.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

That I'm not QUITE as invisible as I think I am, and there WERE some people who remembered me mentioning it in the Elliott's House Discord before I decided to submit it for Masked Author on the basis that no one would remember me! XD

Also and more seriously, it helped me get more of an objective look inside Viktor's head-- ironically enough. Because like I said in the post about him the other day, (and implied in the paragraph before this come to think of it), I've always related to his chronic self-esteem I'm-Nobody-but-I'd-really-like-to-be-Somebody issues, but having to examine his motivations for every little moment of the show helped me separate ME from HIM, and I understand better things HE'D do and feel that I wouldn't.

[distant--shadow]

get to know meme

lil thing where I'll give a bit too much detail so it fills its purpose, honoured honestly to be tagged by three of my favourite writers in this space @sharkodactyl, @unicyclehippo , and @astoriacolumnstaircase - anyone reading this should be reading their works instead.

favourite colour: brown(s), like a mid to a dark tone, i like them to have a bit of red involved. like our old-boy chet, I love the wood. my dream home would be all wood-panelled with built in inlayed and set back shelves and nooks a plenty and yeah just full of brik-a-brak. otherwise my favourite colours are navy blue and greens that are more mixed with blue than yellow, teals and emeralds and once again generally around the mid tones. green makes me very happy. moss and outdoors and all that.

currently reading: fic. haha. (suss my recommend reading tag) I did venture out to my (very) local queer bookshop and asked them for something that won't send me on a spiral if I'm already on one/provide some escapism and they reccomended river of teeth by Sarah gailey. anyone I've said about it to seems real enthusiastic about it, I am not well read at all when it comes to published things, tend to just get really into a few fandom authors works and picking them apart (rereading a lot) . still haven't started it but maybe I'll try take it out to the park in the next week or so. I'm dabbling in reading (and unfortunately writing) poetry thanks to @picturesofthegoneworlds and @blorbotomy 's influence, those mini books are fun to keep on you when out and about, poem or two on a tree stump or boulder with a grand vista and a brain that wants eyes on a phone screen.

last song: last song I consciously (not background music) listened to was:

I went on an early lord snow stint the other night because the air smelt crisp and there was a nice chill. they have remained my favourite heavy (as a broad term) band for a decade now.

I used to have music on all of the time, whether that be cd's at home or in my mp3 player (that I still take out with me) but these days I find listening more of an intentional activity and I prefer to have people just nattering when I'm at home and want background noise. think it's where my heads at and I've just got more sensitive to being overstimulated I guess. I was also pretty good at going to a live gig at least once a week before I did my back in, looking forward to getting into that habit again.

last series: I don't watch much stuff outside of critical role, least other than YouTube videos I'll put on whislt I'm drawing. oh wait yeah I ordered 3 seasons of xena on ebay because it's like a couple of quid a season and it is a real good comfort show and fucking amazing. I hadn't seen it since I was pre teen and it was on day time TV and I'd catch it on sick days. the amount of people I've brought it up to these past few months who've been so stoked to be reminded of it/eager to watch it with me is actually hilarious.

last movie: uhhhh God movies I watch even less. I haven't been to a cinema in over 12 years now, just not my thing, and it's funny caus my mum used to work in the film and TV industry and we had shelves and shelves full of VHS growing up (mostly bootlegged) and she can just ramble about pretty much any early era film up to the stuff from the 80s (when she was working on em) for days. never could sit through em, never felt satisfied with how the story went. guess that's why actual play appeals to me. but saying all this I did rewatch Bound for the first time since I was like 15 last month or so, enjoyed it a lot more than I did back then.

