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recurring-polynya · 9 months ago

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Writing/Art Update 3.5.2024

So, Polynya, did you finish the fanfic? Well...sort of? No. No, I guess the answer is actually no.

Last week, I said I had two and a half scenes left, one of which was the epilogue, and one scene I wanted to rewrite. I wrote the scene and a half that were not the epilogue, and then I tried to do that scene re-write. It came out better than it was, but I still didn't love it. I figured I would just go ahead and write the epilogue and then maybe come back and try again. 3/4 of the epilogue went great, and then I just couldn't manage to end it, and got stuck for three days. I went back and tried to re-write that scene I didn't like *again*, and barely got into before realizing that the way I was hoping to make it better did not, in fact. Yesterday, after Much Struggle, I managed to pull together an end to epilogue with is...okay...but I don't love it. So the current state of things is: 107,408 words, and it is strictly speaking, A Whole-ass Fanfic, but with two half-scenes that I hate.

It's really frustrating, because I had a bunch of productive weeks in a row, and my brain has just utterly collapsed on me in the eleventh hour. I've been trying so hard to push it over the finish line, but it's one of those things where I can't just brute force it, I need to somehow have a good idea. I am also so so tired this week. I know, logically, that probably I just need to relax and rest up for a few days and this will be easy to fix when I am feeling better, but it's hard to relax when I have this stupid almost-but-not-quite-done fanfic hanging over my head.

Here are some other stupid facts:

The scenes in question are important and I want them to be good, but they aren't exactly load-bearing, in the sense that nothing else depends on them

I don't even *need* the epilogue, and in fact, after I realized that I end all my Heart is a Muscle fics with people drinking (not on purpose, I'm just unoriginal), it made me want to drop the whole thing on principle (except that I also don't because it's sort of a thematic lead-in to the next story in the series and also Ukitake is there)

The two problem scenes are way at the end of the fanfic. When I do start posting this thing, I plan to post one chapter per week like I often do, meaning that I have literal months to fix these

Chapter 1 is beta'd and ready to go and literally nothing is stopping me from posting it this very second

BUT I don't want to post Chapter 1 until my beta has seen the whole fic because what if she notices something in Chapter 12 that needs to be fixed back in Chapter 1

AND literally nothing is stopping me from just sending my beta the last few chapters with a little note on the scenes I'm not happy with. It's highly possible she might have some ideas! Or just be like "you are insane these are fine"!

EXCEPT I don't want her to see my bad writing that I am embarrassed about

And so, here we are. I am probably going to give it another day or two, and if I can't manage to fix those two scenes, I'll just suck it up and send the rest to her.

I guess I also should re-do the banner, except I don't feel like re-doing the banner. It's....okay. I don't know. I just kind of slapped it together based on a thing we were doing at Art Club. Maybe I don't even want a banner.

Speaking of Art Club, it's March now, which meant there was a new theme at Art Club (nature) and I decided to try to get back into my daily drawing. I think this is possibly what killed my momentum on my fanfic. I am just literally only capable of having one priority at a time, even if it's a little tiny one, otherwise my brain just plays tug of war with my priorities and it's hard to manage either of them.

Anyway, I've been in kinda rough shape for the last few days, but I am sure it will pass. It's got some good bits, but I think I just never really managed to fall in love with this one, and I'm really worried about it getting a cooler reception than I'm used to, since the fandom seems to have quieted down significantly since the last time I posted one of these. On the other hand, I've worked too hard on this to not post it. Also, it's got some stuff in it that had to happen for the series to progress. And maybe other people will like it! Who knows! Not me!!

I had hoped to be able to start posting it this week, but that's not looking likely at this point, so I guess you can have another preview.

--- from Ch 3

"You really didn't have to go to all this trouble," Rukia pointed out, as she methodically piled her bowl with a heaping serving of everything on offer.

Renji grabbed a big pinch of the shirasu before passing it over to her. "It's fine. I'm not sure when I'll be up for cooking again, so I'm trying to clean out my fridge."

"Oh, so I'm helping?"

Renji grinned. "Sure."

"I love helping! If you need me to take this pickled ginger with me, I could take it off your hands."

"I think the pickles will probably keep for a bit."

"Hmmph," Rukia replied skeptically, and scooped some more into her bowl.

It was always difficult not to just sit and watch Rukia eat, in part because she truly did have an extraordinary talent for shoveling food into her mouth, but mostly because it reminded Renji of why they had come to the Seireitei in the first place, of how lucky he was these days. You have to go to work, too, this morning, he reminded himself, and dug in.

"You know, speaking of helping…" Rukia said a few minutes later, once she'd managed to eat enough to shave the edge of her morning ravenousness. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

The pleasant feelings in Renji's chest abruptly turned cold and gloppy. He frowned, and raised one eyebrow skeptically. “Yeah?”

Rukia looked up at him with her big, stupidly blue eyes. “Do you remember when we talked about how important it was for you to have a comfortable and peaceful recovery from your surgery?”

“I do. I distinctly remember asking you to drop it and not bring it up, again, actually.”

“Right, well, I never actually agreed to that. I think that you should come stay at my house.”

Renji gave her an incredulous look. “Your house? Kuchiki Manor, you mean? Your house that is actually my captain’s house?”

“It’s very nice there, as you know. The food really is very good and we have a million servants with nothing better to do--”

“I am sure they have better things to do, Rukia.”

“--and you can sit in a sunny spot in the garden and I’ll read you books and it will be so much nicer than staying in the Coordinated Relief Station!”

Renji heaved a huge, exasperated sigh. “It’s a nice idea, Rukia, but think about the look on Captain’s face if you even--”

“He said it was okay.”

Renji felt all the blood run out of his face, possibly out of his body entirely. “You asked him?”

“I know you’re only getting it done because he ordered you to. He obviously wants you to do your best to heal up well. He cares about you, too, you know, in his own way.”

Renji stiffened, his fingers tightening on his chopsticks. “You probably told him the whole story, then? How I broke my arm in the first place?” His voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away.

“Not the whole thing!" Rukia shook her head vehemently. "He knows you broke it saving me, that's the only important part.”

Renji drew in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. All he could focus on was the sound of his own blood pounding in his ears. “Why do you always have to do this?” he finally managed through gritted teeth. “I asked you to just leave it, but you never can.”

Rukia shoved out her lower lip. “Maybe if you took care of yourself half as well as you take care of everyone else, I would!” she protested. “Just let me spoil you for a few days, would it be so terrible?”

“Yes.”

#writing update #art update #here's hoping that posting all this will expel it from my system and i can turn around the fix my stupid bad scenes

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hayleysayshay · 2 years ago

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You know I don’t think I’ve ever rly done a post on why I like Mako, my forever blorbo:

He’s just the kind of neutral character I like and I think it’s because I really don’t have a strong personality and I tend to like characters some people think are boringg because they’re the straight man. Scott Summers was my favourite x-man lol.

He has weird eyebrows. It’s a plus for sure.

He has a tragic backstory, but it’s trauma that’s related to poverty. His parents were killed young and he’s been in a caretaker role since he was eight. That leaves him emotionally stunted. Emotional constipation is my jam. There is literally a post compiling all of the characters in the legend of korra crying, and Mako isn’t in it because he doesn’t cry. I think he needs a good cry.

Also his parents were killed by a firebender, he is a firebender, the show never explores this juicy source of angst.

He generally cares and is very protective over his friends. He doesn’t even really hide it, at the start of book 1 it’s clear he only cares about the people he cares about. This changes by book 4 when he sacrifices himself for the city. His world has expanded.

There’s a ruthless side to Mako, he can be a little dark, see how he threatened people for Korra in book 1 (and then Wu in book 4 lol?). He killed Ming-Hua and my own HC is that he was probs fine with because out of the four I think Mako is the most pragmatic (though tbh I don’t think we’ve seen all of what Asami can offer so maybe second most. Think Asami would murder easily).

I like his dynamic with Bolin a lot, and a lot of book 3 slaps because of this (ignore whatever the jail thing in book 2 because it’s just strange.)

I also like his dynamic with Wu which is why I’m a wuko shipper lol.

