#my first time on tumblr. on ao3. the first time I've gotten actual like interactions on things beside like graduation pics

[rouge-fauna]

I think you’re talking about these posts [here & here], I don’t know if there have been others.

I'm not gonna say what I did was right, you are correct I should probably just not respond to asks getting me to talk about other people. I will say for these two posts those people had already blocked me I’m pretty sure, so it’s kinda hard to talk directly to them in that case. And I was not doing so anonymously and had not blocked them so I wasn’t hiding what I was saying. I did not follow them, I am not part of the innitor community, and not that that makes it right but I do think it is kinda different. Though you make a good point, perhaps we should stop this pattern of responding to asks about other blogs and such.

Still, the biggest thing to me I realized, back in elementary school when I first dealt with this, was that honestly all the time we talk about people behind their back. Talking about people when they aren’t always in the room is kinda just inevitable and part of socializing, however I think the important part is how you are talking about other people. It’s when you are insulting them, talking negatively about them to people they know, spreading false information and so on that it becomes not okay. Hopefully that makes sense.

In these cases I merely focused on the lore. I didn’t insult them or talk shit about them, as a person, as a blog or say their takes were stupid or they are stupid or speculate about their trauma or mental history. I just talked about reasons why I disagreed, or saw things differently and why we might see things differently. They were also not the only ones I saw to say similar things so I think in my mind I was making more of a general discussion, not trying to target them specifically. I didn’t post beyond that about them. But you are right, regardless it was probably not the right way to go about things.

But just to be clear, if I am a hypocrite it is not my intention. I haven’t vague blog anyone or meant to vague reblog anyone. I think this week is pretty much the first time I’ve ever been not naming, passive aggressively talking about blogs, and even then I’m not trying to insult them, trying to cancel them. I’m just expressing that before you go off about how I’m stupid and unable to have a discussion about it, the very least you could’ve done was give me an opportunity to try.

[scumbag4scumbag]

Shameless Self-Promotion: Comments Requested

So, this fanfic universe kinda feels like my magnum opus of wrestling fic... I've written others, mostly AdaMJF/BTYBB fics (and I'm more than happy to share those links as well), but I started this CMJF verse with what was supposed to be a one-shot set in a world where Max is the heir to a rich New York family's business and fortune, and Punk is the older, poor as fuck, guitarist in a band who turned Max's life upside down. The first piece I wrote was Max drunkenly calling Punk after being abandoned a week before his wedding to Adam Cole, the guy his parents had approved of. But it grew... and grew... and grew.

Unfortunately, I've put in a lot of work, but haven't gotten much feedback on it. My AdaMJF stuff gets a decent amount of feedback, but CMJF not so much... maybe because they don't actually interact anymore, so the ship fandom is dying? IDEK. But I know there's a lot of AO3 writers on the old Tumblr, so I figure worst case? Nobody sees this and best case? I get some feedback!!

Anyways... without futher ado, let me link ya.

Toxicity Is a Virtue... or Something: A CMJF AU Universe Description: Maxwell Jacob Friedman is the golden son of a wealthy New York family. CM Punk is his parents’ worst nightmare.

Part 1: Watch Me Turn Your Mind Into My Home Summary: Max is slumming at a punk rock club with his friends. Punk is playing that club with his band. Worlds collide and shit gets messy. In Progress

Part 2: Why Are You Here? Summary: It's been a few months since Maxwell Jacob Friedman and CM Punk broke up, and they've both moved on. Or so they both think. Complete - One-shot

Part 3: Pretty When You Cry Summary: Max thought he had finally found the person who would love him forever -- who would never break his heart -- in the person of Adam Cole. But as usual? Max thought wrong. -or- 5 times Adam truly smiled at Max and 1 time he tried to but failed. Complete - One-shot

Part 4: Sick Like Me Summary: Maxwell Jacob Friedman is the son of one of New York City's richest families, and as such, his parents have been planning his life for a long time. CM Punk is the much older, much poorer guy he dated 5 years ago. Adam Cole is the charmer Max's parents loved until he left him a week before their wedding. Larry just wants a treat. In Progress

[eriquin]

Time Travel AU part 5

I'm going to catch up to what I've written already really fast if I keep posting it like this. But AO3 is down so into Tumblr it goes.

(master post)

Part 5:

He caught up with Nancy after second period. She was at her locker, and she gave him such a sunny smile when she saw him that he almost tripped over his own feet. It was not the look of someone who remembered the horrors they went through, and he wondered if there was a way to keep her looking like that. 

“Hey,” he said, drumming his hand lightly on the locker next to her. 

“Hey yourself,” she said. “Did you get your English assignment done?” 

Steve blinked a few times. He hadn’t even thought about looking at his homework. He vaguely remembered that he and Nancy had first started interacting because his English teacher had gotten her to tutor him for a couple of sessions and bring up his essay grades. It was a favor to the basketball coach, to make sure he’d have the grades to stay on the team. They’d hit it off immediately.

“I gotta admit, I haven’t,” Steve said. “When is that due again?” 

Nancy gave him a look that was both exasperated and charmed. He had missed that look. “Thursday,” she said. She poked him in the chest. “You’d better get a good grade on it. My reputation as a tutor is on the line.” 

“I will, I promise,” he said, folding his hands together. “But first, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay?” She pulled her books from her locker and shut the door. “So ask?”

“It’s... It’ll actually take longer than we have between periods to give you all the information. Are you free at lunch?” 

“Sure, I guess?” Nancy said. “Fourth period?”

“Great, yeah.” Steve nodded and turned to get to his next class. 

“Wait, aren’t you going to tell me what it’s about?” 

Steve gave her his most innocent look. “I will. Fourth period!” He gave her a mock salute as he backed away, but turned around too fast and almost ran into someone. He jumped to avoid her, and stopped short, staring at the girl’s face

Barbara Holland stared right back before letting out an annoyed huff and rolling her eyes. “Excuse me,” she said as she elbowed past him to her locker, which was right next to Nancy’s. 

Steve turned and continued to stare at her before he realized how weird he was being. He caught Nancy’s eye, and she looked completely confused. “Sorry,” he whispered, practically running off to recover some semblance of dignity before the bell rang. 

He ignored the lecture during his third period class. His seat was in the back, and he brought out his Upside Down notebook to make some updates. It looked enough like he was taking notes for the class that the teacher thought he was paying attention, and he was free to make his updates. Nancy was acting like she didn’t remember any of the future, but that might just have been because he was, too. He would have to talk to her in private to figure out for sure. 

Fourth period rolled around. Getting in line for his lunch was depressingly familiar, and he always had enough in his wallet to cover it. When he got out into the cafeteria with his tray, he looked around for Nancy. She was sitting with a group of sophomore girls, including Barb, on the other side of the room. Her back was to him, but he knew the slope of her shoulders and the curl of her hair. He got halfway through the cafeteria when he heard Tommy calling to him. 

Steve turned around to look at him and Carol at their regular table. He’d walked right past it, and they looked confused. The rest of the table was empty, like it always was. No one sat with them unless they were invited specifically. Steve sighed and went back, but only to drop off his tray. “Sorry,” he said. “I need to go talk to Nancy about something. Don’t eat all my fries.” He knew this guaranteed that his fries would be gone by the time he got back. 

When he got to Nancy’s table, he leaned over the back of her chair and stole one of her chips. “Hey Nance,” he said. “Got a minute?”

