#proper fanfic tropes the series

[prankdoeswriting]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Characters: Britte (Elder Scrolls), Lemkil (Elder Scrolls), Sissel (Elder Scrolls) Additional Tags: One Shot, Not Beta Read, Angst, Child Abuse, Canonical Child Abuse, Child Death, Child Murder, Physical Abuse, Regret, Self-Hatred, Post-Canon, Companion Piece, Bittersweet Ending, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, i wrote this in one sitting Series: Part 34 of Popular Fanfiction Tropes the Series (based on the ColeyDoesThings videos), Part 76 of Works by "Prank" (Pseud Series), Part 2 of Hi Los Ni Sahlo Summary:

“Do you know what I first thought when you mentioned her name?” Sissel shook her head. “I wondered if the joor tinvaak had evolved again. Britte...briinah...it sounds similar, does it not?” Nodding, Sissel added, “And mine...it sounds like ‘sister’.”

One terrible night had ended the lives of torment for twin sisters Britte and Sissel. In the case of Sissel, she survived and went off to realize her gifts under the tutelage of a new family. As for Britte... In her final moments, that no was witness to nor would ever come to know, she reflects.

 (The "Angst" trope of the series, and the long-overdue companion piece to Hi Los Ni Sahlo (You Are Not Weak).)

[lady-menrva]

PJO Meta (1 of ??)

DISCLAIMER: I don't mean to offend anyone. I am a ship and let ship person. Please note that criticism =/= hate. Lastly, if you're a solangelo shipper who doesn't wish to hear any criticism regarding their ship, please scroll away.

Ever since it's first appearance, solangelo has been a massive fan favourite. I, however, don't have a favourable opinion of the ship. Here is a brief explanation of my reasons for the same. (I apologise for my inarticulation)

Characterization:-

Nico-

Honestly Nico's writing in the trials of Apollo was terrible even by the usual character assassination standards- in the hidden oracle, he legitimately read as a gag charater who served no purpose apart from being "Will Solace's Goth/Emo Boyfriend". Things were hardly better in Tower of Nero, where he was basically just "Will Solace's traumatized Goth/Emo Boyfriend" who happens to be lazy PTSD rep.

Will Solace-

Can't say much. He was never a character of his own, and probably never will be. His substance as a character is comparable to the quantitative mass of an electron in Kilograms (9.11x 1/10³¹) i.e, negligible.

Nico's Healing Arc (or lack of the same )-

After what was essentially two series worth of fanfic-esque trauma bombing, Nico should have received a proper healing arc. Unfortunately, there was no such arc for him (courtesy of solangelo), because Rick has this earth-shattering, inspired-by-Disney idea that relationships can fix everything. So guess what? Nico's years' worth of emotional baggage, pain and trauma simply volatalize into oblivion .

Some shippers may argue "Oh but he got better off page"-but that it is bad writing per se; Nico's struggles, grief, fears, unhealthy coping mechanisms etc. are more pivotal and relevant to his character than a nascent, one dimensional relationship with an insignificant side character. He is much more than just his sexuality, after all.

Cliché and one dimensional:-

Solangelo is firmly rooted in the "opposites attract" trope, which is simply unrealistic in nature.

Also, newsflash: "Opposites attract" is a law specific to physics and chemistry; It's all fun and games till people who are poles apart sit down to take serious decisions, or share opinions. Friction between them can be rather intense.

(Oh! wait... I think Nico was described to be a Nitride anion {or was he Azide? No, I think he was Nitride} and Will was a Tungsten cation. So, they are basically Tungsten Nitride... Boy! They have so much chemistry between them/s)

Anyways, I totally understand why people prefer jasico, valdangelo, percico, nicobaster etc...

[greenerteacups]

Your last chapter was delightful! Thank you so much!

You’ve mentioned All the Young Dudes in one of your posts and it has been a revelation. Do you have all time favorite hp fics and would care to share your recommendations please?

Oh, man, how could I ever choose? Manacled and DMATMOOBIL are obviously all-timers, but they don't need me to recommend them. Wait and Hope, similarly, is in no need of exhortation by me, but I'll do it anyway, I ate that shit up. Anything by @PacificRimbaud. Especially anything with Pansy in it. Especially Les Pèlerins. Anything by provocative_envy. Especially the college/internship AUs. You don't think an American AU for Harry Potter is going to work, until you're reading it, and wow, does it ever. Bending Light by scullymurphy. Talk about fucking atmosphere, my God. (I haven't read Falling Dark yet, I've been meaning to get around to it.) I've also been meaning to read the Gravitation series, I read the first chapter forever ago and it was one helluva opening. See, now I'm just talking about fics I haven't read and want to. Okay.

All the Young Dudes was formative because it was the first time I realized the scope of what fanfiction could do. Until then, I had a very narrow, constrained version of the kinds of stories fanfic was meant to tell (and what fanfic audiences were looking for). ATYD blew the ceiling off that by telling a story that was non-traditional, slow-paced, and completely non-focused on romance for at least half of it, and people adored it anyway. It taught me to be bolder and more creative with my choices. It made me think "well, Gryffindor Draco may not be the most popular trope in the bucket, but maybe some people will like it!" And it turned out some people did!

The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy. This was for a long time my favorite Draco redemption arc, and it remains the first fic I recommend to anyone looking to get into Dramione, because it's the perfect branching-off point for someone who loves the books. Stylistically honest and feels like Book 7, only better. Draco is not let off the hook for fuck, as is right and proper. (I'm a sucker for Book 7 rewrites, for obvious reasons.)

Boy with a Scar. All of it. Made me tear up like four times. This person understands things about Harry Potter that Rowling doesn't and perhaps never could.

Birds of a Feather is a great Tomione Hogwarts fic, and of any fic I've read, it's most interested in the practical day-to-day of life at Hogwarts, which was one of my favorite parts of the books. It's really a book about how someone like Tom, or Hermione for that matter, would experience Hogwarts if there weren't any diabolical plots happening around them: that is, as a very cool, very beautiful, but ultimately sort of mundane boarding school. It makes the place feel lived-in and real in a way that makes it a joy to come back to. And it has the most realistic depiction of child!Tom that I've ever read.

And I'm finding new ones all the time.

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I loathe CoD Hector

Something I really wanted to write a proper blog on, is Hector. I answered on another blog on this before, and wrote a shorter thing about this before. But I really wanted to write something on its own. Because I will once again iterate: While Hector in the animated series definitely gets to finish out his character arc, he works a lot better as a character than his game counterpart. And that even though the game came out at the time, where Castlevania tried to go more for storytelling.

Yet, there is this thing, and that mostly comes from it still being an old action-centric game... How the need of making the main characters of action games until sometime in the 2010s into the stoic kind kinda made them worse characters.

I said it before: The Castlevania games for the longest part never really were that interested in telling characterdriven stories and focused more on the gameplay. Which is very much fine. But even when they tried to include more story, for the most part they still keep the brutish, stoic protagonist. Even Alucard, despite looking like a beautiful princess, is very much the stoic male protagonist. This is just a thing with action media that was going on for way too long. Sure, even stoic characters could make for good fan interpretation in stuff like fanfics, it often is an issue that the media itself does not want to actually explore the characters emotions.

Or, to make it fairly clear: This has very much to do with this idea of toxic masculinity. A lot of old action media (not only games, but also movies and such) will not allow male action heroes to show emotional vulnerability, because that would be unmasculine in the eyes of the writers. Which then boils the characters down onto the supposedly "masculine" emotions, like anger and the urge for revenge.

