#like one of the aus in a fandom that drives me nuts is that like i said they keep for one putting the rich boy as peter which is digjia

[kyri45]

✨ISAT Sky: Cotl!AU Q&A (22-09)✨

Welcome to the Q&A! A space where I can answer related or similar question about the ISAT Sky: Cotl!AU! If you submitted your ask anonimously, then you’ll have to check the whole post if it’s answered here, if it’s not, worry not! Your asks might have been used for a future comic or just in the queue~

Anonimo ha chiesto:Hey your ISAT Sky: COTL crossover comic is what got me to try out sky, it's pretty fun even if players approaching me is a bit intimidating for my socially anxious self. The comic itself is pretty nice too and thank you for getting me into such a cute looking game :3

Thank you so much!!!♥️♥️♥️ sky is wonderful, it became my personal happy place!

@lunarmoff ha chiesto: Hello!! Hi, you probably have a lot of asks in your box but I wanted to thank you for getting me into isat! I first read your Isat sky au when I was in the sky fandom and I loved it even though I didn't know the characters at all! Now that I've gotten into the fandom and gotten to know the characters, I understand your au a lot more now. I love your art style and how you added a bunch of peoples sky kids into your story! I myself would have given you my sky kid but I found your comic a little to late to give them to you. Just know that I love your comic, and I can't wait to see how it ends!!!

AAAAAhhhhh that's awesome!!!So gad that you like ISAT! It's an emotional rollercoaster but it's soooo good!

@a-tired-human-draws-junk ha chiesto: I've been reading ur sky cotl x isat au and its driving me NUTS isat is a newer brainrot for me and sky is an OLD one like I havent played sky properly in over a year and you dragged me back into the game w ur comics DURING THE SEASON OF DUETS and I've been playing daily so I can get stuff AND I CANT BELIEVE AN ISAT AU IS WHAT DRAGGED ME BACK TO CANDLERUNNING HELL /lhj Anyways love the sky cotl x isat comics I see siffrin is still an idiot (Also I cant stop imagine siffrin honking at his family like a goddamn excited moth while running around them goofily as per average sky kid interaction and the mental image is so funny)

ASDFGHJKL YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I NEED SIFFRIN TO JUST- ACT LIKE A GOOFY EXCITED AND INNOCENT SKY KID AGAIN. HE'S JUST A LITTLE GUY!!!! HE DESERVE ALL THE HAPPYNESS AND FLUFF IN THE WORLD AND I'M HERE TO GIVE IT TO HIM (after I made him suffer hell of course)

@o-rainknight-o ha chiesto:I just want you to know that I love your art! It's so beautiful!Your LMK AU is amazing. I haven't played Sky in a while and I've never played ISAT but my sister has, so I know a little about it. It's also very pretty the way you draw it.Make sure not to overwork yourself too! We are all strangers here but a lot of us care :)

Ty!!!! I hope you get the chance to play sky as well!

@scarftale-bryan ha chiesto: Why did the lads skip the plains and wasteland?

cause I don't have the time or will to draw all 6 the realms. And also cause geographically, I don't know where the wastelands could be placed in Guadeloupe

Anonimo ha chiesto:

crying wailing throwing up over isat cotl i love it so much

AAAHH TY!!!

@puppetxtheatre ha chiesto: I don't even like sky but your comic was so good it convinced me to play ISAT and now I'm in love with the game thank you

WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HELL/pos

Anonimo ha chiesto: is it bad that i keep tricking myself into believing your isat comics are canon?

omg I myself have to do it otherwise I would just go insane over the fact we will never have comfirmation to what happened to the forgotten island

Anonimo ha chiesto:I don't know anything about children of the sky (is that the name???) but I really like ISAT and I ADORE your comic. I'm so pumped to see all them colors and pretty stuff in your awesome style

Thank you! Me as well omg you have no idea (even though then panels will take double the time to color

@kestrel-bee ha chiesto: Hihi!

I’m loving your Shadowpeach AU, loving the current angst :]

but when going through your profile I saw your ISAT x COTL AU, which reminded me of the fact that I’d been intending to buy ISAT for a long while, so I finally did.

That was yesterday and I am now 6hrs in. Thank you for the new hyperfixation material 🙏

LMAO THAT WAS ME. THE FUCK (I finished the game in 3 days.)

Anonimo ha chiesto:I would just like to say I am in LOVE with the way you draw the sky kids! This is making me inspired to draw my sky kid!!

Thank you!!!

@sunsetcannon ha chiesto: Considering I am both an ISAT fan and a Sky fan I'm going to be permanently rotating this AU in my head like it's a microwave so thank you for that

And I need you to know that unfortunately you'll remain in said microwave for a lot more/pos

@selfdestructivecat ha chiesto: Hello! I have a question about your ISAT: COTL AU comic! So Nesting guide was there! Does that mean that Season of Nesting had already happened in this universe? Presumably Season of Revival will be happening once the dust has settled on this comic and everyone works on restoring Aviary Village, so does that mean that Revival happens after Nesting in this timeline? And will Duets, the most recent season, also have happened before Revival? (I’m just very happy because now my skid, a nesting moth, canonically can exist in this au! XD)

You can find the timeline of the AU here!

[yellowmagicalgirl]

YellowMagicalGirl's Femslash February 2025 Wrap-Up

It's the first day of March, and for the first time I have made it through all of Femslash February while having completed every prompt! The vast majority of these fics are drabbles, with five double drabbles, one triple drabble, and a single fic above 500 words. All fics are rated G or T (individual warnings can be found in the tags), and can be found on my tumblr as well. These fics have been formatted as follows:

Title + AO3 Link | Fandom | Ship | Prompt(s) (which could come from either @femslashfeb's or @ministarfruit's prompt lists)

Blood in the Snow | This is How You Lose the Time War | Red/Blue | Frost

Heart Over the Horizon | The Locked Tomb | Griddlehark | Horizon & Heal Me

The Downsides of No Longer Being a Tower Prince | The Locked Tomb | Griddlehark | Fracture

Drive the Monster Far Away From Here | Nimona (movie) | Gloreth/Nimona | Hate Me

Checklist for a Date | Winx Club | Bloom/Stella | Picnic

The Princess's Requisition | Arcane: League of Legends | CaitVi | Bow

One Way of Being Useful | Tales of Arcadia | Ajaire | Hold Me

Vase Acting as a Vessel? | Tales of Arcadia Barbmura | Ghost

Kings and Princesses | First Kill (TV) | Caliette | Coworkers AU

Dear Old Mother, You May Safely Trust My Word | Tales of Arcadia | Barbmura | Trust Me

Her Favorite Shade of Red | The Legend of Vox Machina | Cassleth | Vine

A Letter Sent in Wires and Pollen | This is How You Lose the Time War | Red/Blue | Find Me & Blanket

My Heart Would Only Ever Beat For You | Tales of Arcadia | Barbmura | Pulse

towers falling all around us (we rarely become heroes) | Khyber Shards | Kara/Nisaria | Save Me & Crush

when our memories have begun to ring with boredom | Tales of Arcadia | Marynon | Forget Me

Contains Choking Hazards | Winx Club | Bloom/Stella | Doll

I, Agnes, Take You, the Borg Queen Who Assimilated Me | Star Trek: Picard | Borgnes | Marry Me

Rite of Remembrance | Khyber Shards | Thora/Lonnie | Remember Me

Look on the Light Side | Super Suits | Bonnie/Cole | Glow

Welding Back the Pieces | RWBY | Nuts and Dolts | Puzzle

Bid my blood to run | Tales of Arcadia | Barbmura | Shadow (and also Bring Me To Life if you squint)

A Collective Built on Leather, Crystals, Glass, Pearls, and Jade | Star Trek: Picard | Borgnes | Married

Walking Directly Into My Heart's Trap | Khyber Shards | Kara/Nisara

All Star Heathens | Crossover: The Locked Tomb and Arcane: League of Legends | Gideon Nav/Vi | Understand Me

As the Muse Eats the Pomegranate | First Kill (TV) | Caliette | Myth

Dreams of Two White Dresses | Tales of Arcadia | Clairy | Kids

How Many Decades of Hiding (Stash the Proof, Hide the Evidence) | Winx Club | Blicy | Be There for Me

Body Temperature Restored | The Locked Tomb | Griddlehark | Warmth

And now, because I am a massive nerd who does data science for a living, have some statistics! (Which I'm putting under a cut since this post is already long enough.)

