#there's so many characters from various fandoms uhhh

[cinder-aj]

Silly goofy OC Challenge!

Just my my Wof OCs | Including other OCs

My Favorite OC...

I have a few favorite Wings of Fire ocs: Gnarp, Tumbleweed, Alien, Poppy, and the one I chose to draw for this prompt...

Circuit

Circuit is a nervous and shy Castaway dragon who appears to be a cyborg. She's actually a robot whose AI was modeled after the real Circuit, a dragonet who died in an accident. Circuit didn't know she was a robot until later. Circuit was chosen to be a prophecy dragon to stop a war. Along the way, she learned that it's okay to be afraid, and being brave means that you're scared but can act anyway.

Cam and Grey

My two Invader Zim ocs that I've had brainrot over since I made them back in 2018. They're two dumbass sisters and I love them dearly. Cam is darker and often serious. Grey is an energetic goofball. They both love nature and travel the universe, visiting alien planets. They can use holograms to disguise themselves.

My First OC...

Claw

Claw is the first OC I've ever made. She used to be an edgy warrior cats rogue. You know all the cringe Scourge-adjacent ocs you would see all over the 2000s and 2010s warrior fandom... yeah, she was one of those. Now, Claw is still rather edgy, but know she's a badass Felinz space pirate who wants to reform her peoples' rigid miltiaristic society. Yeah, she still has a warrior cats version, but she's not a Scourge clone and instead is co-leader of a small group of former clan cats and others who were hurt by their colonies.

Ivy

Ivy is my first Wings of Fire oc and WoF sona. Ivy is a sarcastic, quiet, and often grumpy RainWing/SeaWing hybrid who likes making jokes. Ivy grew up in the rainforest with the RainWings, where she'd gather fruit. She met Plutonium one day, a curious QuartzWing explorer. She fell in love with the little nerd, and now they go on space adventures together. (Long story how they got to space lol)

My newest OC...

I'm in a design artfight currently and have been getting new characters from it. I got a few pretty much at the same time, so I chose to draw...

Fen

Fen is a calm cyborg Mud/Leaf. I'm still figuring out her lore because she's so new, but I know she lives in Butterfly City and has an indoor garden. I'm thinking I'm going to give her a relationship with another character I got from the design fight, a Leaf/Night I named Ironwood, but I don't know what kind of relationship yet. I'm thinking that another one of my characters is her mother, but I'm conflicted on who. 👀 I love writing characters!

Easiest to draw...

Murky

It’s been f o r e v e r since I've drawn her, and I used to all the time. Murky is a FishbowlWing, a relic fantribe from a bygone era on this amino. Murky is cheerful and friendly. She runs a restaurant called the Murkbottom Grill, and has a friendly rivalry with The Kingfisher Pub across the street. Murky is one of my only characters without some sort of trauma!

Hardest to draw...

I have quite a few WoF characters that are hard for me to draw, so I had to narrow it down. I excluded ocs with feathered wings because I'm drawing headshots for this. Facet, Hercules, Paradise, and Starburst are only hard to draw because of complex patterns. Podzol and Snapper have complex lineart, but rather simple patterns. Purpurea and Tarnish have complex accessories, but I have easy ways to replicate. The choice was down to Polly, Bumble, Pinecone, or...

Oleander

Oleander is a creepy CirceWing mad scientist who experiments with life magic. Her lore is limited because she's somewhat new, but I know that she used to be a popular girl at a school called Woodsong Academy. Well, she was popular until the accident. (Which I haven't decided what yet.)

Rover

Rover is actually a work-in-progress character, and I haven't actually drawn him until now! I designed him in Animal Jam actually, and translated it into robot Naturan. I don't think he was that hard to draw admittedly, but I chose him because I often have trouble drawing fox-adjacent creatures. Again, I don't know if they're hard to draw unless I do it a few times. Some characters become easier as my style evolves and improves.

The Artist

Cinder

My sona. Now you know why she's my username! Cinder is a lynx Naturan. Naturans are an original species of mine. I'm kinda proud of my lineart for her. I think I just found my new profile pic...

[grayintogreen]

9 FANDOM PEEPS TO GET TO KNOW BETTER

Tagged by @rubixpsyche

3 Ships You Like: Creecien (Critical Role), UraYoru (Bleach), uh… Rocketshipping (Pokémon) listen I have a lot of ships that I feel some way about. I was trying to capture a range here of dynamics across various fandoms and somehow came up with the almost the same ship three times. I just WOKE UP.

3 (Hazbin/Helluva) Ships You Like: oh lord. Idk. Obviously Huskerdust. Moxxie/Millie. Whatever Alastor and Lucifer have going on but constantly on the edge of fucking without actually fucking. I will ship nearly anything in this fandom if the artist/writer can sell it to me.

First Ship Ever: I think it was Ash/Misty, honestly. As opposed to Character I Liked/OC I made up to ship with them, which was definitely happening more often.

Last Song You Heard: Ready For This from Hazbin Hotel. It was on my general hits playlist when my dog woke me up for walkies so I guess he got pumped.

Favourite Childhood Book: GOD. I think it was Lassie Come Home. I went through an autistic period where I only read books with animals in them because I guess I didn’t relate to humans enough.

Currently Reading: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, which is a reread. It has the vibes I need for OWDLIF. And also I just love it.

Currently watching: I’m rewatching Helluva Boss right now but mostly I’m between shows that aren’t presently airing (Critical Role and Dimension 20) because of the brainrot.

Currently Consuming: Doritos-flavored popcorn but I’m microwaving Salisbury steak for lunch (doesn’t cook).

Currently Craving: You know the breading chips that slough off in the deep fryer at Captain D’s that are always at the bottom of your meal? Those things. Bad. Don’t fucking ask. I blame the moonshine I drank last night. I need the bits.

Oh hell I don’t know that many people in this fandom yet nor do I know who has been tagged already so if y’all get this twice, celebrate because um?? You’re loved and noticed!!!

@spoondrifts , @birdsaretoddlers , @prince-liest, @arleney , @milyavild , @genderhawk , @masterqwertster , uhhh… and @captainsparklefingers and @winekita , even though we talk every day.

[lord-squiggletits]

For the Salty Asks (forgive us for the avalanche, if it's too many you can pick your top three): 2, 9, 10, 11, 13 (Optimus), 20, 25 (IDW1), 26

uhhh honestly I feel a bit like a hermit who's out of the loop on what's popular/unpopular so some of these might be completely off the mark but here we go

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Mmmm I think most of my brotp's aren't shipped as OTPs to start with, so I dunno if I have any that fit this question.

Guess the closest example for me would be OPli/ta. I don't actively platonically ship them but I think platonic is way more interesting than romantic. I don't like the fandom's interpretation of romantic O/Plita at all + I feel like as one of the original "token woman" Autobots, I'd like to see Elita unshackled from Optimus as a love interest, esp because any official interpretation of them is probably gonna be written extremely heteronormatively/token romance between an action hero and The Girl. And the fanon version of them that's Strong Independent Girlboss Elita with whipped simp husbnad Optimus is just as boring and gross.

I just don't like the vibes and would rather them have some sort of friendly or regular relationship together.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

IDW1 Slide, who I've gone into detail about my hatred of in several posts, but the TLDR is that she comes off as some kind of mouthpiece character? Not a mouthpiece as in for the author's beliefs, but it literally feels like she only exists to shit on Optimus and call him a piece of shit. Her dialogue is so cheesily written ("literally fascism" is an actual thing she says) and her bitching/lack of cultural comprehension about Cybertronian history is so prevalent, that for a long time during my IDW1 reading I was genuinely confused as to whether she was supposed to be some sort of parody/strawman/mockery of someone IRL (her character comes off almost EXACTLY like an anti-SJW stereotype of a screeching harpy calling everyone she dislikes a fascist, and it's only Barber's very obviously left-leaning writing in other parts of the story that told me that definitely wasn't the intent). So then I was wondering "okay is she gonna like, randomly become evil and turn against the good guys because she's just that petty? I mean she spends all of her time bitching about how Optimus/the Autobots/Cybertronians in general are the worst ever and she also hates humans too so I mean maybe? Half of this story already doesn't make sense so I can see it happening."

