#this is the fic all my worldbuilding posts tie into

[genevievefangirl]

Gen's Top 100 DBDA Fics - PART 7

For all caveats/rules/backstory, please read the Master Post

signed, sealed, delivered By: sulfuric @c-rowland Rating: G Tags: Fluff, Mutual Pining, Getting Together Summary: The misty remains of the thing haven’t even cleared from the air of the office when Smiley—still on his back, rolling over like a golden retriever—is looking again to Uptight and grinning wide in a way the Postman can only reliably describe as stupid. He’s been standing here observing the ruckus for a good minute, now, and the two of them are completely in their own world, unaware of anything but each other. It takes him a tick, but Uptight smiles, too. (or: the Postman, observing.) My Notes: This is really fun as an outsider’s POV fic and who doesn’t love the Ghost Postman?!

So Tie Me to a Post and Block My Ears By: that_trans_autistic_guy @that-trans-autistic-guy Rating: T Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Hell, Trauma, Blindness, Deaf, Past Torture, Protective Charles Rowland Summary: Edwin loved his job. Truly, being a detective was something he’d daydreamed about in life and it was his reality in his afterlife, a genuine dream come true. Even better, he had the best partner and agency he could have ever asked for. The work was always intriguing and exciting, there was always more to learn and he always had his favorite person by his side. What more could he need? My Notes: Edwin having a panic attack and then Charles calms him down? Sign me up please! And the second chapter being Charles POV of the whole thing is the cherry on top.

solatium By: matelotage Rating: T Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, PTSD Summary: It's not something Charles noticed right away in the heat of things, considering they'd been in hell the first time it happened, and at the mercy of a deranged witch the other. But they'd been the only times he'd seen Edwin without his usual posh school attire. My Notes: Charles giving Edwin his coat after the events of Ep 8 is EVERYTHING TO ME

Something’s gone terribly wrong (But I’ll make it better) By: Aster_Flower114 aStar_flower on twitter Rating: NR Tags: Fluff, Protective Charles Rowland, Injury Summary: Short fic about Edwin getting badly injured during a case and is reluctant to rest for a bit My Notes: Edwin refusing help/rest when he's hurt? So in character, but also makes me want to smack him lol

Soul Protector By: Ice_Elf @ice-elf Rating: M Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Charles Rowland, Soul Bond Summary: Whoever held the greatest claim on his soul could be worse than Doll Spider. They might doom him to an eternity of pain that even he couldn’t imagine. But he didn’t care: this chance of freedom—of snatching victory from the creature that had stolen decades of his existence—was far greater than any risk. “The claimant is unknown,” the Justiciar stated. “If they approach the court with the proper paperwork, or are willing to be put to the sword, we will revisit your case. ~ Following their return from Hell, Edwin and Charles had thought themselves safe. They had believed that Hell and its denizens had no more claim on Edwin's soul. Unfortunately, not everyone is of the same opinion. When Edwin is summoned to a tribunal to determine whether the Doll Spider or the Office of Lost and Found has the greater claim on his soul, it is up to Charles, Crystal and the Night Nurse to put things right. The truth, however, may be more complicated than it seems - and more than one of the agency will be forced to confront their demons. My Notes: This is truly one of the greats for me. The worldbuilding, the characterization, and the plot are all exactly what I want out of a fanfic. And Edwin and Charles are just so devoted and codependent in this it is unreal.

Spectral Rage By: Baby_Spinach @a-jasminator Rating: T Tags: Hurt/Comfort, FIrst Kiss, Whump, Protective Charles Rowland, Protective Edwin Payne Summary: "Hold on, you think I'd turn?" Charles demands. "Every ghost has a unique trigger, and I can't say I wasn't a little concerned on a few occasions in Port Townsend. Then, with that same look in your eyes just now…" Edwin isn't wrong; it's not like Charles hadn't been thinking the same thing. But he shakes his head and attempts a comforting grin--Edwin's got too much on his plate to waste time worrying about the one person who's supposed to look out for him. "Don't worry, mate, I'm aces. So how do we find this demonic arsehole?" -OR- All ghosts are capable of turning vengeful. When their quarry is revealed to be a demon from Edwin's past, Charles and Edwin learn something important about their own personal triggers. My Notes: References to Edwin's time in Hell? The boys being mutually protective? One of them turning into a dangerous powerful mess when the other is threatend? What's not to love!