The twenty-eight fics linked above total to 3,952 words. For comparison, I published a little over 39k to AO3 in 2024. February was certainly a rather productive writing month for me.

On average, I wrote 141.1428571 words each day, with a standard deviation of 93.9048585 words. (This does not count words written for other fics). For a daily view of the wordcount and running average, please see the graph below:

If we ignore the rather large outlier that is the Videon fic, we instead get an average wordcount of 125.9259 with a standard deviation of 51.58662 words.

I published to 12 unique fandoms (not counting the crossover). I tagged them in order of which fandom has received the most fics from me. This way, if this post only shows up in certain fandom tags and not others, it's more likely to show up in the tags that received more fics.

The fandom that I wrote the most fics for was the Tales of Arcadia series, while the fandom that I wrote the most words for was The Locked Tomb if we sum both the 500 words dedicated to Griddlehark and the 552 words dedicated to the crossover ship I call Videon. This crossover fic was also the longest fic I wrote for Femslash February.

I did not keep a count of this, so I cannot share the statistics for it, but I'd argue that my most mistyped word this month was femslash. I kept trying to type femsalsh instead.

[strawberrystepmom]

hello kendall !!! i hope you don’t mind me dropping by to visit 🥹🌸 i’ve been enjoying seeing you talk about dante on dash even if i am not too familiar with him or the fandom— but i was wondering if you have a list of your current fav characters? i am just very curious and love hearing about people’s favs— even your top 5 or 10 that have been occupying your mind and what made you fall for them if you’re comfortable giving more information!

💗 i hope you have a delightful wednesday ^^;

hi vana <33333333 i hope your wednesday has been the loveliest! i hope the sun is shining! i hope the birds have chirped! i hope you have enjoyed something very tasty and memorable!

my list of favs is many and long im crying but the usual suspects are:

senku ishigami from dr. stone - i have a love/hate relationship with him most of the time but it's only because i appreciate him so deeply LMAFOEIJFLSKJF im so ungrateful. i originally fell for him bc i love nerds and will fuck nerds until the day i die. i appreciate his big heart even though he keeps things close to his chest and the idea of real feelings makes him wanna gag. something will always be so dear to me about a man that is ill behaved with a big heart.

i have several au's with senku but the main one diverges from the canon storyline and he and his friends end up at a settlement in california set up by me and my friends. my si/oc is an agriculture expert and he and i go back and forth on science, life, sociology, the future all the time.

gen narumi from kaiju number 8 - my skrunkle cat.........where do i even begin? he enchanted me from the minute he started being unhinged for zero reason. like he's wound SO tight despite appearing as someone kind of laid back and relaxed and i think about it so often. a capricorn nightmare aka my day dream. my si/oc in this universe is a seismologist and we date online for a very long time before it becomes a real life thing. i also have a couple of au's with him - knight/princess ofc and omegaverse.

satoru gojo from jjk - i cried every day for three months just thinking about him and had to really figure out what that was all about. man of all time. even talking about him makes me feel like im literally stripping naked for you guys to see so i have to stop myself bc he makes me crazy and unwell. my oc/si in that universe is a teacher who went to school with him in nanami's class. there is a million years of drama and like 10 straight years of being off and on but yeah. it's a lot.

yami sukehiro from black clover - i watched black clover for the first time this summer and fell so disgustingly hard for this man i dont think i've ever looked so dumb in all my life. he's big, he's brash, he's Daddy energy embodied and he drives me nuts. my si/oc in that universe is a noblewoman who works as a spymaster for the wizard king and yami and i secretly sleep together because im horny, unmarried, and wanna "practice" to be a good wife. little did i know that would be the man im being a good wife for. life comes at you fast!

and ykw since we mentioned him let's give a shout out to mr. may cry himself...

dante from devil may cry - idk what the fuck has possessed me but the minute i saw this man i said man that sucks bc he's for me. i denied him for months (i did this with gojo too everyone will tell u) and was like im not getting into this bc i know I KNOWWWWW and i was warned and here we are.

what i love about dante is that he is a true believer in good. despite how shitty his life is, despite all the trauma and horrors he has been put through, he believes in people. he believes in love. he's compassionate and protective and silly and sure of himself and wiuehgwaioejfalwjf that's cat nip to this lil kitty kitty. like i didn't wanna speak too soon and sound insane but he is kind of soloing the rest of my harem bc tbf he's everything i like about the rest of them with huge arms and pecs to boot. i am just a woman vana.

[werecat1234]

Hi me is here for the ask game :3

Question 21, 22 and 25 for the MTT?

Alright! I'll sort the answers into each character here!!

Killer:

21: My favorite thing to do for him is to be teasing, or just to have him alternate between seriousness and childishness, be it from mood swings or something else, along with his soul stages. Also angst with Nightmare or trauma from Chara. My least favorite thing to do for him is writing hallucinations of the others of his AU, be it victims or of Frisk and Chara, for the pure reason of it's very overwhelming.

22: Oooohhhhh this is a good one! Ok for Killer, I love when people go in depth on his trauma, be it from Chara or from Nightmare, and when they write his breakdowns or thought processes accurately. Even the hallucination scenes, because I may get overwhelmed, but I love to read it! I hate it when people pass up on him being extremely smart outside of emotions. Like, he doesn't understand others' feelings, but otherwise he's extremely intelligent, and I feel there's so many missed opportunities with him! Other than that, it's mostly when he's extremely mischaracterized.

25: First impression.... Hmmm... ok this is a bit difficult. In the beginning, I always knew he was complex, and I did a lot of research when I got into the fandom. I originally saw similarities and sometimes confused things with him and Dust, but this was very early on, and I was going off of Gacha reaction videos, and then I found the encyclopedias in the comment sections, then I got into the source comics, and then I kept digging and I'm still finding more information. I can't remember what I really thought of him at first other than I liked his character, but now I know how much more in depth he is and I feel I can better understand how complex he really is.

Dust:

21: Favorite thing to write for Dust is mental breakdowns, arguments/conversations with Phantom Papyrus, or for him to act differently between different characters to show off dynamics. Least favorite thing... Figuring out when to use all of his abilities since in MM he can copy the abilities of the boss monsters he kills, and figuring out which abilities he has and how he uses them can be difficult.

22: Alright, I love in fics when he's the angsty alcoholic/smoker that can either be chill or calm to talk to, or he can be crazy and just a paranoid bastard. When he's written in his AU, going through his thought process is insanely fun to read, along with the breakdowns and everything else! Something I don't like reading from Dust? Easy, him being a silent emo who says very little.

25: For this, my first impression of him was "oh hey, he's pretty crazy but also awesome!" and while that's changed overtime as I've found out more information, it can usually depend on if it's Murder or Dust being portrayed. For Murder, I love the character, and I love Dust's character too, it's just when he's characterized as an emo it drives me nuts, and I'm honestly partial to a Canon Dusttale Sans more than anything, which can be extremely difficult to find, but other than that I still love his character and his design.

Horror:

21: Favorite thing to write for Horror has gotta be his overprotectiveness, his temper, his insults since he sometimes doesn't have a filter when upset, and his mental breakdowns. It's been really difficult for me to find out his personality and characterization in the past, so still figuring that out has to be one of my least favorite things to do, since he's bipolar and can change on a dime.

22: What I love when reading fics for Horror has to be his paranoia, along with his mood swings and messed up thought processes. Like, I try and give him overprotective qualities, since he can be extremely protective, especially when it comes to his brother, and he also has very good leadership skills, like how he leads Snowdin for the most part and is responsible for their food source. Sometimes him being feral/animalistic is also super fun to read, but there's a fine line between rational and feral not many people have done. Something I dislike in fics? When he likes eating humans or when he's written as a super nice guy, because he's not! He's a hypocritical jackass I have to fight tooth and nail to react to things how I need him to, and I need to play off of several other personality traits in order to get everything to play out!

25: Alright, this one's fun. At first, I didn't know much about him, and I'm honestly still figuring things out. Like, at first I was like, "Gore, cool!" Then it was like "When he has food, he's more like Sans and will probably be more understanding" (He's not. He's still an ass, he's just less likely to chop your head off if you offend him). As I learned more about him and read through Horrortale, he's gotten more complex, and I can make sense of his character in a way, even if I'm not the best at writing it, but all in all he's still a very interesting character to me.

