#so maybe I’ve written out a whole not fic for this… and maybe it spans years.

[sequinsandfins]

carlandoscar num num num

yes alcohol will definitely help, and won't serve to drive anymore conflict in the story, please continue boys 👀

But who makes the first move?

After a few drinks, and they are all feeling pleasantly buzzed, maybe Carlos brings Lando’s mouth to his.

Kisses him hungry and dirty, knowing Oscar is watching them, increasing Carlos’ desire.

Carlos kisses down Lando’s neck, before whispering in his ear.

“Have you and Oscar ever?”

Lando is shocked but struggling to think with Carlos’s hands making their way under his shirt and grasping at his skin.

“He’s beautiful, no? But so reserved. I would have thought you’d want to wreck him.”

Carlos continues to kiss him, but now Lando’s eyes meet Oscar’s, and he realises that Oscar is watching them, lust clear in his expression.

The idea doesn’t turn him off like he expected.

Quite the opposite.

[walkinthrudaisies]

Everything Has Changed

sam winchester x fem!reader

5.1k | fluff

summary: the love story between you and sam winchester, starting only at the age of six.

*buckle in everyone, this is the longest fic i’ve ever written

age six:

you didn’t want to be here. you wanted to be back home in massachusetts, sitting on the living room couch and watching morning cartoons with your mother.

but that would never happen again, not after what happened last week. not after that evil man with black eyes broke into your home and killed your mom while you hid in your bedroom closest, hearing everything while silent tears rolled down your cheeks.

now your father had taken you to south dakota, rambling on and on about the nice old man named bobby who would be watching you for a while. you didn’t want to stay with bobby. you wanted your mom, and your dad hauling every one of your belongings and shipping you off to another state was not helping your six year old brain cope with the pain.

looking out the window as your dad drove up a long driveway, the only thing you could see for miles was cars; junk cars to be exact. when the car finally rumbled to a stop, the home in front of it was anything but the one you had grown accustomed to.

your hand was clutched tight in your fathers as he rang the door bell. the disney princess suitcase by your feet was the only thing you could look at as the door swung open and your dad conversed with who you assumed was bobby. the older man seemed nice enough. his accent sounded funny, and the bowl of ice cream that greeted you when you walked in the kitchen had you enjoying this house even more.

when your dad kissed your head and told you he’d be gone for a few days, you didn’t know what to think. you were so young that the notion of your dad going out and hunting the demon that killed your mom was completely out of your headspace. you just thought he had obligations with work and was needed away for a couple of weeks.

those couple of weeks turned into two months. soon those two months turned into six. it dawned on you at such a young age that your father was probably not coming back, that both of your parents left you in the span of a week and you were stuck with a total stranger.

it was an awful thing for a mere kindergartener to comprehend, and it absolutely pained bobby to watch that realization slowly slip into your face day by day as you sat on the porch, awaiting for your dads non existing arrival.

when the seventh month mark had hit, the rumble of a car was heard from the front of the house. an excited smile lit up your face. your dad was finally back. after so long he was here to come get you and take you to wherever he has been for all these months.

the shear disappointment on your face when you realized it wasn’t your dad was palpable. but the confusion that followed it when a strange man and two young boys came into view was even stronger.

the taller of the two children looked to be a couple years older than you; maybe ten or something around there. his face was stoic and the way his steely gaze swept over you— clutched to bobby’s side, was something that made you nervous.

when you looked over to what you’d assumed was his younger brother, you were instantly drawn in to how this boy was a complete 180 from his brother. he seemed more timid, shy in how he walked with his head down and lip drawn between his teeth, gnawing at the skin as he looked up to switch his gaze from bobby, to you.

for as long as he could, sam would go on and on about how he fell in love with you from the very first time he saw you. that breezy day in late ‘89 was the start of his never ending admiration and love for the girl who he’d met on bobby’s porch at the young age of six.

that day was the start of a whole new beginning. who knew what would’ve happened if john winchester didn’t drop off his two sons that day. no one could guess if you and sam would somehow find a way to each other. but the universe sure forced you together at a young age, and you would be forever greatful for that.

age nine:

the wind blew back your hair, rustling the trees in the tree line as you and sam sat on the grass, silently reading.

it had been three years since your dad left you at bobby’s, and after about a year, you’d realized that he wasn’t coming back. it was hard at first, the tears didn’t stop coming for at least a week after the realization set in. but you had bobby, who’d stepped up and been more of a father than your own ever could’ve.

there was also the factor of sam and dean winchester, but they were a little more complicated than your father/daughter relationship with bobby.

dean winchester was like an older brother to you. someone who annoyed you like hell but would always be there to protect you when needed. he cared about the people he loved more than he could breathe, and you were grateful to have someone who would always be there for you.

sam, he was a little different then his brother. while dean was four years older, you two were the same age. you always felt a different bond with sam, something that was less brotherly and more shy smiles and rosy cheeks.

you’d harboured a crush on the youngest winchester boy, you just didn’t know what to do with it.

that crush didn’t blow away with the wind, it stayed while you sat side by side with sam, knees brushing as you both turned the pages of your corresponding books.

you didn’t know what to do. hell you were only a kid, merely in the fourth grade and not even double digits yet. the relationship you shared with sam was too precious to you for it to just be ruined by your stupid blabbing mouth. so you kept quiet, simply enjoying the time you spent with sam as friends and hoping that someday this crush would go away.

“have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an adult?” sam’s question startled you from your reading, the silence between you two going on for so long that his voice was quite jarring.

softly closing your back and moving over to face sam, you looked up at the blowing leaves on the trees, truly pondering your friends question. “i don’t know.” you responded after a long while, looking back down at sam and his expectant eyes. “i’d like to think that being an adult would be better, but then i think of my dad, and your dad even, and i wonder if being a kid forever would be so bad.”

you were young, but you weren’t stupid. you saw how aggressive sam and dean’s father was, you saw all the arguments him and bobby had about adult stuff you couldn’t understand. though, most definitely you understood the cowardly actions of your dad running away, leaving his adult duties of being a dad and dumping his own child with another. you vowed to never be like him, to never leave the people you love behind.

it seemed as though sam was truly thinking about your words, really diving deep into what you meant and if his ideologies aligned with yours.

fiddling with his fingers, sam looked down at his lap, biting his lip as he always did when he was nervous. “well i’m just wondering because dean told me he had his first kiss, and when i asked him when it was my turn, he said when i was older. how old do we have to be to have our first kiss Y/N?”

sam’s question caught you by surprise. you never really thought about the notions of a first kiss. sure you’ve thought of kissing sam before, but that was just the crush talking. it would never happen, and sam just asked from a place of curiosity and wonder, not because he wanted to kiss you.

“maybe junior high? i’m really not sure.” your head had been down while speaking, picking shreds of grass as you responded to sam. though, when you looked up, you were met with the feeling of sam’s lips on yours, and your whole world completely stopped.

it wasn’t a long kiss, just a second long peck. but even then, the feeling of sam gently and nervously pressing his lips to yours had blood rushing to your cheeks and a weird fluttery feeling in your gut.

you hadn’t spoken yet, and the mixed in with the wide eyed expression on your face started to make sam worry. “oh god, i’m so sorry Y/N. i should’ve asked if that was okay first. i’m a gentleman i swear! dad and dean taught me better. please don’t be mad at me, please.” sam’s ramblings had a quick smile spreading on your face.

even after something so innocent as a quick, childlike kiss on the lips, sam still worried for your well being, for how you felt in all of it. his strong need to always make sure you were okay made you feel so comfortable with him. even though you were so young, you remembered feeling happy and content about that moment many years later.

sam winchester innocently stole your first kiss, and you wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

age thirteen:

middle school sucked, and you were fully prepared to beg bobby to let you be homeschooled if it continued to be like this.

the people in your school weren’t nice at all. making jokes about how you lived on the town dump and how your father was a drunk weirdo. though, when stupid clara riggs found out bobby wasn’t even your dad, she made it her mission to go around and tell everyone that your own parents hated you so much, they left you on the doorstep of the first ‘trailer trash’ they could find.

her words made you angry. bobby wasn’t a drunk or trailer trash, he was far from it. and so what if he wasn’t your father? he took that position when your own dad couldn’t, and you would like to see the look on clara’s face when your whole grade found out her dad was cheating on her mom with their babysitter.

though they say the words of a middle schooler still stings, and they had bobby finding you curled up in your bed, tears rolling down your cheeks as you clung onto your little bunny plushie.

he tried to make you feel better, telling you that kids could be mean sometimes and the best thing you could do was ignore them. but you wouldn’t listen, and bobby knew that a visit from sam and dean was long overdue.

you hadn’t seen your two best friends in almost six months. john had them hauled around half of the united states, putting dean on his first solo hunts and allowing sam to finally join when he and dean went out. they’d missed you though. even dean who’d recently turned seventeen was missing some time with his built in little sister.

a couple of hours later, a knock on your door interrupted the silent tears streaming down your face. you were fully prepared to tell bobby to go away, but when the door opened slightly and revealed a lanky sam winchester in it’s frame, you couldn’t resist springing up and running to give him a hug.

the force at which you ran at sam had him stumbling to steady himself, arms going around your waist and socked feet slightly slipping against the hard wood. he didn’t want you to fall, and if you did, he’d rather himself break your fall then risk you having a nasty bruise.

when he finally steadied the both of you, sam reacted in hugging you back. the feeling of your face in the crook of his neck had him feeling at peace. all he could do was grip onto you tighter, hoping that his presence would help with whatever pain you felt.

as he pulled away, sam moved the hair away from your face without a second thought, not thinking anything of it as he wanted to properly see your face. “what’s got you so upset, ladybug?” the nickname came from a hike that you and sam went on when you were eleven. a ladybug landing on your finger and a bright smile adorning your face right after.

sam would say that was the most beautiful you’ve ever looked. but hell, you look beautiful every time he looks at you.

when you were through with explaining what had made you upset, sam could feel himself garnering sympathy and anger towards your situation. he felt bad, knowing you did not deserve any of those words said to you for they were far from the truth. though he was also angry because clara riggs had no right to talk. her family was more dysfunctional than his and that was really saying something.

“hey don’t listen to her.” sam soothed, hands no rubbing up and down your back to calm you down. “she’s always been cruel, her words should mean nothing to you.”

they did mean something to you, but you didn’t want to worry sam with all your constant worrying. so you just smiled, nodding at sam and half heartedly agreeing, you knew that this was something you’d have to get over on your own, that your dad left you with bobby and your mom was dead. but it was starting to get better, and you knew you had to thank bobby, dean, and especially sam for it.

“c’mon,” sam smiled, slinging his arm around your shoulder. “dean’s dying to see you. he’s been dying to take you on a ride in the impala now that he has his license.”

age seventeen:

high school had gone by in a blur, and suddenly, you were in your senior year. life didn’t feel real. it didn’t feel like you were about to graduate and move onto university in a mere couple of months, but you also accepted this change, knowing that it was good for you.