Still a Better Lovestory By: Vamillepudding @vamillepudding Rating: T Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hanahaki Disease, Protective Charles Rowland Summary: “That about did it,” Edwin says, patting himself down and straightening his bowtie. “Now, if you’re ready, I suggest we find a mirror and-“ “Did you just cough up a flower?” Charles interrupts. Flower, perhaps, is a slight exaggeration. It’s more like a petal, red and incredibly out of place here on the shore. Edwin clears his throat, but this time no petals follow. “Certainly it’s nothing to worry about.” Or: Edwin is suffering from a weird curse, but for some reason, he's refusing Charles' help. Charles is trying his best to fix it anyway, but Edwin is being oddly secretive about the whole thing. My Notes: I'll admit that I am not normally a Hanahaki desease persona, but this fic is amazing. And if you like Twilight references you will have a lot of fun with this!

still. By: Backstabberr @dulltulipz Rating: T Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Protective Charles Rowland, Hurt Edwin Payne, Hurt Charles Rowland Summary: He reached out to take Edwin’s hand. “I realized…I loved you, that I’m in love with you,” Charles said, his eyes moving from his hands to meet Edwin’s. He was crying as well, his hand gripping Charles tighter. “And you were gone, I couldn’t tell you, I wouldn’t be able to kiss you or hold you. It just started and ended at that very moment.” Charles tripped over some of his words before shuttering, he breathed deeply. [aka Edwin is badly hurt to the point he falls into some sort of ghost coma, Charles inevitably has a revelation.] My Notes: Injuried Edwin to protective charles to love confesssion pipeline strikes again! (And I love it every time)

Stories left on our skin By: DryadGurrl @dryadgurrl Rating: T Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Magical Tattoos, Protective Charles Rowland Summary: Charles always hated re-doing the tattoos, but that was part of why he'd insisted on taking over the task in the first place, it was easier, somehow, being the one to etch those marks into Edwin's skin than it was watching him do it to himself. Or: Edwin has magical tattoos to help with his spellcasting and when a case goes south, it's up to Charles to replace them (and not for the first time) My Notes: I would have never come up with this idea, but it is brilliant. Charles redoing magical tattoos for Edwin is just such an intimate gesture and really shows how close their relationship is.

sun in my eyes By: pisces_spider @pisces-swirlix Rating: G Tags: Fluff, First Kiss, Romantic Soulmates, Platonic Soulmates Summary: When Edwin reads to Charles, everything is okay. Edwin tries to get to the bottom of why Charles likes it so much. (Or — Edwin and Charles treat reading aloud like it’s a love language) My Notes: Edwin reading to Charles is literally one of my favorite things ever.

[safetycar-restart]

https://www.tumblr.com/safetycar-restart/700563954469109760/idk-if-this-is-like-too-much-but-i-cannot-get-it

I’ve been reading all of your poly!piarles fics and literally as you posted, ‘can we have a porn AU?’, I was reading this.

Yes, absolutely yes. We should have a porn AU because this fic is golden

-🎞️

OH MY GOD I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT??? Yes absolutely okay I am reviving the porn au because we all need in our lives. So I'm gonna go over what I think I think would make a solid background for the porn au and then also do some random head cannons for it and we can go from there!

WORLDBUILDING:

So my immediate thought here is that you own a porn studio and all the drivers (and riders, we can add the motogp lads too) are your employees? So they're the pornstars and you're the director/owner of the company. However, you will sometimes be seen in videos as well, particularly when they get all pouty and bratty and beg for you to join them.

I really like the idea that you're their dom off camera, but their director when they act in porn films? So you tell them all what to do, how to fuck each other, etc and they do it not only to make money because they want to be good for their dom and they trust you to never push them outside of their comfort zone.

We can do SO much with this, because we can include other AUs with this setting too? Like we can have boypussy, we can have a/b/o, we can have hybrid!au, we can have poly relationships! Everything! There's truly endless possibilities.

SOME HEADCANNONS:

(I'm jumping to different AUs being included here too just for vibes and I'm doing all sorts of different drivers, just whatever I think of)

-- Lando is a size queen and is known for toy reviews (he also won't do any size queen activities unless you prep him for it, it must be you, yes he knows you're very busy running a very successful porn business, and no he doesn't care)

-- Charles requires the most aftercare, and he's known to simply curl up on the couch on your office after he finishes a shoot.

-- you have a whole series with Carlos where you tie him up and just have your way with him and it's very popular, so popular that the other guys will come and watch the shoot.

-- Lando and Charles have a whole series where they pretend to be innocent little things playing with each other, there's always cute lingerie involved.

-- boypussy Mick is a squirter

-- poly!piarles where the editors have the hardest time editing him and Pierre because he tends to randomly moan 'mommy' even if you arent even in the room

-- Lewis's cock is absolutely huge and he's a fan favourite for obvious reasons

-- you have a version of hysterical literature where they must read with a vibrating butt plug in. Lance is startlingly good at it. Charles has to manage a single sentence.