[bittersweetresilience]

sunny's year half year in review

because i am all about that self celebration 👏

achievements

🏅 joined a fandom 🏅 got married (🌖) 🏅 made friends (🏮🌺����🍜🍀🕊️🦌🧬💤🦎🦭☄️✍️🪨🪶🦚💝🎞️🪄🍞) 🏅 learned new things (📸🪡📑) 🏅 sunnyscrambles

creations

an ongoing amélie dissertation in sentitwin soulmate au. next chapter will be posted on new year's day and will feature art from @moonieratty!

félix and amélie webweaves. my favorites that i've made! all literature is from my graham de vanily reading lists.

ladynoir amv. so many episodes in this. my storage space...

multifandom webweave. the first one i made and still very important to me!

i entered a feverish haze after @nemaliwrites's remixes introduced me to a softer world and the result was Feelings.

my favorite fic i wrote this year. mind the trigger warnings.

recommendations

running in the shadow

i cannot describe how much this fic means to me. i left hundreds of messages during my liveread and i wept all through my comment and my reblog and still it's not nearly enough. it's one of my favorite gifts, one of my favorite fics, and one of my favorite works of art i've ever seen. thank you to @wackus-bonkus-maximus for being a role model, an inspiration, and my first fandom friend.

i love you (for senti-mental reasons)

as the head of the as time goes by pr team, i would be remiss not to recommend something from this series! félix in this universe makes me turn into dynamite. second recommendation is betcha on land (they understand). i'm a big fan of @redundant-lava, you see.

i know there's been pain this year (but it's time to let it go)

what's there not to like about @ninadove's sentitwins? her christmas fic blew me away. i love her creative costume designs, her references to classics and video games, and her accompanying fic art. honorable mentions to la nuit, tous les chats sont gris and everything i did (i did for you).

bon voyage

one of the original highlights of my summer. the dream sequence in chapter four blew my mind. the way this fic was planned to end drives me nuts in the best way.

bell the cat

the single most amazing fantasy au i've read. i'm regularly awed by how incredible it is, and awed by @heartfulselkie's writing, art, and person in general. if i learned how to bind books, this would be at the top of my list. i keep saying it because it's true.

thirteen

our monthly dosage of pain, exquisite backstory exploration, and gorgeous @anna-scribbles prose. i'm always a sucker for pre-canon and this is The fic for adrien pre-canon fans. christmas félix will make me explode.

a rose by any other name

i love everything @asukiess makes but shoutout to loveybug au for being such a fun and creative time for the lovesquare fandom. this fic also comes with the loveyvelours art of all time. the other day i started thinking about kuro neko unprompted. autumn is in my brain...

phoenix félix

this isn't a fic, but i'll never miss a chance to scream about art by @luckychatons. phoenix félix is immortalized in my discord profile picture. i'm blessed to receive secret félix doodles and catsona designs on the down low!

moonie

just scroll through their entire art account. everything they make is an eye feast, and they haven't even posted the half of it. my partner and creative inspiration. the moon to my sun. buy them a coffee for always supporting dead girls club.

[shrinkthisviolet]

🌵💌🧃🌿🥐🧩

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

Playlist made by one of my besties 💞 I trust her opinion on Maiko above pretty much anyone else's (esp since she and I align on a lot of things). She's also my only significant tether to the ATLA fandom tbh 😅 when I finish the Bumizumi AU one day, it will be because of her encouragement

💌 ⇢ how many unread emails do you have right now? 

None! I’m very on top of things like that lol unread emails drive me nuts

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

I once stole a classmate’s address book in like…4th grade because she’d been making fun of me and I wanted to get back at her. I even took a Sharpie and crossed out all her contacts in there and put mine in 😅

This would be atypical of me now, but it was even more atypical of me back then—I was painfully shy and quiet, and it totally threw my teacher for a loop, understandably

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

I think in general, for writer’s block, you can’t force yourself past it. Either switch to a different project, or step away from it for a little while. Read something else, watch something else—get your creative juices flowing, but in a way that doesn’t put pressure on you. I’ve often gotten my creativity jumpstarted, or gotten some small ideas here and there, because of a book I read or show I watched—trust the process!

Because really, if you really just Cannot do that project, then no amount of slamming against the wall will break it down. You gotta wait for a shovel to dig under it, or a way to go around it. You cannot brute force yourself through a wall (and by trying, you’ll just exhaust yourself more). So save yourself the effort of trying—at some point, the muse will return, and it’s okay to wait a little while until it does.

Alternatively, specific to fic-writing: if you’re stuck on a particular scene, try erasing the past few lines, or the past scene entirely (you can put it in your fic graveyard/snippets doc, which is a good thing to have for situations like this) and rewrite it. That often fixes the problem (and if so, this counts as the shovel, or the way around the wall). But if it doesn’t…see above: you’ve hit a wall, and it’s okay to take a break from the project for a while!

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh

Anything from vine 😂 especially “fre sha voc ado” and “road work ahead? Um, yeah, I sure hope it does!” Also almost of Thomas Sanders’s old vines, they crack me up EVERY TIME (I highly recommend going on YT and looking up old compilations - there's at least a few that'll get even the most stoic person imo. Though I could be wrong)

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Ooh well “click away from” implies that it’s already a fic that passed the ship and tags check, so nothing about those.

A lack of paragraph breaks would do it. Or if the author throws in a ship I dislike (untagged/“minor”) or untagged and unwarranted character bashing. Things like that

writer truth or dare ask game!

[reanimated-owl]

Alt!

x

((EHEHEHE THANK YOUUUUUU

under a readmore for the sake of not clogging anyone's dash; i wont put EVERY character i've done but I wanna talk (i.e. ramble) about a few of them

Past Characters:

Xe/phos (Yo/gscast) (slashes to avoid appearing in tags)

Oh man. I think this was the first character I ever made an RP blog for. From what I remember, Xep/hos was an alien/human thing that worked with a couple other people.

In/k Sa/ns (undertale AU)

I know, I know, AUs are polarizing. I happen to enjoy a lot of them, and Ink's probably one of my favorites. The problem is that he's not really portrayed correctly by the vast majority of the fandom... I think he's also only an AU by name only, the original creator I believe has since made him more into an OC? This is one I didn't have a specific blog for, but I did RP him on Amino and technically ran a ship blog with a former friend of mine.

Glitchy (Port/al)

So... Po/rtal is a HUGE interest of mine. I actually set up a blog (I still have it, actually), but I don't think I ever used it. Glitchy's a core from a series on Youtube; his whole thing is that he doesn't know what his purpose is, so he does all sorts of things to find it. He's also known for spontaneously bursting into flames ('Glitchy' is actually a nickname given to him by the other cores).

Fun fact, this is where I got the name 'Glitchy' from; I thought it sounded cool and I desperately needed a new name for the Internet lol.

Virgil (PS/M)

Another core, because I love me some robots. He's a maintenance core, so his entire job is fixing the other robots and the test chambers. Glitchy is a frequent flier of his repair wing. Virgil is a very snarky guy, but for some reason everyone thinks of him as a cinnamon roll who did no wrong and it drives me NUTS (I have an ongoing list of instances of virgil being an asshole for this reason). There are a lot of really good android designs of him out there, too.

Finally, character(s) I'd like to do in the future:

Med/ic (TF/2)

So... this is kind of my current hyperfixation, lmao. I don't know why I latched onto this guy, but I did. He is the reason I am currently learning German. He's a (formerly) licensed physician whose entire role is just keeping the rest of the team alive. He likes doing experiments involving non-human organs. He also keeps a flock of doves that he just lets... fly around his OR. He is a liiittle bit on the crazier side, but he is still really smart and he does try to help others. I'm also making a costume for him rn and it's... gonna take a while :(

[spockandawe]

hello! i came across your wips button and i wonder if youll ever go do them? the transformers ones sound super good!!