And this is kinda where we get to Curse of Darkness.

We have this whole backstory through the manga, that goes into Hector's background and all that. While I will say that here I prefer the animated version, too, I will fully admit that this is just a subjective thing (I like that the animated version draws some clearer cultural aspects into it, while also giving Hector the agency of killing his abusers, rather than having it happen as an accident), because I definitely can see why people would prefer the manga version.

Where this ends, however, is already at the moment when Hector joins Dracula. Yes, I will fully admit that I am not a big fan of game!Dracula in general, though I will not go into the why here. He works as a game villain, I will admit that, though.

No, what I dislike about Hector's story with Dracula is more the: "And he becomes like the best forgemaster. Like he is so amazing and so strong, and did we tell you how amazing he is?" It goes too much into the power fantasy to me. While I get that the game canon heavily drew on this idea of the main conflict between Hector and Isaac being one of jealousy... I will just say, that a conflict of jealousy is actually so much more boring than a conflict of ideals. And the backstory by far had enough going on there to make it a conflict of ideals, as Hector did still - like in the animated version - not like the idea of killing thousands. Which could have been used for a lot of conflict, but... yeah.

I will still say, that for the most part, the backstory works. While I roll my eyes already at everything with Rosaly, because Rosaly is very much the incanation of the trope where this pure hearted girl saves the soul of the corrupted man (I don't know how this trope is called, but it is for sure a trope), it does work so far.

No, where Hector as a game character stops working is... at the game. Or rather in the moment that Rosaly does do the thing that she as the sole female character in this entire fucking story has to do: She dies so that her death can motivate Hector. And that is to me where game Hector as a character does stop working.

They could have given Hector any motivation to face off against Isaac. They had put up more than enough story fragments in the manga that they could have build from. They could have made it that Isaac wanted to go for revenge and before he could do it, Hector tried to go in there to protect the people he had now learned to love. They could have made it that Isaac tried to ressurect Dracula. They could have made it that Isaac tried to continue Dracula's work until Hector decided that he could not let his former friend do this, because Hector now knows better. There could have been several interesting and good motivations.

But no. Instead they went with: "Girl dead. Boy sad. Boy angry. Boy wants revenge." The fuck?! This is just so bad in terms of storytelling. It is just the refrigerated woman trope, in its most lazy iteration.

They could have given Hector an interesting motivation and conflict. But no, instead they went for revenge. Ugh.

But that was not enough for the writers of this game. Ooooooh no. If it was just that, I would still hate it, but I would be fine with it. Because let's face it, a lot of games use the "revenge for loved ones" trope. Sure, this game is not using it in the most creative way, and it could have done a lot better from the backstory that was set up in other media, but... It is fine. This is fine.

What is not fine however is Julia. I hate Julia. I hate everything about her as a concept.

And again, mind you. I absolutely would not have a problem with Julia if she was just "some girl" or just "Isaac's sister". Then Julia would be fine. It would even be fine if Hector caught feelings for her, even though I would once again roll my eyes at this.

No, what makes Julia so offensive is the fact that she looks and sounds like Rosaly. Meaning, that she explicitly, not just implicitly exists to be a replacement for Rosaly. And that just makes it all so, so badly written.

Worst of all: This gets never explained. Julia just is Rosaly's doppelganger. Just because... Well, because the writers of this game wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to motivate Hector by revenge for a dead girl, but also wanted to have him end with the girl. And it is just... misogynic writing. I am sorry.

It portrays women as "things" that can be easily replaced. And I hate this so, so much. It is the reason why, even though CoD might not be the worst game in the series, it is by far the one I loathe the most.

And they could have so easily done it differently. Either by not motivating Hector through Revenge in the first place, or by just making Julia a different person from Rosaly. Make her strikingly different and then have Hector fall for Julia. That would have been fine. Just this: "I broke one doll, but I will just get a replacement" thing that game has going is... horrible.

And yes, additionally I will say that another reason why I do prefer the animated version of Hector is, that he is not the stoic kind of character, but he is actually fairly vulnerable. He is a bit of an idiot who easily fall for people. He definitely does not get to have his power fantasy. But it is exactly this that I like. Because it is a story we usually do not get with male characters.

The story of Hector in the animated series is very much a story that would have usually been given to a female character. And I adore this fact. I adore how they switched the gender stereotypes around for this.

Yes, I am well aware that some fans of the games hated this, too. But I honestly have to say: Look, the game characters might have some minor differences, but all in all they all fall under the stereotype of the stoic action protagonist. Yeah, the series needed to switch this around a bit, because it would have gotten boring otherwise.

And frankly. I am sooooo sick of protagonists being all stoic all the time. Give us some variety. It won't kill these characters to smile from time to time... Or, you know, be vunerable.

[beezelarts]

So, I’ve been thinking.

One of my favourite tropes in books, movies or shows is the obsessed artist. A mixture of genius and insanity. So, I’m trying to think of ways in which Bradley and Jake might fit into that category.

For Bradley, it’s pretty straightforward in my opinion. He’s obsessed with proving Maverick wrong, obsessed with flying as best as he can and (but this is kind of a headcanon) obsessed with Jake. He can’t get over how Jake always seems to be the superior pilot, someone who is seemingly better at everything where he himself is lacking. He tries to compensate by telling himself that Jake is a bad team player and arrogant (true, but I think he might still be the better pilot). From the second time watching TGM and rewatching TG1986 it was clear that there are parallels between Mav and Hangman whereas Rooster seems more like Ice. At least when it comes to the way they fly. This might also be a reason for why Bradley and Jake seem to not get along at all. Now, this is purely a headcanon based on what I read in Hangster fanfics: Bradley being obsessed with Jake as a sexual object. While a lot of those stories are advertised as romance stories the way Bradley thinks about Jake and about what he likes about him seems very superficial and oftentimes solely focused on Jake’s body.

In conclusion: Bradley is obsessed with proving Mav wrong and with Jake, either as his rival and/or the object of Bradley’s sexual phantasies.

Now, when it comes to Jake being obsessive there’s a lot more room to play: we don’t really know much about Hangman aside from his tendencies to leave people behind and only care about himself. And of course his callsign. While the movie suggest that his callsign refers to him leaving his teammates hanging or his air-to-air kill (hangman = executioner) I think it’s secretly because of his dyslexia (solely headcanon). Therefore, it must have been a great struggle for him to get through school, the academy, flight school and Top Gun. The fact that he most likely excelled is probably because he, too, is obsessed with flying and being the best.

However, this still leaves his character kind of flat.

One of my favourite shows is Queens Gambit, a series about a young female chess genius in the fifties and sixties who is truly obsessed with the game to the point where she fails to take proper care of herself. (If you’ve watched it you know what I mean, if not… I really wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s on Netflix.)

Something I’ve read in numerous fanfics is how Jake never joins the others whenever Bradley is at the piano playing and singing. And this might either be due to his jealousy towards him because Bradley seems so much more popular and likeable. But today I remembered something my music teacher in high school said. He once told us about this one man with whom he sang in the church choir and how worked up the guy got when people sang off-key. That was because he had absolute hearing and couldn’t handle people singing in a different pitch even if they didn’t sound off-key to anyone else. So, Jake never joins the others because Bradley frequently sings in a different pitch compared to what the original sounds like. This leads to my other not-navy/flying related obsession. Music. It’s either the piano or the violin.