“bobby can you stop worrying, i’ll be fine.” the older man had busied himself with helping you sort out all your back to school essentials, fussing over your backpack and what clothes you were going to wear. it didn’t matter that you didn’t have a mom or dad, for bobby was basically a two in one with how he handled clothing emergencies and the practical stuff.

huffing, bobby straightened out your jacket one more time, stepping back and finally taking a good look. “god Y/N you are so grown up. i can just picture your tiny little legs running around these halls, making a mess of all my books.”

scowling, you playfully threw a throw pillow at him. “it’s not my fault you left your ancient mythology book right on the table. who knew john needed it for some pesky siren.” the look in bobby’s eyes were deadpan, almost like he was daring you to finish your sentence. “i did, you idjit. that’s why i left it there in the first place.”

“well,” you sighed, leaning against the front door. “we live and we learn.” bobby just grumbled as he shoed you out the door, rambling on about how if you didn’t leave now you’d be late to your last, first day of high school.

the day had gone by pretty quickly, uneventful classes that just had teachers rambling on about college and how now that you were in grade 12, you had to smarten up and focus on your grades.

you were focussing all right. focused on helping bobby with a gnarly werewolf who’d hopefully be the first creature that you’d get to shoot.

you’d known about the supernatural since you were ten, an bobby had you training with a gun since you were fourteen. he still didn’t let you frequently go on hunts, only allowing if it was something small and he’d know you’d be safe.

that didn’t matter though, because at least you got a taste of how it felt. it was nice, but you knew that college was definitely something that you’d want to explore, and it was great that bobby was on board with it.

the man didn’t want you getting swept into the hunter life, explaining how getting out as fast as you can would be the best scenario for you. you understood, agreeing with bobby that getting a couple hunts in before you left wasn’t such a bad thing.

unlike you, sam wasn’t as fortunate to have such an understanding parental figure as you did.

he explained to you how is father was hell bent on sam staying with him and dean, not leaving the family business until their mothers killer was avenged.

you knew sam didn’t want that. he expressed to you so many times how he dreamed of going to university, getting out of the hunter life so he could live normally for once. you were supportive of him, silently cursing john for his terrible ways of treating his sons.

so walking into your bedroom to see sam winchester sat on your bed watching buffy the vampire slayer was not something you were surprised by. him running away from his dads antics had been happening more often lately, and you really didn’t blame him. john was getting even more out of hand then he already was, and the mentions of sam leaving for university wasn’t helping.

his head turned as you closed the door behind you, eyes softening to that golden hazel that you could never resist. but sam looked so sad, and you wanted to help him for all those times that he’s been by your side wiping your tears.

“sammy, what’s wrong? was it your dad again?” all he could do was shake his head no, sniffling slightly while his hand moved up to whip his tear stained cheeks.

you softly sat down beside him, hand instantly finding his and squeezing, letting him know you were there. “it’s me Y/N, it’s all me.” his words had you cocking your head in confusion, but as he continued, you felt your heart break even more. “dad wants me to follow him and dean, but i don’t want to! anytime i bring it up he gets so mad, and i can see how upset it makes dean. if i leave, dad said i’d be disappointing the family. i don’t want to disappoint my brother Y/N. ever.”

as he continued to speak, you could feel your heart go from breaking to falling completely out of your chest. the pressure that john winchester was putting on his young son was unacceptable. sam wanting to go to college was normal, and telling him that him leaving would disappoint his family was absolutely vile and disgusting.

“sam,” you whispered, head leaning on his shoulder so he could feel some semblance of comfort. “you have every right to want to pursue a higher education. dean will come around eventually, you know that. me and you both know that your dad is very stuck in his ways, but if you want this to happen then you’ll fucking make it happen. am i clear sam winchester?”

his laugh brought a smile to your face. sam being happy made you happy. and knowing that you made him laugh after he was so torn up and sad inside made you feel a warm and fuzzy feeling.

“trust me, i know how crystal clear you are.” his giggle died down as a contemplative look dawned on his face. “i even have a slight idea of where i want to go.”

humming slightly, you heard sam sigh as he continued. “i think i want to go to stanford, for law.” lifting your head from his shoulder, you cracked a smile as you jokingly punched him on the shoulder. “oh sammy, you pretentious snob. you’ll fit in there perfectly.”

“not as perfect as you at clown college.”

“okay now your pushing your luck, winchester.”

age twenty three:

those crucial moments in yours and sam’s story has always been something that made you smile. even now, when you haven’t seen the younger winchester boy in almost five years.

the last time you saw him, you were helping him move into his stanford dorm. john was absolutely out of the picture, and dean was still wound up over the whole thing. the only person that sam knew would help him and guide him through the day was you.

you’d gave him a massive hug, kissing him on the cheek and reminding him that he would do great things, that you would always support him.

as you left, a single tear had raised to your water line. but you wouldn’t let it fall. sam was finally doing what he always wanted to achieve. leaving the family business and living a normal life. if that meant not seeing him for a while then so be it.

though, these past five years have been torture without him.

you saw dean here and there. though the last time you crossed paths was when him and john were working a case down near your college campus in seattle washington, and even that was around two years ago.

dean was doing fine. he was coping with sam’s departure and seemed to really get a good grip on the whole hunting thing. it was like there was no time between then and the last time you two saw each other. it was like old times, laughter ringing through your small apartment and dean still being a major pain in your ass.

but now you were twenty three, in grad school and still living in washington state. your apartment was small, but manageable, and the job you had working as a barista in a coffee shop down the street from where you lived was going fine.

your life was doable, normal with no monsters lurking around. and you felt very content with that.

well, of course, as stories go, that was until dean came around calling your home phone and asking you for help with a case him and sam were working on.

yes, sam. he’d come back into the hunting scene around a year ago. you weren’t completely out of the loop, you still kept in touch with some hunters here and there. then there was bobby who was always on you, calling your phone every week to have your weekly gossip hour as he liked to call it.

all you knew was the sam was hunting again and john winchester had passed about two months ago. you hadn’t seen the older man in well over six years, and you weren’t completely fond of how he treated his boys, but that didn’t mean you were going to speak ill of the dead.

even if the dead was a borderline abusive dickwad.

now, you found yourself waiting out in front of your apartment building, bags in hand as you anticipated the familiar sound of the roaring chevy impala.

you didn’t know how to feel. you hadn’t seen dean in almost two years. hell, you hadn’t seen sam in five, and you knew all these nervous feelings were because of him.

when you were a kid, you always waited on the day that your crush on sam would go away. you wanted to view him like you viewed dean; like a brother. you knew how complicated things would get if you confessed to sam and he didn’t like you back. but even now, those feelings still rumbled in your gut, and you were hoping and praying seeing same again wouldn’t dredge them back up.

as the car pulled in front of you, and you saw sam’s figure in the front seat, those feelings sprung up your throat like a weekend bender when you were nineteen. he looked even more beautiful. hair grown out longer, face more mature. sam had grown into a fine looking young man, and you were cursing yourself for even thinking such thoughts.

the car ride to indiana wasn’t terrible. you and dean talked for a bit, caught up on all the things that had happened in the past two years. sam on the other hand was more quite. he chimed in once in a while, not shying away from saying hello to you or smiling at you through the rearview mirror, but you knew he was waiting for a time more intimate. a time were he could look you face to face and indulge in a five year long due conversation.

dean finally stopped outside a gas station in the heart of this towns square, letting you and sam know that he was getting more road food and stocking up on gas.

as dean disappeared into the store, you felt a slight tug on your arm. turning around you were instantly ambushed by the feeling of sam’s arms wrapping around you and his body eclipsing yours. he hadn’t hugged you this tight in such a long time, and the feeling had you so overwhelmed with joy that a couple of tears slipped onto your cheeks.

“how’ve you been, ladybug?” the nickname had you gasping out a sob, not that it was a sad one, you were so happy that tears of happiness had fallen and you were full on laugh crying into sam’s chest.

dean usually took an abnormally long time in the gas stations, so you and sam prioritized on that time to catch up on all the things you both missed. he told you about california, you told him about washington. he mentioned all the crazy things he got up to and you told him about all the late night tv show binges you’ve done in the years.

you two had been so caught up in talking, that when the family of three passed behind sam, you didn’t even think much of it. that was until you noticed how familiar the father looked.

oh god, no, it couldn’t be. walking behind sam was your dad, rocking a full blown wife and a daughter, who couldn’t be any older than thirteen.

that’s where he went for all those years? he started a whole new fucking family? you just happened to be so repulsive that your own goddamn father couldn’t stand to be around you? he had to fuck off to indiana and get a whole new family to replace you and your mom.

the world felt like it was spinning. you didn’t even notice sam’s confused glance, or his widened eyes as he finally realized what you had seen. all you remembered was the feeling of his hand on your back, guiding you into the backseat of the impala. he was telling you that everything was okay, but you didn’t know if you believed him or not.

dean coming back and driving to a motel was all a blur. the next thing you remember, sam was helping you walk to a bed, sitting you down and going to grab you a glass of water.

he was worried. you hadn’t moved a muscle since you saw your dad. it was justified though, for you hadn’t seen him in almost seventeen years. he’d walked out on you, and now you had to see him with a whole new family. sam couldn’t even begin to comprehend the pain you were going through.

all sam could do was sit with you. hand rubbing your back as the other mindlessly twirled with a strand of your hair.

dean raved on about how he was going to go find your dad and beat his ass, though sam assumed he was going to give up after maybe ten minutes and end up plastered at a bar.

“oh sweet girl.” you heard sam murmur, moving his arm so he could allow you to rest your head on his shoulder. “why can’t you see how perfect you are? why can’t you see that your dad leaving doesn’t define you.”

quietly sniffling to yourself, you nuzzled your face in sam’s chest even more. “but it does.” you mumbled, playing with a lose thread on sam’s coat. “ever since i was a kid that’s all anyone could talk about. how my dad left me cause he didn’t love me anymore. well guess what? now i know it’s true.”

sam abruptly standing up had you almost falling sideways onto the bed. his hand blocking your head from the fall wasn’t what surprised you, but the anger that was radiating off of him.

“goddammit Y/N. your dad is a jackass, plain and simple. he left and with that left the most amazing and intelligent woman i have ever met. i’ve been so enthralled by you since the day i fucking met you when we were six. i’ve loved you since we shared our first kiss when we were nine, since i wiped your tears at thirteen, and especially when you encouraged me to follow my dreams when we were seventeen.”

“you have been by my side for ever major moment in my life, and i would be a fool to not tell you now how much i am in love with you-“ sam didn’t have time to finish, for you were leaping off the bed and smashing your lips on his. promptly cutting off his sentence.

the two of you hadn’t shared a kiss since you were single digits, but something about sam’s lips and touch felt so familiar. all of the pent up emotions and feelings went into the kiss. years and years of holding back and keeping each other at an arms length was finally being thrown out the window.

both you and sam had been waiting for this moment since you were kids, and you were glad to say that the fluttery feeling you had in your chest whenever he was near wouldn’t be going away soon.

all your days, you’d known sam’s face, and for the rest of your days you still would. sam winchester was your constant, your blinding light of hope in the shit storm that was life.

you possibly couldn’t ask for anything better.

[jonathanbiers]

i lost the ask about it because i tried to save it to the drafts and it DISAPPEARED, but for those of you who voted 'i want your video' in my wip titles poll, i have written the sentences! this isn't the whole thing, but here's a lil sneak preview & reveal for what it's going to be.

the text included here isn't graphic, but mentions sex work, which the fic WILL later include. 🖤

from i want your video,

“They sound like they suck,” Argyle points out, exhaling as he presses the still burning end of the roach against the bottom of the ashtray. 