-- bunny!Charles making videos where he bounces on dildos and his ears are flopping and he sticks his tongue out and it's fucking obscene.

-- Logan is extremely good at the pizza delivery/pool boy porn stories, like insanely good.

[the-sun-and-the-sea]

do you have any found family fanfic recommendations?:

I am also a fan of found family so many of my fic recs will already have that included, so I'd definitely recommend checking out my other rec lists if you haven't already. If you have, I hope you can find something to read from this list!

Souls on the Shore by lovelyleias - This is a nice one featuring Annie and Johanna. It's post-Mockingjay so it's inherently a little sad, but hopeful too. It really highlights the bond between Annie and Johanna and how their shared experiences tie them together.

Josie by Shaylinne - This one is such a cool look at Johanna's life and especially her relationships with the other victors. It definitely leans into the found family theme (especially in the post-war setting, although Finnick lives) which makes it a really enjoyable read.

Right Till the End by deathmallow - This one focuses on Finnick and Johanna's friendship pre-canon and also incorporates some of the other victors. The victors camaraderie really shines through here, which I love.

Still 22 days left till the end of the world by kawuli - This is a great Finnick and Johanna found family one, and everything in this series has a lot of connection between Johanna and the other victors (mainly Finnick). It's dark but a great read, especially if you're interested in the victors in the Capitol pre-canon.

Mentorship by thankyoufinnick - This is a long and in-depth one about the relationship between Mags and Finnick. I love it and the found family is really strong here.

Wherever There Is You by BeesKnees - This one takes place while Annie is in the Capitol. It shows how she uses her relationships with the people she loves to keep her going. It's so beautifully done and I would definitely recommend it.

We Must Be Killers: Tales From District 2 by lorata - I don't usually venture far beyond Odesta fics but lately I have been devouring this series. It may not be exactly what you're looking for but I highly suggest giving it a try. The dynamics and relationships in this are incredible, not to mention the amazing District 2 worldbuilding.

That's about all I have for right now. As always, feel free to reblog with your own recommendations or self-promo!

[july-19th-club]

Fic writer interview

@goingsparebutwithprecision tagged me in this one and then i had it in my drafts for six or eight months so now it is out of the drafts and into the queue

How many works do you have on AO3? a grand NINE

What's your total AO3 word count? 82,429, which is almost the length of a short novel.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Grace (SPN), Between Friends (Magnus Archives), Yellow Asters (SPN), In the Valley of the Ever Young (Umbrella Academy), and The Steward (Discworld)

I guess i'd hoped Another Journey (The Untamed) would do better - but I'm not at all surprised that my quick and dirty post-finale (by like a DAY) Game of Thrones thing didn't do well. On the other end of the spectrum, my quick and dirty post-finale-by-eleven-hours SPN thing did great it's my top seller. That's 600ish kudos so we're not talking phenomenal, but still. Goes to show I think the difference between how game of thrones fans handled the ending (buried heads in sand, wept and gnashed teeth, rent hair and clothing, ranted for hours on a slow monday worknight shift to me while i listened, horrified and enraptured) versus how spn fans, who never had expectations to gradually and then all at once disappointing, handled the ending (shrug, make some jokes, cry not because it's ending but because it happened, and then crack open the laptops for some quality writing about the whole thing). We were already prepared for things to be bad, so when they were even more bad than all THAT? We were actually, I think, in a way kind of pleased and satisfied. If it had ended well i think it would've been a bit of anticlimax after all that time. Whereas in Game of Thrones there was still the slim chance that they might turn it all around at the eleventh hour, so when they didn't the viewers just wanted to hide and lick their wounds. Produced much less immediate fic.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? It really totally depends on the comment and my mood honestly. If it's especially long and glowing I try to give it at least a little bit of attention but it might not be right away.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Tie between Another Journey and In the Valley - In the Valley ends RIGHT before a character death in canon, Another Journey ends right after a non-canonical character death. So take your pic. I don't tend to do death for death's sake, but for these two stories it felt cheap to avoid it.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending? FINISHED fic? That people can SEE the ending of? Grace, which I now don't like because it's not complex enough and I completely mischaracterized Jack, but that's what Wishes Were Horses is for. Whenever I get around to it. You know.

