#the au itself is self indulgent and not at all aligned with canon so

[cowgremlin11]

drew my partners kitten in Lackadaisy. her name is Duck

[doomednarrative]

hey leon! since re4make has come out and you’ve finally checked it out, what kind of adjustments are y’all making to your plaga!leon au?

Okay okay, I've had some time to chat with Claire and Ethan about it and can actually answer this now~

So as far as the "canon" compliant version of this au (that being the one where Luis stays dead) nothing Huge actually changes much.

There's specifically Two things that have changed tho and it's thanks to the Timing of the events in the remake and some of the character rewrites for Luis specifically. Those things would be:

When exactly Leon actually takes on the Dominant Plaga that Luis gives him, and

How much context and truth Leon has going into this about how permanent it will be for him.

In the original version of our au, (linked here for anyone who hasn't read it yet) Leon takes the Dominant for himself sometime before Luis's death at the castle under the assumption that it can be removed along with the other plaga that's already inside him. Luis lies to him about this directly, not because he necessarily wants to hurt Leon or leave him with permanent consequences, but because he knows this experimental Dominant he's worked on could cause massive chaos if it falls into the wrong hands. He trusts, and thus convinces Leon, to be the one to take it himself, both under the guise of helping to get Ashley and himself to safety, but also because he trusts that if this thing has to be in Anyone's hands, Leon is the one who is the least likely to misuse it for evil purposes. That's ultimately why Luis gets Leon to take it.

With the remake though, this context has changed entirely.

It's no longer Luis lying to Leon about the permanence of this plaga or about trying to get this Dominant out of anyone else's hands. It's about the fact that they have Very little options and time left to them to get Ashley and themselves to safety. When Luis meets with Leon in the mines after getting off the elevator, he makes the offer to Leon about giving him this Dominant sample as a last ditch effort to save Ashley and himself, a way to give Leon the upper hand when he doesn't have one. They barely have any suppressants, and Ashley is already further along in the development of the plaga attaching itself to her system than Leon is thanks to an earlier injection, so they really are in a race against the clock to save her.

Leon of course refuses this offer at first, because he's not about to turn into an even worse version of the very people he's fighting against, especially when Luis is upfront with him that this is one that he can't even remove in the end. There's too much at stake in his mind for him to even consider that it might help him because of the risks involved with it.

But then of course, Krauser shows up and stabs Luis, and Leon is left facing the reality that not only is he out of allies besides Ada in this sitaution, but he really is running out of options, especially with Krauser aligning himself with the cult as well. Ultimately in the canon compliant version of events, he asks Luis for the Dominant right before his death, and takes it with the promise that he'll use it to save Ashley, even if it means the worst for him in the aftermath.

Then of course there's the self indulgent "Luis Lives" Serennedy version of this au (which I am writing a fic for :3 ) where part of Leon takes on the Dominant is because while Luis's stab wound isn't fatal this time, it's still enough to cause a lot of problems, and Leon's not about to let anyone else die on his watch. So he takes the Dominant with the intent of Both saving Luis and Ashley and getting the three of them the fuck out of this hellhole, cost of permanence be damned. And that time around Luis is actually there in the aftermath to help Leon cope with all the changes, so it's a bit less traumatizing for him overall in this version of events.

But yeah! Overall there's not actually that much that's changed, more just the timing and context of how it all goes down. It has been fun to rework it though, I think it hits a bit harder in this version because of how much harder they went on the horror aspect in the remake which I've had a fun time fucking around with~

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

In the omegaverse AU, what do you think Seele and Vita would be in that universe?

In my opinion, Vita would be a dominant Alpha and Seele would be a gentle Omega.

I've actually discussed this with friends and I've seen both ways around work!

The way you mention is the classic way, it works by leaning into stereotypes. In canon, Vita is a confidant tease and Seele is a gentle girl, so they fit into alpha and omega stereotypes perfectly.

However, omegaverse is by nature a good playground for deconstruction of gender stereotypes (repurposed for kink), so you can absolutely flip it on its head and make it work anyway. Vita as a manipulative Omega who exploits her secondary gender to make people underestimate and take care of her, maybe even divert their attention away from her scheming? I could absolutely see that. Meanwhile Seele is great as an Alpha who struggles to act as one, much in line with her self-confidence issues in canon, and Veliona's personality being more Herrscher-typical translates well to being more Alpha-typical in the omegaverse.

Personally? I don't have a preference, I can work with both. I do have more ideas for the stereotypical way, but that's because I'm exploiting Sa's controlling behavior for angst hahaha.

Suppose you were raised by someone like that as a human, a traumatized and horribly controlling parent can rub off on you in all kind of negative, soul-destroying ways that make you doubt yourself and wonder whether you're also a monster. This aligns great with Alpha!Vita who might struggle with how to be a good person once that she's free of Sa's influence.

Meanwhile, Omega!Seele might act like the "perfect little Omega" but that comes with the downfalls of the stereotype, notably when it comes to agency and self-worth/self-respect. Living in a society that encourages her to stay sweet and not develop the stubbornness and competence she does in canon to break out of her shell would be a challenge in itself.