Steve hums as if in thought, eyes turned up toward the ceiling. “I think mom would be okay with it, after some initial adjustment. Just not a conversation I wanna have with either of them, y’know—like, I’m not gonna call them and go, ‘Hey, mom and dad, I lied about the job thing. I’ve actually been selling videos of me touching myself on the internet, but don’t worry, it’s pretty good money.’” Steve looks over at Argyle with a put-on grimace. “Maybe let’s not.” 

“Why ever not?” Argyle jokes, reaching over to set the ashtray down on the table by the couch. “I am curious, though—why only the solo stuff?” 

“I’m not against the idea of filming with a partner. It just hasn’t happened,” Steve explains, his hand gesturing vaguely in the air. “It would have to be someone I trust. Turns out, that’s a very small list of people.” 

The weed must be starting to really kick in, because Argyle doesn’t even really remember why he asked in the first place, doesn’t think twice before he lets slip, “You trust me, don’t you?” 

He doesn’t even realize the implication of what he said, his already-short attention span even more of a mess. Not even when Steve considers him for a long few seconds, eyes giving Argyle a once over that, if it had been anyone else—and if Argyle’s self-awareness hadn’t gone out the window—would’ve made it obvious he was being checked out. Maybe because it’s Steve, and because they’re already friends, but it doesn’t make him feel uncomfortable like it normally does, put on the spot when he can tell someone’s eyeing him up. 

It’s just Steve, and he’s just looking. 

“Yeah, I trust you,” Steve says finally, his head lifting slightly so he can slide his own arm under it, the picture of comfort and ease. “If you want to, then yeah, I’m down. We’d just both have to get tested first—safety and all that important shit.” 

“We—huh,” Argyle mumbles aloud, his eyes blinking like that’ll clear away the clouds hovering over his thoughts. It takes a second, but he remembers the earlier parts of the conversation eventually, his mouth dropping open just a bit. “Oh—” Argyle’s mind seems to pause completely while he grasps for words to say. It takes him an embarrassingly long time to come up with anything. “I think maybe I shouldn’t be high for this conversation.” 

[aphfanficwriters]

Every month we will pose a question and collate responses as a fun and informal little exercise in getting to know each other and spark discussion. This month's question is:

“What genre do you most enjoy writing?”

Tama / @delgumofics: I like to write horror and comedy. Both those things are fun and they really appeal to my interests. Generally when I'm watching movies I gravitate toward those genres as well.

Lacy: I shall categorise my favourite genre to write under the umbrella term of drama. My interests span across too much spectrum, however I notice that I enjoy writing characters narratives towards the scenarios I present in the stories. It is enjoyable, to act almost like a God, and they can act and be whatever I want them to.

Eru / @eruverse: I think I’ve not written under any genre but slice of life? I already love writing domestic situations but slice of life serves me well as it provides a neutral setting for me to explore characters and their interactions. Basically, my whole shtick is character building, and I find that you don’t really need complex plots to effectively do this. My characters are well rounded even in very simple mundane situations!

Mossman / @one-more-mossman: I never thought about it, but I think I usually write slice of life stories. Maybe with a dash of drama. They are small, so I guess, they can be called miniatures.

Didi / @teaedon: What I write the most tends to be Drama, Comedy, or both, with more focus in characters interiority over plots. Sometimes Angst, often Horror, other times Slapstick or straight up bizarre (Crack). Something violent or bloody will happen ;) (or immoral, that's what fiction is for)

Yukihitomi / @arthurhonda: My favorite thing to write tends to be Romance, slice of life, and comedy. I also enjoy writing tragedies on occasion, but I have to be in the right mood (or need the right music)

Ash / Lutz: My favorite genre to write is drama 💙 I like writing characters being forced to open up as the plot progresses, writing something where "the only way out is through". But then they get a happy ever after, even if it isn't one they started out wanting 💖

WhiteWings / @smuttyandabsurd: I was leaning towards romance and drama as, well… that’s what a shippy author like me writes lol But in recent years I find that I like adding a touch of the absurdist in my fics. It’s not particularly overt nor over-the-top. I just like grounding some of the more fanciful characteristics of the romance/drama genre with something a bit silly. I like comments that point out the slightly absurd moments in my fics, I feel like it has succeeded in standing out then.

Prush / @proosh: Erotica and horror are my passions, because I find they've got a not insigificant overlap. I love horror lurking in the background of eroticism, and I love the eroticism that comes with horror. Interpersonal intimacy is something intriguing and frightening in equal measure and sometimes the author needs to be the scalpel peeling back the narrative flesh to dissect it.

Fed / @fedpawstered: Disturbia, erotica.. usually the two meshed into one strange little amalgamation. I like freakay stuff what can I say

@folightening: Definitely fantasy. I've always loved fantasy, and I enjoy not having to worry about how realistic things are while I'm writing. My favorite thing to focus on is the characters and their relationship to each other but I'm not sure what exactly that falls under. And I've been very interested in trying to write horror recently.

Rui / @reodo: I think my favourite thing to write is probably slice of life? I like writing stories with ensemble casts and lots of drama. Separately, I also like writing Erotica! pwp is super fun to write (especially since I don't have to think too hard about it!)

Sicily: I'd say horror or 'crackfic' (i don't know if it is a genre), and its just fun to do like a horror story with aph Germany x Shrek, oh and erotica even if I'm not good!

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Hey Michelle! Can I ask #11, #17, #20, #47 for our little ask game? 😘

Ooooh these are great questions! 🥰

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

In general I'd call myself a "semi" researcher. Sometimes I go really in-depth with it, others I will allow myself a bit of leeway. I'll say fics that tend to have a more medical situation I try to do more research on. For example, Not Losing You deals with Dean having cancer and I was extremely nervous about getting the details right. A part of that story deals with Dean needing a bone marrow transplant and I discovered that patients that have the procedure done have a ~60% survival rate 1 year post transplant (when you factor in a bunch of stuff like non-familiar donors). It's a risky procedure for sure. It's not a guarantee but if you make it that far, your odds increase with each year and many people end up living full life spans without recurrence. Science has always been incredibly interesting to me so I love discovering facts like that.

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

That's a tough one. I'm limiting myself to Dean stuff for this just so it doesn't take me five years to dig through a 1,000 fics 😂

From Love Her (because the whole story builds towards this):

“I want my dad,” you said. “I’m sorry Y/N but you can’t see your dad right now,” he said. “Why not?” you asked. “Well it’s a little dangerous and-” “I want my dad. I want Dean,” you said, staring up at him. “I want to see my dad.”

From Broken Like Me (because this story deals heavily with body image issues and this moment is a turning point for the reader):

“How can you say that,” you said, trying to pull his hands away from your face but failing. “I’m not pretty without the scar and with it I’m hideous.” “Agree to disagree,” he said, sliding a hand up, tracing over the skin. “I know you hate this but I love it.” “Why?” you asked, fighting back another round of sniffles. “It means you’re alive. I got a chance to meet you and now I get to be with you,” he said. “I wish you could see that and it’s okay that you don’t. Maybe someday you will.”

From Unconventional (because the SASS on this girl is some of my favorite):

“Yes, Mr. Carter?” “That is a beautiful collar,” he said. “I suppose. I like yours too,” you said. “I’m not wearing a collar, Omega.” “My mistake. I see you wearing that tie and my little Omega brain goes someone left your leash on you,” you said, giving him a smile. Dean bit down a smile as you picked up your lemonade, John smirking as Mr. Carter cleared his throat. “If you were my Omega, I’d have you muted,” said Carter. “If I were your Omega, I’d off myself,” you said.

Okay, last one from 39 Hours because it just sets the tone of who Dean is and his goals so fast (and explains the title):

“A case goes cold after the first 48 hours statistically. Out here in the small town environment, I put that at 45. You were taken from your home at approximately 2:30 this morning. You escaped the vehicle you were in approximately twenty minutes later, did a combination of hiding and running for the next several hours until you worked your way back to town where at such time authorities were called. You were taken back to the scene at which point it was determined that my guy is the one that took you. It took me another two hours to get here, twenty minutes of getting up to speed and it’s already 8:45 so I’ve really only got 38 hours and 45 minutes left,” said Dean, glancing over at you. “How much more of my time would you like to waste?”

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

This is a tough one. I love so many of them but there's something about a good enemies to lovers. There's immediate angst and conflict to play with naturally from the characters on top of the plot. A lot of my favorite stories I've written have that theme I've noticed without even realizing.

47. what story are you most proud of?

Much like you, the stories that get a big emotional response or people have told me have helped them through a bad day or time mean the absolute world to me. This isn't necessarily the story I'm most proud of because it's hard to pick just one but The Game (Dean x reader) comes to mind.

I'm known for my happy endings and I basically wrote a story where I open with Dean is dead and the reader is grieving which is soooo not my writing style. I'm not a crier and I was crying writing this one. I got comments from people like myself that I know also aren't that way and there's something giddy about making the stone-faced readers sob 😂 But this story also feels real, like it could have easily happened in the show and is something Dean would have done. This is one I highly recommend!

Thanks for the questions Zep! This took me down memory lane looking at old fics again! 💕

[incorrectcoldflashblog]

For the Fanfic Writer Emoji ask, ⛔️ and ✅

Hi, friend! Thank you so much for asking <3

-> Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

Yes, I’ve mentioned before that the very first fic I started writing for Coldflash was a Genie AU, which was a fusion of canon and AU where Barry is The Flash and Len is a 5000-year-old genie. I wanted to subvert the master/genie trope because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if your masters are kind or cruel, they’re still trying to master you. So I was going to have Barry choose to free Len without making any wishes—and then of course everything would’ve gone to shit with Len being hit with an ancient curse and just being. the most ungrateful, bitchy house guest you’ve ever met XD I did have quite a bit of it written down as well as a general outline, but then I realized how gigantic this project was actually getting and kinda talked myself out of actually trying to post it. It was a very low slow burn spanning several years and I just didn’t think many people would be interested, and I also didn’t think I’d be able to stick with it to the end. Which was probably the right call considering how long it’s taking me to finish the Vegas fic, which is like 1/10th of the length ;-;

-> What’s something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don’t mean to?

Hmm, good question. I’ve written one of them or both getting plastered or drugged a total of four times now so maybe that, haha.

I think one theme that comes back often in my fics is Barry being wantonly tender and having no idea of the havoc he’s wrecking on Len’s heart. That’s definitely intentional, though XD Like, Barry does something impossibly soft and tender because he’s just such an affectionate soul and Len's whole brain starts spinning inside his head like a top, and he’s drawn to it but has no idea what to do with it. That’s the stuff, right there. Not even big gestures, just, Barry kisses Len’s palm or strokes his cheek, and Len’s like, there was wild tenderness, it’s unspeakable.

