#oh anyway i think this is the multichapter i'm finally going to write more than 3 chapters for

[aingeal98]

Listen when stephcass do kiss in canon I think it should be sweet and romantic and healing BUT I also think a first kiss that happens because they're messy and have complicated feelings that never fully got resolved is so fun. Steph on patrol with Bruce and he starts hinting that she and Cass are awfully close these days and Steph's like ??? I'm not sleeping with your daughter Bruce. Yes we sleep in the same bed a lot but like. Platonically. And Bruce looks highly uncomfortable but drops it.

But then the mission goes bad and Bruce is an asshole and Steph goes home with all the raw lingering resentment from years of tension between the two of them renewed and she sees Cass and is like. You know what maybe I should kiss her. Fuck you Batman maybe I Am that bad influence you've been saying I was all along.

And so she asks Cass to kiss her and Cass, who's been in love for a long time now is like. What. And Steph's like look Bruce pissed me off I don't have a boyfriend I need some comfort trust me this is just a girl best friend thing.

And so they kiss and neither of them feel good about it at all and Steph is like fuck sorry I shouldn't be using you just to deal with Bruce, you mean more to me than him anyways. And Cass, who's been fantasising about the first kiss for a while is like oh no it's fine. Totally fine. I'm not going to cry myself to sleep because our first kiss was due to you being mad at my dad and I can't even tell how much it mattered to you. This is fine.

Not saying I want this to happen in canon but if someone wants to write a 20k+ multichapter fic where Cass pines and pretends she's not hurt and Steph is in denial about being bi and they both make things so much worse and regress to being a little bit awful to each other before they finally get their shit together, I would like that very much.

[thousand-winters]

Pal, I hope the cats are doing well!! I have fanfic questions for you! 5, 7, 20, 27, 36, 48, ok I gotta stop there's too many good questions haha

Hi, friend!!! They're very good, they have been cuddling on my bed these past week because it has been so incredibly cold, so they're living their best lives haha. I hope you and your cats have been doing as well as you possibly can, given the circumstances 💖

It does have some amazing questions, it's hard to decide what to pick when it comes to asking. But let's get into that haha.

5. How many wips do you have?  What fandoms/pairings are they for?

... Oh, boy. Let me count them, haha. There's...

4 I have pending for Dadrius week (crying, by the time I'm done with that, it's going to be the next Dadrius week, surely). Do I count the two multichapters I have going on? I'm not going to, just to give myself some grace ahaha.

For MP100 I have one silly little idea for Reigen's birthday, one Dimple centric fic that I'm struggling for my life with because his interactions with Reigen keep coming out flirty, one silly Terumob inspired in a Mean Girls song, and the "Reigen pulls an Eda" fic. I technically have more but shhhh, only picking the ones I have faith in. So that's another 4.

And then finally for Saiki K I have vampire Kaido that I need to finish for Halloween but we'll see what the gods say about it, the Aren intervention™️ that I might turn shippy out of spite, and then Hairo getting burnt out. So 3, surprisingly not that much yet. I'm refraining from any Teruhashi ideas because I know I'm not gonna shut up with her.

That gives me a total of 11 things without counting multichapters I have to update. Not too bad. I think. Help me LMAO.

7. Post a snippet from a wip.

Reigen pauses all of his movements and looks up from his game, one eyebrow raised. “Unless… you really like my company, I guess.” Dimple huffs. As if.  “In your dreams.” “More like my nightmares.” “You would be lucky to have me in your nightmares.”

Why does it sound flirty. Am I going crazy. Help.

20. Do you prefer writing AUs or canon fics?

Canon fics, I think. I like exploring the possibilities and it's honestly less of a headache to have certain things about the characters already established rather than to have to think about how a new background has shaped their life haha.

I really, really enjoy AUs, but in terms of what's easier, canon is always good to play with, especially when it's a fandom in which there's a lot to explore and usually that's the case.

27. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

Mmmm... the sequence of events, if that makes sense? Like I'm generally good at picturing how one thing gets from one point to the other, which might not say much about the way in which I actually write it when it comes down to it, but I do think it's important to have a grasp on how you get from point A to point B, and I think I'm good at that. If it ever feels rushed, that's a problem of my descriptions and redaction, not the plan in my head, I believe haha.

36. What fic are you proudest of?

The stars too, they tell of spring returning continues being my baby. I've been re-reading it in the hopes I can get back to it soon and oof. I went off with that one, it has a good amount of tension and it doesn't stall too long in unnecessary bits in my opinion? I don't know, I just like it. I did start writing the next chapter, it's just a matter of time, we'll get there!!!

48. Who is your favorite character to write for?  Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom?

Darius Deamonne my beloved. I do think I need to make him a bit bitchier haha, I have made him far too soft lately, and while I do believe he's a sucker for his loved ones, he's also a bitch in the best of ways. But anyway, this says your favorite and not the one you write the best so I stand by the fact it's Darius, he's just fun in all of his little complexities, his snarkiness and his softness and his vulnerability. I love him madly.

My favorite to write for used to be Hunter, for sure. Now with him I think it was in part because he's easy. He's so terribly traumatized that I always joke with my friends that you can project some things on him and chances are it'll stick because he has all the issues in the world, poor tang haha.

Thanks for the questions, friend!!! From this ask game

[metalbvcky]

Mandy! I hope you're having a lovely Friday so far!

For the Director's Cut ask game, I'm going to ask you about Not The Face You'd Expect which was a prompt you fulfilled of mine for NYE Masquerade 🥰️🥰️🥰️ I adore your take on the prompt so could you tell me something more about the story?

Hiii!!! Omg I'm finally getting to this! It's been a good Friday, lots of distractions, but we managed to avoid the storm (Debby). I hope your Friday was nice!

Ooh I love when people ask about oneshots. A ton of thought goes into long multichapters but the one-and-done fics are where the magic happens-- usually spontaneously for me. Like, this was one of those ideas/prompts where one thing led to another. One of the reasons I gravitated to your prompt in the Masquerade was because it reminded me of this one Kenan and Kel episode where Kel gets everyone in the restaurant trapped in the freezer room. And I once said I was done writing crack lol.

Anyway! Imagining what happens past the end... I can only imagine how that dance would go. If leaning into the crack, I'd say Asgardian mead somehow slips up, and Steve becomes a little more than tipsy while grinding against Bucky dancing. Less crack, maybe Bucky finds someone to cover his shift and he takes Steve out to somewhere more lively. Think of a bar or a club. Or maybe Bucky's apartment because Steve isn't the extrovert 'party-all-night' type.

Another way to go about this question is what if Bucky didn't immediately realize Steve was Cap? Lean into that trope and have Steve... already drunk! Could you imagine Steve squishing himself into the shower, then losing his balance once Bucky has walked inside, like Steve falls right straight through the curtain? Poor Bucky would be dealing with a drunk Cap without even realizing it, oh, and then the reveal. Steve's brain (not many cells in there) suddenly turns online and he remembers he can smash through doors.

"That would have been useful information TWO HOURS AGO!"

You're making me wanna rewrite this Tej LOL. There's sooo many possibilities. It's making me realize that's how writing is-- time and place can really give different results. Even if I don't, I enjoyed thinking about it! 💖💖💖

[szivtalan]

Tell us a line from your latest wip then tag as many people as there are words.

guys I don’t have this many wips help

Tagged by @theshinsun thanks dude!!

‘Why do we keep doing this, Daiki?’

‘Because it feels good, and I’m a good lay. Can we not overthink this?’

(from chapter 2 of Teacups and Gunshots)

I’m tagging uh, anyone who sees this and would like to do it?? Folks gather round let’s make a group of [counts number of words] 22

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

8, 25 and 32 :)

Hey there! Thanks for asking! <3

8. How often do you reblog/comment on fics that you like?

If it's posted to tumblr and I've read it and liked it, I reblog it. This tends to be focused on oneshots and drabbles though since I'm really bad about reading wips. I can only handle so many storylines in my head at once, so reading a wip, for me, means that if the writer pauses posting for one reason or another, I lose the plot and then have to reread from the beginning whenever they start posting again. Wish my brain worked differently, but it doesn't. Last semester, when I took three literature classes, I was reading three books at any given time, plus the readings for my writing class. It became impossible for me to read fic OR to even write it because my brain couldn't really handle the thought processes.

