#might have had a geocities page but that's probably looong gone now

[krys-loves-otome]

30 Days of Fanfic, Days 1-4

Saw this literally cross my dash yesterday and decided, you know what, I'm gonna try this.

There isn't a masterlist for this, as the original poster is only posting the prompts day to day (which sucks for me that wants to queue things and be punctual) but day to day means I probably miss some days and combine days together to catch up (like today) so don't rely on me for daily updates of the questions. You can check out the tag 30 Days of Fanfic and follow it (or keep it open, as I plan on doing, but you do you, boo).

Also, under a cut because WOW did this get long (well, duh, it's 4 days of catch up, lol).

So, without much ado, here's Days 1 through 4 of the 30 Days of Fanfic!

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Day 1 - How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

I've been off and on with fic writing since the early 2000s, starting off in my middle school days reading fics on geocities sites and some of the early years of Fanfictiondotnet, and realized, hey, I wanna do this too! Got my start on fanfictiondotnet in 2002 with Dragonball Z fics, of all things (mostly AUs, judging from my FFN page).

When I first got into DBZ, it actually wasn't playing on our local broadcast tv (since my family couldn't afford cable at the time), so I actually got into with random VHS tapes and DVDs in bargain bins. Which meant the episodes no one really liked (the Saiyaman saga (Gohan as a teenage superhero and early tournament arc stuff), some early parts of the Freeza saga, and Trunks's introduction, etc), basically a lot of the filler stuff. Essentially, I was introduced first to the character stuff rather than the punch-y, action-y fighting stuff and got to know them outside of the fighting. The fandom at the time (or at least in the places where I found it) was also more focused on character dynamics rather than fighting and I think that gave me the courage to start making my own stories.

DBZ is also special to me as it got me into drawing fanart seriously as well. We didn't have a printer at the time, so if I wanted art of my own, I had to stare at the monitor for hours to recreate the art (and then cry when dial-up kicked me off and everything went away, then listened to that noise as it tried to get back up again. That was the reality of AOL, lol). This was also the same if I wanted to have fanfic to read on the go as well. Since reading on your phone or any sort of portable device wouldn't become a thing for a few more years, I handwrote that shit (was too embarrassed to print off at school like the normal kids) and kept it all in a binder. 'Tis also the reason I tend to handwrite fics before I put them on something digital, be it my laptop or my phone now. It also helped to develop my handwriting speed and accuracy.

But yeah, DBZ was my kicking off point for my fandom career and the beginning of my fandom journey into who I am now.

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Day 2 - Name the Fandoms you've written in, how much you've written in those fandoms, and if you still write for them.

Oh gosh, all of them? Quick reminder, I've been in fandom actively since at least 2002! This is going to be a super long list, oh god…

Middle School/High School Writing (because this is gonna be huge, I'm gonna divide things into time chunks)

First and foremost, I'll start with the two biggest ones of early writing days, DBZ, as stated for Day 1's entry, and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duel Monsters specifically, we'll get to the later series(s) in a bit.)

DBZ: Like I said, I mostly did AUs for this one, the very first fic being about Bulma marrying someone she didn't like (Yamcha, apparently) with Vegeta being on the run from Freeza and the two meet and fall in love and whatnot. Bardock is apparently Bulma's dad, and Goku is her brother, for some reason. And one chapter is a song fic.

Yes, really.

There was also one where Goku didn't hit his head when he was a baby, and Chichi was mute for some reason and they get together. There was also the Radditz fic that was paired with an OC and she helps him learn about human life and they get together (and the first time I delved into dark subject matter with this one). This one also has my highest word count to date (27,448) and was (actually) finished in 2004. (It had a sequel started, but I never finished it, whoops).

YGO: This one was happening simultaneously with DBZ and was probably my biggest fandom in my early days, between writing fic and RP-ing in AIM. First YGO fic (on FFN) is a poetry collection that I'm kinda afraid to read now.  There was also my next longest fic where Yuugi was in the real world, with YGO being a TV show, and he gets sucked into the tv and into the 'world' of YGO, and it's really weird and really… really gay.

My BL love for YGO was strong in these days.

