#thank you for tagging me megh

[electricshoebox]

Unsolicited Lore Dump

That is such a fun title for a meme.

Thanks to @bardic-inspo for the tag!

Do you make your bed? Nope. It's just extra time I'd have to budget for in the day and I'll just undo it again after a whole day of not getting to appreciate that it looks nice, so... nah. I'll make it if company's coming.

Favorite number? Always liked 4. No idea why.

What's your job? I've been a phlebotomist with a plasma donation company for many years, and also did a lot related to training and managing training requirements. Around 3 years ago, my company created a position I was the first to step into where I travel between ~10 different locations across 4 states and help improve their training departments, keep them compliant with standards and regulatory (government/legal) requirements, and develop their training supervisors. I also lead a core group that trains supervisors using a class I got to create. It's a big mix of things I love: traveling, helping people build confidence in their skills, and creating.

If you could go back to school would you? I just don't think I could, mentally. Not to get personal, but I drove myself to a bad mental breakdown in college. There were a lot more factors than just school itself, but still. There are things I wish I could get a degree in, but I don't think I should try, at least right now. Maybe some day!

Can you parallel park? I'm not great at it, but I have to do it more often where I live now, so I'm getting better. I have a backup cam now and that helps a lot.

Do you think aliens are real? I think it's highly probable, but not in the mainstream, Hollywood, little green men way. I think statistically the universe is so vast, there has to be life somewhere. But I think it's likely so far beyond anything we could comprehend, and so deeply different from the entirety of human experience, that we'd be highly unlikely to be able to make contact or meaningfully communicate. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good alien story/game/movie!

Can you drive a manual car? Nope. I barely understand cars as it is, I'll stick with automatic.

What's your guilty pleasure? I try really hard not to feel guilty about my pleasures, but I guess I have to echo Megh a bit and say fanfiction, just because it's still something I'm not comfortable being open about unless I know the person understands fandom or shares an interest. But honestly, college kinda destroyed my love of reading, and fanfiction is really what brought it back. It's such a joy to see the stories others come up with, and it's so fun to explore worlds I love through writing.

Tattoos? I don't have any but I want them very badly! I know at least 3 I want for sure. One is handwriting from my mom and my two best friends using song lyrics that are important to me and connected to each for me. Two, a shared tattoo with one of my best friends/roommate to do with our cat. Three, a Watership Down tattoo that incorporates "All the world will be your enemy... but first they must catch you."

Favorite color? Purple, and slate blue. Very fond of teals and deep pinks as well.

Favorite types of music? I've started to joke that music is my love language. I love so many genres. I always come back to alternative, though. Very fond of indie rock as well, and folk. But you can still get me with a good pop song.

Do you like puzzles? LOVE puzzles. I don't have a lot of room to do them where I currently live, and I also go through them too fast to make buying them often worth it, but I could do them for hours.

Any phobias? I have unfortunately discovered I am very afraid of roaches. I can typically handle bugs okay, but those absolutely terrify me. I'm also pretty uncomfortable with heights. Not so bad I can't look out a window a few floors up, but definitely can't look over the edge if I'm on a rooftop or super high balcony or something.

Favorite childhood sport? I'm not sure if this is asking my favorite childhood sport to play or just sports I enjoyed as a kid. For the former, I was not a player of sports, but I did love to swim, and I loved playground games. For the latter, I grew up going to baseball games with my dad and I do have a lot of fond memories of that.

Do you talk to yourself? Oh for sure. I do it the most when I'm trying to work out a conversation in a scene I'm writing (so I just have it with myself out loud and see where it goes) or if I have a scene idea I want to try feeling out in conversation. But I'm not above having little therapy talks with myself when I'm alone, if I need to. Oh, and I'm also a big conversation practicer if something I need to talk to someone about is making me anxious.

What movies do you adore? Oh man, how much time do you have? Definitely the Mummy (Brendan Fraser version), and the Matrix (just the first one, but that one was incredibly formative). The LotR trilogy is always going to be very important to me. Song of the Sea and the Secret of Kells are both deeply beloved for me. And then the Lion in Winter (Katharine Hepburn version). Probably the most influential dialogue-writing inspiration movie for me of all time.

