#rereading my own dragon age stuff

[queenofbaws]

uh oh. my fears were correct: the new varric design did it.

im shifting back into da mode...............

[veliseraptor]

November Reading Recap

Dead Astronauts by Jeff Vandermeer. Either I'm not smart enough to follow this book or it's just not terribly coherent as a novel, and either of those is equally possible, to be honest. I am finding that I like Vandermeer's earlier work on the whole more than his later work, though.

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle. A fun romp. It didn't blow me away, or anything, but it was a lot of fun.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. I remain most attached to the move adaptation of this novel, unfortunately, so that's always in my head when I'm reading. But despite that, or maybe because of it, this novel still delights me. It's like a warm blanket.

Catching Chen Qing Ling: The Untamed and Adaptation, Production, and Reception in Transcultural Contexts ed. by Cathy Yue Wang and Maria K. Alberto. I was very excited to read this book! I was thrilled when I saw that a collection of academic essays on The Untamed was coming out. Not all the essays in the collection are created equally, naturally, but I particularly appreciated the ones about the morality police in the fandom and the one focusing on (the violence of) translation to English. What I missed from this specific volume was more analysis of the text itself as a literary object, but that wasn't the remit of this collection, and I certainly hope that more studies will be forthcoming.

Cassiel's Servant by Jacqueline Carey. Mostly this book made me want to reread the Kushiel's Legacy series; I'm not sure if that is praise or an enticement of this book itself. I wasn't enchanted with it on the whole, though that might be because Joscelin was never the character I was most attached to. I would read the shit out of an alt POV from Melisande.

Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle. Finally finished this book after stalling out on it for literal months. It was interesting! Conceptually and in execution. It did feel very much like it was written in the 80s (which it was), though without the kind of objectionable stuff I would've expected. A review of it did describe it as having a "leisurely opening" which I would say is accurate.

Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton. I really liked The Spite House so I definitely wanted to pick up this one, and while I liked the former more this was also a really fun take on vampires unlike what I've read before. I'm picky about my horror (I'd say I don't like most of what I read) but I'll bestow the "horror I actually liked" crown on this one.

Persians: The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. For a book that was really emphasizing that it was going to lean on Persian sources rather than Greek ones for a less Greek-biased version of Persian history, it certainly felt like the author ended up relying a fair amount on Greek sources. That being said, I learned more about the (early) Persian Empire than I have before, so it was edifying in that way, if not a particularly outstanding book.

Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim, trans. Anton Hur. I'm very glad to see that this book is apparently the beginning of a series and not finished, because while I enjoyed it as a whole the ending felt a little rushed and far too neat for me. So hopefully that will be complicated in further volumes, which I probably will read. The use of dead necromancers to power an empire is, on its own, a very neat worldbuilding conceit, and I think that (interesting worldbuilding) more than character is the appeal of this work to me.

Remnants of Filth: Vol. 5 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. I continue to really enjoy this one despite the fact that the initial lure has abated somewhat in the course of the plot. I'm excited to see where this goes - this volume included a plot twist I definitely didn't see coming, which is always fun. It's not my favorite danmei I've read but it is a standout.

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones. I don't know quite why I keep reading this series when I'm not really a slasher fan and it is clearly tailored toward the slasher fan. I mean, it's certainly meant to have broader appeal as a horror novel, but it is a slasher first and foremost, and I'm just not that into that subgenre. I think it's because I want to be into it. I can recognize a good book when I read one, though; just not for me.

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. On the other hand, the above all being said: I actually really enjoyed this one! It was certainly playing with a lot of the same tropes but in a more, idk, playful sort of way that I enjoyed. Definitely heavy lampshading, so if that doesn't work for you then this book won't. But for me at least, it did what it was trying to do.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I'm looking forward to hearing what people in my book club have to say about this one. I will say that the rape felt unnecessary and it definitely read like sci-fi written in the 50s by a man. I don't think I can say that I liked it. I'm not sure I can say I hated it, either, but I definitely didn't like it.

Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko, trans. Julia Meitov Hersey. I've had this one on my shelf for a long time and it was good to finally read it! For someone who says she doesn't read a lot of 'magical school' books I've certainly read a lot this year, but this one is probably the most interesting and definitely the most inventive of what I've read. Not necessarily my favorite, but I'm fascinated by what the author is doing. I know there's a sequel, and I'm torn on whether I want to read it or not; I'm curious where the author would go, but I'm also satisfied with the story as it's left at the end of this book.

Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire by Priest. Possibly my favorite danmei I've read, and at this point I've read a few. It's not going to trigger my fic writing brain, I don't think, but that's mostly because it already gave me so much of what I wanted. It's very, very good in terms of the story it's telling, the themes of monstrosity and human weapons are right on point for what I like, and the plot is pretty damn tight and good at not sprawling the way some danmei is prone to. Fucking fantastic. I can't share the translation I read, but it's being published by Rosmei in English starting in January 2025.

---

I'm currently reading Challenger by Adam Higginbotham for a little bit of nonfiction (my first in a while, you may notice); after that I'm not sure what I'm going to read. I'm traveling at the end of this month, so it'll be a little dependent on what's on my Kobo/if the sequel to Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman arrives in time/what books I find that I want to read at my parents' house.