Result of that is that by the time I do get around to reading multichapter fanfiction stories, they're usually finished a long time ago and I wind up not reblogging anything about it here. Bad habit, I know. *cringe emoji here*

25. Do you listen to music as you write? If possible, link your writing playlist.

All. The. Time. I cannot write without music, to the point that I wind up curating playlists for each of my stories. For one story in particular, Outside Chance, I have multiple playlists since it turned into a three story universe that spans over twenty years. I am working on consolidating those multiple playlists into one master playlist to share, but it's not at a point yet where I'm willing to share it. I've actually recently moved to Spotify as a platform for my fanfic playlists specifically to share them with readers since the platform I usually use puts my full freaking name on playlists when I share them, and sorry y'all. I'm not changing my username on it and I'm not handing out my full name. *shrug emoji here* Anyways, I'll share the OC playlist when I've got it a little more finalized.

32. Copy and paste your top three favorite lines/jokes/sentences you’ve ever written. What fics do they come from?

Oh good lord. I've written so much at this point that this it's impossible to narrow it down to a top three. I'll give you three that I love, how's that?

From Wrapped in Red: Every time I try to get Peeta alone to talk about it, she’s there, making sure we’re not disrespecting traditions. The girl has turned into a kiss demanding despot ninja.

From Outside Chance: I become familiar with his body again. How he moves, the cadence of his breaths. We relearn each other’s limits and how to push past them or cover for each other until we can go on.

From The Baker & The Hunter:

“I’m not settling. I don’t want anyone but you,” she vows and my heart stutters for a second then begins to thunder. “I don’t need to leave here to know that. Really if you think about it, this is just a formality.”

“How do you figure?” I ask, unable to stop the smile twitching at my lips at her conviction.

“Because we’re already more married than any piece of paper could make us.”

“You did not just--”

“I did,” she says triumphantly and I groan. She’s a little too good at using my own words against me. “Besides, we’ve already had a toasting.”

“I think I’d remember that,” I say.

“You do remember it. We didn’t even have to fix that memory. We were eleven. I was soaking wet, freezing and starving, digging through garbage--”

“That wasn’t a toasting,” I argue and she flattens her palm on my chest, her lashes lowering.

“Maybe not technically. But you made bread, put it in the fire--”

“Burned it in the fire.” She ignores me and keeps going.

“Then you gave it to me and I shared it with my family.”

“Well by that logic... I gave the first bite to the pig, and I didn’t eat any so...Katniss Everdeen, you’re married to a pig.”

“What? No!” She shouts in protest, but she’s laughing. I tease her and tickle her, rolling her over so that I’m hovering over her.

“Lucky for me, that pig is dead. So really you’re a widow. Do you think an appropriate mourning time has passed for you to remarry or am I just your crazy grief driven affair?”

A Fic Writer Ask Game

[thegeminisage]

question to Miss Experienced Professional Fic Author Liz—do you have your betas read your fic from the beginning, as soon as you start writing it? like i know you mentioned cathy and emily (?) have access to the doc. is that standard procedure? i'm curious because I've never written fic myself but I was drafting something today and my friend's gonna beta once i'm done but I was wondering if I should have her beta thorughout the whole process.