sweet/savory/spicy: savory all day. I am a salt fiend. I used to think I'd be fortunate enough to die from my salt intake. I'll put it on anything. cereal, toast, fruit. I think the other day I noted the one thing I wouldn't put it on, but I can't recall that right now honestly. it's gotta be decent salt too, sea salt or rock salt that has some texture and delicious flavour, I'm not fucking with that table salt shit. I carry salt with me in a mini mason jar everywhere I go, saves when you only have access to bland cold supermarket food. one of my earliest memories is when I was like 6 I had had my daily 1 glass allowance of squash/fruit cordial in my white Tom and Jerry printed beaker with the accordion bendy straw and so when I was pouring myself a glass of water from the tap I put salt in it caus I wanted flavour that would not show through the white translucent container. it's all been downhill from there, although I also, luckily I guess caus otherwise I would be really fucked, do drink a lot of water.

currently working on: myself and healing. hah. I never realised how much paperwork and phone calls came with this maintenance shit. I'm still out of work, and my mental health has taken a huge hit from not being able to do the things I usually would. so right now I'm just trying to keep everything together. I can draw again though, so sorry about that.

I never know who to tag in these things caus I don't think everyone wants to do them. so I'll go with this being open invite as always. hope anyone who read this far is having a good week, and sentiment is still there even if you didn't read this (unless you don't deserve my well wishes, then fuck you.)

[stillbeatingheart]

tag game

I wasn't actually tagged to play by @ms-moonlight-inn but since she tagged one of my fics as something she plans to read this year (thanks for still having that one on your radar, hopefully you get some kind of enjoyment or inspiration or anything other than eek why am I reading this?! from it!), I saw the post and thought the questions were kind of unique (and I'm kinda bored) so here we go 💕

Location: US: Northern Midwest and finally getting some snow 🥳

Astrological Sign: Aries and it often shows

What’s a TV show or movie you plan to re-watch this year?

Rewatch? Hmm... I kind of want to rewatch Station 19 again from the start after the series finale that's supposed to be out this spring/summer.

What’s a book or fic you will probably re-read this year?

Not sure I have any fic that I want to reread, there's still too many on my to read list 🤷‍♀️

Kind of the same answer to the above for books, but I guess I'm about due for a reread of The Glass Castle since my sister got me Jeannette Wall's new one for Christmas. Also it's been awhile since I read Fragile Beasts by Tawni O'Dell and I've been randomly thinking about it again lately.

What is a song you will likely continue to play on repeat?

Deep Satin and Oklahoma Smokeshow by Zach Bryan

What’s a tasty treat you look forward to eating more of this year?

Not to sound like a food weirdo but I'm kinda at a point where I feel comfortable with my regular food intake and there's a lot of things I used to love that don't work for me anymore... but I'll always be someone who chases every meal with something containing dark chocolate

What’s a time sink that you will continue to sink time into this year?

I don't know what's truly considered a time "sink", it sounds kind of like it could have negative connotations if I say my kids but my kids and spouse are the biggest part of my time and I'd like to keep it that way. I haven't written much lately but I'd like to get back in the swing of it. I will sink as much time into the beach as humanly possible once again this summer, like always 😎

Did you pick up any habits in 2023 that you plan to continue?

Not necessarily a habit, but I've been trying to get back into lap swimming lately and I'd like to do that over the winter

What’s your toxic trait?

Being too hard on myself, negative self talk I guess but I don't respond well to positive reinforcement 😂

What is a coping mechanism you will continue to indulge in this year?

Running. Always running until the old body decides it's time to quit.

Tell me something you like about how you look!:

I haven't given up on how I look, but I've given up on caring if I fit someone else's idea of beauty or attractiveness - which has been a lifelong struggle really - and I gave up the gender expectations. It's been freeing to find a place of physical strength that I've never had before and allow it to be about that and only that, not about how it makes me look.

Give me at least three adjectives describing things you like about yourself: thoughtful, empathetic, accepting, and stubborn

Tagging @gnpwdrnwhiskey and anyone who wants to play. 💕

[avatarskywalker78]

🤔👻🦖🫘 - for the New Year writer ask

🤔 Are there any new characters you want to write about?

I'd love to start writing for Star Wars and particularly for the trio - I once wrote a scene with young!Han for a wip but that was years ago and I've never done much for Star Wars since. I'd love to write for Luke and Leia for sure (and Wedge too). And I'd also love to start writing for ATLA and the Gaang, it's just that so far I've not really had many ideas (I think a rewatch is due.)

