#putting this in the tabula rasa verse ONE DAY!!

[helianthus21]

han-seo reminiscing about his pre-Jang-household days and talking about how he misses his mother, that in his CEO days he'd been hiring different cooks to recreate a certain meal that his mother used to make but it was never quite right, the way they cooked it, and the specific recipe itself is probably lost forever bc god only knows where his mother's belongings went after her death, Han-seo didn't get access to many of them; and Vincenzo files this away with nothing more but a hum

much later in Pagliuza, when Han-seo has all but forgotten about having told Vincenzo about this meal, the Korean cooks Vincenzo hired specifically for Han-seo and Cha-young serve up this exact meal and it's not exactly the way his mother made it but it comes pretty close, so close that tears gather in Han-seo's eyes and he gets so choked up he can't even swallow another bite, and Vincenzo tells him he put his contacts in Korea (read: two of his closest allies from a certain intelligence agency) on the case of finding the missing recipe of Jang Han-seo's mother and finally they found it and Han-seo gets even more choked up

[earnestly-endlessly]

what about your favourite cherik fics of all time? (:

Dear anon, I am so sorry for the delay. I’ve been meaning to put this list for about a week now, but I feel as if I’m missing some fics. Most of these are fandom favourites and might not come as any surprise, but these are my all time favourite fics that I’ve probably read more than once and more than twice. I tried to keep a wide variety of fics, including both one-shots and multi-chapters as well as different genres. I hope you enjoy these fics as much as I do.

Earnestly-endlessly’s Favourite Cherik Fics 

***********************************************

Anarchy in the U.K. – Yahtzee

Summary: “Good God, Erik thought. The Prince of Wales is gay.”

Charles lives in the unceasing glare of the public spotlight, yet keeps his sexual orientation a closely held secret, afraid he could lose his throne and force his deeply troubled younger sister into a role that would crush her. Erik, journalist and world traveler, has been a loner most of his life; he has little patience for closet cases. But a chance meeting in Kenya brings these two opposites together and sets in motion a love affair that will challenge the British monarchy – and their most deeply held beliefs about who they are, and who they should be.

Continuing Education – aesc and spicedpiano

Summary: To his students, Erik Lehnsherr is despotic and terrifying. To his department head, he’s the brilliant young researcher who abandoned his prestigious job overnight, moving across the country to join MIT’s faculty. But to Charles Xavier, he is a contradiction. As Erik and Charles settle into their new roles as colleagues, their professional rivalry starts to spill over into the personal.

The Sonnet Series – afrocurl, nekosmuse

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a visiting professor at Columbia University, as well as an acclaimed and award winning poet. Charles Xavier is a lead researcher with the Genetics Department who is well on his way to tenure. But what happens when Charles has to cancel a class because half his students abandon him in favour of a mysterious new English Lit professor? Naturally he ends up sitting in in the class, where Professor Lehnsherr mistakes him for a student. It’s really too bad Erik has such a strict policy against dating students. It’s also too bad Erik doesn’t seem to know how to use Google.

Bifurcation – spicedpiano

Summary: Bifurcation - (n.) the splitting of a main body into two parts.

In medicine, a single mistake can mean the difference between life and death.

For cardiothoracic surgeon Charles Xavier, a fatal error leaves him standing at a crossroads … and at the mercy of the man he has not faced since their relationship fell apart thirteen months ago.

Dr. Erik Lehnsherr has a fearsome reputation. Due to his incisive autopsy reports, he has gotten more surgeons fired in two years than any other pathologist has managed over an entire career. But when an old enemy returns to Erik’s life, he must find a way to temper his pride – or lose the man he loves, all over again.

Runs in the Family – Anonysquirrel (chibrisuchan)

Summary: In which mpreg!Charles Bakes All The Things, overprotective!Erik calls his small round tea-drinking husband “Vati’s little teapot”, Tony Stark/Bad Ideas is Stark Industries’ most profitable OTP, and Alex and Steve are somehow along for the ride. And the cookies.

For the Record – endingthemes

Summary: As prominent figures in the mutant rights movement, activists Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are pretty much household names. When a romance scandal between them breaks, their celebrity reaches new heights, and though the increased exposure is great, there’s a big problem – the two of them are just friends.

Too bad no one believes them.

Rumor Mill – Ikeracity

Summary: Erik is the grumpiest, most foul tempered worker at Stark industries. His grumpiness is the stuff of legends. So it’s obviously the talk of the office when Erik is being made to go to the company party and he’s bringing his husband. There’s rumors flying round about how much of a masochist or equally antisocial bastard Erik’s husband must be to put up with him. Others think he must be a meek mouse perhaps bullied by Erik.

What they weren’t expecting was the confident, charming, adorable and unbelievably nice Charles that turns up on Erik’s arm. What they certainly weren’t expecting was how much Erik obviously adores his husband and how happy he is to let others see this.

Into Your Tar, Honey – tomato_greens

Summary: Really, Alex doesn’t know why he’s in the damn class. (Or, the one in which Charles teaches an online Introduction to Biology course, and Alex reads more than he expected to.)

If You Like The Book, You’ll Hate the Movie – paperclipbitch

Summary: Modern-Day High School AU. It’s not until Hank realises half the class are glancing towards the back of the classroom with something like nerves and something like schadenfreude that he finds out Alex Summers is back.

The boy with the heart on his sleeve – euphorbic

Summary: Charles loses a high-stakes bet to Raven and is required to get a tattoo. However, when he makes a disparaging remark about the art form, Raven’s acerbic mentor, Erik, steps in.

Or, the one where Erik and Raven are tattoo artists.

Enigma – Yahtzee

Summary: Written for the following prompt: Erik dies, or finds a reversey-time mutant, or a magical time travelling device, and wakes up in the past. This time, though, it’s before he ever met Charles - in fact, it’s before his mother died.

He can save his mother that one time (thanks to his mastery over powers carrying back), but what does Erik do after that? Does he stick around, or escape and run to find Charles again (and hope everything doesn’t go wrong)?

Mutually Beneficial Transaction – Pookaseraph

Summary: In his sophomore year at Columbia University, Erik, feeling slowly strangled by his mounting college debt, places an add on a sugar daddies website. He doesn’t know exactly what to expect from it, but when he’s contacted by a man named Charles who seems less creepy than the other people who have responded to his profile, he decides to give it a shot. Charles is nothing like what he expected, and Erik finds himself slowly falling in love with his sugar daddy while trying to find out exactly what caused this amazing guy to buy his emotional and sexual intimacy when he clearly deserves so much more than that.

Food, Family, and Friends with Benefits – endingthemes

Summary: “Everyone,” Edie says, voice bursting with pride. “Erik’s here, and he’s brought his friend.” She takes Charles’ arm and pulls him forward, presenting him like a shiny object. “This is Charles.”

Charles manages a weak wave and an even weaker, “Hello.”

(In which Charles gets dragged along to his fuck buddy’s parent’s house to celebrate a Jewish holiday, and things get weird.)

