#this is absolutely their non canon ending but i do love dabbling in a good evil option

[tantumuna]

Bad Ending | Absolute Ascension

[dandelion-wings]

For the ask meme, Jean and Venti? :>

Thank you for the ask! :>

JEAN

How I feel about this character

This should be no surprise to anyone, but I adore her. #1 absolute favorite Genshin character, bar none. She's already an archetype I love (honorable lady knight torn between duty/family and her own desires, bonus points for blondness; see also, FE3H Ingrid), enough so that the friend who got me into Genshin lured me in with her ("read the manga at least until you get to Jean, and if you like her, you have to start playing"), and a lot of her individual characteristics are also deeply endearing to me. I am not rational about Jean. She is my beloved precious blorbo who can do no wrong and I will write out her flaws and make her perfect if I want to, and I will write her outmatching and one-upping the male characters who are supposed to be just as or more cool, and I will write her whump and fluff and hurt/comfort where everyone goes "oh we have been unfair to Jean, let us rush to care about her," and I feel no shame on any of these points. I am holding her up and showing her to everyone like a beloved pet.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Okay, so, the thing about me is that I usually make my favorite character a fandom bicycle because I just like seeing how I think they'd interact with other characters I like? I have at least idle shipping thoughts about Jean and... so much of the rest of Genshin. But my primary ships for her are most of the other Knights of Favonius, particularly any combo, OTP or OT3 or OT4, of Lisa, Kaeya, and Eula, with some particularly energetic mental dabbling (less likely to make it on the page) in Jean/Ningguang, Jean/Rosaria, Jean/Diluc, and Jean/Sara. Those are probably the ones outside the OT4 and its permutations that I'm most likely to actively play with without some outside trigger or inspiration!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

See above, just without the kissing. That said, I think everyone knows it's Jean and Kaeya. XD And beyond that the platonic relationships within the OT4!

My unpopular opinion about this character

I... am not sure I have one? The people I choose to follow have Good Opinions, and I do not follow people with Bad Opinions so I don't know how popular they are (also I don't go into her main tag because main character tags get SO spammed with 'this character appeared once briefly in the background of this comic' sorts of tags. I follow individual artists and the rarepair tags). I like to think she could take Diluc, I guess? Who often gets presented in fanon and a little bit in canon as the Ultimate Mondstadt badass.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

More cool action scenes! And also FIXING HER RELATIONSHIP WITH BARBARA.

---

VENTI

How I feel about this character

I like him! I have somehow ended up following and being followed by many Venti fans who love him much more intensely, and he's one of those characters I already like enough that I can be enjoyably swept up in that love, such that for the duration of the post I'm reading or the discussion we're having, I love him just as much. Then it goes back to 'sure, he's cool and I enjoy seeing him'. :> Which I definitely do.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Venti isn't a fandom bicycle for me just because he's not in my top faves, but he definitely would have the potential if he was. >> That said, Dvalin, Zhongli, and Xiao are the only people I regularly seek out pairing content with him for; I enjoy incidentally seeing him with pretty much any of the world's other immortal/long-lived-non-human characters and all the now-dead past character's he's been with, and he's fun with a lot of the Mondstadt characters as well. Honorable mention to Jean/Venti for occupying the same mental space as Venti himself: a pairing I'm not personally invested in but, while I'm talking to @esmeraldablazingsky and/or reading their stuff, am temporarily 110% high-enthusiasm about.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Broadly speaking, his various friends over the centuries and, currently, especially Dvalin, but I will admit that my Thing for Jean means that I am most fascinated with his relationship with her (the only person in canon who knows him in both his forms and is still respectful! XD) and, by extension, Gunnhildrs of the past.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I again don't know enough about general fandom opinion to have one. XD;; Most of my opinions about Venti are accumulated from the people I follow who love him, and I haven't seen any general popular ones among them that I disagree strongly with!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I put "Venti takes the Traveler to Celestia, or at least gives them a very strong hint and boost" in a lot of my speculative endgame scenarios because I feel like there are hints in canon that it COULD be what happens, and I really really hope that it WILL be. It feels like how the narrative around him should pay off, to me.

[tenok]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @skyborneveggie, but since I use ao3 mostly as reader and it holds like 10% of my fics I’ll use statistics from ficbook

How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 282, also some of them are collection of drabbles and smaller fics, sometimes in 40+ parts, so if we count them separately… it’ll be A Lot

What’s your total AO3 word count?

Uhhh ficbook don’t have statistic like this, but my estimate will be like, 500k words, maybe a little more

What fandoms do you write for?

Any that gets my attention. I wrote a lot for Doctor Who and B:tVS when I was younger, then I had a great run in russian fandoms, most notable are Gogol: the Beginning and Major Grom: Plague Doctor. I’m dabbling into GO now, but, like, there’s already so much fics so I’m content with reading and not writing

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Тепло (Warmth) — 2600 kudos, marvel, Steve/Bucky. It’s stupid drabble that gets so popular literally because it’s big fandom and popular pairing, no real value there Уроки рисования (Painting lessons) — 1629 kudos. Again, Steve/Bucky and no great value Мгчд: драбблы (collection of drabbles, Major Grom: Plague Doctor) — 1617 kudos. Ohh this one is good! There’s 74 drabbles and counting, all written at last two years, mostly polyamory and/or family gen. Most popular one there is one where orphan (now 30 y.o. man) discuss with his boyfriend’s quasi-mother things like fighting for his inheritance in court with some distant relatives. People are yearning for mundane stuff I swear Catch a cold — 1398 kudos, Flash (TV), gen about sick Flash being comforted by his archenemy, honestly again not really great stuff that get big because of fandom’s popularity да, со мной непросто (I’m not easy*) — 1390 kudos, Major Grom: Plague Doctor. Ohhh I love thos one! It’s about my ot3, where A and B are estabilished pair and C is their new lover and he’s insecure and they use sex as a means to show him that he’s ~their~. Slightly D/s if you squint. Also with ADORABLE illustrations by nice people!!

*it's a song lyrics, of course

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I love love love answering but also it can get overwhelming .__. Currently I have biiig backlog of comments I should answer, some of them are like year and half old

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhhh. I rarely write angst honestly, and I prefer open or bittersweet endings, I’m not even sure I have something that counts as angsty ending

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

Almost every one of mine are happy ones. Uhhh can it be «общественное мнение» (public opinion). It’s absolutely self indulgent fluff about character A rescuing B from some trouble and being all doting in public etc, and in the end everyone at B’s work knows that he’s in relationship and supports him, and even OC kidnapped by maniac for plot points escapes and found alive

Do you get hate on fics?

No not really. Some funny comments there or there, but not real hate

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Oh, A LOT. Mostly it’s kinky shit, bdsm etc. Mostly ot3 and mostly slash althrough I have some het and a liiiittle of fem. I almost never write extrime stuff, I have like one? non-con and couple dubcon things, but I really want to write more

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

Rarely and mostly it’s crossovers of the kind that fandom already counts as semi-canon (like, you know, when two characters played by same actor are headcanoned as brothers). But uhhh I have a Hot fuzz/Harry Potter crossover where Nicolas is a Dursley’s completely normal relative

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No. But once person asked yo use my drabble as inspiration for their fic and then literally put whole drabble into said fic. But I’m not even really mad because people commented literally only those lines as so good and clerer lol

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No :(

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have tried and it was awful. I’m not cut for this

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Are you kidding how I suppose to choose???

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

I STILL HOPE I’LL FINISH MOST OF MY FAVORITE WIPS. But uhhh… I have this really old wip in the green lethern fandom, around 11k words and needs at least enough 10k. It’s Hal/Carol (canon het) slowburn, gen for the most part, with assorted cameos of canon characters that’s interesting only for few fand. And it’s mermaid au. I don’t even like mermaid au’s, but I was hooked on metaphor of Hal’s desire to become a pilot and flew at sky and mermaid!Hal desire to become human at touch ground. But I started it in like. 2017? Or even earlier? And I doubt that I ever will be deep enough in this fandom in next years, and if I will, I changed so much as author.

What are your writing strengths?

I was told that I write great dialogues, I think? Also people who like my porn tend to praise my bdsm scenes. I don’t think they are really hot (I wouldn’t get horny for them lol), but I think I do something good with emotional part of it? Oh and more than once people thanked me for the way I wrap things in the end. As I say, I mostly write good or bittersweet endings, and as one reader told me (it’s not word for word quote, I’m oo lazy to search now), it’s like «in the complete dark and misery there’s one open door and there’s warm coming from it». Or something like that.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m shit in longer fics, both in plottish sense and as in author stamina. My longest fics for now barely scrape 30k words line, and in my dreams I write 100+k words plot-heavy slowburns. I’m trying but I guess I just not there at the moment and it’s foolish to push myself too hard. Also I’m always unhappy with my research. Like, I want to be The Author who research everything and write details-heavy realistic things, but I’m stupid :( Oh and also my characters rarely… feel? I mean me and my emotions are not big friends and it shows. My readers swears that I write it good enough but urgh, I compare my fics to the one I enjoy reading and I see the difference!!! At this point I guess it’s just part of the style and not a flaw, but, still.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

No thoughts honestly?

First fandom you wrote for?

First ever wrote? Batman, when I was like 8 yo. I haven’t have internet, mind you, just played with characters in my doc file (for the record, it was about how bad guys torture Batman to the death while Catwoman watch helplessly. Ya I had a great taste even back then). First published was for the russian book searies Mefody Buslaev (which is a young adult series about antichrist working for hell and also falling in love with his guardian angel, and also it’s a spin-off to the Tanya Grotter, which is russian parody of Harry Potter but it’s GREAT, guys, like, it rips off idea of «orphan that killed big bad, abusive adopted family, magic school, but it’s funny as hell and also so invested in early 2000’s russian culture, you just need to be tehre to get it). Anyway it was about het otp with Ares (as god of war and, in this verse, hell’s servant) and beforementioned guardian angel, who is 13 yo looking 1000 yo aged loly with blonde ponytails. I started with exploring of angsty backstory of Ares, get my first comment, get scared and upset because of really innocent remark they made and deleted whole thing. I was like 12 yo so it’s understandaple xD

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

UHHHH. Hard choice, I like a lot of them, but also the ones that could be my all-time favorites are still in draft.

I guess I'll say «целовать нельзя» (I should not kiss, it's a song lyrics again). It a short (4k words at most) fic for the Легенда номер 17 (russian film about hockey) fandom, with pov of Tarasov, greatest USSR couch etc etc, about his deep repressed ust to the Valera, titular legend of hockey and his golden boy. It's ambigious if Tarasov's feeling returned or not, and even if they are, he would never let Valera risk his career and freedom for some stupid feelings, but for one night Tarasov drunk enough to admit his feelings at least for himself. I'll say it's kinda slaps with angsty feelings, more than any of my other fics.