There were a few birthday one-shots, one fic where Shadi and Ishizu hooked up because that was a thing. I also had a YGO crossover with Lord of the Rings and that was also weird. Ryou Bakura was also a fallen angel at one point that landed in Ancient Egypt (with strong doses of the BL), and Pegasus having a daughter in another fic because why not.

Misc: -Crack crossover fic because that was also a thing in the mid-2000s, being high on sugar and all that nonsense. -Poetry collection for Rurouni Kenshin.   -Reincarnation fic for Lord of the Rings (or Modern AU, possibly both, I can't tell. Also, self insert, it looks like. Because who wasn't at least a little in love with Legolas in 2004).   -An Animorphs fic (hell yeah, Animorphs!) where Visser Three kidnaps Alloran’s pregnant wife Jahar for leverage against Alloran (because the Visser wants them Andalite babies to use for future hosts) and it's sad. -A Fushigi Yuugi fic where, instead of just one priestess, there's one for each of the celestial warriors, one of them being the daughter of their patron god Suzaku, because why not. -And a Harry Potter fic where teen pregnancy is explored (or, from the description alone, Draco can magic girls pregnant for some reason and I'm scared to read further).

Everything from High School Graduation until about 2015: College time! Didn't have much time for fic writing and was more into RP-ing to help take my mind off the stress of college and work life. Some notable exceptions were a kid fic with Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry trying to figure out if Santa is real and a Hinata/Sasuke fic (because I was a big shipper of them back then) where they hook up after Naruto and Sakura's engagement because screw what canon says. Later (around 2013-2014ish) I also copied an idea from an RP friend at the time who was writing fics based on YGO fanart at the time. Also did some more YGO stuff during this time as well, small drabbles that I put together in a collection when I didn't finish them but wanted to post something anyway.

2015, the Jump Back into Fandom Proper I was finally finding my place on tumblr and I fell back into the YGO fandom, specifically with the latest series of the time, Arc V. It was the most I'd interacted with fandom at large since...ever, doing fic requests and theorizing what was gonna happen with other fans on a weekly basis, it was some good times back then. I even participated in my first monthly challenge, the Arc V 1 Year Anniversary where I was drawing and writing again like crazy for a whole month straight. I even did one multi-chapter fic during this time 'The Misadventures of Ruri Kurosaki and Her Traveling Band of Emo Birds'  where I did an AU of the events leading up to Ruri's eventual kidnapping (also my first time delving into Post-Apocalyptic kinda fic). Some other notables that I like are pretty much anything involving the XYZ-trio (Ruri, Yuuto, and Shun), Ruri being a prisoner in the Fusion Dimension (my personal favorite is Prisoner Princess)… okay, just anything involving the XYZ-trio, whether alone or paired with one or the other, I'm a huge sucker for their dynamic (that canon didn't give and I was devastated, so I took matters into my own hands, lol).

2016, The Modern Era After cooling down from Arc-V who should come by to sweep me off my feet but Haikyuu!! and Mystic Messenger! Only posted two fics for Haikyuu, both of which are still my most viewed and kudos'd fics, and I'm still amazed they're still getting love, four years later. (I had a third planned with the Reader living in a polyship with the third years of Aoba Johsai in college/after college, but it didn't really go anywhere. The boys basically come together to catch a panty thief that has been stealing Reader's underwear off the clothesline. It also involved throwing underwear at each other in a fight.)

Mystic Messenger started my writing for otome fandoms, wanting to participate in a week-long appreciation week, so I wrote stories for the majority of the days (one day had a little scribble of fanart as I was burned out with writing so much so quickly). But this was also the time when my laptop then was dying, so I had to write the majority of the prompts on my phone (including the html so I could post them to tumblr) and it… was not a fun time, to say the least, which also contributed to the burnout. Some fics from here are Smiles (the Zen cheering up the reader fic), Love at First Sight (Jumin route inspired one-shot), Broken Glass (707 route inspired where he and the Reader are interacting in person for the first time, when they can't hide behind screens and cameras anymore and their real selves come out), and a Stripper Zen AU that was inspired by a hilarious typo in-game.