In Plain Sight – arcapelago (arcanewinter)

Summary: A story where Charles and Erik have basically been together from the first time they met. The whole fate, wow we found each other thing. Now I would like the others not to know and try to bring the two 'oblivious' guys together. They of course enjoy this quite a lot 

Limited Release – rageprufrock

Summary: When Alex Summers broke out of supermax to rescue his stupid kid brother, he had no idea it was going to be so fucking complicated.

Daycare Verse – brilligspoons, pocky_slash

Summary: A modern AU in which Charles runs a mutant daycare and Erik is his long-suffering engineer boyfriend.

Marrying a Mob – Ook

Summary: Charles is a teacher at a very exclusive school. When armed men burst in on the trail of two children, of course he stands up to them and gets hurt. The children are Erik Lehnsherr's children (of course); a "prominent businessman" or, less politely, "mobster". Erik is grateful to Charles for saving his children's lives at the cost of his kneecap. So very grateful.Naturally he tries to reward Charles for his actions. Equally naturally, Charles will be having none of that.Azazel finds the whole thing unspeakably hilarious. Naturally.

Chessmen (XMFC/Inception fusion AU) – kaydeefalls

Boden’s Mate: “Shaw has information that we need, and we need him alive to extract it,” Moira says, and there it is: the job is on the table. Extraction.

XMFC/Inception fusion AU. Erik is an extractor, Alex is his point man. They’re assembling a team to go after the most dangerous mind in dreamsharing: Sebastian Shaw. But unless Alex and the team can keep him in check, Erik’s desire for vengeance might just rip the whole job apart around them – and then there’s the shade that haunts his dreams…

Queen’s Gambit: “My name is Nick Fury,” he tells Raven. “And I’m here to talk to you about Cain Marko.”

XMFC/Inception fusion, sequel to Boden’s Mate. Raven’s running her own extractions these days, but the job S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dumped in her lap is a real shitshow. Two marks, two simultaneous dreams, eleven dreamers, and a hell of a lot of baggage. Time to call in a few favors – and did she mention the job involves inception?

Tabula Rasa – kaydeefalls

Summary: Five ways Erik might have first met Charles.

Humane Society – smilebackwards

Summary: Once Erik finally allows himself to decide that Charles is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread, he spends the next week being incredibly bitter that he’s Charles’ cat and not his boyfriend.

Idiot Control Now – cygnaut

Summary: Hank screws something up in the lab and everyone’s powers increase tenfold. Not knowing how to control them like this, they all try to cope and not kill each other by mistake while Hank tries to find a way to reverse the effects. Charles has a particularly hard time of it.

White Nights – spicedpiano, tahariel

Summary: Duke Erik Lehnsherr of Ironhold needs an omega to carry on his line, and Earl Charles Xavier of Westchester needs an alpha to give him the political leverage he needs in order to make his sister Queen. An arranged marriage brings them together, but Erik’s lust for war and Charles’ hidden agenda threaten to tear them apart. In the frozen Northlands of Ironhold life is hard and cold, and both Charles and Erik must give up their pretense and see each other as they really are: perfect for each other, if only they’ll acknowledge it.

Nation Building and other Diplomatic Negotiations – Pookaseraph

Summary: With the recent passage of a submissive registration law in the United Kingdom, there are now only two industrialized nation with a relatively stable government to have neither a mutant nor a submissive registration law. Erik Lehnsherr, the newly minted King of Genosha, and his Prime Minister Emma Frost intend to take advantage of this turn of events to bring the Xavier Institute to the island nation of Genosha. They both know bringing Charles Xavier, the noted activist of mutant and submissive rights, to the island will necessarily politicize the man, and create all manner of complications. With a constitution not yet finalized and external threats to Genoshan security all around them, Erik, Emma, and Charles will fight for what they believe in to shape Genosha into what it should be.

A Genosha AU with moderate D/s elements.

Politico – cygnaut

Summary: Modern Genosha Politics AU. In which Erik is l'enfant terrible of the mutant National Assembly, and his staff just wants to get him laid.

The Courtship – dvs

Summary: A story about a courtship that began five hundred years ago.

This Family comes with Batteries – Fishwrites, lynneh

Summary: A orphaned Charles Xavier goes to live with his Godfather: Tony Stark. This story is a tale of what would have happened to the events of MCU, if Tony was raising a six year old telepath in Stark Tower. There is also the matter of Charles’ robot AI manny/bodyguard/tutor/only-friend, David.

Space Oddity – MonstrousRegiment, Pangea

Space Jam: Prince Charles Xavier is Deputy Commander of the TEF Heartsteel and the newest mission they’ve been assigned starts out less than desirable and quickly goes downhill from there. It’s alright, though, he’ll cope.

It doesn’t help, though, that he’s in unrequited love with his best friend and Commander of the Heartsteel, War-Prince Erik Lehnsherr.

Jupiter Jazz: Prince Charles Xavier is still Deputy Commander of the TEF Heartsteel and life has been great ever since he and his best friend and Commander of the Heartsteel, War-Prince Erik Lehnsherr, finally got all of their feelings out on the table. Better than great, really.

It doesn’t help, though, that the Nyrulians are a bit sore over him blowing up their ship, and a war is brewing. And because Charles has that kind of luck, they’re in the middle of it.

I have loved the stars too fondly: Erik and Charles, directly after the events of Jupiter Jazz.Nothing will ever be the same.

The stars incline us, they do not bind us – ikeracity, pangea

Summary: Intergalactic Federation pilot Lieutenant Charles Xavier is assigned last-minute to a high profile mission: transporting over two thousand prison inmates from an old and overfilled prison complex to a newer, higher-capacity prison stronghold located on the outer reaches of the galaxy. Just as he’s settling down for a long and uneventful ride, things take a turn for the worse after the inmates riot and stage a hostile takeover of the ship, leaving Charles to find himself at the complete mercy of cold-blooded killers and facing the chilling prospect that he might not ever make it back home alive.

Tough little baby telepath – aesc, pearl_o

Summary: Teenage telepath Charles Xavier takes a job as a consultant, working with prickly police detective Erik Lehnsherr. Charles is used to being on his own and taking care of himself; he has no reason to think that his relationship with this stern, icy man is going to change any of that.

An absence which could not be more there – aesc

Summary: He prepared to shift another half-step over to the Current Events section (which would, of course, enrage him) when the teaser positioned by the model’s left elbow caught his eye: DATING WHILE TELEPATHIC: WHY I DON’T DO IT.

Backseat ‘verse´ – tahariel

Summary: “Charles has a very sweet nature,” Raven is saying, her hand falling to the back of his head and stroking his hair very gently, carelessly affectionate. “He doesn’t need someone to force him down, he’s very happy to go there himself. If Erik is the sort to need a fight, then there’s no way I could let him have my brother.”

Simple and Uncomplicated – Pookaseraph

Summary: Erik and Charles had been fuck buddies for some, but when Charles is in an accident he figured their relationship would be over. Erik’s visit to his bedside in the hospital changes his assumptions even as he has trouble believing Erik is sincere.