Thankfully that didn't happen, but like. Slide is so goddamn annoying and ignorant and gets way too much page time dedicated to her angry monologuing (in Unicron aka the finale of IDW1 there's literally a whole half page panel of her bitching about how Optimus is an evil tyrant while Trypticon is dying behind her and it comes off as a poorly timed, bad taste joke). The narrative treats her like she's some important individual whose feelings are important and valid, but she's fucking annoying. Any sympathy she was meant to garner is canceled out by badly written dialogue and the fact that she's a Literal Nobody of a character who seemingly only exists to bash the decades old, beloved legacy characters. For the sake of, idk, talking about how fucked up Cybertronians are that they just shrug and move on when people die? Bc apparently it's some sort of sin to be numb after 4 million years of war (and war that's literally still ongoing while Slide is bitching) and just soldier on trying to get through it? God forbid that a military hierarchy fighting to keep neo-Decepticons and various other alien threats from colonizing Earth be run like a military in which orders have to be followed, people die, but you still have to keep fighting anyways? Idefk man I just hate Slide so much she's basically the embodiment of all of the bad aspects of Barber's writing personified.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Mutineers arc in MTMTE/LL. I feel like (whether due to early cancellation and/or JRO wasting time on too many side plots to give it its full depth), I dislike how the mutineers were basically boiled down to pure evil morons who are the most disgusting, despicable evil ever and the only reason the mutiny had Good Guys (TM) in it was because they were horribly misled and not because, you know, the mutiny was 100% a valid thing to have happened as retaliation against Rodimus and Megatron's captaincy.

Like, I'm not opposed to the idea of Getaway and his cronies being assholes (I personally thought Getaway was a GREAT slow-burn, puppet master villain/anti-hero), I just dislike how the quality of their writing degraded from MTMTE to LL. Felt like they (Getaway in particular) got passed the Idiot Ball and then the actual reasons behind the mutiny were never addressed, it was kind of just "oh Getaway died horribly so we're all friends now and we forgive each other and Rodimus/Megatron will just go back to being captains now."

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

You mean besides IDW Optimus because anyone who's been on my blog for like 5 seconds knows he's my biggest problematic fave skldfjskd

Uhhh I guess in the spirit of the previous question, Getaway. I feel like the fandom's hatred for him is overblown mainly bc it's a combination of Tailgate/Cyga/te fans going "HE GOT IN THE WAY OF C/YGA/TE AND ALMOST KILLED THAT PRECIOUS CINNAMON ROLL" and Rodimus or Megatron stans going "Getaway hates my fave?? But my fave is a good captain and deserves the world HE'S EVIL MY FAVORITE IS BEYOND CRITICISM OR REPROACH GETAWAY IS THE EMBODIMENT OF EVIL."

Like to me it seems as if the hate for Getaway isn't normal dislike or even people hating him because he's a well written villain. It feels weirdly like ppl really take Getaway's actions personally and hate him with the kind of passion you normally see reserved for actual real life horrible people. Or they like, see Getaway as an obstacle to [favorite character]'s happiness and not as an individual who, before the quality of his writing tanked, was actually an interesting character who maybe even had good points? It just feels like people mainly hate Getaway because he's the antagonist to more popular characters/ships and so they project their defense of their faves into virulently hating him.

13. Unpopular opinion about (Optimus)?

Honestly 90% or more of the fan content I see for Optimus is really boring/uncompelling to me, or really just comes off as out of character. It's either Optimus being reduced to an accessory to be shipped with someone (usually turned into some sort of moe cutesy uke type) or him being turned into.... idk some permutation of "feral irresponsible gremlin" or "One Of The Good Ones (TM)" or "anxiety-ridden damsel who needs to be rescued by his lover" or, in some circles, "character I project my issues with authority onto and try to frame as evil for things that aren't even evil."

Idk how to specifically describe it, it's just... a vibe? Most of the Optimus content I see doesn't actually feel like him at all. It feels like it's Optimus/Orion in name only, who got so separated from canon and distorted by fanon/flanderization/shipping/porn stereotypes that he now only vaguely resembles the character he's supposed to be.

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

Ahahaha I don't really go into the realm of pure ships honestly, plus this is the war criminal fandom where pretty much every character has killed people or committed crimes or is just generally scarred by war so uhhh

Idk I think Thundercracker/Melissa is a pretty hinged ship? They get along and cope surprisingly well with all the shit that happens. There's no angst or betrayals or misunderstandings or enemies, they're just very respectfully together. Sdfklsajfksd

25. How would you end (IDW1)/Would you change the ending of (IDW1)?

Honestly, I'm pretty satisfied with the ending of IDW1 on both sides of the story. On Barber's side I would've preferred if every single planet including Cybertron didn't get fucking eaten leaving them all stuck on Earth together, and I would've also kept Trypticon alive while... minimizing Slide's role, to say the least. I don't have a problem with Optimus' ending bc I actually think that Optimus' arc in Unicron is like, one of the few 1000% good things Barber wrote for him it's just. It's pure Optimus in his best form.

On JRO's side I would've cut out the last panel with the alternate Lost Light and left it ambiguous as to whether the quantum jump successfully copied the ship or not. I dislike the vibes of the canon ending that implied that everyone moving on with their lives (almost universally to new and exciting and happier places) was the "sad" ending and going on a permanent road trip is the "true, happy" ending. In the author's notes I think JRO said that he wanted to give the readers an ending that would allow them to imagine their faves continuing to go on adventures, but I think compromising a good ending to a story to appease fans is fucking stupid + fandom has never needed permission or approval from the author to write alternate, happy endings. So why ruin a poignant, melancholy ending about how endings come with new beginnings and sadness/nostalgia can be mixed with hope and happiness by going "sike lol they're all living happily ever after on their space cruise."

Also I wouldn't have randomly killed off Ratchet for no reason because like. What was that even supposed to accomplish. I'm no stranger to writing major character deaths but like. He just fucking died of disease off-screen and that was that??? Why, like what was the narrative/symbolic purpose of that besides just making the ending more sad? Maybe to emphasize how going back to Cybertron was the "bad ending" and the quantum Lost Light is the "good ending" since on the LL Ratchet is still alive? But see the paragraph above for why I don't like that.

26. Most shippable character?

The most shippable character to me is whichever character I think is the sexiest, because if I think they're sexy it makes me want to ship them with everyone. "Guards, fuck that man for me" etc etc. Lmao

[jackwolfes]

thank you for tagging me @sixofsol !! 🥰💖

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 

144 on my public pseud, 85 in my lil anon collection, 3 floating around secretly in another anon collection, and about 10-15 super super old ones that i orphaned from various asunder fandoms over the years. so at least 232, probably closer to 250 (dear god)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,688,252 words of non-orphaned works (dear GOD)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

primarily six of crows/SAB netflix, but recent fandoms that i might write more for soon include: red white and royal blue, percy jackson, winter’s orbit, bbc merlin, the last binding series, & the pulleyverse 

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

hours (whumpy firstprince fic)

you owe me for blowing up my bed (sab verse missing scene)

like putting on a costume (wesper PWP)

gorgeous (wesper PWP)

a choice of two locked doors (wesper arranged marriage)

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

i always try to!! but i’m not the best at it all the time 😅 i make more of an effort to reply to comments that are longer or that draw out particular parts of the fic that the reader liked!

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

i’m a big slut for a bittersweet but hopeful ending rather than angsty ones!! like possibly my ghost jesper fic because the final scene is Quite Literally wylan dying but like, that’s kinda happy given context???

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

i am still personally enamoured with the vibes in the final scene of ACOTLD 🥰 and it makes me very happy! so! that one! 

8. Do you get hate on fics?

uhhh most regularly i just get snarky gobshites trying to be like, clever and smug about shit, which never really works because i generally don’t care? but then also i sometimes get transphobic hate speech so idk 😅

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

i can't answer this non-sarcastically but like YEAH I'm a VERY HORNY WRITER and I feel like it says more about you than me if you haven't been able to guage that 😅 idk I have gotten a lot tamer though by including porn in longer fics compared to the very explicit collection of PWPs I used to write?? 