Either way, it's a field day to indulge in one of my favorites, character exploration via their relationship to their gender and sexuality! Teehee.

[jeks-tgs]

@a-guest-for-mr-spider

Okay firstly, thank you for the excuse to ramble about my AU, secondly, so while both those are Very Good and I'm definitely tempted to make timeline-correct AUs for this now (oh the Angst Potential of that first option), this is very different

Buckle your seatbelts, kids, because when I said self-indulgent I meant self-indulgent, this is such a ridiculous concept with little to no basis in canon that purely exists because I listened to Family by Mother Mother too long

This AU is pretty different from TMA canon. In this AU, Jon develops eldritch abilities from a very young age, and is kind of implied to be an accidental Agnes?? An Eye cult in his neighbourhood basically tried to bring about a prophet birth of their own, but accidentally messed up Jon's birth because his mother was in the hospital room right next to the Eye cults nonsense. Jon's parents die like in canon, his grandmother is negligent like in canon, but the key difference is that alot of Spooky Shit just starts happening around him and he's Eye-aligned from a young age.

Oh, and instead of going home after Mr. Spider, he gets kidnapped by the Eye cult on the way back, and he isn't eight, he's like five. (Why was someone as old as Jon's bully nessing with a five year old? Because plot. Also he was enough of a douche to target an eight year old, what's three years younger to him.)

Jon is there for a while, maybe until he's eight or nine, and is basically used as a test subject for rituals, gathering information, trying to get him to be their perfect prophet they wanted, all very traumatic for a scared little kid who doesn't know what's going on. On top of all that, finding out he does have powers and isn't human just adds on to his stress. Him being taken at such a young age also kinda fucks him up, as his first real memory is Mr. Spider, followed by being raised by the Eye cult who he somehow Knows aren't his family.

Now, during all this, Michael has been yeeted into the Spiral by Gertrude, and has been trying to hurt the Eye as he associates it with Gertrude and the Institute. He catches wind of a little ritual going on, heads on down to ruin it, and holy shit, that is a child, being shoved into Becoming by those he should be able to trust. Michael can't help but see himself in that scared little kid, and hey, what better way to crash the party then to steal the tiny eldritch prophet child right out from under their noses?

'Unfortunately' for Michael, Jon latches onto his saviour quick, and just kinda worms his way into Michael's life permanently. He ends up growing up with Michael as his big brother (calling himself 'dad' felt too weird), and though Michael tries his best, Jon stays involved with the supernatural and with the Beholding. He kind of grows up around alot of Avatars as a result, and by the time he shows up at the Magnus Institute, Elias almost screams in joy because wow this guy is COVERED in marks from like every entity, he'll make the perfect Archivist. Jon gets hired, Gertrude dies, Jon gets the promotion, and the season 1 Archival crew is together at last.

And that is the long and convoluted path that lands us at the AU's story itself, wherein Jon is essentially every Avatar's favourite baby cousin and this both solves alot of canon problems and causes a whole bunch of new ones. Jon's prickly nature is essentially him trying to keep humans out of his personal life because ummm his brother has Knives For Fingers. Despite the trauma and hurt/comfort, it is a very silly, very fun AU, and hopefully I cam get the inspiration to write it!

As a thank you for reading this whole long thing, here's a protective Michael and a baby Jon with a juicebox!

[stifledlaughterao3]

How writing recursive fic (fanfic of fanfic) has made me a better author and member of fandom

After doing the math, approximately 45% of my AO3 works are recursive fanfiction. (I am actually excluding a large translation I did which was a translation of a recursive work itself!) The majority of that is from one single series, with the rest being significantly below that. 

There are a few fanfics for which I've written fic. 

1. "ReSWAN: The remix of Song Without A Name" by LadyYatexel

2. "Deep Dish Nine" by LadyYatexel (which turned into a community-wide AU where I took inspiration from other authors as well, such as tinsnip)

3. "Doing the Unstuck" by TempeTot

4.  "Designation: Miracle" by umisabaku (the large majority of my recursive fic is for this series, most within a collection work, as well as a few stand-alone works.)

I've noticed a few patterns in fic that I am writing fic for. They are always:

1. An AU where the characters, changed by their AU circumstances, have aspects of them that are unique to the AU application and reflected strongly in their personalities and actions

2. There is more depth / possibilities of emotional interplay in the AU presented than the canon 

3. Queer in both pairings and mood (relying heavily on found family, introspctions about sexuality, subversive responses to mainstream sexuality) . There sometimes are M/F pairings in the fic I base my fics on, but at least one pairing within the fic is always queer. 

Permission

Something that feels different from writing regular fic as opposed to recursive fic is permission from the author. When writing regular fic, I feel that I do not owe the creator any sort of heads up or permission to write. There are entire laws protecting me on this.