Do you write crossovers? Not really. I love worldbuilding but trying to marry two disparate worlds is too much for me, I don't like having to do all the logistics. Probably a less pedantic writer would just not care about the logistics but I also don't READ crossovers because the logistics or lack thereof is such an issue for me, so.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? No but back when I was regularly updating Book of Gold (which I'm linking even though I'm probably going to retire that version at some point and start working on a better rewrite) I had a reader who REALLY liked Steve, a character I had no plans to write from the perspective of because I barely remembered him and did not care about him, and still don't really, and that reader would constantly ask me with waning hope if I was gonna do anything Steve related. And I'd avoid saying a definitive no.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Prev apparently has some good Cyrano de Bergerac smut which I now want to read. I personally have never posted any sex in fics, but not for lack of hoping someday to tastefully get it all out there. I just was raised catholic so if I say anything sexual where people can see it i get embarrassed.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I hope not I haven't checked lol but I only have nine and they're not well known so who give a shit

Have you ever had a fic translated? No.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nah. When it comes to writing I don't think I could ever split the work I'd want too much control.

What’s your all-time favorite ship? I do not have favorites because the other ones might get sad . this extends to foods, stuffed childhood animals, and books in my reading stack . also fountain pens

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? At this point any of them lkajslkdjfasdf but i really REALLY doubt the immediate future of the Book of Gold, which is a shame because I have all the major beats mapped out in my head. It's just so much more ambitious than even the other long fics I have in my documents files, the scope is years instead of days or months, and it's a lot of planning and prep work that I can't help but feel I should instead spend on either quicker-to-finish stories or original ones.

What are your writing strengths? I think I have a strong voice, a good turn of phrase, that sort of thing. I also think that after years of trying I have gotten good at realistic dialogue that's not TOO realistic as to be unreadable, and I've learned how to be funny. Worldbuilding.

What are your writing weaknesses? Complex plotting, which sucks because I love complex plotting and want to do more of it. Also punctuality, which is not a writing weakness so much as a regular one, and the really big one is character relationships and consistency over time. I struggle to fit all those pieces together/remember whether they fit together when I started. This probably has to do with my social struggles in real life lol it's very hard for me to write characters thinking/believing/philosophizing/reacting differently than I would, at least without falling back into the 'everybody is me' mode that risks them coming off flat. I think my way around this for most of my writing life has been to write from one person's first-person perspective, which helps alleviate that problem, but I'm trying to do different things and expand my skill set/comfort zone.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? It's cool and I like it but I only know one other language than the one I speak and I speak it at a second grade level. So I don't do this much but I enjoy reading it. Love to copy and paste the language I don't know into a dictionary of words and parse it out it's like a fun secret treat.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Discworld TECHNICALLY . but really The Outsiders and really really even before that I have an unnamed undescribed thing that I hope to turn into a short story that is almost not at all like the fic. so i will not discuss it

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? Star Trek (I've written for it but haven't finished and posted yet). Perhaps True Blood. I have some ideas.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Again I cant play favorites BUT. It's probably Another Journey. It just came together so easily and the structure fell right into place and I managed to do a lot of stuff that was challenging in a way that felt successful. Book of Gold is next to my heart so close that I'm sure it's not actually GOOD and I don't wanna call it 'favorite' because it's a different thing. It's a sibling.

@whileyoureinschoolidothisallday do you want to do a tag game? and any of the other writing mutuals on here who've plied their hands

[silver-studios]

Okay I keep writing comments for gravity of tempered grace in my head and then getting distracted before I can actually post them so I'm just. going to comment here instead because it's in front of me now

First: WOW you write so fast. This isn't actually like, important, but still. I am in awe

I love Izuna's cousin. "Suffer with me" he is exactly the kind of cousin Izuna (and really all of these characters) deserves. Also can't WAIT to see if Tobirama ends up finding that copy of his paper and assuming that if Izuna has it, that must mean he understands it and Tobirama can talk theoretical physics with him. I'm sure Izuna would have the FUNNIEST things to say to his cousin for causing that.

I also enjoy the chapter titles and how they tie in to each chapter. And the explanations for each of them, because I would NOT know what most of them are on my own at all.

I also like the butterfly effect/plot in general, how Tobirama got surprised by things changing in response to his changes, and now he doesn't really know what's coming even though the extra knowledge is still really useful. Can't wait to see what happens with that Nara he saved, and whether there's more fallout from the Uchiha invading.

I don't have a lot specific to say about the Hatake scenes, but I enjoyed them a lot! All the worldbuilding is fun, and very interesting.

Tobirama's characteization is also great and I love... all of it, honestly, but in particular deciding to just get a few graduate degrees on the side while he's with the Uzumaki, and his solution to people possibly not being loyal to Hashirama (even if I would also like to shake sense, or maybe just an iota of self preservation, into him for that last one).

Also while I am not the anon that asked about inspiration originally it was that ask that reminded me that oh yeah I had stuff to say, and actually I HAD heard Non-Stop... a few months ago probably? and went "this is Tobirama and Izuna exactly." So you are not alone!

