#specifically but that's just bc I've seen like 3 object shows and the other one is hfjone

[the-chessboard-is-personal]

object show AUs where evil/"scary" characters who aren't part of the contest learn how to interact with other objects send post

[zukkaoru]

could you tell me more about why you dislike femskk?

okay disclaimer before i begin: this is not meant to be a dig on every person who enjoys femskk. the biggest reason i don't like it is honestly because it's just not my cup of tea and honestly it really makes no difference to me if other people like it. but beyond that my biggest issues with it are

1. the phenomenon of fans "yuri-ifying" the most popular m/m ship and then using that to prove they like female characters and f/f ships. this is not a bsd-exclusive thing; it happens with stsg too and i don't like femstsg for the same reason. but there's a big difference between actually liking female characters and just genderbending (or even making transfem) the big m/m ship. i literally went to the f/f category in bsd on ao3 the other day looking for fics and about half of them are skk fics instead of fics about like. the actual female characters in bsd. who i was looking for fics of. similarly, there have been some redraw trends going around twitter - specifically the i prefer girls cover redraw - and i have seen. i don't even know how many femskk redraws of that (along with a couple femfyolais and a femrimlaine) but only one redraw with actual female characters from bsd. same with the scene 14 redraw that was going around, and while that one wasn't originally two female characters, i have still seen significantly more femskk (and femsigzai, femsigchuu, femfyolai, etc) than i have ships with even one character who is female in the source material.

and imo this phenomenon is made even worse in the bsd fandom bc so many fans just see bsd as the skk show. so of course they're writing off the actual female characters; they literally don't care about anything besides skk. and obviously i can't do anything to force anyone to care about other characters but like.... bsd has so many other wonderful characters and dynamics (both romantic and platonic) that a good half of the fanbase won't even glance at because they're not skk. i do like skk, but bsd is about so much more than just them. they are, objectively, only one small part of it. like if you only care about skk, then just be outright about it and don't pretend you're "proving" you like female characters and sapphic ships bc you like femskk too

2. of the fans who only like skk and nothing else about bsd, most of them. don't even characterize dazai and chuuya correctly? i think the some of the best skk characterizations i've seen have been from people who actually like other characters and ships too, and some of the worst skk characterization i've seen has come from people who literally don't care about any other ships or characters. this isn't a hard and fast rule obviously but even with 30k skk fics on ao3, i have struggled to find ones that actually feel true to their characters. and the characterization seems to only get worse when it's femskk. if you're just going to turn femdazai and femchuuya into two completely different people, what's the point in it even being skk? why not write k.ousano or h.igugin or even a ship with one canonically female character? if you have to change the core characteristics of both dazai and chuuya... do you even really like them?

3. about femdazai: i actually don't mind the transfem dazai headcanon in general but most fans get her wrong. i made a post about it here but basically so many times i see femdazais that are just. completely unrecognizable as dazai. you can't strip away core aspects of dazai like idk the fact that dazai doesn't show any skin from neck to toe just because you made her a girl. i have seen some femdazai that's good! but i have seen so much that is just fundamentally wrong for dazai's character as a whole. mostly on twitter.

4. about femchuuya: i really truly just don't get femchuuya. i THINK the hype here is probably bc lesbians seem to get attached to chuuya (which. valid. i am also a lesbian chuuya fan.) and so they want to draw a chuuya they can be attracted to (i.e. femchuuya) which like. cool whatever i'm not here to judge. but looking at it from a "would this character actually identify as female" perspective, i don't actually think i can picture that for chuuya. maybe it's just because i so strongly hc them as nonbinary? idk. this one is honestly just a neutral "i don't see that but you do you"

tl;dr: from what i've seen, femskk is often mischaracterized, and genderbending the big m/m ships in a fandom is often a way fans "prove" they like the female characters and f/f ships while not actually caring about anything other than their main m/m ship

[hilarychuff]

#1, #5, #17 for the fic ask game!

ty for the questions!! they were hard!!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

ok well the most strategic answer to this would probably be one of my au graphic collections (asoiaf and stranger things)!!! gives the reader an idea of the characters and relationships i'm interested in and the fact that i'm forever obsessed with aus. the kinds of stories that catch my interest/what i choose to expand on and what stays as just a lil idea. also!!! the reality that if they need something rn they might need to imagine a good chunk of it!! lmao

if they want to read an actual fic i would say all the right reasons (all the wrong places). it's a stranger things chrissy/robin bachelor au where you don't really need to have seen either source material to tap in, plus it's a finished original fic as opposed to a wip or fully adapted au.