[hyperions-light]

2024 Writing Roundup

Yeeeehaw it's writing roundup time! Thank you for the tag @uchidachi! <3

words posted: 41,838, plus miscellaneous amount of words on Tumblr

additional words written: uhhhh apprx 22,700, give or take. Probably give, bc I'm not counting any of the meta on here

fandoms: All published is for One Piece, almost everything unpublished is Dragon Age + there's some original something for Elden Ring (probably not going to clean that up tbh)

highest kudos: The Road(trip) to Hell is Paved With Questionable Decision Making at 103... which, yeah, it's the most accessible of them lol

highest hit one-shot: catalyst at 513-- pretty good, considering I only posted it at the end of October. Maybe cheating because it needs a sequel? But I haven't written it, so for now it remains an OS

new things I tried: I did two zines and three events (BB, Corazon Week and Fight)! They were fun, but I'll probably mostly focus on making my own stuff this next year. And I expect to mostly be hanging around the DA fandom, as opposed to OP

fic I spent the most time on: I doooon't know, but I think it was the ascent? High concept, difficult to write and wrangle into something resembling what I wanted. Good exercise, though.

fic I spent the least time on: I think it was resentment-- I do really love this one, actually, but I didn't spend too much time on it because it came together in like a day? Even the editing was quick.

favourite thing I wrote: Probably it deepens like a coastal shelf, which is an AU of someone else's fic lol, so very niche, but I loooove writing about terrible people and family drama. And I got to quote poetry. And make people cry <3

favourite thing(s) I read: I've really loved reading all of your fics that you all keep sending for BW fic comments Saturdays! And I enjoy hearing about everyone's Rooks, too <3 I don't feel it's fair to do 'best of' fics but I thought I'd pull a few that have lower interaction rates for various reasons; the BW fandom is soooo talented, though, my recommendation is to give whatever sounds interesting to you a shot!

pray for rain by mafalda_157 who I believe is @darethshirl on here? Elgar'nan/Solas, Mythal/Elgar'nan, dubcon + politics with especially strong character voices

Five, Seven, Five by theharellan, @queenaeducan Really beautiful and poetic Solas&Cadash!Inquisitor gen fic

The Memory of Her Scent by Vespaer, @vespaer77 Angsty Solavellan between games, gorgeously written

Mien'Harel by bodysnatch3r, @bodysnatch3r canon divergence Felassan/Solas, really stunning prose and well-realized world. Also recommend the Heistverse series, for any Hobbit enthusiasts!

(please don't take this as like... me not endorsing the other fics, I'm really enjoying reading everyone's <3 I just went off the top of my head + pulled stuff I think may have been somewhat overlooked. Also I am not even done with last week's set yet)

In every other fandom I peruse I am an Old Man Yaoi enjoyer, so I also will always recommend A Reflection of Starlight (reread) for Les Mis, and, for those of you interested in OP fic, the works of spaceliquid, ArgelTal (@chaoticargeltal-- they wrote this fic based on a prompt of mine & did an incredible job!), and Harmonica_Smile/Rescue_Remedy (@chromatic-lamina) who all write beautifully <3

writing goals for 2025: Need to finish that original thing I'm working on by... August?? I should check lol. And then I need to publish as much of this DA stuff as I can that's sitting in drafts lol... will the foursome be first?? unclear

new works: idk, Leth's thing I'm writing, probably some Lucanis&Bellara stuff, some Neve/Rook/Lucanis, and the Rook/Teia/Viago/Lucanis WT: speak of me in the language of reverence

tagging: I'm actually not sure if it's going to let me tag anyone else BUT @covertleathers, @thedissonantverses, @taashyvashedan, @chromatic-lamina, @wardensantoineandevka, @biowaredisasterbisexual, @mageofquandrix + anyone else who would like to do this!

[brookstolemybrand]

I've been rereading a bunch of chapters to crossreference stuff and I happened to run into this:

This got to me, I know I've talked before about how Sabo sacrificed his freedom for the sake of others' freedoms (because he wanted to be a pirate just like Luffy) but I didn't remember Oda having him say something like this orz

I mean I know he's happy and he chose this for himself, but there's something a little bittersweet about it

Also Sabo age 60 gave me an image of a future where Luffy is still running around at age 57, wreaking havoc like a little gremlin, and Sabo hearing about it and still just being a supportive older brother rooting for him which is cute as hell. I hope that future happens, even though I feel like Luffy isn't gonna make it to 57 tbh...

I want him to still be the same old Luffy when he looks like this ^

And I want him to occasionally go say hi to Sabo and then the two of them can get into some trouble together for old times' sake

I wonder if the implication for 60-year-old Sabo is that he's some kind of a government official now (or maybe a military officer), presumably for the new government whatever that is. idk if I like that idea but I guess it's pretty likely if the Revolutionary Army succeeds in overthrowing the Celestial Dragons (and assuming there isn't the kind of series of governments following it like there was after the 1789 French Revolution*). It would explain why he's so envious of Luffy too

But that's just one possible future

(* Actually the result of a revolution in the One Piece world would probably not be similar to the French Revolution, because the big issue with the French Revolution was that France was surrounded on all sides by enemies with monarchies that absolutely did not want their own subjects to get any ideas, many of whom were also personally related to the French royal family. If the Revolutionary Army did successfully overthrow the Celestial Dragons, they would have basically no real competition except maybe for the Emperors of the Sea.

It would probably be more like the American Revolution (which was mostly able to happen in relative isolation with only limited meddling from outside powers and actual support from some of them, same way the RA would probably get support from various enemies of the World Government) except that I would hope that the RA wouldn't keep the slavery around (unlike USA). Also idk what the RA's stance on democracy is tbh. It seems like they're fine with kings as long as they're good kings I guess...

Although I still stand by my theory that Blackbeard would try to hijack the revolution, it seems like exactly the kind of thing he would do. Not quite the same thing as when Napoleon did it but similar idea... But then again by the end of the series I think we can be pretty sure that Teach is gonna lose eventually so he shouldn't be a factor. And he's really the only one I could see being able to pull it off, other than people who simply wouldn't be interested.

tl;dr: I think it's pretty plausible for the series to end with the RA creating a new World Government, probably as an actual council of the different leaders of countries without people like the Elders and Imu above them. And Sabo would presumably end up in some kind of significant position in either the government itself or the military forces. Where I guess he would then proceed to conveniently ignore the fact that his baby brother is running around the world causing problems on purpose

[xxpeppermintxx109]

Can I ask something but it's not my intention to be rude or harsh (like I saw some commenters). I have only watched the show (Hotd) and started reading your big fic for aemond. I saw Qoren tag so I knew there was gonna be something between him and Shaera but..is Qoren character in the book (i suppose he is)? Does he appear in Dance on Rhaenyra's side or is that just in this fanfic? Because from what I know from reading wiki some time ago (so again might be wrong) Martells and Targaryens are enemies/ have a peace pact and don't interact much until marriage that comes later in history?