She laughed and shook her head. “I guess,” she said. He took a step back to let her get up, and she gestured at the chip bag as she stood. “Should I bring these with me? Do you need a snack?” 

“I mean, I’ll eat ‘em if you don’t want them,” he said. She scoffed and left them behind, and he followed her out into the hallway.

“So, what’s this about?” she asked.

“Okay. So, this is going to sound weird. I wanted to talk to you about...” He hesitated. Even though he’d practiced this in his head, it sounded weird to say it out loud. “The future?”

She stared at him, definitely thinking that he was going crazy, and waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, she asked, “What does that mean? Like, next weekend? Christmas? College?” She giggled a little. “Are you wondering if we’re going to live on a space station someday?” 

“No, more like. The next couple of months. Or years. Like, our future.”

“Our future?” she asked. She gave him that little smile that was halfway between charmed and confused. “Like, you and me? Is this you asking me out?” 

Steve’s eyes went wide. “Not exactly?” he said, though he immediately regretted it when Nancy looked disappointed. “Not that I’m opposed to it, but that wasn’t what I was asking. See...” He sighed. “It’s going to sound really weird. It’s just that I had this bizarre dream about the future, and you were in it. And I was wondering if you’d ever dreamt something like that.”

She raised her eyebrows and gave him that smile again. “So you’re dreaming about our future, huh?” she asked. “What was it like?” 

“I mean, it was, uh.” Steve scratched his head. If Nancy remembered anything, she surely would be saying something about it now, wouldn’t she? “It was kind of dark, actually. Like, there was something dangerous going on in town and you and me were both involved.”

She looked confused again, but just for a second. “Oh, you really meant a dream, huh? Wow. Uh, no? I’ve never had a dream like that before.” 

Steve nodded. “Yeah, okay. I told you it was weird. I guess I just wondered if you’d had it too, then maybe it would mean something.” He brushed his hair back and looked towards the cafeteria. “I should let you get back to lunch.” 

“No, I want to hear about your weird dream,” Nancy said. “Come on, tell me. It sounds interesting. How did you know it was the future?”

Steve hesitated. He had been thinking constantly about what he’d tell the people who’d gotten involved before if they didn’t remember, but he hadn’t come to a good conclusion. “It was just... it was weird. Like, I know it was the future because I was out of high school? Maybe? but there were terrible things going on and we had to run around dealing with things. Like, monsters or something.” 

Nancy nodded slowly and looked like she understood. “Oh, I get it. Like how sometimes, in a dream you know how things are supposed to be even if it doesn't make sense. You just know.”

“Yeah, exactly,” he lied. 

She brightened up a little, smiling like they had a little secret. “But I was there? Were you protecting me from the monsters?” 

Steve snorted. “Kind of the other way around,” he said. “You had a shotgun and I was just following your lead.”

This surprised her but she also looked delighted by it. She started to laugh. “You were definitely just dreaming there,” she said. “I’ve never even held a gun, much less a shotgun.”

“Yeah, but I bet you’d be good at it,” he said. “Anyway, there was more to it, but you’re right. It was just a weird dream. I’ll let you get back now.” 

“You could’ve told me about this between classes,” she said. “I mean, it’s weird but it’s not that weird.” 

“Nah, I’ve got a reputation to uphold,” he joked. “Can’t go talking about dreams and monsters with a pretty girl in the hallway.”

Nancy blushed. “Do you want to meet again to go over your essay? I’m free tomorrow afternoon.” 

Steve gulped. He could use that as a chance to convince Nancy that there was something dangerous coming, and that she should help him, but he wasn’t sure what he’d be able to say to get her to believe him. He also didn’t remember what he had scheduled for the next day after class. “Yeah, I think I could make that,” he said. “Remind me tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she said, still blushing. She walked ahead of him on their way back into the cafeteria, and he could hear her friends quizzing her about him when he passed her table. 

When he got back to his table, he saw that his fries were gone, as expected. Tommy and Carol looked smug about it. They had left him a slice of meatloaf. He reached over and stole Tommy’s pudding cup, which was unopened. Tommy squawked about it, but didn’t do anything to stop him.

“Are you sure you want to be eating pudding for lunch, Stevie?” Carol teased. “Don’t you want to keep your trim figure for Miss Nancy?” 

“Nah, she likes me for my curves,” Steve shot back. He stretched his feet out under the table and propped them up on the seat between Tommy and Carol. They both cackled at him and Tommy shoved his feet back down. 

“So did you ask her out?” Tommy asked. “Are we gonna have to put up with little Miss Priss this weekend?”

Steve frowned and shook his head. “No,” he said, remembering more and more about this time period. His two closest friends were hot and cold about Nancy even when he was warming up to her. It started even before things had gone sideways. He’d forgotten that, or never given much thought to why that was. Had they been like this with every girl he’d been interested in? He couldn’t remember. He dug into the pudding cup. It was tapioca, which Tommy and Carol both hated, which meant he’d gotten it with Steve in mind. It made him smile a little. 

Tommy had told Carol about the bet Steve had made with his dad, and she asked what he was going to do with the money. He shrugged it off, said he had no plans. They got to talking about plans for the week, and the weekend. Steve mostly stayed quiet, listening to them chat about other students and what they’d been getting up to. He finished his meatloaf and sat back, letting his mind wander. 

“Hey, you’ve been quieter than usual,” Tommy said. “Still thinking about getting into Nancy’s pantsies?” 

Carol snickered and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, that was awful.”

Steve shook his head. “Yeah, don’t be crude, Tommy,” he said. 

“I meant the rhyme,” Carol said. “He can be crude as long as he doesn’t try to be clever. He’s too dumb for that. It’s literally painful.” 

Steve snickered. “Hey, do we have anything going on after school tomorrow?” 

Tommy and Carol couldn’t think of anything, so he took that as a good sign. He spent the rest of the school day trying to think of a way to approach Jonathan and ask him if he remembered anything. There was a chance that he did and just hadn’t tried to talk to Steve about it because they weren’t even remotely friends at this point. It would have been weird for Jonathan to talk to him first. 

By the end of the day, he still hadn’t thought of anything. He saw Jonathan’s car in the parking lot, parked in its regular spot. It brought back unpleasant memories of standing next to it with his friends and waiting to ambush him about his photographs. He could try to meet him there after school, but not today because Tommy and Carol were already standing by his car, waiting for him. He didn’t want them to see him talking to Jonathan. They already thought of Jonathan as a freak and they saw them talking, it would put a target on his back. Steve didn’t know why he’d ever thought that was acceptable behavior for people who called themselves his friends. But on the other hand, he didn’t know how to confront them about it now.

[ari-writes-things]

Writer Questionnaire!

hi, thank you for the open tag @theverumproject!

How long have you had your writing tumblr/writeblr? A fast and loose estimate is fine!

Only for like a month.

What led you to create it?

I've recently been trying to find a community of writers since few of my friends are into writing.

What's your favourite thing about the writeblr community?

I love the way people are so passionate about so many different things!

What's one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

I can be just a little bit shy sometimes about making new friends. When I don't know people super well (or honestly even when I do) I get really nervous about being the first one to start a conversation. Even if I don't initiate interactions with you, know that I want to chat; I'm just a little nervous.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

"Write with me" type stuff or just little snippets from your writing that people thought were bangers.