In my head, he inherited this trait from his mother, a great pianist or violinist, started to play at a very young age and became great at it himself. In this case, Jake kind of grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, a seemingly perfect childhood. However, behind the scenes he has a neglectful mother and an uncaring father who doesn’t bother supporting his wife through her depression and other mental illnesses. The only thing binding Jake to his mother is their common obsession with music. A vivid memory of Jake with his mother is how he’d watch her take numerous pills, downing them with either wine or bourbon before sitting down next to her on the piano stool. As an adult he refuses to take any opioids or anxiety medication and has a love-hate relationship with music because it always brings him back to those moments.

When Bradley and Jake eventually move in together, Bradley finds about Jake’s musical talent. He learns new songs playing by ear because he can’t read sheet music and sometimes struggles to find the right note.

„This song is written in C minor, Bradley. Try with G and then E flat.“

I love this headcanon because it gives Jake so much depth not related to flying and has great angst!potential.

Now, this was a long-ass, poorly structured post. Apologies for that and kudos to everyone who made it to the end. Further questions and suggestions are greatly appreciated! This is a lovely and welcoming fandom ♥️

[gmcostaart]

Drarry Fics that I've read

Sooo I got into the fandom about a year now and I obsessively read a bunch of fanfics (Ao3 is my second home fr )

Running on Air by eleventy7

Chapters: 17/17 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Draco is missing and Harry needs to find him. He thought it would be another boring work, but then it turns into a self-discover journey and revisiting memories. All time favorite, this fic changed my brain chemistry for forever

Dear Diary by AWickedMemory (TeddyLaCroix)

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Harry finds a diary that writes him back. Cute and well written. If you need smth sweet and cozy to read, go for it.

Mental by sara_holmes

Chapters: 32/32 🖤🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Due to a spell Draco and Harry can read each other thoughts and things go crazy, emotional and cute at the same time. This one got me stay up all night.

The Ordeal of Being Known by louisfake

Chapters: 14/14 🖤🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Due to a curse Harry can't use your voice and Draco, a  Licensed Healer Legilimens, is going to help. It's like a time-travel fic but only through dialogue and revisiting memories, heavily emotional and overall well paced but for me the final chapters were a little bit rushed.

Then Comes a Mist and a Weeping Rain by Faith Wood (faithwood)

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: A cloud follows Draco everywhere and Harry comes to help like an umbrella. Overall cute.

The Lip-Lock Jinx by cassisluna

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤 Sinopse: Draco lost his voice and to recover it he needs a kiss from the person he's in love with. Drarry eight year fix-fic. It was cute, but a little forgettable tbh.

knickers in a twist by technicolourbeat

Chapters: 7/7 🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Draco wears a skirt and Harry can't stop staring or keeps his hands to himself. Just to boys going out and having a lot of fun in many different ways

Catch and Release by shealwaysreads (onereader)

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Due to temporary curse Draco and Harry need to stay close to each other. It's a forced proximity, forced cohabitation, only one bed trope fic with slow burn, and for me that was the best part of it.

Blue Boy by orphan_account

Chapters: 11/11 🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Draco Malfoy is a shy beautiful Ravenclaw boy who got attention of Harry Potter, the most popular boy of the Slytherin. The different and non usually personalities of them is what makes things interesting

Body Electric by shealwaysreads (onereader), tackytiger

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤 Sinopse: Due to a potion accident Harry and Draco swap bodies and the change of perspective is not the only thing they'll explore. I really liked this work but it felt smth is missing or not fully developed, specially, emotional part of the plot. It should have a second chapter tbh.

In Need of a Proper Hug by Faith Wood (faithwood)

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤 Sinopse: Harry turns into a Koala and keeps hugging Draco. Very cute but also very short.

 Floating by serikkun

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤 Prequel: Sparks by serikkun Sinopse: """Draco Malfoy, a visiting student from Durmstrang, couldn't believe he was Harry Potter's hostage for the second task."" I was in a hungry to find Drarry in this dynamic and it was ok, but I'd like to find smth longer.

Dear Cousin, Love Regulus by LLAP115, XxTheDarkLordxX

Chapters: 7/7 🖤🖤 Sinopse: Draco receive letters from his former cousin Regulus and starts questioning all his beliefs and family values, changing the course of the history and alliances. It's not a rewrite or time travel fic, a lot of majors events are summarize, though is interesting.

You And Me by bixgirl1

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Harry needs a calm and isolate place, Draco seems to be alone most of the time. Hogwarts 8th year, Slow burn, well paced, praise relationship dynamic.

The Importance of Being Draco Malfoy by poppyhills

Chapters: series rewrite (it's currently, covering the book 5 events)🖤🖤🖤

Sinopse: Hogwarts 3rd year; what if, instead of a scratch on the arm, Draco hit on the head by "the big bloody chicken" causing a huge memory lost that changes many aspects of Draco's personality. An unusually fic rewrite series. I love this 'new' Draco, he's just to silly that makes you laugh a lot plus it's amusing to see the Slytherin gang befriends with the golden trio. (It's sad that the author takes sooo loong for an update )

You've got the antidote for me by Kandakicksass

Chapters: one-shot 🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: ""When Harry Potter unintentionally severs their soulbond before it can fully form, Draco Malfoy resigns himself to a slow death and decides not to burden Harry with a soulmate he's made it very clear he doesn't want. He's never been selfless before, but for Harry, he can try."" God that was painfully beautiful. Though it has a happy ending, the plot broke my heart in tiny little pieces, I'll never read this fic again.

Draco Malfoy and the Mirror of Ecidyrue by starbrigid

Book: 5/7 (currently reading) 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 Sinopse: Through a magic mirror, Draco goes back to 1st year at Hogwarts as a child of 11 years old. This time he decides to make things right even if the process hurt. All time favorite time-travel fic. This was my first reading of time travel fic and rewrite series, tbh I never thought that someone would be capable of rewrite the whole story changing the perspective, it amazed me the creativity and love required to do this. All the characters are very dear to me, specially Draco I love him just too much; and the fact that Drarry is a slowwwwww burrrrnnn dynamic, makes this fic a work of art.

[etoilesombre]

Fic Master List

I got tired of having to decide which fic post to keep pinned, so I made this. Proper summaries, tags and warnings all on AO3.

Black Sails

Another Way - Silverflint, E, 29,399 words, complete. Dubcon! But in a very old-school fanfic trope fuck or die way. It diverges from the scene where they get captured taking the warship. They do work through everything in the aftermath, and the end is very sweet actually.

By Faith of my Body - Silverflintmadi in various combinations, but emphasis on the flintmadi relationship. E, Chapter 1/4 posted. Flint and Madi bond over books, the weight of leadership, and being in love with John Silver. FealtySub!Flint, shameless use of literature for my own nefarious purposes, and so much pining.

Another Troy to Burn - Series. Silverflint longfic series, my special precious baby and literally the first thing I ever wrote. It's canon where they're fucking the whole time but it doesn't change anything. There is a moodboard (thanks @jaynovz) and also a playlist.

A Composite Unity - E, 20,366 words, complete. The first two seasons, Flint pov. He is not having a great time.

The Salt and the Sea - E, 60,495 words, complete. Set during the season 2-3 break, how Silver decided to stay and what happened with the gold. He is also not having a great time.

It Only Made Me Real- E, chapters 4/? posted. Silver adjusting to his role as quartermaster, Flint being Flint during the raids. I swear upon everything holy that I WILL finish this series if its the last thing I do, but, it has been on hiatus for a while.

for to fight the cold - Silverflint, E, 11,283 words, complete. Flint arrives to rescue Silver while he is still being held captive on the beach after the failed attack on Nassau. The cathartic murder of Israel Hands, followed by angst, caretaking, and a sexual tension filled camping trip.