I’ll also mention «омлет» (omelet, as in «you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs»). It’s one of this 30k words fics, and it was written for bubble comics kinkfest. See we have a childhood friends A and B, and A becomes a big buisenessman while B is his kind of bodyguard, and prompt from fest was like «while building his empire A whored B to his investors». I was like WHERE THE FUCK he found ENOUGH GAY BUISENESSMANS in Russia at early 2000’s??? And this thought prompted me to plot long story of sexual and emotional abuse lol. It tragic it’s sexy it has a silver of hope in the end and it’s in no way perfect, but it’s somewhat good. Also it has not so many kudos, around 250, BUT it also has like, 80+ comments? which is mindblowing ratio! and som,e of this comments 1k words long because people had SO MUCH thoughts and emotions from this text and aren’t it great?

I honestly don't know who to tag? @queerfables if you haven't already, and also everyone who's interested feel free to tag me so I can snoop 👀

[lodessa]

For the character ask: Brienne

How I feel about this character

I love her so much, both as a person and a character. Like there are a lot of characters out there that are good people but not that interesting of characters and a lot of really compelling exciting characters that are not good people, but Brienne is both.  I love her mixture of deserved confidence and insecurity.  I love her.  The other day I was going over some Audre Lorde poetry, specifically “A Litany for Survival” and  I feel like that idea of “we were never meant to survive” really applies in so many ways to Brienne.  She is living in a hostile world where she is “wrong” but instead of letting that cow her, she decides that since she will never fit in or be invisible, she might as well speak up by doing what she believes is right.  And she does it with such vulnerability (which I think Cat is drawn to about her initially). Like she can’t hide her raw vulnerable spots, she isn’t good at pretending.  She’s too honest, too direct, too true.   She knows, as well as anyone, that the world is unfair and cruel but she doesn’t let change her to be that way or make her numb.  Brienne feels so deeply, so intensely.   We see so many characters “go away inside” (Sansa vanishing into Alayne, Jaime obviously shares that strategy openly, Cersei uses it to endure sexual encounters she isn’t into, Arya hides in made up personas, Tyrion numbs himself with alcohol) but Brienne stays in the agonizing present.  

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Jaime/Brienne is a forever OTP and nothing holds a candle to it, but I’ve been known to dabble a bit in some Brienne femslash (like the time I wrote Brienne/Arianne) partly because I love the idea of someone who is all the things Brienne feels grief about not being seeing and embracing her.  To me, the key thing is that Brienne finds something who loves her for who she is, not in spite of it, but also that she actually wants.  (And Brienne is a sucker for pretty, isn’t she?)

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I love fics that have her interacting with Tyrion and/or Sansa, for different reasons.  Tyrion, is fun because they are really unalike in a lot of ways but they both know what it is like to be visibly unacceptable to those around you but also really get who Jaime is and love him.  Sansa is interesting because of all the chivalry/songs stuff and longing for love and handsome knights, but also the realization that the world is not going to give you that, but also because Sansa has never actually had anyone whose true loyalty was to her before.  

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don’t know that this is unpopular so much as salty, but it really annoys me when people characterize Brienne as not being into feminine things.  She isn’t rejecting femininity, it has rejected her.  She fantasizes about basically swooning in Jaime’s arms and having him comfort her.  She is uncomfortable in the dress not because she doesn’t like it or want to look good in it but because she feels like she doesn’t and it is embarrassing.    Brienne knows she is ugly, but she WANTS to be beautiful.    She wants to be loved.   

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I want her and Jaime to have a better ending than the absolutely garbage that was the show. It doesn’t have to be a happy ending, but there’s a difference the tragedy of something like him dying in her arms and saying ”I always said I wanted to die in the arms of the woman I loved” or even just going down together in battle and THAT (derogatory).   

[silvysartfulness]

I got tagged by @ameliarating and @veliseraptor to do this writer meme thing!

How many works do you have on AO3?

Six. I only started posting fic on AO3 last year. Before that, many long years ago, I used my own websites and LiveJounal.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

177481. The absolute majority of which is of course Heaven Has A Road.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On AO3, only The Untamed.

But before that, I've written for Disney Afternoon's Aladdin, Slayers, Kingdom Hearts, Assassin's Creed, and one-shot fics for my own original verses as well as my friends'.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Heaven Has A Road But No One Walks It at 1194, unsurprisingly. It's my magnum opus on AO3.

Blanket Statement at 302. The first fic I wrote for the Untamed, and the first thing I posted on AO3 (Thank you, Lise, for holding my hand and walking me through it!)

And To Many More at 169

High Noon In Deserted City at 96, which is sort of funny, since it's just a picture and about 1000 words. But the premise is fun! Still hoping for some hungry writer to adopt it and write something for it. :)

Self-Inflicted at 75.

Which checks out, I guess – the longest fic with the most readers comes first, then the fluff, then the funny and finally the angsty and fucked up. XD

I still suspect The Plotbunny of Doom / The Renegades for Kingdom Hearts would score as my all time highest, though, if LJ likes and comments translated to the AO3 format. That fic took me and two friends three whole years to write together, was 104 chapters long and over 300k.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I really try! Comments mean everything to me, and I want to reply to them all! But when I'm low on spoons (which is unfortunately often) I fall hopelessly behind, and then the catching up becomes an impossible-looking chore in and of itself.

I should really set some time aside every day to catch up on the last few chapters' worth of comments... I do love the interaction and discussion a good comment can spawn!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hm... I write a ton of angst, but only a few actually have sad endings. I'd say Eaten counts, as does Self-Inflicted, I guess. TPBoD had a very open ending that was still definitely on the somewhat hopeless side.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Mm, it's not usually my favourite genre (though I mean, the whole Kingdom Hearts verse is a crossover in and of itself) but it depends a lot on the source material. I guess TPBoD might soft-count, since we tossed in a bunch of non-canon references with all the world-jumping.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not as such? Oh yeah, I do recall getting a very upset comment on a non-con fic I wrote back in the KH days, by someone who couldn't conceive how you could claim to love a character and then write such horrible things happening to them. But you get those occasionally. Look, crushing my favourite characters is therapy. Doesn't mean I don't love them.

The Russian fandom are loudly aggressive in their comments on some chapters of Heaven Has A Road, but that's more focused on the characters, not me personally.

On the whole, I've been pretty spared. But then, there's little point in sending hate; I just block.

Do you write smut? if so what kind?

Oh, absolutely. Haven't really gotten to that point in the posted chapters of Heaven Has A Road yet, but we're about to unleash it aplenty in the upcoming ones.

What kind? Most kinds, I guess? Soft and fluffy, aggressive and snarly, consensual, dubcon, non-con. Mostly mlm but I've written het, too. Can't remember if I've written wlw, but I've certainly headcanoned/drawn it. A bit of kink is nice.

I prefer focusing on the chemistry and sensations when I write porn, rather than detailed physical smacking and squelching and body fluids, but that's just my personal preference and writing style.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? Not that I can remember? I have my art stolen regularly, and I've had my online identity stolen, but I don't think anyone's stolen anything I've written...

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Heaven Has A Road is being translated into Russian, and I'm insanely honoured and flattered!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes – TPBoD aka The Plot Bunny of Doom, aka The Renegades, for Kingdom Hearts. I wrote it over ten years ago together with a friend and my now wife. It was a monster of a fic, I think about 320k, and the fact that we were three people helping and pushing and encouraging each other really helped keep it going!

I don't know if I would have the focus for something like it now, but it was an amazing experience I'll always treasure.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Oh man, that changes with each hyperfixation... I may have to say Marluxia/Vexen for Kingdom Hearts, simply because it's a ship that's been around in my life for so long. I still occasionally go back to read favourite bits of the fics I wrote for them, including TPBoD.

Currently it's SongXueXiao from The Untamed, of course, and a very strong contender overall! I've dabbled a bit in poly ships before, but this is the first time I have one as my main, and I'm love them.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Uh. I don’t really have any? Because of my burnout-brain, I can only really focus on one major project at a time, and that's currently heaven has A Road. And I'm really, really hoping I will be able to finish it!

It's all plotted out, I just need to write the stupid thing. Working on it.

What are your writing strengths?

Hm, I'd say that I've developed a voice/prose over the years that I'm actually quite happy with! And I'm good at conveying/invoking emotion, if going solely by how many people comment that I've made them cry. :D

I enjoy writing dialogue, and I love working with layers of symbolism.

What are your writing weaknesses?

The actual writing process. 🙄 I'm extremely uneven and unstructured in getting the actual words down. Also convoluted and inflated text at times - sometimes I write a lot of words without actually saying anything. And English is my second language, so just nailing the correct phrasing and grammar can be a headache at times.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If it impacts the plot – like the POV character not understanding it, then maybe. And using terms that can't be translated, absolutely! Other than that, there's little point in making a text harder for the reader to grasp by tossing in whole sections in another language for clout. Is my personal view, at least, of course other writers may disagree.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

My first online fandom that I wrote fic for was Disney Afternoon's Aladdin show. Before that, I wrote original fic. And before that, before the internet was A Thing, I'd write and draw for stories that captivated me, just for my own entertainment. If you count that, I'd probably say Phantom of the Opera was my first – I had a whole ”everyone is a horse because that's what I know how to draw” AU when I was about 10 or so, that I'd draw lots of pictures for. When I was even younger, I used to make up stories for my younger brothers, based on movies and series we had watched together. I've always been a storyteller, one way or another, if only in my own head. I wouldn't know how not to.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I would have to say Heaven Has A Road, even though it's still unfinished. It's the first work of that sheer scope I have ever attempted by myself, and I'm honestly insanely proud of myself for what I have accomplished already!

Second would be TPBoD – The Renegades. Even though that was a shared effort, it's a very long fic that we managed to bring all the way to its intended conclusion, and I'm very proud of that, too!

Plus there are bits of both these fics I really like, and that I will go back and read for my own enjoyment occasionally.

tagging: @orodrethsgeek, @ebonykain, @fromaliminalspace, @chigrima, @soawen

[highkeyweeb]

Debunking Edens Zero Misconceptions

With the recent announcement of the Edens Zero anime I keep seeing the same questions, confusions, and common misconceptions on absolutely every platform I go on. I thought it’d be helpful to compile them all in one place and try to clear up some things people genuinely seem to be confused about. With Edens Zero being the third work from Mashima, it’s subject to some... opinionated responses. I wanted to create a list of actual facts and information because it’s important for others to be able to learn about it without the individual biases of internet haters / supporters being involved.

If there are any questions you yourself have, or others that you’ve seen commonly asked or given incorrect responses to, feel free to leave a reply and I’ll try to update the list when I get the chance. Also, feel free to share this with anyone you know who might be confused or need clarification, the more factual information we can spread the better.

Lastly, I’ll be staying as spoiler free with this as possible, so if you’ve never seen Edens Zero, or are contemplating watching it, this won’t spoil anything plot wise whatsoever. If anything, I think it would be helpful to read this before getting into the series so you’ll be somewhat prepared for what you’ll see, but that’s up to you.