Also I can never let them be together on the first try, they have to fight a little about it first, as a treat. It’s both intentional and unintentional, as I sometimes feel like it makes my writing repetitive and yet I’m absolutely incapable of not doing it. There’s always gotta be a fight scene or a temporary break-up. I see myself doing it and I’m like, don’t do it this time, switch it up a little, but the problem is that I like writing them fighting or breaking up, haha, it’s my favorite except for writing them kissing, and in any case it’s so satisfying to bring them back together ;)

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

[likesunsetorange]

how do you go about plotting your stories? :P

i always say that i’m a bit of a chaotic planner! i mention it a lot, but i have severely bad adhd, so things with me are a bit of organized chaos (except with the zine, i run that shit like the fucking marines man).

so basically since it starts off chaotic, i tend to kind of brain dump all my ideas into my doc (i use notion for planning), so like all the potential plot points scene ideas i may want, and then i tend to order them in a way that makes sense chronologically!

for one shots, i’ll be a bit more detailed bc i don’t do a lot of extra planning outside of my outline since it’s ONLY the one shot, but sometimes it’s even as simple as this! (from the wedding planner x baker au)

it’s not very eloquently written bc it’s just for me, so i don’t waste time making sure it’s in full sentences lol, it’s like me talking to myself! so i just write a bit chaotic lol but it’s what i find works for me, and im able to fill in the gaps! and here’s another example LOL (a spoiler sorta from the cowboy x model au!) like i said, they’re severely unserious, but it’s what works for me!! but this is how i do my one shot ones, just bc i outline them in their entirety and im not writing full length sentences i don’t have fucking time for that with my minimal attention span having ass 😭

BUT! for the e2l au and the bodyguard au!! i definitely did a lot more planning which is why it’s taken me so much longer to put them out 😭 with dol, which i’ve emphasized MANY times, i wrote it for shits and giggles and so i was like oh! like i should’ve been a bit more organized, which for the most part i’ve done PRETTY well, considering i wasn’t initially but i definitely wanted to be more prepared with these two!!

so for both of the fics, i have them set up like this! there’s three little sections and i can kinda explain how i organized each one!

outline: that’s the overall fic outline, i basically started it how i mentioned above, i brain dumped all my ideas and then made it into a mostly cohesive chronological order! for multi chapter fics tho i get rlly overwhelmed tho if i super intensely outline bc sometimes i change my mind, so i have a MOSTLY SOLID idea of the overall plot give or take some minor decisions (which is why the whole first kiss thing in the bodyguard au i said i wasn’t 100% sure on yet bc i could still change my mind lol). so i outline chapter by chapter going based off the overall big outline, and choosing from the scenes i wanted to do, and maybe any ideas y’all suggest too! so like some things ARE subject to change, but like for sure most things (like in dol the whole fire thing) i ALWAYS know would happen

details: for both fics, to make sure i kept the characterizations consistent, i wrote down everything about eren and mikasa and their character goals and traits for both au’s! and then specifically for the e2l au, i wrote out their feelings and thoughts about the breakup and how they both thought about one another as to make sure i kept those consistent!!! when writing mc fics it’s really easy to kind of stray away from characterization (at least for me bc i write a bunch of stuff at once) so i wanted to make sure i had something to refer to if i ever needed to!!

extras: bc i realized i enjoyed having quotes/chapter titles, i basically pre chose all of those just to save myself some time later on bc im indecisive as fuck lol so if was to help future me

basically i think everyone has a super different process!! i love hearing about all my writer moots writing processes bc we’re all really different! some of my moots have very detailed processes which i admire, bc im not like that at all, but i’ve found this works for me and the way my brain works! it’s a mix of organization but not in a way that stresses me out or overwhelms me!

but also sometimes like the cabin fic i’ll just say to hell with it write a fic on a whim and not plan for shit except knowing i wanna write those five individual scenes so im nothing if not a mess also, but yea sorry for talking your ear off, i always say being concise is not something i can ever do LOL i hope this answers your question tho!! 😭

and i provided some snippets for you bodyguard au and e2l au readers too!!

[darlingpoppet]

i love wtdf so much!! how is the writing process and how far out have you planned the chapters?

Hi anon!! Aww thanks so much for your ask, you made my day! I’m really happy to hear you’re enjoying the story and also that you’re allowing me the opportunity to talk about the process :D

I’m normally kind of a pantser (or plantser?) when writing most of my oneshot fics—that is, at most I jot down only a vague concept that captures the vibe of what I want the story to be about, and then the rest of it comes together during the actual writing process.

Since WTDF is the very first time I’ve ever attempted a serialized longfic, I did not feel confident at all in my ability to completely go with the flow and find the story as I went along, especially with all the elements I’m attempting to juggle at once. In addition to the slowburn romance, I really wanted to include the sorts of tropes & techniques I love in stories, such as foreshadowing/chekov’s guns, unreliable narrators, uncovering a mystery, re-readability, stuff like that! (Chapter 1 especially is like, Foreshadowing: The Chapter and pretty much every detail about it has or is gonna become relevant in some shape or form later on lol!)

Admittedly idk how successful my execution will be so I don’t wanna oversell it too much, but if any of you out there enjoy looking for clues and theory crafting, fwiw that is absolutely something you can do with this fic ;D One of the reasons I was really excited about posting chapter 7 is because it was an opportunity to really start flexing those muscles and let a few planted things pay off… so if you liked that, there’s gonna be plenty more where that came from! ;3c

So anyway, all that to say I did a lot of planning for this story and in the broad strokes, I have the entire thing planned out all the way from start to finish. It’s not quite meticulous bullet points scene by scene though, that’s not my style—I’m still a bit of a plantser in that chapters & scenes are outlined at most with general vague summaries and maybe a few stated goals (there are some spots where I have to put stuff like “be sure to mention Thing A here which will be relevant to Scene B later on!”) and stuff keeps getting added and shuffled around (upcoming chapter 8 for example was a relatively late addition to the story and was split off from chapter 7 only a few months ago because I decided I really wanted to go whole hog with this particular episode lol.) I originally thought this story would be around 100k, which was already much longer than I envisioned, but now I’m certain that it’ll be at least twice that length, and I’m resigned now to the fact that this project is gonna continue be a big part of my life for at least the next year or two XD

That all said, I still wasn’t confident enough to start posting with just a roadmap, and I spent the last two NaNoWriMos in a row trying to lay down as much track ahead of the train as possible. As of right now, between published and unpublished bits over the span of the entire story, I think I have about half of the prose written.

On that note, my process for writing an individual chapter at this point seems to be: 1) write as much prose for the rough draft as I possibly can (or in other words, filling the box with as much sand as possible); then 2) I copy the individual scene documents on scrivener into a fresh single “second draft/editing” doc, where I 3) try to fashion it into something more refined, until I ???? and then 4) PROFIT/end up with the finished final draft.

This middle process takes A WHILE because I’m usually adding as much as prose as I’m taking away; and I’m often inspired to take more outline notes or skip ahead to write a bit of prose for something further down the line; I’m referencing my notes, referencing past & future chapters to make sure everything is staying consistent, doing new research; and I’m always trying really hard to be careful & particular about how I’m wording things… I often have several alternate wordings or sentences in every paragraph that I spend a long time swapping between and fussing over lol. And even then I often step away several times during the process to let the words marinate for a while. So if you’re wondering why it usually takes me about two months on average to complete a chapter, that’s why haha (even longer if god forbid I get blocked like I did with Chapter 4 oooughhhh). I’m sure many can relate! I still feel like I’m particularly slow though, and it’s only been getting harder as my story grows more intricate XD But I’m also having tons of fun with it!

I think the other thing that has helped me chill out a bit is keeping in mind that AO3 works are editable and so I can always just go back and fix stuff if, worst case scenario, I accidentally write myself into a corner or something like that haha. (Hopefully that won’t ever be necessary though!) I have already occasionally gone back to quietly tweak wordings or add a sentence or two that help keep the earlier published chapters consistent with the later ones (for example, I recently decided to stick with using the anachronistic term of “Greeks” rather than “Achaeans”, since it’s more consistent with Hadesgame naming conventions and ultimately this is a Hadesgame-verse fic.)

I think right now my biggest source of anxiety with this story is over how well I’m executing the pacing… whether or not I’m revealing things too soon/not soon enough, or whether or not the flashbacks are enhancing or undermining the momentum in the present story, especially the slowburn—it seems to me like the sort of thing where I can’t really anticipate at all how it’s gonna come across until I’m able to reread the complete story, haha. But I guess I also tell myself that I’m doing my best to order it in the most impactful way possible… and hopefully y’all are enjoying it too, so far :) I recently expressed this in an updated fic summary, but this story is now fully a three-in-one Hades fic: a canon divergence AU, a canon-compliant pre-canon story, and a mostly complete Iliad retelling with a Hadesverse spin… so the final word count is gonna reflect all that.

Thanks so much again for your ask! I’m delighted & eager to discuss my stories or Patrochilles or Hadesgame or the Iliad or anything else tangentially related to those topics any time, so my ask box is always open <3

[marvelandponder]

💖 📥 🖊 🌝 📝 🤔 💻 💭

Hahaha! You're going all in, huh? Thanks for the interest! Fanfic Ask Game! I'll save the snippet for last so it can live after a cut! 💖 What do you like most about your own writing? Answered this one but since you asked, only fair to answer again! Let's see, another thing... I love when my stories have good set-up and pay-off. Bevin and I love to joke that my favourite word is consequences - it's so satisfying when you get to see little seeds grow into something bigger, or something from earlier on be recontextualized into something new! Timber sure is Sunset's new best friend :D

📥 What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on? Currently, Empathy for the Devil, since it's the most recently released and Bevin and I worked the hardest on it. But that answer's probably gonna change when we start releasing The Ex Files, so I guess whatever's most recent! 🌝 Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to? Also answered, but again, only fair to give you a different answer! Someone else I'd love to write for is probably Pinkie. She's so fun and great when I've written her as a non-perspective character, I'm real excited to write in her POV! 📝 What is one growth area you have for your writing? Scene vs. summary! I actually tend towards a lot of scene, but don't summarize spans of time very often I've also been working on subtlety in my show vs tell. I'm trying to play around with language more since it didn't really come naturally to me as much as dialogue did! 🤔 What is the hardest part of writing fic? Answered, but I bet I've got another one! Perfectionism. Sometimes, that's with the prose itself. Now, it's just being satisfied with the number of hours I get to spend writing per week. It's still a ton, but I have to fight the perfectionism demon who lives in my basement. He's a nasty one 💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done? I do! I was researching little things just this morning! The deepest dive has maybe been reading actual research papers on brain chemistry cross-referenced with the Greek forms of love. Ironically, what the characters techno-babble about in that story (which also involved mechanical engineering) is way less researched than the thematic stuff! The Ex Files is gonna be a really fun time! 💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work? Aww, I like this question! It's actually a tough one because I usually end up writing my headcanons into stories, so it's tough not to give away too many spoilers. Here's a small one: Sunset came out to see Timber sometime after Empathy. They hung out and had a besties weekend watching too many sitcoms, and ended up bonding over a really embarrassing one from like the 80s. It's their show now. 🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

Loathing. Unadulterated loathing is what it was.

“He thinks he’s so great,” Sunset grumbled into her punch, “...just because he kind of is. What an asshole.”

“Is he actually? You think he’s secretly a big dumb jerkface?”

“No,” Sunset sighed, disappointed. She had her arms folded save for the cup of punch in her left hand. “I’ve been scoping him out ever since camp. I know he’s clear of Equestrian magic and all, but I wanted to see if he was really as good as he seems for Twilight. And the fucker’s as big of a dork as he seems. Who’s like that? Drives me nuts.”