He is a very bad communicator. I think that’s neat, because communication is actually something people in general suck at talking, and I don’t ever really like people saying ‘just talk!’ A response to characters conflict, because people don’t just fucking talk to each other. Communication is hard.

Mako starts an eighteen year old who thinks he knows everything but really doesn’t. The only person he has had to rely on his entire life is himself, so his outlook on the world is very warped by his own perception of it, so I think he lacks introspection and can’t really relate to many people emotionally so he couldn’t understand Korra’s frustrations in book 2 (though yes to say Korra was also in the wrong). By book 4 he has grown more chill to trust and support Korra implicitly (who has also grown as well).

I love the breakups. Mako and Korra and Asami all seemed to like each other but never really understood one another. A lot of the issues between them were not just started by Mako (ppl forget Korra initiated the love triangle by kissing Mako without asking when she knew he had a gf) and it’s just teenagers being dumb and not being honest with eachother. I don’t think the writers set out do this in book 1 but by choosing to end the relationships in book 2 I feel like there was some awareness to the flaws present in the relationships. It is, accidentally, one of the more realistic relationships squabbles on a kids show. I love that shit because I’m weird.

All of this leads to this incredibly flawed doofus who means well. I think that’s blorbotastic.

Anyway because most of the fandom hate for the relationship drama is towards Mako I feel the need to defend him since it’s just not that bad. I also feel the need to explain every time that Mako dying would have been a very bad way to end the series, please guys, I will fight you in the streets over this.

None of this is very well explored in canon. I don’t think Mako is a blank slate character, a lot of his character is defined early on and is consistent, but it is not well developed beyond the initial setup at all. This is great for fanfic and it’s fun for headcanons. Hooray!

Because it’s underdeveloped your headcanon doesn’t need much time to work with canon as long as you actually watch the series.

#mako #tlok #lok #legend of korra #it’s half two. why did I feel the need to explain this now

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hullosweetpea · 10 months ago

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

thank you @catknives for tagging me (even though i’m responding 2 months later 😅)

First, my AO3

How many works do you have on AO3?

107!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

223, 678 words, counting co-writing and co-podding works!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Stranger Things, but I do have some Fargo s5 fic in the works. Back in the day it was a lot of Supernatural, Doctor Who, Check Please!, Schitt’s Creek, (regrettably) The Big Bang Theory, Marvel, The Mortal Instruments, and The Infernal Devices

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Familiar to Me (Supernatural), Intervention (Supernatural), felled by you (Stranger Things), Avenging Barbarian (Stranger Things), and A Truth Universally Acknowledged (Stranger Things)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! Mainly because I like the interaction (especially when readers have predictions/ world-building thoughts). I also screenshot my favorite ones for when I need motivation or a pick me up.

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

Probably Happy Springtime Cas (Supernatural) because it’s Main Character Death

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

This Ken Has a Boyfriend! (Stranger Things) because it is pure crack and delight ❤️

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not so much hate, but I could always tell when someone hasn’t seen You’ve Got Mail based on how critical they are of Cas in A Truth Universally Acknowledged. Which, at that point, please discuss it with your friends and not me. I decided to follow the plot of You’ve Got Mail pretty close, and for some people it was too much that Dean lost his store like Kathleen. (And I only cried about it twice, which is a win for me).

9. Do you write smut?

yes, primarily omegaverse and kink. oh if 15 year old sweetpea could see me now skdlfjsdjf

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

Gonna show my age here, but for my 100th fanfic on FF.net I wrote a SuperWhoLock fic. I’ve also written a Supernatural/Check Please! crossover, and I’m in the middle of writing a Fargo/Stranger things crossover (Gator with older Steve/Eddie, anyone?).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, thank god!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Birthday Wish (Stranger Things) was translated by Azalea_Violetta

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

I’m currently working on a co-written fic for a ST Femslash Server I’m in (not sure how much I can say publicly!). But I’ve been apart of many multi-voice podfic (podfic voiced with a whole cast instead of one person).

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Currently gripped by Steddie.

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

The bio-bdsm destiel fic. I might get back to it some day, but my Stranger Things fascination gripped me about the same time I was noodling with it. Also, I’m so bad about finishing long fics 🤦‍♀️

16. What are your writing strengths?

Description, sentence fragments as poetic license

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot v. cool scene, anxiety editing

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

I’d like to apologize for 16 year old me for slapping Google Translate lines in fic. I’m sure there were many cringy translations. Otherwise, I don’t think too hard when I see them in fic.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Unposted: American Girl; Posted: Doctor Who

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

pinkie swear (Stranger Things). It was my last fill for Stobin Month and it was so cathartic and enjoyable to write. I just love Steve and Robin’s friendship ❤️

tagging: @hullomoon, @faithfulcat111, @mayalaen, @starshideurfics, and @goonflower

#ask games #whew that took awhile #but was so fun!

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the-wild-wolves-around-you · 7 months ago

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Hi hello IM HERE TO PESTER YOU JUST LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Top 5 current songs on repeat 👀

And also…

Top favorite Erika/Jade moments cause I love and miss you 🥺💕

AHHHH ok this is my second time typing this out bc tumblr deleted the first draft 😤

But omg you’re gonna get me cancelled for the song one ☠️ BUT ILL DO IT FOR YOU MY LOVE 😩

(To speak my truth Ive just been listening to taylor swifts newest album this last week 🙈 ITS A GOOD ALBUM OK! AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY WITH ALL MY BLORBOS 😩 but ill add some of my other top spotify contenders 😂)

Top 5 Songs on Repeat:

1. Fortnight by Taylor Swift (the 80s synth vibe is just too good, my brain has latched on to it.)

2. Too Sweet by Hozier (MY IRISH KING 😩 honestly his whole newest album is just banger after banger but i particularly love screaming this song while dancing around my kitchen 💃🏻🕺🏻)

3. Time in a Tree by Raleigh Ritchie (This artist is actually the actor who plays Louis in Interview with the Vampire! All of his music slaps, but the vibe and lyricism in this particular song is just 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼)

4. Growing Sideways by Noah Kahan (His whole album Stick Season is a no-skip for me but this song gets me EVERY TIME 😩)

5. First Class by Rainbow Kitten Surprise (LOVE all of rks, they’re queer and their music honestly fucks in a 70s rock band kinda way 🤘🏼)

NOW ON TO THE GOOD STUFF

Top 5 Erika/Jade Moments: ��🥰

1. OKAY THE FIRST HASSSSSS TO be watching kris play pontius pilot and fucking up the whip noises for jesus ☠️ I think about that shit ALL the time and it always cracks me up when it pops in my head 🤣

2. Anytime we had weekend sleepovers and got pizza or your mom made jalapeño poppers while we watched anime 🥹 (EXCEPT FOR WOLF CHILDREN IM STILL NOT OVER THAT SHIT 😩)

3. When we would be writing fanfic in the library instead of studying for APUSH and the librarians would shush us 😅 OR TRY TO SEE WHAT WE WERE WORKING ON ☠️

4. Getting high (ALLEGEDLY 👀) and walking to go get food on the drag 😎 I MISS THAT PHO PLACE SM😩

5. When you made me those shoes with all my fave fandoms 🥹 (Kakashi’s eyes, supernatural anti-possession symbol, LOTR script on the bottom) I still have them on a shelf in my closet 🥰🥰

AND HONESTLY ANY OTHER TIME IVE SPENT IN YOUR COMPANY bc I love you very much and miss you even more 😘

#also honorary 6. is when we met Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery 😂#I LOVE YOU GENERAL thanks for the ask 😙#kedsandtubesocks #@kedsandtubesocks #asks

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kitcat-italica · 1 year ago

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Goddammit, I wasn't going to say anything more about this. And I don't like sharing too much negativity on here. And I probably should let it go.

But I'm still so mad about Good Omens.

It stung a little when I first saw the spoilers of what happened in Season 2. So I thought I'd wait until I cooled off, then decide whether I wanted to actually watch the season. Every time I checked in with myself about it, I still wasn't done being hurt.

But instead of the hurt and anger fading, it's just gotten stronger as the weeks have gone by. Which tells me that something else is going on here. And I think it's this:

Something that was once safe, is no longer safe for me.