Coffee or tea? Iced tea. Unsweetened. I basically have to have one every morning or I will die. (Okay fine I won't die but I'll get a migraine and be very unhappy about it.)

First thing you wanted to be growing up? I genuinely can't remember what was first because I wanted to do like 7,000 things. I wanted to be an author very early on, but also a singer and a figure skater and a gymnast and an artist and I could go on. Writing has probably been the most consistent thing, though.

Tagging (no pressure): @amanita-jack, @lioness-calanthe, @galaxy-starheart, @mercurymiscellany, and @molliehaswords

[its-a-humanriot]

WIP Meme

I was tagged by @adventuresofmeghatron - thanks Megh! 

tagging forward @trashkingnyx , @its-sixxers , @theartofblossoming , @radioactive-synth and @pchberrytea if you want to join in (but no pressure if not!)

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it. 

I have some WIPs in the folder which have been sitting untouched for *ahem* months...maybe listing them will give me motivation to work on them! Some of them are being integrated into other storylines so I’ll just list the ones I plan to finish.

All The Earthly Remains 

Descendants

Can On A String 

Universal Translator (working title) 

The Modern Pygmalion (working title) 

FO3 Skating (yes good job me, very descriptive 😅)

[coreene]

✨🌈 SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL 🌈✨

Oh my gosh thank you so much Megh!! 💜💜💜💜

I'll get right on spamming people's inbox with this. Also reminds me I have so many unanswered tag games 😭 I swear I will get to them

[beyond-the-womb]

So my wife @elusive-lamb tagged me in this and I forgot to do it so I’ll do it now lmao.

Rules: share 11 facts about you, answer 11 questions, tag 11 people, ask them 11 questions.

Uhh facts about me…

1) I have 3 beautiful children 

2) They are called clucky, flappy and eggy

3) I’m really good at naming animals

4) I have a shrine to the kpop group aoa on my wall

5) I have been with my girlfriend for over 2 years now and we’re still going good!! 

6) I really want abs 

7) If it was legal I’d actually marry my dressing gown I don’t think I’m capable of being without it

8) I love kickboxing and it’s my favourite method of stress release 

9) I could probably live off chocolate milk

10) I work in a fish and chip van

11) gay ships are taking over my life :’)

Questions I need to answer: 

1. what’s your fav body of water to hang out by (lake, ocean, river, etc)?

I live right by the sea so it’s nice to go there, but I also like being by lakes where there’s not many people because I live pretty scenery

2. do you think pineapple & pizza should be separate or are you a degenerate?

SEPERATE

3. what’s your favorite meme?

Every meme ever?? If I had to choose it’s either let it grow memes or ones I’ve made at school because my graphics class are legends and we do nothing apart from make memes of teachers all the time

4. what is the gayest thing you’ve ever done?

My girlfriend hon hon hon. Especially since I have pictures of attractive women by my bed..

5. ship you would lay down ur life for if it meant making it canon?

Is this even a question of course

6. (I’m stealing this question but) favorite part of your face?

Um I don’t like my face so 

7. favorite extinct animal?

The dodo because they seemed like the most fucking useless birds even and I relate so much

8. give me a song rec you’re currently obsessed with

How do I choose jfc

Bang by after school or girl’s heart by aoa 

9. what’s a quote that you like?

“Very much like a shoe if not a shoe” - Some teacher at my school one time

10. since I was shitting on astrology, what’s your star sign & what do you think of it?

I’m pieces and idk I don’t really think about it I guess..  

11. if you could be anybody else on Earth, who would it be?

I have no idea… uh…. Maybe Meryll Streep because that woman is amazing 

So now I have to tag people… *sweats nervously* @fangirlingandart @ehhqueerenough @gaymeetsevil @fandrack other people if they want to do it

1. If you could see any band/ group/ music person live who would it be?

2. What is your biggest regret?

3. Fave ship?

4. Fave show?

5. Who is the person you would most like to meet for coffee?

6. If you had to rule one country which would it be?

7. If you had to be in the world of one video game or show what would it be?

8. What is your ideal job?

9. Fave meme?

10. On a scale of 1-10 how gay would you say your day has been?

[just-another-wasteland-merc]

Everyone I have something really important to share about the Mass Effect AU that I really like and adds for some good comedic value.