“You too?” Flash slapped his chest. “Oh wow, I thought it was just me! I’ve been getting weird vibes off that guy since we met him!”

More specifically, since canoeing lessons out on the lake when Timber’s shirt got wet and he pulled the sopping wet fabric off revealing a pristine six pack. Worthy of a fitness magazine, probably even better than what Flash had… once. Flash couldn’t stop staring the whole time they were out on the water, and it made Timber’s whole Charming, Able to Socialize With Everyone All the Time Super Easily routine that much more aggravating. 

Sunset really looked at him as if she hadn’t quite noticed there was anything in the room except Timber Spruce. “Dude, seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously! I hate that guy!”

Sunset lit up. “He’s the worst!” 

They clinked their plastic cups together. 

“Oh my god, okay, I’m not crazy here! I hate Timber and his stupid, perfect, handsome⁠—”

“What?”

“What?” 

Sunset stared at him, interested all of the sudden. More so than she’d been in a long time. He didn’t entirely feel like he was in on the joke, and he was almost nervous the longer she looked him over. She smiled that halfway smile of hers. “I missed you, dude.” 

 “Missed you, too.” He nudged her shoulder with his drink hand. He didn’t want that to sound like a come on, because it wasn’t, so he said the dumbest thing that came to mind (which also happened to be the first). “Good for you, moving on. Kind of, I guess. I didn’t know you had a thing for Twilight.”

Sunset’s eyes seized open and she shoved her hand over his mouth, shuffling the both of them over to the side of the room, landing them in front of the buffet table with all the fancy stuff his mom set out. She threw a glance over her shoulder and then shushed him again for good measure. “Dude! Not so loud!”

“O-oh! Okay, yeah, sorry,” he came down to her vocal level, and her height, caught up in her conspiracy. “It’s just. Seems kind of obvious. You know, with the whole⁠—” He would have gestured to all of her, but that wasn’t accurate. Just difficult to make a hand gesture to the numbered going on countless little nervous tics that Sunset once had around him that she’d been rocking around Twilight now. So he gestured to all of her. “Thing you do.”

That was unfair, and he knew it. Could have been twenty different things, especially to anybody not in the know. He just had insider information. 

“Yeah? Well, nobody else knows, okay? And I’m trying really hard to keep it that way.” While checking her back to see if anybody would overhead, Sunset got distracted with Twilight laughing nervously across the room and Timber swinging an arm over her shoulders. She grimaced. “She’s happy. And she worked really hard to get there. She deserves it. They both do, I guess, so I don’t want to be the one to ruin that.”

“Uh-huh, of course.” Flash’s eyebrows lifted. “But, it’s killing you not to go Old Sunset on their asses, huh?”

Sunset scrubbed her eyes and muffled a moan that mimicked a sob in her the palms of her hands. 

He clapped her shoulder and picked up a plate of pre-cut cake to offer out to her. “I think this one is chocolate.”

[enbyboiwonder]

any combo of these for the fic writers ask? ❤️👻🏷👓😎💛💌 (also, hope you're doing well!)

I think I’m doing probably so-so (though I was doing better before this disgrace of a website reloaded the tab when I was 95% finished answering this and I had to restart from scratch—I am salty). I dunno how long it’ll last, especially since it’s not simply a periodic downswing, but oh well. I think playing Neverwinter Nights (and fantasizing about if not always writing Hero/Tomi fic) might be helping though, or at any rate, it ain’t hurting.

Send me fanfic author questions!

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

The reason it took me so long to answer this—at least, before this sorry excuse of a website decided to delete everything I’d written because apparently autosaving to drafts is a thing for every type of post except ask responses—was that I had to go back and reread all (well, almost all; some of them I’d rather like to pretend don’t exist and either A. I’m still undecided on whether to orphan or not, or B. I can’t orphan them because they’re part of a series) the fics on my account. Is it weird that my fics don’t really stick in my head that long? Even when I don’t all but block them out. Anyway, it might be…

He feels safe—god, he feels like home.

from Don’t Tell Me Where the Road Ends (MacGyver 2016, macdalton). It’s not anything fancy or eloquent or anything, but idk, I still like it.

Or maybe…

He watches with poorly concealed amusement as Chika seems to work his way through all five stages of grief and back in the span of about two seconds.

from The Shape of Soup (2.43, yunichika)

(Yeah, I had difficulty choosing, so the rest—and the rest of the questions—will be going under the cut for length vvv)

Or even…

Somewhere along the way, his admiration has turned from jealousy to want—from wanting to be him to just wanting him.

the line that birthed not to remain as just a wish (2.43, odaoki)

Or possibly, since I feel like I should have one that is imagery-type/more poetic/(would it be conceited to call it eloquent?)…

His whole body is alight with the fizz of cider close beneath the surface of his skin, overflowed from the cavity of his chest to spill down his limbs and climb up his throat, pooling and sparking in all the places that Mao touched him like senkou hanabi, like miniature fireworks all their own, the brightest of all where Mao's fingers are still tangled with his, and it's wonderful and overwhelming at once.

from candy-apple red (Girls Blue, kisaragi/mao)

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

I don’t think I have any tbh? My headcanons all tend to be more the run-of-the-mill type and/or generally accepted fanon and/or stuff extrapolated from them being clearly ADHD and/or autistic. They’re small things, like Yuni liking spicy foods but being unable to handle sour stuff while Chika loves both, or Nao liking space but not particularly caring for sci-fi, even sci-fi that’s set in space. In fact, both of those I came up with while writing the fics they show up in lmao (Lemon Squash and 流星群, respectively. Though, technically, Chika liking lemons—with the sort-of implication that Yuni doesn’t—showed up in The Shape of Soup, but that was just lemons.)

🏷️ Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?

I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a content tag outside of when I was trying to see how to do something while attempting to write smut. It’s never really worked out. Even when I think I’ve figured something out, it all flew out of my head as soon as I opened my own fic. At least I prefer writing non-smutty fics, or this would be a much bigger problem than it is lmao

No, usually what I’ll do is just go into a ship (or character) tag and filter out any tag I come across that I don’t want to read.

👓 What helps you focus when you write?

Music, though that’s also just a general thing. Typically I’ll just listen to whatever I’m already listening to (which for the past few years has mostly been the 2.43 OST), but if I’ve got a specific song or set of songs in mind for a fic, I’ll generally listen to that instead. Sometimes when I’m rewriting a canon scene or writing something that includes one, I’ll just leave the show playing in the background once I’m done with it. (That’s actually how one of my 2.43 rewatches happened lmao, though I guess it only half counts.)

Of course, sometimes my brain will focus on that instead…

Yeah, I haven’t figured out how to reliably hack my ADHD. Mostly I just hope I’ll slip into hyperfocus (and then hope I’ll manage to finish it while I am, but that only very, very rarely happens. Normally I’ll come out of my daze to find I’ve added like 1600 words and I’ve got no idea how to write the missing bits).

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?

It depends on my mood tbh. Also how much I hate canon (though it can make for some delicious angst, depending on why I hate it). But most of my fics end up being canon compliant, or at least not canon uncompliant, so I guess when it comes to writing, it would be that? Though I do also accumulate my fair share of AUs (but then, most of those are Canon AUs of one sort or another…)

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

I’m not so sure I’ve learned anything, and certainly not anything impactful, except that I have zero idea how to describe emotions. That, and it’s obnoxious af when people use epithets for the POV character. I can’t believe I used to do that. It makes me what to crawl into a hole and die in shame. Like, what someone/something is referred to in the narrative is how your POV character thinks of them! Your MC can’t be “the other man”—he’s the man! Everyone else is “the other” in reference to him! (That’s probably also why I’ve gravitated more consistently toward referring to the POV character by their given name, though I’ll still use surnames sometimes—and not just when we never learned their given name.)

💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?

I tend to prefer writing Pre-Relationship/Feelings Realization/Getting Together/First Kiss stuff over Established Relationship stuff, but I’m not so sure any of those are tropes. Wait, what does count as a trope. Cuz I also love Fluff (particularly the sappy stuff—I’ve had several turn out way sappier than originally intended) and Angst and Hurt/Comfort about equally, but I feel like those are closer to genres than tropes…

Hmm, well, I do love Character x Their Significant Annoyance (A finds B annoying/frustrating/exasperating/baffling/etc. but is still inexplicably fond of them anyway), and I feel like a lot of the fics I’ve written are for pairings with that dynamic, so let’s just go with that, shall we?

I’m also a sucker for tropes in the Fake Dating to Real Dating/Didn’t Realize They Were Dating/Practice Kissing area, though I haven’t finished very many of those, and I also love Crossdressing (particularly sticking unfeminine men in women’s clothing and/or guys just casually wearing women’s clothes), but I haven’t finished any of those, either. Granted, some of those involve smut, which could explain it, but it’s not like all of them do. Half or less.

Plus there’s The Italicized Oh, and I love sticking those sorts of moments into my pre-relationship fics, even if there is no actual italicized “oh.” Just—the yearning. I’m an absolute sucker.

[phoenixtakaramono]

So, as you know, TNotG will have 135 chapters spanning 6 arcs + the return to Billy’s OG world in the prologue (because, it has to be seven, y’get the reference?). Think of it as 6 Butchlander AUs that tie together in a bigger overarching narrative. I do have some logic regarding the order of these arcs (aka why it’s these worlds and why it has to be in this specific order of arcs). Mostly the reason is because I love reading certain genres in my free time so writing a QT presents this writer the opportunity to try out a couple of them, to experiment. Also with The Boys being an unfinished TV series as of 2023 with S4 projected to air in maybe 2024, my logic was: I have to make it a series of AUs, otherwise I’ll feel discouraged after seeing what’ll probably be canonized in S4, S5–? Basically I’m thinking of ways to keep my motivation alive to keep writing this 135ch QT. By then, I will have enough time to have seen the direction the TV has gone in for S4 and maybe S5, so I can make a decision then of how to “fix it” for the penultimate arc.

The reason why we’re starting off in the medieval fantasy genre first for Task World 1 for The Name of the Game:

The smart answer: it’s the genre I’m known for in my AO3 portfolio (pseudohistorical romance, really, if we truly condense everything I’ve written down)—so why not start off strong with what I know? I can confidently riff off the Western medieval fantasy tropes that we see in Game of Thrones, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Witcher, etc to make a subtly fun and meta deconstruction of the tropes we’d expect from Western fairytales and fantasies. I want to satirize the whole knight in shining armor coming to save the kidnapped princess from the evil dragon trope—and I can make it fit Homelander and Billy.

And a bit of a truth potion: the small lizard hindbrain part of me wants to see the knight version of Homelander getting stuffed on Billy’s two dragon d*cks 🫣 and growing obsessed with his mount *snicker* to the point of overthrowing the kingdom he once loyally served in a dramatic twist of irony.

The reason why I decided to make arc 2 a dystopian horror/ survival game:

The smart answer: The previous genre is medieval fantasy—so I wanted something from the left field to take Billy by surprise. The Task World difficulty level is suppose to ramp up, so Arc 1 is the easiest for Billy because he gets to LARP as a motherf*cking dragon and Arc 2 is also easy because Billy excels at high intense stressful situations i.e. survival horror death matches. So it’s still difficult—but I get to throw him into a new environment with very familiar faces but the circumstances are now different (a different alternate reality) so it’s a different challenge awaiting him. I can show off Billy’s badassness and smarts in a different situation—and have the John of this new universe react to him.