I'm so tired, so very very fucking tired, of media doing a heel-face-turn of tone, retching up stomach-dropping plot turns, slapping out out-of-character developments in its protagonists, and in general not following through on the original promise the story was based on. The promise of 'this will ultimately arrive at XYZ general conclusion or point or feeling.' Even if there's struggling and surprises along the way, there's a promise there. I'm not saying the story has to be predictable or handle the audience with kid-gloves. I'm not explaining my point very well; writers, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. The Promise of the story that it will keep from the outset.

For me, Good Omens had an ending. It ended with a kid and his friends saving the world, and an angel and a demon toasting the planet and the human race that lived on it with flutes of champagne. It celebrated humanity, and all our wacky characters came away from it happy. And yes there was an open canvas ahead of them of what came next, but it left me with a sense of joy and celebration. It was safe.

That's just it. It was a safe place for me, emotionally.

And now, it's not safe anymore.

Now it's all betrayal and desperation and heartbreak and slowed-down gifs explaining every tremble of a messy divorce, and I just can't. I'm so fucking done with stories not following through on their promise. I'm tired of having my emotional safe places ripped away from me, and then have everyone else say 'why are you mad, it's not the actual end of the story.' You know what, you're right, the story ended in 1990 when the book was published, and in 2019 when that one book was wonderfully adapted to one miniseries of TV.

I'm not going to watch Season 2. I'm not going to engage in any fandom activities regarding it. Maybe one day I'll dip my toe back into writing fanfic based on book/S1; right now that still feels too painful. I stopped writing the MCU fanfic after Infinity War/Endgame, and it's been going on 4 years since that hiatus. We'll see how long this one ends up lasting.

My safe happy corner of the internet is gone. And I'm fucking furious about it.

#good omens season 2

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jasminethetransvampire · 8 months ago

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Fanfic Writer Questions

Alright so, @optiwashere tagged me in this question thingy, how fun! I was looking for an excuse to discuss this stuff. Oh, and I will be tagging @zawazawanightmares, @modusoperand1 and @trygrievousbutgirl-blog, though ya'll are under no obligation to participate if you don't want to.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Twelve, though that number is a bit misleading because one of those has 15 chapters and has been getting sporadic updates since December of last year.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

115,036. Which seems about right, I tend to get wordy.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I started with Baldur's Gate 3 but pretty quickly expanded to Chainsaw Man, which is mostly where I hang my hat these days. I'm also planning on writing for Kakegurui eventually, and maybe Dead by Daylight and Warhammer if the mood strikes me. Oh and I wrote one fic for Werewolf: The Apocalypse that wasn't very good, but I'm probably not returning to that universe anytime soon.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In descending order: Stress Relief, In Lust and In Leaf (E-rated Karlach/Shadowheart/Tav feat. recreational drug use) Through You (E-rated Power/Kobeni, chapter-based longfic) A Matron's Mercy (E-rated Minthara/Tav with lots of gender affirmation) Underdark, Under Pressure (M-rated Shadowheart/Tav, the first fic I ever published!) Waning Moon, Not A Moment Too Soon (E-rated Shadowheart/Tav, ball-slapping sex in a broom closet)

5. Do you respond to comments?

All of them! Though it occasionally takes me a while because of things like time zones and me needing time to think of decent responses. I love getting comments!

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

I don't really do angsty endings, I keep that stuff to the beginning and middle when it comes up at all, but by default this one probably goes to Would You Still Love Me if I Was Several Worms? because the ending is only very hopeful that things will work out alright instead of outright confirming it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh, hm... It's kinda hard to rank them, but I guess probably Hearts of Fire and Darkness, Eye Enough for Both, though there's no fic of mind that'd refer to as having an "unhappy" ending per se.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! Not yet at least. I'm sure there's at least one person out there who hates my guts and thinks my work is trash, but so far they've been cordial enough to keep it to themselves.

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

Yup! I like to think of it as pretty character driven, I always try to keep track of the characters' emotions and mental state during the intense gay sex.

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

None yet, but I definitely want to write one for BG3 and Chainsaw Man eventually (as in, some time before the heat death of the universe). Both fandoms have a basically immortal lesbian and they deserve to meet eachother.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, not to my knowledge.

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

I've definitely had writer friends of mine look over sections of fics I'm working on to provide feedback and criticism, but nothing quite so involved.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

This is going to sound so stupid, but it's actually an OC x OC ship. See, once upon a time I joined a Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition roleplay server on discord. I played a terrifying, gay monster woman with way too much shit on her shoulders, and she ended up becoming the girlfriend of a blood-curdling, bisexual monster woman with a machete and a vicious streak. The scenes we wrote together there were beautiful and romantic and did wonders for my mental health. I am never going to forget those characters. Valerie and Jelena forever.

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

I wanted to write a novel that was basically just me throwing a bunch of mine and my friends' OCs into an angsty high school AU. It was going to be an attempt at a complex exploration of queerness, mental health and being born into a privileged but deeply abusive household. I gave up after chapter 2 because barely any of the people I showed it to for feedback got back to me, and I got demoralised. Now I write fanfiction and get feedback all the time.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Apparently, transfem rep and hurt/comfort. Which I guess I can kinda see, I'm good at hurting characters but I can never stand to see them in pain for long, hence copious amounts of comfort to compensate.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm bad at writing male characters and just flat out can't write hetero romance. Also, I'm slow as fuck.

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

I just don't do it, unless using Japanese honorifics when writing in English counts. If I need to have a character speak in Russian or Infernal or whatever, I just write "they said in X language" or something like that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically there's a very shitty, unfinished, first-draft, collaborative Hotline Miami fic sitting somewhere in my google docs that's probably the first if I were to check the dates. It's never going to get published or finished, but one OC I made up for it still keeps cropping up in the stories I come up with in my mind, and if I ever go professional they'll see the light of day eventually.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I technically answered this question here! But the TL;DR version is: Through You and Another Way share the top spot, passion projects that make me a little emotional to think about.

#questions and answers #chainsaw man #bg3 #ramblings #this took me all day

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pepperf · 2 years ago

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I posted 1,294 times in 2022

That's 325 more posts than 2021!

192 posts created (15%)

1,102 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lochrannn

@bending-sickle

@ponyregrets

@bethanyactually

@wheresmytowel

I tagged 1,172 of my posts in 2022

Only 9% of my posts had no tags

#the umbrella academy - 262 posts

#tua - 259 posts

#diego hargreeves - 225 posts

#lila pitts - 162 posts

#dielila - 140 posts

#diego/lila - 138 posts

#david castañeda - 71 posts

#tua s3 - 59 posts

#tua s3 spoilers - 48 posts

#tua fanfic - 48 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#''and i listen to the sound / of the trucks as they move down / out on 95 / and pretend that it's the ocean / comin' down to wash me clean''

My Top Posts in 2022:

No.

283 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

Hey, parts of North London I know well! So the places they visited in today’s Dracula Daily entry are all still there, and relatively unchanged since Victorian times I think, aside from the first:

Jack Straw’s Castle:

This is a massive white-painted pub at the top of Hampstead hill, now closed. In Stoker’s time, the building looked like this:

It was badly damaged during the Blitz, and rebuilt in the 60s. The current building looks like this:

See the full post

385 notes - Posted September 26, 2022

My dearest darlingest TUA fic writers and fan artists: let me start off by saying that I love you all, I do, without bias or judgement, and I appreciate all the hard work that you put into whatever it is that makes your little hearts go pitty-pat.

That said, I have noticed an alarming trend recently: Diego is shrinking! He is getting smaller and smaller, in every lineup and fic description, inch by inch he is getting more and more petite, and I begin to fear that, at this rate, by this time next year he will have vanished entirely.

So, for your edification, I have put together this handy-dandy height reference chart for the Hargreeves siblings:

See how Diego (all 5′11¼ delicious inches of him) stands, taller than his sister Allison (5′8′‘), just slightly shorter than his sibling Klaus (an even 6′), and on a par with his brother Ben (5′11′‘)? See how he towers above his littlest siblings, Viktor (5′1′’) and Five (5′7′’ but still growing if he’ll only cut back on the caffeine)! See how he’s only a few inches shorter than his tallest brother, Luther (6′4′’)! Let us celebrate him, tall, proud, and erect (no, wait, wrong kind of fic...), and lofty!

