#lmao i have favorite passages from every chapter of this fic god i am in love with my fic so much and it exists and i finished it. love

[kuwdora]

for the ao3 wrapped writers ask game: 17 and/or 29 pretty please!

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Mmmm, this year?? Vilgefortz. I had a very Specific Itch to scratch and golly, I sure did indulge myself—and @reinvent-and-believe and @sidprescot too, mwahahaha. The TWN Thanedd episode came and went with Vilgefortz. His scenes with Geralt worked me into a froth because I absolutely needed more because how much I loved their book scenes. And honestly it’s not right how truncated Vilgefortz' dialogue is in the show. And thus my brain overheated and Ouroboros happened. It really was that saying—write for that group of like 3 or 5 people who are gonna lose their minds. And they did. I think @littlestsnicket's brain melted and I'm not sure @sidprescot will be the same lol. It was great. I winked so hard at my readers that my eye fell out and @reinvent-and-believe picked up my eye, cleaned it off and handed it back to me and @sidprescot is just foaming at the mouth and brain the whole fucking time (ilu all). I also managed to post more about writing/drafting this fic than anything else I’ve written in the last few years, lol god. I have 15 million witcher thoughts at any given time (mostly about yennefer and yennskier and geraskier) but this is what i manage to post the most about, sdflakjsdf. I love Witcher canon blending and riffing on themes, okay. My blending is not to everyone's tastes, but yeaaahhh I had quite the time writing Vilgefortz this year. All the Continental art history was so much fun to weave throughout the story.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Here’s my favorite passage from chapter 1 of Ouroboros, it’s about 900 words. I loved starting the fic off with the TWN characterizations and then running with it back to some book vibes and all my feelings about all the canons and aaaand and…lots of things. Love this whole passage. Indulgent.

“Doesn’t appear to be much glory in this gallery,” Geralt said, gesturing at the vertical diptych he was studying.

Vilgefortz nodded and strode closer to point out the relevant details. There was a curious furrow to Geralt’s brow that made Vilgefortz more confident in encouraging Geralt to voice his thoughts.

“This one is called Ships in a Desert and it’s a very controversial piece with multiple meanings. Each canvas represents a different interpretation of First Landing and encourages the viewer to engage with different possibilities. This bottom artwork is clearly not historically accurate because as you can see the ship and its wreckage is strewn across a desert landscape rather than the coast of Redania. The artist Yona Skanfall also intended this scene to subvert Ithlinne’s Prophecy.

“You can see in the foreground a future where the Continent’s water has dried up and its inhabitants are boiling their own skin as a direct result of humanity wielding Chaos. People did not take kindly to this kind of heresy against the prevailing narrative about the White Frost. But there were those who were ardent defenders of this piece because it held true to the original prophecy’s themes of a calamitous end by humanity’s hubris. But Aen Ithlinnespeath was a sacred elven prophecy and any minute deviations from the story caused an uproar. Yona certainly made no friends by implying the Hen Ichaer died before they could save the world—note the desiccated seed pod in this dune. If this scene alone had not gotten Yona banned from two kingdoms for smearing elven canon and laying waste to the kings of her day—see the scattered crowns in the sand here and here—her choice to depict Jan Bekker as a woman gave others all the more reason to ostracize her.”

“Why were people offended by Jan Bekker as a woman?” Geralt asked.

“Why indeed? Vanity. Sexism. Most primary sources and historical records suggested that Jan Bekker was actually quite a hideous man. In the early days of the Brotherhood mages had not yet mastered the art of cosmetic transformation. Many saw their ugliness as intrinsic to their character, especially those first survivors who bore the scars of scurvy from their journey. To remove that element and depict Jana Bekker as a buxom heroine was antithetical to their view of history.”

“You’re telling me mages are superficial in more ways than one? Color me surprised.”

Vilgefortz laughed and found himself warming even more to the witcher. He bit the inside of his lip and stepped closer, brushing against Geralt’s elbow.

“There have been other interpretations of Jana over the years. I myself have collected several woodcuts of her and Nina Fioravanti in mid-coitus from a series called Ars Orgasmica. I could show them to you, if you’d like.”