Truth potion: Infinite Flow/ Unlimited Flow is one of my favorite C-novel genres. The Earth is Online is one of my all-time favorites, as well as I Became a God in a Horror Game, Kaleidoscope of Death, Global Examination, Supernatural Movie Actor App, Thriller Trainee, Welcome to the Nightmare Live, etc. I eat these easily 100+ to 300+ chaptered novels for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We’re combining what I love with dystopian horror because I wanna playfully poke fun of the popular Western (YA usually) dystopian survival horror tropes (think Cabin in the Woods, Hunger Games, V for Vendetta, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Saw, Squid Game) and combine that by making it a death game. There’s so much crazy sh*t we can play with—and it’d still be relatively in character for The Boys characters. I’m mostly looking forward to male model John being one of the unlucky participants either a rookie or one of the fellow popular death game streamers whom undercover MI6 Billy teams up with to solve the puzzles and the narrative twist that’ll be in this arc.

*Note: by the way, this fic does not exist yet on AO3. Wait till August (hopefully!) for the prologue’s premier!

[rockinlibrarian]

ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

This was an Ask Game Thingie from a couple weeks ago, but it's a yearly round-up thing, and Back In My Day on LiveJournal we used to pass around surveys like this and answer EVERY QUESTION, whether or not anybody Asked you any, and Year-End ones were great for, you know, wrapping up the year, and ultimately led me to writing full Year-End Wrap-up Posts that span a ton of different categories-- this year's coming later this week! So I've gone and filled out this whole thing because it's MY year-end wrap up and I can do it my way and have it on my blog like so!

How many words have you written this year? The word count on AO3 for 2022 says 51,282, but I assume this includes ALL the words of “Exploration of the Astral Plane” still even though only 3 of the seven chapters were actually published this year, and most of those were also WRITTEN last year. Likewise, I’ve WRITTEN a whole lot of words this year that have not been published yet (and will they ever be, one wonders?) So, grain of salt it.

2. How many works did you publish this year? Seven total listed works. That includes three new chapters of one work I originally published last year (see previous question) and three chapters of a work I haven’t completed yet (see next question). Five self-contained works (a couple of which have two chapters, but at least I published both this year. Wait, that’s a lie: “Chapter 2” of “Everything I Know About Writing the Loudermilk Twins” is actually the essay I put in the “Memory Work” Zine a few years back). Anyway, there are seven individual titles listed under 2022 on AO3.

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? “A Captain With Seven Children”— because first off the concept is brilliant and kept getting more brilliant as I wrote, but can one really take credit for concepts, specifically considering I just happened to dream this one? But I took this seemingly-crack concept seriously, and that’s what led to bringing the inherent brilliance of it out. Secondly, it’s both so much fun and a nifty challenge to take the script of one of my favorite movies and see how it can be adapted to fit characters of a completely different time and culture and— only slightly different situation? One would think it’s a REALLY completely different situation, but the fact that it’s not SO far off after all is part of what makes it so much fun.

4. What work of yours has the most hits? “Not Just Stupid Kids,” which is ironic because I originally posted it anonymously. It would also have the most kudos if you discount what I believe is a weird glitch on somebody’s bookmark of “Chapter 19.5: Hidden. Safe. Somewhere,” which, don’t get me wrong, is a perfectly nice little fic, but it’s a throwaway interstitial thing for Legion which has a teeny fandom anyway, and there’s NO WAY it could get that many kudos naturally when there are so many better Legion fics to choose from. Apparently if you’re not signed in, you can kudo as a guest as many times as you want? And there’s one guest I believe has been through all my Legion fics multiple times this year, and kudoed them every time. But perhaps every time they open the link to “Chapter 19.5” it automatically kudos it again. This is the only sensible explanation.

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? CLEARLY “Not Just Stupid Kids,” considering, like I said, I first posted it ANONYMOUSLY. Normally I post a ton of links on social media when I post something on AO3, “Hey everybody, come READ WHAT I WROTE!” but since I was embarrassed by that one (it’s a non-canon ship! I don’t DO those!) I didn’t. And somehow THAT one took off completely. I pondered, is it because it’s a ship? People follow specific ships? But the non-anonymous sequel has gotten a fraction of the reaction. Which can only lead me to conclude one thing: MAYBE IT’S ME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE.

6. Favorite title you used: Hmmm. I’m kind of torn: I liked coming up with a Community-formatted title, but I couldn’t decide between “Introduction to Eternal Crossover” and “Introduction to Infernal Crossover” so I combined the two, but I actually like either of the two separately better than the combination I went with in the end. So it’s more like my favorite potential title. I’m also strangely fond of “High on a Roof Stood a Lonely Seven,” which is the next chapter of “A Captain With Seven Children,” but is, barring miracles, not going to be actually posted until 2023.

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? Speaking of which, that would be Rodgers and Hammerstein. And that only because I’m specifically parodying “Sound of Music” lyrics. I hadn’t noticed that so many people name their stories and chapters after song lyrics until after I made this decision, and now I’m like, Come ON, at least MINE is a DIRECT reference to the story I’m writing.

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Fiktor, ie Five and Viktor Hargreeves, ie the ONLY pairing I wrote this year, with a grand total of TWO. Non-canonical and should be completely ridiculous, so basically both fics are me trying to work out WHY the heck I love the concept of them together so much.

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Well that goes without saying, then, doesn’t it?

10. What work was the quickest to write? If Scrivener history is to believed, I created the file for “Not Just Stupid Kids” —called “Unrelated Fiktor”— on July 31, and according to AO3, I published the first part (which I thought would be the whole thing) on August 1, so apparently I really WAS just trying to get it out of my system. I ended up adding “chapter” 2 on August 8, which ties it at 8 days with “Intro to Eternal/Infernal Crossover.”

11. What work took you the longest to write? “Exploration of the Astral Plane,” which according to my Scrivener history I started writing on 3/29/2020, and finally finished in September this year. Granted, it’s also seven chapters long, but I also apparently started writing the last chapter on 3/15/2021. That last chapter was close to finished for a very long time. It was just the penultimate chapter that was taking so long.

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year? Well, I count six unfinished stand-alones in Scrivener, and a couple more in Word (those are the OLD ones), and two multi-chapters that have already started being posted but just need to be finished. But whether they’ll specifically happen NEXT YEAR? We’ll see.

13. What’s your longest work of the year? Technically “Exploration of the Astral Plane” at 13,008 words, but not all those words were published this year. Only 5,417 words were, and about a third of those were written last year. So “A Captain With Seven Children” steals with 11,371 words published so far, and that’s only halfway done.

14. What’s your shortest work of the year? “Introduction to Infernal and Eternal Crossover” at 1,263, which edges out “Chapter 19.5” by 7 words.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you? Is this a different question from #12?

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? “Backstory”— this is true both for this year and total. Some people write fanfiction to imagine characters’ futures— I tend to write it to figure out their pasts. Go figure.

17. Your favorite character to write this year? I was going to say Oliver Bird out of force of habit and then I realized I haven’t actually written much for Oliver this year, considering he was unconscious for most of it.* My real answer when I think of it is probably Hypnos God of Sleep, but I haven’t actually finished that fic yet, even though it was supposed to be a quickie (it’s almost done! But LIFE happened). As for characters that aren’t basically OCs (yes I didn’t invent Hypnos, but I did invent his personality for my story), writing the Hargreeveses as children is always fun. Peeling back the later influences on their personalities to the roots of who they are, including things that hint at future developments— and also they’re funny. *I just re-read Chapter 6 of “Exploration,” which is the one chapter I wrote ENTIRELY this year, and Oliver actually spends a good portion of that awake and active and delightful, for probably about as many lines as Hypnos, so maybe he counts after all.

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? Huh. I guess I avoid writing characters that I can’t hear clearly in the first place. I can’t think of anyone whose voice I couldn’t get right or anything, if I can be as bold to claim that. Approaching the question from a different angle, Viktor Hargreeves. Dang his self-esteem issues. They were simultaneously “yes I relate very much to this feeling of Complete Nobody-ness, therefore it’s all too easy to write��� and “UGH would you STOP already and just believe what Five and/or Maria depending on the fic is trying to TELL you?!” And as it turned out, the moment of this that bothered me the most was the same moment my beta reader Frimfram* called out, too, which just goes to show, if your characters are annoying you, they’re probably also annoying the reader. Oh, and he also has the added challenge of not realizing he was trans until he was 29 and a half, which makes the fact that I write a lot of childhood stuff an odd balancing act of pronouns. *(OH WAIT, she's on Tumblr, as @amperdash! Hi, @amperdash!)

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? Look. I didn’t INTEND to explore any pairings THIS year. I’m not a shipper! And yet, hopefully I DO finally post more of or even finish “Tesseract,” which has a lot of lovely deep married-folk discussions happening between Alex and Kate, if not overtly romantic— no, some of it IS pretty romantic, especially for Demis like me who are all about deep partnership being romantic. Hey, maybe I’ll even finish the Wash/Zoe fic I started ten years ago or something. Who knows. Oh, it’s also possible for these “pairing” questions to refer to non-ship relationships, or “&”s on AO3, but I always forget to note those, anyway. Ironic, isn’t it? I’d probably have better answers if I looked at it that way. Relatedly, do you think I should go back through my fics and add the “&” tags that apply to each? They might get more attention that way.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most? That’s a good question, and I think it’s more confusing because I reread so much WHILE I’m writing, so I’m not sure how much I reread snippets of in process and how much I read as a completed whole. Maybe “A Captain with Seven Children,” because it is fun and also I'm still writing it, too.

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year? Now, if you click 2022 on the Stats page it says 303, but I was curious, so I added up all the kudos on the seven fics I supposedly published this year, and whaddya know, 303. But the majority of the 30 kudos on “Exploration of the Astral Plane” were actually received LAST year, when the fic was first posted; and it also isn’t counting the many kudos I keep getting on “The Invitation: an Epilogue” (still holding out as my most popular fic ever) and the less-often but still coming steady “The Puppy-fly Effect” and a few other random ones on other older fics, like the guest who frequently binges the complete Loudermilk Chronicles and rekudos every one (the “Placeholder” has even gotten two kudos!); and for that matter, how can you really count the absurd extra kudos on “Chapter 19.5,” anyway? There are 80 guest kudos there and I’m certain that’s only about 5 actual individual guests. I could go back through my email notifications and add up the kudos I ACTUALLY got this year (including the random 80 guest kudos on Chapter 19.5) but that’s a bit excessive.

22. Which work has the most comments? “Not Just Stupid Kids,” clearly the most popular work published this year. Most of the comments are like “Aw, don’t let the haters who say you shouldn’t ship adoptive brothers with complicated age-issues and much mental illness force you into anonymity and shame!” and I’m like, “No, seriously, it’s not THAT part that embarrasses me, it’s the fact that they’re NON-CANONICAL and exactly the sort of pairing I would be all ‘WHY CAN’T THEY JUST BE GOOD FRIENDS?!’ about any other time! Because I am freakish this way!”

23. Did you do any collaborative works this year? No, though it was lovely beta-exchanging with @amperdash. We’d get to cheer for each other! (You can read hers here: "Seong-min Ha has Superpowers"!)