Therefore, theoretically, there should be nothing stopping me from just writing recursive fic, posting it, and saying ,"This other fic was inspired by this other fic". However, having been in fandom since 2004, I don't feel it would be good fandom etiquette to do that without at least inquiring first.

I've never been told I cannot write the fic - however, if the author preferred that I not post a fic of their fic, I'd adhere to that. Would I write it in private? If I felt moved enough, yes, but not post. There's nothing stopping me except that I, as a longtime member of fandom, want to do my part to make fandom a kind place that acknowledges reasonable requests. 

Perhaps it is hypocritical of me to write and post fanfic without the permission of the original media creator, whether it be a single author or a giant franchise, but when it's a fellow fanfic creator, that's where I draw the line? Maybe it's because I can usually easily message the fanfic creator and ask. Whereas, if the creator of the anime I am writing about personally messaged me to ask me to stop writing their characters kissing (or, more likely, having extended conversations over food), maybe I would pull my fics. Or, in the long-standing tradition of fandom/media relationships formed on defiance, I would wave my hand at the OTW Legal Team and say, "Go talk to them." It hasn’t happened so I honestly am not sure how I would respond. 

In every instance the fanfic author has happily given me the go-ahead. Some have linked my work in the "works inspired by" section at the bottom of their fic, and others haven't, and I'm fine either way. I'm discomfited by the idea of the recursive fic author requesting the author link their story in the original fic - it feels like asking for free advertising, which then gets into the capitalism aspects of fandom that in general make me uncomfortable (in this case not cash capital but social capital/views.) 

Posting etiquette 

Another piece of recursive fic etiquette that I've done is, after I figured this particular etiquette out, was that I kept all of the stories for my recursive fic in one AO3 work and added chapters. (My earlier recursive fics are their own works as I hadn't gotten the hang of how I wanted my recursive fics displayed.) Even if the stories are long and disparate, they are 95% of the time one-shots, so that would be A. many stories filling up the AO3 feed for that fandom and B. filling up my AO3 works list with many one-shots for this specific AU.

For the fanfics that are longer or are really deserving of their own works, I try to really limit it and then post all of the chapters at once so it does not appear multiple times over days. These however are rare. The majority are held within one work that I call a collection. For example, "A Handmade Scrapbook" (which hosts the majority of my "Designation: Miracle" recursive fics), at this time of writing, has 23 chapters, all of which are completely unrelated one-shots and AUs. I sometimes would save up a handful of shorter stories I had written and post those chapters all at once so as not to clog the Kuroko No Basuke tag (which is canon for the D:M AU.) Sense I cannot assume average KnB fanfic reader has context of D:M (even if they read the first story, the majority of my works are based on the most recent addition to the series), they cannot read that fic, and thus I feel a bit guilty if I were to clog the tag with my recursive fic. I also do not tag the canon tag on tumblr if it is a recursive fic, especially one that requires a ton of source fic knowledge in order to begin to understand. 

Again - is this necessary? In theory, it’s not. I could post a 100-word recursive fic every day forever on the AO3 tag and be completely in my rights to do so (I mean, I’m sure there’s some rule about spamming but that aside). However, something in me is feeling that it would not be considerate of other readers to do so. (I could probably look at my actions and think, “Hmm, is this influenced by my gender and how women are taught to not take up space, even if it’s okay to?” but we shan’t be getting into that now.)

I know that posting frequently, spreading out those frequent posts, and advertising gets more comments on fics. However, for my recursive fics, I genuinely don’t expect them to get views -and that’s okay! They often require pre-reading of another fic, which narrows down the readership considerably, and if it’s something huge, like my longer D:M fics, that’s a big investment. Therefore, writing recursive fic is genuinely a for-me practice that lets me be very self-indulgent and narrow with my interests. It's an interesting catch-22 - I truly enjoy comments and kudos, and love hearing feedback on my work. But the less I assume that someone will read a fic, the more off the rails I feel I can go with it, and thus why some of my favorite fics I've written are the recursive ones. 

That does mean, however, when people read my recursive works, I cherish those comments and interactions a little more than my other fics, as I know that it took a little more to read my works and comprehend and appreciate them. 

Characterization

Something specific to writing recursive fic is that it differs from regular fanfic in how precise the characterization is. Generally, when writing fic, you have to align (at least somewhat) to the characterization portrayed in canon. However, your interpretation of it can vary pretty wildly, and while you probably would be called out as writing someone as out of character if it skews significantly from canon, you can get away with your various interpretations. 

With recursive fic, you’re deliberately working with a fellow fanfic writer’s interpretation. The entire point of your writing a fic of one of their fics is that their interpretation or worldbuilding grabbed you enough to want to write from it. Of course, there are instances where a characterization of a character is popularized enough to where you can just write it and it’s not necessarily a ‘recursive fic’ as much as ‘using a fic’s interpretation as a template’. In a recursive fic, you’re specifically writing to that characterization. 

That’s why I think writing recursive fic has made me a better fanfic writer- writing regular fic, I did not feel particularly beholden to the canon characterization, and could shrug off writing a character a specific way if I felt like it. It is, after all, my right as a fic writer to do so. 