If It Was You - Silverflint, E, 17,430 words, complete. Free use gangbang porn that got out of control and also grew a lot of feelings. The boys spend the night in port on a mission. There is only one bed. Flint freaks out and makes questionable choices, Silver walks in on the whole thing, they have to work through it. Cathartic happy ending. The very Most dirty talk.

I'll Carry You Home Tonight - Silverflint, E, 6,604 words, complete. This one is just porn. Season 3-4 break, the guys are newly in a relationship, they get Pirate Date Night. It's working title was 'impact play and 5 phases of ass stuff'.

Kinkmeme-Verse - Series of prompt fills for 2024 Black Sails kinkmeme. I wrote the first two, saw the prompt for the third, and had a Vision of how they could all be connected, so here we are.

As a Boy - James Flint|McGraw/Admiral Hennessey, E, 5,121 words, complete. Young James McGraw is caught with a boy, and punished. Big content warning for CSA, which I tried to treat seriously.

Pressure - Silverflint, E, 4,504 words, complete. More watersports are we all shocked? This is kind of the ultimate expression of that, but really its an exploration of pain and grief and healing through BDSM.

Make Sail for the Dawn - Silverflint, E, 12,504 words, complete. Flint uses submission as catharsis amidst his grief and pain over Miranda, but Silver accidentally reminds him of past history, which he then has to confront. They work through it, because Silver really has to do everything on this ship, including being his captain's therapist. Also Flint gets fucked with his pistol. Just by the way. This is the one prompter hated! Go see for yourself if it is, in fact, Too Awful For Kinkmeme XD.

long as amber of ember glows - Silverflint, E, 7,933 words, complete. If 3.10 ended the way it should have. There are love confessions, and they fuck on the gold. No literally, on it. It's very sweet honestly.

Our Feast is But Beginning - Series. Silverflint Cookingverse! Flint teaches Silver to cook.

Spit-Roasted - M, 5,821 words, complete. The one where Flint shows Silver how to roast a pig. It's canon! Flint is very weird about sex.

Gentille Alouette - E, 11,618 words, complete. Late night cooking dates on the Walrus, continuing intense sexual tension, Flint is basically edging himself. He sure is a way.

Princes of the New World - E, 38,145 words, complete. This one got a little out of hand, it has many things in it, including lots of hurt comfort and caretaking, the guys finally getting together and also not hiding their relationship, some intense gender vibes (Silver gets to be a pampered pretty princess) and yes, even some cooking.

Our Shadows That Are Bold - Silverflint, E, 4,912 words, complete. Dom Silver. The first little iteration of fealty sub Flint, he sure has some feelings about Silver coming into his own as king.

So We Begin - Silverflint, E, 4,038 words, complete. 3.7 missing scene fic that is exactly what you would expect after stomp stomp and the "how good it feels" conversation.

The Soft Animal of Your Body - Silverflint, E, 3,398 words, complete. The watersports one. Yep sure is, omorashi style, with a good side of hurt comfort stuff and also Flint telling a weird dirty story. Set during warship recovery time. This is basically an outtake of longfic because it doesn't quite work there but wouldn't leave my brain.

the sound that you found for me - T, background silverflintmadi, but its really about Silver and Betsy the cat. Yep. 5,699 words, complete. Kittenfic!! Written for the Beach Blanket Black Sails Ficfest, the prompt was 'Betsy has kittens and Silver wants to keep them on Maroon Island.' It's really about Silver and trauma and there are sad parts but nothing bad happens to any cats and there is a happy ending.

stitched with its color - G, silverflintmadi sort of, 1,344 words, complete. The conversation where Madi tells Flint that Silver is alive.

Such Terrible Hungers - E, Flintvane, 3,357 words, complete. Instead of fuck buddies, they're fuck enemies. Fight sex and Flint angst, that's basically the fic.

to pull me from myself again - E, Silverflint, 7,419 words, complete. Written in response to a Tumblr prompt asking for s1 dynamics softe silverflint, Silver's first time with a man. That is indeed it, that's the fic

What Lies Beneath - E, Silverflint, 3 chapters, complete. 11,031 words. Demon Flint AU! Basically make the demon in Flint literal. Silver is fascinated of course.

The Fetch Phillips Archives (aka Luke Arnold's books, go read them!)

announcing your place in the family of things - E, Fetch/Satyr, 6,865 words, complete. The first creature Fetch meets when he leaves the human city is that unnamed Satyr, and that feels like a conscious choice to me. Coulda said 'faun' and we wouldn't be here Luke. Anyway monsterfucking, but in a lovely way.

The Exorcist (tv)

The Smoke of Their Torment - M, Marcus/Tomas, 572 words, complete. A snippet of Marcus angst and pining and also jerking off in a shared hotel room there may be more someday.

The X-Files

Whatever You Can Still Betray - E, Mulder/Krycek, Chapter 1/? posted. Set in vague early season five, sometime between Redux and Patient X. Mulder chases a case across the world to a secret Russian facility in Chechnya, and right into the hands of Alex Krycek. Krycek has problems of his own, but believes his interests and Mulder's might be aligned. When disaster strikes, they have to rely on each other to survive.

[anglercrit]

Viv when we say your stories feel like fanfic we mean they don't explain anything (which in fanfic is usually because you’re already familiar with the world so they dont need to re-explain it to you) and that you LITERALLY USE FANFIC TROPES CONSTANTLY (i.e. childhood friends, mafia don dad, etc) and you DONT DO ANYTHING INTERESTING WITH THEM

Helluva feels like an animated series that was a fan project for another show that somehow fell out of its proper timeline and ended up here devoid of context so we just have to take it as is and not have the actual series the characters are from to actually make it make sense

[williamrikers]

The Undeniable Queerness of Enchanté the Series

(thank you @ranchthoughts for letting me ramble about this in your inbox before turning my thoughts into a post)

there are bls and then there are bls. right? there are dead fish kisses and there are characters who kiss each other like their lives depend on it.

and enchanté firmly belongs in the second category. 1,500-word essay under the cut.

there is such a consistent and tangible queer undercurrent to everything that's happening on this show and i'm not just talking about the fact that several scenes look like they could be the opening scene of a gay porno. or the surprise bondage. or force in drag. or proposing marriage in front of the eiffel tower. no, there's this aching, desperate desire underlying everything. theo has--in addition to his main love interest--four very hot gay suitors who all very obviously desire him carnally... this is some sort of gay manic pixie dream boy wish fulfilment fantasy and i am absolutely eating it up.

there is a vibe to the show that @ranchthoughts called "fanfic-like", and i would argue that that's because enchanté is actually fanfiction of the little prince. (i'm planning on making a separate post soon about how the book was referenced on and used as inspiration for the show.)

enchanté is fully aware of its own fictionality. it is on-the-nose fictional. but that's what makes it so much fun--it's not trying to be something it isn't.

take the reading memories segments in episode 4 [3/4] for example: these scenes were incredibly cringe, like, full-on bad-green-screen terrible-costumes-and-wigs hilarious-acting cringe, but fully aware of their own cringe-ness. (also, gawin was both in drag and naked in the same scene as two different characters, like. get on enchanté's level.) (incidentally, can anyone tell me what character aou/phupha was supposed to be? i got detective conan, monkey d. luffy and momotarō for the others, but i'm stumped on phupha's character.)

and that self-awareness makes it camp! there is such a level of camp to the whole show which feels extremely intentional (especially in the first two thirds), almost like a meta-commentary: "this is the genre. we know it's stupid but we love it here", and i adore that. they know the tropes, they know the bl landscape, and they're just having fun with all of it.