So, Em figures out during training one day that she really fights better when music is going through her comm pieces. So with EDI's help, she gets a playlist of good stuff that she gives parameters for. 1970's-2010's range for music. EDI changes it up for her since it barely takes a millisecond of her time and is amused by it. But Em really kicks her biotics in high gear and absolutely sings badly as she's tearing up the place. Mac loves it since she kicks ass so well, and Stefan... Well he eventually gets on board. Pop songs are the best due to deranged singing and they're ridiculous. But a good example is here

Em: oh. Well imagine, as I'm pacing the pews in a church corridor and I can't help but to hear

Mac: no I can't help but to hear an exchanging of words.

Em: WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WEDDING. What a beautiful wedding says a bridesmaid to a waiter

Mac: And, yes, but what a shame. What a shame the poor groom's bride is a whore.

*Em kicks in the door with her biotics. The door slams into a Cerberus trooper, literally flattening him. Goo goes everywhere.*

Em, yelling: I CHIME IN WITH A HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD OF CLOSING THE GOD DAMN DOOR.

Stefan: *facepalm

EDI likes to screw with her, of course, cause she's EDI and we love her. So sometimes if Stef takes Em and not Mac, she'll put like lovesick songs in the playlist and almost immediately Em is on the comm demanding the song be skipped. EDI will only do it once since she got her amusement, then puts on Ozzy for Em.

Joker sometimes has EDI play the stuff in the cockpit when he feels like listening to "old stuff".

Mac absolutely has a secret playlist full of love songs when he feels like wooing Em. She blushes every time Crash Into Me comes on. His playlist is only limited to their quarters on the Normandy.

But there you have it for now. I can't write yet, but thanks for the tag, Megh! I figured you all could enjoy this for a bit.

[bardic-inspo]

Megh's OT3 Prompt Fill - Status Post

The request period for my OT3 prompt fill event has now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated and/or passed on the message. I'm really excited to get to work and share some more OT3 content with you!!

I received four really awesome prompts and decided, in lieu of picking one or two, I'll try to tackle all of them!

Just to give some expectations on next steps:

-Filled prompts will be in the range of 1,000 - 1,500 words as a minimum. I might get carried away and run with something if the mood takes me (as often happens with these three), but I wanted to set a minimum in case I feel like I can answer the prompt more concisely/to ensure I can get to all the prompts.

-I am aiming to wrap up and post the next chapter of Bring the Gasoline prior to that fic's anniversary on 8/16, and then will be traveling during early September (and won't be able to write while on the road). Work on the prompts will start as soon as BtG Chapter 15 is posted, and continue until all four prompts are filled.

-I like the idea of fully drafting/finishing all the prompts, and then staggering posting. Right now, I'm thinking all of this means filled prompts are likely to get posted in the range of mid/late September to early October.

-I will update this status post as things change, and tag you in the AO3 post when your prompt is filled! :) Feel free to reach out at any point if you have questions!

[electricshoebox]

summer reading/writing/art meme

Tagged by @lyanndelune, thank you! 1: Describe one creative WIP project you're planning to work on over the summer

Definitely trying to get back to Eye of the Storm so I can get it finished!

2: Rec a book

Okay I have to confess that it's been awhile since I read a book but my roommate has been reading the Tevinter Nights stories from Dragon Age to me on our road trips as we work on moving and I'm really enjoying them so far.

3: Rec a fic

Oh my goodness. I'm woefully behind on catching up on fics, but my go-to recommendation is Bring the Gasoline by @adventuresofmeghatron. So much great action, compelling character arcs, and thrilling romance that blossoms into an ot3 in the after-series. Megh is really a master of action scenes and it is one of my favorite Fallout fics 💜

4: Rec Music

Well I have been devouring all the singles off of PVRIS's upcoming album. PVRIS is absolutely one of my favorite bands, the music is incredible and never disappoints.