I like your Qoren, I just wish he wasn't so much older. What made you decide on him as third part of the triangle as oppossed to Jace/Cregan/Aegon(god forbid haha)/Daeron/any of the show established men?

I'm just curious, sorry! I love the way you write.

Hi anon!! This isn’t rude or anything at all, no worries! I love thèse kinds of questions!

So yes Qoren Martell and his daughter Aliandra Martell are pretty significant in the Dance of Dragons civil war. Qoren plays a role in the years leading up to it with the Battles of the Stepstones fighting against Corlys and Daemon, and helping the Triarchy. He actually was considered by Viserys as one of Rhaenyra’s suitors! During the Battle of the Gullet, in the book, Qoren sends ships to aid the Triarchy to break the blockade. Then at some point, he dies, and his daughter, Aliandra, succeeds him!

I always love House Martell, and when rereading the Dance chapters in F&B, I just thought that Qoren didn’t get enough of a spotlight in the way that could’ve been so so interesting! Because like you said, the Targs and Martells have always sort of been at each others throats until the unification. So I thought, well, there’s not really much of a character here, so I’ll make him his own. He still fights with the Triarchy in the Stepstones, but then he sided with Rhaenyra instead here, but only because of Shaera. Age wise, he’s about the same age he was in the book, same as Rhaenyra, and I thought that it would be an interesting dynamic!

At the time I published, there was already a dozen or so Aemond fics, i can’t remember. But what I remembered was seeing love triangles with Cregan Stark, and while I enjoy Cregan, I always thought him closer to Jace and later Baela in the book, so I just wasn’t so compelled for him as another option. Because I already planned so much for Qoren, I decided on him! I thought the dynamic would be interesting, especially when against a ship like Shaera and Aemond, and I just thought that yes Qoren is older and he is kind and thoughtful, but he definitely still has his own goals and motivations, like with the Stepstones, so when the Triarchy become involved again, y’all will see some stuff with Qoren for sure!!

Thank you so much for the question! And I hope this was a good answer!!

[crackinglamb]

Self Fic Rec, Fave Edition

Tagged by @pikapeppa to rec five of my favorite fics that I've written. Thank you! 🥰

Rules are to pass the self promotion on to five others, so tagging @ir0n-angel, @fasterpuddytat, @lilbittymonster, @maculategiraffe and @bogunicorn. No pressure!

In no particular order:

Hope Is a Fragile Thing - Dragon Age, Solas/OFC, rated T, ~13K words. A post-canon romance between a Fen'Harel who succeeded in taking the Veil down and an MGIT. It's softer and gentler than you think, as well as sadder. I love this one because it's just so...atmospheric. It's 'the love was there; it didn't change anything but it was there' taken to one of its possible conclusions.

Unexpected - Fallout 4, Kellogg/F!SoSu, rated E, ~30K words. My first truly canon divergent fic. A Sole Survivor who was a Chinese PoW meets a battered merc and together they both get redeemed. Still really proud of this one for a lot of reasons, and it's one of my FO fics that I've reread more than once.

With You - DA:I, Varric/F!Hawke, rated E, ~4800 words. Hawke and Varric finally get together. Finally. I love this one simply because I have a deep, abiding adoration for this pairing (as it was the first one I wrote for DA), and of all the Hawke's I've created for various fics, Elly is my favorite.

Into the Current - DA, Iron Bull/OFC, rated E, ~80K words. I love MGIT's. There is simply so much room to play. This one is a paramedic transported to Thedas before the events of the games and becomes a Charger, falling for Bull along the way. Takes place between 9: 28 - 9:40 Dragon.

Different Animals - Fallout TV, Lucy/Cooper Howard, rated E, ~9500 words. A long oneshot about Lucy becoming more than just a Vaultie and Cooper remembering that he used to be a halfway decent human being. (It's now turned into a whole series of these, and I'm still writing them currently.)

Honorable Mentions:

Junkyard Dogs - Fallout 4, Hancock/F!SoSu, rated E, ~107K words. My very first fic. Mostly a retelling of the game, with a happy ending and a whole series of related stuff. Without this fic, there would be no crackinglamb.

What a Wicked Game to Play - DA:I, Solas/OFC, rated E, ~412K words. My grand epic. No list of my own fics would be complete without mentioning it. I set out to write a huge, all encompassing story of an MGIT changing Solas's mind, and I did. It was over two years of blood, sweat and tears and while I exhausted myself writing it, Imogen will forever hold a special place in my heart.

*On a final note, these are all complete.*

[potatoesandsunshine]

TAG GAME

tagged by @jadeandquartzes ty jade!! this was super fun

Rules: Go to your (current/main) AO3 account and find the following:

What ratings do you write most of your fics under?

T is the winner by far! the breakdown is 102 fics rated T, 29 fics rated G, and 4 rated M. this makes a lot of sense, since i feel like i usually aim for fairly T subject matter and writing style. i don’t have the chops to write gore, and the ‘work my way up to writing smut’ road is a long one. but i’ll climb that mountain one of these days. i’m practicing. so far it’s pretty easy to write really really bad sex scenes and extremely hard to write ones that i think are halfway decent.

What are your top three fandoms?

Critical Role is the biggest by far (82 fics, wowza), followed by D20 at 27 and Fallout: New Vegas at a whopping 5. but when i tell you those 5 fics mean more to me than the preceding 109....... it is true. (i’m not counting tlovm as a separate fandom, because i tag all the tlovm stuff as CR as like the umbrella it’s under)

What is the top character you write about?

this is a really interesting question, because it shows how kind of... not concentrated on one character i am? Pike is my top character, but she’s not in all hundred CR works, just 18 of them. i like to write about lots of characters i guess. (weirdly i thought the answer would be beau since i was so obsessed with her in the C2 era, but she’s like... ninth highest)

What are your top three pairings?

the top 3 pairings are: Rose of Sharon Cassidy/Female Courier (NEW VEGAS BABEYYYYY), Scanlan Shorthalt/Pike Trickfoot, and Fjord/Caleb Widogast. fjord/caleb being that high is wild actually. i think it’s because i write a lot of friendship stuff? anyway there’s no excuse for only one of these pairings being f/f. i’m sorry women i will be better

What are the top three additional tags?