Made To Be Broken – Yahtzee

Summary: Charles makes a New Year’s Resolution: “No more straight men,” Charles repeated as he began scrolling through the apartment directory for Emma’s name. “No more futility. No more pointless hoping and heartbreak. In 2013, I never want to hear the words ‘exception,’ ‘experimenting’ or ‘phase.’ If, God forbid, I hear ‘bicurious’ even once, I may take a hostage.” Then he goes into the party, and Erik is there.

Five Bullet Points – Sperare

Summary: It was supposed to be Erik locked away in a prison one hundred stories below the ground.

Charles was never supposed to be there with him.

Terrifying Domesticity – ishipitsobad

Summary: Erik is the most dangerous and notorious mafia boss around for miles, and yet the strangest things terrify him. For example: his children, and his very pregnant mate.

The Trouble With Telepaths – endingthemes

Summary: “Are you shy about me meeting your family?” Erik asks with a huge smile. “Are you kidding me?”“It’s not funny,” Charles says, his hands firmly planted on his hips, and it’s honestly hilarious so Erik laughs right in his face.(Or a Star Trek AU in which Captain Erik Lehnsherr pays a visit to First Officer Charles Xavier's home planet and encounters a few surprises.)

Stolen – ishipitsobad

Summary: Erik is a miserable, grumpy, cantankerous bastard, and he has every fucking right to be. He drew the short end of the stick when he got the Underworld as his domain, and there isn't very much fun to be had in judging and governing dead souls who would rather be anywhere else but with Erik in the depths of Hell.

So when he meets Charles, brilliant and lovely Charles who is more popularly known amongst the mortals as Persephone, and feels the promise of something wonderful that could make his eternally doomed existence infinitely more bearable... you can bet all your drachmas Erik's not going to let Charles go any fucking time soon.

The Mutant Games – TurtleTotem

Summary: "You'll be fine, darling," Charles murmured, half-asleep, into golden hair as Raven crawled sniffling into his bed. "Your name's only in there once, Raven. They're not going to pick you." (Hunger Games AU)

City by the sea – Black_Betty

Summary: It never bothered Charles that he essentially belonged to someone else from birth. Ever since he could remember he had been told stories about the mysterious prince who was his betrothed, and who one day would be called husband. As he grew older, Charles caught his thoughts drifting away from lessons under strict tutors, his mind slipping into the hazy daydream of his life yet to come…

In Shadow and in Silence – Yahtzee

Summary: Written for the following prompt: Erik is an aggressive, dangerous, cynical mutant, hardened from years of being passed through private laboratories and used for experimentation. He’s covered in surgical scars from operations, tattooed and bar coded like a lab rat, and blind from an experiment done on his eyes. … Charles Xavier finds out about him. Charles runs a sort of sanctuary for mutants that provides lost, abandoned, abused, runaway mutants with shelter, comfort, and help with ability control. He thinks he can rehabilitate Erik and save him from execution, and convinces the government that he can.

When Erik arrives, he is a lot worse than Charles thought he would be … Everyone else can see that Erik is a nuclear bomb waiting to go off, but Charles refuses to give up on him. …

The first time Charles sneaks up on him wearing no metal, it triggers him and he reacts instinctively, with violence. … Erik discovers why Charles understands him so well: he was once used in experiments as well, experiments run by his own family, and in one of them, he lost his voice, so he uses his telepathy to communicate.

Blind Erik, mute Charles, the love.

Everyday Love in Stockholm – tahariel

Summary: Prompt: Magneto is the ruler of the posthuman world. His only secret? Charles Xavier, the human he’s kept locked in his bedroom ever since his right-hand woman, Mystique, came to him pleading for mercy for her stepbrother, who accepted her mutant form and protected her as a child. The human he started fucking after Mystique was killed in battle, despite the guilt he feels at contaminating even this last promise to the woman who was integral to his life’s work and happiness.

The Tower and the Hurricane – dreamlittleyo

Summary: (Post-movie AU.) Five years after Shaw's death, Erik's predictions prove painfully accurate. Violence rages on both sides of the human/mutant conflict. In a world ravaged by war, it doesn't really matter who's more at fault. Charles struggles to teach his students a better way, but what choices will he make when peace really isn't an option?

Honest Bone and Burning Thought – Black_Betty

Summary: And so sometimes, his mind buzzing away, bright and brilliant and humming with pure expansive energy, Charles speaks without thinking at all. Without censoring himself. Without realizing that his brain has reached out and snatched something that was never his to know, or take…

The Attempt – Yahtzee

Summary: Written for the following prompt: Charles knows everything about Erik, knows how obsessive and self-destructive he is, how Erik would do anything, give anything, in his quest for vengeance against Shaw. But he also knows that Erik loves him in ways that aren't exactly platonic. I'd like to see a completely straight!Charles, out of pure love and care of Erik, initiate a romantic relationship with him. It can be because he wishes to give Erik something positive in his life or because he thinks it might help change Erik's mind about Shaw, the reason is up to author. Also, while Charles finds intimacy with Erik strange and awkward, he does enjoy the new, non-romantic layers that have developed in their relationship.

[malibvnghts]

            meet ADELINE  ,  a friendly and bright woman and very hardworking  ,  reliable and adventurous . . . an intelligent female  ,  who sometimes . . . ends up having the mindset of  “  if you can’t get over a mountain, go through it . . .  ”  and not in a philosophical sense  ,  if she can’t get around a problem  ,  she dives HEAD FIRST into the issue and struggle her way through  .  sometimes . . . she just doesn’t seem to think things through  .

(  this muse is a pliable muse for any interaction  ,  any fandom  ;  tabula rasa  ,  yo . . . she’s made with minimal information so she can slot into any fandoms  .  the follow are ones that she already has verses for  ) 

genshin impact —  armed with geo vision  ,  adeline is an adept with polearms  ;  but  ,  she’s less of a fighter and more of an adventurer  .  she’s definitely the type to be found wandering the forests monstadt or meandering about the harbor in liyue . . . she goes where her feet takes her  (  or rather  ,  where her mora takes her  ,  when she runs out . . . she seeks odd jobs to earn a bit of coin  )  .  a friendly person with tales to tell of her encounters with creatures wandering the land  (  like that time she ran until she couldn’t when face to face with a ruin guard  )  ,  she has a chock full of stories and a great companion  !!

mlqc —  a part of the planning team at studio  ,  adeline is a hardworking and idealistic woman  .  she doesn’t let obstacles stop her  ,  after all . . . if she can’t get AROUND things  ,  she’ll go through them  .  aiming for perfection and always staying on top of things  ,  she’s friendly and bright with clients  ;  but  ,  absolutely stubborn and refusing to budge with people that tear apart her plans  (  or her team’s plans  )  without any reason why  .