5: Share One Piece Of Advice

oh man, I'm not sure if we're looking for life advice or creative advice here. I'll go for creative advice. If you're ever stuck in a story, give the characters a problem. Like, if you can't move forward with the current plot, try just introducing a problem they need to solve. Even just something small, like a minor injury or a weather restriction or heck, the power going out. Getting the writing moving that way can get the gears turning for the rest of the story. Problems always force more character interaction and development.

I'll tag @adventuresofmeghatron, @just-another-wasteland-merc, and @edaworks

[holdmybvbeer]

Dana, sending a HUGEE hug 💛 Hope you are feeling better and having a great day! You are an amazing, kind hearted person and deserve everything good that exists in this universe. & ILY LOADS <3 (my tumblr is bwoken and does not let me send pictures in asks so here i am 🤧) xx - Megh.

- - - - -

Megh 😭 Thank you so much 💛 You're all too good to me 🥺 I am feeling better. It'll take a while to get over it, but I know I'll be fine. My tumblr doesn't let me send photos in asks either :( LOVE the Anto hugs 😭 *saves them* I LOVE YOU TOO 💛

And replying to your tag 👇🏼 maybe that's why I'm bi.

[hadikaesque]

Thank you Megh for tagging me! @allfandomnerd 💙🌧

The last celeb you have saved in your camera roll is who you’ll be quarantined with

Yes, I would very much like to be quarantined with Andrés Iniesta.

I'm tagging @sunslittlesister and @checkingthetime 💛

[master-hand-official]

12, 17, 23, 24 😁🤩🤪

12 - Currently if you could listen to 3 songs forever what would they be?

UHAH let’s say. “Are Friends Electric?” by Gary Numan (party music but also emotional), “Say it Aint So” by weezer (so i have a song to relate to with the general public), and “Asleep” by the Smiths (for a bedtime song)

17 - What are your top 5 “Oldies” jams?

oldies??? hmmm  do the beach boys count as oldies? Ill say anything before 1970 is old. also this is just 5 songs, not necessarily my faves of all time,

Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

“She Knows Me Too Well” and also “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” by The Beach Boys

“Sunday Morning” - V.U. And Nico

“You Won’t See Me” by the beatley boys (i like the ooh lalala’s)

23 - 5 friends and the song you associate them with

@crazy-hand-official --- “Mother of Pearl” Roxy Music (girl its like your favorite song)

@funkylilpunk (since you tagged me after all!!) -- “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby” The Smiths 

Evron (i wont tag cause i dont wanna bother him ;_;) --- “Countdown” by Beyonce BECAUse.. we sing that shit almost every time we’re in my car lol and now theres an association

my friend meghy -- “Entertainment” by Phoenix because. i dont even know but it’s always an connection. i think she put it on her blog once and now it’s “the megh song”

“In Particular” by Blonde Redhead - she sings the name Alex in this a lot. So it always reminds me of my friend from hs..whose name is Alex.

24 - Concept playlists evoking an aesthetic or mixes of recent favorites?

One of my first eclectic spotify mixes from two years ago was based around characters me and kas were writing for. Lots of songs about daddy issues, addiction, unrequited love for a best dudebro friend, piano covers of children’s music, and Weezer. i still feel for that one lol we played it a lot :)

im tired. so if there’s anything left in my inbox for this game ill answer on my lunch tomorrow!!! THANK U team ez for all the asks!!!

[bardic-inspo]

You should talk about your fnv playthrough 👀 and about the sad bald sniper

Ahhh so today has been aggressively bad, this made me giddy and happy to find in my inbox. I will take this invitation to ramble nonsensically and run with it thank you!!

FO4 was my first Fallout, but I’ve played enough RPGs before to kind of get the gist of some the mechanics in New Vegas that weren’t in 4 (like the skills tagging and repairing weapons etc.). Enough to get it, and do it badly, that is.

I know I could have looked a bunch of stuff up and gotten a happier (or...more complete) result with the game, but I sort of enjoy throwing myself into RPGs and seeing what sticks and what blows up. (Same way I ended up with half my squad dead in ME2 WOOPS). It makes for interesting stories! So, with very few exceptions, I didn’t look up how to do quests or get a particular result. 