This is gonna be a monster of a post, so check it out under the cut below!

[Updated: Jan 20, 2021]

Just a tiny disclaimer: I’m not going to be answering questions such as “is this as good as Fairy Tail?” or “is the story writing better than Fairy Tail’s?” because that is extremely subjective. I can make a post similar to this one about my feelings about the series in response to questions like that if anyone is interested, but at least here, I’m aiming to be as factual as possible.

Why does this look like Fairy Tail?

I’ll be honest, it was hard to choose a first question to start this out with. But I believe that this is the best possible place to start.

The reason that Edens Zero looks similar to Fairy Tail (in terms of art style) is because the authors of both series’ are the same guy: Hiro Mashima. Just by looking at Edens Zero, there are notable similarities stylistically and character design wise in relation to some of his older works. So that’s where that familiar feeling is coming from when you look at Edens Zero.

Why are some of the characters in Edens Zero the same as characters in Fairy Tail?

Short answer: They’re not.

Long answer: There are characters in Edens Zero that are specifically designed to resemble characters from Fairy Tail. It’s not coincidence, or even a lack of creativity. Mashima would like people to be able to make connections and draw similarities between the characters of all his works. That being said, he makes sure to include differences between them so that his audience knows they are not the same characters.

If you’re concerned about the personalities of the characters in Edens Zero closely relating to those of Fairy Tail characters, then the series has already given us little to no need to worry. Where a character may fall short of a completely unique design, they often make up for it with their distinct personality and their backstory. A character that has a striking resemblance to one you already know might be an entirely different person in Edens Zero.

So when you look at the protagonists of the series, and they remind you of some familiar faces, those familiar faces are exactly who Mashima wants you to think about. But that isn’t to say they are mere “clones” of the people who came before them. And that goes for more than just the protagonists actually, but they’re the most notable similarities early on.

Is the Happy in Edens Zero the same Happy as the one in Fairy Tail?

No, the Happy in Edens Zero is NOT the same Happy as the one in Fairy Tail. Yes they have the same name and similar designs, but they are different people (cats?) with different backstories and different companions.

Why is Happy even in Edens Zero?

He’s the companion character. Mashima dabbled with making him a different species, but ended up settling on a classic fan favorite design. He sees Happy sort of like his mascot, since he has now represented both Fairy Tail and Edens Zero.

If you look closely, there are other non human characters who pop up from Fairy Tail, as well as Mashima’s eldest animated series, Rave Master.

Does Edens Zero happen in the same universe as Fairy Tail? Alternate universe? (Fairy Tail in space? Fairy Tail in the future?)

The Fairy Tail and Edens Zero universes are completely separate. Edens Zero is not a Fairy Tail time skip, nor are any of the characters in any way related to Fairy Tail characters. (If me hinting at it wasn’t enough: Eden’s Zero is not Fairy Tail Next Generation)

Alas, that would mean that the male protagonist is not the secret love child of Natsu and Gray, but you’re free to write as much fanfiction about that as you like!

Is Edens Zero a continuation/spin-off/reboot/sequel to Fairy Tail?

Edens Zero is a fully original work, unrelated to the story of Fairy Tail. (Does it feel like the millionth time I’ve said that, because it should). So no, it’s not a continuation. Edens Zero also doesn’t qualify to be a spin off because it’s not a subset of Fairy Tail; it isn’t the Fairy Tail story or world twisted / changed in any way because Edens Zero is a standalone piece. 

It also stands to reason that based on everything I’ve already said, it isn’t a Fairy Tail reboot either. Edens Zero will take you on a completely different story, because the two series’ aren’t linked. And finally, no, Edens Zero is not a sequel to Fairy Tail because guess what? Fairy Tail actually has a canon sequel! It’s a biweekly manga series that goes by the name ‘Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest’. So logically, Edens Zero can’t be a Fairy Tail sequel when one already exists.

(Also, per the dictionary definition of the word “ripoff” – an act or instance of stealing off of another – Edens Zero doesn’t qualify. You can’t really steal something you already own.) 

End Note:

Edens Zero is the third work from Hiro Mashima getting an anime, and it’s understandable that there’s a lot of confusion around it. Especially after the PV dropped and it was clear that the art style was very similar. And not to mention everyone losing their minds when they saw Happy in this strange new world. All of a sudden it raises these questions and there isn’t really a definitive place to get answers. 

At this point I’m sure I sound like a broken record. But I’ll repeat these things as many times as needed to clear up the misconceptions and misinformation being spread around. As new people get introduced to Edens Zero, they will likely be asking these same questions for years to come. So I found it useful to just try and catch the problem now while it’s still new.

If the day ever does come where Mashima tells us it was all a hoax, everything was a lie, and he was playing us like an instrument the entire time... then I’ll be sure to update this.

Again, there are probably plenty of questions that I never touched on so feel free to comment anything else you or others need clarification on! I was doing some research for this and wow, Google really isn’t spoiler free, is it? Which is obvious, because it’s just a machine, but I hate that even if someone wants more information on something, looking it up is out of the question because that would give them spoilers about some pretty crucial plot details. That makes me feel awful, as a person who absolutely hates spoilers. So I want this to be a compact, spoiler free, factually based post about a lot of the common questions in the Edens Zero fandom.

Thanks for reading!! 

[ohnomybreadsticks]

Fic Writer Review

Thanks for the tag @lambden ! This looks like a fun one C:

I'll tag @jaskiersvalley @catoeirienind and @sinclairsolutions if you'd like to give it a go!

It is a bit long, so I added a cut in midway through lol

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

Somehow I have 135?? Which is still wild to me lol. And back when I first started I didn't upload anything under 1K to AO3, so there are probably more works that never made it or are stuck as chapters in collection fics

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

755,735

3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I've really only written for Detroit: Become Human and the Witcher, with one tiny little detour into Transistor for a gift exchange

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. More Than Enough (E), my very first geraskier, which had very good timing and absolutely blew up XD

2. What's It Going to Take for You to Feel Good? (E), my choose-your-own-adventure style G9 sexcapade fic, which got a boost at some point from a popular twitter artist

3. Too Tired to Ask, But Not to Receive (E), my foray into classic geraskier comfort sex with bottom!Geralt

4. In Which Gavin Learns to Love an Elder God (E), my BABY, my very first fic, the one that started it all <3 <3

5. What's It Going to Take for You to Feel? (T), the only non-explicit fic here, and sort of my take on the classic G9 falling in love deviation story

5. do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I respond to all my comments! I love hearing what people have to say about my work, and I want to make sure they know I appreciate the effort they make to leave those kind words C: I keep on top of it too, usually only leaving comments in my inbox for 2 weeks tops (although sometimes I'll hoard a particularly good comment for a while longer).

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oh gosh uhhhh I don't write hard angst too often tbh, but I'd say probably.... There Are No Atheists In Foxholes (E)? Because it has literal MCD in it? XD We're Good At Bad Ideas (M) also is very MCD-angsty, but it's canon death so it doesn't read as angsty to me

7. do you write crossovers? if so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I think I've genuinely only ever written one??? Which is surprising somehow... I'm definitely inspired by other works when I make AUs, but the only true crossover I've written is this DBH/Witcher one: Cyberlife's Butcher (G)

8. have you ever received hate on a fic?

I've been very lucky and have not

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I feel like I write a lot of smut, but surprisingly E and M rated fics only make up 68 of my total on AO3! As for what kind, lord, I don't quite know XD I dabble in kinks occasionally, but I'd put myself somewhere between vanilla and kinky in terms of usual smut

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, no!

11. have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I've gotten several wonderful podfics <3

12. have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have! But I really only write with people I've known for a long time, because I'm pretty picky about my writing process XD

13. what’s your all-time fave ship?

That is an impossible question lol, I really couldn't say. There are ships I always come back to, but what my favorite is depends on what fandom I'm thinking about tbh

14. what’s a fic you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

As a rule I don't post fics that aren't finished, just because I can't stand leaving things undone. I guess in terms of series I'm not sure if I'll ever get back to Don't Let It In. Prairie horror my beloved, but I think an initial lack of interest in the second part left me wondering if I should expand the universe further, and my motivation hasn't really come back for it

15. what are your writing strengths?

I think my descriptions are generally pretty good, I like painting a picture for my reader because that's how things look in my brain C:

16. what are your writing weaknesses?

Beginnings and endingsssssss a lot of them just straight up blend together because I'm a bit cliche and don't want to let the start stop me from writing XD

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages on a fic?

If you're going to do it, you should do it properly (a little more effort than just google translate), and make sure there's a good reason for it to be there.

18. what was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

[redacted] anime fandom, mostly likely!!! I wrote some anime fics back in the day, and also a few fics for an extended oc rp universe I had with a friend, but those never made it further than my google drive.

19. what is your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

OOF hit me with the difficult one right at the end...It depends on the day and the fandom and the mood that I'm in tbh. I'm always terribly fond of fics in my Elder Gods verse because I've spent so much time with them and I think I've done my best storytelling there.

[thebeltanequeen]

The (Blurred? Nonexistent? Inconsequential?) Line Between Canon and Fanon: An Impromtu Essay by Me

I’m currently have an existential crisis. An absolute, balls to the walls, pull my hair out, stare at the walls wondering what the meaning of existence is, kind of existential crisis. Why, you may ask? Because the older I have gotten, the more Fanfiction I have read. That’s normal. Millions of other people read fanfic like me. Well, in the past few years, I have also realized that the more fanfiction I have read, the less shits I give about the actual canon of the media I love. I care less and less about what “actually” happened, and delve into fanon instead. It’s as if the two have SWITCHED ROLES in my brain. The canon is the lie, and the fanon is the truth. This used to not be the case though, so how did we get here? And why… why is this realization sending me into an absolute spiral of insanity? Why do I feel like I have been sucker punched in the jaw? Let me explain.

I’ve been reading and dabbling in writing my own fanfiction for over twelve years. It used to be an escape, a way to further delve into my latest obsessions and become consumed by them. I have this annoying habit of also picking ships that do NOT become endgame, so I’ve always sought out fanfiction as a balm for my shipper’s soul as well. I still read fanfiction as if my life depends on it… but now it’s at the expense of reading new books. Watching new media. When I do eventually dip my toes into a new fandom, I either reject it quickly or become consumed again and make a grab for fanfiction… but in the past few years, something in not only me, but in fandoms in general has shifted.

The difference between me now, and me back then is this… I used to uphold the canon as sacred. Untouchable. Set in stone. The only credible source for the media I consume. All of the fanfiction I read was just beautiful window dressing. A lovely past time to further increase my dopamine intake.

This is no longer the case.

Now, when I read and write fanfiction, it’s as if it is an act of protest. I am actively seeking to reform the narrative. It’s to “take back” the story, the characters, EVERYTHING, for myself. To make it anew. To make it perfect. I’m not alone either. I see you. I see all of you. Now more than ever, I see more and more of us doing this exact same thing.