Yeah I try to maintain a personal deadline so I never hit that point of losing interest because it's happened in the past. It really helps to develop a detailed outline beforehand for the whole story. Recently I've been trying to outline chapters before I write them too to see how that works for me.

I love the vision of reticent and usually quiet Tobirama just rambling about his interests. I think it'd catch Izuna off guard a little but he'd probably find it cute once he can admit that to himself. I also headcanon the Uchiha as being attracted to competency so I'm sure that'll kick in sooner or later.

I'm glad you like the chapter titles and explanations! I thought it'd be a fun way to tie everything together especially with a scientist protagonist. It's been really fun but as the story gets longer than anticipated I'm nervous about running out of relevant topics to reference lol.

The Nara will definitely be back once his clan stops mourning the death of his father. It's great that people still remember him.

It's been such a blast to dive into the worldbuilding with this fic a little bit because Naruto has such fascinating lore that wasn't explored. My biggest struggle is making sense of just how modern the time period is because it seems like the Edo period but then 60 years later Naruto has a fridge and television so who knows really. I'm making it up as I go.

Sorry for rambling a little bit but I get really excited whenever I receive a long message and it's always a delight for me to respond. Thank you so much for the ask and for reading my story!

[ladymirdan]

I've had such an amazing day today.

I guess there is no secret that my interest in 40k has waned slightly recently.

I feel I get less and less comments on my posts/fics/art, despite getting a lot more followers (and with that, a lot more unhinged hate DMs) Ive started to feel like the hobby had lost that spark for me.

I've been into Warhammer for a loooong time.

I first got into the hobby (WH Fantasy) in 2003 and I was immediately hooked. I was blown away by how cool the worldbuilding was, but more importantly how friendly the community was.

My FLGS let me, a broke-ass student, sit and paint my army in store for literal hours on end. Always so happy to see me, despite me hardly ever buying anything. And let me tell you, I was a shy and awkward kid, and they always remembered my name and made me feel so welcome.

I haven't really engaged with Warhammer online until about a year and a half ago when I created my ao3 account. At first it seemed just as friendly as my offline experiences. But recently? I feel like I'm either ignored whenever I comment or try to interact with the community or worse, get told I suck or should go kill myself.

So I just felt it was time to maybe leave, (but I admit, the sunk cost makes it difficult) The only thing I really looked forward to was the minipainting classes I take once a week.

But today I got that magick feeling back. And remembered how much I love this hobby.

I went to my local GW for the new 10th edition 40k release. I’m a time pessimist as usual and arrived 1,5h early 😅 and found out there was only one other guy in line before me, but rather soon a bunch of other people showed up.

Everyone was sooo excited to be there and I made a bunch of new friends in line.

Then I got in and ordered my box (and I also managed to snag the special edition signed book that is a tie in with the box! That felt so much fun, I have never managed to get one of those before despite really trying).

I also got some of the new Death Guard Space Marine Heroes packs. A kid behind me in the queue also got some because he wanted a specific hero (that he unfortunately didn't get) I suggested I open my packs and see if I got one and then we could trade. I did get that model, and he was so excited and thankful, it really made my day since I didnt care that much for that particular model, but to him it was everything.

Everyone in the store was so hyped, and the mood was so great I didn't want to leave, so when I overheard some of the guys I hung out with in line ask if there was a mini of the month they could build, I tagged along.

The store staff was as amazing as always and brought out not only the mini of the month, but also three other models they still had in stock from previous months.

So I ended up building 4 minis in the store along with a bunch of other people.

I met a really nice couple that was pretty new to the hobby and they asked if I was excited for the new box because half of it was Ultramarines (I told them I love the Ultra boys, big chock 😅) but I explained that there was nothing Ultramarine specific in the box and one could paint them as any chapter they wanted.

And boy, they were amazed! They had no idea that all space marines are generic models and they were so curious about other chapters and I tried to explain that there was a chapter for pretty much anything and any colour.

The girl ended up really liking the Soul Drinkers and the guy was on the fence between Blood Angels and sticking to Ultramarines :D

So my advice to anyone else that feels like the hobby is toxic, or is tired of the “my army is soo much cooler then yours/everyone who likes this sucks”, please join the real world.

This hobby is soo amazing, and it is filled with so many happy, passionate people, all loving this weird little hobby.

Over 20+ years, a dozen or more game stores/clubs; I have never had a bad IRL experience with Warhammer. I really wish I could say the same thing about the online experience.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove and I felt like some public masochism so here we are!

Edit: Holy fuck this got long, putting it under a read-more.

How many works do you have on ao3?

258 although I orphaned 100 works back in 2020.

What's your total Ao3 word count?