HI sorry i saved your ask for last bc i didn’t want it to get buried <3 and then it got so late that i didn’t know if you’d see it if i answered <3 this was extremely professional behavior <3 so i’m...................scheduling it to go up when people are awake. sorry again lol

anyway ok so the SHORT answer to this is: if you don’t know that your friend is willing to look over your fic multiple times, get your thing as polished and close to done as possible before letting anyone else beta it. that way, your second pair of eyes is able to do the maximum amount of good! if it’s a longer fic, you may be able to do this in sections - you can finish chapter 1 and then have your friend look at chapter 1, then chapter 2, etc, since nobody can beta a multichapter fic in one sitting. it depends v much on what you and your friend feel like! 

the looooong answer is: my “betas” are also just my friends! same hat! so more often than not they just want to see what i’m doing. so if i mention what i’m working on they’re like “oh can i see” and i’m like “yeah” and then they come in and look. like, as far as standard procedure goes, it’s all very casual. if it’s too rough for proofreading i’ll usually wind up giving a heads up that it may change a lot later in case they don’t want to read it multiple times, but usually they do anyway (so in my case it winds up being a mix of both “edit now” and “edit at the end”). i’m really very lucky to have so many extremely smart and cool people willing to do that kind of thing for me <3

that said, imo there are different ways to edit and things to edit for - it’s not as complex and awful as it sounds, for me different people wind up helping me with different things. it really depends on what stage your writing is at/what your friend is helping you edit for. i categorize them as follows:

cheerleading - this is what i was talking about above...this is just someone reading as you write (sometimes checking in daily, sometimes literally WHILE YOU TYPE IT, my friends have done this lol) and encouraging you. i’m not particularly shy about letting my buddies just kinda hang out in there, it’s like my little house 🙏 it’s also fun to have people read as i go (it helps keep me excited). doesn’t exactly count as editing/betaing imo (so you don’t necessarily need a writing-savvy friend to do it), but it’s still a level of support <3

plot soundboarding - this is stuff like... “how do i get dean and cas to talk about x thing,” “where should i end this chapter,” “if i change this thing in chapter 1 that leaves a huge plothole in chapter 3, how do i fix it?” this is for the plot, not the prose itself, so you can do this when the fic is very rough, maybe even before it’s written, when it’s still in the planning stages

“regular betaing” - this is what most people think of when they say beta - this is a general readthru where they’ll point out inconsistencies or anything that sticks out to them (good or bad). “this sentence is worded awkwardly,” “you said mary had a cup of coffee here but earlier in the scene she had tea,” “you used the same word four times in one paragraph.” you want to have the fic written by this point (though again if it’s a long one, it doesn’t necessarily have to be complete - more on this in a sec)

final typo check - you want to save the LAST typo check for after everything else is perfect and not going to be changed at all. my friend coralie is checking my fic for typos and i asked her not to read unedited scenes yet - because of course if edit them, and my edits have typos, and she’s already read those parts, i’d have typos in the checked bits, which would defeat the entire purpose

so it really depends on what you want your friend to most help with - if you want plot help, obviously you’d come in early, but if it’s just typo help, come in late. and of course how much help she’s up for giving you - reading what you write daily might be more time-intensive than just checking it one time and sending it back. 

as for whether or not it’s better to have “regular beta” stuff done on your writing as you write it or after it’s all finished, there’s pros and cons to both situations

reasons to edit as you go: a long fic divided into sections can seem more manageable, your pal gets to know your your project as it’s being written, you get someone to be excited with, you get immediate feedback on potential mistakes that might save you from having to do more editing later, editing as you go will DEFINITELY save you from a huge slog later, sometimes when you’re not up to writing it’s nice to have something to edit so at least you get to do a little work on it

reasons to edit after it’s finished: less time-intensive, when you can see the whole fic at once you’re less prone to forgetting what happened in the beginning, when you see it all at once you can also see the way things come together (or fail to come together), you're less likely to have to look over the same section multiple times, you get to polish it up before anyone else sees it (good if you’re shy), sometimes it’s nice to let things sit awhile before coming back to edit because breaks can help you see more clearly

and like i said, i usually wind up doing a mix of this. the important thing though is there’s really no wrong way to do it as long you and the person helping you are on the same page. just like everybody has a different writing process, everybody has a different editing process, yk? just try it whatever way seems most appealing and sensible to you, and eventually you’ll hit your groove. i hope that helps, sorry if it was a way longer answer than you were bargaining for lol