Which wips or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

I have only one WIP that I've touched for the last six months and it is unnamed, but it's my queer romance novel!

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

I was talking with my friends about how I've never actually written any queer fiction despite being queer myself and doing a lot of writing. I also have been super into Y/A novels, especially the poetic sounding ones about identity and familial relationships so that really inspired my current work.

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

Truly, anywhere from one to five hours a day?

When someone asks the dreaded, “what do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

Realistic fiction.

Name any characters you created. side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like

Ema Aguilar: She's from an old WIP with fantasy elements. Ema is the only character I've thought up to have wings and she's one of the youngest characters in the story (12). The story takes place in pretty much a war/apocalypse situation (it's complicated) and Ema is hiding out with a group of older kids. I have this scene (brief suicide tw) I've never gotten to, because I've never actually written her on paper, where Ema is caught throwing herself off the edge of a cliff over and over before catching herself with her wings and flying back up. In my mind, she's trying to kill herself but is too scared to follow through with it because her big issue is that she becomes paralysed by her own fear.

Who's the most unhinged?

Blair. I think they have committed crimes. Not many that I've officially written down, but they have totally committed crimes.

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

Riley. She's the only character I've ever written with neurodivergence in mind and I love the way I describe her thoughts. She's basically me, just having grown up under different circumstances.

Do you ever cringe at them?

Yeah, sometimes..

How much control do you feel you have over your characters? do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others?

I personally feel like I have a lot of control over my characters, but purely because I storyboard before I write so I know where I'm going and don't get lost. The only way I can work on long form projects is with a storyboard to guide me. My characters do "write themselves" sometimes in that the little things I haven't planned give them so much more flavour and personality, but I haven't ever felt like they've gotten away from me.

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters? and do you have a preferred means of receiving said questions? for example, as asks, as replies, as reblogs, as tag notes, as comments on ao3, etc.

Oh my gosh, do I ever! YES YES YES!! If you see this, ask me questions please! Send me asks or replies or reblogs!! I wanna talk about my little brain children so much!

What makes you want to follow another writeblr account? Do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? Do you follow based on wips, or vibes?

I see if they post at all about their original works mostly. I don't really follow blogs that only post actual excerpts, poems, or short stories, though. I don't really follow for the WIPs of other writers, but for their thoughts!

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

I get nervous so no, not often, but I do sometimes!

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

Unfortunately, I don't know their characters well enough to :(

Tagging @cb-writes-stuff, @zariahthewitch, and anyone who wants to do this too!

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

I know I usually do Ewanverse or HotD, but I fell in love with this story. Thank you @bhxrdy for indulging me and answering my questions. 💜 As always, Interview With a Writer is my ongoing series of the talented souls on Tumblr and ao3, and their brilliant writing!

Dividers by @saradika

Name: bhxrdy

Story: timeless

Paring: modern Finan x original female character

Warnings: Explicit/18+, be mindful of chapter warnings!

So, when did you start writing?

I started really writing, like 10 years ago now - right into 2013. I had discovered and gotten very into (I'm shy to say) k-pop, and at the time, social media was new to me. I had joined a couple of forums here and there, but really got into the thick of it once I joined Twitter and Tumblr. It was also then - for the 1st time - that I found out about fanfiction, which was an unfamiliar concept to me.

Its a bit blurry, but I remember I started reading a few stories here and there about my fave group at the time and - I don't remember the specifics but - I had eventually started coming up with wild scenarios, small ideas here and there, that I wanted to put down on paper.

Writing in general was relatively new to me (a few years before, when I was in high school, I was writing "poems" and other notes in a massive emo-like notebook - all because of a boy of course), so the idea of creating something substantial, like the fics I had read so far, was a bit terrifying but also kind of exciting because I stumbled on something brand new to me and was dying to be part of it along with some new online friends I had made (which I unfortunately lost touch with over the years).

Within the span of 2013-2015, I wrote 28 stories (on a 3rd party site) - a mix of one shots and multi-chaptered fics, which includes 2 unfinished stories - which were left to die by 2017-2018. I had finished school and started working, which totally changed my routine. The lack of interactions in the fandom didn't help either as by then, it was pretty much dying from the band's moving on and eventually disbanding. The stories are still there, my account is still there, as I don't have the heart to take it down. I've spent so much time on them, and loved every genre I wrote. I either went fluffly fluff or super angst and dark, all of them fun to write.

After that I moved away from the fandom as well and just the k-pop scene in general. I took a hiatus from writing altogether too - the will of it had died so I mostly focused on editing. And then, I started back again in 2020, wrote a couple of stuff on Tumblr (for the 1st time) until I stopped again a few months later. The inspiration stopped and I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore. So I moved away.

And then this year, TLK happened and I just had the inspiration back on the tip of my fingers, just swirling in my brain and was dying to write it down, so I gave it another shot and wrote my first Finan fanfic. It was very rusty getting back into it after so long but I'm glad I did because I got to meet amazing people which I'm grateful for.

I have a tendency of daydreaming a lot, I can easily get lost it my own head. Finding out I could actually just write them down, liberating everything I held up and see them face to face vs. just thinking about them, became a whole new ball game.

Where did the plot for timeless come from?

It hit me out of nowhere and happened when I was re-watching The Originals (TVD spin off). I'm not sure how, but it physically/literally stopped me in my tracks (mind you I wasn't doing anything special, just going to the kitchen to get a snack) as if I was hit on the head with it, like, "Yes! omg! shit! this is it!!"

I immediately picked up my phone and started typing random thoughts and notes down for the story. It was very rough, just generalized ideas of what could happen. Some of those ideas did change trajectory from where they started, but I'm hoping they were good changes and worth the story telling 😊

Watching The Originals helped with the inspiration. I knew Finan was always meant to be cursed, I just had to figure out the best way to present it. I also drew inspiration from other witch shows like Charmed, A Discovery of Witches, and BTVS. I love anything related to the supernatural and witchcraft, so it was fun coming up with the initial layout of the story.

At the beginning, I debated if it should be a one-shot or multi-chapter based on how much I had come up with. I was 99% sure I would stick with the one-shot, but eventually the 1% took over and I just went from there...the lines took a life of their own.

Explain your interpretation of Finan. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in timeless?

I was mostly trying to stay true to how his character was built on the show and transport that in writing within the concept of the story (I'm sure I've strayed, but hopefully that's alright).

When we first meet Finan, he's infiltrated modern day life as if he was part of that world, always. Then he meets a woman on a random night and everything changes for him.

Thinking of it this way, the man has been by himself for a thousand years - the life he knew, his family, his friends - everything from his past has disappeared and he is all alone, and so he was just at this point in his existence where he was done with everything, partly discouraged from being immortal, partly begrudgingly accepting of his fate as a man who will never die.

But then he meets Rebecca, a woman who has no inkling whatsoever of who Finan is, i.e. their meet up was random passing of time in the(ir) universe. Once they meet, his life alters. She was the light at the end of a tunnel, she was a beacon of hope. Meeting her, befriending her - he found purpose again. He was ready to fight again, to live like a normal man again.

Throughout the story, I tried to focus on this aspect specifically - on the basis that he is hopeful to become a free man again. And though, there is conflict within himself, to the point he was ready to give up again, I'd like to think that Rebecca was simply someone he needed in his life. Not because of what she could do for him, but because of who she was, as a character, as a person to him. She put her life on hold for him and in return, the universe gave them something that everyone wants - to love and be loved and not be so alone in the world.