Why. Why would you ask me this. Why would you do this to me.

4,578,245 - although I shudder to think how much it will have gone up by the end of the year.

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly 9-1-1, but I took a nosedive into Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last year and still have one more fic I'm writing for it. I tend to have quick little detours into other fandoms, which I think is overall a good thing since it helps me flex my writing muscles with different characters and settings. I'm currently working on a fic that is from a show where the main characters are all constantly sassing each other and bickering, and it's pushed me into being witty and sharp with the dialogue and humor in a way that I don't think I have been in quite some time.

Top 5 Fics by Kudos:

Even Steel Blades Need Fire - that's right, a WITCHER fic. HA. You all weren't expecting that!

Leading with the Left - yeah yeah we all knew this one was coming.

Drowning in Dreams (You're My Raft) - I'm constantly surprised this little oneshot I wrote post-tsunami is so popular.

Footprints are More Easily Seen in the Snow - my first Witcher fic I ever wrote and might still actually be my favorite.

Sometimes a Hammer, Sometimes a Lockpick - another Witcher fic! I had a lot of fun with this one.

Do you respond to comments?

I do! I try to respond to every comment I get. I know not everyone can but given the anxiety I know readers have around giving comments I try to show how much every comment is appreciated by me.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I do happy endings, overall, but every once in a while I decide to be evil, so it's a tie between the two fics that are about a character dying:

The Soft Goodbye - a Timeless fic that focuses on the idea that time travel, like being in space for a long time, wreaks havoc on your body.

Full Circle - a Doctor Who fic written years ago speculating about the Doctor gifting a dying Donna her memories back so they can say goodbye.

For those of you in the 9-1-1 fandom however, since I'm sure everyone's looking at those two fics going "wait what," the fic with the angstiest ending is:

I'm Not Breathing Unless I'm Giving You CPR - spoiler alert, but I end this fic on an angsty and purposefully ambiguous note. It's up to the reader to decide what sort of ending they get.

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

Uh. All of them, I'd say? With the exception of the two MCD fics above, I deliver happy endings. However based on reader feedback, I think I'll go with...

Your Love is an Oil Slick (It Glows Like Rainbows, It Stains My Soul) - the amount of angst in this fic, especially the Bobby and Buck relationship, seems to hit readers extra hard and so the happy ending, especially Buck's reunion with his father figure, is extra joyful and cathartic.

Do you get hate on fics?

I have once in a blue moon gotten "flames," as we used to say. Writing fanfic since I was thirteen, I don't think it's possible to fully avoid a few cranky people with nothing better to do than go around and shit on people's beds. But I've been extraordinarily lucky in the love and kindness I've gotten from my readers.

Do you write smut?

Baby, it's what I'm known for. Honestly sometimes to my chagrin - I hope people enjoy my worldbuilding, characterization, and plots as well - but overall I have a lot of fun writing smut and I love reducing people to slack-jawed water-chugging babbles.

Also someone had to bring the monsterfucking around here so by golly I'm reporting for duty.

Craziest crossover?

I don't do crossovers.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yup! Someone stole my Budde Porn Star AU and turned it into a Rooster/Hangman from TG:M fic. Someone kindly alerted me and I was able to report it to Ao3. Truly a surreal experience.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! Multiple times. It's deeply flattering and I really admire translators who put in the work to take something from one language and convey the same meanings, flow, and story in another. Translation is a genuine art form, if you ask me.

Have you co-written a fic before?

Yes! A few times, all with my beloved @extasiswings. We did one Timeless fic together whispers like poetry and we had such fun that when I started my first long, plot-ty Buddie fic I Hit the Accelerator (But the Car was in Reverse) and panicked, I roped her into finishing it with me.

We also co-wrote Carbon Date Me, Excavate Me because I was in a bad writing slump and she graciously made everything better, and then A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (But Love is Undefinable) because she uno reverse'd me.

All time favorite ship?

I've been shipping for so long it's incredibly hard to pick just one, but I think given the sheer depth of my insanity, I have to say Buddie. I haven't had a ship grip me like this in... ever, actually. Honestly after being burned hard on some previous ships in my time, names redacted to protect the guilty (me), I didn't think it was possible to love a ship this much, and yet here I am.

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

I plan to finish all of my WIPs. Once I start a fic I'm committed to finishing it. I do however have a couple fic ideas that I don't think I'll ever actually write.

What are your writing strengths?