That.... is an excellent question and one I'm not super equipped to answer! The boring downer angle is that I've been horribly, immovably blocked on art and writing for a long while now, and it drives me nuts trying to shake that AND i rarely have any luck. I know i can write pretty darn well, and I can do it FAST, there was a hot minute where i successfully held myself to uploading at least one piece of art or writing per day. That pace was never going to last, my art got better and my fics got longer, plus i went from languishing in the falling action of grad school to having an actual job, which was both a less flexible schedule and also more money to explore other hobbies. But that period of my life really drove home how important that rhythm and periodicity is to me, and i haven't been able to recapture that in years.

As it is right now, if i manage to finish anything, it's only going to happen with either a fandom at the VERY very forefront of my mind (svsss or the raksura core au right now), or with an idea too fresh and good and crunchy to resist, independent of fandom (there's a dungeon meshi idea lightly haunting me). Transformers is a remarkably good playground, I love it SO much, but it's been years since I reread any significant part of it, so the ideas aren't flowing. I trust my old ideas, but if the canon isn't fresh, or I'm not actively talking about it, the spark is unlikely to catch. There's an off-chance of me reacting to an idea in some other fic via a medium of transformers smut, but I'm also struggling to read right now too 🥲

But! But!!!! A thing ive noticed and that drives me bananas is that when i move, the shape of my hobbies changes. I vibed really well with writing in NJ and MA, and COMPLETELY lost the ball when i relocated to VA. I cross-stitched in NJ, faded in MA, and lost it in VA. I bookbound like nuts in VA, but i just did a local move, and I'm no longer getting the reaction of 'I'm idle, I should make a book.' I don't know where things will go, first was a rush to unpack my boxes, then was a rush to learn to paint a room, and now my home is full of jumbled furniture and objects and I'm so overwhelmed that all I want to do is lie in bed and level grind in video james.

Teal deer, i can't tell what hobby is going to take center stage now, and it's driving me nuts. But it could be writing! I'm much more confident about my writing than lots of other creative endeavors. I also want to revisit canon for a lot of old fandoms. I think the wip list predates my cnovel phase, but i have two beefy svsss wips, and at least two short ones, and two aus I'd love to flesh out. I have raksura core writing. I have a tf bookbinding project that's been languishing for. 1.5 years. But if i can find my momentum, I'll be diving back into canon. And i really think 5-10k of hard weird emotional smut really is my wheelhouse. I wish so hard i could recapture that energy! This is a response much longer than it needed to be, but just imagine me as the WHY ARE YOU CLOSED meme at my own brain, and much more confused and frustrated than anyone else that I don't write anymore 🤣

[ryehouses]

i was tagged in this by @bobafett, who wants to bring back ask box games! this was really fun and really helped drive home the fact that i am maybe a little too wordy!

y'all know the drill. copy, paste, fill in your own answers! feel free to share!

How many works do you have on AO3? impossible for me to say because i have shed ao3 handles like a particularly robust hermit crab, but if i'm just counting everything under iridan, thirteen!

What’s your total AO3 word count? ......1.3 million, as iridan. if we throw in some of my other psueds and the truly awful eragon fanfiction i wrote when i was fourteen, we're probably loking at 2 - 2.5 mil.

What fandoms do you write for? presently, star wars, jujutsu kaisen, star wars again. i have some witcher fic in my gdocs and older projects in rdr2, dishonored, anything that can catch and hold my attention for long enough for my brain to produce a bit of dopamine,

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? all five of them are in the ast 'verse except for lost country

Do you respond to comments? i try to, but it's really hit or miss! i am painfully shy and usually can only go '!!!!!' in thanks

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? of my completed fics, none! i am not really in to the angst ending. if i ever do get around to finishing it, i started a dishonored/his dark materials au that would have ended with corvo going slowly, gently nuts and taking over the outsider's place in the void

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i like happy endings, so all of them!

Do you get hate on fics? occasionally. i still think about that one commentor on ast who accused me of blaming the jedi for order 66 like, all the time. mostly no, though, everyone is really nice!

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i've been told that 'wrestling as nasty foreplay' is something of a signature move of mine, so! 1) yes and 2) whatever kind of smut 'wrestling as nasty foreplay' applies as

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? yes, but almost exclusively his dark materials crossovers. i do have a witcher/temeraire fusion au sitting in my gdocs

Have you ever had a fic stolen? no, not that i'm aware of. i do semi-frequent google searches to see if my shit pops up anywhere.

Have you ever had a fic translated? i don't think so! ast was podfic'd, if that counts.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? i don't think so, because i am a whole idiot and am hard to collaborate with.

What’s your all time favorite ship? of ALL TIME? impossible to say. i am inconsistent and flighty. bobadin hit me pretty good, though

What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? haha too many. i started a jedi!din fic and didn't get far. i've had several WIPs on ao3 sit without an update for years. i have drafted, redrafted, and drafted again a novel that will most likely never see the light of day. finishing even one of those would likely water my crops for several years

What are your writing strengths? i take particular pride in my settings! somebody on ao3 told me last week that i have nice turns of phrase, too, and i am proud of those too

What are your writing weaknesses? i have never once said anything in six words when i could say them in six hundred million billion instead

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? obviously i've experimented in various projects, but i am fundamentally kind of lazy and prefer to sprinkle in a few words here and there instead of spending the time to learn about another language's grammar structure

First fandom you wrote for? the first fandom i published anything in was eragon, way back in the day! the first fandom i wrote for was his dark materials, in a composition notebook in like the fifth or sixth grade!

Favorite fic you’ve written? could not possibly pic! they are all like my children and also my therapist.

i'm tagging @meyerlansky and anybody else who wants to participate! consider yourself invited!

[jazwritesalot]

My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark

Pairing: None - General Pairing Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 2,219 Tags: Alternate Universe - No Quirks, Band AU, Mild Language

Link to AO3

Summary: No one ever said band life was easy. When the fledgling band that Tokoyami is in is on the brink of collapse, he must find a way to bring them back from the brink of disaster.

Written for the @tsukuyomizine! Check out the leftover sales here.

The clash of a cymbal when it was supposed to be a snare rang out in the small space, and Tokoyami took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he waited for the inevitable. 

“Stop!” Jirou called out, feedback from her guitar ringing out and causing Tokoyami to cringe. 

“Sorry guys,” Kirishima said as he looked at everyone sheepishly from the drum kit. This was at least the tenth time they’ve had to stop mid-song, not that Tokoyami was counting or anything. 

“It’s okay, bro! We know you’re not doing it on purpose!” TetsuTetsu smiled at his cousin. trying to lighten the mood. But Tokoyami knew better—he could see the vein on Jirou’s forehead pulsing. 

“We’ve been over this multiple times today, Kirishima. What’s going on?” Jirou asked, and they all knew that she was at her snapping point, but trying to not take it out on them. 

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’m getting ahead of myself or what it is.” He looked dejected, playing with the dark strands of hair that were falling in front of his eyes. 

“How about we take a lunch break?” Tokoyami suggested it before Jirou could open her mouth. They had been at it for hours now, and he was feeling a bit peckish, if he did say so himself. 

“Yeah! We can get some food in us then come back full force!” Tetsu agreed, trying his best to help diffuse the situation. The three of them looked to their leader, whose fingers were twitching against the strings of the guitar that she currently had in a death grip.

“I guess we can do that,” Jirou finally agreed with a deep exhale. Tetsu cheered, putting his guitar down and pulling his phone out before heading upstairs to the kitchen. Tokoyami rested the bass against the wall, noting the sigh that came from Kirishima as he dropped the drumsticks to the ground and sulked over to the corner of the basement. 

“What’s wrong Kirishima?” Tokoyami asked as he approached his bandmate, sitting next to him on the beat-up couch. While Tokoyami wasn’t super close with Kirishima, he could tell that something was on the other man’s mind. 

“I just don’t think I’m cut out for the band life, ya know? I can’t seem to get the hang of the songs, and I know it’s driving Jirou nuts. I just wanna do the best I can, but it doesn’t feel like it’s good enough.” Tokoyami mulled this over, mouth opening to reply when the basement door slammed open, Kaminari rushing down the stairs with Sero following close behind. 

“Heyya homies! I got y’all a gig here at Tape Deck! Who’s excited!?” he exclaimed and Tokoyami fought the urge to face palm. Way to read the room, Kaminari. Jirou groaned from her chair in the corner, and Kirishma shrank into himself even more, if that was possible. “Did I say something wrong?” Kaminari blinked, looking over at Sero, who just shrugged and lowered himself onto the couch on the other side of Tokoyami. 