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

the closest i’ve gotten to crossover is sneaking shadow and bone characters into SOC fics! or like, the most subtle of references and cameos when I need random OCs like Easter eggs 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

a few times but i’ve always been vindicated by the fact they’ve never been well done? like it's always been word for word plagiraism (and also the ao3 abuse team is very good at taking things down)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

not that i’m actually aware of! just podfics sometimes which has been nice 😊

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

never finished one but i’ve got 2-3 wips being co-written with my girlfriend atm 😊

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

i feel like it’s a cop out to say wesper but like,,,, 😅 idk! i like my lil stupid guys!! i like their vibe! 

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

I think my problem is that I'm delusional enough to think that I will finish literally all of the WIPs I have started and want to finish even though that's like, 100 fics or something idiotic 😅

16. What are your writing strengths?

Themes and foreshadowing I think!! Like running themes for sure but I've had definitive compliments on my plotting before! I also think I'm pretty good at dialogue, especially arguments, and narrative tension/feelings! 👀

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i am not very good at cutting my darlings which means things get a bit meandering and diluted sometimes 😅

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

i can get behind it in certain circumstances! personal preference is to translate large chunks of text ie "'[English words],' he said in [language]" but I do write individual words like pet names in other languages 

19. First fandom you wrote for?

fucking hetalia when i was like, 12 🫥 but i have also in past written for: homestuck, haikyuu, yuri on ice, the adventure zone (balance & graduation) and (CONSTANTLY forget this) miraculous ladybug! some of which are better than others ngl 😅

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

well this is like asking me to pick children & is also cruel when i have 230 of them klajdsfsadjfk  UHHH? i mean this is wicked cheating but im really attached to the bridgerton au i haven’t actually finished yet! it’s fully written, but needs editing, and one that i really really like!! in terms of fics i’ve POSTED, i really like “not just girls” (trans egg wylan), “you yearn to feel no hunger” (SAB-verse coda/character study) and a real deep cut, “only imaginary people disappear to peru for ten years” (missing scene from the lost future of pepperharrow)! idk i like a lot of the fics i’ve posted which is a nice position to be in 😅

most folks i know have done this i think but tagging: @kelliealtogether @apricior @doorsclosingslowly & anyone else that sees this & fancies it 😇

[broke-on-books]

☕️ + the Scooby Doo fandom in general

Hmm okay so this is a very broad question to me and that really means it's going to recieve a broad answer, especially to me as "Scooby fandom" really has differing levels in my heart etc.

For example with my friends and the smallish community of fellow Scooby fans I've found here on tumblr (the Scooby Dootuals!!!) I really love and like! Everybody is so nice and it's cool that people have various levels of knowledge about different series and iterations. Like I really enjoy that on here Scooby fans (as in, like my friends and people who regularly post scooby) have such differing levels of experience with this huge huge franchise as it makes it so much more interesting. Like we have people out there who have seen almost every episode (or feels like it) and can seemingly remember the smallest of things from them, and then we have people who weren't into Scooby as a child but are exploring it now, and then we've got people (like me) who did like it as a child and kind of know a bit of everything, with huge areas of weakness in Scooby they haven't seen, (for me APNSD, anything more than the premise of 13 Ghosts, the 80s trio minus Boo Brothers, anything past s1 of bcsd, much of the 70s era movies, SD & SD, Guess Who, SDMI details, like the list goes on, people!!! I've only seen a Scooby series in order in its entirety one time in my life and that was SDMI age like 12) while also having a few areas with greater knowledge or familiarity and a few spots where they just know a ton/are constantly rewatching. (Me with Goes Hollywood for sure) anyways I don't really remember where I was going with this but uhhh I like that my buddies and whatnot all know different amounts with many being chill or knowing a little bit of everything so we can still like each others posts and talk about Scooby with there still always being so much more to discover <3. So like basically thoughts on the besties are that besties are cool

However I know anon that by sending this you likely mean "Scooby fandom" as in people outside of this insular little bubble so let's talk about that. I think I'm reluctant to really label this group "Scooby fandom" as for ME PERSONALLY fandom really means a kind of engagement with the work beyond what most general Scooby fans do. Like what I'm trying to say is that this group of "wider Scooby fandom" liked Scooby and watched it as a child and consider themselves a fan of Scooby but they aren't rotating Scooby characters like blorbos in their mind too much. Or if they are, it's generally in the creation of like dark!Scooby aus or the live action Scooby show pitches that blow up on here every time Scooby is a topic of general coversation. I guess for me personally the line between this "Scooby fandom" and my own little bubble of people I'm chill with gets drawn based on what fans want out of Scooby. Like do they love Scooby as it is, or do they want to change the audience to create a new Scooby for themselves. Hm, I'm not really phrasing this right. What I mean is like we're all Scooby fans. If you've ever liked Scooby, at any age, however long ago, you're a Scooby fan, I'm not trying to like, gatekeep Scooby fandom or whatever. I just think that differing groups of fans have different pictures in their head of both what Scooby Doo IS and what they want from it based on their familiarity with it and how long it's been since said fan has watched Scooby.

And that's kind of wherein my frustration with "wider scooby fandom" lies. It's really in the fact that there's thousands upon thousands of these "sleeper fans" (which in my mind is really a better term for it) who awake when I or the popular culture mention Scooby, to share their opinions. And these opinions just frankly drive me up the wall. This is because when confronted with a real life Scooby fan (me) there's generally 3 things they want to talk about: 1) SDMI and how it's the greatest thing since sliced bread 2) Doesn't HBO Velma suck 3) (once they learn I like Scrappy) Scrappy hatred and copious references to his portrayal in the Gunn Movies. Plus MAYBE a bonus 4 of other miscellaneous takes that get on my nerves (stuff like Shaggy always smoking weed, Fred and Daphne splitting up together to have sex, just all sorts of things I do not for the life of me want to talk about).

So I guess my take on the wider scooby fandom is as follows: there are positives like some genuinely funny SD posts once a blue moon, or people to share things like concept art and leaks to much of the content canceled by HBO Max, but the vast vast majority of the time it kind of gets on my nerves because people always want to talk about the same few things (which I feel have been talked to death already or I highly disagree with OR BOTH) and it's just really tiring to deal with. Idk I don't think I'm going to go into it to much more here because this post isn't too coherent to begin with (I'm blaming it on like 70% of this being written before work this morning) but there's so many people out there who think so similarly about Scooby (and SO differently from how I think about it) that it feels like I'm getting talked over constantly whenever I have a discussion about Scooby with someone from this group. And that's just like not fun for me? It's just like for me, Scooby Doo is my number one thing. Like I'll be in different fandoms concurrently or whatever and I don't really read fic for scooby but I will for other stuff etc. But like scooby is always there for me like MY MAIN turned into a scooby doo blog like honestly while that's just not the case for some other people. It's very much a difference in the value and time put into the franchise, (which like you can just like things casually that's not a bad thing) it's just that it's frustrating for me talking to sleeper fans about Scooby because I get trapped (literally, like irl) in the exact same conversation that I don't even want to be having(!!!!!) pretty much all the time.

[tavina-writes]

Thanks to @thebiscuiteternal for tagging me! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 192 public works on AO3 at the moment, and a [redacted] amount unrevealed as part of various ongoing exchanges I'm writing for!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,244,211

3. What fandoms do you write for? I think I mostly write for MDZS at the moment, but Naruto is the major fandom I've spent the past ten or so years in, so it's always going to be my favorite. I also write for ASOIAF, various book fandoms, various other cdramas...etc.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Oh dear.

A Bolt of Silk - Naruto - 2,180

Prophet - Naruto - 1,889

My Teeth In Your Heart - ASOIAF - 1,833

Time Travel Tandem - Naruto - 1,593

It's not time that passes - Naruto - 1,521

None of my MDZS fic makes the list but I think that's normal! I've only been in the fandom for a year and a half, and I mostly write niche stuff so this makes perfect sense to me!

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

I answer comments sometimes! With irregularity because "answering comments" gets filed in the "send emails" part of my brain and I spend a lot of my professional life sending emails so it's more difficult to reply to comments. I also get concerned when I don't have a lot of say in response to a comment because I'm afraid that I don't sound too enthused when I respond with "Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!" or maybe get too infodumpy with my responses to some questions. In short I think I psyche myself out of responding to comments and I'm trying to do better about it.

