#nothing is discussed to in depth

[vmures]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💕

author's choice! :D

Oof, now I have to pick a thing myself. lol

I guess I'll start with some insight on Hanging On (You're All That's Left to Hold On To).

What I'm not sure I've ever mentioned in any of the author's notes for that fic, but that is probably clear from the themes of the work is that this is largely a fic about grief as well as healing from trauma. Essentially fic as therapy in some ways.

And here're the important bits of personal backstory that really shaped a lot of this fic. One, my relationship with my own father was complicated in much the same way that Stiles relationship with his dad is. My father was an alcoholic and addict, though he did sober up later in life. Up until the point he got sober, our relationship was chaotic and there was definitely some parentification going on. But after he got sober, we managed to get our relationship on healthier, more solid ground. We had about 10 years of this healthier relationship before he was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in 2014.

For those unfamiliar with that particular form of cancer. It is one that can be very aggressive. The docs estimated that my dad had between six weeks and three months if he chose palliative care, and maybe six months if he went with more aggressive treatment. He went with palliative care. I flew out to where he lived and spent the time from diagnosis to end of life with him, and my brother eventually joined me. We got about six good weeks and then he went downhill fast. I wrote several poems after his death, but one was just a short little couplet that encapsulated how I was feeling.

I am a bottle played by the wind howling, mournful, and hollow within.

It always felt like it needed to go with something else. Now we move forward several years to February 2020 when I decide to participate in a fic exchange after finally getting back into writing fanfiction. I'd been kicking around this idea of Stiles getting stuck in fox form and Coach Finstock being the one to help him. One of the few things we know from canon is that Coach is a recovering alcoholic (I think it's mentioned in season 4, but not 100% on that). And then I started thinking about all the ways that Coach could help out if he actually knew about the supernatural.

Then I had to figure out how Stiles ended up as a fox. And I realized that if I went with his magic imprinting on the nogitsune a bit and realized I wanted to explore the whole mess of post-nogitsune life that was never explored in the show. As I wrote the opening scene I realized that the couplet above fit perfectly. It really sets the tone for the whole story and how folks are feeling at the beginning of it. The hurt of grief not just from the loss of Allison, Boyd, and Erica, but also the never-really-dealt-with grief that both Stilinskis carry regarding Claudia.

The other potentially interesting fact about the opening scene is that I based Stiles' panic attack and resulting dissociation on my own experience and accidentally gave myself a panic attack when doing that. I was able to get over it pretty quickly, but it was a reminder to try to keep a bit more space between myself and my writing even when I'm trying to hit certain emotional notes. Perhaps even more so when trying to hit certain emotional notes.

All in all, I didn't really plan on writing a ridiculously long story that explored grief and grieving as well as healing from trauma, but that's fully what the story turned into. Parts of it are a love letter to my child and teenage selves who could have used better, healthier coping skills. And some of it is a love letter to my dad in all his complex and ridiculous glory. And some of it is just a love letter to a show that had some great characters but not the best writing.

I ended up deciding to go with song quotes and poems for the openings of each chapter as a result of using that couplet, and I'm glad I did. It is basically the soundtrack of the fic (along with the title which comes from Red Hill Mining Town by U2).

So that's just one thing that went into the creation of that particular fic. Given that it is my longest fic, there is a lot I could say about it, lol. But this has already gotten really long. So I'll cut this particular director's commentary off here.

Folks are welcome to hit me up for more or to ask specific questions about any of my fics. :D <3

[mohntilyet]

about illario working with the venatori, we can't forget that elgar'nan gifted him blood magic, so I do think that he somewhat influenced him and that's why he's so much more vindictive and jealous in comparison to tevinter nights. I don't mean that he's being mind controlled, but it's a bit like cyrian, a god just amplifying those negative emotions in you and promising power and glory can push a person to that edge and to make stupid af decisions.

im also not forgetting that zara line in inner demons where she talks about an envy demon. like. why an envy demon in specific...there's THINGS between zara and illario that were not shown

no literally if you get me talking about illario + envy + the possibility of getting him possessed, you will have me here for fucking ever. a non mage doing blood magic (any magic at all) is really weird and interesting to me and i don’t remember an example of this happening before (feel free to correct me tho lol. i’m discounting possessions and dwarves)

i had started wildly theorising after bloodbath that he had been possessed and he was tapping into the fade using an envy demon. especially like you said, zara mentions it, AND because i swear there’s a codex in the ossuary where it mentions an envy demon whereas spite is obviously determination, right? so i thought it was a breadcrumb trail to a big “illario is being influenced and doesn’t even know” reveal— same as you anon like great minds am i right— but i’m not sure there is actually any evidence of that lol. like maybe if you squint but i do believe it was explained away by “oh yeah, and elgarnan let him do special blood magic”

it does also make sense to me that illario can only control lucanis, due to being part of the same family. a bloodline thing, and it is very poetic to me that their shared family connection in caterina is what allows him to control lucanis, even for a moment lol. spite being the extra magical boost that lucanis needs to block that out ALSO makes sense to me so i’m not too fussed abt these details lol🤔

the envyllario in my heart also gets spectral weapons for himself. lucanis gets wings, illario gets talons, PLUS green-purple are complementary colors so it would have been really fun to see them clash with their spirit/demon-powers. the talon thing is also a kind of reflection of his end-goal desire, how envy demons already have those freaky hands, and it manifests as claws and is a much more aggressive, strength-augmenting manifestation (as opposed to manoeuvrability and speed-augmenting that spite’s wings give lucanis.) anyways that's what the diagram above is supposed to be (this is extremely hot to me)

[cupidle]

zazie

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Wow I love it when a little rant post about my silly video games and how I feel about them nets me anon hate. People are absolutely allowed to be disappointed by things they're disappointed by, just like they're allowed to be excited by things they're excited by, and share them in fandom spaces if they want.