[pikapeppa]

Oh Mighty Word Wrangler, bestow upon me your wisdom!! ♥ What do you think makes your amazing fics so popular? Apart from your OBVIOUS talent and writing ability, of course ;) Is it frequency of posting? The pairings? Amount of smut? I'm curious :D

HAHAHAH THANK YOU FOR THAT COMPLIMENT YOU SNUCK IN THERE but also I’M PANIC at the thought of trying to answer this question lol?? I mean, this is the question for the ages, right? What makes a fic popular, and how do we boost the engagement with our own work?

Let me preface this reply by saying it is based just on my experiences and hypothesizing, and NOT on anything systematic. Trust me, I’d study this like a science if I could, but then I wouldn’t be writing. HAHA. Also, I’ll mostly focus on popularity on AO3 and not on Tumblr, since I would argue that I’m only “known as a writer” on Tumblr because people followed me here from AO3. 

First of all, I want to highlight the fact that popularity does not equal quality, and vice versa. I’ve read some fics that are AMAZING but have little engagement. Some examples are Last Call by @galadrieljones (Ameridan/Lavellan) and this very short Fenris fic that I just read recently. On the other hand, I’ve tried to read some fics that are extremely popular with tons of hits/kudos/comments, but my judgmental ass thinks they’re poorly written and/or poorly characterized. There really is not a clear linear relationship between the quality of a fic and its popularity. (Anyone who is discouraged by the lack of engagement with their work: please keep this in mind.)

Another thing to consider: what do we even mean by popularity? On AO3, is the most popular fic the one with the most hits? The most comments? The most kudos? Even then, a longfic that’s been updated weekly for a year is going to have more hits than a completed oneshot, just by virtue of its length. Frequently updated fics will show up week after week in search results, since AO3’s search results show the most recently updated fics by default. So when I think about popularity… ehhh, I guess I’m thinking about a vague combination of all three of these things – hits, kudos, and comments – while keeping the length of the fic in mind. Given all of this, in the grand scheme of things, my DA fics really aren’t that popular. I didn’t actually do a search because I didn’t want to make myself sad, but if you search my DA pairings (e.g. Fenris/female Hawke) on AO3 by number of hits/comments/kudos, I won’t come up on the first few pages of search results. We’ll come back to the topic of search results later.

ANYWAY. Let’s pretend I’m relatively popular, leaving out the Big Names™ in DA fanfic (whom I won’t tag here because I don’t want to annoy them with a random tag lol). What do I think make my fics somewhat popular? I can think of four things:

Frequency of posting

The combination of fandom and pairing: filling a gap

Varying lengths of fics for a single pairing: something for everyone

I have no idea

Frequency of posting

The most obvious factor that jumps out to me is that I post regularly and frequently. Currently, I update my two ongoing longfics weekly or every other week. When I first got really heavily into Fenris/Rynne Hawke, I was updating almost every day. As I mentioned before, AO3’s search results are shown by the most recently updated fics by default. So if I’m posting regularly, that means my fic is regularly appearing at the top of the list of search results when people search my tags or pairings, which means a higher chance of new readers seeing it and deciding to dive in week after week. 

Fandom and pairing: filling a gap

For this point, I’m going to call back to the fandom where I first became “well-known”, which is Horizon Zero Dawn. I’ve written a number of ships for that game, but my OTP is Aloy/Nil. My fic Stormbirds and Stalkers is the second most kudos’ed fic if you search for that pairing on AO3, and the #1 most kudos’ed fic if you exclude fics that are multi-ship (i.e. shipping Aloy with multiple people in a single fic, which is common in the HZD fandom). Importantly, this was a popular pairing in a very small fandom. There weren’t many fics for this pairing at the time, and there weren’t any fics that did what I was doing: a monogamous love story, with explicit smut, that was actually being updated. 