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

Hmmm this is a difficult one. I don't think I go for angsty endings as much as I go for like, hopeful or not utterly bleak ones? I think that the ending for An Inherited Creature where WZL and JYL are still married and still stuck in Nightless City might be the suckiest ending, though the ending of maybe I'd make it alive where YZY and Madam Jin are just on the cusp of marrying their canonical husbands is on a level of aaaa re: how we know this story ends.

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

I DEFINITELY think this is A Bolt of Silk considering that right after the ending I wrote them a 6 chapter, 30k wedding epilogue where everything goes great!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Man. I would say no except sometimes I can recount really terrible stories. Mostly I think I don't get hate because my readers tend to be very kind, but I have, gotten some pretty odd and preachy comments at times. Once notably, when someone told me that I shouldn't've translated the nobility titles for a certain fic and kept them in the original Chinese, and I was about to respond with "my brother in Christ, we are in a Naruto fic and I am already stretching canon like a rubber band. Lets not make readers learn SO MUCH NEW WORD?" Or that one time when someone didn't. Read my fic but wanted to shill theirs in to me in the comments of my fic. But it's mostly odd and mildly entitled rather than hate commenting.

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

I DO write smut! This is a new accomplishment, but I have skipped right to the sexy sexy noncon/dubcon object insertion porn instead of uhhh any of the tamer things in between that and "literary sex scene where everyone is miserable"

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

I don't really write crossovers! I have a hard time figuring out how characters from one story would react to the characters of a different one. :(

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

A number of times yeah. It's bothered me before but like, mostly nowadays I'm just like "in the year of our lord 202X?????"

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! It sounds like it would be really flattering but also So Much Work since I write longfic so often.

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

I have occasionally but they've never really been posted. @autumnslantern very patiently listens to me yell about all of my fic ideas in her dms a lot though, which I consider vital to my writing process. Does that count as cowriting? :D

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Man this changes by day. I'm also a consummate multishipper so I can't say I have an all time favorite and more just yelling about "ISNT THIS NEAT?" about the niche thing I've discovered recently.

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

God. I have no idea. If I've posted a wip I hope to finish it but I have no idea. Maybe some of my oldest Naruto works might never get done.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I handle emotionality, stories that occur over a long period of time, and atmosphere in a piece really well!

I also really like writing about grief and mourning, trauma, and trying to define ourselves inside difficult family histories. I enjoy writing about character histories, and how that informs their present, as well as complicated loyalties and internal conflict, but the jury's out on whether I can count those as strengths lol.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Man. Plot. Plot. Plot. The weakness is always the plot. I love a good parallel but a parallel is not a plot. Also at one point one of my fics was 30% man sitting sadly in a bathtub nearly dying by volume (like 3 out of 9 scenes in that fic was just this man having a bad time in a bathtub) and this is not a plot either lolll. I admire the people who can write a tightly plotted fic so much, godIwishthatwereme.jpeg. Also I'm perennially long-winded so I also think I struggle a lot with writing a 1.5k-2k fic where just, a snapshot happens. I love admiring other people's beautiful oneshots as well.

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

I don't tend to do this with dialogue though I'll include words from other languages depending. I feel like it's always so difficult to like, get the reader to know what you meant with [dialogue snippet in different language] but I've seen this handled really well in fic before so like, it does work!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh definitely Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Jin Yong when we were in the pits of that 13 year translation of the work. I wrote like, speculative fic based on what we already had? But mostly scene snippets and outline ideas of what would happen instead of formal fic. None of that was ever published anywhere though. In terms of "Fandom Where I First Published Fic on the Internet" it's probably Katekyo Hitman Reborn I was really big on that fandom in 2014. You won't take me alive on where that fic is though lmao.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

In terms of best written and most beloved to me at the moment and also complete it's definitely but I'm not in charge of sorrow (so please don't ask me when). How will I ever get over NHS's post canon journey in that fic honestly.

uhhh let's see, @im-sublimey, @woobifiedvillain, @lgbtlunaverse, @cerusee and anyone else who sees this and wants to play? If you've been tagged in this game already sdjdgkah APOLOGIES.

[nieithryn]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN.

respond to the prompts out of character!

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have? These days, especially in this fandom, it's usually the relationships between either a friend's muse and the character, or another of my muses and a character. But looking at some of my main kiddos, or my OCs? I write characters that embody something that fascinates me. Frequently it's a new take on strength through adversity, or the reforging of the self after trauma. Sometimes it's something I identify with deeply, like Mace and Quinlan's struggle with the Dark from a young age. Or Yularen being willing to do bad things for the greater good as he sees it. Or Cody being a protective big brother who can't always protect his brothers. And sometimes, just because it seems fun, like with Zam!

is there anything you don’t like to write? There definitely are, though they're rare. Few and far between, aside from the obvious hard no's of various kinds. I'll write almost anything if a partner and I have enough chemistry. But some of the things I'm less comfortable with are crossovers (never been quite sure why, fandom AUs are fine, but crossovers I struggle with), true crack, and angst or smut without some kind of purpose or plot. I love me some angst, but I need the comfort after, unless I'm writing a symbolic unhappy ending for some reason. There's a few muses I have for whom that would be appropriate or canon compliant, but otherwise the angst needs a gentle comfort after or some reason.

is there anything you really enjoy writing? Basically anything else! I'm pretty flexible, if my partner is interested I'll do damn near anything tbh. I love hurt-comfort especially, but I love me some good canon divergent "what ifs" and alternate takes on how characters meet or even hook up. It's fun sometimes to see how a complicated relationship can go so many different ways, where along the forks they might have gone different directions. I love writing the inbetween moments canon never shows us, because there's never enough time to. The ways those inbetween scenes might affect entire relationships, or should have. Honestly, give me all those little bits inbetween.

how do you come up with headcanons? Usually headcanons develop from my analysis of whatever canon I accept for my muse, sometimes from small facial or body language tells during a panel/scene, sometimes by extrapolating from something they say or are described to do. But sometimes it's actually extrapolating from their relationships with other characters, both the muses of my partners and the people they interact with canonically. You can tell a lot about a character by how they interact with loved ones, for instance.

do you write in silence or do you play music? This depends on the ADHD mood of the day. Most days, I have 1-3 songs on repeat to become such a smooth background I can write without silence, but not get distracted by lyrics or the instrumentation. But some days, I need complete and absolute silence because any noise will distract me and the replies will never happen. Oh the joys lol.

do you plan your replies or wing them? Kinda both, and it usually depends on the muse the reply is for. Some I can plot out really well, or get so excited to write that I spend hours plotting the right reply. And some either flow so naturally I can wing it, or unexpectedly just decide the plotted reply isn't the vibe of the moment when I'm actually writing, and off we go to the races!

do you enjoy shipping? Oh hells yes, absolutely. Romantic, platonic, absolutely I love shipping. In the purely romantic sense, while many of my muses over my time RPing are demisexual, I am always down to give them partners, and in platonic senses, family and friends and found family are just. So wonderful.

what’s your alias/name? Liz or Argent

age?  25

birthday? April 2nd

favorite color?  Dark Blue, Silver, Gold

favorite song? 

last movie you watched? 

last show you watched?  Uhhh Family Feud I think lol.

last song you listened to? Will The Circle Be Unbroken by Peter Hollens & Malukah (Honorary shout out to Baba Yetu as well bc they've been on a two song repeat lol)

favorite food?  Oooh hard choice. Steamer clams or steamed artichokes.

favorite season?  Autumn

do you have a tumblr best friend? I used to have a really close friend group on Tumblr I would've tagged, but many have since disappeared. Now it's @strcngered and I against the world, lol. Though @valorums/@prodijedi and @mayxthexforce are very very swiftly making it into that same level of vibe, so I'm rebuilding slowly but surely.

TAGGED BY: @valorums

TAGGING: Ohhhh just steal it, Callie snagged most of you anyway lol.