“What did I miss?” Tetsu asked, reappearing with an armful of chips and drinks. 

“I got y’all a gig! Though when I said that, it was like a ghost entered the room.” 

“It’s great that you got us a gig and all, Kaminari, but we might not even be a band after today,” Jirou sighed out, causing everyone to look at her. “What? Don’t look at me like that. You know it’s been on everyone’s mind all day. We’re not cohesive. Maybe it’s just best if we stop now before we get even more frustrated with ourselves and everyone else.” 

“Jirou has a point—I keep messing up and I know you’re all getting irritated with me.” Kirishima looked like he was on the verge of tears, which hurt Tokoyami’s heart. 

“Ei, don’t talk about yourself like that,” Tetsu admonished, and Tokoyami could see the guilt on Jirou’s face. 

“It’s true though, bro. Besides, work is picking up, and I don’t know how much more I’ll be able to commit to practices, unfortunately.” An uncomfortable silence took over the basement, the weight of the realization that they may not be a band after today taking a toll on each of them. 

“You’ve been pretty quiet over here, Tokoyami. What’s going through that head of yours?” Sero asked, nudging him. 

“I think we might not be a good fit as we are.” A pin could drop in the room after he said that, with how quiet it became. He hated how dejected everyone looked, but he knew that he had to get these thoughts out. 

“Does that mean this is it? My bromos aren’t going to be a band anymore?” Kaminari asked with a small pout. 

“Can I finish my statement please?” Tokoyami asked, trying to redirect Kaminari from a breakdown. 

“What else can you say, man? You just said that we’re not a good fit,” Kirishima sighed. 

“If you’ll let me continue, I said we’re not a good fit as we are. That doesn’t mean we aren’t good together. I think it means that we may need to rethink the way we are arranged.”

“So you’re saying we’re playing the wrong instruments?” Jirou asked, perking up. Tokoyami nodded at her, glad that she was picking up on what he was saying. 

“Kirishima is having troubles with the drums, so mayhaps he would be better on one of the guitars.” Kirishima perked up at this as well, nodding happily. 

“I think I could get down with changing the lineup of the group to see if it would work out better. Do you have any ideas on how we should mix it up, Tokoyami?” 

“I think that you have proven to be quite a fearsome bassist, Jirou. In your endeavors to teach me, I find that you may be better suited for wielding this instrument.”  

“Okay, so what do you think you would be better at, if I am taking over the bass?”

“Tokoyami has been a godsend on trying to help me learn how to play the guitar, so maybe he could try out playing that,” Tetsu chimed in. 

“What if you put Tokoyami on lead guitar and Kirishima on rhythm? That way if Kiri has to miss because of work, you still have the lead covered, and then I can fill in as needed,” Sero suggested. 

“I’d be down to try the drums out, no problem!” Tetsu offered. 

“I think this will all work out, what do you all think?” Jirou asked, looking at the group. 

“Sounds like it could work to me,” Kirishima smiled, which was a relief to Tokoyami. He hated how depressed his friend originally looked. 

“I think this may be good for you guys! I can’t wait to see what you’re all able to do. What song do you think you’ll try first?” Kaminari asked rapidly, already bouncing back. 

“I mean, we could try the song we’ve been practicing, and see where we get?” All heads were nodding in agreement, ready to see what was to come. The group reset themselves, and Tokoyami felt himself taking a steadying breath, hoping that this would work out in their favor. 

“One, two, three, four!” Tetsu shouted, clicking the drumsticks together quickly before filling the room with clashing cymbals, resounding snares, and a heavy bassline. Jirou followed suit, her fingers flying over the strings of the bass, plucking out the notes while her eyes were closed in concentration. Tokoyami felt himself fumbling slightly—curse the F chord—but he felt himself getting lost in the music. Kirishima joined him, the accompanying guitar not in perfect harmony, but close enough for a first run through. 

No one started singing, which was a bit unsettling to Tokoyami, but it made sense that they would want to make sure the instruments fit before they went further. The song reached its peak and he could tell the uncertainty that was with the group previously was melting away. Of course, they would need more practice, but right now things seemed promising. 

“Holy shit guys, that was amazing!” Kaminari exclaimed as they wrapped up the first run through, and his enthusiasm was contagious—even Tokoyami was grinning, albeit not as wide as the others. 

“Jirou, you gonna be the one to belt them lyrics out?” Sero asked as he sat forward on the couch, his elbows balanced on his knees and his hands under his chin.

“Actually, I was wondering if I could try? I love this band, and I think it would be cool if I could be the one to give the song a voice.” Kirishima was sheepish, but there was a passion behind him that had been lacking for weeks. It was good to see that spark back in their friend. 

“I mean, go for it Kirishima. I’m not gonna stop you. Let me hear what you’ve got.” Jirou grinned, the amplified energy of the room affecting her as well. They all reset themselves, giving themselves a few seconds to re-center before starting again. 

Tokoyami could already tell the confidence had increased by the first few notes. What he wasn’t prepared for, nor was anyone else, was the gravel-y screamed out lyrics that came from Kirishima as the cue for the first verse dropped. Tokoyami felt his jaw dropping, missing a note, but he shook his head and continued on. By the looks on Jirou and Tetsu’s faces, he was sure they also weren’t expecting these sounds to come from Kirishima, whose eyes were closed as he belted out the lyrics. 

The bridge came, and the room was energized as the words were screamed out, the rhythm guitar forgotten for the moment. Tokoyami swept his gaze over the room, watching Kaminari hooting and hollering, pulling Sero from the couch and shoving him around in a mock mosh pit. 

“Holy shit, Kirishima. Where did you learn to do that?” Jirou asked as the last notes reverberated around the spacious basement. 

“Yeah, bro! I didn’t know you could sing like that!” Tetsu shouted, tossing his sticks to the side to run up and give Kirishima a tackle hug, a small ‘oof’ coming from the other man. 

“Thanks guys,” he laughed, scratching at the back of his neck. “I didn’t learn anywhere, just kind of practiced what I was hearing and went with it.”

“Well, I think that it’s gotta be unanimous that you sing for us. At least, for the heavier songs we do, because there’s no way in hell I can get my voice to do that.” Tokoyami found himself agreeing. Kirishima had a lovely voice that captured the heart of their band. Kirishima was blushing brightly, but agreed. 

“So, you guys think you’ll be able to do the gig?” Kaminari asked as the excitement died down, a serious note in his voice, which was a first for him as far as Tokoyami was concerned. He understood, however, knowing that if they couldn’t do it, that he needed to find a replacement act. 

“I think with some more practice we can most definitely do it. Whatcha guys think?” Jirou addressed the band. 

“I’m definitely down for it!” Tetsu exclaimed, and Kirishima nodded alongside him. 

“What about you, Fumikage?” 

“I believe that we have the potential to be bringers of the night. I am inclined to agree with TetsuTetsu and Kirishima.”

“Hell yeah, that rocks! I will definitely get started on posters for the show then!” Kaminari was buzzing with energy, running around the basement like a chicken with his head cut off. 

“Whatcha guys gonna call yourselves?” Sero asked, and the group blinked at one another. 

“You know, we never thought about that,” Jirou laughed. “But I’ve got nothing for ya.” Tetsu shrugged, and Kirishima’s face also showed that he hadn’t put any thought into a band name.

“What about Dark Shadow? We can revel in the dark together,” Tokoyami threw out as a suggestion. 

“Oooh, I like that. That helps you guys spread that gothic agenda you’ve got going on,” Kaminari grinned, gesturing to the group, who were all dressed in various shades and forms of black. 

“I think Dark Shadow is a perfect name for us. Thanks Tokoyami.” Tokoyami felt his face starting to flush, so he turned away from the group, grabbing his mask from his bag and settling it on his face. 

“Dude! What is that?!” Kaminari asked. 

“It’s my performance mask. It makes me feel more comfortable in groups,” Tokoyami explained, smoothing the feathers down so they wouldn’t fall off. The rest of the group didn’t say a word, already familiar with the mask. 

“Why am I just now seeing this? You totally need to wear it at the gig!” Kaminari’s rapid-fire speech was too much for Tokoyami to keep up with, so he just shrugged and fiddled with the tuning on the guitar. 