Funnily enough, though, my second most popular fic in the HZD fandom is my fic for Aloy/Ikrie. This is an extreme rarepair even within a small fandom, with only 19 Aloy/Ikrie fics on AO3, but my fic for this pairing is the one with the most hits/kudos/comment and is also my one fic with the most subscribers on AO3. Clearly people were excited about this fic and wanted to see more of this pairing. 

So what’s the logic here? A rarepair in a small fandom, a popular pairing in a small fandom… what’s the pattern? From what I can tell, a fic will be more popular if people are starved for that content. If a fic falls into that gap where people clearly want MOAR, but MOAR doesn’t yet exist, it’s going to get more engagement. Popular pairings in a small fandom fall perfectly into that gap, as do highly-coveted rarepairs with little existing content. A Dragon Age example of this is my little Cole/Lavellan romance fic. Colemances are quite rare, sexual ones even more so, and I think the reason for my Colemance fic’s popularity is because it fills that gap. 

If we return to the rest of my Dragon Age fic, however… [nervous laugh] the logic I just outlined above doesn’t really apply. That takes me to the third factor.

Varying fic lengths for a single pairing: a little something for everyone

Most of my Dragon Age work is for the most popular pairings for the games I’ve played: FenHawke for DA2, and Solavellan for DA:I. (Yes, yes, Cullen is even more popular, but I’ll leave my Cullen/Inquisitor work out of this analysis because I think it’s a special case.) I’ve heard that it’s notoriously difficult to get engagement when you’re writing a popular ship for a bigger fandom, since readers get inundated with choice and your fic can get lost in the shuffle. I would in no way say I’m “popular” for the pairings I write, considering that the most popular Solavellan fics have like… tens of thousands of hits and thousands of comments. Still, I have been surprised and thrilled by the engagement I have gotten in this fandom, especially since I’m kind of a noob to the DA world. 

One of the reasons my DA work might be relatively popular is that I write fics of varying lengths and types for my pairings. For Fen and Rynne in particular, I’ve got everything from non-smut oneshots to smutty oneshots to smutty longfics to AUs. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone, and I suspect that someone who was like “I just want a oneshot” might get interested enough by the one thing they read to check out my other work, even if they didn’t start out looking for more than a oneshot. Similarly for Solavellan, and also for Abelas/Lavellan, I’ve got oneshots and a multichapter drabble collection, so there’s something both for the people who are searching for a quick oneshot and for those who are searching for multichapter fics. In short: more variety means more potential to show up in AO3 search results. 

Don’t get me wrong; some of my Dragon Age stuff has fallen flat, namely my Blackwall/Lavellan work. That was actually the first DA ship I ever wrote for. The smutty oneshot collection has been relatively popular in terms of hits and kudos, but the two little multichapter mini-fics I wrote for Baewall have had very little attention, and I don’t really know why. Baewall isn’t the most popular ship in the fandom, I know, but it still doesn’t really explain the popularity of the smutty oneshots versus the mini-fics, which are also smutty. 

Which brings me to my final point…

I have no idea.

LOL. Seriously though. I’m sure there are other things at play that I’m not aware of, so maybe this can open a little discussion! What do you guys think? Any other theories on why some fics get more popular than others? 

Thanks for the interesting ask, Elvenybae! I definitely spent too much time thinking about this today, LOL!! 😂 😘

- Love from your friendly neighbourhood Pikapeppa xoxo

[levyfiles]

AAAH I'M SO GLAD YOU WATCH BLACK MIRROR TOO. I was worried that was too obscure and I'd have to explain myself lol. CONTAINS SPOILERS ANYWAY but imagine if Shane was a bit more like the girl in the episode. Bc he's definitely more rational and he'd definitely propose the theory that the app wears down the user until they settle whereas Ryan would propose the theory that they were in a simulation (Maybe in his theory voice??? Like they're lying in bed talking about true crime and ghosts pt 1

Pt 2 And they come up to this theory and Shane just rebuffs him?? But as Ryan is about to let go of their hands Shane holds on tight and for once he almost believes or wants to believe in something that fantastical) BUT yeah I think Ryan despite his daydreams would maybe be more likely to not admit his love for Shane at first (maybe that's his only pairing ever w a guy and he thinks it's a mistake) but Shane would try to move on and eventually Ryan is going to be on board w their relationship