Angst, Light Angst, Fluff. and i promise you angst and light angst are distinct from each other. i know it when i write it. more indicative of my writing is probably the next 3: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Post-Canon. i love going down the ‘what if this had happened?’ rabbit hole or the ‘what happens after the camera’s cut?’ winding lane.

Does any of this surprise you?

you know... yeah it does? i always forget how much D20 fic i’ve written, because i’m pretty out of the loop of it now and MUCH of it was like 2020-2021 which are years i have mostly forgotten because of All Of That. sometimes i forget that i wrote more than like... 2 fics for acoc and that’s it. i truly just remember inventing plumbeline/annabelle and then the absurd calroy/donetta/ciabatta threesome unless i really think about it.

going through my works is fun because i’m a big rereader of my own stuff, but it also reminds me just how many ideas i wanna write in the future :) also it’s crazy that i only have 4 dragon age fics spread across all three games when i think about how much of my brain is taken up by that franchise. there are 9 dragon age documents in the WIP folder and three more just paper outlines in various notebooks. i’m insane about it right now. and they need me in there.

ty again!!! this was a really fun one :) as always, anyone is welcome to do it and say i tagged them :P

[pearwaldorf]

20 questions for fic writers

sorta tagged by @antivanruffles

How many works do you have on ao3?

130 excluding the the podfics I'm listed as a co-author on

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

230,000. I'm a very succinct writer!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently OFMD. I have written a lot of (in descending order) Star Wars sequel trilogy, Good Omens, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Critical Role, and MCU.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

we wore the jacket for the longest time (Star Wars ST, Finn/Poe/Rey, 3200)

well you laughed baby it's okay (it's buzzcut season anyways) (nsfw; Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, 1100)

human sacrifice and mass hysteria (nsfw, DA:I, Cullen/Dorian, 1080) This one has a weirdly long tail. I still get bursts of kudos on it every now and then.

balance theory (The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky foe yay, 660)

taste the stardust in my mouth (Star Wars ST, Finn/Poe/Rey, 560)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do not. I don't have enough energy to write and respond to comments, so I'm sure people would rather I write. They are all appreciated though <3

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

a knife on the things that held us together for sure. It sets up the rift between Han and Leia after Ben's attack on the Praxeum and it's the last time Leia sees her brother. I was so emotionally wiped by it I couldn't even think about writing for two weeks hahaha

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings, or at least hopeful ones.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

If I do nobody has ever told me.

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

I do! I'm not sure what "what kind" means.

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

I've written exactly one, the Will Graham/Aziraphale one (I swear it makes sense in context). ngl it's pretty weird. Plenty of AUs set in different universes though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I have. Somebody plagiarized "but you laughed baby" beat for beat. When I confronted them about it they said they must have subconsciously regurgitated it. Binch, I had to reread my own fic to compare, don't give me that shit. (They deleted their entire account afterwards. I'm not sad.)

12. What's the longest you've spent working on one fic? And the shortest?

Shortest is drabbles, and those take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Longest? I still have a Mass Effect fic that I've been picking at on and off since 2012. I should just finish it up.

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

I have not.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I refuse to pick.

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

The Good Omens While You Were Sleeping AU is my only actual posted WIP. There are Reasons I tend not to post unfinished stuff.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm really good at nailing character voices and dialogue. I think I'm decent at striking a balance between pretty language and making sure it still moves things along. I have been told I'm very good at intimate character interaction.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

What the fuck is a plot?

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

Unless you're going for the half-remembered vocabulary because diaspora kid vibe (which I did in my Shang-Chi fic), get somebody fluent to translate for you. The amount of horrific Spanish I've seen in OFMD fic is... not good.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X2! I thought I was very clever making puns on "le petit mort" in a Rogue fic

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I have a series! I love the extremely weird ones I wrote just for myself that nobody else seems to like, although the Ed/Blackbeard/Stede one is an exception.

I am where memes go to die, so if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged.

[boltlightning]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by the wonderful @starsuncounted; thank you muchly <3

1. how many total works do you have on ao3? 54!

2. what’s your total ao3 word count? 362,814. oy vey

3. what fandoms do you write for? these days, potc and final fantasy and assassin's creed now and then, though i generally write for whatever grabs my attention. remember when i wrote a fallout fic? wild

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos? oh dear. let’s see:

a house, a hearth, a (s)holmes — the great ace attorney, 6k. a collection of missing scenes about iris watson and her silly little family.

good company — fullmetal alchemist, 9k. pre-canon, roy mustang recruits people for his team. (i wrote this when i was 19 and there's still a lot i like about it, but boy is it humbling to reread.)

benchfellows — final fantasy vii remake, >1k. a drabble about cloud and aerith fighting in the wall market colosseum.

heart & home — fullmetal alchemist, 5k. roy and riza visits roy's home both pre-ishval and post-canon.

sun hits the water — potc, 8k. james and elizabeth get married after the fact, and fall in love some. at the time of writing this post it's got these beautiful round numbers i am SO pleased

5. do you respond to comments? almost certainly. sometimes i won't on really old pieces or comments that don't really necessitate a reply, but i do my best :—)

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? i trend more bittersweet than angsty; o sleeper (ff7, cloud/aerith) is one of the only ones i'd classify as TRULY angsty, everything else ends much higher.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? showing their versatility: slowly (ff7, also cloud/aerith) ends a little bittersweetly but the climax of this fic remains the sappiest, gushiest thing i've ever written

8. do you get hate on fics? i don't think i've gotten hate since the ff.net days and i'm grateful for it

9. do you write smut? a little, but nothing wild or worth posting. otherwise we're always fading to black or describing sex vaguely babey

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written? it's not my forte, per se, but the potc/temeraire universe is over 50k words and still will not let me go, so you could say i've dabbled.