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

ok really trying to think this one through and i bet something brilliant will come to me later but right now i just keep being like "hil how do you come up with such perfect adaptations from canon for your movie/tv show/whatever aus" like!!! babes i think real hard about it for a really long time 😩 it has to feel right!! and i have a backlog of au graphics i've finished making but haven't finished blurbs/casting for bc i can't figure out how this side plot works or whatever. it has to be the perfect marriage of the two things!!! it's tricky. that said i'm pretty pleased with myself for how i pulled it off for my sansa scream au howl and howl 2 (hopefully still maintaining some surprise for the finales!!! even if you can guess much of it ahead of time!!). howl 3 also in the works 😌

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

ummm i think howl hits that sweet spot actually 🙃 i write that for me and 1-3 potential readers i think.

the ones that are really just for me because they haven't even made it out of drafts or notes at all yet are like. high school musical robb/jeyne sansa/jon. sharp objects sansa/jon. killer klowns from outer space steve/chrissy/eddie lol. the host chrissy/robin and nancy/jonathan probably.

if i could just post notes and get away with it i would do that all the time!!!!! unfortunately for me a lot of the times people like fics to be actual writing and that takes me a lot longer than just coming up with ideas but i have ideas (especially au ideas) aplenty

[whoslaurapalmer]

i want to know about your fic! is that cheating? is it meant to be a surprise?

technically!!!!! it is in fact a surprise!!!! because it is secretly for a person!! I will give the following incredibly vague details --

1) i hope to get it done within the. oh I wanted to have it done by the 20th I think but it will uhhhh probably take. longer. by god, it's already the 11th. I regularly and vastly underestimate time. but I hope not much longer than that!!!! hopefully a week after at the latest??????

2) objectively it has the funniest shenanigans. but also like......I am trying to keep them in character. but also not. experience the EXTREME second hand embarrassment that can come with these shenanigans, bc second hand embarrassment physically hurts me

3) a long long time ago (2008.) the mcr website had a blog section that gerard used REGULARLY, and once posted about calling second hand embarrassment The Motts (and since it's gerard, it does and does not make sense in context.) and ever since then whenever I experience second hand embarrassment I think 'oh no gerard way I am feeling the motts' so my notes very frequently say DO YOUR BEST TO AVOID THE MOTTS.

4) lemony is there!!!!!!! beatrice and bertrand are mentioned in passing. ......other characters show up.

5) the fic spans a great deal of time. like.........a GREAT deal of time. damn.

6) I have never written this trope before but I have read a great deal of it in my time, it was very popular in the les mis fandom? which I have read TOO MUCH fic for. I always wanted to write fic for it and still have lots of wip documents, but I think my les mis fic potential days have passed me by. I still love the amis a great deal, though. anyway it's also not quite that trope, and that's very thrilling. that's where a great deal of the amusement comes in. If I can navigate it right. oh but it's also a very old trope, actually!!

6a) I mean, you see tropes in fic sometimes and think of them as very fic specific, and I think some things very much are, but also, people have been telling the same sorts of stories for an age, and i was actually able to tell my mom about the plot and have her understand it bc she's seen movies with the plot. which is very bizarre, usually this does not happen.

6b) although I do wonder now, isn't this trope like the worst way to get enjolras and grantaire together. well, I guess it depends on how you're writing them, honestly. I think the most well-known fic with this trope did it well, now that I think about it

7) I think. I am going to split it into two chapters. and........see the first half took about a weekish of planning to get the Reasons things were happening to make sense. so if push comes to shove and I only finish the first half by whatever date it was, I will post that, and then, do the second half. which is less structured but still needs. you know. things to stand on. just less things.