“Alright Kaminari, enough bothering my boys. It’s time that we get back to work. We don’t have long until this performance, so let’s do our best and rock this shit out.” Jirou got everyone back in their places, and as they resumed their practice, Tokoyami had come to the conclusion that there wasn’t a better group of people he could surround himself with. He couldn’t wait to revel in the dark with them. 

[actualbird]

Hi Zak!! This is a pretty random ask but i was just wondering if you have any tips for starting a fanfic/story? I just keep getting stuck on how to start one (I really love your work/blog 🙏 feeds my tot brain rot fr!!)

hi anon, im glad you like the stuff i make ;w; !!! and ohhh, sure i got tons of tips for that!.....so many that i actually wish i cld get u back here to ask what specifically about starting a story u'd want tips on but for now, i'll go for a general overview :D!!

cuz....to me (i.e. based on my writing process, which i'll be drawing heavily from for these tips), the act of Starting comes in three distinct steps, one after the other:

Idea Generation (what is the story gonna be about and how do i get ideas for that?)

Concept Organization/Outlining (how is the story going to be about this idea and how will i be executing it?)

Creation (GAH, HOW PUT WORDS ON PAGE!?!?!?)

so i'll give general tips for all three!!!

-

Idea Generation Tips

(this is the step that i personally have the least trouble with because my brain makes 5 new ideas every day. it's kinda a curse now because it leads to me having too many wips and concepts and only 1% of them gets to the Creation period jhvjhVJKSHFVHJS BUT ANYHOO, TIPS-)

Check Out Prompt Lists (super fun and easy way to get an idea! theres tons of story and fic prompts out there that you can search up here on tumblr, some of them being lists of lines of dialog or lists of AUs or scenarios. even if you dont follow a prompt exactly, they can be great at kickstarting ur brain into thinking of something related that you Do wanna pursue)

Open/Ask For Prompt Requests (if ur brain doesnt have any ideas, u can ask around and see if anyone ELSE has ideas theyre alright with you writing! my tot fics "reviews for Time's Antiquities, South Stellis | Average Rating: 4.8 Stars" and "but little do we know, the stars welcome him with open arms" were both inspired by anon asks i got!! to those anons who sent those asks, i owe u my life....but yea, maybe other people can give ideas to you! or, again, give Something that can inspire another thing in ur brain to take shape)

Just Ramble With A Friend (SO MANY OF MY FIC IDEAS started because i was just goofing off and playing idea volleyball with fandom buddies in our DMs (shoutout to sam samsspambox, z lukevonhagen, and beck beckthebeetle for being the main culprits of this). like, what started out as a joke conversation eventually makes go "oh no wait i actually wanna see that as a fic" and then boom, Idea Has Been Acquired. but fr, talking with another person makes your brain create things u never thought about before. it's both tons of fun to chat with a buddy as a sounding board, and it yields awesome concepts for stories!)

For Fanfic Specifically, Think About What You Want To See In Canon But Hasn't Happened And You Want It So Bad It's Driving You NUTS (this can be anything from missing scenes you wish were expanded on, scenes you wish went a different way, character relationships you wish you could see more of in canon, go nuts! the fun thing with fanfic is that it's a fertile playground for all the what-ifs, and a lot of my fics' ideas were simply found because i thought "man i know tears of themis is never gonna show me deep found fam moments/artem ptsd consequences after main story 6.2/mariluke, so imma make it myself" JHVSJDHF. ideas are hard to make sometimes, but brains are so good at desiring things. and all those desires? those can also be Ideas for a fic!)

-

Concept Organization/Outlining

(very much skippable if your writing style/personality is more receptive to free-wheeling!! im just the type of writer who always needs an outline to begin something. it helps me structure a raw idea with no shape into something clearer that i can envision a story for)

Outline A Rough Chain Of Events Chronologically (this can be as simple as three bullet points, what happens at the Start of the story, the Middle, and the End. or maybe you can go list down the portions of your fic according to the Freytag's Pyramid Plot Structure: Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, etc etc.)

Outline A Rough List Of Stuff You Just Want To Happen In The Fic (if your brain is like mine and isnt too great at chronological thinking, make a list of just all the plot points and events or even dialog exchanges u Want to see in the fic. you can organize it in the order u want later once uve put everything down)

Outline The Themes (moving away from plot, many stories are more focused on feelings or characterization or themes. so make a list of the Concepts you want to tackle. this is something i do for my fics that are more introspective, so i outline shit like "EVENT THAT MAKES LUKE INTERNALIZE SELF-LOATHING followed by EVENT THAT MAKES LUKE'S VIEW BE NOTICED BY ANOTHER CHARACTER")

-

Creation

(the worst part of writing....is the writing JAVFJVSDKHFDJHJ but nah fr this is the part i have the hardest time with, so here are tips that help me kickstart the word engine)

You Dont Have To Start Writing The Fic From The Beginning Of Its Story, Start Writing Wherever (confession: a good 75% of my fics are ones where the first scene i actually wrote down was not the start. instead, i just wrote the scene i was most excited to write. and usually thats somewhere in the middle! i do this cuz it makes my brain happy, and a happy brain is much easier to pull words from than a sad brain. plus, when i see the scene I Like Best already written, it gives me motivation to do the rest of the fic because oh my god i want everybody to sEE THIS ONE DANG SCENE!!! start writing the fic at whatever point you want, in whatever order comes most naturally to you, is my point. you can fill the rest in later, but hey, starting to write where you Want has gotten you Started. now you just gotta finish, and finishing when you already have something down is much easier than starting from 0)

Set Tiny Wordcount Goals. And When I Say Tiny, I MEAN TINY!!! (writing is intimidating but if you set a goal of say, 100 words written for a wip per day, at the end of one week, you'll have 700 words. at the end of two, you'll have 1400 words. at the end of a month, 3000. small goals help since it makes you do Something, and that Something will inevitably compound, no matter what goal uve set. and let urself be proud of the goals uve achieved!!! writer brain gets happy when you tell it it's done a good job at reaching a wordcount goal, and like i said earlier, happy brain is much easier to work with than sad brain)

Give Yourself All The Time You Need (i know this sounds counterproductive but sometimes....the best thing you can do for the part of your brain that wants to start creating....is waiting til it's ready. dont pressure yourself, cuz brain will get sad. dont be too hard on yourself, cuz brain will get sad. start when you want to start in the way that works best with your brain and see where things go, but be patient with yourself. sometims Starting is actually the longest part of writing a story and thats fine. it will happen. trust)

-

thats all the tips ive got! and of course, what will work for me wont always work for other people, so please feel free to take what you think applies to you and discard what doesnt resonate.

i hope some part of this can help! happy writing :D

[divinekangaroo]

While "patiently" waiting for fic updates :) , was wondering what other stories you're working/will be working on? Will you be writing still when you go back to work?

No pressure btw, this is me trying to manage my expectations XD

lol, yeah -> my 8 hours of blissful 'do nothing but write idly' day has dropped to about 2 hrs in the evening. the increasing arc of life resuming. The writing is still ok in these 2hr bursts but getting it to a readable standard is agony. The one benefit is that these 2 hours are probably going to be the same 2 hours I'll have once back at work.

My past fandom experience is that I usually mono-play in a fandom for around 5 years -- but I've never had kids+work+other family commitments when writing before.

I do hope I still have the drive to keep writing once am back at work. I can already feel that anxious itch of pressure, though, and my way of coping with pressure is to aggressively prune everything (friends, family, hobbies, chores, self) that causes the slightest bit of peripheral friction so I can concentrate on the thing that I can't prune (work, money, survival). BUT, this time, I go back to a new area-director role rather than my past project-director role, which should have less crazy deadline pressure/inconsistent hours than most construction work, so I'm just not sure what to expect. It'll be the first time in my life when I actually have a desk job with consistent hours.

Of my current Last Second Ending arc, I really want to finish the Holford fic, the Diana fic, and the Charlie fic (the 'Churchill' vehicle, although I'm so many chapters away from Churchill it's nuts!), which are all the live and incomplete multi-parters-- but as multiparts they are more challenging to do. I have several other ideas/snips scattered through the timeline, but they're fairly short as drabbles, flash-fic or circa 10k standalones, so they will be less heavy to complete and easier to do around work hours -- but they do tempt me now because they're more easy and fun to produce. This timeline's list of ideas has stayed stable for a couple of months now, so at least I know what 'finished' looks like for this arc, even if I don't quite get there.