THIS is why I am having an existential crisis. I have just realized that I will no longer be content with the canon. Ever. Even the canon of my favorite media. It’s not enough. It’s no longer enough. It won’t ever be enough again. Why? Because there will always be places where the canon is falliable. The authors of the canon, are falliable. As an author myself, this is at once an alarming yet powerful realization.

I went to college for creative writing. At the beginning of my academic career, I thought of fanfiction as a beautiful fairytale world. It was glorious, but it was other. Separate. Not as credible as canon. Had I read fanfiction better than the media it was based on before I entered college? Absolutely, but in my head it still didn’t matter because the canon was the word. The canon was the law. As a writer, I held the power of the author (and by extension the power of myself) as sacred. By the end of college, that began to change.

The more I was taught about writing, the more I came to realize that sometimes, authors are just straight up WRONG. Sometimes, there’s soooooo much potential… AND THEY JUST FUCK IT UP!!!!!!! The bones are incredible, but the canon is weak, the logic is lacking, the story makes no sense, the characters don’t reach their full potential and you know what? I’m tired. I’m tired of it. This is why fanon is canon’s salvation. Fanon makes canon look pathetic. But… if I accept the fanon as the reality, and make the canon the lie, does that still make it fanon? No. I don’t think it does. I think fanon has become something other. Something greater.

I have become disillusion by “published” or “credible” books. 95% of the novels I actually buy at the store today are garbage. Trash. Half written nonsense that only serves the purpose of paying people. I’m TIRED OF IT. I’ve become disillusioned by the “power” of the author. I have become disillusioned by canon. FUCK canon, quite frankly. Rip it apart. Dissect it. Take out it’s beating heart and transplant it into a new body. Give it the soul that the narrative was begging for. REVIVE IT. LET YOUR OWN IMAGINATION MAKE IT ANEW. Characters mean too much to people. Fiction means too much to people. Stories mean too much to people for anything less. Only then will you or I be satisfied.

Now, even an impromptu, unedited, gibberish essay is not complete without examples. I’ll start with one that you probably thought of while reading this. Game of Thrones. I think that two years ago, the ending of the most influential show of the entire decade, is where my subconscious began to shift in this direction. Now, I doubt my opionions about GoT are the same as yours, but you know what? It DOESN’T MATTER because FANON CAN FIX THE CANON. The stories that meant so much to millions can be fixed by accepting the fact that THE CANON ISN’T THE LAW! IT FUCKED UP!!!! CANON DOESN’T DESERVE TO SPEAK ANYMORE!!!! TAKE BACK THE STORY AND TRANSFORM IT INTO A VERSION TRULY WORTHY OF THE GLORIOUS BONES IT HAS!!!!!

We also can’t ignore the role that monetization plays in the media we consume. Why leave our fiction in the hands of just the big names? Why let money dictate what is real and not real? WHY SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRE STORYTELLING JUST BECAUSE IT WAS SOLD TO YOU AND THEREFORE IT’S “LEGIT CANON”??? FANFICTION IS FREE, AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PIECES OF WRITING I’VE EVER READ WERE WRITTEN BY FANFIC AUTHORS WHO DID IT FOR THE STORY. WHO DID IT FOR THE ART. WHO ACTUALLY DID IT JUSTICE. FUCK THE CONCEPT OF FANON AND CANON. THE STORY WE WANT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. GET MONEY OUT OF HERE.

Ahem. To avoid going on even more of a tangent, I’ll move on and give the example that triggered my existential crisis in the first place. Sailor Moon. To give some background, Sailor Moon is it for me. I have grown up with it. I’ve watched it my entire life. As a child, I ran around with my toy moon rod and desperately wanted to be Usagi. Ironically, I grew up to be quite a bit like her (but with Rei’s temper admittedly). It is my comfort show, my happiness. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry. I never tire of it. It makes my heart swell. I have never, nor will I ever, love any piece of media the way I love Sailor Moon. Flash forward to today, I watched Sailor Moon Eternal, the two new movie adaptations of the Dream arc in the manga (stick with me non-manga and anime lovers). I liked the films, but I was left with a deep, disatisfied yearning. I want back the feeling of complete bliss I experienced while watching the 90’s anime as a child. The problem with this? I’ll never get it back. I’ve just realized this. I’ll NEVER get it back. Why? Because it’s no longer the perfect version of Sailor Moon that it was to my young eyes. Crystal, while good, is also not the perfected version I seek in my adulthood, and Eternal has not scratched my insatiable itch. I am heartbroken because I’ve realized that Sailor Moon in its perfect form doesn’t exist anymore. If I held any canon sacred, it was this. But the story is flawed. The manga is flawed. The anime is flawed. It’s not infallible, as much as it truly, deeply hurts me to admit to the world and to myself. The only perfect version of Sailor Moon is the one in my heart. It’s the one I choose to piece together for myself with the building blocks that others who came before me have handed over.

Another, more recent example of falliable canon is The Grisha Verse. More specifically, the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I was brought in to the fandom by Ben Barnes’ depthless eyes and magnificent scruff. And you know what? I liked the story, but I stayed for Ben Barnes. I liked the Darkling so much that I bought the entire grisha verse books. It was a premature decision. I’ve only made it halfway through Storm and Seige, and you know what? I’m tired of the canon already. It’s not that great. The bones are there, but it could be SO. MUCH. MORE. I haven’t read the crow books yet, and by all accounts Leigh Bardugo has improved tremendously as a writer. Which incidentally proves my point. Authors are falliable. Ergo, the canon is falliable. I can’t help but think while I read these books, “Damn. I could write this better.” and you know what? I’ve read fanfics that HAVE written it better.

Am I saying this to trash Bardugo? Or even GRRM? (Yes I admit to trashing D&D but that’s beside the point ahem…). NO. I am NOT trashing the writers. I’M A WRITER. I GET IT. YOUR STORY IS YOUR BABY. I G E T I T . But I’ve realized, and what I think future authors will also have to realize, is that fiction doesn’t belong to anyone. As soon as it’s out the door, the fiction no longer belongs to the author. It belongs to us. The people. That’s what is beautiful about fanfiction. It’s not here for the money. It’s not here for the clout. It’s here for the fiction itself. Plain and simple. It belongs to no one and everyone.

In the past, I would have fought this. I would have wanted my work’s canon to be law. To be the word, the truth, the way etc. Now? I can’t be a hypocrite. I can’t be selfish. It isn’t about the author. It’s about the vision. It’s about the story, the narrative, the characters. It’s about art. And sometimes, the authors give birth to the idea (and they deserve credit for that without a doubt), but it’s also true that sometimes, someone else just writes it better. Someone else quite simply saw the vision, the story, the characters, more clearly than the author did. I make this vow now, as an author, to strive for the vision. If someone takes my vision and does it better than me, that only improves my perspective of my own story. It improves the world of fiction as a whole. It makes me better.

So, canon? Fuck the canon. Take back the story. Take back the characters. Take back the art. Fiction is ours. It belongs to us, and we can do with it what we please. Let’s strive for OUR OWN perfected version of the media we love. Canon doesn’t truly exist. The concept of Fanon doesn’t even exist anymore in the way we used to think of it. The author’s version of events is their own Fanon of the story. Canon is meaningless now. There is only the story that you accept in your own mind. There is only the story that I accept in my own mind, no matter how different it is from yours. There is only the art. There is only the limitless potential of countless people’s imaginations. Let’s continue to collaborate and celebrate beautiful stories together, in any conceivable way, over and over and over again, until the end of time.

Fin

[captain-of-the-historicfuture]

~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

[floraone]

So, Rec'tober is almost over and I come in at the finish line.

But I wanted to write a special kind of fic rec, something beyond what I normally do. And so I target this post not towards our little corner of the internet that have read every big fic that was posted in the last two decades, but towards those who pop in from time to time, to those that loved Sailor Moon in their childhood and youth and feel that pinge of nostalgia for the world. This post is for you!

Not everything in the Sailor Moon franchise survived the test of time. There are parts of canon we REMEMBER differently - we remember what it made us feel at the time, but re-watching it, it just doesn’t have the same impact. We grew up, and we STILL LOVE THE FRIGGIN CONCEPT, but we notice the flaws we didn’t notice before. But we want that back - we want the feeling that we had watching the show when we were little. We want that wonder, that newness, that full heart about how GOOD and wholesome Usagi is, we want the miracle romance, we want our favorite characters but how they grew with us in our heads.

And well, there IS a place where we can find this fix of what it felt like. And it’s preserved in a treasure box of fanfiction. Of people who write these characters as they might be today, of people who take their essence and make it new.

So, this list is filled with tons of fics that tried to re-create canon with that affectionate, nostalgic feeling. I specifically for this list chose fics that dealt with canon themes - either through fix-it fics that took specific episodes and put their own spin to it, or to spins on canon, the what ifs - what if this specific choice weren’t made, what if the break up arc didn’t end, what if we took this plot point and spun it somewhere new, playing with the things we vaguely remember to have loved so dearly. (Though, of course, the world of Alternative Universes and Non-Senshi fics is vast, and if you are looking for a fix of that, please check out @uglygreenjacket ‘s elaborate worlds and @queenrisa14 fantastic AU spins out especially for this purpose!)

(Take note that these stories prominently feature stories revolving Usagi and Mamoru and the Miracle Romance, since that is my absolute jam. (Though it didn’t even used to be my most favorite part of the story growing up!) And some categories feature more stories by the same authors (for instance those that just like to dabble in What Ifs  - a not all TOO common trope, though I hope it were!))

So, let me transport you back into your childhood:

What If’s:

Forget Me Not by Antigone2 What if, post-stars, Usagi was suddenly the one to forget Mamoru for once, and he had to try really hard to make a new good first impression? This plays off all my buttons, and @idesofnovember is a master of making you remember the small details of these dorks that were so special.

What If by Antigone2 Canon had the habit of making Mamoru forget his memories, and @idesofnovember is a master of taking this trope and making it better. Here, Usagi wonders if Mamoru would have ever dated her if it weren’t for their history, and Setsuna, fed up, makes it happen.

Desperate and Divine by Antigone2 (Rated M) This story will always have a giant place in my heart: What If Mamoru never remembered after Beryl’s defeat, and Usagi was trying to get that one special night of closure. This had such an impact on me, reminding me how much I loved these characters, that it caused me to start writing fanfiction once more.

Royal Pain and Similes by Antigone2 What If the Senshi had found out Usagi is Serenity, but never that Mamoru is Endymion in this spectacular pinefest that will make your heart bleed.

Coming Of Age by Kasienda What if the R story arc surrounding Chibi-Usa was a little more sensical, a little more tragic, a little more realistic? This kid shows up in front of Mamoru’s door, Sailor Pluto informing him she’s from a great war in the future and him being the only one of age, he is now her legal guardian. Watch Mamoru and Usagi becoming parents to a war-traumatized Chibi-Usa, and all the struggles with it.