8) it tentatively had a title but then I thought, it would be better as a chapter title maybe, so then I figured out the other chapter title, and now I am. Missing an overall title.........

9) the titles, though, are from the songs the maze and I know how to speak by manchester orchestra.

10) potentially, a candlelit dinner may take place. there will be bread.

11) one of my notes just says 'it's the most unsexy [REDACTED] of all time'

12) someone's gonna get kissed eventually though despite my subpar skills at writing physical romance contact!!!!!!

13) I worry about it a lot, though. Just, making the fic, make sense right in general. I know what I'm aiming for but there's still a lot of uncertainty in getting there, sometimes. and it happens all the time, in everything I write!!!! every writer goes through that, in every piece. never stops being very nerve-wracking, though. And I don't think I've ever really written something like it before. so!!!!!!!! we'll see. I'm rooting for it.

[pepperf]

for the weird writer's asks: 5, 14, 18, 33, 35, ahhh I want to ask you too many of these, even though I kind of know the answers to some of them! I just like hearing you talk about writing and related topics. :) So answer those, if you like, and then please pick one or two more that YOU would like to answer. <3

lol - I love all these questions but this took me so long! XD

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

I think the only one is that I don’t post WIPs. It’s not so much a superstition as it is self-awareness: I know that historically I am massively less likely to keep going once I’ve started getting comments. And if I do get comments, I create a situation where I’m relying on more of them every time in order to keep my motivation up (and that’s not how a lot of my fandoms work). Plus I like to be able to go back and make small tweaks to the start, once I get to the end, because often it’s not until I finish a story that I know the theme of it.

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

I do lend books to people, and mostly I forget where they've gone, aside from one that I tried to get back, but the person insisted that it was in fact theirs and they'd bought it years ago - and I had to let it go because I actually still have a book I borrowed from them but I'm still annoyed about it (but I went and bought myself another copy because it's the kind of out of print short story book that I might want in 20 years and be unable to find) (yeah I'm still annoyed about it but I bought it when it was NEW dammit and I've had it since I was a teenager) (look it's just words it doesn't matter). I used to write or stamp my name into books, but I got bored of that, tbh, and I've tried to learn to let go and be less possessive of material objects, because it doesn't bring me happiness. XD And I do want people to read things I love!

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

Okay, just bc I wanted to talk about it, have this bit from ‘and all my scars remind me (my worst days are behind me)’:

"Are you a cop?"

He stops short, a series of reactions flashing across his expressive face. He was never any good at hiding his emotions. "Are you a cop?" he counters.

"No, but then I never applied to join the police academy."

He hates lying. She can see him struggling to answer, and that's answer enough. "You still live here, don't you?" Ire rises in her. "Is this what you've done with your life, since I left? Absolutely nothing?"

His expression hardens. "Okay, we're done here," he snaps, gesturing to the door. "I'm not accountable to you. Get out!"

"Jesus Christ, Diego!"

He drops his arm and steps towards her, apparently resigning himself to this fight. "Oh, what, like you've gone on to such great heights?" he snarls. "Last I heard, you were working for a debt collection agency! Still breaking people's kneecaps for unpaid medical bills?"

He was always more dangerous when cornered. "Fuck you, I never did that kind of shit," she retorts, stung into anger.

"Extorting old ladies for back rent, then!"

This came from a discussion I had with @wheresmytowel about the idea that Diego and Lila ought to work on themselves alone before they get together, and/or the idea that they’d bring each other down in their current disorganised states. We both felt, I think, that actually there was no reason they couldn’t grow while they were together - and, even more, that they’re actually good for each other in that way, they help each other to improve.

I wanted to show my take on it, with them both stagnating after they’d had a relationship and broken up - how that combination of being alone and brokenhearted, and just the simple fact of not having someone in their life who loves and supports them, means that they both kind of end up in a similar place to where Diego is at the start of s1, pottering along in fairly unhappy existences.