Um. Smut, apparently. I also seem to do well with fusions; that is, taking one trope or setting and fusing it with another in a sort of plot mash-up. And people seem to really like my world building.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm a hyper-sexual person who is very casual about sexual relationships and so sometimes I think as a result I have characters think with their cocks a bit too much and jump too quickly into sex, and sometimes there's more smut than plot. Run-on sentences, my beloved (and my editor's beloathed). I tend to write out-of-order and so sometimes little plot details can contradict, not be followed up on, or get lost in the shuffle.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I don't really write dialogue in another language in most of my fandoms, but in a few it's come up and I've approached it in different ways.

In Timeless, the character Garcia Flynn's first language is Croatian, so I would have him sometimes speak in it. In my dragon!Jaskier series, I was able to bastardize some of the Draconic from D&D (mixed with some Germanic root languages) for when he was cursing or communicating with his draconic family. In both cases, the other language was limited to only a line or two of dialogue, or perhaps a single word, so I wrote the dialogue in that language, and then had a translation guide at the bottom of the fic.

This tends to be my modus operandi, an exception being Xenk speaking Thayan, because I couldn't find any actual Thayan for the life of me, so I just describe how the phrase sounds or allude to him muttering something/swearing/etc. Since Ed, a former spy, also speaks Thayan, he can then inform the reader through his thought-process what the Thayan meant.

Occasionally, I will have two characters speaking in another language and simply italicize their words and have a line of description saying "they switch to French" or something similar, since I don't want readers to have to scroll up and down to understand an entire conversation.

In my original novels, however - the Horsemen quartet specifically - the characters communicate about fifty percent of the time through sign language. It's become the lingua franca, because noise alerts zombies and ASL is a silent language. In the books, I write the dialogue as I would English, and simply have the dialogue tag "she signed" instead of "she said."

As someone who speaks other languages but for whom English is their first, I'm not sure I get to really speak on how and when one should use other languages in one's predominantly-English fic in a predominantly-English-speaking fandom and online space. All I can say is that I listen to what others say in regards to what is most respectful and comfortable, and I don't have any personal preference in how a writer handles the use of secondary languages in their writing.

First fandom you wrote in?

I'm not sure which came first since they were right on top of each other, but Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Favorite fic you've written?

Well that's just mean. How dare you. I don't have one favorite fic, that's like asking me to choose a favorite child.

I will say I am particularly fond of In the Gray You are Golden. I banged it out in a day in some kind of fugue state and I do think it's one of my best works.

Someday when I am filthy rich I will commission someone to draw it as a comic, especially the reunion scene between Buck, Eddie, and Christopher.

Tagging, with no pressure:

@princessfbi @buckttommy @extasiswings @kitkatpancakestack @gracieryder (once again I typed your fucking old url like five times...)

aaaaaaand @givemeunicorns.

[chaptersonetoinfinity]

For the ask game, how about 2, 6, 12, 15, 23, 27, 31, 33 and 47? Sorry that it's a lot of numbers^^'

Fanfic Couples*/Relationships Ask Game

HELLO VIL! :D

NEVER BE SORRY about asking a lot of numbers because I will go on (and on and on) and I’ll be very pleased about it all. And well, since Scarlet Cross is my first Black Clover series, I might be pulling some answers from my past fics for Sense8 and The Magicians. 

But don’t worry, you don’t need to know those to enjoy the sheer chaos of my answers. And I’ll put most of this post under a cut line for those who prefers to scroll through the Sas ramble!

(Sas from the future is coming back here to say: thanks for the ask! This was so fun!)

2 Of the ones you've written, what's your slowest slowburn? How slow is it?

My slowest of slowburns will have to be my very first fic, Veracity, for the Sense8 fandom. It was a 330k behemoth of a fic, during which one couple met in chapter 1, and had a kiss in chapter 38 (a one-sided one, where the Dani gave Felix a kiss at the airport and then winked and said “byeeeee” and left him questioning his life), and finally had a fully-reciprocated, legit kiss—in chapter 40, while fireworks were going off because this was New Year’s Eve! Needless to say, it was a long wait. And so many of their friends stepped in to nudge them together.

To quote one of my favorite comments of all time (a very unique format of commenting where @kinoglowworm and my tumblr mom @gear65 chatted with each other while they read my last chapter at the same time, then copy pasted the chat log as a comment so I got their “live reaction”): 

gear65: UGHHHH The slow burn Kino: The teamwork this has required as much patience and coordination as breaking into bpo did

(For context, “breaking into BPO” was literally the main conflict/major climax of the whole fic. I resolved THAT like, 3 chapters before I resolved this ship, and I’m not sorry.

6 Have you ever started to write a relationship and had it develop differently than you expected? How so?

My brain doesn’t really plan in a chronological manner, so I don’t often find this happening, because I can “envision” the end goal pretty early on before my mind takes me back to “how it begins” and I’ll just build the path that gets them to said end goal.