Finan, having been alone for a century, found his drive through Rebecca - through her presence, always standing by his side and fighting for him. Them falling in love was an added bonus.

Do you feel Rebecca/Bex complement Finan in this?

I would like to think that she does, because she gave him a new spark into his life, allowing him to feel truly alive again - which was something he had been deprived off since his original lifetime (i.e. since the TLK era).

With Bex's stubbornness driving him insane at times, I think it also helped him on the hope aspect - she was willing to go to the ends of the earth for him, for someone she had just met all because she wanted to make things right, to help him (a stranger, when they met) find peace. She wasn't reluctant about it nor did he even ask for help (he was the apprehensive/suspicious one). And I believe, at the end of the day, it all came down to how they felt about each other from the night they met. They unintentionally nurtured a connection they created until it became so immense, they ended up wearing it naturally, like a second skin.

Not only was she his anchor to the world of the living, Bex had become the part of him that died a long time ago. This makes me believe - in a some kind of weird way - that she was his soulmate. That, despite the heaviness of the curse, Finan was meant to cross path with her, that the(ir) universe gave him a break in the form of a kind-hearted and stubborn as a mule witch. A woman who would end up gifting him a second chance, and the opportunity to experience the good aspect of life again (as well as love).

Where did the dreams and the curse lore come from?

The dreams part of the story was inspired by The Originals, as there is the concept of the “other side” where non-resting souls are (the cemetery/graveyard scene description was inspired by the one they have on the show) - so I leveraged it and made it so Bex was forced into contact with another witch while sleeping instead of through a spell (as she had no reason to contact the dead while awake).

For the curse, I knew what I wanted out of it as it was already part of the original draft when I first came up with this story idea. I knew where it was taking me and how I would want it built - the reasoning behind it though was a bit if the tough part which I had also integrated into the storyline with Bex losing her shit over it.

Any chance of a sequel? Or do have anything else you are working on next?

So, unfortunately no sequel. But it does not mean I haven't thought of an epilogue - or kind of. Just random scenes with Bex of what life is after the ending that randomly play out in my head. I don't think I'll want to write them mostly because I want to keep the ending as is.

I'm working through a few other stories at the moment. The priority ones are for Osferth (a one-chaptered drabble for your 1k celebration, and a multi-chaptered fic which will also tap into the supernatural concept), which I am hoping to get started - officially - very soon!

I have some others dangling as well, which should eventually come soon as well - this includes Finan, Sihtric and Aemond.

Do you have a personal favorite story you'd like to share?

There are so many to choose from! We Were Something, Don't You Think? by Maggie (@inthedayswhenlandswerefew), as well as Comet Donati and Have You No Idea That You’re In Deep?

Some other favorites include Wolf-Heart by @gemini-mama, Crimes of Passion by @itbmojojoejo, Sanctuary by @st-eve-barnes, and Winterwood by @lonnson

There is also a myriad of Finan x Aisling (OFC) fics by @persephones-journey which are heart-wrenching and good.

And Fire in Her Eyes by @emilyhufflepufftlk is another amazing one for Finan fans.

[devondespresso]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

tagged by @museumgiftshoperaser

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

technically 2, but its a sfw and nsfw version of the same fic fhajklfjdalfjk

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

...6,357. i promise i write.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

just stranger things so far, but i have seriously thought about writing about Fender's gender from Robots (2005) and I promised my friend a Shark Tale fic for their birthday fjalhfdjkalfdj

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Never Again

Never Again (sfw)

fascinating statistics arent they

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

never gotten comments on ao3, i do reply to what i get on tumblr tho because it literally makes my day

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

(including my unposted work) Never Again, tho i think its more bittersweet than unrelenting angst

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

tho its technically not finished, We'll Be Alright (Steve Henderson AU) has a very happy ending

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no, thank god

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

im gonna say no? despite writing something spicy at the beginning of Never Again it was not a good time (for me or Nancy)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

haven't yet, and while i wont write them off entirely itd have to have really strong potential for me to want to do it

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

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

no, and i dont know how well id go. on the one hand im usually good at group stuff but im also an annoying perfectionist with my writing

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

platonically stobin 100%. i dont get nearly as attatched to the romantic ones so i kinda just bounce around the fandom. Really love a lot of the steve harrington rairpairs floating around, plus robin and vickie

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

I dont realllly have a writing wip i know i wont finish cause i've just been posting those vague ideas instead of actually writing them becuase i know i wont. My only active wip is the steve henderson au and im hoping praying to god that i dont suddenly loose passion for it

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue probably, coming up with how different characters are saying things, what theyre saying, what they mean, all the little differences in their voices, I love it. that and having characters interact with the environment

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

overthinking and underthinking, stopping myself from making something happen or a character do something because theres this pull in my chest telling me its wrong. even just standard selfishness or saying something without the express intent of making sure it wont hurt someones feelings. i also start sentences with verbs djaldjdjaf

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

makes sense if characters are speaking multiple languages i guess. depends on pov and how limited it is to the pov character. like if the pov character doesnt speak spanish it'd be better to write "and they said something in spanish they didnt understand" instead of writing the spanish out assuming the audience doesnt know it either

19. First fandom you wrote for?

stranger things

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

definitely my steve henderson au. i wish it was shared already but at the same time i've editied and changed so much im glad i havnt officially yet. its helped me work through a lot and has even caused noticable improvement in my relationship with my family even if they dont know it exists. i cant promise itll be fully posted soon, but i am so exited for when i do

tagging @stobinesque @marvel-ous-m @eriquin @itsthestrangestthings @findafight @fag4dykestobin (no pressure ofc 💕)

[brisquad-unit-4402]

Ao3 wrapped questions,

I choose number 4, 29 and 30

If you don't mind that is :>

4. What work of yours has the most hits?

found from time, rocking a healthy 1486 hits on ao3. i'm taking this as a sign that the fandom was in a fluff mood when it was released, a few days past valentine's. that... would explain it.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

answered here!

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

i've signed ndas and employment documents for the vsf. i legally cannot disclose this information until it's declassified to the public in 2024.

i'm kidding. i'm trying to stall before i get corny. the fact that no unit is an island, even if you try hard enough.

brisquad-unit-4402 started as a place for me to throw myself into my work as a virtual special forces unit... and to write fic on the clock. i was such a workaholic that i didn't even want to make friends, just get my fics out there and move on, since fandom interaction often scares me.

attachment is inevitable. i remember most of my regulars in my inbox by url; i do now, and i did when i first got them too. i've run writing blogs before and never have i gotten such lovely reception until now. i'm flattered and humbled and delighted! i can finally taste some fruits after working so hard on the hobby i love and i can make other people connect to it, too.

prior to this blog i wrote occasionally and rarely published. now i don't think i've gone more than two weeks without writing. the last time i counted my yearly words across wips and published, i had a word count of 96k. ~30k of those were published.

this year, the brisquadunit4402 ao3 account alone has 80,367 words published. that's not even counting the tumblr blog's headcanons, scenarios, brainrot, and other posts that weren't crossposted to ao3. that's not counting my tumblr drafts either. or my wips on my actual vsf document readers. i haven't counted all of them yet, and 200k sounds ambitious. not quite possible. but i wouldn't be surprised if my word count this year has pushed over that line.