11. have you had a fic stolen? / 12. have you had a fic translated? / 13. have you ever co-written a fic? no to all the above 🤪 (or...at least i hope, in the case of 11)

14. what's your all-time favorite ship? 8-year-old me was really onto something when she latched onto cloud/aerith with passion unrivaled to be honest. there is no use denying it

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? i have been working on a written version of the trespasser DLC for one of my dragon age characters for like.............three years now and it will never evolved past the five scenes i have scribbled down i'm afraid. the quarantine brainrot was real but it did not last

16. what are your writing strengths? i like to fancy myself good at description! and i'm very particular about flow and tone. there's nothing i won't do to maintain tone, even if it hurts to cut segments that don't fit

17. what are your writing weaknesses? alas, describing shit well means that i am terrible at stepping back and letting a scene breathe. i feel the need to explain stuff that doesn't need it, to my own detriment. and lately i just Cannot thread the needle with any transitions between scenes. someone come cure my yips it's extremely annoying balking at this

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? it CAN work but the only time i'm ever using it is if 1) i know someone who speaks the language, so i'm not making an ass of myself, or 2) it adds to the confusion of a scene in a meaningful way. rarely does it come up and rarely do i employ it

19. first fandom you wrote for? i'm sure it was kingdom hearts. the more things change, etc.

20. favorite fic you've written? the aforementioned potc/temeraire crossover aside...i could play coy here, but you KNOW it's steadfast & dependable (6k, potc, norribeth. but. it's complicated). she is my beautiful girlfriend and the concept continues to compel me on rereads

tagging @johnbly @thesumdancekid @graysongraysoff @antique-romantic if you're feelin it??? and also 🫵 you, the girl reading this

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on EOTW 29-38

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

It's really fun to look back at the stedding as, oh, this is literally a little piece of another dimension. It might've grown the local seeds and supported the local animals, but it is obviously disconnected from the local reality, to block the One Power and all.

So many references to Hawkwing sending armies across the sea, and yet nobody really believes it, or expects the Return.

The farmer gave Rand the dark, plain scarf… and then Rand wears it around his mouth… almost like a… black veil on this Aielman… OK that's a bit too much ellipsis for me to keep going but I had to squint and see if the words really meant what I thought they did.

In Play For Your Supper, one of the songs Rand names is "Coming Home From Tarwin's Gap", now how would a name like that have made it as far as the 2 Rivs?

Rand starts having little thoughts on the road that he can't quite track the source of. "Too late now." in Four Kings, for example. LTT starting to slip in. Or the taint madness, if you prefer that explanation for the hallucinations. Either way.

Ishy treating oblivion as a reward. Cute.

I feel kinda sneaky putting Mili Skane's name down in ch 33. It's kind of a spoiler, we're not told it, but I like tagging the characters that appear, for future searchability. If she ALSO appears later in the series, well, I wasn't lying about the Companion entry.

Almen Bunt reminded me that Elayne's kids could have a stronger claim to the throne than she did, because of the bloodliney shit Andoran nobles use to measure their kin-distance from the first queen, but only if everyone involved admitted Rand's lineage publicly. And, only because it was Rand's body that she conceived with.

Which gets me on to how weird and icky the Moridin body swap is, because besides everything else, we don't talk enough about how the Dark One resurrected Ishy as Moridin into somebody else's corpse, that body's original soul had his own family and life, and first the DO took it to punish Ishy with continued existence, and THEN Moridin and Rand swapped balefires and then bodies so Rand's in some completely random dude's face and genes.

(I only had about 5.5 hours of sleep last night as I write this, can you tell?)

At any rate, EOTW 34 cracks things wide open for any show-firstie who looks at the X-Ray feature or the episode credits. Episode 1x07 lists Tigraine Mantear instead of Shaiel, so when the first season was finished, seeing so many people go back and start reading the books and be like, well hold on now… That was precious and priceless to witness.

“The Queen is wed to the land,” Thom said as brightly colored balls danced in a circle, “but the Dragon . . . the Dragon is one with the land, and the land is one with the Dragon.” For this to appear here, with Almen Bunt, when his next appearance is just after Zen Rand emerges and the Dragon is one enough with the land to offer a bounty of apples from the orchard on Bunt's sister's farm… Same chapter, same day, still sleep deprived, and I need a moment to just sit in this feeling of beautiful symmetry.

No doubt I'll come back to it when the quote comes up, but: Thom was twice Morgase's age when they were together. Given the dates we have as long as the Fandom.wiki is properly sourced because I don't want to go doing extra digging in the Companion and stuff, that means that 14 years ago, Morgase was 27 and Thom somewhere in the 50-60 range, 55 being a solid guess, putting her at 41 and him at 68 around the start of the series. I'm still very, very glad the show agreed with me that there was no need of him being so old, especially when his love interests skew so young, Mo being the exception but she still looks young.

So much of chapter 36 is just "yep, setup." I daren't even start listing or we'll be here all day and this post will be much longer than I try to keep them, even for two-weekers when the first week's not quite long enough to justify a post. But the one that gets me is Rand finding it funny, the idea of him wanting to be a king, when he will end up the de facto ruler of a decent chunk of the Westlands.

37 and 38 do little in the way of setup but to continue setting up just how much Byar's gonna nurse that grudge for the next 12 books or two years. Well, that and finally showing Perrin's golden eyes. Mo asks if this was foretold, and well, we know it was… just not in a prophecy she'd have seen. Verin has, though.

I will say, I prefer how Egg and Perrin rescued themselves in the show, even if the wolf stuff maybe could have been moved forward into season 1 to make it make a little more sense to show-onlys.

And, do we think Mo was Warder-compelling Lan not to go after Nyn? Or just reminding him that it's out of character and out of keeping with his guiding principles? I'd like to think Mo treats Lan better, BUT she does hand off his bond to Myrelle without telling him later soooo…

[anonforlackofabettername]

10 11 12 for the bookish photo asks?

Sorry this took like a week. Last week was incredibly busy and I’ve been trying to figure out what books to use tbh. I went with what I have in my house which severely limits my options because half my books are in tubs in my basement and also the last time I bought novels regularly was circa 2015.