and the whole set-up in itself is a queer allegory, isn't it? theo and akk are "from different worlds", so to speak, hindered in their love not just by their complete inability to communicate but also by their forced separation as children. when they meet again, theo doesn't really belong anywhere, he's an outsider both in france and in thailand, he is unable to act the way thai society expects him to act (e.g. failing to show the proper respect to the seniors), unable to get his parents to understand him while being actively lied to by them (the whole ocean of miscommunication in that family deserves its own post), harboring feelings for his childhood friend his whole life but unable to voice them in a normal sort of way, instead falling back on concocting the most convoluted, immediately backfiring plan to try to make akk jealous and get him to confess his feelings first.

theo is fundamentally isolated because he grew up between two cultures, and neither one quite fits him: when he's in france, he is comforted by thai food and the only people he's close with (his grandmother and sun) are from thailand like himself; but when he's in thailand, he can't quite get used to the social conventions and makes social blunders, he is very slow at writing in thai.

it's such a poignant queer allegory in my opinion. they didn't end up making as much a point of it on the show as they could have, but it very much informed my whole reading of the show and the characters. there is a sort of inability to articulate his experience surrounding theo that makes him even more isolated and screams "baby gay in need of a community" to me. having akk share his experience at the end is something that i'm not a big fan of for other, unrelated reasons (might make a separate post about enchanté's ending and why it fell flat for me), but when looking at it through this lens, it is the only way for akk to really get theo, to really understand his struggle on a fundamental level.

which brings me back to that desire i mentioned earlier: theo desires akk, very much so, there are a whole handful of scenes where akk gets close to him and theo closes his eyes, expecting to finally be kissed by him, but more than that, he desires understanding. he often brushes off his own difficulties and has a tendency to be emotionally clueless (for example about his parents' divorce), but what i see most in his character is the desire to be understood, to be seen by akk, for akk to see him for who he is and to love him for who he is. (akk, of course, has been doing both of those things all along. he's constantly taking pictures of theo, he's watching him through his window--with theo's full knowledge--he is always looking at him, he's always loving him.)

it's not inherently queer to want to be loved as we truly are, i believe heterosexual people experience this, too, but in the context of queerness itself, being perceived as queer by other queer people is indeed a fundamental aspect to experiencing queer love (maybe not in gay for you bls, but i haven't heard of much gay for you happening in real life). not to be unscientific about this, but the vibes of the perception aspect of enchanté are just very queer to me, you know?

oh, and speaking of desire: enchanté in general is very physical. there is a level of intimacy between the actors and the camera that seems incredibly intentional: there are several shower scenes, scenes of theo and akk shirtless, TWO (2) nude gawin scenes (though one of those is sadly a fake-out and he is actually wearing shorts), many, many scenes that include bare feet, which is not something i see super often in bl, at least not to the point that i notice the frequency of it.

enchanté is very rooted in the physical reality of desirable bodies: theo is allowed to openly, physically flirt with saifa, even though that's not even his endgame love interest, phupha uses physical touch in his pursuit of theo, natee shows his obsession with theo by drawing his face/body about a hundred times, and akk and theo are wholly unable to keep their hands off each other. i've joked about the intricate rituals, but seriously, they are constructing so many intricate rituals. there are two separate scenes in which they make up excuses to kiss each other's elbows/arms/backs. they keep touching each other in a thousand ways, in every possible way they can that is still plausibly deniable as physical desire--until they kiss while watching that movie and then it's just a game of chicken of who will confess first. because their physical attraction to each other is undeniable. it's obvious. this was really refreshing to see in a genre that so often plays with the blushing maiden trope, and one character is so often made to pursue the other: on enchanté, akk and theo are equally horny for each other. it's not their lack of physical attraction that keeps them apart for so long.

(sadly, the show then shies away from actually getting very sexually physical: after their desperate, stunning, amazing balcony-kiss, they aren't allowed to be horny for each other in the last two episodes, when they're actually in a relationship. this is just one of the many aspects that i didn't like about the conclusion of the story, because you simply cannot tell me that these two as we got to know them in episodes 1 to 8 would really be as chaste with each other as they're shown in episodes 9 and 10.)

leaving that aside for the moment, let's talk about that kiss. as mentioned right at the beginning, when these two kiss each other on the balcony, it's desperation in its rawest form. these two--and especially theo--crave each other. theo kisses akk like he will die without him. theo kisses akk like he can finally breathe. theo kisses akk like he never wants to do anything else ever again.

i'm a bit obsessed with book's acting here, because of all the kissing scenes i've seen him in, i think this is THE most desperate one. force plays it a bit more subtle, but book's expression is full-on anguish. theo waited his whole life to be kissed by akk, and book portrays that so beautifully, with such depth. it's one of my favorite bl kisses for sure, it's played with so much heart, so much feeling, that it's hard to even think of kisses that compare, apart from the bad buddy episode 5 rooftop kiss.

anyway, all of this to say that enchanté to me is deeply, lovingly queer, and it's a shame that so many people are sleeping on it. (and that includes myself, i was wary about watching this show for a long time because i'd heard so many negative things about it.)

but i'm here to tell you: watch enchanté. it's wonderful, it's hilariously funny, it's endearing, it has book and force in it, and it is extremely queer.

[blade-liger-4ever]

So, I've decided to start something.

Well, a series of somethings.

I've had some Star Wars AU ideas as of late, which I'm thinking of turning into little ficlets that will be posted on Tumblr. If I feel bold enough from my experiences here, I may transfer them over to my WordPress account, but time will tell on that front. In most of these fanfics (which hopefully won't be long - or not, we'll see), there are going to be featured a couple of OCs, as well as established character/OC relationship(s) over previously established pairings. Many of you will probably be discontent over this, however, I will do my best to explain these new pairings and why I was dissatisfied with the original love interest.

Before I get into that however, I will introduce one of these OCs, who was also inspired by the lost potential of one of Disney's most recent princesses.

Click below, and you shall see Starkiller/Galen Marek's AU love interest: Raya Karimi, descendant of the noble House of Zakuul.

Now, before we get going, let me say something: I do not hate Juno Eclipse. I did, however, find the connection between her and Galen...a little unsettling. I am not saying it was unhealthy or toxic, nor am I saying that Juno should have never been in the same room as Galen. That said, it seemed, at least in the second game for sure, that Galen was over-relying on her and putting too much of his needs/hopes on her for his own good. And no, I'm not agreeing with what the narrative said about Vader having control over Galen so long as she lived. I think what I'm trying to say is that, she ended up being a Living Emotional Crutch for him, and that trope - whether applied to a man or woman, in real life or in fiction - deeply unsettles me. The idea that someone needs another person in order to operate as a human being, or to be kept from totally falling apart...it doesn't sit well with me, and, I suppose, scares me. I don't want that for either of them, hence a new love interest for Galen.

Now, whether or not Juno lived after that final cutscene in Force Unleashed II, I confess, for the purposes of this AU...Juno does die. In the main Star Wars universe that I envision, she does live, but for the purposes of my story, it only makes sense that she is killed by either Darth Vader or Boba Fett. Galen can only do so much to protect her, and moreover, the likelihood of either of those villains killing her is extremely high. PROXY will, quite possibly, be at least salvageable here as well; I don't yet know if he will be a series of pieces that Galen and Raya and their other two crew members will have to put back together, or have his parts integrated into a separate unit. Considering I gave Raya a revamped HK-77 assassin/protocol droid as her muscle pre-meeting Galen (HK-77s are from Legends, by the way; look them up), PROXY's role may be redundant, in which case, some of his salvageable components would be used for HK.