However, with recursive fic, the entire purpose of me writing a recursive fic is so that I could make an homage the author’s characterization. It’s the characters that drew me in, after all (although it is occasionally the worldbuilding as well, which is when I bring in my own OCs, but that happens infrequently.) In many instances in the fics I’ve written recursive fics for, the characters had become so distinct that they were basically OCs at that point (or, I was writing about actual OCs from the fic). Therefore, I had a fairly strict characterization to follow if I really wanted to be writing recursive fic and not just “loosely inspired by this fic”. 

Which leads back to another point about being a more conscientious member of fandom. The likelihood of anyone from the media I engage with reading my fic is slim to none. However, since I do ask each writer if I can post a recursive fic based on their fic, the likelihood of them reading it goes up significantly more (not necessarily 100%, but definitely higher than 0%!) Therefore, I feel slightly more beholden to ‘getting it right’. 

I’ve also asked if I can write NSFW content of the characters for some stories, particularly if they were OCs. Again - something I am not required to do, but it’s part of me being respectful of the author’s choices. It also wouldn’t fit some character’s arcs or personalities if I were to write smut of them, so I do not do that, but for other characters, there were fade-to-black scenes that I wanted to fill in the gaps of. However! Just because that existed in the fic didn’t mean it was alright for me to write it, so I checked. 

That said, per my earlier comment, I clearly write regular fic of characters having sex without checking in on the creator’s wishes. In fact, if a media creator came out and said, “X isn’t gay, stop writing them gay” I likely would not care. (See: Star Trek DS9’s butchering of Garak/Bashir. In my head, however, they are happily married and living together on Cardassia.) Therefore, it could be something else to examine within myself, as to why I give more consideration to fellow fans over the wishes of the media creators. 

Conclusion

I write recursive fic for the same reason I write regular fic- I am so incredibly compelled to write it that I legitimately cannot stop myself. The same daydreaming+plot bunny herding+fannish actions I do when I engage with a new media I like occur for fics that I read, particularly well fleshed-out AUs with a strong worldbuilding premise that I’d like to expand upon. 

However, unlike regular fic, the engagement with the author of the source fic means I am interacting with other writers on a more personal level than just leaving comments, something I really hadn’t done in fandom when I first started writing fanfiction when I was much younger. 

Writing recursive fic has made me friends and helped me understand my own writing more. Even though it narrows my reading audience considerably, it brings me back to why I write in the first place - my own joy. Comments, views, kudos, and feedback are wonderful, but in the end, writing something because it makes me happy, no matter how niche or narrow, is why I write. 

[microsuedemouse]

hhhhhhhhhhhhhwoof I hate fandom/ship drama

anyway I’ve been thinking about how. there is nothing, inherently wrong,, with being interested in exploring ships (or even non-romantic/non-sexual character dynamics!) that are unhealthy in-universe.

here’s something: there is value in recognising that a ship is unhealthy or toxic or abusive or whichever other descriptor you feel fits best. (I am going to be using ‘unhealthy’ as my umbrella word in this post; obviously it’s an understatement to call an abusive relationship ‘unhealthy’ but it’s still accurate and it encompasses the variety of things I’m talking about.) there is value in taking that as fact and acknowledging such in whatever exploratory work you may choose to create or engage in.

I wanna take a second here to clarify part of what I mean: it is not inherently wrong to enjoy an unhealthy ship, and you are not required to defend a ship as healthy/‘not abusive’ in order to justify your interest in it. this is a very weird result, imo, of purity culture and virtue signalling. when you have a healthy understanding of the difference between fiction and reality, and a recognition of what’s acceptable in reality and what’s compelling in fiction, it’s actually very worth exploring what interests and engages you about Fictional Bad Things.

you know that phenomenon where people love villains? a lot of discourse around purity culture naturally leads to the conclusion: “it is wrong to like villains.” most of us are capable of recognising that this... doesn’t make sense. because obviously, we aren’t - or at least, the great majority of us aren’t - claiming that we would like and support this person in reality, or that we would be entirely comfortable with the deeds they commit if those deeds took place in reality. we’re saying that the character appeals to and compels us for some reason, within fiction. that’s a different thing - and it’s usually a sign of good writing! it’s very worth exploring that experience: what about this villain makes you like them so much? what about them makes them relatable to you, or sympathetic to you, or perhaps even cathartic to you? these kinds of questions can offer both entertainment value and, possibly, some new insights into yourself as a person. those insights might turn out to be interesting and meaningless, or they might provide you with new ways to express yourself, or they might even offer you a new avenue for growth.