Pt 3 but Shane would definitely be more in character to discover the 4 stone skips and maybe more exploration in his internal debate between rationalisation and risk Bc to trust in something as tiny as throwing rocks is a lot. If their bond was any weaker it's something he'd dismiss for sure. And eventually he settles on the decision to run away whether from a simulation or a dystopia he'll get away w Ryan and hatches a plot while Ryan is moping and resigning himself keep Shane as a memory

Pt 4 God I thought that was my last one but I kept rereading your response and my friend is watching the episode and texted me so Shane would also be the one to check the timer. 100% Shane would. He's just too curious and logical. And Ryan would know some thing was off and Shane would have to deal w the guilt of being the one to start the countdown so earlier than expected. Also they start out as friends after that first date bc they get a longer time and Shane is Ryan's first guy (slowburn!)

I was up in the Black Mirror world from long ago when it used to air in 2011. I used to be (well, kinda still am) enthused about twilight zone-esque programs and most of the ones I watch are Japanese but after catching a remake sometime that year I looked back into western media to see if any shows have that anthology like style of creepy psychological thriller stories but Black Mirror was a cut above. When the new season aired, I didn’t think any episode would beat San Junipero for me but oh my lord Hang the DJ is Up There.

It’s honestly been too long since I watched the episode but it’s like you tipped me right back into the Feel of it and oh OF COURSE Ryan would be the one to pitch the simulation theory and oh my word, but it makes it that much sweeter that Shane the skeptic is the one that just grabs Ryan’s hand and pulls him to the edge of the world while they’re being chased by men with guns. Ahhh and the notion of Shane being Ryan’s only set up with a man and how it makes him doubtful about the connection they have and it’d wear him down faster as he gets paired and paired with so many people who just don’t do it for him.

I just keep picturing that moment Shane checks the timer secretly; he’s sitting in the thrilled feeling of being back with Ryan again and then suddenly their time together just starts to whir and reduce from years to days and Shane going “oh fuck no no no, stop Stop!” 

I also like the thought of their first time sexually together happening way later after they’ve been given their second chance and Ryan finally trusting his feelings for Shane and not trying to pass off their connection as bros just being guys lol. That moment would be momentous because it’d be right before Shane, absolutely wrecked for attachment he feels for Ryan and the tiny glint of absolute greed wherein he can’t stand the idea of letting him go again, checks the time because he has to know, he has to find out how long he has to cherish this time but then the countdown speeds up because he broke their pact and kdsnfsjkfn wow, this would be a great multichapter AU. I don’t know as of yet if I’d write it because it’s already pretty much mapped out via the episode itself but if I do decide to do it, man I will absolutely die in Ryan’s feelings when he finds out about their countdown and just that moment when they decide to go sit at the restaurant to wait out their time. That last minute when Shane is just across the table, glancing at the guards who keep looking at him as if they know he’s going to do something against the rules and as their time clicks down, Shane convincing Ryan to just run with him. I’m soft and dying. This is perfect. dksjfnsdkjfn Thank you for feeding me more in the realm of this AU. I need to go rewatch the episode through a shyan lense now. 

[polkadotpatterson]

Fanfic ask!

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

18. current number of wips

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

I'm gonna answer 3 last so I can put it below a cut lol

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

Everyone wants to know the answer to this question, I guess! Already answered here.