i reiterate that no unit is an island; i would not had the pace nor motivation to break so many of my barriers if i hadn't made friends with others within nijiblr. prosthetics comes to mind as a fic that never would have been conceptualized much less written if i didn't have a friend to talk with, and would not be as meaningful as it is to me without them either. the people i've gotten to know have given me so much drive to work on projects, and fics, and the meanings behind those fics. many of the platonic relationships in stars above your skin were inspired by real discussions i've had with friends made through nijiblr. that's not even to mention the anons and the non-anonymous users that hop into my inbox. some of the fics i'm most proud of are requests. comments has inspired me to write more. everyone that has visited my blog was a note in an orchestra

and of course it feels good to just have someone that understands what it's like to be a little ol unit in a little ol blog

i'm very surprised by the community i've found and i'm very surprised how fundamental finding that community was to my own improvement and exploration as a writer. i have a lot of love for my people. i don't think surprise is strong enough of a word to describe this. it's 3:05 am and you're not hearing this again

[belphegorbillickin]

Hi! As someone who played your quotev match-up quiz (and had a lot of fun with it), I’m kind of curious if your opinion on it has changed any now. I could tell from your posts that you value accuracy to canon when dealing with fan content about characters, so I was curious to see if the new character information released since 2022 has affected how you view it.

Sorry if this came off as rude or repetitive in any way. 😅

Dw it's not rude at all! I love to ramble on and on about my projects and characterization anyway, and I'll really glad you enjoyed it! It also fuels my ego a little to hear that you can tell lol.

I'm curious to know who was your top 3 and how accurate you thought it was, was it surprising in any way? If you don't mind ofc, I just love being nosy about what people think of my stuff lol.

I'm inviting you to ramble along with me!

To be honest, that quiz was always meant to be more on the wish fulfillment side for the readers, because that kind of quiz is usually taken by younger, more sensitive people as a whole and it's hard to do more nuanced takes in that format.

I also can't really have my usual interests be more obvious like I can on tumblr and AO3.

It was kind of my way of trying to do what older fans had done for me back in the Quizilla days. (RIP Quizilla, gone but never forgotten.) I actually preferred the edgy, in-character variants even back then, but the TWST fandom on tumblr is very...

Let's just say I'm very hesitant to interact with most TWST fans first, unless they post similar things, and that I've gotten anon hate just for posting that quiz while being a yandere/OBM!/adult (as in age) writer.

That being said, the point allocation was intended to be fairly accurate without any cheat answers, and I didn't wanna sugar coat the results too much.

Some characters are easier to "game" than others, and some have broader or more niche tastes, but if you're not careful you could get Sebek or Vil instead of Riddle for example.

Also, Idia and Jade are pickier than Rook and Floyd and the points try to take into account what the player would want as well.

I've adjusted the point spread a lot since then at different times.

A tiny bit due to new characterizations, but mostly because the point spread system is annoying to work with and because I realized not everyone will read the questions and answers the same way.

You also can't do negatives, which would've helped the quiz be a lot more accurate, but what can you do?

I actually really regret accidentally contributing to the whole "crybaby" Azul and thought about it re-doing his result soon after posting.

I've actually been thinking about it again recently, but I kinda don't want to take away what people are used to either.

I had initially thought that was a joke/affectionate bullying, but I found out not too long after that a lot of people seem to genuinely think that Azul cries over everything, despite canon saying that he's changed.

It seems like poor Azul has been hit with a double dose of woobification and ukeification by the fandom, and I'm not a fan. He's a pos (affectionate) like the rest of them, and I'd like him less if he wasn't.

Tbh, I actually think he's one of the most morally bankrupt in the entire cast, along with the Tweels and Leona. Like, he's dealing in literal, violence enforced slavery whereas Jamil is trying to escape it for example.

(I also hate what the Eng localization has done to poor Jamil, but that's another rant.)

Also, Rook has said a lot of questionable things to Vil and I'm unsure as to what the intentions were. Like, is Rook negging Vil when he points out millimeters of weight gain? Is it supposed to be a normal, "positive" thing because Japan loves to glorify EDs?

It makes the VDC thing look really bad too, not the actual vote itself, but all of his other actions imo.

I'm leaning towards Rook being manipulative tbh, because he has a pattern of it, already really disrespects non-humans, and is very socially savvy and close to Vil. (This isn't bashing btw, I still love Rook as a character.)

Otherwise, not much has changed other than me getting more comfortable with the characters and fandom I suppose?

I'm guessing you're caught up as an Idia fan? Good choice btw, and if you are the one that sent the Idia ask dw, I'll try my best to fulfil it too.

Tbh, I'm actually really disappointed that his parents are actually really cutesy. And, speaking as vaguely as possible, I honestly don't like the new fae lore in Ch 7 either.

I feel like Yana has suddenly decided to start downplaying the more serious, heavy tones and I'm not quite sure why? Maybe to ease players into a slightly more romantic slice of life continuation after the main story ends?

Idk maybe it was always planned, but I feel like it makes Idia seem a bit more like a generic whiny teenager. I still love him, but I choose to ignore that part of canon and give him more distant parents who are still struggling with grief and their work.

But feel free to disagree, I don't mind at all. It's just nice to have someone to talk about TWST with too!

[thunderberryart]

Hello! My handle is harmoniouslily, but you can call me Lily or Star. I'm technically not a new Tumblr user, as I was originally here under a different blog name and nickname a few years ago. I ended up deleting my old blog, however, as I was no longer really using Tumblr and just didn't have a lot of good memories of my experiences here. (As for the name change, I just get bored of my online pseuds very easily. I'm hoping Star/Lily sticks for good this time.) I decided to come back both because I'm no longer particularly fond of Twitter something which was the case even before certain real life events transpired and because time has healed my old wounds and I'm ready for a fresh start. It's a pleasure to meet (and reunite) with everyone!

For those who don't know me, I spend a good chunk of my time online participating in fandom. Currently, my main fixation is Rune Factory 4; I'm so glad I stumbled across the updated port on the Switch eShop because this game has been a major source of comfort for me over the last year and I likely wouldn't have gotten back into drawing and writing without it. I absolutely adore Selphia and its residents, and if the first image is any indication, Arthur and Frey have captured my heart. Something about this idiot glasses prince just hits different, and Frey is both adorable and a genuinely charming protagonist (and I'm normally fairly neutral towards avatar characters, even those who actually have their own personality)

The third image is a sample of my oneshot Ineffective, which is currently the only RF4 fic I've posted to AO3. It's also already a source of old shame for me simply because of how OOC Margaret's role is, and I hope once I finally start posting more fics my characterization of EVERYONE will improve.

Before I close this post, I would appreciate it if everyone were to read this page, as it does explain why I may not be the most chatty user out there, as well as how I expect people to interact with my posts. TL;DR version: Be kind, respect my boundaries, and don't be rude. If you already like what you see, I hope you'll stick around!

[bladespark]

Hi!

I have just found your blog, led here by the art you commissioned of Ares/Dite/Dio. I recognised your handle from AO3. Always glad to follow Hades writers - I find so few here, at least those who write Ares. (I’m my_haunted_heart over there.)

Anyway - I then saw your multiple posts voicing frustration with Tumblr and I just couldn’t not say anything - I hope I can help a little :)

I’ve found that the best way to meet people here is reblogging - we communicate mostly through the hashtags, at least over in my corner of this place, but you can @ people in the comments section too and have a conversation with them there. Liking and reblogging friends’ posts, adding your thoughts in the tags - that’s how it’s done.