I thank you for your consideration.

697 notes - Posted April 19, 2022

See the full post

1,272 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

A love letter to the co-conspiritors

They have many names—beta reader, friend, Oh Fuck You—but you know who they are: they're the person who is as rabid as you about a ship or a character, the one you DM with your most twisted headcanons, the one who agrees that YES, he SHOULD be tied to a chair and slapped in the face—that she SHOULD be allowed a little tragic backstory, as a treat—that they SHOULD be roommates who are secretly pining for one another...the one who hashes out with you, at past midnight, how soon is reasonable for people with superpowers to have sex after one of them has been shot in the leg.

They’re the person who reads your fic before you send it to anyone else, and raves with you about that plot point that you COULDN’T WAIT for them to reach, or points out where you’ve forgotten that they were at the bar, not the library, so you need to remove the reference to book stacks, or pokes you to finish the goddamn next chapter because they want to read it, okay?

Fandom would not exist without them. They enable and encourage. Some of them are also fic writers, and you get to enable them right back. Some of them create fan art, or meta, or text post edits, or run prompt fests, or edit wikis...some of them are simply just as in love with the same thing that you are and want to feed the squee.

If you’re lucky enough to have someone like this in your life, you’ll know how much impact they have. It’s different to getting comments and kudos (wonderful though those are!), because they come in before the fic is finished, sometimes even before it’s started, and say ‘yes, do it!’. The fact that I've written so much for Community and The Umbrella Academy is completely down to @bethanyactually and @wheresmytowel respectively, and I count myself incredibly lucky to have them both in my life (and not just for all this, but also because they’re both incredibly lovely and smart and fun).

It was Fanfic Writer Appreciation Day yesterday (Aug 21st), and it made me think that we should also give a shoutout to the co-conspiritors, because without them, an awful lot more fic writers would be stress-scrolling through tumblr instead of working on their WIP, and there’d be so much less fic in the world.

1,945 notes - Posted August 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review

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moonspirit · 1 year ago

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I'm SO glad you rb it, so let's go!

👀🍦😈🛒⛔🙋‍♀️💖🎨🤲💔 and ✨

Omg Anna T____T!!!

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please! Oh well xD I only have one WIP and that's VBEOW xD But Chapter 4 is basically, full of emotions and feelings, not a lot of fluff or anything else going on here because we gotta start moving the puzzle pieces to fit together!

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far? Hmmm, generally I think that all of my AruAni fics are written with an undertone of sweetness, except of course when I write emotional parts, but even then, I focus on healing from those emotional scenes by slapping some fluff or whatever at the end or something. That said, I continue to have a soft spot for two non-AruAni fics in particular, which I wrote several years ago: Eyes of Heaven (Yatori, Noragami) and A Dance for the Future (Touken, Tokyo Ghoul, tho imo this is somewhat poorly written in retrospect, but I will go rewrite it someday xD)

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers? Ya know what this is. Cockblocking in VBEOW. I will cockblock you all until you come and murder me. Tho apart from being mean and teasing the readers, I think it provides some great pre-seggs tension and opportunity to get more comfortable with each other xD

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc. 💖 What made you start writing? ⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped? I answered all of these here, and here!

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic? Yeah, my two (and only) friends. But they don't read them, even tho they're in the Snk fandom xD They're not used to fanfiction.

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories? I'd be over the moon honestly T////T Tbh my imagination of several portions of my fics are so very vivid that honestly I would draw them myself, if I could. I would also be commissioning artists left and right if I was able to afford that atm xD

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip? Alright then. Spoiler for Chap 4 of VBEOW:

It’s not like he has anywhere else to go. They weren’t at the Jaeger house. They weren’t in the market. They weren’t under the tree and now he’s too tired to search anywhere else. He isn’t like them. He’s not strong, he’s just weak. And he can’t go back home. Definitely not home. Like a pathetic loser, he seeks their warmth so his tears don’t end up cold. But they don’t really need him all the time the way he does them. So he ends up at the only other place he can think of, but the man he came to seek the company of, is too drunk to even notice him.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart? Uhh... yes. A fic I wrote several years ago for the Tokyo Ghoul fandom called The Lamplighter, focusing on the relationship between Amon and Donato. It was pretty painful to write.

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉 Nonono, I answered a compliment here, one is enough for a day T_T But thank you for prompting me again, I will repeat it to myself T_T

Thank you for the ask :3!

#ask game #annawayne

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spikeymarshmallows · 2 years ago

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Fic Reading - Jan 2023

I used to write, and thus posted "Writing Updates" each month. I'm now onto like... year fucking THREE of a writers block that is destroying my soul.

But someone suggested to find different ways to enjoy fandom. I have a few friends that track their fic reading so... I'm giving it a shot. I'm also gonna add some fic-recs because I think that's important :) Where possible, I'm gonna TRY to rec fics that I don't see all over the place, getting rec'd left-right-and-centre, or I simply think are spectacular.

Jan 2023

Total words read: 580 961 Fics read: 75 Podfics listened to: 6 Did not finish: 9 Rereads: 12

Recs for the month:

I'll Be the Shadow, You'll Be the Light by jesskier - 60k, explicit - a 10-part really fun, sexy, at times angsty kink series. It plays heavy on the kinks, which I LOVE, with the aftercare and the complexities of feelings being so strong and just... it feels very real, you know? But also, it's hot as hell. I've reread some of this series 5+ times. Oops??

Eddie Munson and the Dreamboy by pukner - 8k, not rated - Look, I am a slut for anything pukner writes. "took you for a working boy" is one of my favourite fics. But EM and the Dreamboy just.... wrecks me. Features baby!Steve in teddy bear socks that makes both Eddie and I want to eat drywall.

On the Frozen Lake, Jagged and Beautiful - by kayeslin - 74k, explicit - I haven't finished this fic because I am listening to the ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE PODFIC. This is a fun fic, and Eddie makes Steve solve DnD style riddles every time he sells him weed. It's just... it's just fucking great, and you should all gobble it up.

international garbage man, i've decided that's what i am - by fenellacapella - 7k, explicit - so for those that know me, I really fucking love kink that... IDK, plays hard? that isn't just the standard "handcuffs and spanking" (I mean, I love those too! but I ReALLY love things that get a bit different too). This fic does that. The shower sex... face slapping... lowkey sexy-drowning-steve-with-a-showerhead... yeah, that's my kink. the Via Chicago series is great, tbh. >:)

Dustin Henderson and the Lovebirds - by pukner - 9.7k, not rated - Look, I'll try not to rant and rave about how amazing pukner is EVERY time I put together a rec list, but like, they never miss. They never. fucking. miss. This fic just gets you in the happiest spots and makes the world a little brighter.

Fics I'm "keeping my eye on" (ie, they're WIPs but hot DAMN do I fucking love them):

dumb bunny, I'm wild for you by honeyvenom - 13.9k, WIP, explicit - I've written in my notes "Steve is a subby baby, and Eddie offers to platonic Dom him. It has a dark non-con fantasy, and the whole thing is REALLY REALLY GOOD, HOLY SHIT". So uh, that's my rec lol.

A Year in the Life of Chip Harrington - by courfeyrac and sourpastels - 51k, WIP, mature - I haven't read the most recent chapters because brain function? Haven't heard of her. BUT the first two chapters are just GREAT and this fic just feels like a warm hug in your heart. Based on the tags, I don't think it'll emotionally cripple me either, so yay!!

getting lost in the dark is my favorite part - by QueerOnTilMorning - 18k, WIP, explicit - AHHHHHH. Eddie decides to go be rid of his pesky virginity post-S4, and look, there is a scene that makes you wanna DIE (of embarrassment. for Eddie). But it's SO GOOD and has Steve and Eddie uh... learning things about themselves heh.

Trouble Looks Good on You - by indelicate - 25k, WIP, explicit - Steve is Strong and Eddie is a chaotic gremlin who likes to launch himself at Steve. There are ~awakenings~ and honestly, the author is REALLY fucking good at writing their sexual tension, holy shit.