18. current number of wips

oh god I don't want to count them but I'll try anyway… okay, let's see, we've got the multichapter fics that are still in progress though I haven't touched them in a while (4), the ones I would say I'm actively working on (also 4), the ones I fully intend to get back to once I finish the ones I'm actively working on (also also 4) and the ones I might never finish that I started after wip amnesty or just didn't post there (6). I'm not counting any of the others from wip amnesty because I probably won't be finishing them, except maybe the coffee cup one, so we'll count that (1) which gives us a total of… 19. jesus christ

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

again, so many… including, but not limited to:

AU where Dot dies and gets necromancied instead of Jaylen

AU where Workman doesn't die

Lachlan on the Tigers (and then the Georgias)

Alto semicentennial fic

short circuits fic about plural fire elemental Emilia Sigh befriending Bonnie Sealevel (neither of them were good at their assigned positions and we got a blessing to swap them)

other short circuits fic about magical catboy Jasper Coven befriending sentient snowman Roscoe Hester (neither of them were good at the game either but I love them anyway)

regular universe fic about Dot and PDZ

fic about Morse and Mooney. I think they should be friends

I'm sure there are more, but nothing else is coming to mind! Most of these are things I'd still like to write in the future.

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

I'm very biased but it's the Dot and Workman scene at the end of chapter 6 of the AU... the love... the emotion... the home... I poured my heart into this one and I'm so happy with how it turned out:

“Can we sit down?” you say, finally realizing you've been standing there without doing anything at all for who knows how long.

“Of course,” Workman says, and then you're on the bench next to them, so much and so little space in between, and you don't know what to do about all the thoughts that are swirling around in your head.

I love you.

I'm not supposed to love you. But I do.

I love everyone here. I tried not to. I was never meant to stay and get the chance to love anyone, and neither were you, but we stayed anyway, and now I don't know what to do.

I didn't get to have this with the Mints. Not like this. Not for this long.

I don't want this to go away.

I'm still not used to things not going away.

Or maybe I am. Because I think it's all going to go away next season, and I don't think I'm ready.

I love you more than I love anyone else here, and that scares me more than anything.

I didn't know love could feel like this. Whatever this is. It's not exactly the same kind of love I feel for Zavala, or Jess, or anyone else. Not exactly the same kind of love that's been making Ziwa and Eugenia blush when they're around each other. I don't think it's exactly the same way most people feel it.

But whatever it is, I feel it. And I don't know if you feel it too.

And I'm afraid that you don't.

And I'm afraid that you do.

Everything about getting close to you scares me. So why do I feel so safe when you're with me?

The thing about love, of any kind, is that it demands to be expressed. It can only spend so long rattling desperately in your ribcage before it breaks free, longing for someone else to notice it. It's not enough to quietly, hesitantly reach through the bars, testing the environment, whispering I'm here, I'm here, do you see me? Sooner or later, it needs to shout.

Metaphorically, at least. You’re not going to yell your emotions at them.

“The thing is,” you begin quietly, without even knowing what you're going to say, or at least how you're going to say it, “people like us don't get to have one simple clear answer about where home is anymore. And I think about that a lot, even if I know there might be no answer to find.”

They nod their understanding, not wanting to interrupt.

“I don't think any of us are supposed to be here. In this world. A place like this was never meant to be a home.” You force yourself to look at them. “But people? They can make up your home. Even from far away. And we’re not far away from each other, right now, but I… I am afraid we might be later. And I don't want that to happen before I say... I feel more home when I’m with you. You're part of my home.”

They're smiling bright, like when you won that 23-inning game together, like when they saw Beasley again, like when you first asked them to practice with you, something like all of that at once but softer. “You're part of my home, too.”

And you laugh, breathless as if all the air has left you along with the words, because for once, you didn't run away. Maybe you're running to your doom, but at least you won't be running alone.

“You know they will probably take me away at the end of the season, right?”

“I know they might try. I know they might try to do me in, too. I was in the wrong place when the world broke, and you were the wrong name on the wrong roster when those first blessings happened. We’re forced to shine for the gods and they can try to burn us out whenever they want, but we're going to fight them with all that we have. Because we have each other in a way that they never will.”

You close the gap until you're leaning on each other, sturdy and safe and everything you want forever. The stadium lights are bright all around you, and nothing but darkness lies beyond, but you close your eyes, because nothing about this place matters, not like the people in it do.

This is what you're going to remember, no matter what shells and flames and feedback might do. This is not why you are here, but it's why you want to be here.

And right now, you're here, together.