[hexfloog]

🍀🍋🌚

hi kuro ⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝

🍀 what is your comfort show/series and why is it your comfort show? How has it helped you?

uhhhh bbbbbb i've brought it up a few times before but for real it's the closer. except for early detco there's no other show i come back to more frequently. aside from it just being a banger (read: well-written) police drama with an extremely organic-feeling and cohesive cast of diverse characters, brenda is a flawed, unabashedly female-- and human-- protag in a position of power who probably served as a window into recognizing some of my own internalized misogyny growing up.

i wish i had literally anyone to talk to about it. it peaked in the mid-aughts on primetime tv and idk if it has a surviving online fandom

🍋 favorite genre to read / watch / write

to read: horror

to watch: action/adventure

to write: also horror lmao

🌚 a show you’d tell people to stay away from

so not that anyone asked but generally a piece of media has to really offend me in some way in order to wind up on my shitlist. the vast majority end up in various tiers of "okay" - which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just leaves more room for things that truly leave a lasting impression on me in either direction.

now uhhh i don't watch too many shows period (it would be easier to do this with film) but deadass the only show i can think of that i've both watched all the way through and come out hating is probably hellsing ultimate SORRY EVERYONE

i watched it because (1) it was distantly influential (like... omnipresent but only in my periphery) when babby hex was still pulling inspo from the anime scene of the time and (2) i got so, so many reccs for it from the people around me who knew i loved horror. i wanted to like it but very quickly discovered i actually hated it.

i've kind of put it out of my mind but off the top of my head, it shot way past my (admittedly very low-tolerance) suspension of disbelief very quickly, sucked really hard at being funny when it tried, and actually felt all-around distasteful in its... choices with the baddies. if you know you know

edit: to actually answer the question i would not recommend hellsing ultimate on account of its egregious tone problem and other distasteful story choices. i've seen the counterargument that its attempts at humor are "the point," that it's "supposed to be making fun of itself," but if it is it fails on just about every level. i don't even consider it a fun watch as camp horror schlock.

oops the post got long actually skjdhfksdj thank you for letting me ramble!!

ask game

[linabirb]

👀👀👀 For the bingo, I'd like to hear your thoughts on Aki (csm just to be safe because its quite a common name haha), Makima, Isagi, Kaiser, Reo, and Mikoto.

.. OH BOY I HOPE YOU'RE READY TO HEAR SOME OF THE WORST TAKES EVER

.. i'm going to be honest. I GENUINELY FORGET AKI EXISTS SOMETIMES. like my brain just goes "uhhh remember denji and power's big bro" and im like "OH". if you remember my akutagawa bingo, i think you can see a pattern which can only be described as "i am so sorry but i just cannot make myself care about brooding dark-haired anime boys" 😭😭 (dan heng from hsr is one of the few exceptions) idk i really do think his story was sad but i'm also kinda like. i was too focused on other things when i read and watched csm JSKDSLASLSL. "what things" well.. let's talk about the next character on our list.

feel free to shoot me or stab me for this. but yes, THIS WOMAN IS ACTUALLY MY FAV CSM CHARACTER 😭 (along with kobeni and asa) i just love evil women! and i love well-written evil women! and i have so much to say about her. i genuinely love the way she was written and she's a very realistic character, but i am not a fan of how the csm fandom just. doesn't care about her character at all and cares only about her crimes and i'm not even talking about her basically destroying the whole world and killing SO MANY PEOPLE, i'm talking about her relationship with denji. which is, OF COURSE, bad and extremely toxic and unhealthy, especially considering that denji is a minor. however, i think seeing that as her only "personality trait" is so.. it just doesn't sit right with me. like i would be okay with people talking about everything she's done and analyzing it and going "yeah she's still a bad person even if she's well-written and deep" but i am NOT okay with people going "yeah she's a groomer and also she killed my faves :(" like. i don't know. if you don't want to interact with such "problematic" content just don't read it? though i'm gonna be honest i'm pretty sure most csm fans are very young and from what i heard, a lot of them haven't even read/watched any "dark" content before csm. me picking "they are innocent if u ignore their various crimes" is obv a joke, i definitely agree that makima is a terrible person, but also. i can't deny that she's pretty <3 and also the fact that she just needed a hug breaks my heart every time i think about it. i actually have a plushie of her too! one of the best purchases i've ever made, she stares at me with her big ol' yellow eyes and i do everything she says. thank you for motivating me to do my hw, queen.

but enough talking about my faves. honestly.. i don't really care about isagi? which actually makes me very sad bc i found him very relatable at first but then i kinda got bored? like i can't even describe his personality, i can only say "uhhh he's friendly with other guys unless he's playing football and also. uh. he likes football"? and ig that can also be very fun and i'm usually a huge fan of characters that usually act nice but also have a very rude and mean side, but isagi is just. idk, i don't really find him that interesting and those moments when he's like, busy analyzing everything and coming up with strategies.. honestly, i just skipped them JSDKSLSLS. I WANTED MORE ACTION OKAY. i think his relationship with bachira is cute though!

BACK TO MY FAVES. i would bite kaiser's head off if i ever got the chance but he's also one of my fav characters. yeah. he's so cool, i love his design sm, i need to look like him. i want to get into his head and figure out what's wrong with him. i want to squeeze him and crush him and tear him apart, but i also love him so much. tbh i don't know anything about the new chapters, but i'd love to learn more about him, it's like, at the same time, i want him to have a backstory that's a little bit (or maybe VERY) sad, but i also kinda want him to be like that just bc he can (even though i'm pretty sure it was implied that he does have a reason for acting like that). and yes, i love his relationship dynamic with ness. yeah.

reo. another fave of mine. though i actually didn't like him that much when i first saw him, but. i knew deep down that a purple boy will become one of my faves. love this gay disaster of a man, everything that happened between him and nagi was more entertaining than every single romance movie that i've ever watched. i want him to get better and realize that he's capable of doing great things without him. i also want him to become even more dependent on him for angst reasons. it's hard. and i honestly both love and hate that moment when he decides to return to nagi right after he finally started to get some character development, because YES I WANT HIM TO GROW AND I WANT HIS PERSONALITY TO BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN "if i spend at least one day w/o nagi i will die", but also it's very realistic and as someone who was in MULTIPLE (platonic) relationships that were exactly like his relationship with nagi.. that moment was very painful. in a good way. and again, i wanna look like him.

my relationship with mikoto is very hard to explain bc it's like. in theory, i'd love to learn more about him. i'd love to stan him. but also.. i'm not a fan of how the fandom pretty much makes his DID his only personality trait? maybe i'm just on the wrong side of the fandom, but i rarely see any posts about his other traits? again, i'd love to learn more bc i have a feeling that we have a lot in common, but. but yeah. i'm a huge fan of his minigram version though <3 so silly. so squishy. so funny. (honestly, me being salty that almost all convos about mikoto usually discuss his DID is so funny to me now that after three therapy sessions i've found out that i'm most likely a system SJHSJDKDLSL like bro THAT IS YOU) about "i would push them down the stairs" i mean it in a silly playful way :) like i want him to fall down and scream in a very cartoony and funny way.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Not asking for spoilers or sneak peaks, but for my sanity's sake I hoped to learn what kind of ending you have/hope to have for Halfway Home? Even musings would be fine (my brain wants something to chew on) (if you please)

Helloooo!!

So. I need you to understand that I had an internet access problem for a couple of days; so I returned to Tumblr and was met with such delightful and incredible gestures of enthusiasm from you, and this made me so very very very happy!!!

I kind of failed to find a way to articulate it in a way that was both productive and interesting for anyone that wasn't me, so I kind of abandoned this project of exploring how Halfway Home's release made me feel, but one thing that I did feel was that, apart from some truly wonderful exceptions, I felt like I had failed to find the right audience for this story. Of course I always knew it would be a niche project, especially with a trigger warning list as long and unforgiving as this one, but I still felt as if I couldn't find where the people who would connect with this weird convoluted project were, especially as the Mass Effect fandom was dwindling down by the day.