With that preamble of Megh Does Games Badly out of the way, here’s some random brain soup about my playthrough & Sad Bald Sniper:

My courier (Aubree) maxed Luck and Charisma, but she dumb as bricks.

BUT 10 Luck paid off harvesting infinite caps from blackjack. Got kicked out of Gomorrah for making too much in one sitting. Woops. 

For skills, she focused on guns, sneak, lockpick, and speech and very little else, which....sort of nerfed a lot of options in various spots throughout the game. Also, healing was hard.

Boone was really the only companion I hung out with (I did technically recruit Lily, Rex, Arcade, and Veronica) because I wanted the potato to tell me his secrets. He wouldn’t.

But Liam O’Brien was the real companion honestly.

BUT BACK TO BOONE NOT TELLING ME THINGS. I fucked it up?? He told me most of his stuff, but nothing ever triggered about Bitter Springs. Other people told me about Bitter Springs in front of Boone. And I was like. HEY. BUDDY. You wanna tell me about your war crime?! The NCR loved me to pieces and the Legion was sending kill squads after me, so I figured I was right up his alley. But I never did get that actual quest from him that I, yesterday, looked up and watched on YouTube. I don’t know if, maybe I advanced too far in a questline, or maybe he didn’t actually like me all that much. (Unrequited love). 

The thing I fucked up the most, though, was the Great Khans. I didn’t realize there’s sort of an “order” to how you should do the quests if you want optimal results (or at least the most available choices). Basically, I was vilified by the Legion and had no hope of getting back to the Fort to get that slave ledger and prove to the Khans they were being conned by the Legion. And I tricked Karl into getting himself shot by the Khans, so they didn’t care about his journal after that. Which means the only avenue left was....literal genocide.

I thought, MAYBE NOW, Boone will say something (nope).

Aubs really leaned hard into aligning with the NCR purely because the Legion seemed so objectively evil, and so in comparison, the NCR really seemed like the Good Guys. But she did use diplomacy where possible with other factions (except for the Great Khans).

One thing I was very happy to have pulled off: peace between the BoS and NCR!!!

So, Colonel Moore at Hoover Dam ordering me to just, kill all these factions....that’s about the part where the lightbulb of “You’re not...Good” came on. But I did want to see the NCR ending and at that point, I think in Aubree’s mind, she was too far down this path to turn back.

BUT MAYBE IF HER GOOD FRIEND BOONE HAD SAID WAIT DON’T DO A WAR CRIME I DID IT AND IT’S BAD--

Anyway, even though I failed to get Sad Bald Sniper to open up, the part that really made me soft for him is hearing him be soft when he talks about Carla. He talks about his wife like seeing her was the first time he ever felt the sun on his face. Like he’d been cronching along through dry grass and saw a flower for the first time. And yes, he’s sad and dark and twisty and has some huge trauma to process through that won’t ever really go away. But I’d like to believe that, given a little time, he can feel those things again. Baked potato. Soft inside.

OH also, I had the “petite frame” (might be called something else) trait, which delighted me to picture Smol Courier running around with the anti-material rifle. And “Wild Wasteland”, though nothing ever seemed to come of that one, sadly.

So, even though I’m particularly unhappy with the Great Khans result, and the lack of Realness from Sad Bald Sniper....I have some one shot ideas buzzing in my brain that could have come from that conversation I was hoping would happen before Aubs went through with it. And a lot of fix-it headcanons. And a lot of angsty make-it-worse headcanons. 👀

I think those are the big things I wanted to scream about, but I am down to yammer literally anytime about it, thank you for enabling me!! :)

[electricshoebox]

first line meme

Rules: List the first lines of the last ten (10) stories you published.   Look to see any patterns you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any. Then tag some friends.

Tagged by @adventuresofmeghatron, thank you!

Tagging in turn: @velvet-verve, @just-another-wasteland-merc, @valkyriejack, @mercurymiscellany, and @poemsfromthealley, just if you’d like to! 

It’s been awhile since I did this but I’m doing like Megh and counting individual chapters of The Eye of the Storm for first lines where applicable. I’m including a lot of second lines as well, for reasons I’ll elaborate on below.