10. Two books you love from the opposite end of the spectrum (however you want to interpret that)

This one I probably spent the most time mulling over. What even is opposite ends of the spectrum? Is that fiction v nonfiction? Poetry vs prose? Kids vs adult? A lot of the stuff on my bookshelf right now is stuff that it would break my heart to get rid of but it’s not stuff I’ve read regularly. I almost went with a childhood fav vs the most recent book I read (System Collapse by Martha Wells - do recommend) but instead I went with this:

[img id: two books side by side. The left book has a light yellow cover. The book is LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech. There is a line drawing of a dog underneath the title. The right book has a dark blue cover with a drawing of a young boy and a large dog with a pocket watch in the dogs side. The boy looks startled and is looking into the eyes of the dog which is as tall as he is. The book is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Illustrated by Jules Feiffer.]

These are both books that I hold close to my heart. Love That Dog is poetry strung together into the shape of a story and The Phantom Tollbooth is prose fiction that is as close to poetry and metaphor as a story can get while taking itself absolutely literally. Love that dog is a book told in poems that take the form of a young boy’s english journal and his struggle to understand and write poetry for his class. The title is a homage to a poem by Walter Dean Myers. The Phantom Tollbooth is a portal fantasy story about a young boy, Milo, and his adventures in the lands beyond the tollbooth, the people that he meets there, and the lessons that he learns. Love that dog is realistic fiction despite its format. The metaphor is in the format. The lands beyond the Tollbooth are full of metaphor that is, at all times, true; the doldrums - where Milo ends up without thinking, the city of dictionopolis - where you literally eat your own words for dinner, the island of conclusions (you get there by jumping).

11. Book you’ve read the most times

Okay so the actual answer to this is almost certainly The Phantom Tollbooth. It would own this slot if it wasn’t in the previous category. I love that book. I try to reread it every couple of years. It’s got a piece of my heart in it. I’ve shown it already, so instead you get this:

[img id: A beat up book on a black background. The cover art is an illustration of a dragon reaching around a pillar while two kids hide on the other side. In the foreground is a young girl with red hair clutching a book, Nita. Behind her is a boy with a shocked expression on his face as he gazes at the dragon. Across the center of the cover is the title, So You Want To Be A Wizard. Near the bottom is the author’s name, Diane Duane. Beneath that are the words, “Young Wizards • Book One.”]

Clocking in right behind The Phantom Tollbooth on books I reread regularly is the Young Wizards series, book 1 featured here. I own all the books twice (thrice?) over but I haven’t actually read the physical copies in years since the ebooks are just better. DD went back and updated the timeline (every book was set in its publication year - book 1 was published in 1983, book 9 in 2010 - but the in-universe timeline was 5 to 6 years max) and fixed a couple characters who hadn’t aged well (book 6 introduces an autistic main character and understanding of autism is so much better than what was medically accurate in the early 00s).

The book, since I’ve been pitching the ebooks but not the series itself, is a science fiction/science fantasy series in which Nita and Kit both find a wizard’s manual, take the oath, and become wizards. Wizardy is a gift from the Powers that Be that takes the form of the Speech - the language that all things know and was spoken at the creation of the universe. Wizards use words and math and power to slow down entropy and fight the Lone Power, the Power that introduced death into the universe.

Book 1 is a portal fantasy that takes our two brand new wizards into an alternate New York City looking for the Book of Night with Moon, the book that was written to remind creation how it is supposed to be. Book 2 takes our wizards down to the bottom of the ocean trying to avert what could end up being an (un)natural disaster. Book 3 we stretch the science part of it and see how far into space and the wider galaxy our heroes can go. Book 4 features old Irish legends from DD’s literal backyard. Book 5 is a story about illness and fighting against the clock and being forced to grow up. Book 6 is about grief and loneliness and a reminder that we aren’t truly alone. Book 7 is a vacation story, except in a world where everything happens for a reason can you truly go on vacation without it turning into work? Book 8 is a direct follow up to 7, but I don’t know how to tease a book called Wizards at War without spoiling something. It’s the highest stakes and the culmination of a lot of stuff and the end of it makes me sob every time. Book 9 the gang goes to Mars (and if that feels like a step down in stakes, it is and it isn’t). Book 10 I really need to reread but it’s like 600 pages of our main characters mentoring kids for a wizard science fair and it fucking slaps.

12. Weirdest book you own

Look I’m not really sure what the standard of weird is. I’ve got the journal from Gravity Falls which isn’t that weird because somewhere in my basement is Dragonology and 3 or 4 other ology books on other topics. Dragonology was an intrinsic part of my childhood. They’re not that weird (right?). I thought about grabbing one of my ttrpg books but like how to choose. Is Wanderhome weirder than Thirsty Sword Lesbians or Gun&Slinger or If I Were A Lich Man? Also those are games as much as their books imo. So instead I went with this:

[img id: a hardcover book with a red spine. The cover image is drawing of a 19th century river with a steel cable bridge (the Brooklyn Bridge) crossing it. Reaching out of the water, wrapping around the bridge and interfering with the boats in the river is two tentacles. The title of the book is Alternate Histories of the World by Matthew Buchholz]

This book is mostly an art book with some writing. The artist recreates old-fashioned photos and maps and includes creatures, robots, monsters, aliens, and zombies in them. This book is a collection of prints loosely done in the style of a history book, chronicling altered histories where there were zombies at the court of Versailles in 1731, the great chicago fire was started by a Martian ufo, a robot ran for president in 1960, monsters live in the river Thames, Boston harbor, and basically everywhere else, or - my favorite - nothing weird or giant monster related has ever happened to Tokyo. It’s a fun book and I enjoy the artist a lot. I have another book by him which is in the style of a visit all 50 states tourist book called Flee America. The last couple of years he’s put out a calendar via kickstarter that I back.

[esta-elavaris]

Hello. I have come here to yell at you about Groves. He is one of my favourite characters. Well, more the Groves you specifically write because there's not a lot to go off of but. I love him. I must admit that I have reread the chapters with him more often than most others. I am normal about the guy, really, trust me (lie). I am so grateful you put him in there, so thank you!