So to find so many wonderful messages in my inbox???? what a treat!!! I'm genuinely so very happy you found value in my work! <3

So!!! Now to actually answer your question ;_;

I'm currently (?? currently is very generous wording, I have definitively been taking a break for about six months) working on The Empire of Preys, which is at once a sequel, a prequel and a standalone of Halfway Home; it takes place about a year before Shlee's hatching and follows a colorful cast of complicated characters trying to navigate a "post-first contact war but pre-the mass effect series has started" world and its various spheres. It's multi PoVs (5 of them!!) and I should start making proper presentation posts soon!

So while this does reveal a lot of things regarding Halfway Home's plot (character motivations will become much clearer, as well as the stakes of the world beyond "Reapers vaporizing everybody should be avoided if possible <3"), it's not exactly a direct sequel. The in-world explanation for this extremely extensive flashback is to serve as the reply to Shlee's final question, asking to be told everything else beyond his own name --and Nagatha answering.

There is another story planned after this one, which is called Override, and this one *does* take place immediately after Halfway Home, but with ¤*added context*¤. I am still fighting with the outline on this one, as closing all of the threads is pretty difficult, but some stuff will be happening in there that I've been planning since I was 20 years old, and I'm still super excited about it! One thing that I'm trying to do, mostly failing but trying, is to really multiply the PoVs in this one, so the story escapes Shlee's very narrow and severly broken mindview and become a collective act involving as many perspectives as possible. I was trying to have each chapter become a different point of view, but I think I will have to partially give up on this idea for uhhh practical plot reasons. But the platonic ideal of this story jumps PoVs around constantly in my heart.....

In terms of the kind of ending.... It's pretty hard to say? I don't want it to end awfully, like I want to strive for hope and fight tooth and nail for this hope --while never forgetting how hard, fleeting and proactive hope can be as an act instead of a mere feeling-- but obviously the world keeps on being the world, and while it can and should be reinvented as better, actually getting there is never that simple (not to mention that what "better" is will always be up for debate).

I don't know if that answers the question but thank you so very very much for your asks!!! And everything else!!!! Thank you for having read the story ;_;

[devilcatdarling]

This ship seems popular so out of curiosity, opinions on Grimm x Hollow?

Oh boy oh lord and here's where I am a disappointment and or fandom party pooper xD

I don't ship them for various reasons. Let me preface this by saying I have nothing against the ship and I can absolutely see why a decent amount of people ship it for the opposing elements, aesthetics, and etc, but it's definitely not to my personal tastes at all.

This is one of the more common canon x canon ships I don't like (along with Pale King x Grimm and Hornet x Grimm) and reasons include but are not limited to the fact I hc Grimm as being the Radiance's Sibling, whom the likelihood of any of the Pale King's offspring + him wanting anything romance related to do with another god trespassing on their territory, much less the direct relative of their most sworn enemy, is slim to none. If anything they'd likely feel threatened by having another higher being show up in the remnants of their home and feeding on the nightmares of their remaining peoples

In addition I think adult Grimm from in game is...an ANCIENT god. Many many years old beyond the pale siblings and I don't really care about the age gap much as both characters are clearly grown adults and ascended gods in their own right but Grimm has a rebirth cycle that pretty much resets him to larval stage physically at the time of the ritual completion. I know some people view Grimmchild, Grimm, and the heart as separate entities and that's fine, but canonly it's said that Grimmchild, Grimm (and possibly NKG/Nightmare heart) are all one and the same. So the whole life cycle/age thing here gets really weird when you go by canon rules for it and take Grimmchild's ascension into the master role into account. I feel like his older current mortal form, which we burn in the ritual, is more of father/grandfather age physically when compared to Hollow, but again that's my personal interpretation and we have no reference for that. Most of this is also why I dislike Hornet x Grimm and avoid it

I do however ADORE when he's portrayed as developing a friendship with the siblings (abit very warily on Hornet's part and sheer terror at first on Hollow's) and or a more fatherly interpretation where he's a voice of reason as a much older higher being with a lot of years of experience and guidance to offer. I imagine this too would likely take a LOT of time to develop especially due to his heritage and status as a foreign higher being, not to mention he uhhh dies when the ritual is completed so

Yes Im boring I'm sorry xD

[grapesodatozier]

how does it feel to be one of the most known wheelzier blogs?

lol am I? if that’s true then I feel

1. honored

2. like I should be putting out more wheelzier stuff

3. a little sad that’s there’s so little wheelzier content that one of the most well know wheelzier blogs hasn’t really posted about them in a while 😬

4. grateful that my works from forever ago are still being read!! 💕

5. grateful for the people who are still making wheelzier content!!

okay but fr I’d love to get back into writing them if/when I can!! ik I’ve gotten a lot of really sweet messages asking about if I’ll post more that I’ve been saving for the day I do post more lol. but yeah mostly I got really into wheelzier bc mike and richie are two of my most all time favorite characters ever, like I relate to them so much and I find them both so fascinating in terms of their reactions to things and how they interact with various other characters and the world around them, how others perceive them, how they react to that, what they value, how they talk and their mannerisms and their flaws and what they say vs don’t say like they’re both such incredibly rich characters who I care about so so much!! and I love putting them in various different Situations lol. I just feel so happy writing them!! they mean so much to me and I feel like I can take them in so many different directions. and it’s so exciting when two of your favorite characters just make sense together yknow? like you could put two of your favorite characters from any various different franchises next to each other if you wanted, but it’s not always gonna mesh. so it was so exciting to get into wheelzier and be like OH THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE THERES SO MUCH TO EXPLORE THERE !!! so yeah writing wheelzier makes me so happy bc i love mike and richie so so much, and so the fact that even one person, let alone multiple other people, read my interpretations of characters I love who they also love and felt I did them justice makes me incredibly happy ☺️💕 nothing is better than putting a character you love into a wildly new situation and having people confirm that you’ve honored the core facets of the character yknow? it’s like taking a machine apart for me lol like taking away setting and timelines etc, what is at the core of these characters? and then having people be like “yeah I also love this character and think about them deeply and I like the things you see in them!! that’s accurate and I enjoyed it and it made me happy!!” like it’s the loveliest feeling in the worldddd 🥰🥰🥰 so yeah that’s how it feels lol. but there are a lot of great wheelzier creators!! and a lot who’ve left fandom sadly, and I miss those people sm 💖💖💖 but yeah uhhh would love to write more about them!!

tldr; grateful people care about my ramblings about my favorite characters lmao 💕

[thepunmaster]

For the Ask game Im a few hours late too (idk your writing, but it still)

L U M B E R J A C K

(with the a, pick your fav fic)

L: What’s the weirdest AU you’ve ever come up with?

uhhh..... parody of invader zim except dib can say fuck? i don't make a lot of AUs (okay, i do, but they're mostly related to crossovers via dimensional travel, and i don't think that just the crossover itself counts as weird enough)

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven’t tried yet.

i don't really write romance (since i just... don't ship a lot of characters and also i have no idea how neurotypical alloromantic relationships work because my partner and i are both autistic and aspec) but... it would be pretty cute to write a philza/kristen oneshot (from dream smp), and also badass because one of them is the goddess of death

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

hm... a chosen one story, except that the prophecy was planted by the villain and isn't true. the chosen one lives their entire life being trained and living a specific way in order to fulfill the terms, but then in their "final confrontation" with the villain, the villain reveals the plot and kills them because they are like. 14 and the villain has endless more experience and strength than they do. but the chosen one has an earpiece or the rest of their friends are standing just outside the door or something like that, so everyone finds out that the villain planned all of this so that no one would try to start a revolution, and they band together and defeat the villain. it's an allegory for waiting for someone else to stand up instead of building community and using the power of a group to get a better future

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

the emotion of having to choose between an entirely unfamiliar but better future, versus the painful past that's all you've ever known (which is a theme of several of my wips, including one that is actually available to the public) is, i suppose, an experience i've had often

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

well i've. never actually finished any fics aside from a singular oneshot, and also i have no idea how most of them would end, but I guess... Children of Chaos's sequel would be a bunch of interconnected oneshots about various characters meeting or getting up to shenanigans with their alternate multiverse doubles, if i go through with the ending that i'm 60% sure i want to do

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

yes, Multiverse Glitches by UniverseGlitch was a huge influence on the tone of Children of Chaos, I love the style of crack with a more serious undertone that UniverseGlitch writes... there are various other writers that have influenced various wips, but no one else that I've specifically taken note of, except for harrish6 who is the widely credited creator of "fgod" (forced god of destruction) Error Sans. if comics count, i would say that CrayonQueen's Christmas Party AU was pretty influential in giving me my "Underswap Sans is terrifyingly adorable and adorably terrifying" agenda

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

Children of Chaos was just... you know, they get turned into children, they are agents of chaos (though not literally Chaos-chosen, which is a thing in the fic), i was like 12 when i came up with the name but to be fair my wip-naming skills have not improved and actually might have gotten worse

C: What character do you identify with most?

oh, that's a tough one... there are a lot of characters from many different fandoms that i've seen a part of myself in, but none in particular who i'd say i identify the most with

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

i like reading angst, but thinking of and writing it does notttt come naturally to me lol, so nothing off the top of my head

[annachibi]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I wasn't technically tagged in this but it popped up in one of my old ship tags so close enough!