1. Rearrage the Stars, Part 2: Coming Home (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “MacCready slips in the front door the moment before the rain starts. A few drops catch the brim of his hat and soak into the felt of his scarf, but it’s a relief, the way it breaks the heat that hounded him all the way from Oberland.”

2. The Eye of the Storm, Ch. 14 (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “Deacon can’t stop thinking about it. 

Not just what MacCready said, mostly because every time he thinks about that, he feels that same stomach-clenching feeling he gets when he has to climb up one of the city’s rotting highrises and gets a glimpse out the window at the street, twenty floors back below him.”

3. Strange Dreams (Fallout 4, M!SoSu + F!SoSu friendship, M!SoSu/Preston, F!SoSu/Deacon/MacCready) “No need to feel like a stranger...

He knows this song.” 

4. The Eye of the Storm, Ch. 13 (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “’Explain to me again why we’re not heading for the Castle.’

MacCready leans his shoulder into the doorframe of Deacon’s old bedroom as Deacon looks up from the drawer he’s rifling through.”

5. The Eye of the Storm, Ch. 12 (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “Deacon knows three things when he wakes the next morning: the stimpak MacCready bullied him into taking before they fell asleep as worn off, someone’s overboiling razorgrain porridge downstairs, and the other side of the bed is empty. Not necessarily registered in order of importance.”

6. The Eye of the Storm, Ch. 11 (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “The last time the Railroad raced out of its station, there were bodies on the tracks. Names and faces to bury behind a sealed door.”

7. You Didn’t Come with a Warning (Fallout 4, FSoSu/Hancock) “It’s not the first time he’s seen her. 

It’s not even the first time he’s seen her here, in the bowels of the broken subway, beer bottle swinging from her fingers by the neck.”

8. The Eye of the Storm, Ch. 10 (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) The white light washes back as suddenly as it drowned them, leaving curving spots in front of Deacon’s eyes. He stumbles out of Anthony’s grip.”

9. Another Shore: Scenes from the Other Side, Part 4: Ch. 13 Extra Scene, MacCready talks to Anthony (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “MacCready’s always sort of liked the Castle. He’s not sure what it is, exactly.”

10. The Eye of the Storm, Ch. 9 (Fallout 4, Deacon/MacCready) “Stars are spreading above the last scraps of sunset when Anthony and Deacon step off the road. They pick their way through the scattered tree trunks and down the hill toward a tall farmhouse waiting in the shadow of the old overpass.”

So for patterns, now that I’m laying this out, I have a pretty strong tendency to do one short, attention-grabbing sentence that I’ll sometimes even just isolate by itself, and then I follow it with a longer run-on that expands on it. Which I should probably... get better about lol. I also usually start in medias res, or in the middle of a conversation, at least with chapters. I guess it’s usually more compelling for me. If I’m not going to do that, then I seem to default to starting either with setting description or with a character lost in thought. 

This was fun to revisit! Thanks for the tag!

[electricshoebox]

So I keep meaning to take a page from Megh and do this and then keep completely forgetting. If you’ve followed me for more than a few days, you’re probably aware I do a lot of writing memes, especially Six Sentences Sunday and WIP Wednesday. If you follow me and are someone that likes being tagged in those posts or would like me to start tagging you, would you reply to this post or send me an ask and let me know? I’d love to tag some new folks or tag you more frequently if I haven’t been and signal boost what everyone’s creating! Alternatively, if I’ve been tagging you and you would really prefer me not to, please let me know that too! I don’t want to put any unwanted pressure on anyone. 

Thanks friends. Hope the day is treating you all well!

[electricshoebox]

catch up meme

Tagged by: @adventuresofmeghatron, thanks friend! 

Tagging (only if you feel like it): @maxdragonnb, @mechanicalism, @just-another-wasteland-merc, and @atombombbaddie

Five songs I’ve been listening to on repeat: - “12 Steps” by CXLOE - “I Take What I Want” by Unions (thanks to Megh <3) - “Prodigal” by Unions - “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X - “Good to Be Alive” by PVRIS

Currently watching: Well, my roommate’s watching through Supernatural start to finish because they’re making a watch guide, so I’m kinda along for the ride. On my own I just finished watching a couple documentary series, “This Is a Robbery” and “How to Fix a Drug Scandal,” which were both really interesting. And when I want something that’ll just kinda lift my mood without too much concentration, I’ve been putting on the Try Guys.