The Reveal by Kasienda This is a series of unconnected fics set in first season primarly and beyond, and it reinvents that crucial moment where the superhero personas of our favorite characters are revealed over and over and over again, because that moment can never be special and new enough.

A Craving for Milkshakes by Kasienda What if during first season, a monster-of-the-week had caused Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon to be telepathically linked? Watch how it would progressively have changed their dynamic in this endearing, sweet story!

Wring My Emotions and interpret canon anew:

Six Birthdays by Kiyoshi Dot This Fic reads like a poem, and it runs your through the ups and downs of the Miracle Romance via gifts Usagi receives forher birthday through the years, and it has the feeling of the Manga written all over it.

Aisuru, Mamo-chan by ellephedre Post-stars, Mamoru receives a package from Harvard. In it are all the letters Usagi wrote to him while he was dead during Stars. And yes, this read is as painful and therapeutic as you imagine it is.

Song for a scribbled out name by Antigone2 Centered in the first season during the anime’s Evil!Endymion arc, this little story teases you with what might have become of this enticing little nugget of piney, deliciously angsty plot!

The Odds Considered by Kiyoshi Dot Takes you through the secret romance of Usagi and Mamoru in the first season in this hauntingly beautiful way of forming words, and made me hurt in the way I always wanted the manga to hurt me.

Resiliency is My Mask by MamaLadyKT This is an episode fix surrounding the time Usagi was nearly suffocated by a monster-of-the-week in the infamous Saori-episode, and Mamoru cares a LOT about it.

Feel Good Little Moments with these characters as we remember them:

Je t’aime by Antigone2 A snapshot moment where Usagi uses the disguise pen to sneak into a university event of Mamoru’s and takes him for a little test. This little story feels so delightfully, essentially THEM in the way they behaved during later seasons of the anime that it makes my chest feel light and happy!

Day Of Delinquency by UglyGreenJacket A snippet of a moment that captures the humor of the series as my heart remembers it, in which Haruka takes Usagi on a joy ride, Usagi lands them in jail, and Mamoru and Michiri have to bail them out.

Distractions by Antigone2 follows Mamoru unsuccessfully trying to help Usagi study and it feels like home.

The Untouchable King in the Day and Night Lacunae Series by Tina Century What if we let @tinacentury show King Endymion the Sailor Moon Crystal series? This is exactly as delightful as it sounds.

A Romance For The Small Things by amomo Newest on this list, @spider-momo wrote these fall-themed snippets of Senshi interactions in the way that feel so painfully right and homey and warm they are bound to make you ache to re-acquaint yourself with these old friends of yours.

Public Eye by Antigone2 Canon never gave us a terrible lot of interaction between Usagi and Tuxedo Mask or Mamoru and Sailor Moon. This is a cheeky and delightful little ficlet about Mamoru having to pretend he has No Relations Going On With This Superheroine.

Rainbow by Kasienda I’m pretty sure I put this fic on every fic rec list I ever wrote, but @kasienda encapsulated everything I love about Mamoru and Usagi’s dynamic in the first season of the anime and made my heart ache in its simplistic beauty.

The Space Between by Uglygreenjacket This series of ficlets explores the space between R and S and gives you that sweet feeling of Usagi and Mamoru tender baby love as we were used to in S!

A Week With Mamoru Chiba by Dreams In Pink This fic takes us through a series of Mamoru-centered mini-stories in a mostly first season second that feel so delightfully warm and funny it will warm your heart.

Flower Power By irritable-vowel-types Do you miss the absolute ridiculousness that were these show’s monster-of-the-week, or Tuxedo Mask’s outrageous speeches? This fic is a crackfic, and yet it somehow manages to feel EXACTLY as ridiculous and not a tad more than those original canon monsters.

All’s Fun With Love and Orbs by irritable-vowel-types This is set in Super-S, and reads like an episode as it should have been. What if one of the Amazon Quartett’s shenanigans was to flip all love into hate for one delightfully hilarious read?

The Thing About Your Transformation by AngelMoon Girl Delightfully funny, this little ficlet explores the fact that Mamoru can’t quite deal with the fact that for a short moment before every battle, Usagi may be all glitter, but she’s also briefly naked as she transforms.

Shall We Dance by ncisduckie A snippet in time and a secret relationship as Serenity and Endymion share a bittersweet dance.

And, if you still want more, I wrote my own canon spins, too. Most notably, the Ikigai and Yugen duo (Rated M), in which I tried to hand-pick everything I loved about the Sailor Moon story, manga and anime and all, of all the seasons, and tried to reinvent it in a way that felt contemporary and told one consecutive narrative within the anime setting. And in contrast to that for the manga meets anime setting, my story Priorities (Rated M) tried to encapsulate what the feeling of reading the Manga for the first time felt like to me, but now with a very adult and mature and heart-aching spin to it.

This list I gave you is non-exhaustive. There are many, many more where they come from. And if you need a fix of Sailor Moon nostalgia, they are waiting for you. Have FUN!

(And if you liked any of them, please consider leaving the author a review, so they will keep motivated to supply us with such beautiful, free, nostalgic treasures!)

[runnfromtheak]

fanfic author’s tagging game (yay!)

Thank ya darling for tagging me!!!! @boyblunder-thedarkheir!!!!!

AO3 Name(s): LostandLonelyBirds aka RUNNFROMTHEAK

Fandom(s): Primarily Batfamily (so, Dick Grayson) and Young Justice (along with DCU obviously, but I also dabble into Miralculous Ladybug, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, and MCU (none of which I will ever seriously write for? Idk man).

Number of fics: 22 I will admit to (how do you have so many, my dear @boyblunder-thedarkheir​? What is your secret?)

1. Fic you spent the most time on: Are we talking writing or thinking about writing, cause those are two very different answers. I spent the most time writing this bitch of a fic I’m working on right now, and the most time thinking about the two latest installments of my main series, Death is But An Illusion (aka How Could He and How Could It Be). I agonize over every goddamn detail with Dick’s anger, Jason’s Jason-ness, and every person’s every move and word. I am a mess, and I’m going to be murdered if I don’t update them soon. I am not sorry about that XD

2. Fic you spent the least time on:  You Came Behind Me Secretly and Shattered Every Piece of Me (There's Blood On My Hands) aka my pick-your-own-canon clusterfuck of Dark!Dick Grayson and Dick Grayson being traumatized and tortured with no comfort (Some of them are so fucked up I question my own mind). I take less than an hour to write 80% of them, cause they’re short, and they very rarely take any time to plan. Fun and easy!

3. Longest Fic: At present, he had a chest full of heart and a body full of scars (pain became the only way that he could ever learn)  is my longest, but the fic I’ve been hinting at on my other tumblr, @lostandlonelybirds​ is easily double the length (why do I do this to myself? Why am I like this?) the long boi (named one, not the one I won’t shut up about) is easily my best fic at the moment, and I’m so excited to write a sequel whenever I get the chance.

4. Shortest Fic: With Bated Breath and Pain You See (We're Nothing More Than Memories) technically, I have one shorter than that, but it’s a collab that wasn’t my original idea so I’m not counting it :)

5. Most Hits: You Came Behind Me Secretly and Shattered Every Piece of Me (There's Blood On My Hands) why do you people like this trash-fire so much? I don’t understand

6. Most Kudos:  How Could He which does not surprise me.

7. Most Comment Threads: Technically, How Could He followed by the trash-fire AU title thing I’m too lazy to type again, but I’m gonna love on this one: Just Close Your Eyes (No One Can Hurt You Now) because it’s my baby, and it deserves it okay?

8. Fave Fic You Wrote: Ooo we are doing a top five.

             5. How Could It Be (Jason is precious and sad and Dick is oblivious, and I love one-sided pining wayyyy too much)

             4.  How Could He (I put my life force into this stupid fic, so ofc it’s here)

             3. I'm Scared to Live But I'm Scared to Die (I'm Numb Inside) (the suicidal boy, major trigger warning)

             2. I See Things That Nobody Else Sees (And It's Slowly Killing Me)  (the only fic I’ve ever written from Cass’s perspective, and definitely one of the creepiest and most fucked up. Bruce does not look good here)

             1. he had a chest full of heart and a body full of scars (pain became the only way that he could ever learn) (so ummm Bruce doesn’t look good here either? RHATO #25 if DC wasn’t cowardly and let Dick react how he actually would, aka fuck Batman is the new motto)

9. Rewrites?: Fuck. All my older ones? Everything? Who knows.

10. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning:

Let’s do two. I’m nice.

First comes from How Could It Be:

“You loved him,” Donna says, ignoring his barb. “You loved him, and no one’s seen you or heard from you and I’m concerned, damnit.”

 She punches his shoulder roughly, and he’s reminded of her strength, no matter how small she seems in her dead best friend’s sweater.

 “I’m fine. Peachy-keen. Couldn’t be fuckin’ better. Honestly, you should be more concerned with Replacement, don’t think he’s slept in—”

 “Jason.” Her voice is firm, even as her eyes swim with tears and she holds her arms tight to herself, breathing in the well-loved item’s scent. Jason wonders when Dick wore it last, if Donna had taken it from his abandoned Gotham Penthouse or his Chicago Apartment. He wonders if he’d left it draped over the couch, like the natural disaster he was, or if it had been folded neatly in a drawer.

For someone who prides himself on not being sentimental, Jason suddenly wishes he had something of Dick’s too.

 “I’m here because I care, and because if Dick was here, he’d be doing the same thing I am.”

 “But he ain’t here,” Jason snaps, “Is he?”

 Donna’s head falls, and he feels like a giant jerk. He just… reacts poorly to that name, hasn’t heard it spoken since the transmission and subsequent funeral, since the guy he’d had the hots for since wearing the scaly panties had his mask ripped away and his life taken in front of Bruce’s eyes (who, to absolutely no one’s surprise, failed to save his son).

In the aftermath, no one said Dick Grayson’s name, always Nightwing, or some inane nickname the superhero community had for him. Last time he said it was to Damian, a failed attempt at comfort. But even Jason’s form of mutual grieving had been better than any of Bruce’s shit ideas. Bastard immortalized the ripped costume from his own son’s corpse (not that it had been the first time) and hadn’t even had the decency to give it a plaque (No ‘Good Soldier’ or ‘Good Son’, just a bare glass case with a bloody suit). Which… was weird. Jason was far from B’s best friend, but even he noticed something seemed strange, off, just not quite right. Like the funeral he didn’t speak at, like the breakdown none of them had witnessed beyond a one-off rage fit

“B, what the fuck happened down here?”

The Batcave was a disaster, dents glaringly obvious in several vehicles and a large spiderweb crack across the Batcomputer. Bruce closes the screen down, but Jason manages to catch a spiraling eye.

“Nothing, just…”

Bruce looks at the spare Nightwing costume none of them had taken down yet, still clean and ready for use (too bad its owner died and would never wear it again).

“Dick?” Jason questions, and the way Bruce’s eyes snap to his face is almost suspicious, almost enough to arouse concern.