It also seems to help if you share original work - whether that’s actually sharing work that’s hosted here, making a master post for your blog, or just doing little announcement posts when you post something new on AO3 - it all helps people to know a bit about you and what you make.

(I’m personally fine with people direct messaging me to talk, too, though understandable that that could be an uncomfortable first step.)

As for the bots and the antis - unfortunately there’s no other answer than block block block :)

Anyway - I really hope you’ll stick around - I enjoy your work and I’m very active here so if I can help at all, let me know! ☺️

I do appreciate the kindness of this message. However, telling me to do what I already do is immensely frustrating!

I reblog things. And these just...sit there, having been reblogged. I really don't know what that accomplishes, I haven't seen anybody respond, reply, comment, etc. Sometimes somebody else reblogs them from me? That's it. I post original work all the time, that's 90% of what I do here! Those also just sit there. One kind person gives every one a like. Occasionally somebody else does as well. I see no comments, replies, or interactions. I've put thoughts into tags. Nobody responds to those thoughts. I am about *conversation*. Shouting into the void with zero response because it...what, means I'm Doing It Right and someday somebody will talk back maybe? I'm not online to be famous and collect followers, I'm online to TALK to people.

This site just isn't for me. I've been using it for years and years, and I have gotten absolutely nowhere. I get more interaction on DREAMWIDTH for god's sake. Dreamwidth!

And I'm sorry, if there is "no answer" to antis than to try to block every last one of the THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of them... I mean okay, I guess I can block any that wander into my space to directly talk to me, but I have to see them and their horrific, toxic, depressing, nasty opinions just to LOOK at the comments on any other post. Just to *see* content I might interact with here, I need to drown in a sea of hate.

No. I honestly am done. I only even saw this comment because somebody else linked me to a post here and I noticed the message icon after I've read it.

This site does not work for me. I've been here well over a decade, I've gotten nowhere, and I can't deal with it anymore. I'll Postybirb content when I can, but that's really it.

[ezrisdax-archive]

Starstruck Odyssey, Korrasami, and you DO get Wedge lmao

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: oh this is tricky... probably Skip, Zac just played him so well

Least Favorite character: uhhhh, Edwina, she's the one who was mean to Sidney when they met :(

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): this wasn't really a ship season? despite being on a ship (badum-tsh) so I've really got nothing here

Character I find most attractive: Riva, I love their design so much

Character I would marry: uh, well Margaret, she'd keep the finances running

Character I would be best friends with: Gunnie!

a random thought: I hope we come back to these characters but I'm not sure we'd see Riva return? which would be too bad but I'm sure Siobhan would play someone new I'd love

An unpopular opinion: as much as I enjoyed it there were times I think handy andi was a little op for the play

My Canon OTP: ????

My Non-canon OTP: we just don't know

Most Badass Character: Barry Syx, what can I say I'm a sucker for the old 80s archetypes like that

Most Epic Villain: the rolls vs checking for loose duke lmao

Pairing I am not a fan of: idk

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): none, d20 is perfect

Favourite Friendship: Sidney and Barry, those two were so much fun to play off each other.

Character I most identify with: hmmm, probably Riva

Character I wish I could be: Margaret, please teach me to get money...

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them: way way back in season one, they had so little interactions but were pretty much the only pair I was interested in lol, back when they were a rarepair...

My thoughts: I'm so glad the writers got to make them canon, I still remember that I was working that day and saw some of it on tumblr and honestly wasn't sure if it was real or not until I saw it

What makes me happy about them: they're canon!!!! and that the two of them came to understand and rely on each other, I think season three really built a lot of groundwork for them coming together and I'm grateful for that

What makes me sad about them: we never got to see them kiss on tv, like I do absolutely understand that, hell it's even a struggle now for it but I wish we could have gotten it still

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: any time I see a fic where Korra is portrayed as an idiot or primitive I cringe. I once saw one where Asami was exploring the land and kidnapped and immediately knew that's where that was going and noped out

Things I look for in fanfic: hm, I haven't searched for korrasami fanfic in a while but I'm a huge sucker for aus where Korra was the one to run into her in season one or aus where they don't actually meet till later, completely different I know

My wishlist: I don't have much of one, I'd just like to see more of them in the comics which I think I will

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: nope, that's it for me for them

My happily ever after for them: I just want them to have more spirit world trips together and spend some time together, like let them have a happy ending where they're not always forced to save everything all the time and can relax

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: look. look. you know. and several other mutuals on this website who have to put up with me know even if they aren't in star wars fandom that Wedge is my boy. that's my star wars guy. I can't help it if three year old me picked him as a fave and has not let go okay. I had a fucking notebook lexi!!! that was just filled with pictures me and my sibs drew of him!!! every time we watched! moral is I love him.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: I don't mind Luke/Wedge, because I'm the first person to have written it on ao3 apparently I also like Lando/Wedge (hey I'm a sucker for rare pairs), and of course Wedge/Iella

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Wedge and Tycho

My unpopular opinion about this character: look, I hate what Disney did with character, I can't stand Rebels version of him at all tbh, I can't stand they made him Imperial at first

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: disney leave him along but also put me in charge of the rogue squadron anything, please god

Favorite friendship for this character: Wedge and pretty much the whole rogue squadron, I miss them lexi....

My crossover ship: Wedge/B'Elanna from Star Trek: Voy, no I will not explain

[ashtraythief]

How do you get so much engagement? Not in a jealous sort of way, but more in a curious way of someone who seeks tips/advice on the matter. It seems these days fandom is much more…distant than it once was and it’s a bit discouraging, you know? I can barely get any sort of engagement, either on my socials or my ao3, but to know you have such a devoted fan base (such as me!) it fills me with hope that it’s possible :)

Any tips and/or ideas?

Oh wow, first off, thank you so much for your kind words!

As for engagement, I don't know if I have much wisdom to give there. Spn fandom is definitely getting smaller, has been for years. Even when I got into it ten years ago, it was already past its prime.

Gonna share what little knowledge I have under the cut.

So I am not the right person to ask about socials lol. I have very little engagement on tumblr actually. I know it doesn't look like it right now, but usually I go months without getting asks. And then I guess sometimes whenever I get one, other people see it and remember they can send me asks? And then I just get a bunch, of which I suspect several are from the same people 😅, and then things go quiet again. Usually, most of them are related to the underneath verse, which makes sense since it's an ongoing WIP, and people have questions (that I am very happy to answer, always! Even tho I can't give anything about the ending away 😅). I used to post fic links here, but I got so little engagement I eventually gave up on that. It didn't seem worth the effort of formatting the posts, but I also have no way of knowing how many people just check ao3 and how many click on a link on tumblr.

Twitter is a little different, but it's also gotten more quiet there. The end of the show didn't help and then recent events *cough*prequelgate*cough* accelerated the decline of J2 fandom especially. But I get some interaction with fic posting there, more than on tumblr anyway, so that's where I post new fics. I think it's helpful to screenshot the summary and attach it to the post for more info. Maybe? I've never done a survey on this lol. Definitely don't be shy about retweeting and reposting for timezone purposes and on different days. Some people follow so many accounts they won't see your post otherwise.