(moral purity often also extends to the conclusion ‘you shouldn’t enjoy stories in which the main character suffers, because it’s wrong to enjoy someone’s pain.’ we all know this makes no sense, because that includes most stories. a major reason human beings tell stories is to share in the emotional journey of a protagonist ultimately overcoming great obstacles. but anyway, this is a whole other issue, really.)

what I’m getting at is - the same can apply to ships. there are a few approaches to unhealthy ships, and I wouldn’t go so far as to say they stand on equal moral ground, but there are a variety of ways you might be able to explore them without it making you an inherently evil person, or whatever. it’s also worth noting that while, obviously, I’m expressing here what aligns with my moral position and encouraging you to think similarly - but, I also encourage you to think critically about your own moral positions. decide what is comfortable for you, and what feels right to engage with. it’s fine and it’s normal to draw your own lines in the sand and say, this is where the range of acceptable ends for me. I won’t support or engage with what’s on the other side.

to give a quick overview of some approaches I’m not as comfortable with: sometimes you’ll find a writer/artist/other fan who likes to depict a ship as totally healthy in a way that can only be described as out-of-character. sometimes this seems to be a denial of the actuality of the ship; I don’t like that so much because it’s often a refusal to acknowledge that their canonical behaviour/dynamic is bad. other times this is depicted as a sort of AU; this doesn’t bother me quite as much personally (often depending on what the writer’s overall attitudes seem to be) but it’s also often less interesting to me. in my experience, this is usually very self-indulgent work and has a lot more to do with the writer’s own experiences than with canon itself. which is fair, honestly. sometimes that’s cathartic for the writer and that’s enough - I don’t have to be into it personally to respect it.

another thing that crops up that’s kind of worrisome, imo, is when a writer/artist/etc. depicts the ship as in-character but denies that it’s unhealthy. now, in fairness, if you’re simply reading a fic or looking at a piece of fanart or something, you cannot always tell exactly how the creator thinks the ship actually operates. not everyone is always going to include a disclaimer that says ‘hey I don’t think this is actually Good.’ so try not to immediately ascribe intent to the writer/etc. unless you’ve seen them state outright somewhere: this isn’t abuse, it’s just cute! (or whatever it is they’re seeing.) at that point it is worth being concerned about what this person thinks constitutes a healthy relationship, and if you don’t feel good about supporting their work that’s entirely fair.

HOWEVER. there are also other approaches. two in particular stand out to me that I think are worth discussing. one is simply exploring the possibilities of an unhealthy relationship, with total acknowledgement of its flaws. one unhealthy dynamic that I admittedly find really engaging a lot of the time? ‘these two characters are Very obsessed with each other, and it sure ain’t healthy psychologically, but it’s definitely mutual.’ I love that shit. gimme a couple of unhinged, incredibly codependent pieces of shit, and you have my full attention. particularly if they’re on equal footing - if they’re damaging one another, it’s reciprocal, or at very least they’re both getting exactly what they want out of the relationship. obviously this would not be a dynamic I could support in real life! that’s terrible and I don’t want anyone to go through it! but in fictional characters it can be fascinating to explore. and if the content is going to upset or trigger certain fans: that’s why we use tags and warnings. AO3, where many of us go for a huge amount of our fan content, literally has a whole system in place for precisely this purpose: so we can let each other know what’s inside, and make informed choices about what we want to consume.

the other common approach is the redemption arc. it’s always gonna be up to you which characters you consider redeemable and which ones you don’t - that’s okay. again, it’s your choice what content to engage and what to pass over. but as people we’re traditionally very fond of the redemption arc story, and as fans we love to create the redemption arcs our favourite characters don’t get to live out in canon. because we love something about the character and want to explore them further. like I said earlier, that in itself is worth giving some thought to. sometimes we’ll even end up writing partial redemptions: this character goes from totally reprehensible to kind of appealingly awful. the ship goes from abusive to a much more regular level of fucked up. that can definitely be an interesting story in itself, and it’s okay if you want to explore it.

the main thing is that you always exercise your ability to think critically about what you’re consuming and why you like it - which, honestly, you should be trying to do all of the time, anyway. be clear about what you do and don’t endorse, about what your actual values are, about where you draw the line. (as both an example and a disclaimer, since I know I still have followers from A Certain Fandom where this cropped up a lot before I mostly dipped: one line that I personally draw, and always will, is at ships involving an adult and a literal child. I am not comfortable with exploring this even in the hypothetical space of fan content. it is too objectionable to be compelling.)

go forth. explore your unhealthy ships and shitty favourite characters. experiment and learn why they compel you. write properly-labelled fanfic about them hurting each other and loving it. just remember that everyone has different boundaries, and that fiction and reality are very separate spaces. acknowledge that what you’re enjoying is not inherently right or acceptable in real life just because you enjoy it in a story, and it doesn’t have to be. if you’re a content creator, consider portraying these things in such a way that your audience is well aware of your position on the matter, in order to help them also understand what is and isn’t healthy. be a ruthless writer and a kind person, and you’ll do just fine.

[liightningchosen]

RE:  SAVITAR. 

Obviously the Savitar arc in season 3 has several issues; on this blog, that arc and how Savitar is written are completely canon divergent and ignores most of what the CW tried to force down our throats. The concept was good but I’ve worked for three years now to develop it and make it better. This is under a read more because it’s obnoxiously long, but for those interested in Savitar and fixing the CW’s bullshit, here we are. This now also includes the JOINING THE ROGUES survival au!  UPDATED: 6/5/20.