I do have two firm AUs which itch at me wildly (timeline arcs again). I'm desperate to write the first piece of both as an anchor/test, but keep deferring because I know I'll have to sanity-check my motivation after finishing (or hitting a motivational brick wall with) Last Second Ending.

The 'easy' AU is the 1990s AU which is Tommy x Lizzie, set broadly post S3 and to the end of S4 as an AU S4. It's easy because there's only a few scenes in my head but they're all pretty heavy/hardcore and I can't find an 'in' for framing them yet.

But the second is that weird-arse Dragon Age II fusion AU which is less pairing focused and more family focused, albeit a great deal of pairings and sex within - but it could be a fascinating little monster of a thing, so I'm letting that simmer in back of mind until well after I get back to work to see if there's sufficient motivational drive. It's likely to become a 'what if the PB version of the Real World also had five millennia of Blights, mages, the Fade and Circles as part of Real World history/currency?' idea (alternatively: magic is real but it's pretty fucking ugly what humans do with it).

I also have about five loose BUF-Britain AU list of flashfic sketch ideas, which are generally 'things and scenes that might happen if Mosley was voted into power and took over england', which is primarily Tommy and Alfie.

And I have one solitary sort-of crackfic sort-of-not-crackfic -- S5 from the 'My Property' scene onwards but with the addition of a male chastity device -- which despite the crack premise will actually be really difficult to write compelllingly with the amount of scene checking and chronology I'd need, and accordingly is so low on the list I only think about it in idle moments to amuse myself.

There were a range of other ideas (like a 28 Days Later AU, or a Butcher x Baker AU, or why can I not have these endlessly magnificent threesomes I desperately want to read) but mostly they were isolated 'wouldn't that be cool' scenes without any sustained continuity or theme, so with time limits, they've sort of withered away.

[chipthekeeper]

character asks: Vel? 8, 20, 23?

Thanks bud!

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

As I’ve ranted about before, i hate when people downplay or outright dismiss her commitment to the cause just because she’s not as laser focused on it as Cinta. Or when people say she’s just cosplaying at being a rebel. I won’t continue the rant here but yeah. Drives me nuts

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Honestly I always like thinking about her bro-ing around with Taramyn. I do not know why or where that comes from but I like imagining it and when i write that au where everybody lives they will be best bros forever

23. Favorite picture of this character?

This is the hardest question I’ve ever been asked. Changes minute to minute. For now I’m going with the one that’s my phone background (cropped and edited but yeah)

Character asks!

[sisterdivinium]

In good faith, I don't consider WN ships I don't follow as "spam". I simply open the fics that catch my attention and the ship tags for it, I read a bit and if I don't dig it I move to the next ones. If you do not read fics I don't understand why it seems to bother you considerably. Ok that's the part where I don't agree with your post, however it's a fair assessment of what's going on. I do follow avatrice fics, so what I'm about to say next it's from that perspective. I think avatrice is like 95-96% percent of the works on ao3 for various reasons. The show being cancelled and ava going away at the end of S2, despite it being clearly implied she's back, people feel left out to dry because we didn't get to see them reunite. So there's this almost manic drive towards fixing that thru fics. We didn't get to see them as an open explicit couple, so that's also something people have taken to fix. Another reason is that Ava silva is just such an alluring character, people went and are still nuts for her. She's so genuine, so open in her affections, so loyal and unwavering. Another reason, she happens to have been played by an actress that did an outstanding job portraying her, and I believe that the fact that Alba is so conventionally attractive plays a huge role in the pull avatrice has. And I do not mean to diminish Beatrice or Kristina's talent or acting in any way. I merely want to point out I honestly believe that if avatrice were 2 non white women, we wouldn't be seeing the amount of works that pop up daily for them, nowhere near the numbers we have currently. So in that regard it's kind of a double mortal combo that ava was written as she was and that she was played by such a pretty and charming actress. Well a triple combo, because she's white. I personally think the wlw couples that dominate fandoms have almost invariably at least one white character. Ok that's the trifecta by which I explain the popularity of avatrice (outside of them being a legitimately solid and good pairing). As for the amount of AUs I think it's due to wanting to take these 2 characters and separate them from their original universe as a way to repel/protest/take them the hell away from the universe in which they had no resolution, to cope with the feeling of severe incompleteness that canon left. Ok now that being said I join you in lamenting that we don't have more shanon/Mary and other pairings, because I feel entirely alone in shipping Ava and Camila... listen the heart wants what it wants and in my cursed unlucky case, it seems my heart wants 2 golden retrievers/gremlin energy characters together and in love. But my crack ship exists only in my fantasies 😭

I've read and found some great doctor superion works. but at least here I have found zero posts/content about my wretched crack ship, null, none, naught. At least you guys do have some content. Also I think doctor superion not having more traction is straight up ageism. Which is so sad. Anyways these are my personal opinions about it sorry for the wall of text.

Let me clarify why I called that spam, first of all, so that you understand I wasn't being malicious (or not gratuitously so, anyway, lol): every now and again, even if I don't read fic, I do take a look at the pairing tag for the one ship I write about. And, without fail, there will be at least one story posted under that tag where that very pairing is nowhere to be found. It's a fleeting mention at most. I consider it spam to post what is, say, an avatrice smut fic on the Jillian/Suzanne tag if you won't do anything with the latter ship apart from a side comment like "oh, and the two of them are together now".

A few days ago, I read an interesting post about how people posting fic and adding tags should ask themselves whether people interested in those tags would indeed find what they wanted through your story when you used them.

Let me say, then, that a Jillian/Suzanne shipper is not looking for something that can barely be called crumbs at all when she sits down to read something -- so why lead her on? At the very least tag it properly and say it's minor/implied/mentioned or something of the sort. It's annoying to me in the sense that I also use the tag, I like to know who fellow tag users are and coming across this sort of thing is disruptive. People nowadays "overtag" and I get it depending on what they have written because they want a reader to know what she's getting herself into -- and, precisely, I think it would be fair for a Jillian/Suzanne shipper to be warned of the fact that her ship isn't really featured at all in something instead of seeing that tag tacked on just because they're mentioned as a couple en passant. I'm sure that might apply to other pairings as well, as I do recall @foulbearobservation mention some phenomenon of the sort for Camila/Lilith too a few months ago.

So, to reiterate, it's less "ew, this doctor superion fic has been tainted with another ship" (which, honestly, would never bother me) and more "ugh, this other ship fic said there would be doctor superion but there is nothing and I feel duped!" The fact that I don't read it myself doesn't mean I'm not in contact with other Jillian/Suzanne shippers who do seek out fic and who do experience these feelings which we do talk about amongst ourselves.

With that out of the way, let me first thank you for getting in touch because I was very curious about hearing someone on the avatrice side of things!

It's not surprising to me, per se, that avatrice dominates and I think I mentioned it in my post that there is a reason to it. Or various reasons, really, adding to those I cited the ones you give here, being the "unfinished business" aura that the ship has acquired thanks to that damned cancellation. (I will, however, express my surprise at your passionate manifestation considering Alba as I see Kristina lovers gushing about her much more frequently -- I suppose that goes to show you how we none of us ever have the whole picture in mind, how we are always looking at things at an angle even when we try to consider them more fully! A very good reminder to keep in mind how fragmentary our understanding can be...)

What baffles me is not that avatrice is everywhere, but that there are so very little other ships around it. Historically, people in fandom have always played the "there aren't enough nice/fun/compelling/whatever female characters in canon for me to care about f/f ships" card and what's perfectly clear in WN is that this card simply cannot be played given how many wonderful female characters it has (lucky us!) And I suppose it adds to my surprise (again, this is merely me being a bit confused at the situation rather than "denouncing" it; far be it from me to tell avatrice shippers they're doing anything wrong, no, fandom is for fun after all and, as you say, it IS a solid and good pairing, I would never contest that!) that there are so many stories set in an alternate universe for what is a canon ship. It's a bit of a paradox to me, I suppose, although the idea of a "protest" against an unfinished, incomplete canon such as you mentioned might explain part of it.