She will also have a small, cat-dragon hybrid known as a felico. Her name is Tapi, and I'm trying to picture her as a traditional Asiatic/Japanese dragon, but one that is small enough that she can easily climb onto someone's shoulder. I picture the same body style, but with shorter whiskers, dexterous talon-like paws, feathered wings of proper proportion, and some fur that helps her with sneaking some items off bad guys, or just all the way around enhance her cuddliness. Color wise, she might be all black or shades of gray with bright green eyes.

Raya I envision as one of the few survivors of the noble family from Zakuul, with perhaps a smidgeon of Force-sensitivity. Her family had guarded artifacts from the Old Republic Era (the time of Revan in SW:KOTOR to SW:TOR, for reference), and so she was trained in the use of both melee and ranged weapons. She was an energetic child, and a prodigy when it came to most topics, although she worked exceptionally hard to get good at working with starship systems and repairs. The Empire eventually came to Zakuul for those same artifacts, around the time Raya was twelve or fourteen. The planet attempted to fight, and was soon overpowered; however, many managed to take off with the artifacts, hiding them away from Imperial eyes. Raya was captured after one battle, and after some time, forced to watch her father's public execution. This sent her into a blind rage, and before she knew it, the squadron that had been detaining her lay at her feet in pools of blood and missing limbs. Shaken by her own actions, she managed to escape, and spent the next six or eight years bouncing across the galaxy as a freelance agent for hire. However, Raya never worked with the Empire, and even though she made apparently shady deals, it was all in the effort to locate those missing artifacts, which she managed to hide with the aid of the hidden in plain sight Jedi Haja Estree.

Following one lead on the edge of the Outer Rim/Wild Space from their efforts on Tanalorr, Raya comes across the remains of the Rogue Shadow on an unnamed planet, the owner of whom, Galen Marek, has resided in for almost a month. He's full of anger, but her stubbornness, humor, and clear disdain for the Empire manages to convince him that she is an ally and not an enemy. Working together, they leave the planet and attempt to return while being side-tracked by HK-77 picking up old, disconnected transmissions from something ancient - so ancient, in fact, that it could be a cache of artifacts from the time of Revan....

I hope you find this interesting, and if you want more, please feel free to check in for updates on it!

[andorerso]

Answer the Questions and Tag 5 Fanfic Authors

thanks for the tag @mosylufanfic <3

1. How did you get into writing fanfiction?

I started reading fanfiction when I was very young, maybe 10-11? and it pretty much immediately made me want to write my own stories. early attempts were... unsuccessful, but I always had a lot of ideas and I just wanted to get them out there... so I did

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

in reverse chronological order: Rogue One/Andor, GoT/ASOIAF, She-Ra, Grisha-verse/Nikolai Series, The Raven Cycle, American Horror Story, Reign, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Twilight

and some I have never published but did write for: The Witcher, Dishonored, Magnificent Century: Kösem

so that's 14 fandoms total

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

well, my first attempt was at 14 but I pretty much immediately abandoned that story after posting. I tried again at 16 and have been writing pretty consistently ever since. so it's been more than ten years, almost fifteen

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

lately I'm writing more than I'm reading, however in general over the years, it's definitely read. I've consumed so many!

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

I think my action has gotten better recently? it's still far from my strength but being forced to write some action scenes in recent stories definitely improved that area... who would have thought?

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I've researched many weird stuff over the years but idk, I'm blanking on specifics

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

I love it when people yell and curse at me <33

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

idk if I've ever written something truly fringe... actually maybe the dildo fic?

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

smut! which is funny because I've spent the last month writing nothing but that. but smut is hardddddd

10. What is the easiest type?

I'm seconding modern AUs, that's my comfort genre, and I'm also very well-versed in anything paranormal

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

I switched from Word to Scrivener a few years ago, and I haven't looked back. Word would probably still work, but Scrivener is just very convenient, I can have all the things in one place, and it makes things so easy

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

well, sex pollen belonged to this category, but I've just gotten over that! other than that, I've been going back and forth about this apocalypse/zombie exes to lovers longfic for months now, because it's intimidating as hell for many reasons, and it would be a lot of work which I may not have the time for currently, but there's so many parts of it that I love and want to write. mainly this very specific scene that will not leave my brain, but absolutely would not work without the proper background and build-up.... sigh

13. What made you choose your username?

here or on ao3? on ao3, it's wintersend (winter's end) and like. I can't even remember why I picked it. it's so random, I've never used it before and never since. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I'm a winter child, and I was also into GoT at the time... I genuinely don't know

and here.... hmmm idk if I should tell you guys.... it's very niche, you wouldn't get it

tagging @frostbitepandaaaaa @quarantineddreamer @fulcrumstardust @flythesail @luciechat

[the-fandom-crossroads]

My Thoughts on the Alastor Ace Erasure rampant in the Hazbin Hotel Fandom

Disclaimer i am one Ace and don't speak for all Ace's when I say the fandoms treatment of Alastor makes me uncomfortable. I was and still am open to shipping alastor with other characters. But the constant Acephobia and Ace Erasure I see in this shipping content is to a point where I have to point it out.

First off I'm so tired of the "loopholes" folks list off for why they want to write smut with one of the only cannon ace characters we've gotten in years. I had to blacklist "nonsex repulsed asexual alastor" on ao3 because they aren't even bothering to list him as greysexual. Sure an ace can have sex with a partner once or twice. But they act like nonsex repulsed means the ace person can be written having sex every other chapter. AT THAT POINT IT'S NOT AN ASEXUAL PERSON ANYMORE.

At this point I'd honestly prefer it if they just said their fic au is that he's a homosexual. Because half the time them trying to work in "he's still ace guys! he's just also okay with doing a different sex position for each day of the week!" just comes off as Acephobic. And the few times they write him uncomfortable with the start of the sex it just sounds like Acerape or corrective rape. "He just doesn't know he likes it cause he's a virgin." or "he's uncomfortable until this partner starts making him feel good". The WORST ones are the "heat" fics where they have alastor think about if he had proper control of his body he wouldn't want to be having sex right now. because at that point it's just a date rape drug and they are using a fanfic trope to FORCE him to have sex against his will. And it's just so fucked up man.

Yes he is only confirmed as Ace and not Aro. Viv is intentionally not saying he's Aro because she knows it's a lost cause to tell the fandom he's not romantically into people. Because fandom will ship him regardless. So she prioritized making it clear he's at the very least Ace in cannon and there's no plans to give him a partner in cannon. I feel like the HuskDust bits in the final series is because she saw how much the fans shipped alastor and angeldust after the pilot. Alastor was locked in as Ace by the time the pilot was released and she said it on multiple streams afterwards that he would be Ace. Giving AngelDust a different love interest target just seems like the easiest way to shoot down the biggest Alastor ship at the time without saying she's doing it to sink the biggest alastor ship. Of course fans just latched onto Vox and Lucifier but made it worse by feeling the need to say Alastor's ace before putting him in a sexual situations anyway.

Sexuals have thousands of cannon sexual characters to choose from, from countless other series but they feel the need to fight to make the one Ace guy have sex. We get an Ace character and fans immediately try to work around it to still write smut with him. Aces can't even have one character. I'm looking up fics about a psychopath cannibalistic serial killer because he's the only Ace rep I've seen in years that isn't just fan headcannons and I'm getting punched in the face with so much Acephobia and corrective rape, it's horrifying. Aces can't go through the tag of a cannon ace comfort character without facing triggering amounts of acephobia. And that's just wrong. How can the fandom see this as okay??