24. Did you write any gifts this year? Not unless you count our Christmas card letter.

25. Did you receive any gifts this year? Not unless you count other people’s Christmas card letters.

26. What’s your most common category? Um, Gen? Like you had to ask?

27. What do you listen to while writing? I have an “Instrumental” playlist. I posted about that before.

28. Favorite work you wrote this year? I guess “A Captain with Seven Children,” but there’s a special place in my heart for “Everything I Know About Writing the Loudermilk Twins,” because they’re forever my babies.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? I think I keep coming back to this one the most, and it’s a perfect example of why writing “A Captain with Seven Children” delights me so much. To set the mood, here is the exchange as it appears in “The Sound of Music”: Maria has just arrived at the Von Trapps’ and is pretending to dance in the ballroom when Captain Von Trapp takes her by surprise saying, “In the future, you’ll kindly remember there are certain rooms in this house which are not to be disturbed.” She nervously stutters out, “Yes, captain, sir.” Then he says, “Why do you stare at me that way?” “You don't look at all like a sea captain, sir,” she says. He bites back, “I'm afraid you don't look very much like a governess.”

Now, this functions as a meet-cute— they’re taken aback by each other, she was being whimsical (which he surely needs in his life), and she’s embarrassed, and she’s staring at him because my gosh is he handsome and she was not prepared for that. But in my story this moment is absolutely not a meet-cute, but it is a first meeting that proceeds in almost the same way. Maria, being Maria, is still going to get impatient waiting and go poking around in the house; and Reggie is very much against his office being disturbed. But she’s not going to be struck dumb by how handsome he is— she’s going to be really distracted by how anachronistic he looks— old-fashioned even for her original timeline, and that was already 60 years earlier! So anyway here’s the scene:

“In the future, you’ll kindly remember there are certain rooms in this Academy which are not to be disturbed.” Maria jumped and succeeded in just barely not knocking the contraption over. “Yes, sir, Mr. Hargreeves, sir.” She gaped at the tall, thin man in the doorway. He looked like a Victorian shipping baron, with a monocle in one eye and a graying auburn goatee, a natty three-piece suit and cane. He squinted back at her. “Sir Reginald, if you please. Why do you stare at me that way?” “Well, you don’t look at all like I imagined the adoptive father of seven children, er, in the late 1990s, would look, sir.” “And how many of us have you been previously acquainted with?” “Well…none, actually.” “So I trust you will refrain from making further assumptions.” So the scene starts out almost exactly the same, in the office instead of a ballroom, but when Maria explains why she’s staring, Reggie is just GOING to react with a bit of snooty logic. And the weird thing is, I can totally hear Christopher Plummer saying it, too. I actually had to look BACK at the Sound of Music script because I wasn’t sure, anymore, which parts I wrote and which parts were from the movie. It just FITS so freaking well.

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year? BESIDES the popularity of “Not Just Stupid Kids”? WHILE writing, hmm. How many lines you can swap between Sir Reginald Hargreeves and Captain Von Trapp without being able to tell the difference!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

LMAO REAL I can imagine him rolling off his futon and like steamrolling the rest of Team V at night

IM SO READY SHDHSHS your writing gives me life fr

Omg Yukimiya fic….thats true gotta balance out the tabieitaken distribution LOLL I feel like there’s many interesting routes you could go with…if you wanna brainstorm I’ll gladly dump my thoughts out HAHAHA

Oh my the poison dragon how could I forget (I’m NGL the multiple different outcomes of two element combos irked me like wdym I can get flower/poison or blue flame/cold fire???)

LMAOO I love the randomness of smash its so fun I lowk miss playing

Ok im just gonna smack my response to your response on the commentary here so you don’t have to go read separate asks LMAO

SHDHSHSH BRO THE MEET CUTE IM CRYING ok but when I read all the quotes from y/n with the emojis I’m imagine that like bang/boom sound from the vine soundboard LMAOOOOOO the “you have a stupid name” one is especially funny HAHAHAH

Bro the “I want you to belong to me” SOLD ME LIKE >>>>> I love it sm I love the flavor it brings *chefs kiss*

OOOOOOOOH I’m buckled in guys I’m so ready for ~10 chapters of gold (also LMAOAOA it’s funny imagine you ballpark 40k words and it ends up doubling like how fwtkac also doubled in length and ended with a 16k final I love it)

Also unrelated but I went back to read hollyhock 1 and then 2 again and in the process passed by your masterlist and decided to read seabird too and WOW (as we’ve discussed) I’m not really a Sae fan but the way you write him makes me wanna be one SHDVSHDH maybe you just sprinkle some sort of magic spice into all of your characterizations that’s by far one of the best versions of Sae I’ve seen written out there the constant “I beat you to paying” was so funny too!!! But yeah honestly I was like ykw it’s 11k words Mira must’ve cooked something again idc if I don’t like Sae we go and lo and behold you indeed cooked LMAOAOA

-Karasu anon

LMAOOO zantetsu and reo get absolutely flattened on the daily 😭 maybe that’s why reo was so insistent on scoring enough goals to get fancy beds 😩

I WILL TAKE YUKI THOUGHTS AT ANY MOMENT!! your requests have lead to greatness in the past so if you have any ideas for him i would not be opposed hehe…i agree there’s def a lot of diff ways to go with him!! truly a very versatile guy

i had to sell so many random dragons in the pursuit of getting like the really rare ones omg 😭 but yeah what they did to the poison dragon is a travesty it is SUCH a cute baby and such an ugly adult??

smash is so fun precisely because it’s so random…like what other game has bowser beating up steve from minecraft yk?? i miss playing as well all of my friends rn are mario kart players which don’t get me wrong mario kart is a blast but sometimes you just want to beat people’s little video game avatars up 😰

PLEASE OMG IT LITERALLY IS LIKE THAT like y/n saying everything completely straight faced like 😐 meanwhile karasu is like 😨😱😓 the whole time…she did not give bro a second to breathe 😫 POOR GUY SHE EVEN MADE FUN OF HIS NAME AS IF HE CHOSE THAT??? he’s lucky she didn’t say anything abt his hair fr

oh i was giggling writing that LMAOAOA…i feel too like it’s also a role reversal almost?? idk the power dynamics between them are so odd because they’re so nuanced based on their societal roles and whatnot and just when you think you have them figured out they throw another wrench in things 😩 but it adds sm more fun and flavor than just “big strong talented protective man and shy weak gentle helpless woman” imo!!

honestly i would not at all be surprised if this ends up being longer 😟 i think it just depends on how in depth i decide to go with the military stuff but honestly the plot i have planned spans several YEARS soooo expect to be in for a ride

OMG SEABIRD AHAHA that was like the first or second request i got for my event (and also ever) so i was really excited to write it even though lowkey i was like “sae 🙁⁉️” i got sooo carried away w it too (as you can tell by the 11k< word count KFJDJD) and it ended up being sm fun!! reader and sae’s relationship (as well as her little brother’s random cameos) was so silly summer cutesy so it rlly fit the vibe considering i wrote it in the end of may/beginning of june. ofc yk how i feel abt sae and the itoshi bros in general but i always try to set aside my biases when writing!! it’s my goal to write stories that you can enjoy regardless of the characters they’re for. and yes i really tried hard to characterize seabird sae as close to how i actually see his manga self!! i think his dry emotionless soccer-brained personality meshed really well w the reader’s which is probably a part of the charm he has in that story!! i’m glad you gave it a chance and ended up liking it though 💖

[neon-danger]

Tell me why I didn't make a more recent folder backup than March 10th for my SSD with all my Sims saves and mods to die on me randomly overnight about 12 days ago and only yesterday did I get a new drive.

Am I really gonna spend hundreds to recover data from it? Yes. Yes I am. Am I gonna figure out a system to automatically backup that folder every fucking night afterwards? Yes. March 10th isn't terrible but it also is. Telling you as who else is gonna understand this plight lmao. Explaining the importance of this on the phone to some guy working at a company for data recovery was something else. Yes Sims saves and mods and screenshots are that important to me. Why is my most recent screenshot in my backups of Alex and Jack fucking, why. I'm sorry data recovery people you're gonna see my Sims fucking 100 ways to Sunday. I guess I have excuses to write and work on art in the meantime. I seem to have Sims 2 and 3 and Castaway Stories backups that are up to date as I haven't played those in while but I have to reinstall them all again and I am so sick of setting up my graphics card in 20 different text files for every Sims 3 pack man. Maybe in half a year when I get bored enough.

Relevantly I've probably said this before as I repeat myself a lot but I use Sims builds for story references so much, I usually try to imagine a baseline in my head first and then build something based on it and fully flesh it out so I can better imagine rooms and shit in writing in something rigid versus it always shifting around based on fuzzy memory. Plus it gives me an excuse to use all the super specific CC I've made. It's even made good art refs as I am fucking terrible at architecture and perspective.

My guy I would choose DEATH before letting ANYBODY see my jalex sims fucking you are braver than any US marine fr

Like I started reading this like “dude I set up my apocalyptic save file the day before the last patch update so I feel you” but your WHOLE DRIVE??? I’d die. I’d start fresh. I am never getting that save back and that’s unfortunate but I will fr die before I let any tech people see my sims save

Tbf I start new saves all the time so like not as big a deal to me, but I also just,,, don’t hold onto my screenshots

Like I’m deleting that folder every three days because there’s no way in hell it’s getting seen

That and I take a lot of accidental screenshots

As for builds, there’s probably been a sims 4 build for every single building, house, apartment, dorm, or motel room for every fic I’ve ever written INCLUDING oneshots

My attention span is negative two so I will start a build, get an idea for another build and leave the first build unfinished until I get bored with the next three builds and that is entirely reflected in my writing as well

[sebastianthegiraffe]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Nobody tagged me in this (because I never get tagged in anything) but I thought it would be interesting to do. I saw this circulating in the Clone Wars fandom, but I know it's in other places as well.

1.How many works do you have on AO3? Only 9, but I have hundreds of WIPs on my hard-drive, most of which are like one tiny passage or a summary that will never go anywhere. My brain is an ideas factory and it cannot be stopped.

2.What’s your total AO3 word count? As of January 2024, it’s 176,227 in total, but 122,240 of that is across two works: - The Greenleaf and the Son of the Forest (83414 words) - In Our Brothers We Trust (38826 words)

3.What fandoms do you write? Currently, Star Wars (Clone Wars/Bad Batch era) and Hobbit/LotR, though I used to write a lot of Kylux stuff (Star Wars Sequels), but the WIPs span everything from Cats to The Witcher to Pirates to Narnia. Told you, the ideas factory never stops.

4.What are your top five fics by kudos? - Frost-Bitten – 171 - Alphabetically, I love you – 167 - Force Fed – 137 - Scars and All – 89 - Ruby Red and Jet Black – 75 Which means that my two current projects (Greenleaf and IOBWT) don’t make this list, because they have 37 and 54 kudos respectively. It’s all my old Kylux stuff that gets the top spots, but I do approve of the top score. Frost-Bitten is one of my faves.

5.Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I usually respond to the first few comments on any given fic, because I’m just so excited that somebody read it and it resonated enough for them to write me a message. I do save all the AO3 notification emails though and I read through them sometimes when my writing is driving me nuts.