They both believe the best about one another, that’s one of the things I love about them as a couple - they think each other is pretty fucking amazing, even when no one else does. That’s why Lila in particular is bitter, here - she’d thought she was breaking up with Diego for his own good, but he’s not taken that freedom and gone on to achieve his dreams, like she’d expected. And Diego is hurt that she left him, and pissed that she thinks she’s still got the right to judge his life.

I took a while to figure out where Lila would be, in this. I knew that she’d broken up with him just before he entered the academy, so in her head he’s already made detective, etc. I wanted her to have gone from a starting point of being with Diego at 19, learning some stuff about professional fighting, and then being out on her own again. It had to be a bit of a tough-guy career, because she’s competitive, but something a bit on the grey market, because she’s keeping her head down and avoiding the attention of any authorities. I think this one was @wheresmytowel‘s suggestion. :D

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

I do! I am a visual artist as well - drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, video, animation...you name it, I've tried it. And it definitely ties in. I did a Fine Art degree because I wanted to be a writer, and I thought that doing an English degree would tie me up in knots too much. I still don't know if that was the right choice, but it was certainly A choice (honestly, actually, I stand by that reasoning, but I should've gone to a better art college). And it's good to change it up: I find that at times I just need to step away from writing and do visual stuff instead, or crafts, or or baking, or something that is Not Words. But almost always I've tied words into the stuff I do, somehow (one of my favourite artists is Jenny Holzer, who is All About the words). I don't see how you could ever truly separate different arts, even if they seem unrelated, they're all coming from one central point - and that's beautiful, man. And words are my bag, ultimately.

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Uhhh...oh! I love to write tropes, I refuse to call them clichés, I think these things are well-established for a reason, that people love them and have a connection with them, and they create something really satisfying. They are also a good framework to play with expectations, to subvert them or use them in a different way. That’s what I love - playing with the fact that this is fiction, that there are established expectations, and that those can be used in all sorts of ways.

And one I’d like to answer...

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice…what do you Know?

I’m actually doing this at the moment. I decided to write an AU in the inexplicably-under-explored world of British local government, and it’s weird how much it feels like I’m speaking my own language. I never feel like I’m writing in another language, almost all the shows I love are American so that’s what I’ve been submerged in for the last, god, 30 years??? But, as you can attest, @bethanyactually, it’s still not actually my native tongue, lol! I still have to ask about some things, and speech patterns don’t necessarily come naturally to me. So writing Lila has been great generally - but even more so when I put her in her/my own country, in a setting that I know. It’s making me want to write more of the kinds of stories I love, but set here.

Okay, I think I’ll stop there! Thank you!!!

[laikuh]

20 questions

I was tagged by @untoldblisses THANK YOU I LOVE BEING TAGGED.

1. What do you prefer to be called namewise? feel free to call me vin!

2. When is your birthday? july 9th

3. Where do you live? 'murica

4. Three things you are doing right now? filling this out, drinking an iced mocha, and listening to music!

5. Four fandoms that have peaked your interest? supernatural always, hannibal always, annnnd idk. ive been thinking of rereading the captive prince trilogy which always sends me spiralling in a good way. and im like blanking on a fourth fandom. it is largely spn central around here.

6. How has the pandemic been treating you? honestly, not terribly. im very grateful for the experience ive had bc i know its a privilege. i kept my job, as did my friends and family. the additional time has left more opportunities to pursue hobbies and interests, and i am a homebody, so my preferred lifestyle has been the norm. that said, there's also been the requisite fear, guilt, anxiety, and stress to contend with.

7. A song you can’t stop listening to right now? hmmmmmm....this is where it ends by alice boman.

8. Recommend a movie.  i wish i could say i watched a lot of movies these days, but i just don't. in terms of general favorites people maybe haven't seen yet? christ uh...this is embarrassing i literally studied film. moonlight remains an absolutely devastating film.

9. How old are you? 30!!! and loving it.

10. School, university, occupation, other? i work in education! so looking forward to summer when things slow down.

11. Do you prefer heat or cold? cold for sure. but not too cold lol. i can't do snow, but right up to it with lots of rain and gray is ideal.