If he was a gay character constantly being written into a straight ship with people excusing it as "well sometimes gay guys will have sex with women" people would be up in arms about gay erasure. But because it's an Ace character that they personally want to still ship with characters it's not Ace erasure. He's just an Ace that likes to have lots and lots of sex.

ALASTOR IS ASEXUAL. If you are in anyway trying to write Alastor in character or close to cannon. Then he does not desire sex that is the basic definition of Asexual. But yall can't except this tumblr sexy man doesn't want to have sex (because everyone wants to have sex\s). So you bend over backwards trying to explain to an actual Ace person why we are sometimes pushed or pressured into sex and how that's okay. How it's okay for you a not Ace person to write this Ace character being forced into sexual situations. Because "sometimes" Aces have sex. You're right we do sometimes have sex. I'm not saying everyone has to write Alastor as a virgin. But he's had sex once or twice in the last 80 years at most. It's more likely he's gone the last 80 years without any desire to have sex at all. So to go from that to suddenly having sex even once a week is too much sex for him to suddenly put up with. God my Ace brain can't even wrap my head around having sex every week (do you sexuals really do that?). And I haven't gone 80 years free from sexual expectations. To expect Alastor to magically be open to a bunch of sex is ignorant at best. Regardless of what character or ocfemalereadersona you try to push him to have sex with.

I don't know what else to say other than that i'm just tired. Tired and sad. The Ace community should be celebrating the fact that we finally have another Ace character in media. A character the show and creator have openly and constantly confirmed is Ace. But instead we are having to defend ourselves from our own terminology being weaponized against us to erase that characters Ace identity for smut fics.

[dixons-sunshine]

I was wondering if, in the young Daryl series, is the apocalypse something that's going to happen? and if it is, are they still together, or did they get separated before and meet again after years? I need a proper fanfic fr 😩 love your writing, btw <33

I have thought about this a lot actually, and the answer could be yes. I think it's something that I definitely might write in the future, and if I do, you best believe they're going to still be together. I love the "together since teenagers, still madly in love as adults" trope so much, and it would be so fun to write about older Daryl being overprotective of the reader when they get settled in the quarry, and people not understanding why Daryl's only soft spoken and kind to the reader since they don't know they're together (Daryl and reader kinda keep it a secret until Merle reveals they're together). I don't know, but if that's something y'all wanna see, let me know.

[m00nz-artpad]

The demonization of a traumatized woman

People were obsessed with the fictionalized tales of that of "Iron Man", "The Hulk", "Spider-Man", and more. What people were just learning was that those stories were all true. Those mutants, mutates, and even humans with special abilities existed. One of them was a woman now only known as "The Badger".

Olivia hated that name. She abandoned it long ago after she gave up the life of crime and finally joined society. She wasn't "Badger, the Outlaw" anymore, she was just Olivia. So when she saw her old nickname in comic book stands in the streets, she was disgusted and furious. Peter had act gotten the first issue because he was interested in finding out if it was even close to her true life story.

Instead, it was fictionalized. Made just to get money and in the process demonizing a real person who had to deal with the repercussions. Gone were the days of "Olivia, the woman who wanted to see the good in people". Now it was "Olivia, the whore who killed for fun and hated everybody". Peter had tried to console Olivia through the stress of being made out to be a monster and whore who only wanted to seduce men and murder without care, but she knew nothing would change people's minds. She was now the monster they wanted her to be.

If you think Olivia's appearance if different, you are 100% correct. I purposefully changed her appearance for the fictional comic in this fic. It's kind of funny how "The Badger" the comic is like fanfiction of my fanfic.

I wanted to make it obvious that the people in this fic don't understand Olivia while also criticizing a lot of "tough comic book femme fatale" tropes at the same time. Due to knowing her story, the reader (once the fic is finished at least) will understand her and understand she's not a brainless monster, instead she's an extremely complicated and traumatized woman. But everybody only sees her as crass, brainless, and hypersexual for fun. That's what the comic is all about; demonizing her and making her out to be a proper monster.

However, as mentioned in "The Clash of Worlds", at some point by 2014 or so there's a plotline where she has a "redemption arc" based around the time that Olivia and Peter met and started to form a relationship. This even is a critical look at the trope of a character changing because of someone else, especially a "tough" woman becoming "softer" for a man. Which is the complete opposite of Olivia.

I'm not saying that those kind of tropes are bad. Some of my favorite comics, stories, shows, and even movies have the femme fatale falling in love and changing for the better trope in it. What I don't like is when it's done wrong, which is exactly what the comic "The Badger" has done.

The writers of the comic completely bastardized Olivia and her story, breaking her down as nothing more than just a sexy caricature of who "The Badger" is. Also the comic has nothing to do with her past as a former outlaw, only mentioning Arthur and Javier in passing once or twice throughout the comic.

(Also anothing funfact about the comic is that before she gets with Peter in the storyline, she was actually with Kurt. Because in the storyline of the first X-Men animated series + X-Men '97 she's romantically involved with him. But not in this timeline, because she and Kurt are simply just very good friends who have a very familial relationship.)

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Hey girl! I'm a huge fan of your mortal kombat and COD fics :) I loved every single one that I've read so far (planning on reading your Bodyguard!Ghost fic tonight!) and I really enjoy reading your HCs and your answers to the questions that people send you!! You have such a way with words and I'm just in absolute awe of your writing. Also, the one-shot fic you wrote recently of Konig's POV in the Just Friends AU? I damn near DIED when I read it oh my god. Such a beautiful, deliciously dark, and poetic piece of writing. You've truly outdone yourself, seriously!

I had a question regarding your process when it comes to writing. I really love the idea of writing a fanfic, but I have no idea were to start! I used to write fan fiction for fun when I was younger, but I had a really embarrassing experience that put me off of writing completely. I'm now trying to get back into writing, but it feels so... hard! I tried writing a small slasher fic a few months ago, but it felt like rolling a boulder up a hill. It took a very long time and I was never quite satisfied with what I wrote, so I never finished it.

I really want to try writing a Konig fic, but I have a hard time thinking of an interesting plot that I would be excited to write about. Also, fleshing out a character like Konig (who we have very little canon information about), is something I am struggling with. Which is why I really loved your Walküre and Just Friends series, because you were able to make Konig and the reader these incredibly interesting, really complex, three-dimensional characters!

So, I guess my question (or questions, at this point. lol.) to you is: What advice would you give someone who's trying to write their first, proper fic? What's your writing process like? What do you do to help get your imagination going? What do you use for inspiration and what makes you excited to write? How do you manage to take an idea or a HC and manage to craft a whole fic out of it?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you in advance! <3 <3

First of all, thank you so much! I have actually cried twice just thinking about this ask, your kind words made me so happy and emotional. I’m so so glad that you liked my fics (especially the MK one which I’m not that proud of)!

I’m sorry to hear you had such an experience as a young aspiring writer. I had the courage to share my fics only this year, and I’m over 30 yrs old! So the fact that you’ve put your works out there early on and had to deal with things like that must’ve been upsetting. Creative pieces are always a piece of our soul as well.

Also non-relevant but I love slashers too!! Aahhh!! 🔪❤️‍🔥 I hope you will someday find the passion to finish and publish that fic (I bet I would roll in it).

And umm, I feel I'm kinda poop at giving advice but I'll try my best! ->

Where to begin?

The reason why I wanted to bring the MK work up is because it was my very first proper fic and I wanted to say that I know exactly how you feel with the 'rolling a boulder uphill' -thing! The process with my first fic was exactly like that. I wrote it on/off for 2 years because I felt like the story and my writing sucked.