fe3h — a part of the golden deer house  ,  adeline is a commoner but she doesn’t let statuses stop her from socializing with people  (  even at some nobility’s disdain  )  , she’s quick to make friends and loves to chat up a storm  .  while she doesn’t seem adept in the battlefield  ,  adeline is actually quite capable of using her brains and strategizing as well as using her lance . . . she just prefers to be more passive and friendly than taking up arms  .

touken ranbu — she wakes up in an unknown room and is suddenly told that she’s to be the priestess  (  ??? excuse me  ???  )  and create swords for battle  .  she might be a bit on the dumb side  ,  doesn’t mean she’s THAT stupid to think that inanimate object can become . . .  hold on  ,  really  ??  did that blade just turn in to a WHOLE HUMAN BEING just by putting a piece of paper with her name on it  ??  this is weirder and weirder . . . she must be dreaming  (  maybe  ??  )  !!  well  ,  might as well go along with it if she’s dreaming . . .

twisted wonderland — through the mirror and into an unknown place  ,  she now resides in the ramshackle dorms and well  ,  she’d much rather just laze around until things are resolved but life isn’t easy . . . it’s never easy  .  darn it  .  from the cat to the broken dorms to the rowdy children at school  (  gosh  ,  she’s glad she’s done with school  )  ,  she now works as a honorary  ‘  receptionist  ’  for the dean . . . though  ,  she just spends her time wandering school grounds  .

obey me — human sacrifice . . . that must be what happened for her to be sent into this world . . . god  ,  oops . . . uh . . . well  ,  she doesn’t know what name to use in vain  ,  forget it  .  it’s much different down here than she thought  ,  is it just as interesting up above  ??  forced to go through school again  ,  adeline attends royal academy of diavolo  (  rad  ,  they call it . . . how retro  )  as a human student  .  with her friendly attitude  ,  she gets along semi — fine with the students  (  hoping to not get eaten  ;  she’s quite good at running  )  .

fandomless  (  for those that just wanna write with her  ) —  she’s an office worker with a nearly 9 to 5 job  ;  jokes . . . 9 to 5  ??  please  ,  it’s overtime nearly all day  ,  every day to make sure that deadlines are met and reports are finished  .  a part of the upper management team  ,  adeline is headstrong and stubborn  ,  but a friendly and supportive figure in her department  .  her friendly attitude is why she gets sent out on footwork  (  meeting clients  )  more often than others and she’s often relied on to contacting and finalizing contracts  .

[lightlorn]

KOKORO: 2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have? 29. What is your character’s weaknesses? Hubris? Pride? Controlling? 30. Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he or she forgive? 48. How are your character’s gestures? Vigorous? Weak? Controlled? Compulsive? Energetic? Sluggish?

solid. ll accepting.

2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have?

Kokoro has a very neutral view of her mother’s memory. Steria passed when she was still quite young, so what memories she does have are hazy – the color of her hair, the sound of her voice, the clearest ideas of her mother are endless bedtime stories and a garden that was the envy of anyone. She remembers days spent on the water chasing little fish as her mother hovered nearby, but other than that her mother is a bit of a tabula rasa. All she is comes down to light – pure, unblemished, the kind it would take 30 years to find the equal of.

These all paint a pretty picture of Steria, but Kokoro also carries a measure of… almost disdain for her mother. More accurately, she is disdainful of how her mother turned out, of her choices. She saw Steria, brilliant and kind, languishing in their culture. A non-wielder who could only travel by the will of others, kept a pretty wife at home and never reaching her full potential. Her mother was all light, but she watched the stars so intently, had a story for every world. In a lot of ways, Kokoro fears becoming so complacent, burying parts of yourself for domestic bliss, toeing the line because you have no other option. She fears being the kind of woman so afraid of her own loneliness that she throw herself into other arms than live her dreams alone.

In time, however, she grows to see her mother for the inner strength she carried. She made the best with what she had, and thrived in a society that never truly accepted her. If contentment was all she could hope for, then Steria mastered it. She was the lady of her land despite humble lineage, and that is something Kokoro can admire. She also appreciates the care her mother showed her, how family friends can speak so readily of Steria’s love for her. She holds on to the stories and parables her mother wove for her, the ones that helped mold her into the woman she is today.

So, out of respect for the dead, Kokoro walks between the poles. She knows her mother loved her, but also knows her mother was the kind of woman she would pity, someone she would never emulate. Part of her feels shame for that, another part knows her mother’s life was never meant for her own. In more logical moments, she notes it is not her mother that should bear the brunt of her dislike for how she lived, but the society that raised the both of them. Beyond these things, her mother is merely a ghost to her.

29. What is your character’s weaknesses? Hubris? Pride? Controlling?

Kokoro cannot stand to be alone. She gets this from both sides of her family tree, especially in her secondary verse. She craves interaction, she needs it, and more often than not she is either denied or willfully turns her back on it. Acting up as a teen was part of her trying desperately to get attention, trying to be recognized in a world to which she never truly belongs.

She is at her worst during the years she was bouncing between worlds, not taking care of herself properly, untethered from anything but the ghosts she was chasing. It says something that her turnaround came upon arriving in Traverse Town and finding a sense of community. Loneliness ruins her in totality, and brings out a lot of her worst traits.

But of course, like her father before her, she would never own up to such a flaw or admit what it drives her to, against all sense, against all self-preservation.

30. Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he or she forgive?

Kokoro’s entire arc is built on the past as of the present. She’s chasing characters not seen in over a decade, in some verses characters she never even met. She’s running from her past as the disappointment, trying to make one thing right to prove she can to the people that already wrote her off as nothing, or as a threat. She’s trying so hard to prove others wrong, though her motivation has moved from spite to doing good because it is the right thing to do and she is too old to consciously give others control over her.

In her secondary verse it’s worse because finding the missing means getting to make things right. Apologizing to her father and starting over, making up for how she pushed her friends away, finally showing kindness to the boy she blamed for her own stupid, bitter actions driving others away.

In all of these things, she can forgive insomuch as she can say ‘I made mistakes, and so did you, and if you are willing to work with me to rebuild trust then I will put this behind us.’ She does not forgive without condition, but with understanding and maturity. She’s a Blue Blood, her memory is long and it does not allow forgetfulness.

48. How are your character’s gestures? Vigorous? Weak? Controlled?Compulsive? Energetic? Sluggish?

Firm and swift. Kokoro has a particularly regal bearing, and this shows in how she carries herself, how she moves her hands and holds her posture. She seeks to emulate a certain family friend when monologuing, and so makes swift and decisive maneuvers with her hands, head held high, eyes clapped onto whoever she is addressing. Though it cannot compare to the man she is imitating, it does build on her already skillful oratory abilities.

These quick, unflinching movements also hold in battle, where her handling of her sword is a fine blend of great strength and swift adjustment of her stance and attacks.