Last Movie: I am... genuinely not sure what the last movie I watched was, it’s been awhile. I think it might have been Muppet Treasure Island? Best instant mood lifter ever.  

Currently Reading: Okay shamefully, I have to confess I rarely read books anymore. It’s really really hard for me to hold my attention there. So mostly when I want to read, I turn to fanfiction. I’ve been very slowly poking at the Good Omens book when I travel, as planes seem to be the only exception to the concentration rule, thanks ADHD, but of course I haven’t been on a plane in over a year. 

[bardic-inspo]

Fic Writer Interview

Thank you for the tag @deacons-wig!! :)

Tagging in turn: @pchberrytea, @diredigression, @gingerbreton, @tanaleth, @valkyriejack if you’d like! No pressure if you don’t! Name: Megh

Fandoms: I really only write for Fallout, but casually partake in other fandoms (like Crit Role, Mass Effect, DA). 

Where you post: AO3, which you can find right here. I don’t post full fics on Tumblr, but do include links to them on AO3. Any WIP memes like WIP Wednesday or similar deals are posted on my Tumblr. 

Most Popular One-shot: No Rest For the Wicked - a sort of pining thing about Deacon showing up to MacCready and Natasha’s place after the fall of the Institute and some sleepy encounters putting Deacon in close proximity with the pair he’s maybe sort of secretly in like with. Overtures of future polyamory and all that. Your gateway drug into my favorite OT3.

Most Popular Multichap: Bring the Gasoline - my multichapter, in-progress slow-burn MacCready x Sole Survivor fic. Here’s a summary for you:

“Six months, huh? How much fast talking did you do to get here?” “Enough to keep me alive.”

“Really? Cause you don’t act like that’s your goal half the time. Hell, you throw yourself at everything like you’re jumping off a cliff.”

Sole survivor Natasha Sokolova is burning through friends faster than she can make them. Robert Joseph MacCready needs all the caps he can get. Problem is, the smooth-talking woman with a pistol and a job offer turns out to be more trouble than he’s counting on. They’re a match made in hell, but their little partnership might be the only thing that can see them through it.

Favorite story you’ve written so far: Bring the Gasoline is my baby, but so far I think I’ve had the most fun writing No Rest for the Wicked. It was the first thing I posted, nobody really knew I was working on it, and there were zero expectations about it. It was something I wrote purely because I wanted to and no other reason. It was also a huge sigh of relief for me to even hint at what the endgame of Bring the Gasoline is like because I’d been hermit drafting for a year while keeping my trap shut about most of what happens.

Fic you were nervous to post: All of them, every single one.  I was a bit nervous about In the Name of Love because it’s sort of an awkward situation. My goal was to balance the awkwardness with tenderness and show a sort of realistic moment where the OT3 have a little hiccup getting used to each other, but they’re helping each other through it. Not everybody’s cup of tea, but I do like how it turned out.

I was also super nervous about We Never Go Anywhere Nice because I’ve never done a gift fic before, and I was kind of trying to do a lot within one oneshot. Naturally, it turned out to be far longer than I initially envisioned, but I’m happy I tried my hand at it.

How do you choose your titles: Whatever strikes me. I try to do something thematic. For my BtG chapter titles, I try to play to themes or something a character says that sort of embodies the idea of that chapter. For my one shots, I’m okay going a little cheesier. 

Do you outline: Yes, I do, but I’m sort of ass backwards about it. I have three different outlines going on within each other like some sort of 3D chess operation. I have a pre-outline, which is the outline before I draft the chapter, usually broad or tentative plans with some specifics but not a ton. Then I have my working copy, which is literally in brackets within the document I’m typing the chapter in, and then I delete it out as I progress pass those plot points. And then, when I’m doing revisions, I bullet point every single little detail into a document called “Actual Outline”. I do this specifically in between drafts as a way for me to find plot holes and fill gaps, or see where things maybe need to be changed. Sounds a little backwards, I know, but it has really, really helped my editing process. There’s color-coding for who’s POV it is, and a scene-by-scene breakdown.