I don't know if you're suffering from the same thing, but I had a desperate need to make a good story (whatever that means, lol.) Of course we want people to enjoy what we create, but in my case, this perfectionism nearly killed my motivation to write. So the first thing I highly recommend is to shake off the need to be perfect and all the other intrusive thoughts that disturb your writing process ❤️‍🩹

So instead of trying to create a "good" story, I started to concentrate on the things I want to write. What would be the most delicious, cute, smutty or lovable imagine to write if no one was there to judge? What moves me in a character or a trope? What if I ditch all the rules and just write, even if the story and the plot don't yet make sense?

I started to write for myself and create scenes for the simple joy of it. The story became my safe space where I rushed to immerse and indulge after work. It became my guilty pleasure. Writing always becomes fun and inspiring again when I treat the story like it's my own little playground where I can do whatever I want. Everything else in life is compulsory, but my own little imaginary world is there just for me!

What also helped me was to read a ton of fanfics from writers whose style and stories I admired. It doesn't matter if the fics you read are not from the fandom you're writing for, actually, it might be better if they're not! That way you can get a sense of direction on where you want to go with your writing while also maintaining a clean palate for your own headcanons and ideas.

Writing process

This is a tough one because my writing process is very chaotic. I never know what I’m about to write or what the final version of a story will look like.

I usually start by writing the most hedonistic, self-indulgent scene first. For example in Just Friends the first scene I wrote was reader watching König masturbate in the shower. I just thought it was a tasty imagine 🙄 I thought it would be funny if his reaction to noticing her would be to blurt that he was thinking about how tight she is… Like, no one in their right mind would say that!

König's reaction then gave me the idea of him being delusional – this dark yandereish character who's obsessed with women and killing. My hands now itched to write this story. I needed reader to be drawn to him despite his craziness, and thought it could be because of his knives…? And proceeded to put a scene in the beginning where she admires his knife skills and tricks.

Then I had the idea that the knives could play an even bigger role in the story – wait, they could provide one of the main themes, actually! Knives ended up connecting these two characters in a distortedly romantic way. Apparently, it was a compelling read for some, and I got to indulge in my knife kink 🙈

So in a way, I start by self indulging and then kind of let the story tell itself? Allow it to introduce elements organically? I'm sorry if this sounds cryptic, I honestly don't have a method to my madness, at least not yet!

Only after I’ve written a few scenes that "want to come out" I start to see recurring themes, symbolism, classic storytelling components… When they pop up spontaneously, I take note and then add more of that same ingredient if I find it necessary (for example knives in Just Friends).

Only after I’ve written enough scenes to make a story, I start to edit & polish it into fic. See if the sentences and paragraphs have a nice rhythm, replace some words with synonyms that sound better, remove or add things if necessary.

Inspiration/imagination

I personally happen to love myths & folklore and I guess it shows because I sometimes refer to my characters as gods, angels, demons, krakens, tengus and whatnot. I read about classic Greek myths and immediately associate König with Theseus or some other tragic hero. I read about Japanese “dog-men” who live in the wilderness and train people in the art of war, and think about Hanzo Hasashi and how he is a demonic outcast who roams the realms in search of love retribution.

I draw shamelessly from myths and archetypes because they speak to the unconscious and add a fairytale-like touch to the story. I think most people are naturally drawn to these elements even if the fic otherwise is not a mythical/fantasy au.

Real life, real people, real hobbies and experiences are good sources for inspiration too, actually, they're one of the best! Some people are good at humor and make their stories feel an uplifting comfort read, some people have suffered severe depression and can describe the depths of existential pain with astonishing beauty. Some writers can describe with realistic detail how it feels like to shoot an AK-47 because they practice shooting.

So as a writer you can (and should!) draw inspiration from anything and everything you see, hear, smell or touch. Treat your life experiences, big or small, as resources. One time I started to write a short drabble on a rainy day and introduced the scene by describing how the rain batters against the window. So even small, cliche, trivial things like the day's weather can be inspiring and serve the story.

How to craft headcanons

When I try to get to know a character I simply immerse myself in the source material. I try to ignore the fan stuff that’s already been created, even if it's what got me into the fandom in the first place. I try to make my own judgments and interpretations no matter what I've seen or heard up until that point.

For example for König I listened to his voicelines a lot, I watched videos of him and even watched them in slow mo because I wanted to study the way he moves (lol I’m normal about him)

I tried to study things like: What vibe does he give? Does he resemble someone I know irl? Do his eyes tell a story, what kind of a past does this man have? Is he shy? If so, what kind of shy? Or is he arrogant and spiteful? A bully who used to be bullied? Etc etc.

Some of my hc’s come from how I view different people in real life, in yandere!König's case I exaggerate a lot but it’s basically just a mashup of people I associate him with. That’s where I start and then I might get further ideas of "I just know he would do this" or "he would say that", and it’s basically like baking bread and you add flour every now and then until the dough swells on its own? (lol what a metaphor)

I also have to give a shoutout to all the amazing people here who have sent me messages and headcanons and thoughts on König, without the input of other people I would never have come up with some of the things I did! So don’t be afraid to call other people to join & bake the bread with you? ^^ If you have friends in the fandom, brainstorm with them. My asks are SADLY closed atm but anyone who wants to brainstorm about König or Ghost is always welcome to my dms 🩷

Crafting a fic from hcs

My first hc ever for König was that he must be a gym guy because he's so athletic. Then I thought how heartbreaking it would be if he was this stereotypical "battling my inner demons" gym guy, because he kinda gives off this loner energy, right...?

From here, you could already craft a story where poor loner König meets someone at the gym. The first scene could be ripe with pining and flirting and how sweet it is that König forgets about his inner demons everytime he sees his gym crush. Next scene: first date. Is it awkward or cute? Both? What kind of dynamic does this couple have?

Third scene: do you want to write smut? Do they have sex or do you want to add some angst & drama, maybe introduce a third wheel and make König suffer? (Poor guy just went to the gym to escape his inner demons and now he's suffering even more omg)

Hope these were of any help! I wish you all the best with your writing! 🩷💋

So hc's are like breadcrumbs that lead you to scenes, and scenes lead you to a story 💕

[phantommaws]

Hey Holly ✨ How are you?

I saw your post so here I am with:

- I love AAO 💖

- Do you plan to draw more art in the future (maybe for AAO)?

- What's your favourite trope?

- Any song rec for my Hange playlist?

💖

Hi Val, I’m doing pretty good tonight all things considered. Thank you for asking these questions, let’s get to it! ✨

1) AAAAAAGH I nearly cried when I saw that. It means so much to know that people are enjoying my work because I wasn’t expecting it. Against All Odds is the first piece of fanfic I’ve ever written that is not about the 80s ThunderCats series and with the content that I have planned for it, I can safely say that AAO is my favourite piece I’ve ever written.

2) I absolutely plan on creating more art in the future and potentially dusting off my drawing tablet (can you believe it’s been seven months since I last made a proper piece of digital art?) And I have a TON of stuff I’d like to draw for AAO, including but not limited to Levi and Hange’s children and a few other scenes as well as a reference sheet of Hange so that people can visualise the way they look with their badass scars from the Rumbling :)

3) Man, that’s a hard one. I have a fair few that I like and I don’t have a particular favourite but one of the ones I like best has to be enemies to lovers

4) OOOOOH song recommendations for your Hange playlist. I have a whole Spotify album dedicated to them haha 😅 Here is the link :3