“Yes. I—”

Jason sits next to Bruce on the desk, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I miss him too, Old Man. Don’t mean you need to be an ass about it.”

 A memorial next to Jason’s own, but Dickhead’s is empty and broken from Damian’s fists and grief, and Jason’s is just gone. No one told him why, it was just gone.

Kind of like Dick.

He wonders if Bruce would have told him if the video hadn’t been broadcast, if he would’ve told anyone. B did love his fuckin’ secrets.

 “No,” she whispers, and he can hear the tears in her voice, can feel her grief as keenly as his own. It’s palpable, tangible, “He’s dead, and I’m alive, and I don’t know how to handle it.”

 And then, to Jason’s mounting horror, she starts crying openly.

…..

Second comes from my one I’m working on rn with Stray!Dick called I See Sunset In Your Eyes (I Hate This Part Right Here)

“Come on,” Wally says with a pout, dragging an overly amused Jason and Dick with him through the karaoke bar doors. “Donna and Roy are waiting for us, and Dick had to take forever to primp.”

 Dick shrugs with a grin.

 “Beauty takes time, time I can tell you did not take.”

 Jason snorts, and Wally glares at him.

 “At least I don’t take five hours to finish getting ready.”

 “At least I can last longer than five minutes.”

 “Ouch!” Roy butts in, throwing an arm around Jason and Dick’s shoulders. “Claws are out tonight!”

 “Speaking from experience?” Jason asks, eyebrow raised.

 Dick smirks without comment, sauntering past the group towards the table Donna’s lounging at.

 “Hey gorgeous twin of mine,” He greets with a kiss to her eyes. She smirks, rolling her eyes at him.

 “You’re just stroking your own ego with the twin tacked on, Wonder Boy.”

 Dick bumps his shoulder against hers.

 “Can’t I stroke both our egos?”

 “You can stroke mine,” Wally mutters, turning red when Stray winks at his phrasing. Jason and Roy both facepalm, groaning. “Not what I meant guys!”

 “Why Kid Idiot,” Dick replies, hand on his heart, “I had no idea you could be so forward~!”

 Wally glares, waving over the waitress.

 “Round of shots, on this dick,” he jerks his thumb at Stray, offering up his fake ID. She doesn’t bother checking it, probably because this is Gotham, and they were all in uniform. “Whisky, please.”

 “Trying to get me drunk?” Jason jokes. It is, after all, his first big outing with the Titans for non-mission reasons. Stray had practically dragged him out of the Manor with a wink at Alfred and a middle finger for Bruce, saying that Jason needed to have fun outside of books.

Jason knows better than arguing with Dick Grayson-Kyle when he wants something, Stray trained him well.

 “Of course, Batboy,” Roy replies, “It’s not a Titans outing if Stray is fully dressed and everyone’s sober.”

 Dick shrugs.

 “You’ll have to get some real liquor in me if you want me to do anything like last time.”

 “Last time?” Jason asks, looking to Donna for an answer. Dick snorts. You get near naked one time…

 “Boy Blunder ended up in just his boxers in a dancing cage drunk of his ass. Everyone thought he was one of the strippers, and he made, what, three-hundred dollars in bills?”

 “Five-hundred,” Dick replies proudly, offering the waitress a twenty as she came back with their drinks. “Keep the change, darlin’!” He adds with a wink.

 She flushes, making Jason frown.

 Stray, of course, notices this and elbows Jason.

 “Don’t get jealous, Blue Jay, it’s not becoming.”

 Jason does not blush. He doesn’t, and that’s the hill he will die on.

 “I’m not. On an unrelated note, pass me a shot.”

Jason is the master of changing the subject, Stray thinks sarcastically, passing him a shot and downing one of his own.

 “Five bucks says alley cat blacks out,” Roy says smugly as Dick makes a face, the way he always did with heavier liquors. He glares at the redhead, who shrugs unapologetically.

 Donna eyes them both speculatively, taking a sip of her own drink.

 “Twenty says he gives a lap dance before he blacks out.”

 Roy snorts.

 “I’ll take it,” and to Dick, “Don’t do it, for me.”

 Dick bats his eyes innocently.

 “Lil’ old me? I would never do something so…” He trails a finger down Roy’s chest, making him swallow roughly. “Scandalous.”

 Donna grins victoriously as Roy groans, trying and failing to hide his excitement.

 “I hate you. I hate you both.”

 Tagging whoever sees this, I suppose? 

[millllenniawrites]

millllennia’s frequently asked questions

Last Update: November 19 2021

Who the heck are you?

I’m Mack (though there’s a couple people on here that have called me Milli which I thought was adorable and that is also a perfectly fine thing to call me) I’m a full-time uni student from Canada that’s been writing on here since 2016. I use she/her pronouns usually but like really what is a gender. I used to be fanfiction-trashpile (which is still my user on ao3). 

Can I translate your work? 

Short answer: no. 

Long answer: still no, but it’s more complicated than that. No one has permission to repost or translate my work. Even if you message me and offer to give me credit, I will say no. If you want to create for fandom, you should do it yourself and I will stand by that. 

I welcome fanart, podfic, and fanfic of my fics, and I’d love if y’all would message me/send it to me/tag me in it so that I can hype you up! 

If you decide to write with my original characters (the Helix universe or Dear Love of Mine) I will ask that you give me credit for the characters, but I don’t mine anyone else writing them. The only canon content created for the Helix universe belongs to myself and vampy ( @vampirewithbedsidemanners) but even we write alternate universes of the Helixverse, so it’s totally okay for other people to do that too.

Why are you so darn specific about the style you write in? 

Okay so there are a few things about this that I’m really picky about: 

I never use y/n or any other derivatives of the term (y/e/c or the like). For me, it’s much harder to avoid using those kinds of stand-ins for terms, so I like to challenge myself by never ever using them. If the fic calls for the reader’s name to be directly said, I’ll just give the reader a last name (like in dear love of mine where the reader’s last name is Dean) 

(NOTE: this is not to say that people that use y/n are taking the easy road or whatever. it’s entirely a personal decision and writers that use it are still good. it’s just not for me)

All my sfw fics are completely body/gender neutral unless otherwise specified

All my nsfw fics are with an afab reader (because I only know my own biology and I’d hate to try to write something for another biology type and end up getting it wrong and just alienating everyone)

I’m specific about these things because I do not look like the skinny/blonde/straight-haired/blue-eyed/wattpad version of a reader in RI fanfic. It alienated me back when I read on that platform and I’d hate to make anyone feel like that. I’m still learning, and I’m not perfect, but I really want people who read my content to feel like they can actually be immersed in the story, no matter what they look like. 

That being said, I do not write readers from specific backgrounds/with specific features because I am whiter than white and that’s not my place (though I have reblogged some stuff that has specific readers so there definitely is some on my page! check out the recommended tag) 

My own personal tastes obviously affect my writing (because everyone writes from their own experiences) so there is often dancing/hair touching in my fics because I like that stuff. There will be warnings for basically anything that could alienate the reader including but not limited to: hair mentions, the reader getting picked up, the reader’s clothing being mentioned, and abnormal physical activity (dancing, swimming, etc). If you

Are requests open?

Requests for moments, headcanons, one-shots and drabbles are open! please send me headcanons i love hearing what y’all are thinking! with that being said, i reserve the right to not write or respond to requests that i don’t want to do because at the end of the day, this is my space and my writing makes me happy. 

What fandoms do you write for?

I am currently writing for:

Star Wars (literally any character including rebels/CW) 

James Bond (Craig era) 

Dune (I love the books and the film so I write based on both!) 

Marvel (including all movies and the Punisher)

But I will generally write for any content I have consumed in the last 2 years (so I'd be super down to write for mortal instruments/shadowhunters, for example, it might just take longer). If you request something I am not currently writing for, I will keep your request until I recirculate that fandom/character/concept because I am basically a garbage disposal for fandom. 

Do I need to give you plot details in my requests?

Requests can be as simple as “Fluff with Poe Dameron!!” but can be as complex as you would like. Some formats include:

dialogue prompts (ie. “I missed you” with Jace)

type of fic (ie. I would love some Billy Russo angst)

relationships with canon characters (ie. can you write some reader x kylo ren where the reader is Rey’s sister?)

any amount of plot details (ie. thanksgiving at the Weasley’s where you and Percy get stuck hand washing dishes)

Moments Collection prompt (ie. I read your Poe “The moment they first saw you” fic. Can you write one with Dani from Prodigal son?)

Headcanon prompt (ie. how do you think Poe finding out you’re alive after thinking he had lost you would go?) 

Or any combination!! I like writing what you guys want to see and challenging myself with your ideas. 

What “out of the box” ideas are you willing to write?

Many writers will not write the following, so I wanted to be clear that anything on this list can be requested and will be written without being altered (assuming it’s in my lane). If any of these things are used in a work, they will be listed in the Warnings category at the top of the post.

graphic descriptions of violence (including but not limited to: injury, torture, emergency surgery)

death (major characters and reader included. I just won’t write drowning for my own personal safety) 

homophobia 

nightmares/night terrors/forced dream sequence/drug trips/things like in spiderman: far from home before peter gets hit by a train 

lemon/smut/that kind of thing (but I’m very new to this so take it easy on me folks)

panic attacks

dubcon/noncon/dark fic 

I will also write the following things that are not “warning” related but not all writers will dabble in: 

alternate universe (though I usually prefer canon-compliant work) 

crossover content 

polyamorous relationships 

What don't you write?

I absolutely will not write: 

suggestive content with underaged characters (I’ll age them up)

the act of self-harm (I will write post-getting clean or talking about self-harm vaguely, but won’t write the action or witnessing the action for my own safety)

drowning/water boarding/violence involving water (I know, very specific, but I don’t write this for my own safety)

readers that deal with transphobia/racism (I am blessed to not have experienced either of these things and it’s absolutely not my place to think I can write about these struggles. I will however reblog content I find and enjoy because it is so important to talk about these things and bring awareness to these communities)

mental illness other than anxiety/depression/ptsd (outside of canon determined elements)

specific pronoun requests. all of my sfw work is gender neutral. the reader insert/imagine space has been historically very heteronormative and I want everyone to be able to enjoy my writing, no matter how they identify and which pronouns they use. if a fic is requested with pronouns, I will still write the request. it will just be gender neutral

real life people. non-negotiable. this makes me feel icky. no judgement to those that do it. I just won’t

abo!AUs. not my jam. 

magic AUs.

I hope this clears some stuff up! I’m looking forward to hearing from you guys! my inbox is always open so feel free to come chat! 

[syncopatedid]

Since the novel ended on Kakeru's 4th year what if you continued it? what would write about future lives of our kansei boys?

*whispers*  thank you for this ask! ヽ(＊>∇

I know this ended up being the tsunami wall of text that absolutely nobody asked for, but my feelings for the Aotake squad go really deep and I doubt I will ever get a Kazetsuyo ask as indulgent as this one again. It’ll make me very happy if someone enjoys all my headcanons (and then some).