Look just block me like a normal person stfu

Peace and love to anyone who is getting angry fans in their inboxes rn because they expressed a pretty mild opinion <3

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Loudest Silence

YA contemporary

a newly Deaf-Hard of hearing girl moves across the country and starts a new school, struggling with navigating her disability and love for singing and lost friendships - determined to not make any new friends for the year she’s in Florida

and a boy struggling with family expectations and anxiety, after being made the fútbal captain even though he secretly ways to be on broadway, who quickly befriends her

bi & aroace-coded MCs

[dykedivorce]

doing fandom on twitter is suchhh a miserable experience there's no analysis whatsoever people post 4 screenshots with a caption that simply describes what happens in the scene and it gets 500rts for some reason. And if you say you like a female character's moral ambiguity they throw rocks at you???

[arctasy]

i'm in the mag 140s and i have so many thoughts about the way tma explores free will, choice, instinct, and tragedy. it's so fascinating and i could write an entire literary analysis and i still don't think i could come to a simple conclusion because the narrative arguably resists it. jon had a choice but he was also manipulated but it was also just his instinct/nature/personality so who is really to blame? he embodies such a complex position as both predator and prey, not to mention how complicated the forces are that go him into that position. auughh i have so many thoughts my brain is going to explode

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

we will ever get to learn more about the first generation of the elemental masters

*glances at Mystake* Maybe

[hideyseek]

man there is really nothing in the WORLD that quite compares to the high of a deep and thorough betaing discussion of a fic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bisexualamy]

.

[fabcreature]

in my post about the muppet christmas carol and kermit and piggy's hypothetical kids and interspecies muppet reproduction, i am acting quite serious and really dramatic, because it's funny you know. it's the muppets and we're discussing something meaningless on the internet - of course i'm being dramatic for the laughs

but the amount of people in the notes interpreting the conversation as people (me and others commenting) actually being angry or serious.

they're making me go apeshit.

[kayvsworld]

like are comics better. than the mcu. low bar but are comics better maybe i should get into comics fldkjghkfjdhg

[lohstandfound]

ignore this.

learning to shut up when i dont have anything new to say to the discussions my mutuals are having about the treatment of the female characters in this show and fandom

even though ive just gone ahead and rambled in the tags a bunch of bullshit

[fbwzoo]

(Long rambling post re: Emma & resource guarding)

Man, I'm so glad my household is all basically on the same page when it comes to animal care & management. It really makes it so much easier tackling some situations, like Emma's resource guarding.

Like, we got it almost gone within the household in 4-ish months. It's not fully gone, but a huge improvement.

Now that we're going to start adding back having people over slowly, we know it's going to make a reappearance due to the stress of the new situations. That's already happened with the first occasions we've had so far in the past month.

BUT lots of positives - she's relatively? Mild about it - a snarl & lunge, and then she retreats. She doesn't escalate or anything. Still a more dramatic reaction than we'd like, but could be worse.

She's also not too bad to redirect usually, either before or after, she's not fixated on the one she's trying to guard against. She's just trying to create space for herself and the guarded object - which is usually me. The habit isn't super ingrained, since both her foster mom & we have immediately been addressing it to avoid situations that cause it & redirecting when we can.

Our house layout could be better to work with, but we do have a game plan in mind for managing her with people over, and with Shilo as she's still touchiest with him out of the house animals.

For Shilo: more treats for her when he comes in the room or is on the couch to get affection. Especially for me, she'll get treats tossed away from me to reward her for leaving me & give her space from Shilo. She does lose me (in that I get up and move) if she lunges at him (or Phoebe, but she's much better with her).

For guests: I'll be out on the dog bed/floor or by the cat tree so that she can't camp out and have me + corner to defend. If she's showing increased signs of tension, like pacing, circling, etc. I'll do a treat toss towards the hallway or go to the bedroom to encourage her to follow me and give herself space from the new people. Treat toss towards the hallway/away from me if she does do any guarding as well.

I want to give her more options for either giving herself space or calming activities, but a) she still wants to be in the room with people even when she's stressed, and b) can't add anything too high value that would add something to guard or invite interest from the other animals & possible conflict. So that likely rules out lickimats and higher value chews.

I may look at getting some smaller Benebones bc she liked them at the foster house & they were fine to leave out there without guarding. The other two dogs aren't too interested in the bigger ones I got for Addy either. She's started to like shredding and chewing cardboard too, so maybe encouraging that as a distracting & calming activity for this type of thing?

[phoenixcatch7]

Having been on several fanfic sites for several years, I can hands down GUARANTEE you that anything 'classic media' has done, fanfic has done better.