👻 Is there a new genre you'd like to write?

Actually I'd love to write an epistolary fic - I'm trying to experiment with POVs and writing styles more and it could be interesting to write a fic in letter form.

🦖 Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past that you'd like to return to?

The proper original Thunderbirds - I never published fic but I did write a few scenes for a story, and I'd like to get back to that as it's a show close to my heart. I'd also like to get back to writing for the Super Mario franchise because that was my first fandom and one I regret not having written as much as I'd like for despite have loads of ideas, but I really do want to explore that world more.

🫘 Spill the beans. What's a new project you're doing this year?

This year I'll be working on the Theo Thawne AU - a series of fics focused on my OC Theodore Edward Thawne, the son of Malcolm and Laura Thawne and the second Cobalt Blue, and his experiences with time travel as he gets swept up in the events of the series. It's going to start out in S5 as he finds out just who his old childhood friend Nora has been talking to and races to help her and stop Eobard, and then deals with events like Crisis and Armageddon and the like (won't go into too many details but they're going to be written a lot better), with Theo having to deal with the timeline changes, and it will end in S9, when he comes face to face with his (by 2049) long-dead uncle, which brings up strong emotions for everyone involved.

I won't give too many spoilers, but needless to say Theo's presence in these events will change things - but one event remains the same and it will haunt him across the whole series.

Fic writer ask game

[radarsteddybear]

Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @rose-of-pollux. Thank you!

(I tag everyone and anyone who wants to do this!)

How many works do you have on AO3? 74

What's your total AO3 word count? 222,374 words

What fandoms do you write for? A lotta DuckTales (2017), a good deal of Hogan's Heroes, some Singin' in the Rain, and a smattering of other stuff. Though I'm not really writing DuckTales anymore (nor am I writing the smattering of other stuff).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ducktober 2017 (DuckTales 2017)

Numb (DuckTales 2017)

An Old Letter (DuckTales 2017)

A Phone Call and a Visit (DuckTales 2017)

It All Fades to Black (Encanto)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try to reply to comments left on AO3. Since you have to respond to reviews on ff.net via PM, I find it a lot harder to keep track of which I've responded to and which I haven't, so I usually don't anymore.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Most of my angst comes with a happy ending, and on top of that, I don't have the greatest perspective of how angsty my angst is, but I'm going to go with Exchange (Scrooge has to pay a price to get Lena back from Magica).

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Jeez, I don't know. Most of them have happy endings. The two that come to mind are:

Things My Heart Used to Know (Louie has discovered who he is and not only found his family but also put it back together again)

Ashes (Cosmo gets to live out his happily-ever-after with the two loves of his life, Don Lockwood and Kathy Seldon)

Do you get hate on fics? Not quite hate, but I have gotten complete non sequiturs, people who don't seem to understand that I like to write scenes over full stories, and a couple of arguments over my chosen characterization of a character in one specific story (which I stand by).

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I've never written any, though that doesn't stop me from thinking about them. Lately I've been thinking about Captain Carter visiting the 4077th.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? The closest I've ever come to co-writing a fic was when @eggs-arent-real wrote me a one-shot and I wrote her a sequel. We didn't post it, though.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Probably Cosmo/Don/Kathy from Singin' in the Rain. I'm also partial to Stucky and Aziraphale/Crowley.

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Good question. I've not given up on any of these, mind you, but my Darkwing Duck plot bunnies may fall into this category; it's just that I have to rewatch a significant portion of the show to pull them off, and I have no idea when that's going to happen.

What are your writing strengths? Back in high school, I was told by multiple people that I was really good with imagery. I also tend to like my dialogue, and I've had a lot of practice writing whump and hurt/comfort scenes, so I'd like to think I'm pretty good at those, too.