2017 and Beyond Stayed mostly in otome realms since 2016, doing some 100 word writing challenges for various otomes, including MysMe, Dandelion, Hakuoki, Seduce Me the Otome, and various others. In 2019, I got into writing for my most recent fandom, Ikemen Sengoku (been in it since about 2018, but only recently started writing for it). This is the most recent one I've written for and still write for.  

As for fandoms I still write for, while I like to think that I will write in them again if the inspo takes me ( I did a rewrite challenge with my Animorphs fic once, doing a rewrite in 2010 from the original 2005 version, so visiting old fics isn't completely off the table), some of these are so old now (and some fandoms don't have good associations for me anymore), so I probably won't be writing for some of the older stuff, like DBZ, Naruto, and some of the older one-shots. I still have some plans for some MysMe fics (like an extended version of Standing Still and another one involving Jumin) but they're mostly on the backburner while I work on my IkeSen stuff.

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Day 3 - For each of the fandoms you've written in, what were/are your favorite characters to write? Why were these characters your favorites? (Can be main, side, established, or original!)

I'm gonna stick to the most major of fandoms from the previous day, as some are just one fic per fandom, so I can't say if they're my favorite for writing in that fandom if I've only written for it once :'D

Can't remember the DBZ stuff because it's been too long. I think I liked writing Goku since he's appeared in 2 of the fics from that era?

YGO: It was definitely Ryou and the Bakura trio. Still kind of is, to this day. Ryou was my favorite because I related most to him in the show, and he doesn't get as much love as some of the other characters do. He became my baby once the show didn't… show him as much love anymore.

Naruto: I loved Hinata and shipping her around with the various boys. I related to her the most of the other Naruto girls, so it was a kinda wish fulfillment when I shipped her with various boys (mostly Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara).

YGO Arc V: The XYZ Trio, especially Ruri. Like Ryou, Ruri didn't get much development in the series and me, having been invested in her so much once she had a name and attachment to two of my favorite characters of the series, I just took her and made her my own.

Haikyuu: I loved writing Oikawa. I'm sorry, but I did. He can be such a shit and it's just… so much fun to write. I especially love writing his dynamic with Iwaizumi.

MysMe: I like writing Jumin for some reason. Like, I have weird feels for Jumin that I'll probably make a post about someday, but to summarize: He's cool outside of his route; in his route, there are some elements I'm Definitely Not Okay With, but then fandom brings me back and then I love him again. … It’s really weird.

IkeSen: I like writing Mitsuhide. Like Oikawa, he's got this certain appeal as a shit-stirrer and it's just... So much fun.

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Day 4 - Do you have a 'muse' character(s), that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character(s) become your muse? Are they a canon character or an OC?

For the longest time, Ryou from YGO was probably my biggest inspiration for a lot of things, writing-wise. He was one of the first characters I RP-ed, both in my AIM days and in my Livejournal and Dreamwidth RP days. He was one of my first loves when I was getting into YGO BL (Ryou and Bakura, aka Tendershipping, was the ship of dreams for years, at least until the Thief King came along, then I was absolutely a goner for Ryou and Thief King, or Gemshipping, because naming ships with specific words instead of smushing names together was a thing for the YGO fandom (probably still is, as far as I'm aware. Pokemon did something similar, I believe). Ryou was the first time I explored cis-genderbending in fic and RP (not so subtly inspired by a series of fics I read in 2004 where Ryou was also genderbended there and was in a polyship with Bakura, Malik and his dark half (I even named two of my cats after their kids, Aria and Aten, lol)

For the longest time, he was my biggest inspiration for creativity and a comforting presence when I wasn't feeling too good about myself and when I needed to get something out, Ryou was there for me to get out ideas or any negativity I was experiencing. Also, fun fact, I got my first car on Ryou's birthday, September 2nd, and I always called it Ryou (mostly to myself, as it seemed silly to name your car after a character you've loved since middle school). I also like that he got more of a backstory in Darkside of Dimensions when I watched that and felt like I was in middle school again, watching YGO again, but with upgraded animation and story and everything was just *chef's kiss*

I've drifted away from YGO since then and have found new fandoms to play in, but I doubt anyone else could replace what Ryou has meant to me over the years. A close friend I could always look back on with fondness, who I would gladly take the hand of again and have him with me if the occasion calls for it. So, yeah. Ryou's my muse.