I  WAS  MADE  TO  BE  A  MONSTER.

THE  CULT,  AND  HIS  NAME:   Savitar did not choose his own name, and the role of   “Savitar”   is a persona. He has no other name because he refuses to be Barry. Throughout the main arc of season 3, he adapts   “Sav”   as a placeholder, and is comfortable with that. In the Survival AU, he changes to Malcolm / Mal   (more details to follow).   The name Savitar itself originates from Hindu Myth, and the Cult of worshipers stems from a rogue sect of those practicing but following him specifically, and is labeled a cult by other standards.

I  AM  JUDGE,  JURY,  AND  EXECUTIONER.  I  AM  THE  WEAPON  THAT  HANDS  OUT  THE  SENTENCE.

GOALS  AND  MOTIVATIONS:   Savitar’s number one goal is survival. He is forced into the role in a way, because if he doesn’t complete the cycle, he will not be created, and the timeline is a bind around his wrists. Doing this, however, includes breaking Barry Allen, which is priority one. He has to be broken to a point where he will create the time remnants to stop Savitar and to create him. The only way to truly do this is take his rock away — Iris West. No matter who Barry is in love with, no matter what the timeline is, Iris is the most important person in his life, and represents the one thing that would break him more than anything else. While building up to this point, he follows the basics laid out by his memories of the previous cycle, and hurting Barry and those around him is the secondary goal; hurting those closest to him still hurts Barry in the process. Savitar knows how the cycle should play out — key word should — as he has the original Barry’s memories before he split off into time remnants. But he knows how easy it is for the timeline to shift and bend, so he sticks to basics; using Julian and the cult, creating Wally to free him, killing Iris, and breaking Barry.

I  NEVER  HAD  A  CHANCE  TO  BE  SOFT.  I  WAS  ALWAYS  BLOODY  KNUCKLES  AND  SHARDS  OF  GLASS.

ORIGIN  AND  REASONING:   Savitar was   “created”   when Barry split off multiple time remnants   (creating several versions of himself in the present day, which he learned from Zoom and used in the fight against Zoom)   to fight against the original Savitar of that cycle. Still calling himself Barry, he is the only remnant to survive, and he sustains a massive injury from the lightning from Savitar’s attacks, burning the right half of his face and damaging his right eye. While his eye healed to function almost completely, the scar remained. Because he wasn’t the original Barry, Team Flash didn’t treat him the same, making him believe he was a broken copy that shouldn’t even be alive. It wasn’t the Team Flash he held in his memories, and he’s so hurt and angry and wants revenge but he doesn’t know how to take it and — and they weren’t his memories anymore. He realized then that Savitar could only be one person. Himself. Savitar had talked about how this had happened a thousand times and would continue to happen over and over, and that they’d never see him coming. The broken version of Barry Allen realizes this, pretends to run off to the other side of the globe, but instead takes the Savitar suit, starting the cycle. Unfortunately, he doesn’t fully realize the consequences, and Barry is prepared, throwing Savitar into the Speedforce Prison that had been prepared for this occasion as soon as he sees him. Savitar sits there for thousands of years, and while it breaks him down, he builds himself back up. No longer is he Barry Allen — he steps into the role of Savitar, god of speed, and the Prison unintentionally imbues him with more power than he’d ever had as the Flash. There, he plots his revenge fully, from his own memories he can put together the nightmare that he wants to enact. While hurting Team Flash is a side goal, the main goal is hurting Barry, who created him and tossed him aside after everything — a Barry Allen who’d lost Iris was a monster, and he was only embracing his role.

I  DON’T  RISE  FROM  THE  ASHES;  I  MAKE  THEM.

CORRECTED TIMELINE:   Now, from the out of character standpoint, it really grinds my gears that the show waited until 3x20 / 3x21 to reveal that Savitar was Barry. It was cheap, meant to shock us, but then was given no room to actually develop as a plot in general. In my version of canon, 3x15-3x20 are condensed into a much quicker sequence of events, happening in days rather than months, allowing for the Savitar reveal to be in early March of 2017, rather than May. Then, the events of 3x21-3x23 progress over the course of two to three months, rather than two to three weeks. This allows for Savitar to have several unmasked moments with a majority of the team. He enjoys seeing them to torment them, as he is faster and more powerful, so they can’t stop him one on one. Though, those little moments are self indulgent as well, as he’s getting to see the people he called family once — that Barry called family once. He has to keep reminding himself of this. Overall what this means from a plotting standpoint is Savitar is running around without the need for hiding in his suit for much longer than 3 episodes, and he causes plenty of turmoil while he’s at it. This also means that Barry doesn’t need to go to 2026 for information on who Savitar is, but instead for information on how to stop him.

BUT  WHO  PRAYS  FOR  SATAN?  WHO,  IN  EIGHTEEN  CENTURIES,  HAS  HAD  THE  COMMON  HUMANITY  TO  PRAY  FOR  THE  ONE  SINNER  WHO  NEEDED  IT  MOST?