Akihiro cleaned himself up and graduated properly by the following spring (he bowed out of the ekiden on his fourth year to concentrate on his finals). After graduation, he pursued a career at a non-profit organization as a software developer engineer. At the reunion timeline, Version 2.0 of his tracking software* has just been slated for an international release. Akihiro became an active member of Namban Rengo (Tokyo’s International Running Club), and continues to participate in various running activities across the country with like-minded fellows.

*I didn’t mention this in my Q&A, but in the novel, Nico actually came up with a running simulator software program (with Yuki’s assistance), that was supposedly able to track, compare and calculate each runner’s speed and final positions in the race. It didn’t work very well though, because it was running so slowly that the rest thought it’s just faster to calculate with pen and paper, lol!

Yohei was still out of work for a good six months after graduation, so he accepted a sales job at a Television network when it opened up. While it’s not his dream job, he did find that he was good at it so he stuck with it (he could keep a conversation going, and was good at making pitches to achieve a sale). Working at a TV station also has its perks, as it brought him closer to the variety shows that he enjoys watching. At the reunion timeline, he’s already at a senior rank where he gets to train new recruits. He still has difficulty connecting with people on an intimate level*, but recently, a new starry-eyed junior who just joined his team has showed interest in his favourite show, and his enthusiasm reminds Yohei of someone he knew back at Aotake…

*Yohei explained his thoughts a lot clearer to me in the novel than in the anime. Yohei sees the ekiden as also fulfilling his dream - to feel that intimate connection with others he never got in real life. And yes, even with the Aotake members, he has always felt left out until they started running together, and he admits that because of his pride and timidity, he’s not very likely to change, and he may never feel this closeness to others again when the ekiden ends (hence a dream he did not want to wake up from). But I wish for good things to happen to him, I really do. Don’t give up, Yohei!

Yukihiko reconciled with his family shortly after the ekiden (he called his mother after the race was over to talk), and by the time graduation rolled around, he had already secured a job as an intern at a respectable law firm located in Roppongi, and was confirmed as a graduate associate within a year. At the reunion timeline, he is still ambitiously working his way up the corporate ranks to make partner (which he aims to succeed within six years or less).

Yuki never moved back in with his step family and still prefers to live on his own (a guy needs his own space to invite dates home, so he says), but now he contacts his mother regularly, and dutifully visits his step family every New Year’s Day. He is also fairly over-protective of his step-sister (whom all her potential suitors get rigidly screened by him).

Takashi took over as captain of the Kansei U track and field team after Haiji left, and participated in the next ekiden running in the same section, where he ranked 6th. After graduation, he returned back to Yamagata to manage the family business, but still travelled regularly between Yamagata and Tokyo to visit his friends (he’s the one who diligently keeps in touch with everyone from Aotake). At the reunion timeline, his family has recently expanded into the sake export business, and Takashi is in talks with some of his dad’s partners to set up a business branch in Tokyo.

This year, instead of Musa coming to visit his hometown, it’ll be his turn visiting Musa’s family in Tanzania.

Musa stayed on in the Kansei U track and field team, and took part in the ekiden on his third and fourth year (he ran in Section 2 and Section 9 respectively, averaging 5th position for both). Since his first trip to Yamagata, he’s been visiting Shindo’s family back in his hometown every year, and has learnt to ski! At the reunion timeline, Musa is pursuing another year of studies at Kansei U. He then went and studied some more, and eventually obtained his PhD. He also became very fluent in Japanese*, and a position as adjunct professor in Kansei U happened to open up, which he applied for and got accepted.

He served as club advisor to the Kansei U Track and Field team after Mr. Tazaki retired, and remains as the oldest member of Aotake who is still affiliated with Kansei U.

*More as an additional headcanon than footnote, but I’ve always pegged Musa as being bi- or trilingual when he arrived at Aotake - being fluent in English, Swahili and a third dialect (since he’s from Africa), just that none of those were useful when he was in Japan!

Akane never participated in future ekiden races again, but remained in the Kansei U track and field team as a perfunctory member (so he could stay in Aotake till he graduated). He continued to dabble in all things manga for the rest of his uni years, but always made time to help out at the ekiden, mostly as Kakeru’s assistant in his section since he already has experience with it.

At the reunion timeline, he’s working as a Junior editor at the manga department of one of the top four publishing houses in Japan, where he handles shojo manga titles (he’s extremely popular among his female colleagues). Despite his constant complaints of tight deadlines and pressuring working conditions, he continues to remain in that industry, and in a couple of years he gets promoted to editor-in-chief and takes over managing the sports manga section.

Jojiro found his affinity with running after his first ekiden experience, and opted to stay on with the track and field team to continue to pursue running seriously. He took over as vice-captain after Kakeru was promoted, and can be credited for pulling in a record number of members that year. After graduation, he was recruited into a prestigious corporation along with his brother and joined their Running Club, and meets Kakeru and Haiji’s team regularly as friendly rivals in the races held in the Kanto region. Although he has yet to best Kakeru’s time in the races, there is one thing he did win over Kakeru, and that’s being the first to confess to Hana-chan after graduation. He also goes on to be the first among his same-age peers to get married, and Kakeru was his second best man together with his brother Jota.

Jotaro left the Kansei U track and field team* in his second year (with Kakeru and Joji’s blessings) and went back to his first love, soccer. He joined the Kansei U Football Club and earned his spot as a regular, and even got to play in the Kanto league. Since their “separation”, the Jo brothers were closer than ever, and they discovered something interesting that came out of them doing different things – that they’ve had even more successes pranking juniors in their clubs, most of whom had no idea they came as a set! After graduation, he joins his brother Joji in the same corporation, but doing work in a different department (and the pranking continues, lol). The brothers and Kakeru remain very close friends.

*My headcanon of Jota obviously diverts from anime canon where they’re both still in track and field, but I’ve always had a stronger impression that Jota never planned to stay on in running after the ekiden, from what I had interpreted from his thoughts about his brother, as well as his conversation with Yohei before the run. Also, in the novel’s epilogue, a junior from the Kansei track and field team had only mentioned about “Joji-senpai”, but not Jota. While it doesn’t prove anything, it really does make me wonder if perhaps it was because Jota had chosen to move on from running. I never believe it’s a sad thing for them to divert on different paths though, because siblings are like that and their bond is strong.

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YOU’D THINK I SHOULD BE DONE BUT WAIT I HAVE MORE. 

BONUS BITTERSWEET HEADCANONS!!!

Kakeru had been visiting Haiji in hospital daily after class since his operation, but by autumn, Haiji announced he was moving back to his hometown to recuperate, and his contact with Haiji naturally became less frequent. (Kakeru wondered if Haiji was deliberately avoiding him but he never asked. Knowing Haiji’s character, he’s not going to be honest about it anyway. Also, Kakeru was not good with texting or calling, a weakness he suspects Haiji knew and used it to put some distance between them). Kakeru felt hurt that there was nothing more he could do for Haiji, but chose to respect his decision for some space.

In response, Kakeru ran in Haiji’s section (Section 10) in the next ekiden, besting his own time from Section 9 and breaking records that were previously set. He believed that Haiji would not be able to resist watching the ekiden (because he knew Haiji’s weakness too), and that was his answer. His efforts to reach out finally paid off (Haiji sent him a very long text message scolding him for a minor flub he did in his run… but also “congratulations”.) Kakeru would continue to run in Section 10 for the remaining two ekidens, and on his final year, Haiji appeared out of the blue again, this time in person to recruit him into his running team.

Kakeru took over as vice-captain of the Kansei U track and field team from the second year, and later as captain after Shindo graduated. Since he’s been on the team, Kansei U has never failed to earn a seed in the ekiden for subsequent years, a legacy that would carry on long after Kakeru’s graduation.

Haiji had to be rushed to surgery after the ekiden, and as expected, his injury had been aggravated and the damage was severe. A knee replacement surgery had to be done, and the year would prove to be a painful time for Haiji, who had to re-learn to walk all over again. In autumn that same year, he decided to move back to his hometown, citing family reasons (in truth, it was also because Kakeru wouldn’t stop visiting him in hospital, and it really was harder to be around Kakeru at this point in time than his family, so he picked the lesser of two evils).

Haiji would spend the next few months coming to terms with his situation while thinking about where to go from there. There were days where his mind wandered a bit too dangerously far, but his determination not to go back down that same path before manages to pull him back. Between his physiotherapy sessions, Haiji would often stop by his alama mater and watch his dad at work, lost in his own thoughts. And when he saw Kakeru running in the ekiden on TV again, his heart began to stir, as if a gust of wind had lifted his spirit and was pushing him towards the answer he was looking for.

He had found his second wind.

Haiji talked his father into letting him go back to school…. this time to pursue a sports degree (while their father-son relationship remained fairly complicated, the dad was more receptive to Haiji’s request since it’s to do with running, and Haiji was smart enough to leverage on his dad’s knowledge and connections to his advantage). His dad managed to pull a few strings and got Haiji enrolled into Rikudo (!!!) for a post graduate course, and Haiji moved back to Tokyo and threw himself into studying while nursing himself back to health. At the reunion timeline, he is armed with a sports coaching master’s degree, and has joined a relatively new corporation that hired him to set up a new running team. And Haiji knows exactly who he plans to recruit as soon as that person graduates.

Thank you for reading all the way and may your day be filled with wonderful thoughts!

[dfcfanfics]

Howling Into The Wind About 2018

(Or: My first State of the MiraculElse Address. This is a text rant, not a story, so if you're not up for that you should not feel bad about pressing F to show respects and skipping it.)

I started writing fanfiction this past spring -- not just for the Miraculous universe, but period. It had been a very long time since the creative writing bug had bitten me, unless annoying people on message boards and Twitter counts. Long enough ago that the last time I'd dabbled in anything resembling that, it was on Usenet, back when Usenet was an actual communication medium and not just a transmission vector for spam and porn and binaries.

Those of you young enough to ask "What's Usenet?" are forgiven. Suffice it to say that I am olde. Old enough to be a grandfather to a few of you, and a Weird Uncle to most of the rest.

I am old, and writing fanfiction for what is at least nominally a kids' show. Yes, my wife gave me a bit of a funny look when I told her that, and yes, she should've. (She's watched some of Season 2 with me and enjoyed it; she thinks Marinette is unbearably cute and liked the humor in it. But I'm handling the obsession part for the two of us.)

Why? As my profile pages state, it's a love letter to this show and its creators. Even within the frustrating framework of 22-minute non-serial episodes with nearly no defined running order, flaky continuity and scheduling snafus, it's a marvelous show with a ton of heart at its core. The characters crack me up and remind me of some of my own teenaged battles with unrequited love, back in the dark ages. It should have stopped there, if I was a rational person.

But I read the leaked half-transcript to Troublemaker and thought, Hmmm, I bet I could take that somewhere interesting! I read a couple of flailing attempts at fanfic that someone posted on Reddit and thought, with egotistical glee, I could do better than THAT!