12. Name one fact others may not know about you. y'all don't know shit about me at this point so uh. if i were to release one fact i might say im bi!

13. Are you shy? i hate meeting new people but i'm pretty good at it all the same. so i guess no. i prefer to talk to nobody ever but when forced i can socialize fine.

14. Preferred pronouns? she/her

15. Biggest pet peeves? fandom tomfoolery tbh. like i've said befor,e im trying to keep this actual blog free from fandom-specific wank (i think show wank is okay, like we can have opinions) so i won't get into the specifics, i just think fandom needs to chill out. we're all a lot more alike than we think. that alongside people who refuse to take accountability for mistakes are the biggest thorns in my side these days.

16. What is your favourite “dere” type? lol i know what this is in reference to but idk enough about it to have an answer, apologies.

17. Rate your life from 1-10. i agree with untoldbliss. probably an objective 7.

18. What’s your main blog? a ~secret.~

19. List your sideblogs and what they’re used for. i actually don't have any sideblogs here! this is my main in terms of this account and the only one here. i don't imagine i'll ever have sideblogs here.

20. Is there something people need to know about you before becoming friends? lol i guess just know i want to be friends. it's been one of the nicest parts of creating this account, actually talking with people. im bad at initiating, so i guess that's the biggest thing. but if we're mutuals, im here to chat!

insert spiel about tagging giving me anxiety, and actually untoldbliss tagged the folks i probably would have lol! so im looking forward to your answers. @decadent-prince if you haven't done this yet and would like to? literally anyone tho pls say i tagged you if you want to do this! consider yourself tagged!

[autisticandroids]

#spn#spn thoughts#tag response#to be fair i do think that was kripke's vision for the show initially#but i think in the beginning it worked bc you also got to see how isolated these two brothers were from reality#but as the show goes on and they build better relationships with people you cant help but wonder why we never see them#by carver era they definitely have FRIENDS and yet they all get killed off or just shown once a season or so#the thing that kinda sucks is the villains get more attention than their allies#god only knows how many eps metatron was in#and while i am a metatron stan even i think he was in too many#15 episodes which i guess isnt too much#but also thats in the span of like 4 seasons#meanwhile jody has been around since s5 and stayed until s15 and has only 3 more#ketch was in 21 episodes which disgusts me#lucifer is in 37!! and thats not even counting the s7 hallucinations#like they show how many people are against them#but dont show how many people are for them#which is surprisingly a lot but you wouldnt know it

i have two responses.

firstly, you're right, that definitely was kripke's vision for the show. and you're right that it gets more egregious as they start building more relationships but we still never see those characters. however i would argue that it goes deeper than that. the isolation premise is inherently unsustainable. and the show almost starts to recognize that! in season three, they start building other characters a little bit - ruby, bela, bobby appearing in more episodes. then in season four they get the ball rolling towards an ensemble cast really strongly with both boys developing a really important, specific relationship with a major secondary character (sam with ruby, dean with cas). the problem really starts in season five. they kill off ruby and don't replace her, while relegating cas to like. object status, not really having him make any choices or have any arcs, especially not compared to season four. ellen and jo are disposed of in one fell swoop, and anna, who had been successfully put in storage to dust off later at the end of season four, is pulled out of storage to be meaninglessly killed off. then of course stuff really goes downhill in the gamble era, since gamble is even more opposed to ensemble casts than kripke is, and the rest is history.

secondly, your point about the villains is astute, and i'd like to add something: this is almost certainly the reason for what i've seen called the spn villain-to-wacky-uncle pipeline. what happened to meg, crowley, rowena, ketch, and others. as villains, they're the only characters outside team free will we get to see with any regularity, so the audience gets attached. they become beloved. and so they end up heroes, because they become fan favorites. add on top of this the fact that, because they start as villains, it takes a long time for them to build a relationship with the brothers where they're like, even grudging friends, meaning that they can't be killed off for manpain until they've had a lot of really serious relationship development, and you end up with a formula for all the most major characters being villains or former villains.

meg is literally in twelve episodes