6.What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don’t actually write angst all that much. I’ve had angsty chapter endings sometimes, but it’s never that bad and it usually gets resolved.

7.What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? They’re all pretty happy, what can I say? I’m a sap and I like a nice wrapped-up story with a happy ending. The ending of Frost-Bitten is probably my favourite though.

And despite the chill of the Knight of Winter’s lips on his, the Lord of Autumn melts…

8.Do you get hate on fics? Not to my knowledge. I’m aware that most of what I write is headcanon that got away from me though, so it’s not most people’s cup of tea.

9.Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Nope. Kissing and cuddles is as close as we get, maybe a bit of non-sexual BDSM is it’s needed.

10.Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written? I was on t’internet when the whole Tangled/HTTYD/Brave/RotG crossover was a thing. Some very pretty art out there, let me tell you. And I do have what would have become a giant AtLA AU in that, but I’ve never done anything with it beyond a few passages.

11.Have you ever had a fic stolen? Sometimes when I was in high school, or just finished, there was a site that copied a lot of fics from FF.net, under the same usernames and everything, but I think the site was taken down? Not sure, either it way it was only old Cats fic on mine so…

12.Have you ever had a fic translated? No. I could probably do it in German or Spanish, it would just take me forever.

13.Have you ever co-written  fic before? Who would want to play in my silly little sandpit? Only me, I tell you.

14.What’s your all-time favourite ship? I was reading a lot of Malec stuff at one point, or Geraskier, and a lot of SamBucky/WinterFalcon just after Falcon and the Winter Soldier came out. And Kylux, way back when. I don’t really have a favourite ship though, just a lot of ones I like and will happily read.

15.What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I’m not going to say Greenleaf, because I will make myself finish it. The wider universe that Greenleaf exists in though, I probably won’t ever truly be done with (White Knife, Silver Flame). I’m like Tolkien in that respect.

16.What are your writing strengths? Characterisation and getting into characters’ heads. I write lots of little dialogue pieces and odd passages for how characters interact, most of which never see the light of day, they are just writing exercises. I also try to never delete anything, if a passage isn’t working out how I want it to, I just move it to its own document and keep it as a reference. Sometimes it’s an excellent bit of writing, it just needs to go somewhere else.

17.What are your writing weaknesses? I find it really hard to write in one fandom if I’m watching the content for something else. I can’t write Star Wars if I’m watching LotR for example. Music and soundtracks are usually okay though, just no music with words or I get distracted.

18.Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I do it in both of my current projects, but I always provide a translation at the end of the chapter. If it’s little things like petnames, I think it’s fine and it can add a sense of authenticity to the world. You can do a larger passage in another language, but it can be jarring to the reader if it’s not worked into the story in the right way.

19.First fandom you wrote for? Cats, the musical and original movie, not that 2019 monstrosity. We don’t talk about that.

20.Favourite fic you’ve ever written? I’m actually really enjoying writing IOBWT, which is my Domino Survives AU. It’s fun getting to explore what Hevy and Cutup and Droidbait might have been like if they survived past Rishi, the same as Fives and Echo.

Greenleaf is also fun to write in parts, because I’ve loved Tolkien’s world since I was like ten. But it’s a battle getting the chapters out at the moment, just because of how the story’s structured.

Favourite thing I’ve ever written? Frost-Bitten, which is a Kylux Fantasy Seasonal AU, where Hux belongs to Autumn and Kylo belongs to Winter. It’s very cute and fluffy and it’s one of only a few pieces of my earlier writing that I can read and not cringe at.

I'm not going to tag anyone in particular (I don't get tagged in things so I don't know who I would tag anyway), so if you find this and fancy doing it, knock yourself out.

[ao3qhq]

The “A Hair’s Breadth” Rec List Master Post

Okay, 36 chapters into A Hair’s Breadth means 36+ absolutely amazing fic recs that you should go check out immediately, now organized into an ordered list for your convenience! The work is nowhere near complete yet, so there will be more recs to come, but for now this is everything I’ve got! Maybe I’ll post a part two to this list in another 36 chapters :)

Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Another_Local_Dreamer (10k): this was one of the first jordie lives!fics that i ever read, and it got me totally hooked on the concept. Basically, jordie turns up in ketterdam and enlists kaz’s help in locating his little brother, all without realizing who kaz really is. One Shot.

Sometimes You Hear the Bullet by Another_Local_Dreamer (11.5k): part two of the above rec! just as good as part one. One Shot.

Hold Me, Touch Me by cassianendor was a great little fic where kaz got left alone with Alys’s baby, but it appears the whole account got purged. If anyone knows what happened to the works/where the author went please let me know!

fate follows suit by demigodbeauties (2.5k): an interesting take on a soulmate AU where inej carves her soulmark off during her time at the menagerie cause she can’t handle the idea of anyone ever possessing her or having a right to her body again. One Shot.

Playing Chicken by DinoDina (1k): absolutely hilarious crack!fic centering around wylan, jesper, and chickens that kaz and inej keep dumping on them. just the right amount of absurdity balanced with normalcy and guaranteed to make you smile. One Shot. 

die for you in secret by downn_in_flames (5.5k): it’s a 5+1 fic, it’s an accidental “i love you” fic, what more could you ask for? chef’s kiss. One Shot. 

jump into the fog by ev0lution (17k): this is one of those author’s that just captures the feel of Leigh’s writing so well, at times you legitimately feel like you’re reading a third six of crows book. Post-CK fic spanning the first year inej is away at sea. One Shot.

say it right by ev0lution (18.5k): this is an amazing modern au, and the characterization is just spot-on. i really love the way this author addressed the trauma in this fic, particularly inej’s. so so good. One Shot.

Beware of Powerful Men by icarus_chained (5k): this was written right after the show came out, and is set in the show-verse, sometime in the last episode. It features an outsider’s look at the kaz and inej relationship, and details concerns that Alina has for Inej’s safety based off of her own experiences. One Shot.

The Next Great Heist by insertcoolname13 (4k): this is one of my all-time favorite premises in a kanej fic. kaz and inej have a surprisingly successful night and suddenly find themselves in need of emergency contraception, spurring a rather awkward search across the city. 4/?.

A Safe Place to Land by insignificant457 (6k): one of those “kaz and inej keep taking in strays by accident” fics, which is a trope that never gets old. this fic is well-beloved for a reason, people, it’s basically the blueprint. One Shot.

With a Little Help from My Friends by Kelly123 (1.5k): Inej returns to find that Kaz had enlisted assistance in overcoming his fear of touch. Could be either show- or book-verse, and implements Nina’s heartrending in a really cool way, which I think should be explored more often in Kanej works. One Shot.

On the Bank of the Regent’s Canal by likefirings (2.5k): formerly known as Young Gods, this is a canon-divergent AU where kaz and inej wind up in ketterdam without the painful journeys that originally brought them there. Unfortunately, it seems this work has been abandoned, but I was really excited to see where it might go. 1/10.

you are lost without the waiting by likefirings (2.5k): a hades and persephone au, which fits with this couple so well i don’t know why there aren’t more of them floating around. this one features some truly incredible fan art as well. One Shot.

Sankta Inej by mandjalorian (1k): kid!fic set several years post-CK, where inej comes home early to hear telling their daughter a bedtime story about her brave mama. One Shot. 

Stories About Crows by marycontraire (79k): this rec is for the whole damn series cause it’s just that good. seriously, you want to read these fics. doesn’t matter what you’re looking for, what kind of fics you like, this is the series for you. 17/? works.

the enigmatic boots of destiny by moonburntmemory (3k): this is a crack!fic, but it’s so, so good. Pre-SoC, inej escapes from the menagerie and steals a pair of kaz’s boots, causing them to meet. One Shot. 

A Royal Flush by pumpernickel_simswood (6.5k): a truly delightful post-CK fic where jesper meddles for the greater good (tm) of everyone involved. Beautifully done. 4/4.

latte art by pyrrhlc (11k): this is a coffee shop AU, which i typically have a hard time with in the SoC fandom, they just never quite seem to click for me. This one, though, ticks all the boxes. Definitely worth a read. 4/12.

i’m in love with a fairytale by salutmecs (1.5k): this is a really beautiful post-CK reunion fic with an accidental ‘i love you’ because kaz is an idiot. One Shot.

A Universal Truth by schmulte (3k): this is a pride and prejudice AU which i was very excited to find, since clearly i’m a sucker for the regency period. unfortunately it’s been a couple months without an update, and i don’t know if the auther if planning on coming back to it or not. 1/?.

Coins by stefaniegm (6k): Soulmate AU by the incredible author formerly known as tessdebelle! Soulmates is one of my very favorite tropes, and fits this pairing so well, it’s shocking to me that there isn’t more of it around. We should all follow in stefaniegm’s footsteps and write one of these to share with the group. One Shot. 

More and More by stefaniegm (3k): phone sex. Phone sex phone sex phone sex. Why have we, as a fandom, not fully explored the possibilities of phone sex? This author saw a need and hoo boy did they fill it. One Shot. 

the ghost of a memorie long lost by subject_layla (25k): this is another jordie lives!fic, but i really like the way the author handles this one. it’s an ongoing work in progress, and i cannot wait to see how it ends up. 9/?.

Without Armor by thatbluenote (2k): book-verse post CK fic, and incredible take on sexual explorations between the two of them, literally feels like if Leigh decided to write a smutty scene with these characters. One Shot.

The Girl in the Menagerie by Trogdor19 (3k): pre-SoC, basically a rewrite of the kaz/inej meeting and partnership with a new spin. Really well done and well rounded. 2/2.

Better Love by unfortunate17 (4k): truly great post-CK fic where everybody assumes kaz and inej are having a lot more sex than they actually are. Featuring one of my favorite scenes from any fic ever, where wylan attempts to approach kaz for sex advice. One Shot.

Between the Lines by unfortunate17 (7k): book-verse fic that starts pre-SoC, kind of a 5+1 where a whole list of characters realizes that kaz is in love with inej before he does. It’s a great time from start to finish. One Shot.

forged of steel by veorlian (1.5k): pre-SoC fic about the becoming of the Wraith. The story here is good, but it’s the writing that really gets you. One Shot.

The Sewing of Wings by Vera (Vera_DragonMuse) (7.5k): this is a really great pre-SoC bookverse fic, set from the perspective of a tailor in the barrel who gets contracted on to do all of the tailoring for the dregs. super cute, very well done. One Shot. 

Adagio by Whitherward (26k): look, i don’t have favorites on this list because asking me to pick a favorite would be like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. However, if i absolutely had to choose one, gun-to-my-head, I’d choose this fic in a heartbeat. Ballet AU, exquisitely done. The prose is amazing, the characterization is spot on, the plot is so good, so intriguing. Do yourself a favor and go read it. 3/10.

Muscle to muscle by whynotcherries (2k): an amazing 5+1 fic set pre-SoC, where inej keeps surprising kaz in various new ways. Follows the two of them as they get to know each other. This author is truly prolific, but this remains one of my favorite works of theirs. One Shot.

through wide oceans, back home to you by wishingforrain (1k): really sweet slice of life reunion fic set post-CK. This author has beautiful prose, and masterfully captures a sweet moment of meeting. One Shot.

Okay, 32 and a half recs, I’ll see you all in another 36 chapters! Happy reading!