And so I did. I lashed together what became Summer Break, put it up on FFN, and figured that three people would say "that's nice" and it would disappear and I would go back to being a normal old fart.

But people seemed to like it! And that encouraged me to start writing a handful of "episodes," canon-respectful one-offs meant to mimic the status-quo, 22-minutes-and-we're-out format. They got nice feedback as well. "What if I did a multi-parter?" I thought, and I tried it. THAT got nice feedback, including people clamoring for more of it when I posted the last chapter. (And here I thought I'd already rambled on with it too long! Maybe... I was getting the knack of this?)

A discussion about a theme in that story inspired me to write The Marinette Project... and its fan reaction EXPLODED beyond my wildest dreams. I watched all the numbers go up on FFN and AO3 and couldn't believe my eyes. I still can't. (I remember showing my wife when it hit 5000 views on FFN and losing my mind over that. It's at eleven times that now, and ten thousand hits on AO3 (where hits are counted more rationally than FFN's system). Who ARE you people?)

Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright followed. I figured that this was going to be a short thought experiment, dabbling in non-canon with an AU Kwami personality and a generic villain and my usual piles of fluff and one-liners and references. But people _loved_ the Kwami I'd invented, the villain took on a distinct personality of her own, and before I knew it four chapters turned into nine and I had another hit on my hands.

My current project (Let's Take It From The Top) was probably overambitious from the start, and it's never found the same kind of audience as the last two. But it's been fun to write, and those who have read it have enjoyed it, and that's good enough for me.

"So what?" flits through the reader's mind at this point, either in the form of "I already knew all of that" or "Get to the point, you old fart."

The point is: Once you get past the reference to my Summer Break story above, NONE OF THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. None of it was anticipated by me. I had no idea that I was going to turn the corner from "a guy who wrote a short story once" into A Writer.

You and people like you made that happen. The response to everything I have put out there (even the two crackfics!) has absolutely blown me away from the start. It's been overwhelmingly positive and every last word of it has been appreciated. I've read my PMs and comments and reviews and grinned from ear to ear. I've laughed out loud, I've gotten good ideas and interesting speculation, I've acquired some regulars, I've had many requests for sequels, I've had others recommending my stories, and my mind is absolutely BOGGLED. Boggled, I say. I shake my head and letter dice fly around and people make words from them.

(Those of you too young to know the "Boggle" word game are, of course, excused again.)

I was particularly astonished when something legitimately mindblowing happened twice -- other people made their own creative responses to something I had written.

@yunyin did me the considerable honor of sending me a pair of images, one a depiction of a scene from Let's Take It From The Top, the other a portrait of La Tigresse from Tyger, Tyger. My first fanart ever! My post gushing over them is still on my main page, so if you haven't seen them, scroll down and marvel at them. I'll wait.

Not long after, @brittsarts reached out to me and blew my mind when she asked permission to do a comic version of Tyger, Tyger. (As if I was going to say "please, no, DON'T pour your heart and soul into bringing my characters to life in a visual format!") She has been doing a wonderful job of interpreting my story and making it come alive, and that comic is the reason why 95% of the Tumblr followers I have found me in the first place.

So here I am. I am banging out the ending to Let's Take It slowly and steadily, concluding my longest story to date. I am debating which of several ideas will be the one I tackle next. I am checking my comments and PMs and reviews on FFN and AO3 more often than is healthy, because every time something pops up there it warms my heart. I am still wondering how I got to this point. And to all of you who've read my stories, enjoyed them, and encouraged me in all these ways and more to keep creating them:

Thank you so much.

And now, off to bed because I remain an old fart who needs his sleep.

[gaydinobots]

poly!dinobots for the ask meme !!!! 👀

anon i want you to know that youre enabling me and im ABSOLUTELY here for it. also this is pretty long i am so sorry 

Who’s more dominant: grimlock/slug, they already lead the team in canon depending on continuity so i suppose itd apply here to a degree! 

Who’s the cuddler: sludge by a long shot but grimlock is secretly one too! 

Who’s the big spoon/little spoon: they just dogpile each other when they get tired. no one knows whos really spooning who ((generally sludge is the Automatic Big Spoon) 

What’s their favorite non-sexual activity: idk if theyd have a Favourite but aside from fighting and going to bars a lot they probably do anything they want. bonus points if it’s pretty likely to kill anyone else

Who uses all the hot water: swoop because hes an early bird kind of dude whos also a huge dick 

Most trivial thing they fight over: they fight over anything if they feel like it. probably who gets to pick up slash after a mission (none of them do and she ends up arriving home before any of them) 

Who does most of the cleaning: they live in a perpetual state of messiness. grimlock sometimes gets sick of it so he tries but hes not good at it. slug gets fed up about it and actually sorts things out properly. snarl OCCASIONALLY helps out but only to clean out everyone else’s shit from his own personal space. swoop doesnt bother unless hes got an incentive. sludge is incapable of maintaining any sort of order in his life. 

What has a season pass on their dvr/Who controls the netflix queue: SWOOP hed love binging dramas. hes the only one who knows how netflix works and hes their saviour when it comes to movie date nights 

Who calls up the super/landlord when the heat’s not working: swoop usually but if they want it done urgently grimlock does it  

Who leaves their stuff around: all of them do. swoop and sludge are tied worst offenders 

Who remembers to buy the milk: i guess this would be energon but snarl does! when they do need it he tries to get it in bulk so they dont have to think about it 

Who remembers anniversaries: none of them,,,,, they dont remember when they got together Properly and have differing opinions of when theyre officially together. i think theyd just celebrate whenever they feel like it! 

Who cooks normally: they dont need to cook but if they were a human au they live off of only takeout, leftovers and instant food. how the fuck they remain as strong as they are is a mystery((i hc that grimlock can actually cook but he does it based on mood and whether the others want it)) 

How often do they fight: hmmm probably a bit! theyre them after all. but they never hold it for too long and eventually always make up! id say less of fighting and more of ‘constantly nitpicking but in a kinda fond, kinda condescending’ way 

What do they do when they’re away from each other: swoop bingewatches tv dramas (and uh. wwe since thats kind of like. drama with added fighting) if hes unable to find current drama thats interesting. grimlock hangs out with the scavengers or finds somewhere he can train! slug either hangs out with trypticon or spends time with his kids. snarl likes to spend the time sunning himself and reflecting on a walk or something. sludge dabbles in sculpting, and is actually pretty good at it! he also likes to observe animals doing random things. 

Nicknames for each other: it’s canon they call whoever’s in charge boss? at least swoop does. i dont think they have any real pet names tbh, theyre not too big on that. swoop probably throws in a ‘babe’ or ‘honey’ when talking to any of them unconsciously. 

Who is more likely to pay for dinner: when they have money sludge pays. he tips too!!! what a great guy 

Who steals the covers at night: snarl but only because hes not big on physical affection,,, like he likes it but he needs his space a lot! however if swoop is feeling mad he sometimes takes them out of spite. 

What would they get each other for gifts: hmmMMMmmm idk if theyd even remember to give each other things....theyre more of ‘actions speak for you’ kind of people. they probably get each other weapons or energon. that being said they keep everything their daughter gives them. theyre v proud good dads 

Who kissed who first: hmmmMmm id say sludge was the first one to get kissed by all of them!

Who made the first move: they all kind of just. flirted back and forth until no one really knew who started what, until they just kind of agreed and said “ok yeah we’re all dating each other” 

Who remembers things: snarl 

Who started the relationship: i think swoop would be the one to suggest that they all become a thing so i guess him! 

Who cusses more: slug’s original name was a cuss i think it’s obvious who it is 

What would they do if the other one was hurt: get revenge immediately. if its a minor hurt tho theyd just kind of crack jokes while being concerned. 

Who is the dirty talker: swoop but only because he talks the most...slug tries but they all agree swoop is just. way better at it. 

A head canon: them becoming a poly relationship was a gradual thing that happened over time! i kinda hc grimlock/slug hooking up a bit before officially forming the dinobots. then swoop/grimlock happens, slug gets into the mix, sludge/snarl is also happening, then after that they lose track of the timeline (which is ok by them because they dont. really mind all that much) 

[xivu-arath]

do clariel and shiro and knockout!

clariel

How I feel about this character: problematic fave!! as much as I hate the use of problematic in most cases here it’s literally true, she’s v much a... sasuke-like character, and that’s really refreshing for a female protagonist in a ya series? you see how her focus and stubbornness and grief collide with what’s happening to make things absolutely awful and it’s so sad but so... idk, inevitable? I’m regularly upset about her and her fate tbh

All the people I ship romantically with this character: she’s canon aro ace and I love it

My non-romantic OTP for this character: it says a lot that there’s not really... much to go on from her book. I wouldn’t even call her and belatiel a platonic otp bc he had a doleful puppy crush the entire time?? so her and trish, her and mike and... idk maybe her and tigerclan eventually???

My unpopular opinion about this character: she’s not boring or flat!! her story takes a lot of predictable, often used beats in ya fantasy and plays them out in a really tragic way and honestly if you don’t see the appeal of “forest hermit who gets angry and suplexes demons” you can’t talk to me

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: a happy ending garth nix p l s

shiro

How I feel about this character: shiro was one of Those Characters where even with not engaging in the series yet, and just seeing fanart or people talking... I could tell I would like him? and god I was r i g h t, like he’s so good and tries so hard and is!! such a mess!! and idk he has so much compassion and a need to do the right thing despite how his own issues can interfere with that and man do I really connect with that??

All the people I ship romantically with this character: listen you couldn’t pay me to have an opinion on voltron shipping, I like to not be doxxed

My non-romantic OTP for this character: shiro and the rest of voltron!! shiro and matt!

My unpopular opinion about this character: either post-s2 shiro is not a clone or if he is he is not evil or malicious and shows the same personality as before except with more fresh trauma reactions!! wanting kuron to die bc he’s not the original shiro is Not Great okay

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I know the new episodes might give more clarification on what’s going on but I need a n s w e r s about the s2 finale

knock out

How I feel about this character: knock out is such a fun character like... from the start all the tfp decepticons stand out and he is such an atypical addition? he dabbles in human culture because it’s interesting, he enjoys himself and has hobbies beyond his orders, he has someone he unequivocally cares about and considers his equal... he’s always witty, and fun, and often competent and sometimes downright menacing and that’s the Goal in a regular villain

All the people I ship romantically with this character: knock out/breakdown

My non-romantic OTP for this character: it’s not an otp bc they’re not particularly good for each other imo but knock out and starscream def have a fun dynamic... on denny, knock out and izzie gave me so much life

My unpopular opinion about this character: wow I genuinely don’t have one here, I think the fandom is... relatively unpolarized about knock out

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: ngl I wish we had more info on all the decepticons and what they did before the war, bc we mainly know about... well, megatron and soundwave I think? I’d love to hear about knock out’s reasons for joining up and when it happened