[jennycalendar]

2018 fic writing roundup

tagged by @catty-words​ !! thank u darling

i have this lingering suspicion that the 92k mess that is imperfections has a tendency of bumping up my word count, but also i’ve been writing particularly A Lot this year. so. yikes. this’ll be a mess

Total 2018 Word Count: 465,233 (so uh. yikes squared?) Total 2018 Hits: 16,798 Other 2018 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 1,592; Comment threads: 457; Bookmarks: 186; Subscriptions: 121.

Total 2017 Word Count: 171,640   Total 2017 Hits: 9,156 Other 2017 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 841; Comment threads: 172; Bookmarks: 126; Subscriptions: 40.

Links and Titles to 2018 Works (buckle up kids)

ten questions for new year’s eve (6,669 words) lonely s4 giles meets jenny on new year’s eve. basically fluff laced with some light angst, which i think set the tone for most of my writing this year

forever (4,738 words) some assorted femslash ficlets from tumblr that i immediately forgot about after february. it of course got buried under a deluge of jenny fic but there’s still some cute stuff there! i had a lot of fun in particular writing about bb willow and the beginnings of her attraction to girls

she’s your destiny (9,560 words) AHHHHHH I FORGOT I WROTE THIS. blessings of writing This Much. soulmate au with buffy/willow and giles/jenny where like. none of them are soulmates but they fall crazy in love anyway.

the happy-ending bouquet (3,851 words) set in 2018. giles and jenny have been married for something like 15 years and are still very happy and in love. basically just an endless deluge of fluff

personas (2,729 words) hhhhh i hesitate to count this as a 2018 fic, because i technically posted it in summer 2017 and then deleted it for reasons unknown (even to me). but there aren’t enough fics that explore jenny’s fractured sense of identity and her broken heart and i love my girl so much. so. wrote that.

something real (2,173 words) my valentine’s day fic!! a friend and i share the headcanon that jenny would have finally shoved her way back into giles’s heart if not for the love spell throwing her off, so. wrote a fic where that happened, albeit somewhat angstily.

direct, but not unwelcome (4,478 words) this fic always makes me cringe, a little; the office verse was written largely for faith and tara, and writing giles and jenny in it was a decision i don’t entirely like (mostly bc there really is no narrative place for either of them). but it has a few good lines ig?

putting a ring on it (2,370 words) giles and jenny proposal fic!! a little wobbly in places imo but still so fun to write. those two deserve all the fluff

the second choice soulmates (6,942 words) the inevitable faith/tara sequel to the soulmate au!! i had it planned from the second i started writing the first fic in that series, and i had a lot of fun with it. in which faith and tara have to deal with their soulmates being in love with each other, and end up falling in love themselves.

nightmares and the aftermath (1,205 words) the first fic i wrote in the ripper au! ripper has a nightmare; jenny talks him through it.

the inherent complexity of falling in love (3,519 words) more soulmate au nonsense!! this time with solely giles and jenny!! 

let’s stay together (857 words) i say that this is “a series of vignettes in which ben, ann, and leslie are dating” but really it’s just one. i’ve kept it in bc i really wanna write more than one. ben/leslie/ann is such a blessed ship and there are no fics for it! which is ridiculous! because they really should all be dating!! leslie has two hands y’all

moments of connection in an uncertain world (3,351 words) the olivia/jenny fic that set that amazing ship on its course. set in asoue; jenny’s identity in the narrative is ambiguous bc jenny’s identity in every narrative is ambiguous. mystery bicon

amends (remixed) (2,988 words) i’m like 99 percent sure i spite-wrote this fic after watching amends bc that really seems like something i would do. in which ghost jenny makes sure buffy, angel, and giles all know that she doesn’t blame them for a single thing.

it’s a family affair (11 chapters) jenny, married to giles and mom to two daughters, loses her memory. i meant for this to be an exploration of jenny and giles’s relationship + jenny as a character, but with hindsight i feel like i kinda rushed it. maybe someday i’ll come back and expand this a little?

maybe i’m in love (24 chapters) CRIES. this fic was posted all in one day and got buried under the deluge of fic i wrote this year and i am still so sad that it remains forgotten. even by me. like i forgot it existed till now. but it is the treasure of my heart and i am still not sure what i can possibly do for calendiles day 2019 that will even come close to “slow burn giles/jenny series rewrite in script format.”

dragonslayers (8,048 words) i go back and forth between whether adding a sequel to a sappy-happy-ending fic was actually needed, but i had a lot of fun writing jenny and anya and tara being friends and adopting a dog. those girls deserve so much better.

tech support (1,315 words) jenny works at angel investigations, and giles meets her when he and buffy drive up to la to get a book. unabashed fluff.

family ties (2,294 words) giles introduces jenny to his dad and the aunts. i had giles call himself “rupert” for the entire fic and forgot to explain why i made the choice to do so (and there was a damn good reason!!!) so every time i see this fic....Regret™

i like you (992 words) the product of me realizing “wait, i never wrote a fic about my Very Specific Headcanon that giles and jenny had sex after school hard!!!” and then going ahead and writing that fic. not explicit; lots of giles and jenny being dumb and in love

take me now! (3,460 words) the sister fic to my other jenny/olivia fic! in this one, jenny’s a watcher and olivia’s the sweet librarian who has her all blushy.

the grieving process (9,771 words) this fic! was! such a trip to write! i wanted to write something where giles’s s6 issues were confronted. originally i wrote a jenny’s-alive fic where he goes to her place in la after leaving buffy in tabula rasa, but the mood of that fic was miserable and hostile, so i changed things ever so slightly. and then it became “giles goes to jenny after buffy dies,” and that transitioned into “giles actually finally gets to have an outlet for his emotions,” and then it became a very soft fic that i love very much.

unsolved mysteries (1,704 words) a modern jackaby au! where jenny cavanaugh has trauma-related anxiety and eats pretzels w jackaby in a hall closet! surprisingly soft.

the cleanup crew (2,968 words) post-ted; buffy calls jenny and giles in to help her with ted’s robot body. because that ep was a hot mess and too many things were tied up too fast.

princess charming (2,754 words) written thanks to a throwaway line from the grieving process! about jenny saving fred in pylea! @theforestlesbian​ mentioned in a review that this fic came off as “the adventures of jenny” and that was the best compliment ever.

untraditional, unconditional (4,223 words) ripper au! ripper and jenny get married! i don’t think i will ever write a better calendiles wedding than this one.

gettin’ bi (1,215 words) jenny and giles come out to each other. that’s really it.

intimacy (1,058 words) some root/shaw fluff. g o sh at some point i really should finish poi huh

the battle’s done (and we kind of won) (5,026 words) post-chosen; jenny inexplicably comes back from the dead, and giles works thru the messy aftermath of s7.

chaos, vengeance, love (1,412 words) giles’s exes talk over his grave. (and yes, i do mean jenny and ethan.)

buffy summers, muggle-born (6,075 words) buffy goes to hogwarts! this was meant to set the scene for a loosely connected string of fics, but i could never decide whether i wanted them to be chaptered fics or oneshots. i do have like 3 large chapters saved to my computer, tho :/

a eulogy (920 words) jenny calendar, as told by how she’s remembered.