As for fic engagement, idk. A good snappy summary, enough tags for people to get interested but no overtagging? But like, I'm a bad standard here, I think. I've been in fandom for over 10 years, I've written almost 200 fics in all kinds of genres, so people know me. I've also participated in gift exchanges, challenges and auction fics, which is also something that gives you exposure. And I was lucky that one of my first big fics was popular. So I guess a reasonable amount of people know me as a J2 author.

Also supporting my theory of being known is that I recently posted a fic in a much more active fandom and I immediately had like four times the engagement I'd usually get for J2 fics, but still much less than the popular fics in that fandom.

And not all of my spn rpf fics get a lot of engagement either. It always depends on subject matter, pairings, trends in fandom etc. If you look at my fic list, you'll see a lot of fics with few kudos for a variety of reasons.

I still write them, even if I know not a lot of people are interested in them, but I still enjoy writing them. And I always think, if there's only one person whom I brought joy with my writing, it's worth it. But I definitely understand that more feedback is also more joy and good for our egos. And I know there are people out there who don't care about that, which is valid, but I think it's also okay to care about it.

Idk if this is helpful. I can try to give more specific advice for fic things if you have more specific questions, maybe off anon if you're comfortable with it?

Otherwise, thanks for your faith in me and sorry that I have so little wisdom to share 😅

[roseofhybrids]

So this reblog earlier reminded me of this thing I made a while back. It's something I worked out back when Murder Drones made me question whether GAD could give someone hyperfixations. During this questioning, I looked back at some of my past media obsessions and organized how they generally went into stages. They go a bit like this:

Stage 0 Come across piece of media and get hooked

Stage 1 Binge whatever official content there is till the passion dies down. Once it dies down I'll typical still interact with it, but to a calmer more moderate degree. Long-running series typically only get this far. If it doesn't die down, proceed to stage 2

Stage 2 Fanart, I'll begin scrolling Tumblr, Instagram, et cetera for some fan drawings. 99% of the time, it ends here. There was a good 7-10 years, where I didn't move past this point. Until around 2 years ago, when a fan comic artist linked to a fanfic with an interesting enough premise for me to go read it. Which brings us to-

Stage 3 Fanfiction, If somehow the obsession's still burning strong, we start on the reading. In middle school it was Wattpad, now it's A03. Still, this is where it ends. Until I reached the last page of Murder Drones fics on AO3 that is. Literally, the first time I'd gotten that far and still had such a strong passion of something. Thus, stage 4 was born.

Stage 4 Self-made fanart and fiction, I've made fanart before for interests at earlier stages, but never to this extent. Currently, the only series to reach this point is Murder Drone and Digital Circus. Though, this maybe in part because they have characters that I'm actually able to draw. This is also why I created this stage system in the first place. I reached the "end" of stage 3 and was like "well this has never happened before" which made me consider how often I went through stages 1-3 with other things.

Stage 5+ Purely theoretical at this point. I don't know what this entails. But considering my interest for those 2 shows are still going pretty strong even now, we might find out. The way things are looking, it could be a larger fan project. Such as a longer comic or AU world building. By that metric, I guess the MD reference file could fall into this category. As it was a larger project that took a significant amount of time and thought to create. I could also include purchasing merch into this stage because that was also something I've never felt compelled to do before this point. Maybe stage 5 would be merch and then long form projects could fall into a stage 6. Hypothetical stage 7? Maybe going to an in-person convention? While for others this would probably occur at an earlier stage, my anxiety makes the idea very intimidating. So for the love something to win out against that fear would be notable.

[khiita]

this is a warning to tumblr and twitter artists + people in the interactive fiction fandom about my experience with faeinthefog/ElouanVT. faeinthefog seems to be a polish person that goes by the names Anna/Andi/Anka. they are also associated with the acct names AnnabelleShep13, sapphovonchat, andi-the-cat, and their username in AO3 is Mephale.

if you are an artist and have been commissioned by FAEINTHEFOG / ELOUANVT / ANNA or ANKA W**** in the past year, please contact me. there is a 99.9% chance that you unknowingly drew an original character that they stole from me. the other 00.1% chance is that it was stolen from someone else. for the record, at least two of the artists i managed to contact are involved in the mo dao zu shi / the untamed fandom.

i didn’t know that this person existed, hadn’t ever–knowingly–interacted with them in my life until yesterday (august 22nd), when i found out that they had been stealing my art and every single detail about my ocs for months. but what they did to me goes way deeper than that, so here it goes:

this all started yesterday morning, when scrolling through tumblr i saw that a friend had reblogged a commission of a main character for The Nameless that looked startlingly like my oc, Euridi. Euridi is a character i first created in 2013 and, just like with all my ocs, everything about her is deeply personal to me–i’ve drawn vent art featuring her plenty of times, so i immediately felt sick seeing that she was stolen, and contacted the artist.

while i was trying not to freak out and waiting for them to reply (which they did, and they were very kind and understanding–took everything down, cleared up some things for me) my friends started digging into faeinthefog, and everything went to shit after they found their twitter account, ElouanVT. in it, this person seemed to have frankensteined a fake personality, using selfies of a small polish influencer called igarosa as their face, and they posted not only the Euridi commission, claiming she was their oc and not bothering to even change her name, but they also posted my own art, claiming it was theirs, as well as multiple other commissions they had gotten of my characters.

besides this artist, who had done three commissions for faeinthefog, my friends and i were able to find four more of them. i’ve heard back from two of them so far, and i want to clarify that none of the artists seem to have known that the characters were stolen, and they are not to blame for what faeinthefog had been doing. it seems that the way faeinthefog would commission the artists was sending them profiles and descriptions they had copy-pasted from my blog, as well as sending them picrews that i had previously posted. both of the artists i talked to confirmed this. i believe faeinthefog started stalking me and stealing my creations about 9 months ago, since that was when they created their (now deleted) account on notebook.ai where they had uploaded at least 15 of my characters, if not all (i felt too fucking nauseous about it all to scroll through everything).

the reason that this freak shit flew under the radar for so long despite the considerably small size of the IF fandom is that when faeinthefog posted the commissions on tumblr, they never once said the oc’s name and rarely credited the artist responsible. meanwhile, on twitter they not only name-dropped my characters, but also (in my opinion) seemed to claim that each interactive fiction that features the characters is a story of their own making, as seen in the way they talked about Parker's The Nameless in their tweet featuring Euridi. it should be noted that in their tumblr blog description they referred to themself as a “game dev”, i've yet to find anything they have actually made themselves besides my trauma, however. here are examples of commissions they’ve gotten of my characters and the way they talked about Attollo, Body Count, Swan Song and Andromeda 6 as if those stories were their own work.

not only did faeinthefog steal my designs, my art and any word i’d typed about my characters, they also stole my oc spotify playlists as well as my pinterest boards, pin by pin. before they deleted their pinterest account, i saw that the last time they’d pinned something was two weeks ago. truly fucking insane behavior.

i have noticed that they even copied who my ocs were in a relationship with in each game. furthermore, whenever this person posted my art on twitter, each and every single time they would also copy the exact caption i had written on tumblr. even if it made no sense at all out of context. when it came to posting my ocs as their own, they also used quotes that i had already used in my own profiles.

i want to add that i am either friends, in semi-regular contact, or alpha-reading for five out of the ten authors i mentioned, and from what i gathered none of them were truly aware of this person or what they were doing either. the authors who had reblogged commissions that faeinthefog posted were kind enough to delete them after they found out as well.

speaking of friends though!!! as if all of this creepy bullshit wasn’t enough, besides reposting my art, faeinthefog would repost gift art i’ve received from my friends, claiming it had been made for them by their friends–without changing any names. i also found at least one instance of them reposting art i’ve made for artfight, name-dropping the giftee even when i hadn’t, which meant they had to go digging through other people’s blogs to get them.