Geralt didn’t verbalize a witty retort, though Vilgefortz could sense the words propositions and pornography floating on the surface of his mind. Geralt turned his attention on the other painting from Ships in a Desert. He gestured. “Tell me about this one.”

Vilgefortz tore his gaze away from Geralt, carefully gathering his words. “This painting depicts a slightly different interpretation of her original interpretation. The wreckage of First Landing is in the foreground and the bodies of the ship's crew are barely visible in the sand. The emphasis here is on the future that was lost. Notice the verdant hills in the background, never to be discovered by the first mages. Perhaps if there was a lighthouse in this desert sea, these two ships would not have crashed and fallen to the dunes and become lost to memory. Perhaps they could have met, shared resources, and survived in spite of the hardship. They could have thrived and built a new world together.”

“The hills are better off without the mages,” Geralt murmured.

Vilgefortz turned back to Geralt and nodded solemnly. “A solid interpretation. The commonality amongst these pieces is suffering. Yona depicted it well.”

“Your lot is notorious for causing suffering.”

“Truer words have never been spoken.”

“Truth is something this ball is in short supply of.”

“Tonight there’s so much more on offer,” Vilgefortz said.

“If I wanted to have my fill of lies and subterfuge, I would have stayed downstairs eating from the bottomless pit of illusory caviar.”

Every one of Geralt’s conversational parries aroused more desire in Vilgefortz’s chest. He’d hoped to keep the witcher’s attention for more serious matters tonight, but the wry humor was an unexpected delight. Enticing and novel in a way that Vilgefortz had known others had been charmed by, but never believed he would also find so alluring. He wanted more of Geralt.

“I agree. Stay with me. At my table we would feast upon spiced boar and toast to our communion. No illusions, only the boundless companionship of two men appreciating art and history together.”

A grimace passed across Geralt’s features, like Vilgefortz’s words were little more than indigestion. The firelight from the braziers cast a warm glow upon Geralt’s face, and there Vilgefortz saw a world beyond the staid neutrality that Geralt wore like a tattered cape. A place where two outcasts would be respected and admired. A time where Vilgefortz could lose himself beneath the witcher’s broad hands and taste Geralt’s scars for the first time.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go take a shit. Must be the caviar.”

read on ao3

ask game - ao3 wrapped

[preciouslandmermaid]

Writing Ask Game (except I answer them all)

💜- top 3 favorite lines:

“I’ve got you.” Evelyn mutters, risking the sound, because she needs him to know that she’s here. (ttfattf ch. 17) (evelyn x emmett)

There’s an echo of her pain in his face.(ttfattf ch 5) 

He said her name as if it were meant to be written on tapestries and hung in gilded temples. He said her name as if it was a whisper to the stars, a promise to the cosmos, a prayer to the Gods. (opposites on the color wheel) (caleb widogast x jester lavore) 

☕️- favorite passage

Emmett gives her lustrous and humid summers on baseball fields and campgrounds and swimming in creeks. He tells her about outdoor concerts and games he’s seen and which were the best. She gives him candied and vivacious autumns with apple picking and homemade costumes and movie marathons. She tells him about surviving nursing school and becoming a role model for her younger sisters.

He gives her pollen-soaked spring, building blanket forts with his brother and learning to drive stick-shift with his father. He tells her about his mother who passed away when he was in his early twenties. She gives him frigid, white-out winters cooped up in a skiing lodge with her college friends and her first and only trip into Manhattan to see the ball drop. She tells him about her childhood dream to be a fashion designer and how that dream ended when her father had a heart scare (“Nothing serious.” She says with a grimace, “But, when you’re seventeen everything feels like life or death.”) 

(ttattf ch 13)

👻- 2 or 3 sentences from something you haven’t posted yet

(already posted this one. thank u to the anon who sent it!)

😅- a line that made you feel second hand embarrassment

i am gonna be real with u....i don’t think i have any LMAO 

👁- series or oneshots?

series, because i’m INSANE. 