survivors’ guilt (4,690 words) in which giles dies instead of jenny, and jenny and buffy deal with it poorly. my only problem w this fic is that i really wish i’d explored the messy aftermath of what might have happened if jenny had brought giles back. 2019 project y/y?

regarding honor and honesty in the workplace (43 chapters) CRIES IN JENNY/LILAH. given that i did not shut up about this fucking fic for a good 3 months, i don’t think it needs a summary.

maybe we could have a thing (3,184 words) giles and jenny’s first date!! canon told us they went out beforehand and it really did need to be ficced.

the most important words (2,753 words) passion fix-it! how many of these have i written dfshlsdhdf. anyway, by some lucky stroke, jenny doesn’t die, but she’s understandably kind of a mess. giles tries to help.

that brown-eyed technopagan (2,821 words) ripper au! willow has a HUGE crush on jenny calendar, who in this ‘verse is in her senior year at sunnydale high. lots of high school shenanigans.

seven new and very bad songs about jenny (8,597 words) another ripper au fic, this one about what it takes for ripper to finally give in and kiss the girl.

love of mine (282 words) one of the two fics i have written that involves giles grieving jenny. angst abounds.

the adjustment period (4024 words) i wanted to write about how weak vamp jenny is for her gf, so i returned to the grand romantic gestures ‘verse and explored that. femslash calendiles!!

love, scotch, and late-night parties (2,539 words) the aftermath of eyghon in the ripper au. jenny wants to be smothered in attention from ripper; ripper wants to give jenny the space he thinks she needs. basically the exact opposite of canon with the exact same inability to communicate.

father and son (3,761 words) in which ripper examines his relationship to his dad, and worries about treating his new son the same way. (spoiler alert: he obviously does not.)

imperfections (46 chapters) TECHNICALLY i added a few new chapters in 2018. i stg i’ll at least get closer to finishing it this year.

happily ever after (2,005 words) set after the dire king! jenny and jackaby being dumb and in love and experimenting with “the mechanics of ghost-human relations.”

cardboard robot (2,097 words) ripper au: halloween edition! ripper gets a pumpkin stuck on his head and sings about jenny, who Definitely Doesn’t Like Him What Are You Talking About Shut Up.

tea, with honey (3,295 words) a modern jackaby au, where jenny’s trauma really is trauma with no ghost metaphor. jackaby, darling of my heart, is still just as sympathetic.

very really married (6 chapters) THIS I WILL FINISH IN 2019. FOR REALS. i have too many unpublished chapters on my laptop to NOT finish it. set in s1; giles and jenny get drunk married in las vegas pre-canon. which, of course, adds a whole new level of complexity to both of giles’s new jobs.

coping (2,611 words) i really wanted to write about jenny and eyghon, bc there are like 0 fics that address the absolute mess that canon throws at that woman. so i did. very angsty with no clear happy ending, bc that’s what happens when you write canon compliant fic about jenny calendar.

yours (2,747 words) my first foray into writing phryne and jack! and, if the 4k-and-counting wip is anything to go by, definitely not my last. 2018 brought me a lot of things, but watching mfmm all the way through was definitely one of the best.

family ties (2,640 words) catch me crying about river and the ponds for the rest of my life, probably. centered around river’s graduation from luna university and her relationship with her parents.

decently clothed (1,516 words) lots of dumb calendiles fluff!! based on a paragraph from a btvs novel; jenny and giles go clothes shopping. it’s exactly as cute as it sounds.

making things right (1,060 words) passion fix-it that came to me when i thought “what if jenny survived, but didn’t even care that she’d almost died, bc what really mattered was that she’d fixed things with giles and buffy?? lmao how badly would that fuck giles up, knowing that she placed earning his trust over her own life???” and then i wrote it bc i love pain

bless her soul (6,294 words) s3. jenny comes back wrong. lots of explorations of the guilt that buffy, giles, and angel harbored for jenny’s death, with none of the pain of using jenny solely as a mouthpiece for evil. so like. amends done right.

dear friend (1 chapter, so far) a you’ve got mail calendiles au that i really do intend to work on some more in 2019.

haunted (15,622 words) WHAT a note to end 2018 on. a (mostly) non-supernatural au in which jenny, after an intense & awful trauma, leaves sunnydale and buys a ridiculously inexpensive mansion in england. why was it so cheap? because giles, the ghost who lives there, has been scaring off buyers. naturally, jenny is not easily rattled.

Favorite Fic: it’s hard to choose bc i wrote so many but for now i’ll pick bless her soul. writing the-first-as-jenny and playing up scooby guilt while still getting to bring jenny back for a happy ending??? that was just so much fun.

Hardest Fic: very really married. absolutely. i was in a v weird place while writing that fic, so that certainly didn’t help, but that fic has been giving me Trouble since i started writing it.

Do You Plan to Take Prompts in 2019? always!!

What was the best thing about 2018? friendsssss!!! i’m entering 2019 with a lot of solid friendships, which really wasn’t the case in 2018. 

What was the worst thing about 2018? tbh the answer will always and forever be “my mom” until i am out of this house

Any last thoughts for 2018? how the FUCK did i WRITE more than half of the fics i have posted on ao3 in THIS YEAR ALONE. 55 FICS. i’m REELING.

Goals for 2019

finish the cheesy au g/j multichapters i started

maybe start work on a detective au sequel? i miss that ‘verse

more ripper au fic!!!!!

more jenny/olivia!!!

more jenny centric fic in general like It’s What She Deserves

SOMETHING about jenny and angel. i talk big talk about how much that dynamic fascinates me but i only ever touch on it in fic. it’s never the central focus.

finish the phryne/jack fic i’m working on, and maybe...tentatively...write more?

[sterek]

Hi I'm really new to the sterek fandom (like omg I just got into it this january? like what even /sweats/) I was wondering if you had your own all-time favorite fics or something.... you don't have to answer it if it's a bother or something because like whoa this ship has 50k+ fics!!! but also thank you for being cool and your blog is getting me more and more into this ship... for better or worse I have yet to determie... ahaha.. anyways, have a nice day you awesome person!!!

Hi, nonnie! First of all, welcome to the fandom!!! Sorry it took me so long to reply to your ask but here are some of my top fave fics that you should definitely read :)

The Boy and the Beast by Dira Sudis (dsudis)

Safety in Silence by Survivah

Easy Trouble by Survivah

Parallels by Survivah (I just really love survivah okay go read everything!)

Bodice Ripper 'Verse by Stoney

Trust Fall by Stoney

Kindred Spirits by Stoney  (Also love stoney, stoney is amazing, read all the fics!)

Red Against the Snow by Ember

Binomial Coefficients by DevilDoll

Stand Fast in Your Enchantments by DevilDoll, Rahciach

Settle Down by wearing_tearing, whatthehale

[Not!Fic] Random Craigslist Missed Connections Derek/Stiles Not!Fic of Doom by fire_juggler_writes (fire_juggler)

Lock All The Doors Behind You by entanglednow

What I Did On My Summer Vacation by grimm (Read the other grimm fics and their ficlets on tumblr @coyotequeens​!)