On prejudice, I wouldn't want to accuse anyone of anything. There's also a predominance of white characters in a lot of media, so them being featured in a lot of pairings is a bit due to the maths of their presence as well -- going forth, as we begin to see more and more diversity (well, if the goddamn companies stop cancelling every one of our shows!) I figure the trend will begin to diminish as well. Or so I'd like to hope, unless the issue we're discussing persists, being that one ship gets all the attention and all others get zilch when the potential for others is right there staring us all in the face... Then again, it does bother me that older characters are more or less ignored by fandom at large, I won't lie, and I've seen some comments on disturbing depictions of Mary in certain corners of fandom as well. I'd like to make use of good-will towards people and not expect from them only the worse, but sometimes it can be... Challenging, let's say.

Do have my thanks for introducing me to the concept of Ava/Camila! It hadn't crossed my mind, I admit, but now I think it could be something fun to play with. I was interrupted so many times while typing up this answer that I used some of that time to write something for the pairing and I'll post it here soon-ish and maybe that can kickstart some more visibility for it! :)

Alongside my thanks, please also have my sympathies. I've always been on the rarepair side of fandom so I understand, even if your case really is a bit extreme if nobody else has ever done anything for the ship! Then again, that is the whole point of the post, the fact that it's so very hard to see anyone try something out outside of their OTP, if just for fun, just for a day, just for a drabble even!

See, my problem is not that there isn't a lot of doctor superion -- my problem is that there isn't much of anything else! I do my part, I write for my pairing that which I would like to read (and I encourage you, friendly anon, to consider doing something for Ava/Camila as well if you can! Sometimes we need to take the first step, sometimes that's what introduces people to the thing and inspires them to put their own spin on it as well. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even have thought of maybe trying out your ship, even if it won't be a 890.000 word epic). It just strikes me as odd that the toys are all out there and there are few people who take notice of them apart from the two shiniest ones!

To end this, please don't apologise for walls of text. If ever you've been around my blog, you'll know I'm prone to them myself, as this answer attests to! Thank you for chipping in!

[auncyen]

tagged by @cateringisalie - tagging @darrelodin, @bad0mens (but don't feel obligated obviously!)

How many works do you have on ao3? 138

2. What’s your total ao3 word count? 434,082

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Persona 5, Octopath Traveler 2 are the active ones; previously wrote quite a bit for Bravely Default and some for Final Fantasy VII.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these are all P5 fics. Also the top two really ARE the two fics I started on the p5 kinkmeme lol! (They had non-kink prompts as well)

When the Cat Dragged In the Trickster (2172) - AU where Ann is the PT leader; when Morgana runs away, he recruits the delinquent who sits behind her in class. Hiatus'd for way too long, I do want to resume it I just kind of. psyched myself out hard lol

Our Partner is Who? (1471) - no metaverse AU. Plays fast and loose with how Japanese school works to force Ryuji and Ann to work with "the scary delinquent" for a project. They realize he's not as bad as the rumors say.

Infringe (1039) - not all Joker Palace fics do this (or have a fairly ironclad reason for doing it), but a number have the thieves break the rule of a unanimous vote to investigate Joker's Palace behind his back. This is about how that could go wrong.

Stall and Crash (997) - Things go very wrong during a battle in Shido's Palace when a status effect sends Joker's mind back to the interrogation room.

Overload (623) - Minutes after summoning Satanael, Ren collapses in Shibuya square. Spurred by a prompt about giving p5 a p3-esque end (though, notably, Ren doesn't actually die...but at the point it leaves off, he's not in a good state, either)

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

I try to. I don't always. I have a bad tendency to overthink and so I can get myself with "am I saying this right/did I respond to everything/AUGH IT'S BEEN TOO LONG".

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

Oh gosh if you wanna go way back in time to fanfiction.net I feel like some of the Shadow Hearts fic might count lol BUT actually. In recent ao3 memory. Killing Hope is a fic that explores a timeline where Ren sold out his friends in the interrogation room, and now that he's dead and most of the Phantom Thieves are captured, Akechi is setting out to tie up one last loose end. It is 100% a bad time.

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

Heaven Never Could Describe reunites Maruki and Rumi. Like it could have been even sappier. But it's already pretty sappy.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Not really. I've occasionally gotten overbearing crit or a backhanded bookmark ("not as good as [different fic with somewhat similar premise]") but in terms of getting outright hate I've been lucky.

9. Do you write smut?

No. Like I have, if you really dig through ao3 and ff.net profiles you can find it, but I barely read it and the stars gotta align for me to want to write it.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No. Occasionally I like to pitch an idea off the cuff but it's rare for one to compel me into writing. Do think p5 x aa fics are fun but I haven't had any particularly strong ideas for one myself.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

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

No, I haven't had the best luck with partner projects so I always feel like that might just drive me and/or the partner nuts lol

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

Tiznes is still pretty nice lol although I feel like OF ALL TIME it'd probably have to be Clerith.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

Overload would be nice to finish but is probably dead in the water. To be fair to myself, it was spontaneously spurred on by an ask and never did have a firm plot to begin with, just headcanon about what couldcause Ren to have a near-death experience at the end of p5. There were some vague thoughts about how to have him recover/how MUCH he'd recover (one idea was that while he recovers enough to do basic self-care like eating/dressing and can hold conversations and do some simple tasks, it's dicey, at least in the fic's time frame, if he'll ever recover enough to be fully self-sufficient in the future and the team recognizes that and tries to help him have a safety net)/even a thought about pulling in p5r elements (it was started before royal came out but has no contradictions iirc) but at this point. it's easier to say "that was interesting but I don't know how to finish it" and move on.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I feel like I'm fairly good at digging into characters and getting their motivations right?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Getting stuck on projects in ways where I feel like I can't even write like I can string one word to another but I've completely lost any perspective of how anything connects in an interesting way

WHEN THE BRAIN FOG ROLLS IN IT'S LIKE SILENT HILL

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

Don't lol

I have done it, in a very old Shadow Hearts fic, but honestly unless the POV character has decent proficiency in the target language they'd have trouble parsing it anyway, and if they're fluent they can just understand and "hear" it as...what it means in the language you're writing in. There are occasions it may make sense but I think most time it's more trouble than it's worth.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Shadow Hearts according to my ff.net profile but that's because I deleted my very first ff7 fic off there lololol

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

for all the headache it's caused me I do like When the Cat Dragged in the Trickster

for an oldie tho. I like What Crossdressing Says About Character (ff7 fic about Cloud & Aerith in the sector six segment).

[laughingmagi]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN !!!

NAME: Iggy

PRONOUNS:  they/them

BEST EXPERIENCE: We love a good overarcing story. I like when multiple people can get involved. Idek, it's just kind of validating to know when other people think what me and another mun made something really cool.

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Discord, but I don't might a tumblr DM, it's just that the notifications for it are shite.

MOST ACTIVE MUSE AU: Ripperverse w. @gilesian and by extension a Buffy/Hellblazer crossover au

EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS: I've been writing in fandoms online since i was 16 or 17 (and writing for even longer than that). Got on tumblr in like 2012, I think, and started in on the RP fandom late that year or in early 2013. i really don't feel like searching up the old blog (yes, I still have my first blog up for posterity) to check the archives. My point is, I've been here forever on some fucking blog or another.

RP PET PEEVE: How to articulate without sounding like a stone cold cunt? This is a collaborative, you know, and it drives me nuts when I feel like someone is writing at me rather than with me. Also, I am not going to be offended if a person has an idea. People having an idea isn't power or meta gaming or whatever. Sometimes I feel like it's up to me to have the idea and you know fine. I'm clever, I can usually bullshit something, but I really, really wish when half the time i ask someone if they have ideas about our muses the other person is like "hahaha idek". Like, I get it, I do, we're all very shy, but I promise, i'm very chill and I won't bite.

PLOTS OR MEMES: I'm six and one half dozen of the other, baby.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: I'm six an done half — Ah you get it.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSES: Sometimes i find myself in the characters i write. Um, John especially I feel close to because I know his world. It was just very familiar to m and so does John himself. I've known people like him, been someone like him. So yeah maybe a little?

Tagged by: @gilesian Tagging: @griim, @taliaromanova, @astremourante, @gingerspiice