Complete: I have two complete one shots, and a third completed three-chapter “one shot”. But, the series those are nested in is ongoing and has no definitive end. It’s just sort of as I feel like it right now.

In progress: Bring the Gasoline is the only major fic I have in progress. I do one shots as they sprout in my brain, but I don’t have any in progress right now. My main focus is getting edited ahead one chapter on BtG so posting comes a little easier in the future.

Coming soon/not yet started: BtG chapter five is about halfway through a new draft, though I’ll want a new draft of chapter six before posting it. I’m making steady headway there. I have a very smutty WIP in mind for the OT3 with a special focus on Nat/Deacon. The prompt is that the two of them are spending a weekend away together, but MacCready has left some specific instructions as to how he wants them to spend some of that time. Like I said, it’s smutty, but I also want it to be sort of emotionally smutty. I wanted to write the OT3s first time together before writing any other smutty one shots for them, but realistically, I need to finish BtG before that could really happen, because spoilers, so it’s this domino effect waiting game. Which...makes me want to just go ahead and write the smutty one shot anyway. So, maybe. We’ll see. 👀 I also have another idea (also smutty) that might be a one-shot or a scene in a future fic. Basically, Nat and Mac and trying to have some intimacy but Deacon is staying with them which makes things tricky. So they seize the opportunity when he’s stepped out for a sec...but, maybe he’s not gone so long as they were thinking.

Prompts?: I sometimes use prompts as a springboard of inspiration, but I’ve found I’m no good with requests. I have a hard time writing something that I’m not personally excited about.

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: I am really excited about the Gunners plotline for Bring the Gasoline. It’s my first real foray into canon divergence, and the arc I finished for NaNoWriMo last year, so it’s sort of near and dear to me. And it’s right around the corner - not so far as readers might think!  👀 

This is so, so far away, but I also have tentative plans that are starting to have some framework for a multi-chapter fic on how the OT3 get together after Bring the Gasoline. I have a secret wish that this could be my NaNo project next year, but that would involve getting a lot done with BtG, so we’ll see.

[electricshoebox]

song tag meme

Oh this was just the distraction I needed, thank you for the tag @adventuresofmeghatron! 

Tagging: @molliehaswords, @desynchimminent, @atombombbaddie, @lordezukos, and anyone else that might want to do it. No pressure, of course, but I’m always hungry for new music. 

Rules: list ten songs you’ve been liking hearing lately

I liked the idea Megh had to add some lyrics, so I’m gonna do that too. Also sorry in advance for repeating artists, they’re just the sound I need lately. No particular order, just as I thought of them.

1. “Gimme a Minute” by PVRIS “Gimme a minute, gimme a minute / Thought I got through it, maybe I didn’t / Thought it was over, maybe it isn’t / Just gimme a minute, gimme a minute” 

2. “Human” by Daughter “Underneath the skin there’s a human / Buried deep within there’s a human / And despite everything I’m still human” 

3. “Keep” by Mother Mother “So I’ll keep breaking, I’ll keep breaking my heart / Until it opens again / I’ll keep falling, I’ll keep falling apart / Until I’m whole again.”

4. “Helium” by Glass Animals “I guess I want you more than I thought I did / Now that I know a part of you’s not part of this.”

5. “No Mercy” by PVRIS “If you’re gonna make it hurt show me no mercy / And let it rain, and let it rain”

6. “Robot Boy” by Linkin Park “And you’re sure you’ve hurt in a way / That no one will ever know / But someday the weight of the world / Will give you the strength to go”

7. “So Down” by Mother Mother “And I believe, I believe in the pain, man / I believe it’s the way to find peace again / I’m trying, yeah, I’m trying”

8. “Separate” by PVRIS “And pull away the world from me / I don’t mind / As long as they don’t separate you from me / I’ll be fine”

9. “Oh No!” by Marina and the Diamonds “One track mind, one track heart / If I fail I’ll fall apart / Maybe it is all a test / ‘Cause I feel like I’m the worst, so I always act like I’m the best”

10. “Vide Noir” by Lord Huron “Where can you go when it’s all in your head? / These are the last words that I ever said”