Cornerstone by Vendelin (Vendelin is brilliant so also recommend the rest of their fics!)

By Any Other Name by entanglednow

Murder, He Wrote by mklutz

Stiles's Story Time by trilliath

There is a Brotherhood by minusoneday

Prince Among Wolves by Rawren (Zimothy)

Gravity's Got Nothing on You by zosofi

The Price by theroguesgambit

Fly a Little Faster by mirrorkill

Enemy Lines by qhuinn (tekla)

Hello, Heartbreaker by astoryaboutwar

an exaltation of larks by llassah (best written fic in the whole fandom imo, so incredible!)

Tiny Houses by ohmyjetsabel (possibly my all time favorite fic)

Stilinski's Home for Wayward Wolves by owlpostagain

Not According to Plan by exclamation

Someone Else's Dream by theroguesgambit

(not so) Pure Imagination by theroguesgambit

According to Plans by eldee

There's Monsters at Home by calrissian18

Occam's Razor by MissAnnThropic (and the sequel, which i looooove)

Tabula Rasa by andavs

Specialized Technical Intelligence and Logistics for Earth and Space (S.T.I.L.E.S) by Yiichi

Don't Speak by fatale

Come with Me and Walk the Longest Mile by DevilDoll

Sell Your Body to the Night by Dira Sudis (dsudis)

Little Wild Animal by DiscontentedWinter (and everything by discontentedwinter!! Especially “Empty” and “Hunger”) (LWA is also in my top 5 fave fics)

Not Quite Lost (Not Quite Found) by alocalband (read all the other alocalband fics!!)

Monsters in the Woods by Omni (this is hella underrated, please go give this fic more love!)

Abominable by Revenant

The Circus at the End of the World by mikkimouse

Pack Wars by miss_aphelion

Leaving Paradise by NARKOTIKA

The Fox & The Wolf by Dexterous_Sinistrous

One life stand by Vendelin

(Sacred) In the Ordinary by idyll

Put Down in Words by paintedrecs

A Crooked Way to Fly by andavs

Cross our bridges when we come to them by RemainNameless 

[rainydawgradioblog]

Undies (Offline Version)

Alrighty then, it’s been a loooong time since an informal Undies blog post, but here we go. I suppose it's time to take a break from me trying to write crazy formal album write-ups that no one reads (but have no fear, I’ll get back to that next week!). I hope everyone is doing well and hopefully avoiding Omicron (spoiler: I haven’t) and listening to some good music. I’m gonna go through some tunes I’ve been listening to and anything else music-related that’s been on the mind (and just a reminder, you can hear much more from me on Undies every Tuesday morning with me, dj turtlelord :p).

At the time of me writing this during my Zoom class, I am anxiously awaiting the release of Earl Sweatshirt’s new album Sick! set to release January 14th. 2018’s Some Rap Songs was a landmark release, and Earl’s sporadic releases and appearances since then have been a mix of singles and EPs such as Feet of Clay in the abstract lane that SRS helped to popularize and various features in a number of styles. Sick!, however, seems like it is going in a different direction, and one that is hard to parse prior to its full release. Singles “2010” and “Titanic” have been trappy, spacey, and digital, where Earl sounds comfortable and confident. “Titanic”, in particular, is punchy and raw, with some aggressive lyrics and cold, wild ad-libs from the always lovable Na-Kel Smith. The album’s other single, “Tabula Rasa” could easily be mistaken for an Alchemist beat and features billy woods and Elucid of Armand Hammer delivering excellent verses, followed by Earl seemingly giving his thoughts on the state of the world amidst the pandemic. In fact, it sounds like that will be the throughline of Sick! (as the album’s title would suggest), but a sonic consistency doesn’t seem to have made itself clear just yet; the soulfulness of “Tabula Rasa” is a strange match for the digital madness of the other two singles. This doesn’t mean the album won’t sound coherent, of course, but it will be interesting to see how a project of only 10 songs and 24 minutes will incorporate such a variety of sounds. That being said, I couldn’t possibly be more excited for the project, and while I don’t expect the same level of emotional profoundness that SRS presented, I do expect an insightful and forward thinking project (and hopefully one of the first pieces of music about the pandemic and its impacts that doesn’t come across as corny as hell).

January 14th is shaping up to be a stacked day for music in general, to be quite honest: a new mixtape from FKA twigs, a single from JID, presumably from his upcoming and hotly anticipated The Forever Story, and the sophomore album from up-and-comer Cordae, From A Bird’s Eye View, are all dropping this weekend. The Cordae project stands out in particular; I thought his 2019 (Right? Actually idk when it came out time isn’t real anymore) debut The Lost Boy was pretty damn solid, and he has somehow catapulted himself to the top in the last year or two, especially after tracks featuring legends like Nas and Freddie Gibbs (who I hear are both on another track on this new album as well). I’m definitely excited for FKA twigs’ Caprisongs as well, although the singles such as the track with The Weeknd didn’t really do much for me. I think generally it isn’t fair to always ask artists to make deep and personal music, so as much as I am far more moved by her projects like Magdalene, there’s no harm in fun projects like this new one seems to be shaping up to be, so I’ll give it a fair shake.

In terms of my recent spins, I’ll belabor you with the details of my love for the new Boldy James and The Alchemist EP/album Super Tecmo Bo, which is honestly just as fantastic as every other project the two have been cranking out the last few years. At this point I feel like I’m the biggest Boldy fan out there with how much I plug everything he puts out. STB is a superb, short and sweet project, with the easiest standout track for me being the nasty “Hot Water Tank” featuring an INSANE verse from ICECOLDBISHOP, whom I had never even heard of before this feature; his wild, high-pitched voice accompanies a manic verse that somehow complements Boldy’s notoriously deadpan style. Fantastic project, and yet another sure sign that this is perhaps the single greatest MC/producer duo going into this next decade.

Other thangs in my rotation include The Weeknd’s newest, Dawn FM, which is god-damned impressive for a pop album. The concept comes through loud and clear, and is emotionally compelling, moving, and understated. The sounds on display here are not the most forward-thinking or new, yes, but the immaculate soundscape is infectious and the touch of Oneohtrix Point Never doesn’t go unnoticed. Standouts include the dreamy “Out of Time” and the powerful “Less Than Zero”, which I immediately think is one of the Weeknd’s best songs ever. Burial’s newest, his Antidawn EP, is also compelling, and, lastly, shoutout to Dijon for his fantastic 2021 project Absolutely. I did not give this album enough credit until the end of last year, and the longer I spend with it, the more I am impressed. I already wrote about the album in the most recent RDR Essentials post, but damn, this album is amazing. It’s so emotional and open, while feeling like it was recorded almost on a whim. If you haven’t heard this album yet, pleeeease do so, it’s supremely underrated.