Goals for Feb 2023 Reading:

Read a (Stranger Things) fic 4+ months old, with fewer than 500 kudos

Read a fic with >80k words

Cross off 25 tasks in the Fanfic Reading Challenge

(2 AU categories, 2 Author categories, 4 Content tasks, 1 Minority task, 5 Fic Type tasks, 3 Numbers tasks, 1 Ships tasks, 1 Titles category, 3 Tropes tasks)

Got any steddie recs I should read? (I ask, as if my TBR list isn't >250 fics now...). I'm particularly into podfics right now, and will hopefully be putting together a good list of those in the future too!

#spikey recs #steddie #steddie recs #steddie fanfic

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hugintheraven · 2 years ago

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I posted 4,434 times in 2022

That's 1,637 more posts than 2021!

33 posts created (1%)

4,401 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@hikari-ni-naritai

@jabberwockypie

@unpretty

@tooquirkytolose

@laikaspeaks

I tagged 2,212 of my posts in 2022

Only 50% of my posts had no tags

#q - 787 posts

#politics - 249 posts

#religion - 108 posts

#lgbtq - 92 posts

#dracula - 68 posts

#d&d - 54 posts

#science - 48 posts

#history - 44 posts

#about me - 38 posts

#linguistics - 35 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#it's impossible for me to actually figure out how good it is because every single possible change is infinitely better than jj's crap

My Top Posts in 2022:

So, some basic thoughts

The sequence of events is basically Chris Rock makes joke, then Will laughs while Jada looks hurt, then Will walks up and slaps Chris, then Chris tries to play it off, then Will says “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth” until Chris agrees.

So I think initially Will didn’t register the joke. He’s an actor at the Oscars, Smile and Laugh is basically his job for the night. Then he saw how Jada was taking it and reacted to that. Which I like. It makes the situation less “don’t insult MY wife” and more “don’t hurt the woman I love”.

I also don’t think that was over the line. It was an extreme reaction, but this isn’t the first time she’s listened to jokes about her medical condition. It might be the last, though. Which appeals to me, honestly. It reminds me of high school, sometimes the only way to make people stop is to hurt someone. And Will kept it controlled.

Honestly, a good reminder to all stand-up comedians, late night hosts, etc, there’s some jokes you shouldn’t make. Learn where the line is and stay on the right side of it. Or invest in a good dental plan, whichever.

99 notes - Posted March 27, 2022

Dracula Daily and Fanfic

So, I decided to look into AO3 and see what this fandom produced since the beginning of *gestures vaguely* ALL THIS.

Historical context: Pre-2016, there were 166 fanfics total in the Dracula(Bram Stoker 1897) tag on AO3. 2016-2019, there was an average of 60 fics added to the tag per year. In 2020, Moffat dropped a BBC Dracula series and the fandom exploded, posting 242 fics in 1 year. 2021, things died down, only 156 fics posted, still far better than any pre-2020 year for the tag.

And in 2022, as of November 11, the tag has 320 new fics. Double last year, and the year’s not even over yet. Of those, 265 have been posted since May, which is more than the previous record year(Moffat), and this fandom did it in 6 months. Congratulations, that is legit impressive and I just want to say thank you to everyone involved. I hope to see more fanfics added to that list so that I have to revise my numbers even further in 2 months.

Now, some disclaimers. This data was gathered manually so I may have messed up some marginal things, and the practice of uploading other archives and backdating fics makes it more confusing. I have also not excluded crossovers. This means that this definitely includes some works based on the 2013 TV show(for example) that were tagged with this fandom as well, but defining a crossover in a useful way for my purposes here seems difficult. And I only checked the Bram Stoker Dracula tag, because the “All Works” Dracula tag will include plenty of other unrelated works. And of course, there’s fanfics that are in the tag for this year that aren’t Daily-related. But the conclusion is pretty clear anyway, this was a good year for Dracula fanfic.

181 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

So, that one 911 scene is based on a true story

See the full post

223 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

Summer is coming

Do NOT leave anything in your car that you aren’t willing to see melt. That includes pets and children. Yes, you’ll “just be 5 minutes”, but then there’s a line. You get some poor retail worker on their first day. And then you get back to your car and it’s 115 degrees inside. Don’t do that. Small creatures can’t regulate their temperatures as effectively as you, they can overheat and die very quickly. Bring them with you or leave them home, do not leave anything in your car.

1,868 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Oh look, there’s a reason Elon’s suddenly become so transphobic recently. One of his 18 year old kids just filed name change paperwork. She’s going by Vivian Wilson now. All the support for her, and given how he’s behaved about this, hopefully one of Elon’s rockets screws up and renders him no longer anyone else’s problem.

2,648 notes - Posted June 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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zaana · 1 year ago

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Aahhh, thank you for tagging me @vivaislenska !!

1. Your favorite member of TBB is:

Crosshair

2. Because:

He immediately had my full attention! I like characters who are prickly on the outside, but protective and soft for the people they love on the inside. His whole character and story arc has been so compelling, and I just want to wrap him in a blanket and keep him safe

3. You identify the most with:

Some of Tech and some of Echo

4. Because:

Tech in a way that I'd rather bury myself in a datapad and be in my own head for a while, and I also recognize the struggle with social interactions. And Echo, cause I have a voice of reason that sounds exactly like him

5. Your favorite minor character from the show:

Hmm probably Mayday

6. Because:

He's a true leader type, protective of his men, welcoming and inclusive to his equals, sees through the higher up BS, and has a humorous edge

7. A TBB-centric piece or post of yours that you are most proud of:

Omega taking selfies on the Marauder :)

8. Because:

It came together spontaneously from some sketches, and I like the whole idea of her taking selfies. I also thought the contrast from Tech to Crosshair was just funny

9. Link so that we can appreciate it:

link

10. A TBB-centric piece of art that slaps so hard you enjoy (and why):

Omg, I can't choose, there's so many! I have to shoutout @shyranno cause her comics are the reason I'm here and drawing fanart. I found them shortly after watching TBB and they brought me into the fandom

I also love Tech in a poncho by @echojedis , Angry Tech by @wrenkenstein and all the tbb with tookas art by @cloneenthusiast

11. Link:

see above

12. A TBB-centric fanfic that gives you life you enjoy (and why):

There's also a bunch! But for gen fics, I love this Crosshair & Hunter moment by @questforgalas

13. Link:

link

14. A TBB headcanon or trope that is 100% canon to you:

Ohhh, I find Tech being aroace extremely fitting, Crosshair being smoker coded, Omega picking up swearwords from Echo, the way Lula came to the batch from shy's comic, Cross and Tech being twins and very in tune with each other

15. Color(s) you think would suit if Crosshair gets "Mercenary" armor:

This is so difficult cause I've wondered about it before!! Orange for sure, and maybe a combination of whites and greys?! IDK, that's why I haven't drawn him like that yet haha

16. One thing you NEED to see happen in Season 3:

Tech lives, and Crosshair and Hunter hug COME ON!!!

Too many to tag! Join in!!

@freesia-writes @starrylothcat @thattoothpick @alabyte @mythical-illustrator @anxiouspineapple99 @queen-jiru @cloned-eyes @amorfista

Fellow Zealots of The Bad Batch, Unite!

Please share your answers to these questions and pass them on to some of your Bad Batch-loving buds!

Your favorite member of TBB is:

Because:

You identify the most with:

Because:

Your favorite minor character from the show:

Because:

A TBB-centric piece or post of yours that you are most proud of:

Because:

Link so that we can appreciate it:

A TBB-centric piece of art that slaps so hard you enjoy (and why):

Link:

A TBB-centric fanfic that gives you life you enjoy (and why):

Link:

A TBB headcanon or trope that is 100% canon to you:

Color(s) you think would suit if Crosshair gets "Mercenary" armor:

One thing you NEED to see happen in Season 3:

@wwheeljack @wrenkenstein @floundrickthewayfarer @raevulsix @enigmatist17 @slenderboo @echojedis @nika6q @zaana @wiseowl18 @toastyrobos @eclec-tech @jigget @destril @niobiumao3

#text #rambling

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inoghmia · 2 years ago

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As an aro person, seeing jayvik is really getting on my nerves

Just hear me out

When I watched arcane I really liked Jayce’s and Viktors relationship. It’s professional, it’s intimate, it’s that specific type of love you have for someone that just gets you and its muddied with the disconnection they have in other things, like their upbringing, politics which is something that creates this barrier between them, it’s this one small for them but ultimately always in the background thing that will eventually drive them apart - I genuinely love it

It’s also platonic.