Ahahaha thank you!! Honestly he's kind of the perfect gift for a writer in terms of how much you're given to work with, because you're given just enough to really be able to get a feasible idea of what he's like based on what he says and, more importantly, when he says it, but with a lot of room to put your own spin on it as needed. Like, you have to have a sense of humour and a decent disposition if you're willing to praise Jack's pirating skills to James fucking Norrington as he steals his ship. I couldn't get over that. It showed.

It's kinda funny, I've written fics of characters with technically more screentime, but who give way less to work with that way.

Plus, I think the fact that he shares a voice with Cullen from Dragon Age influenced things a bit. Just a shame the actor is such a wrong'un, but hey ho....or, uh, yo ho.

I'm excited to write more stuff that centres around him later in the year!! I hope you enjoy that, too, if you check it out 💜

[turbles]

(I posted this on twitter back in early March but since that platform is going down the tubes rn I'm reposting here as well for archival purposes)

Some background here. 6 years ago I took up reading fanfic as a hobby. Very quickly I realized I'd need a way to mark which fics I'd already read or tried to read and dropped, so I wouldn't keep running across the same ones over and over and forgetting I'd already read them. So I started bookmarking EVERYTHING regardless of my actual opinion on it (I'll come back to this)

Anyway eventually I realized that, via the filtering options AO3 provides for your bookmarks, I had a pretty good way to collect pointless data about my reading habits and make some really pointless graphs. So when I reached exactly 2000 bookmarks I decided to do that. as a reward to myself.

data for the original 2000 was collected from whenever I started doing this, through March 6th 2023

Caveat: obviously the possibility of human error in this data is significant. I was never consistent on whether I should bookmark all individual fics in a series or just the series itself if I read the whole thing, for instance, and I've surely forgotten to bookmark plenty of things I did read over the years. this is just for fun though so I'm not sweating it.

thank god for how detailed ao3's tag system is tbh

Anyway here's a pie of all fandoms (with over 50 bookmarks):

For some temporal context of the above, I fucking counted every bookmark from the top 9 categories there and arrayed them by month-bookmarked so I could make this chart of growth rates:

Genshin impact will of course continue to grow because the game continually releases new stuff and characters. Numbers spiked in October coinciding with sumeru's release. we'll see if another spike happens once fontaine releases in a few weeks from now. interestingly to me, I started been playing genshin like 6 months before I started participating in the fandom because it took me that long to get accustomed to the uh.. genshin-ness of the characters and the story, enough to start making inroads towards actually caring about the characters.

looks like FE3H grew the fastest, but it will eventually plateau like yoi, dragon age, and ffxv before it. Still kinda going strong though,since there's just lots of people writing for this fandom, and helped by the fact that it has a really large cast.

This next chart will take a little background info. So to indicate to myself something about the quality of the fic, when bookmarking I would choose to "Rec" it or not. As I said previously, I am literally bookmarking everything I read whether I loved it or hated it or it caused me pain or whatever. My criteria for whether I Rec a fic or not has never been set in stone, but THE IDEA is that recced fics were ones I overall quite liked, felt were well written and would be willing to go back & reread or had something else that made them stand out from the crowd. A recced fic isn't necessarily one I would literally recommend to people to read, and non-recced could mean anything from it was good but had one part that bothered me, to I had just read a bunch of that author's other works and this one was weaker than their others, to it was horrendous and ruined my whole day, to it was just kinda boring.

HOWEVER I did add my own more curated tag, Greatest Hits, for the ones that I really loved, that stuck with me after reading it, that I regularly desire to go back and revisit. While I rarely ever adjust my recs, I have often added (even sometimes removed) the Greatest Hits tag from fics years after first reading them.

Anyway that means this chart could be said to express in a really general way my opinion on the general quality of the writing in a given fandom:

I found it interesting that AA has such a high proportion of recs. I think its overall lower number of total bookmarks works in its favor here, as I tend to dip toes into a new fandom by first looking at top-kudosed fics and then when I find authors I like, trawling their bookmarks for more and branching out that way. So I tend to find pretty good fics earlier in the process. the longer I'm looking through a more stagnated fandom, the less good fics I find, is I guess the logic here. So in the case of AA, I suppose I didn't get much deeper than skimming the cream of the crop before I moved on?

Comparing genshin and fe3h vs. dragon age and ffxv, which all have more similar total bookmarks, was interesting too, to explain why genshin/fe3h's ratio of recs is higher. Both genshin and fe3h have really large casts, and therefore lots of different characters and pairings to read about, so it's almost like each pairing is kind of its own pool of fics that I'm skimming the best ones out of. with DA and FFXV there's really only a couple ships I'm interested in, and their ratios are similar accordingly

because we all know. that the main draw for fanfic tends to be shipping. so here's the top 10 most bookmarked ships pie:

and because genshin and fe3h are sizable enough to warrant a further breakdown of ships for that fandom alone, here's some pies for that:

it makes me laugh that dimiclaude is statistically significant when really I was just trying it out and ultimately decided I really don't even care for that ship

And a growth rate chart for genshin impact ships specifically:

so funny story, as I was playing through the liyue story chapter I was NOT a fan of childe at all, in fact I passed up two of his reruns before reading on the wiki (almost immediately after his 2nd rerun ended) a key piece of his backstory that all of a sudden caused his whole characterization to fall perfectly into place in my mind and he shot up the list to being my top fav character in the game literally over the course of like ten minutes. and yeah that was november 2021 and as you can see that's when I started really reading genshin fics LOL

forecasts have haikaveh and cynonari continuing to trend up for a little while, though the next region and thus a whole new cast releases soon and could stymie those trends. zhongchi is a staple genshin ship and imo a bit more flexible content- and dynamic-wise than many of the other pairings here, so I predict it maintains a regular gentle incline even in the face of shinier newer pairings.

The less stacked roster fandoms don't have as interesting breakdowns, but here they are just for curiosity:

and yeah that's all I made at the time! I only thought of it after but I'll be recording data on Ratings from now on as well. I'd also considered looking at things like average word count on recs or greatest hits fics, but absent of even more highly specific filtering tools that would probably fall under diminishing returns. maybe someday.