With all that said, I guess I’ll leave off with a few of my most anticipated projects I’m expecting to drop in 2022! Off the top of my head, I’m most looking forward to Denzel Curry’s Melt My Eyez, See Your Future, Kid Cudi’s 2 new albums, and Pusha T’s follow-up to Daytona. Oh yeah, and also I’m gonna cry and throw up if we STILL don’t get that new Kendrick album. Okayyy that’s it for now! I’ll see you next week with another batch of thoughts and spins. Happy new year and listen to Sick! instead of getting Sick!

-Casey Chamberlain

[rahirah]

Buffyverse tagging meme: Tagged by @demadingbillydolls – and just as I was telling myself I should stop getting involved in meta discussions, too... top fifteen characters? I like almost all the characters, and a few exceptions, it's very hard for me to rank them. 1. Spike 2-6 in no particular order: Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Giles 7-10 in no particular order: Cordelia, Gunn, Fred/Illyria, Angel 11-15 I no particular order: Lorne, Oz, Darla, Wesley, Tara favorite minor characters? Anne (who I think is the most heroic person in the whole damn 'verse), Harmony, David Nabbit, Clem ranking of favorite seasons of both shows? BtVS: 5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 6, 7 AtS: 2, 3, 1, 5, 4 top ten episodes of both shows? NOT EASY Buffy: 1. Once More With Feeling, 2. Fool For Love, 3. Hush, 4. Becoming Part 2, 5. Innocence, 6. Doppelgangland, 7. Selfless, 8. Dead Things, 9. Something Blue, 10. Tabula Rasa Angel: 1. Reunion, 2. Epiphany, 3. I Will Remember You, 4. Darla, 5. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, 6. Smile Time, 7. Five by Five, 8. Disharmony, 9. Not Fade Away, 10. Rm w/a Vu ats or btvs? Yes. least favorite main character? Mmm, that's changed over time. There have been times when it was Buffy, times when it's been Xander, times when it's been Angel, times when it's been Wesley. Usually it's because the character is doing something I don't like, and not because I dislike the character as a character in the larger sense. In the long run... probably Andrew. I don't hate him, but he never grabbed me, and the vast fannish love for him has always baffled me. To me it seemed like Andrew never really reformed, just glommed onto the person he thought was the coolest guy in his general vicinity – first Warren, then Spike, then Giles, then the Immortal – and emulated them for awhile, until someone cooler and shinier came along. Like Buffy said, he was a mushroom. Him giving Angel and Spike that pretentious lecture in TGIQ that was obviously a proxy for the writers lecturing the shippers was the last straw. I will say that I think that as of S10, Gage successfully put Andrew through some real character growth at last, and I can believe he really is a better person now, as opposed to the writers just telling me he is. But I don't think I'll ever be a huge Andrew fan. top ten ships? (I assume this means canon ships only?) 1. Buffy and Spike, 2. Angel and Cordelia, 3. Willow and Oz, 4. Giles and Jenny, 5. Darla and Angel, 6. Spike and Drusilla, 7. Wesley and Lilah, 8. Xander and Anya, 9. Willow and Tara, 10. Gunn and Fred (If we include non-canon ships, then I have to throw Spike/Xander, Spike/Angel, Willow/Spike, and Buffy/Faith in there, plus of course the hottest yet sadly rarest of OT3s, Buffy/Spike/Faith.) do you write fanfic? Yes, in theory. Doing it practice has been difficult. :P what fanfic do you read? Mostly Spuffy, but if a summary catches my eye, I'll try almost anything once. when did you start watching? Summer of 1999, if I recall correctly. show recommendations for buffyverse fans? Farscape. Yes, I know, it's Muppets in space, but I swear to God you will find yourself gnawing your nails to the quick over the fate of those Muppets. The first season is kinda slow, but stick with it. It is a more hopeful show than BtVS in some respects, but it's got a lot on common with BtVS in that it uses humor to delve into some pretty damn dark stuff, and the protagonists go through hell and do not come out undamaged. For something newer, if you haven't checked out Lucifer yet, it's just on its second season, and a lot of fun. do you own/collect anything related to the shows? I have a few action figures, but they're ones other people have given me as presents. I don't collect fannish stuff much. how often will you watch an episode? I'll catch a rerun on TV now and then, but haven't deliberately rewatched in a long time. I was so unhappy with seasons 6 and 7 that I just haven't been able to bring myself to rewatch the show since; the unhappiness tainted my enjoyment of earlier seasons. I suppose I should give it another try now that some time has passed. how many times have you watched either show all the way through? All the way through, only once. Seasons 1-5 of BtVS, probably 3-4 times. AtS, probably 2-3 times. five unpopular opinions? 1. I don't think we know if Buffy is bisexual or not. If Willow can identify as a lesbian after sleeping with a guy, it's within the realm of possibility that Buffy identifies as straight after sleeping with a woman. Buffy has never said either way. It would be great if she is bi, but until she says something about it herself, she's Schroedinger's Slayer. 2. I think Spike was a more interesting character without a soul. For some reason, people always assume this means that I think Spike wasn't evil without a soul, when... that's the entire point. There's an inherent dramatic tension in an evil being trying to do good which is entirely missing once you give him a soul. 3. I don't think Spike was out of character in AtS season 5. Yes, I do think that the AtS writers couldn't figure out how to write him in the first part of the season, but not to a degree that I can't integrate it into The Compleat Spike. The corollary of that is that I don't think that Spike and Buffy's relationship in S7 was the be-all and end-all of Spuffy. It was better than S6, but that's a low bar to clear. In S7 Spike was deeply depressed, emotionally stripped raw, and generally fucked up. It's only in the last couple of episodes of S7 that he's making any sort of true recovery, and even then, I'd still call him passively suicidal. But he trusted Buffy with that part of him. He doesn't trust Angel. He's not going to be that guy with Angel, and he's out of practice being the guy he used to be, so naturally, he overcompensates. Any time he's interacting with Fred, you immediately see his softer side again. That's the key, for me; Spike has a softer side, but Spike has a lot of sides. And some of his sides are snarky assholes, soul or no soul. 4. I don't think Joyce is an abusive parent. She's far from perfect, but there's a huge middle ground between "means well, but fucks up sometimes" and abusive. 5. I don't think they should have given Willow so much power. It creates a huge problem plotwise; how can you have any tension if Willow can do anything? So they're forced to come up with handwavy reasons why Willow can't snap her fingers and save the day, and it all gets a little ridiculous. least favorite thing about the fandom? That thing where people take a character they already don't like and just make stuff up and insist it's gotta be canon. Like, Riley HAS to be physically abusive off-screen because he punched Parker and that proves he thinks Buffy is his property and... whatever. It doesn't matter how much I may dislike a character myself, if I see someone saying something about them that seems to be unfairly maligning them, I have a mad, quixotic urge to defend them. Every character on both shows has plenty of legitimate, in your face flaws and faults and moderately-crappy-to-genuinely-horrific things they've done. There's no need to make shit up to justify your dislike.