Viktor had an objectively kinda shitty childhood, not being able to play with younger kids, growing up misunderstood for his genius, being seen as a “cripple from the undercity” later on, even if he became assistant to the dean of Piltover’s best academy, he probably never had anyone close in his life (not talking abt his parents cause they weren’t mentioned in arcane). He deserves a friend

Viktor and Jayce click, they finally found an equal that operates on the same wavelength, has the same goal in life and is a great work partner. They themselves are great and fun characters, and they have this amazing story line and relationship I love them really

So I wanted to read fanfics about them and then I found jayvik.

I was honestly appalled by it, really just being angry at the fandom for this ship being seemingly everywhere. But I’m someone who doesn’t want to judge so I’ve read a few fanfics and altho they are imo all extremely out of character, the stories themselves are greatly written and stand on their own.

I don’t have an issue with jayvik, I myself like it for comedy

But there’s literally barely anything not jayvik related and it really makes me depressed, cause I feel like a lot of people (not everyone obv) ship them cause friendship “isn’t enough”.

All aromantics can probably agree that it’s really disheartening how often this happens, how it’s a socially accepted truth that romantic love is above friendship and that’s just simply not true. Friendship, true actual friendship, aka someone willing to sacrifice anything for you, kill for you, die for you, they are your ride or die, they’ll always have your back, they are there for you for when you’re broken and when youre at your best, they pick you up, they are the reason you want to be better - is absolutely equal to romantic love.

The thing is, it’s just as much effort to acquire as love, because it is exactly that, it’s just a different kind of love, but people think that it’s for some reason a given. As if friendship is obvious and meaningless and only love is what matters. And this just hurts to see. I see it irl all the time and I see it especially in fandoms.

How many fanfics do you see or two characters being friends? They may be in the background, but usually it’s all just romance, sex, drama, it’s exhausting and after some time heartbreaking, cause it feels like someone is taking that beautiful thing, that platonic love, and basically spitting in your face that it’s boring and meaningless

I understand that people can ship characters for fun and that’s fine it’s just that I sometimes wish that we could see platonic relationships on the same level as romantic and this is just another example of that

And if the writers are gonna ship them because fans want it I’m going to cry no joke, cause it’s just another slap in the face of how we can’t have intimate friendships without it being romantic

This was just me ranting at literally 4 in the morning

#arcane #arcane meta #aromantic #aromance #arcane rant #arcane viktor #viktor and jayce #arcane Jayce

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doctorweebmd · 3 years ago

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Nobody asked but here’s a list of animes that gave me absolute batshit insane brainworms in no particular order since for some reason I was thinking about this today:

(literally just me ranting under the cut lmao)

1.) Sailor Moon - god, which little girl didn’t love Sailor Moon in the early 2000s? I was obsessed. Watched it like a religion. The manga. The art. The homoerotic overtones. The cute outfits. The princess that can fight. It still has a stranglehold on my heart. Although I tried to watch that Sailor Moon Crystal reboot and they just... bastardized it. It looks so bad lmao.

2.) Dragon Ball Z - I think Gohan specifically made me insane. Oh, you didn’t try to do kamehameha blasts? You didn’t try to do Fushion-Ha with your friends? You didn’t pretend you could fly just by sheer force of will like Videl? Get out of here. I may or may not have written some self-insert fanfics that were DBZ/Sailor Moon crossovers as a kiddo. Lmao.

3.) Yu Yu Hakusho - this is by far the worst offender on this list and probably still tops my favorite anime/mangas of all time. I’m talking obsessed. I can’t describe how many times I’ve seen it, collected all the manga volumes, collected the trading cards, bought and played every video game. Delinquent with a heart of gold? Second chances? Being alone and not seeing the point of your life but finding friends and a purpose and joy? Damn I sure wonder why this took over my entire teenage existence.... Also on a fandom note I think at this point I started being old enough to like, seek out fanfiction and get into slash. Fanfiction.net was a fuckin’ warzone lol. I was very weirdly into Yusuke/Kurama, too, and there wasn’t shit with that pairing anywhere. It holds up incredibly well. Spirit Gun?! Bad bitches only. Come on.

4.) Gravitation - this one I don’t really have an excuse for. It was like 15 episodes but it made me straight up crazy. I collected all the manga. The fact that it was a BL book didn’t even like, click in my teenage brain. But the mysterious writer with a dark past? The naive and sweet lead singer of a band that acts like an idiot but has pipes for days? Urgh. As a concept, its still like, the best band anime I’ve seen. Plus all the songs fucking SLAP. It does NOT hold up on rewatch lol. Shuuichi is frankly annoying and Erie is a fucking dick. Plus on re-read the author is... uh.... kind of obsessed with physically and violently raping Erie in her own doujinshi and painting gay men as predators. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

5.) My Hero Academia - *shows you around* yeah. here we are. Mind you, I haven’t been weird about anime in a solid like... 10 years but something about it activated my weeb sleeper cells and it has lived rent free in the my brain ever since. Everyone who shits on MHA is a hater lol. Story wise, character wise, design wise it tops my ‘greatest anime of all time’ list.

Speaking of the greatest animes of all time... the list above does not represent what I think about them in terms of quality, just that they scratched an itch that I can’t really put a finger on. Now in terms of objective quality, I’d definitely remove Gravitation, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball and replace it with Fullmetal Alchemist and Hunter x Hunter.

Fullmetal Alchemist is the best, full stop. The power system is beautifully thought out and really interesting. The entire plot if heavily character driven. The ‘villains’ are engaging and you feel some degree of sympathy for them. Its probably the anime I would recommend to anyone who wanted to watch anime for the first time. Absolutely stupendous.

I think if I watched HxH at a younger age it would have probably had the same stranglehold on me as the above mentioned. Its so outlandish and weird, the characters are all memorable, the villains are fascinating, and its just driven so heavily by this perfect, pure friendship of Gon and Killua. There’s no other relationship in shonen that I can think of that is just that... good. They’re literally best friends. They would literally rip the world apart for each other. The fight between Kurapika and Uvogin will forever be one my favorite animated fights of all time. ALL TIME.

Honorable mentions that I’ve watched probably multiple times and enjoyed significantly:

Ouran High School Host Club - god its so campy. So cute. So character driven. Beautiful.

One Punch Man - really really enjoying it so far. Will continue to watch. Super hilarious.

Regarding some really popular animes right now (AKA me shitting on people’s faves... sorry. I’m just a hater) :

Jujutsu Kaisen - am watching right now. I like it enough to keep watching, but I will say their power system and character introduction has been a tad lackluster and I’m not super into it. The animation is beautiful, though.

Demon Slayer - am enjoying for sure. Will continue to watch. Same thing - the designs are beautiful, the art is breathtaking and it's an interesting concept, but I don’t really feel that invested in any of the characters. It just doesn’t have that emotional pull for me. What they built with Rengoku’s character and arc surpasses the emotional development of the rest of the characters in the series for me, easy.

Haikyuu! - y’all got me to watch a sports anime. How. Overall, I liked it. Will continue to watch it. But damn does it do, like, NOTHING for me. Hinata’s and Kageyama’s friendship/rivalry is really the anchor of this whole series. Plus I love a short king underdog upbeat protagonist, what can I say.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - I’ve seen most of it and... yeah, it's really just not for me. I sincerely do not get the hype. The outfits slap though.

Death Note - read it before it got animated and really liked it as a standalone, but wouldn’t reread. Amazing plot, engaging characters, unique in every way and the art is mesmerizing. But honestly I’ve tried to watch the anime multiple times and it's just... eh. Can’t get through it. There’s just some stories that aren’t as good when you animate them.