(the embed for this one broke and i couldn’t include the picture, but the repost was of this art i made last year during artfight for tumblr user @/whoreromancer, with my signature cut out.)

as you can see, this person had been blatantly stealing from me for months, claiming to have made the things i’ve created and claiming the people i love had any sort of relationship with them. i honestly can’t find any other explanation for this behavior + the fact that they commissioned my characters multiple times other that calling it an obsession with me (after some digging done by my friends, we haven’t seen them steal from anyone else, for better or worse) and honestly, fucking insanity. as i have stated before all of this hurt me deeply and freaked both me and my friends out a lot. anyone who knows me knows how much love and dedication i put into everything i make, including my pinterest boards and playlists, so thankfully i received a lot of love and support from my community.

it does make me wonder though, whether faeinthefog targeted me thinking i had a small blog and no one would notice/care? wherever this person is now that they’ve deleted the accounts i knew about, i have no doubt in my mind that their behavior won’t change, and if they don’t continue to rip me off, they might invent themself a new personality and pick someone else. my friends and i have reason to believe that (despite their clear lack of imagination) this person is willing to switch identities in order to have an online presence, and we have no reason to believe that they won’t come back. i hope the IF fandom continues to watch out for each other. i added watermarks to all my art, which i think might be a good idea for everyone to do? i never thought someone would steal my art/ocs and yet here we are.

thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who helped me and supported me during this mess.

[lifeofkaze]

Warning - rant incoming.

Having been a writer for more than a decade overall and an active one for almost two years now, there's a question that has been bugging and making me anxious over and over again, and that is:

What kills a writer? What kills the joy writing sparks in us? What makes us want to go and just stop?

And no, I'm not talking about like/reblog ratios here on Tumblr, lack of kudos on AO3, or non-existent interaction (even though these all suck in their own way).

No, what's been grinding my gears over and over and over and over again is when people are lying. You think that sounds rude? Well, so is this kind of behaviour, imho.

For the love of God, please...

... don't say you have to read an author's work when you don't mean to. And no, I don't mean "I really want to engage with what you do properly, but I'm really short on time/motivation/attention span atm but it's sitting in my drafts and I WILL get round to it". Like, that's me, all the time. The number of tbr posts sitting in my drafts is ridiculous, but anyone who knows me knows tI eventually gets around to all of them. No, I mean those people who say things like these because they feel it's expected of them and don't want to say, "Listen, it's cool what you do, but it's not my jam." And I mean, I get it, it takes a lot of courage to say that, and not everyone is mature enough to separate this from the feeling of not being liked or appreciated. BUT - as someone who's been told exactly that and gotten her hopes up of getting interaction and having people to talk about with what's really close to my heart - let me tell you, this kind of behaviour is crushing, and it rings more empty every time you hear it. You stop trusting in people when they say it, and eventually, trusting in what they say altogether. If you are not interested in someone's work, don't make them think you are.

... don't pretend to interact if you don't care. Striking the same cord, if a work doesn't appeal to you or you lost track of it, or you cba with it atm, don't act as if you read/engaged with it with generic or just plain false comments. And again, no, I don't mean generic comments are bad or anything, not at all. But trust me, people can tell if you actually read their work, or just looked at someone else's comment and rephrased it, or skimmed it and possibly got a wrong gist altogether. We can tell. We can always tell. And because we do, it leaves a very, very bitter taste in our mouths every time we get a reaction like this. Interaction should be based on excitement and involvement, not on a quid-pro-quo mentality. You should interact because you want to, and not just so the other person feels compelled to interact with and boost your own content as well. That's not how this is supposed to work. If you like a creator but don't want to engage with their content for whatever reason and are scared they won't like you anymore, just hit them up and talk to them. I've yet to meet another author who will be angry at someone reaching out.

Take inspiration, but do not steal. I know it's virtually impossible to create something so original that it's never been here before in the history of mankind. Tropes are here and beloved for a reason, and every author has that one piece/scene/line they took from something they love. Really, we all do, and inspiration is a beautiful thing to have. That being said, there is a very big and very important difference between getting inspired and copying. I cannot stress enough how upsetting and frustrating it is to a creator when their work is blatantly copied, or something is "inspired by them" that is just a carbon copy or an unsolicited addition to something they never intended to share in the first place. Just because something is put out there doesn't mean anyone has the right to go and grab it for themselves. There's obviously no means to stop anyone from doing so, but just think about how you would feel if something was done to a piece of content/character/art you created. If you want to add to someone's work or it inspires you to do something similar, take the second out of your day to contact the creator and tell them about it to see if they're okay with sharing. Often they are, and if not, they might just have another idea to make things work for both of you.

Oof. That was nice getting off my chest. If you feel offended by what I said, maybe stop and take a moment to think about why. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[purplehoodiesimon]

Young Royals has such a unique fandom honestly. Like I've only been here for a month and a half ish but I've seen a fair bit of the fandom on both tumblr and twitter (I observe yrtwt I do not interact with yrtwt lol) and like. Yea, there's drama. There's fans that I make this face about 😐😒. There's some shitty stuff that's gone on. But honestly, compared to other fandoms I've been in, this place is just like. The motherfucking Garden of Eden or something. Y'all experiencing fandoms for the first time with the YR fandom have no idea how lucky y'all are.

As far as I can tell, no one's tried to kill any of the actors or showrunners with baked goods yet, people have dug a bit too much into personal life stuff but it hasn't gotten to crazy levels like hacking airport cameras and tracking down addresses from sunlight patterns in their posts, and the lack of ship discourse is just astounding. Walking into this fandom, I was certain there would be arguments about Simon/Wilhelm vs Wilhelm/Felice because they never actually defined Wilhelm's sexuality and Felice was interested in him. It was inevitable in my mind but like, nope. Nada. I have seen no ship wars in the YR fandom. There's also just like, a general lack of discourse. I've seen twitter threads and tumblr posts calling out fan behavior towards the actors, but I have not seen anyone arguing over the actual show or fan content. YR isn't exempt from fandom drama, I have seen it, but it is so much less than I expected.

And I have no idea why. I don't know if it's because this is already a queer story so the fans aren't constantly fighting with each other and the show for a crumb of representation, I don't know if it's because the show has incredible amounts of nuance and that makes it easy to accept other people's interpretations of the material, I don't know if it's because we just lucked out. The stuff I talked about above is not exclusive to huge worldwide fandoms. It's more common in them, because the more fans you have the more potential for crazy incidents, but I have seen the absolute worst drama happen in fandoms with like 100 works on ao3. It's not exclusive to fandoms like Supernatural and the Minecraft YouTube people. So I really don't know. But I am fucking glad, because it means I can genuinely appreciate being in this fandom. I'm happy being in the YR fandom, I'm happy to engage with content about canon, I can scroll through the tags without having anxiety about what kind of arguments I'll see. It's amazing. I love you all and let's please keep this fandom a chill place even as it grows in popularity💜💜💜