💍- your most underrated story

The ONLY ever community fic I wrote !! I didn’t even finish the show, lmao. But, it’s Jeff x Britta featuring “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

☺️- a line that made you feel a fluffy happiness

Emmett shook his head faintly, a fond smile tugging at his lips, “You’re a gift to me every single day.” (12 heartbeats ch. 10)

😳- your scariest line

i don’t write SCARY things. I don’t think so anyway.

😏- your most risky line

baby. i’ve written smut. they’re ALL risky. 

💁‍♀️- reader insert or OC?

as a main character for shippy purposes, reader insert. 

but OC’s are good for like side-characters/supporting cast. I think all my fandom focused fics feature at least one or two OC’s.

👶- advice for new writers

be cringe. it’s fine. write silly stuff, write the goddamn story of your dreams with a 100 plot holes. 

👀- favorite response to one of your works

i love them all tbh. but this one made me laugh/is one of my favorites:

“Crazy story, I shipped this pairing since the first AQP2 trailer came out a YEAR ago. The prospect of two steely survivors with heavy backstories and two different ways of surviving the death angels and the possibilities that could happen when they both worked together was SO appealing to me, BUT I also knew the ship wouldn’t work without tremendous amounts of slow burn to work through the ptsd endured by both characters and a lengthy plot to get them there. I go on ao3 just to try out my luck and LO AND BEHOLD YOU HAVE MADE MY DREAMS LITERALLY COME TRUE. WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE YOU. “(TTFATTF Chapter 16 Comment) 

⭐️- how do you get your inspiration?

reading & music, mostly! Lots of times I’ll start reading a story (not fanfic, but like a book on my kindle) and then fully zone-out and think about my own story sdfjkslfjdskl 

🎲- your favorite chapter/part from a multiparty series

Chapter six of wildfire because it’s filled with SO MUCH romantic/sexual tension lmao. 

💻- three works of yours that are must reads

If you like Reader Inserts, I wrote a Clyde Logan (From Logan Lucky), that I think is pretty good. (Take Me Home)

If you like Sansa/Tyrion Canon-Divergence & slow-burns & long-fics, then this one is for you. ( To Tame a Lion, to Tame a Wolf).

If you like fluffy, light, easy-reads, then this 12-chapter one-shot collection of Evelyn/Emmett - (In the Span of 12 Heartbeats).

💊- what is something that you wish you knew before you started writing?

It’s okay to not finish stuff. Don’t beat yourself up over it if you lose inspiration and yes--you can always come back to a work even if it’s months later. 

🎈- what’s a spoiler for a wip or series?

:) Sanctuary doesn’t last forever. 

😂- a line that made you laugh out loud

Lmao. This one.

“FLUFFERNUTTER!” Veth screams out, swiftly followed by a squishy, wet BANG! Large chunks of chocolate, frosting, and cake explode outward and Jester cries out in surprise as they land in her hair and on her dress. (i’ll fetch you the moon).

🎀- favorite story

right now, I really love my “through the flood & through the fear.” but, asking me to pick a favorite is like selecting a favorite child. 

👎- if you could change something in one of your works, what would you change and why?

more kissing. 

😢- a line that made you cry

“I tried to save him—” Emmett chokes out, trying to talk around the lump in his throat, and the fear growing rapidly in his chest, “I tried to save you.”

“It wasn’t enough.” She draws her hands to her chest, squeezing them together into a fist, “It wasn’t enough.” (ttfattf ch 4)

💬- describe one of your completed works in three words

slow burn, canon? what canon?, and angst 

💭- any ideas for a possible wip?

I’m working on a sheriff hassan x reader where the reader is a descendent of van helsing lmao 

I’ve also noodled around with a fake engagement/co-workers/enemies-to-lovers au with evelyn/emmett but i don’t think i’ll write it lol

💕- opinion on AUs?

yes :D love them

💘- what’s your favorite AU? Least favorite?

Fav AU: fake dating/fake relationship because YEARNING! 

Least Fav: I never really vibed with like billionare au or coffee shop. i write to escape capitalism lmao 

🔍- does anyone in your personal life know that you write on tumblr?

no.

��️- favorite part about writing

re-reading what i wrote and being like “yeah this shit rocks.” LMAO