Attack on Titan - fascinating concept, cool outfit/power system design and super engaging. I’ve seen a lot of it, but they kinda lost me with the ‘twist’ of where Titans come from. It's like the author had this amazing concept and literally didn’t know how to execute it. Also like... Levi literally carries that show. Eren? Bitch. Armin? I wanted to like him so bad, but uh. Bitch. Mikasa? I think you know where I’m going with this lol. Stopped watching.

I’ve never seen Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, Inuyasha and never will lmao. I think next on the list will be Mob Psycho 100.

#wow am i just avoiding finishing the final chapter of zero sum?#yes #nobody asked anna #sorry if i said anything mean about your faves #not everything is for everyone to be fair

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thatwasntlikeridingabikeuasshole · 1 year ago

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ACTUALLY MY HEART ASKED FOR THIS AND YOU ANSWERED. hi kristin i love you this post was a joy to read and now im going to make it even longer by tagging my responses on instead of making my own post. true friendship is destroying everyone elses dashboards with our fanfic answers <33333

1 - How many works do you have on Ao3?

15 on Ao3 and quite a few more who exist only in the google docs for now! Because I have been too lazy to post them <333

2 - What's your total Ao3 word count?

114,087. which come to think of it I'm really proud of????? I didn't know I wrote that much and that's like, not even all of the fic I've written for this fandom, that's pretty cool :)

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

Honestly, I only write for The Starless Sea now, and maybe someday there'll be some other fandom that inspires me enough to write about it, but I don't honestly know when or if that's going to happen. I feel like I could write for lifetimes about these characters. I used to write a lot of fandoms in my younger childhood tho lol- my last big fandom, which I was on Wattpad with, distressingly, was The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken, which is also why I joined Tumblr and I still definitely have mutuals from there, shoutout to yall. I also wrote very cringy School for Good and Evil, Wings of Fire, Percy Jackson, Ever After High, and Dragonriders of Pern fanfic when I was little those were the DAYS my god I handwrote that shit in notebooks my family gave me

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Safe Forever, Boyfriend Material, Cherry Blossoms, Like Home, and Where the Stars Curve, in that order! I'm not shocked those ones all slap and Dorian cries in the top one lmao

5 - Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Honestly, I usually don't, for the simple reason that most of the comments I get are from friends who are already in my Discord server and with whom I've already talked about the fic there. Sometimes if someone (cough cough Kristin cough cough) leaves a very in depth comment about the fic and says things that either we haven't talked about or that are so interesting that I want to talk about them again, I'll respond. Sometimes when my heart is particularly warmed by a comment I'll just respond in hearts. And on the rare occasion I get a comment from someone I don't already know, I also aggressively invite them to the Discord lol

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

Listen, man. none of them. I am a sucker for a happy ending. All of my fics, other than the Rollins AU, are short, often hurt/comfort or just plain fluff, and end in softness and safety and comfort and joy; my only full-length project that actually tells a complete story also has a happy ending, and is meant to be an uplifting and hopeful kind of story. So yeah none of them lol

7 - What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Again, like, all of them, I would have to say. But for this one the Rollins AU is actually definitely the correct answer- it really is the only fic of mine that has a real and true ending because it's a real and true story, rather than a snippet of a life being lived, as the rest of mine are. They actually go through a journey and an experience in this story, and by the end of it they're together and working things out and their lives are significantly improving and everyone is happier than they were before. I personally was hugely emotional over that particular happy ending lol

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

Not in the slightest, ever. The Starless Sea fandom are a bunch of angels, truly, Kristin wasn't lying. I am so lucky to be in such a kind fandom <333

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

Legally no? Lol there are some unreleased forbidden chapters in my google docs, from some of the aus that either are being written or are someday going to be written. i guess y'all will just have to wait til next august when i turn eighteen lol

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

Not in my Starless Sea era. Back in the old days, I have no idea, I wrote a lot I think- because I didn't so much think of my fanfiction the way I do now, it was just stories I was writing, and I could take characters or worlds from whatever the fuck I wanted. The concept of fanfiction kind of changed that I guess, though I did dabble in crossovers after that.

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Lol imagine? No I've never written a fic that I can even imagine getting stolen, my fandom is so small. What happened with that bit of Fateheart for Kristin was bizarre though lol

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

LMAO IMAGINE? that'd be rad

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

Not yet...but someone is threatening to...Starless Sea 4 look out...................

14 - What's your all time favorite ship?

I fear my answers to these questions are becoming boringly similar to Kristin's but yes OBVIOUSLY Zachary and Dorian, though their iterations in AUs (namely the Rollins AU lol) are included in that. Second place has to go to Owain and Stephen from Mags's WIP. They have my heart forever <33333

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

It's funny, a couple months ago I would've said the Rollins AU. Now I'm not sure. That was my clear favorite among every WIP until it suddenly wasn't a WIP anymore, and now...I don't know? Part of it is that I have a lot more belief now that I actually can and will finish some of my other longer WIPs. I want to finish Knights Who Break Hearts and Hearts Who Break Knights and i doubt i ever will, lol.

16 - What are your writing strengths?

mmmmm sometimes i write and its good ?????????? I don't know I find it very hard to quantify strengths. Like that's genuinely it sometimes I write something and I'm like wow shit man that slaps and I don't know why or how and probably will not be able to reproduce it lmao

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

mmmmmm inconsistency. my ability to complete anything, even short fics, is strained at best. the Rollins AU is the only longterm fic project or writing project of any kind, fandom or not, that I've ever finished or even come close to finishing. I have loads of really short fics that i haven't even managed to finish. my writing ability is fickle and comes in random bursts. also I am simply lazy at constructing intricate plots, i'm good at emotions and drama and fluff and hurt/comfort (i'd like to think) but part of why I struggle with longer things is that even when I have a plot idea that looks good from afar, plotting details and making it complex enough to become a lengthy writing project is something that often falls apart when i look at it too closely. so there's that

18 - Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

honestly I am simply too lazy. i do use other language petnames in fics sometimes, specifically i have made many google searches and internet investigations of arabic petnames for dorian to use for zachary and i probably have a list somewhere lol- also we in the discord server made a general list of favorite endearments in varied languages for the same purpose, because dorian would be definitely calling zachary all sorts of random cute shit from every part of the world and we happen to have a lot of international friends on the discord server who have contributed to that <3333

also shoutout to kristin and your example for this question that i could place instantly for the fic and scene its from. tabs my beloved <333333333

19 - What's the first fandom you wrote for?

Oh good lord. I can't say for certain because ive been writing fanfiction ever since i could write, but prooooooobably percy jackson? i wrote a lot of very fluffy solangelo fic back in my day, didnt post it anywhere because i wasnt online at all back then except for like, to google search fanart of them lol. google image results were my tumblr babeyyyyyyy. but this does prove one crucial thing about me which is that my love for hurt/comfort and fluff is an innate part of me and not learned from anywhere, i was writing hurt/comfort and beyond that daydreaming it for fictional characters since before i even knew that fanfiction, as a concept, existed. and i knew it was its own special thing to me. <33 shoutout to solangelo for being the first My Boys to ever exist

20 - What's your favorite fic you've written?