What are your writing weaknesses? Coming up with full plots (as opposed to random, out-of-context scenes). And also endings. And getting characters from point A to point B without any/much dialogue.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? If that's how a character speaks, then that's how a character speaks. Personally, I try to avoid it unless it's a canon piece of the character and/or it's plot relevant. I think I've only done it for Panchito and Jose of the Three Caballeros. And also Mark Beaks, who canonically peppers his speech with Spanish when talking to Fenton because he is awful.

First fandom you wrote for? Liberty's Kids. There's a good chance I still have it, too, though I'll never post it (I never finished it, anyway).

The first fandom I wrote for and posted was Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which is also the only fic I've ever deleted off the internet.

Favorite fic you've ever written? I've gotta go with these two:

Things My Heart Used to Know

“We’ll meet up in Duckburg,” he heard Scrooge say. “I’ve got a Bin there, and…” Another explosion, the biggest one yet, shook the Bin, and large chunks of plaster fell around them. “We have to go,” Donald said. Scrooge turned to Louie and pressed something small and solid and round into his hand. “Guard it well,” he told him before disappearing into the smoke. Or, Louie gives a new meaning to the nickname “Captain Lost.”

Ashes

Cosmo drinks his sorrows away after Kathy discovers that he and Don are more than just friends.

[soccerpunching]

(if you haven't already answered this before:) how did you get into Ina11 and made you make this blog for it?

I dont think I've answered this before either (correct me if im wrong though). This goes under the cut like all of my long answers to personal asks...

For some context (this is relevant to my relationship with anime and fandom), I used to be nonverbal for the good 11-12-ish years of my life until I was traumatized out of it so now I'm semiverbal ((with like auditory hallucination, anxiety (general and social), depression, ptsd, etc)). I won't tell anything regarding this experience.

It's not really uncommon for Filipinos my age and older to be into anime because this is everything that the afternoon and morning television have for you. You would know naruto, goku, luffy, etc against your will and I was not immune to that. During that time also cable was really common (and was not paid per fucking channel, that started a few years later though) so I used to watch a lot of anime in Hero TV, Animax Ph, Cartoon Network PH, etc i dont remember the others.

I found inazuma eleven and other anime on one of them and got into it immediately (also because of my trauma) but because some personal things have to happen, I started watching all the anime I got into that time on illegal sites instead.

I was not an internet person and i cant get into chats because of the experience I've mentioned above so even though i like anime and have been reading every fanfiction about my fav shows that time and were even writing some of my own (mostly fairy tail and dbz but all are now deleted or orphaned), I never tried to get into any fandom (I am aware of how fandoms are because i had a personal twitter that i only use for rts that time but i never engaged because they were big fandoms who have... issues)... this was all until the pandemic happened.

After the pandemic, it was like people can understand my experiences suddenly and it made me feel like there are safe spaces now for me to be in so somewhere in 2021 I created a fandom tumblr and twitter account at the same time. Tumblr was overwhelming for me initially so I stayed in twitter (this is during my Encanto phase so my twitter has a small following even right now from that small fandom)... it was a so and so experience but it is my first so it was made better because of that small welcoming fandom...

A bit after that, I got into the naruto and dragon ball fandom which was a big mistake because it made me picked up some toxic feelings and even behaviour that I do not want. I tried learning tumblr more and decided that I'll stay here at the moment. I realized that the dragon ball fandom here actually have nicer people and are more mature and critical while being respectful of others so I enjoyed my tumblr stay!! I made a lot of dragon ball posts that gave me great tumblr mutuals that I still talk to to this day even after my dragon ball brainrot is gone.

Before 2022 ended, I needed a break because of some personal matters. I got into inazuma eleven again during this time after rewatching galaxy (i wanted to be inspired by their alien character designs but it had a different effect). It sparked my love for the series and made me reopen some old concepts and fanfic ideas I had for it before (this includes the vent fic I mentioned once where Kidou was evil, Endou was dead, Gouenji was a pediatrician, and Aki was the leader of a rebellion against kageyama's reign with Fudou by her side). And then, I started writing new ones nonstop for about 4 months (80k words for two different fanfic series btw that are both unfinished).