How many works do you have on AO3? 18, I'm not very prolific haha

What's your total AO3 word count? 60,598 (again, not very prolific lol)

What fandoms do you write for? It changes over time, depending on what I get inspired by. Back in the old days (not on AO3) it was a lot of Pokemon and Gundam Wing. On AO3, it's been mostly Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (yes I know lol), Victoria (ITV), and Remedyverse. You may notice 2 of those 3 feature Rufus Sewell in them. :D

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Autumn Hearts, my first big fanfic; To The Rescue, which was written for a friend; Christmas Lights; Compass Rose; and Winter Hearts, the attempted sequel to Autumn Hearts that I ran out of steam for. 4 out of 5 are for the ship Vicbourne from Victoria, a fandom I was very active in at the time. (Hopefully one day a Remedyverse fic will pull into that lineup!)

Do you respond to comments? Yes, just about every one! Sometimes I don't if it's been multiple years since I wrote the thing and I don't have much to say back, since I figure some people don't necessarily want the author to respond anyway.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Uhhh maybe Dreams of Zanarkand, but it could tie with a couple others depending on how you look at them. I don't tend to write angsty endings in particular, more just one-shots or chapters.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Autumn Hearts, for sure. It's akin to a fix-it fic.

Do you get hate on fics? Not really. I had someone harassing me via comments some years ago, but despite what they said, it wasn't really about the fanfics.

Do you write smut? Yep, sometimes.

Do you write crossovers? I used to, a looong time ago, but not anymore.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but that would be cool!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, though not in a very long time.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Whatever my current one is. :D Haha but seriously, aside from a few pieces that I wrote for friends, you can pretty much tell what I'm fixated on by what I'm writing about.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Honestly, Winter Hearts was never intended to be finished because it was just going to be something I chipped away at when I felt like it and had ideas, but it would have been really cool to have the full 4 seasons of titles. I tend not to post anything unless it's finished, these days, because having them sit there unfinished saps my motivation.

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue that flows and sounds natural and in-character, I hope. If nothing else, I want to get the characters right, even in AUs. Most of my stuff is character-based rather than plot-based, anyway. I also love leaving little crumbs from the source material in my writing, like exact phrases or motifs used in different ways. Not sure if that counts as a strength.

What are your writing weaknesses? Supplementing dialogue with action or prose. I often like letting the reader draw their own conclusions, but I think that can make things a little sparse or unclear. And long plots are hard. And I'm just a rather concise writer in general, so nothing gets particularly long, even when another writer might have the same thing be twice as long.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I don't really do this because I don't have occasion to, but there are various ways to do it. If it's substantial and you want it to actually be understandable to the reader and aren't relying on, say, language puns or something, then just mentioning they're speaking another language and putting that dialogue in italics can work.

First fandom you wrote for? Pokemon, so many years ago! I actually wrote a story with my friend by passing notes in class, kind of like roleplay but before I knew what that was. I copied a lot of it into a little notebook that I still have. I didn't even know to start a new line for each character's dialogue back then!

Favorite fic you've written? Autumn Hearts and now Apeiron. They're my most ambitious. Though Autumn Hearts will always hold a special place for me because it taught me I could finish something that long.

I'm tagging @wondrouswendy @pintsizeninja @residentvampp @zoi-no-miko @ryanthedemiboy and anyone else who sees this that wants to! No obligation to those I did tag, of course.

[solena2]

So.

Tommy isn’t Theseus. Every time I see Techno’s analogy about Tommy being Theseus brought up I’m filled with endless rage and I’ve DECIDED!

That it’s about time I explained just why it’s so objectively incorrect.

-

First: a bit of backstory on Theseus, because I doubt many of you actually know much about him beyond what Techno said in his “so you want to be a hero” speech, which left out a lot of relevant details.

Theseus was a demigod with two fathers and one mother. His fathers were king Aegeus of Athens and the sea god Poseidon, and his mother was Aethra, Aegeus’ wife. Aethra raised Theseus on her own, far from Athens to avoid him being assassinated.

Aegeus left him nothing but a sword with the Athenian crest and a pair of sandals, buried under a rock so no one else could get them.

When Theseus came of age, he took the sword and sandals and headed up to Athens, slaying various monsters along the way. (It pains me to abbreviate it that much, but Techno left out everything before the Minotaur so it won’t help me much in debunking his analogy.)

Once he got to Athens, he met up with his dad, chased out his stepmom Medea, (yes, that Medea) and killed some people. Then comes the relevant part.

Crete had won a war against Athens a while back, and because of this, every seven years Athens was forced to send 14 tributes to be killed by the Minotaur. (Yes, this inspired the Hunger Games)

Theseus decided he’d volunteer and kill the Minotaur, thus ending the tribute system for good and getting one over on Athens. He promised his dad that if he won, he’d come back in a ship with white sails, as opposed to the standard mourning black that signified the death of the tributes.

So he went to Crete, met king Minos and his daughters Ariadne and Phaedra, and got sent into the labyrinth. Ariadne gave him a magic ball of string that kept him from getting lost, allowing him to find the Minotaur and then safely get out afterwards, providing he could kill it.

He killed it, led his other 13 tributes out, and sailed back home. On the way, Athena told him to leave Ariadne stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, so he immediately did so, because Theseus was an asshole.

He got home, his dad committed suicide because Theseus forgot the white sails and his dad assumed he’d died, Theseus became king and married Phaedra, and then the fun began, because again, Theseus was an asshole.

First, he cheated on Phaedra with Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, so she left and took the kids. Next, he and his other asshole friend Pirithous decided to kidnap themselves some new wives. Theseus decided on Helen of Troy, who was a child at the time, and Pirithous decided on Persephone, which resulted in both him and Theseus getting stuck in the Underworld for a while due to pissing off Hades.

Once he got back up, he killed his son for fucking his wife, which is messed up on many levels, and then left Athens because his people were rightfully not super okay with that.

Then he goes and meets Lycomedes, who throws him off a cliff.

-

Next, let’s talk about Techno’s speech a bit.

He starts off by accusing Tommy of being a power hungry dictator (paraphrased), before asking him if he wants to be a hero.

Then, he provides what is apparently the archetypal example of heroism, something often associated with selflessness, kindness, and generally giving at least one singular solitary fuck about other people.

Theseus! Heroic hero who does heroic things, like, uhhh *checks notes* cheating on his wife, kidnapping children with plans to forcefully marry them, leaving people alone on tiny islands with no supplies, killing his kid, etc. etc...

So we’re off to a great start.

Then, he gives a short summary of Theseus’ life and times! He skips the first part of his life completely, which is hilarious to me because it’s the only time Theseus ever did anything actually heroic or selfless, and gets straight to the meat!

“Let me tell you a story, Tommy. A story of a man called Theseus. His country was in danger, he sent himself forward! Into enemy lines. He slayed the Minotaur! And saved his city. You know what they did to him, Tommy? They exiled him. He died in disgrace, despised by his people. That’s what happens to heroes, Tommy.”

-Technoblade

So first off, he doesn’t mention... really anything other than the Minotaur and the exile, which is leaving out a lot of relevant details, like why Theseus was exiled. (You know, killing his son in cold blood?)