This was dumb but very engrossing and fun to make and I learned how to use google sheets out of it so we'll see if that ever comes in useful in my life

[lemonhemlock]

The girl that was recently rumored to have joined the cast, looks like a child of Alicent and Rhaenyra, I wish she would be Daeron, but alas, it really wouldn't make sense now, but it would be cool if they had done it from the beginning. #letthegirlscommitwarcrimes

Anonymous asked: The fem!Daeron speculation is very funny. A fun AU idea like you both said, but it’s based off a random actress allegedly being cast in an unknown role, and she has brown eyes. So people think she looks like Olivia. You’re right to avoid a lot of leaks and speculation, it borders on goofy at times. I think people are desperate for content and instead of writing fic or rereading or even, god forbid, getting into a different media, they just scrounge for the smallest crumbs of info and build narratives out of that. It’s going to be a long two years!

Anonymous asked: Literally the only thing that sprouted the fem!Daeron thing is the lack of casting news so far and the resemblance a supposedly new actress has with Olivia, but the truth is that actress could very well play a character who wasn't in the book but was made up by the writers such as a random lady, some lord's daughter or even a handmaid. Some people just look similar to others, nothing more. Also, a lot of these new actors who keep being announced by leaks sites such as Redanian Intelligence will end up playing very minor roles, but I guess this doesn't stop fans from overreacting every single time lol... Like you've already pointed out, not everything leaks. For all we know, whoever plays Daeron may have already finished filming (or hasn't even started yet!!) but we can't and don't know this because his scenes were filmed in the studio and guess what, random people won't get paparazzi pictures of that unless they get very very lucky like last week when someone managed to fly a drone over a built-in set and spotted Aemond executing some people inside the Red Keep's courtyard, but even that was, at first, wildly misinterpreted by the Redanian and by the fandom at large who all believed that he was executing the Strongs at Harrenhal, only to later change their story and say the scene most likely took place at the Red Keep since they used the exact same set in S1 for the castle so of course it couldn't have been Harrenhal considering the different architecture…anyway people should just take a break I guess and stop going crazy over unconfirmed filming stuff and even worse, leaks made up by random trolls on Reddit.

don't get me wrong, i don't want to stamp on anyone's fun, so to each their own. i know that accounts that keep track of leaks and filming always pop-up in any fandom and they have followers certainly bc there is demand for this type of content. but sometimes these rumours are just not based on anything substantial, which is why i prefer to focus my energies elsewhere. personally i'd just end up feeling tired chasing fireflies like this

a female daeron would indeed have been a cool idea (seeing a dragon-riding warrior targaryen maid) but it needed to be introduced from the very beginning - now it would just look goofy. why isn't she betrothed to aemond? if aegon did not want to marry helaena, perhaps he would have been more amenable to waiting until daerea was of age? why is she even sent to oldtown? warding for girls is rare in westeros. off the top of my head i can only name rhaena (and she was sent to the eyrie only for her safety during wartime)

[queenofbaws]

Fanfic asks 19 and 21

ohohoh don't mind if i DO!!! ;)c

19. Do you read mostly angst, fluff, smut, or some combination of them?

when it comes to reading fic, i'm really, really, really, really, REALLLLLLLLLY more of an angst person in general. i don't shy away from fluffy, shippy stuff, don't get me wrong! but by far and away, i'm probably quicker to hop on board if i see angst tagged than if it's not...and my ultimate green flag is if horror is tagged, lbr hehehe

i want to hurt when i'm reading >:)

21. What are your top three fics you’ve written and why are they your favorites? 

oh the impossible choice of picking a favorite child...the impossible, impossible choice of - just kidding, here are the ones that i continue to be very obsessed with

-the (almost)s, until dawn, jossam/chrashley/gen, m, ~660k. my lawyer has advised me that i've already said all i'm allowed to say about this fic in the more than 600,000 words contained therein, so. just know that it's my baby, my child, my sweet, precious bundle of joy, and i miss writing it every single day :')

-the durellion affair, dragon age, fhawke/varric, t+, ~80k. this was my first go at writing a murder mystery, and just...it was so much fun. it was so. much. FUN!!! part of that fun was that it came to me almost fully formed??? so there was just a month(ish) where i sat and furiously wrote nonstop for days on end, and when it was all done, i got the EXTREME joy of being able to post chapters on a regular schedule and...ugh, just...when i think about having FUN writing a fic, this is the #1 that pops up in my head. plus it's ALL hawke and varric banter, hidden thigh daggers, and poisoned wine, like...just a good time. just a good, good time. i love it, and i kind of want to write more silly murder mysteries in this vein in the future!!!

-alone time, until dawn, gen, m, ~5k. i don't talk about this fic a whole lot, and it's not one of my more popular ones, but genuinely it's one of my favorite things that i've written in the past few years. honestly i think it comes down to the formatting (it's sort of a choose your own adventure in the worst possible way) that let me experiment more with the traditional narrative structure. i would love, love, LOVE to do more experimental stuff like this in the future, i'm just not entirely sure how or when at the moment. but being able to explore hannah's story in this way, making choices but...not really making choices, it just hit me a certain way, and i will freely admit i go back to it on occasion and reread it and grin like a fool the whole way through.

writing asks!

[bluewren]

For the ask meme!

🌻 💭 🦈

Fic Writer Asks

🌻 How often do you read your own fics?

tbh I'm getting more and more comfortable with rereading my work. It's partly, because I have stuff that I'm really proud of. But also it's a helpful way to get my noggin' ready to write, especially when I suddenly forget how to write. It happens every time I open scrivener LOL 😅

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

Inspirations comes to me when I explore other hobbies that I used to do. Like I just recently finished writing a Sera&Solas fic around poker wicked grace. Other times, it's getting to use my tinkering experience as inspiration for an Arcanist OC. LOL

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

Honestly Solas, for whatever reason I keep forgetting what his verbal quirks are and also what his reaction to things are.