THE ROLLINS AU. it is probably my least popular fic because it's weird as fuck and like, why, did i even write it, and its not only very niche and random and has a very debatable premise that is probably not appealing to the majority of my fandom but is also so long that to devote oneself to it enough to finish would be a big ask. but it's also the closest to my heart. started as a crackfic joke between me and kristin and slowly developed in the only organic, real outlining process that i feel has ever worked for me, until finally it was a heartfelt story about change and identity and becoming yourself and the people who stick with you on the way. while ALSO being the goofiest most ridiculous piece of fanfiction i probably will ever write. i wrote the first four or five chapters over like six months and then banged out the last like ten over like twenty days during nanowrimo and finished it in a flurry of emotions after coming home from the closing show of my last high school musical. i think about zach and donnovan almost as much as i think about zachary and dorian and am currently writing a christmas spinoff about them because i literally cannot let go of these particular iterations of these characters. they mean the entire world to me. five people, i think, have read it all the way through, just five, and i feel more love for it from them than i feel for the fics that ive got 20-30 kudos on on ao3. i wrote every single word of it for my favorite fanfic author and best friend. i dunno, man. the rollins au is what ill probably now remember forever as the fic that changed my life.

im not tagging anyone lol but to anyone who has read this do it! its for you <33333

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Literally nobody asked for this, but hey that's the joy of tumblr - talk about what you wanna talk about, and fic writing is important to me! So I've taken it upon myself to do these questions that have been swimming around and if you're reading this, that's an open invitation to do the same lol.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

19 on my current Ao3 account. There's an old account kicking around somewhere with a handful more, but they're sort of orphaned.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

622,253k words, so the statistics page tells me. Again, current acc only.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Starless Sea is my main baby, (the book by Erin Morgenstern). I also write Harry Potter fic, have threatened to (and may yet) write Twilight fic, and will happily write fic for anything if I feel strongly enough about the story! And, of course, back in the day, really, really bad One Direction fic lol.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Fateheart: A Starless Seaquel by far and away the top

2. Firebug Book I: Chiân Maeroris and the Secret Library of Fire

3. The Asset of Loneliness

4. Firebug Book II: Chiân Maeroris and the Monster of Slytherin

5. Nightmares apparently! Did not realise that ahaha

This was different to sorting by hit count, which is interesting! Hits wise number 5 would be Flowers <3 my beloved.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely! Not like, strictly - there are plenty I have left unanswered, but if they ask a question or leave a thoughtful comment I'm more often than not gonna respond. I've made genuine friends that way, and it's a lovely way to engage with the fan community.

Particularly as I primarily at the moment write fic for a very small fandom where basically everyone knows each other - we have a discord and I will often personally invite a commenter to join the discord if they are new, but even past that these stories mean so much to me and I have historically just been so DESPERATE to talk about them that actually sometimes a really excited comment signals someone who is gonna be a great friend to get excited with about it.

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

Ooph that's a good quebbin. Probably the second Firebug book? Monster of Slytherin. I mean, that series is designed to get darker and darker, so it leaves quite a few things intentionally unresolved, and the main characters in significantly worse predicaments to where they started.

God I gotta finish that series.

Also one person got really rather upset with me about the ending of Fateheart, ranting for a GOOD long while about how painful the ending was, but I think the general consensus there is that, yes, even though it comes at a cost, the ending is overwhelmingly a satisfying conclusion?? I think??? I think it's a good ending lol.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Fateheart hahahaha. Hmm I mean, this is hard to quantify, right?

I have a saying about fic, which is 'the deeper the break the deeper the catharsis' which only works when both are done well, but I think you could argue that the greatest catharsis - and therefore the fic where the ending is happiest compared to the narrative lows, would be A Heart That Won't Break. But only someone who has literally lost the plot would name that a happy fic.

Probably The Ugly-Sweater-Verse, by measure of how warm and cosy the end makes you feel, but it's too much of a one-shot really to have had time to develop enough narrative to even really have an 'ending', structurally speaking. I'm way overthinking this.

How 'bout Flowers, coz they have really good sex. There.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nah, not really. One or two people really like picking apart the plot holes in my Harry Potter fic, but I think picking apart Harry Potter is something of an international passtime. Also one comment I remember from years ago said something like "this is riddled with inconsistencies but your writing is awesome so I don't care" which is hilarious. Shoutout that commenter. I swear to god I'm gonna deal with the veritaserum problem in the next book if it ever gets written.

Nobody's said anything close to mean on any Starless Sea fics, but we all pretty much know each other and a nicer group of people you could not hope for <3

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

Mm, more than I used to!

There is a standing joke amongst our little fandom that my 'smut' is outstandingly not smutty - I think I write erotica, rather than smut. Which, like. Hard to judge. But anything sexually explicit in my writing is usually so whimsical and figurative that it hardly constitutes smut even when it is like overtly gay sex lmao.

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

Hmm, I haven't, but I would absolutely one day. I had an idea a while ago called the Seinfeld Glory Meld or something which was an episodic fic series in which a set of characters from a show or a movie or anything would suddenly find themselves in a specific setting following a certain storyline and each time it would just slowly morph into an episode of Seinfeld, except that all the characters would keep returning and they would be sentiently aware that they were trapped inside the show Seinfeld and it was hilarious and I think i had a fever at the time of coming up with this and I will never write it but I remember meticulously outlining it to my brother over like 83 messages lmao.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

YES. It was weirdly upsetting, but also just very, very strange? Like exactly a chapter and a half of Fateheart got reposted by somebody - and like, it wasn't even a particularly coherent chapter and a half? Like, it's not like it was a portion that made sense on its own. I was half inclined to think it was a bot somehow, except that they did all the tagging and even wrote a description about it being like "A short exploration of life after the end of the book. Enjoy!"

It felt really shitty and they disabled comments, but I reported it to Ao3 and like 3 months later they did in fact get back to me saying yeah, that was obviously stolen, and removed it. god bless the Ao3 team.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Aw not as yet, but a very sweet friend of mine on our discord has been working on translating bits of Fateheart into Italian! That is a HUGE undertaking and I don't evny them lol, but I am so, so flattered that they even wanted to try, and it will be SO cool to see any parts they finish!

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

Nope! Though I am threatening to... Starless Sea book 4 look out

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Mm the Interceptor from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Just kidding it is Zachary and Dorian from The Starless Sea.

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

Ouufhgjhg I am kinda feeling this way about all my major fics right now - I have a rule of not posting something unless it is completed, so these aren't up even though they both exist at about 2/3rds - Fever Pitch and Lotus Flowers.

I do, however, know that I care enough about the characters from The Starless Sea to actually finish these though.

Unlike the Firebug series. Which I really hope to return to one day, because the whole 7-part book series will be KILLER, but let's be real who knows if it's ever gonna happen. A 7 part fic series of full length books is nutso ambitious.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Mmm, I'm very good at character development, and I have a natural prose style that is evocative and descriptively rich. I am fortunate enough to have been mentally steeped in very good writing ever since I was a wee babbie so texturally that is easily reciprocated.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Ach. I am literally so bad at being concise. I cannot do it. Look at the word count for any of my major fics. The ones I consider short stories are novel length. The ones I consider full length works are 3 books' worth of words.

Tried to write an outline for an AU recently and the document hit like 20 pages. Good job me. I was writing a full scene with dialogue by the middle and just never finished the outline lol.

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

I do this occasionally, but only to the effect of adding one or two words in a native tongue, and never without also providing translation. Not in a clunky way, either - not a fan of anything that breaks the prosodic mode, like a parenthetical translation or a footnote or something - but equally it doesn't have to be a diegetic translation. I think there's usually a comfortable middle ground.

For instance I most often use Arabic terms of endearment between Zachary and Dorian, and the types of scenes where it comes most naturally also lend themselves to repeating it and answering it in a way which makes it clear if not what word exactly is being said, at least what that word means here.

Other than that I default to like, '"yo my Cantonese is shit" he said in Mandarin'. Don't assume a reader reading in English is familiar with anything else unless you have contextual reason to do so.

But also, obfuscating the meaning intentionally because the characters also don't speak that language can be a fun gimmick.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

One Direction. lmao. Well, that's the first fandom I ever posted fic on the internet for. If we're counting me scribbling stories in my special notebooks under the covers at age 10 then probably Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series. Lirael forever.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Fateheart: A Starless Seaquel just in terms of like, how much that story has changed my life. The community it has helped build, the friends it has brought into my life, and the way it absolutely launched me headlong into the development of a world and a timeline in this story that I am now fully committed to seeing through in a way which will take me several years of creative work.

Possibly The Man Named Sky is up there, as is Death in the Valley (I have found my groove with the short novella-style standalone stories), and I am really proud of the Firebug books, though the best is yet to come there. But I think I'm really, REALLY proud of A Heart That Won't Break. I think it is quietly, secretly one of my best pieces of writing maybe ever.

This was fun to do. Nobody tagged me, but I'm gonna tag @thatwasntlikeridingabikeuasshole, fellow Starless Sea fic-writer extraordinaire and one of my faves.

ANSWER THESE FIC QUEBBINS <3

#tss #the starless sea

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