Second, he doesn’t give details in general. Not that he should’ve given a full telling, or anything, but I’m always surprised by the shortness of this speech when I go back and listen to it. He pretty much just gives the barest bones of an argument and expects his audience to take it at face value. (Which they do, but it’s still bad practice)

From the more accurate (if still brief) summary if Theseus’ life I’ve just given, I’m sure you can see why this might be more than a bit dubious, as an analogy. Given cc!Technoblade is literally an English major, and doubtless knows significantly more about the myth than I do, I’d imagine this was never intended to be taken at face value.

Over and over again, c!Techno proves himself to be an unreliable narrator, and over and over again, the fandom at large takes his word as gospel.

-

Now, as far as a more in depth argument for Tommy as Theseus goes, I will attempt to debunk that as well, because there are some genuinely good points to be made.

First of all, most people make Dream out to be the Minotaur. Given the time this speech was made, I imagine Schlatt was the intended target of that, but with latter events in mind, Dream does make much more sense.

I’d say this is honestly pretty fair, but I don’t think Tommy takes the role of Theseus in that narrative. I’d argue he’s much more analogous to the role of Ariadne, giving the tools required to defeat Dream but ultimately not doing so through his own power, but because someone chose to take those tools and make use of them. This also provides the very interesting characterization of Punz as Theseus, which is an incredibly unique take that I hope some a Punz enthusiast does something with, because I don’t know enough about his lore to make a good analysis on that.

The idea of Schlatt as the Minotaur, as was probably intended by Techno at the time, makes much more sense, though I still think other characters fit the role better. Firstly, Schlatt wasn’t killed, he died of a heart attack, and if someone had killed him I think it’s more likely to have been Wilbur or Techno who did it than Tommy, as Tommy was still very hopeful and idealistic at the time, at least compared to his character now. You could posit Tommy as Ariadne again in this situation, given he was the one to mastermind the final charge, and though I think Tommy as Ariadne is an idea that’s worth further exploration, I’d say Fundy futs the Ariadne role here much better, with him giving the spy’s diary before being effectively shunned and left out in the cold by both Pogtopia and Manburg, much like Ariadne was abandoned in the original myth.

I’d posit the Theseus in this scenario as Techno, Wilbur, or possibly Philza, as they were the ones to actually kill things in the 16th, though Techno and Wilbur’s killings were more in the metaphorical sense, taking the second life of L’manburg.

As for the exile, Tommy exile was alike to that of Theseus only in concept. Both were sent from their kingdoms for a crime, resulting in a falling out with someone close to them, and had a precarious relationship with heights while they were gone, but that’s about where the similarities end and even then they’re superficial.

First of all, Tommy’s exile was far more because Dream was looking for an excuse to do it than because briefing actually means anything on the SMP, given how Dream had been griefing bases and blaming Tommy for it for a while before it went down. (Fun fact, Bad and Skeppy were going to burn one of his discs over this, but one of them got sick so they had to cancel the stream.)

Theseus’ exile, on the other hand, was entirely deserved, especially when you consider how serious a crime killing family was in Ancient Greek culture. It was pretty much the biggest no-no in existence, and I’m almost surprised he wasn’t just straight up executed for it.

Second, Tommy’s falling out with Tubbo was almost entirely due to outside forces, (Dream) rather than because anything Tommy had done. Though Tommy’s cavalierness towards the trial and attempts to threaten Dream with Spirit doubtless didn’t help things, Dream surrounding L’manburg in obsidian walls and threatening them to exile Tommy was entirely his own choice, and not something that can be pinned on Tommy, no matter what the apologists may say.

Meanwhile, Theseus’ falling out with Phaedra had begun long before his exile with him cheating on her. Him killing his son was merely the last in a long line of dominos to completely destroy their relationship.

Last, Tommy nearly killing himself is very different from Theseus being pushed off a cliff. Tommy’s near suicide was the direct result of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of c!Dream for what was canonically, I believe, several months? (Correct me if I’m wrong on that one.) Tommy almost jumping off a pillar because he was deliberately isolated from his support systems is nothing like Theseus being killed because he was a cocky asshole who thought he was god.

-

So that’s why I don’t think Tommy is anything like Theseus, and why I’m filled with endless rage by the completely uncritical acceptance of this parallel, but it’s not the whole reason it pisses me off.

It also pisses me off because, as stated earlier, cc!Techno is an English major. He knew what he was doing with this. The fandom’s insistence on refusing to acknowledge his character as an unreliable narrator is, in my opinion, acting as a massive kneecap to what could be a great analysis of how he thinks.

Specifically: why does c!Technoblade think Tommy is like Theseus?

Of all the Greek heroes to pick, why that one? Was it just the tantalizing opportunity to parallel Schlatt with a horned monster, or was it because c!Techno has some genuine in-character reason to think this myth specifically applies to Tommy.

Now, we all know people in the SMP have a habit of analogizing Wilbur and Tommy. The assumption Tommy wanted to be president, the belief that Tommy nominated Tubbo directly, the belief that he was intentionally deceiving Techno about Pogtopia’s intentions regarding Manburg... all of these stem from Wilbur. There are more cases of this, of course, but several analyses have been done in the subject already, and this is long enough without more padding.

So why does Techno think Tommy is Theseus? Well, it’s simple, isn’t it?

Wilbur is Theseus.

To be continued, because this is already too long and my brain hurts.

[anatthema-art]

well, okay, at least finding your channel meant I found some cool animations. still, I barely understood any of them.

i. HAHDJIAHSJS god i am. i did not expect a post of me talking about tumblr men taxonomy to inspire anyone to look at my youtube channel but i’m glad you enjoyed the incomprehensible monstrosity that it is regardless. genuinely thank you! it means a loy

for uhhh…??? context because APPARENTLY i have some sort of observer audience now, i will leave that under the cut for anyone curious about fandom history of a stupidly insular community

i was/am a fan of a niche webseries/podcast thing called discord murder party (DMP), which has now ended after 4 years. most of what’s on my channel spawns from the incomprehensibility of a single discord server size fandom making memes and in jokes which cannibalized itself, and as you can probably see if you look at my upload list, most of them revolve around dreamland, which is the animatic to the song by the swingrowers, i made last year around 3/4 of the length into DMP.

now, dreamland became a huge meme within this extremely niche webseries community to the point where the joke (mainly being based around my personal hell of the animatic being something i tried to make one years prior then failed and it continually coming back to haunt me) kept finding new ways to invent itself and multiple people in the community covered it and made meme versions of it

this culminated in that hour long cinematic shitpost with the salt and pepper diner playlist but with various versions of this song and it has far too many layers of what’s essentially a large friend group’s 3 year history of memes. catatonic is the same: it’s a meme animatic i made for the anniversary of dreamland which i didnt intend to put as much effort as i DID but it just kept going

now for the last small piece of context to tie this nightmare together you may have noticed if you go into my animations playlist the single video that’s not on my channel with a very long title. that’s the animatic i worked on OFFICIALLY for this show. i got brought on as essentially an ascended fan for the last 6 months of the show’s run as an artist and this spawned a whole OTHER wave of in jokes and memes which are borderline incomprehensible without me walking through every step of the way. also it… kinda ended up getting me into art school so thats neat??

ALL THIS IS TO SAY is that i don’t actually super recommend watching dmp to get these jokes. almost all of them are fandom memes that ARE connected if you have it EXPLAINED WHY but DMP is a very very long show that has a ROUGH first 2 seasons and if you know nothing about it you will probably not have a good time because the quality and style shifts rapidly in the second half

HOWEVER COMMA this is where i go to plug and say the director of DMP will eventually be working on a new show called chaos van, and a little behind the curtains peak is that the two main characters of that show are what INSPIRED me to write the tumblr men taxonomy post, because if charlie was a man i argued she would be a TSM with the disney channel eldritch horror body type and Oz would be a DCHE with the tumblr sexyman body type.

the show is only in early production but it’s planned to be a lot more accessible and easy to jump in on (you dont need to have watched dmp even though it’s technically a continuation) and is a real fun pitch: it’s a multiversal road trip where a god of stories and a god of chaos are on the run as they meet absurdist set pieces and characters while learning to fight gods!

so. yeah. lmao