SAVITAR’S  POSSIBLE  “REDEMPTION”  AND  HIS  HEART:   I also refuse to believe that Savitar is too far beyond redemption. There is no physical way that he has Barry Allen’s golden heart — starting off the bright shiny optimist who wants to save the world no matter how much it kills him — would turn into a heartless monster. No matter how much he went through, hate and love are too close. If Savitar were to truly be too far gone, he would be indifferent to Iris, and he wouldn’t hate her or Barry. Hate is too close. No matter how small, there is a sliver of Barry left, and I also think this is seen with Jesse Wells, who Barry sees as a little sister. His line of   “I have big plans for you, Jesse Quick.”   is such bullshit, because he doesn’t have plans for her — he’s using it as an excuse not to kill her right there, because he doesn’t want to. I also think there is hesitation to hurt Joe and Wally, as that is his foster and found family as well. But he won’t let them get in his way, that’s the only time he attacks them. I really think that given a proper arc, the   “redemption”   that they played on in 3x23 could have been more full fledged, but as it was rushed, Savitar still chose to go after Iris. He would still do this unless someone truly offered him a way out — in his mind, this is also the way to create his survival, in order to reset the cycle once more. His redemption does not come in the form of being a “hero” and he certainly wants to be nothing like Barry, and instead comes with him choosing autonomy instead of referring to himself as the throwaway. This means though, that he will never border into a   “good”   alignment and instead will neutral, focused on his own survival.

I  RULE  THE  STARS,  NOT  THE  OTHER  WAY  AROUND.  I  LIVE,  I  LIVE,  I  LIVE.

ALTERNATE  ENDING  /  SAVITAR  CHOOSING  TO  BREAK  THE  TIMELINE:   In any arc where Savitar chooses not to kill Iris, it is a choice he makes himself because he wants to embrace the good in him, not because the Team stopped him; his heart may be gold but it is far from clean. He is already choosing to go by the name Sav at this time, because it’s distancing from Savitar, which he doesn’t enjoy as a name. In this arc as well, Sav joins the Rogues, and gets a great deal of help from Leonard Snart   (@cvldthief​​)   as he develops his autonomy and creates a life as a separate person from Barry. Over this time, he becomes less brutal, and while he still does kill, it’s only when he finds necessary to defend himself or the Rogues. He doesn’t wear a mask, because no one would be able to tell who he is   (the scars have marred him from video recognition, and only those who knew Barry would recognize even a little similarity).   Additionally, he begins to remember that Nora and Henry mentioned if Barry were to have had a twin or brother, they would have named him Malcolm. He adopts this name for his own, opting for Mal more often than not. Mal, meaning bad or evil, represents a reclamation of the past atrocities, but his own personhood and healing along with it.

TRUE EVIL, ABOVE ALL ELSE, IS SEDUCTIVE.

EARTH  302  DIFFERENCES:   Earth 302 is a verse i developed with @resurrecticn​​​​ and we’ve been building for three years, and there are significant differences that I just want to outline. In this verse, Savitar cannot be redeemed. Before he truly became Savitar, he went back in time to see Iris himself, meet her and make a memory for himself, truly have a memory that isn’t Barry’s. But she treats him so disgustingly, unintentionally. She cares about Barry, but at the time she still believes she is meant to die. After all of the hate and being cast aside, Savitar shuts off his humanity in a way. After millennia in the Speedforce Prison   (longer than normal Savitar, as he struggled to free himself),   he manipulates Iris against Barry, using her to satisfy his own anger as well as hurt Barry even more. He gives her speed — more than Barry but less than himself, to put her in a position of power against Barry but not himself. He could kill her, but it’s so much more satisfying to use her. He is toxic and evil and cannot be saved.

[aschenink]

Wait what. Zelda fanfic??

Me, seeing this in my inbox: “my sins have caught up with me” 

I feel obligated to start this with the disclaimer that the reason I really started writing (ie actually committed to a project and started developing any inkling of skill) was so I could write unrealistic gay smut Zelda fanfic when I was 13. Also, I’ve got a Navi tattoo on my foot so I’d like to use this opportunity to just go ahead and declare the LoZ-trash throne for myself. 

So yeah! I’ve been quietly working on this gigantic Skyward Sword canon-divergence/post-canon story for a couple months now? I was at my parents’ house for spring break in March and on a whim set up the Wii to play SS, which was a weird experience since I hadn’t played it for several years and on loading it up was faced with the reminder that I’d named Link “Baby~” to get a kick out of Ghirahim saying it, and after all the cringing that invoked, I was drop-kicked by the reality that my memory’s not entirely faulty and Ghirahim–and honestly all of SS–really just Is Like That.

And once I got over that bout of cringing I realized Ghirahim actually still vibes with me and 13yo me knew what she wanted and was onto something; I simultaneously redeveloped my hatred for SS!Zelda and figured I should shove all of that into one fic, because, why not? And then the stars aligned and I didn’t sleep for three days because the fanfic writer in me had taken back over and punted me to 2012.