I started following some inazuma eleven blogs in May this year until I feel like I needed to make posts myself at about the start of June. The fandom had the encanto vibe to me with a cross to how old fandoms feel so it was really nice to be here!! And the rest is history ig?? hehe

Sorry for the really long answer and thanks for the ask!

[nebulouscoffee]

🛒✨💖❌🤗

All great questions, thank you!

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

I've noticed a lot of my fics play around with time/perception/reality, whether it's interconnecting flashbacks with the present or having nonlinear and/or unreal shenanigans going on. I think this is because I mostly write ds9 fic, and one of the main fascinations I have with that show is how almost every main character has a somewhat distorted or extraordinary perception of reality!

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

Aww thank you <3 uhhhh well more than one person has commented that I'm good at capturing character voices and sometimes I read my writing and think "hey they're right actually" :)

💖 What made you start writing?

The childhood urge to Make People Up and then Put Them In Situations! Fanfic specifically, it went like: pandemic -> ds9 rewatch -> unexpected obsession with the doctor lizard ship I somehow never cared about before -> getting into fanfic for the first time (I'd only occasionally read gen fics before, or b/7 lol) -> wanting to process complicated feelings I was sitting with & feeling inspired by some incredibly good fics I'd read -> voila we got 'Home'

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

Haha I've learnt to never say never, I mean if you'd asked my early 2021 self if I'd ever attempt writing romance or ship fic you'd've gotten a resounding "lmao no???" and we all know how that went

... I guess, demonising and/or killing off a character just to get OTP together? (Not a "trope" but definitely a trope y'know😂)

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

KILL 👏 THE 👏 CRINGE!! 👏 (or embrace it, whatever works :D)

Never forget you're doing this for fun! And for FREE! You don't owe anybody anything! Not so much writing advice as outlook-towards-your-writing advice, but (as long as your fics aren't like. racist or otherwise harmful lol) be proud of yourself and all your babies!

As time passes, you will inevitably come to look at your first works differently. This is where you must be vigilant against the cringe😂

Instead of "my older work is bad", think "I hadn't written much fanfic yet so I wasn't as good as I am now, and it's so cool that there's actually visible improvement"

Instead of "this fic is sooo out of character I hate it now", think "I wrote this back when I read the characters differently"

Instead of "I can't post this thing until it's perfect", think "I've gotten so used to improvement my standards are just unattainably high now, but the people reading liked what I wrote back then because something about it was good, and they'll probably like this too"

Instead of "I hate that my cringey old fics are still being read by people", think "This thing I created out of love and shared to connect with fellow fans brought them joy, and is still bringing people joy even after I've moved on, which is really cool of me actually"

Always remember your target audience is fellow obsessives with brainrot, NOT snarky people on the internet who don't care about the stories you're telling (esp if they don't even write fic! They'd never understand how hard it is to put your work out there.) Like 90% of the time when something's called "cringe", it's really just... sincere? Well, fanfic is literally a medium where people care about a show so much they voluntarily write tens of thousands of words for zero profit. It doesn't have to be good; there's published literature for that. People come to fanfic for the passion!

Don't write your blorbo with the main goal being distancing yourself from the basic girlies who like them wrong. Don't water down your favourite dynamics to cater to the people who "don't get" your ship. Fully unhinged fan content made out of love and Too Many Emotions will ALWAYS be better than painfully self-conscious works that are too afraid to be sincere imo (I don't read much smut but I'm sure this applies here too- just commit to it fully and people will find it hot! Nothing kills the vibe like being able to tell the fic writer was embarrassed they were writing this lol.)

Doesn't matter if you're writing for a rare pair that most people just go ??? at, or a popular character/pairing that's slowly starting to get hate because it's everywhere- don't be afraid to be sincere. Be fully and unapologetically insane about your obsessions and never ever get baited into being cynical about your work. Be true to yourself and have fun with your weirdo friends, and your fics will reflect that <3