Anyway the concept for my fic is under the cut to spare innocent souls but unrelated takeaways: 

This fanfic is the only writing project I’ve literally ever had where I’ve sat down and been able to plot the entire thing in one go and have it make sense and I’m… still overwhelmed by that. 

I wrote 30k in 4 days because of this bad boy *slaps fic*

I love writing for Legend of Zelda. The fandom itself is very chill and that’s great but, imo, more importantly the characters are perfect to write for. There’s so little canon characterization (esp. for Link) that you’re really just given a few core concepts and get to run free with the characterization–canon is huge so there’s infinite space to run there and, simultaneously, the vague characterization makes it easy to transpose into AUs.

Skyward Sword spoilers under the cut but it’s 2019 sooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay secondary (& tertiary) disclaimer: it’s absolutely a GhiraLink fic because it’s what 13yo me would have wanted and it’s what current me wants too tbh but Ghirahim is out of character because… man, I love him, but his canon behaviors are just A Little Too Much for me and I’m incapable of recreating that (and unwilling to try). Imagine if Ghirahim was like… five years more mature. And looked like Matteo Martari. And had at least five brain cells. 

:’) I pretend I’m bigger than this but I’m not, and we should all know it. 

Anyway the premise is basically: What if Hylia wasn’t necessarily a benevolent goddess and Demise wasn’t necessarily a world-eating demon, and it was only portrayed this way to convince the bearer of the Triforce to side with her and keep the world under her influence? What if Link wasn’t necessarily destined to be the bearer and it was essentially a role up for grabs, one that Ghirahim desperately wants for himself? What if they’re equals? What if--

What if none of that is necessarily true either, but it’s what Ghirahim tells Link to further his own plans?

And it sort of goes on like that for a while. 

It’s super long and starts out with canon and follows the entire game with minimal divergence, with the exception that Ghirahim works with Link to temper Fi’s blade because Link is slow, Ghirahim can’t do it himself, and also it’s kind of fun for both Ghirahim and I to watch Link torment himself about having Friendly Feelings for his rival only for Ghirahim to stomp on his throat. Also, Ghirahim rather bluntly comes out and warns Link that he’s being used and Link, who’s reasonably resentful about how Hylia’s using him and his feelings for Zelda, sort of just goes

Alas, it’s not enough, Link is a Good BoyTM and Demise gets sealed away and Hylia wins, canon as usual. Except Link likes Ghirahim an embarrassing amount and Ghirahim manages to bind to him before Demise can completely crush him, which is great!

Because now we’re like 90k in the hole and finally getting somewhere!

Ghirahim’s in an absolutely horrid state after the battle with Demise and Link, after his own recovery period, is pretty desperate to get away from Hylia, so they (angstily) agree to do whatever it takes to repair Ghirahim, which is basically to temper him the way Fi was tempered but with demonic flames instead. The flames are in temples based off of Ocarina of Time’s Shadow Temple, and Twilight Princess’s Temple of Time & Snowpeak Top.

So they’re alone on the road together for months, and: Emotion! Angst! Saving each other’s lives! Several deadly sins, but especially lust! Slow reveal of Ghirahim’s Tragic BackstoryTM! Quicker reveal of Ghirahim bathing because emotionally I’ll forever be 13 years old and will never get over my desire for stupid flamboyant villains! Ghirahim reveals magic that doesn’t just throw kunais, like heating spells that require them to cuddle when it’s cold and they’re camping in the wild!

What. I already said I’m trash and not above anything. Cuddling is the fastest way to a hero’s heart and that’s the hill I’m dying on.

Oh. Important: I headcanon that Fi doesn’t actually have to physically manifest to speak with Link, and could just talk to him in his head--so now that Ghirahim is sword-bound to Link, he’s the one in Link’s head. That generally goes about as well as can be expected and is why Ghirahim is almost constantly physically manifested, because Hero Trauma has made Link’s head a MESS

Hylia also happens to be able to weasel into Link’s head, which is a source of Big Angst, bc Link has definitely caught feelings for one (1) stupid tall demon, and Ghirahim...

I mean, I said Ghirahim has five brain cells and at this point that’s more than even I have, so he’s got a plan that’s much bigger than what Link knows of. One way or another, he’s going to be one to pry that Triforce from Link, he’s going to be the one to live forever in a reincarnation loop, and he’s going to be the one who decides which way the world tilts in the grand scheme of things. 😈

I’m not posting it anywhere yet because honestly I’m an overwriter and self indulgent and frankly it’s a huge concept!!! I’m convinced this fic is gonna be at least 250k words so I don’t want to post it until it’s completely written bc the odds of me drafting half of it and then giving up are Very High. But like. I have so much fun with this project (currently titled En Passant, after the chess move, for, uh, symbolic purposes I guess), it’s super relaxing to work on in comparison to original fiction 😍 

If you’ve read this to the end I owe you my soul and I am so sorry for my nonsense.