That said, for Black Clover, I did once plan a canon divergence AU from the Spade Arc onward, but I ended up with a lot of worldbuilding and not a lot of plot. So while I technically didn’t start writing them, I certainly had different plans for how Astelle will unfold in that fic. But while I was stuck, I got the idea for a genderbend universe, and I rolled with the punches.

Now my “Astelle” is a sweet little F/F ship (same energy as Regular Astelle except gay!). I suppose this counts in some ways, because I’m adapting a vast majority of my worldbuilding from the fic-that-never was into this Scarlet Cross AU. But even if Noelle and Talia have the same core personalities as they do in canon, their dynamic does change as a result of girl!Asta being a different gender, because the gender changes also trigger some butterfly effects in this AU with long-lasting consequences!

12 [Couple] has just found an interdimensional portal, and one of them just walked in! Does the other go after them?

Hmm. To see their counterparts in other AU-verses (like, the OCs in my world visiting your world and their counterparts in there?) Or to explore other worlds? Anyway, the answer is definitely yes, for all the pairings that I ship in all my fandoms (including the OCs), just to make sure they actually get their person BACK at the end of the day, ha! 

But the ones with more brain cells like Yuno will tie a rope to his waist and nail the rope to his own world first, or something, if the portal doesn’t shut itself and will stay open. That way Yuno can find his way back (and drag back his Cyrus, who had definitely wandered in because he smelled some plants that their world didn’t have, so he MUST get a sample).

15 Are there any relationship dynamics/tropes you would never write?

I’m open to nearly everything! Dynamic-wise I’ve done it all, M/F, F/F, M/M, even trios (Penny/Kady/Julia from The Magicians). And same for non-romantic dynamics: love a good friendship/found family/mentor and mentee type of bond. But I’m also down for family drama and the less wholesome side of those & tags on AO3. (Silva Family Drama = yesssss, bring it on.) Trope-wise, I tend to prefer serendipitous tropes, like chance encounters that unfold into unexpected relationships (Zora & Cyrus’ friendship or Mereo & Talia+Yuno in Scarlet Cross, for example). 

Which means I’m not likely to write a Soulmate AU. Ha, I finally answered the question! I’d have a hard time describing an “inexplicable pull” towards someone, because the ships in my setups tend to come across as very accidental (both romantic and platonic ones). So! I’m leaving Soulmate AUs to the authors out there who can pull them off (@f-oighear comes to mind because her AU is such a fandom classic at this point, but I know you and @kalolasfantasyworld got some soulmate AUs too, right?) while I lurk in my own little corner of chaos and “happy accidents” (as Bob Ross would say). 

23 Do you think you idealize relationships in fiction, or are your depictions grounded in reality? How often do your characters make mistakes?

My characters make nearly as many mistakes as I do! …But in different ways than I do. Some put their foot in their mouth and some will dig their little hole of denial and bury themselves there until their loved ones bring out a proverbial shovel to help dig them out. And some will be so clueless until the truth hits them in the face like a rake that they step on during a comedy skit. Some do all of the above. Heh. 

I’m also a big fan of multiple third-person POVs where I get inside the character’s head and show all the biases in their thinking, so my style makes the characters sound even less perfect. Because my poor characters can’t keep their thoughts private when this annoying author is around, exposing exactly how much they don’t understand (or how secretly or openly mean they are)! I’m spilling all the tea, like how Noelle has zero tact both her head and out loud, and Talia ditches her train of thought halfway when it becomes “too much thinking” and she’s confused. So on and so forth. 

27 Do you have any characters who are hopeless romantics? How do they interact with the story?

Surprisingly, Talia is the most “hopeless romantic” one to me in my current WIP! She’s romantically dense and oblivious like canon Asta, but she’s very loud and clear about wanting to marry Sister Lily. And she fantasizes about riding back to Hage on a white horse and a billowing cloak and all that romantic jazz. Except, unlike canon!Asta, Talia stops proposing out loud after a while (and hell, we’re all thankful for that). 

Since I’m pairing Talia up with Noelle, that means Talia will come to realize that how she feels about Sister Lily is different from how she feels about Noelle. And how she feels about Noelle is different from how she feels about other friends she’ll make, like Leopold or Cyrus. So eventually Talia will become less hopeless and more straight-up romantic (but never STRAIGHT! ha, sapphic pun). 

But Noelia will off as friends. Here, Talia will be Noelle’s first “girl her age who’s a friend” instead of Kahono. So Talia has a more “organic” attraction to Noelle that grows over time the more they bond, and that helps her get clarity on what real romance feels like, and how “hopeless romanticism” differs from real feelings she’s come to have for someone she’s truly compatible with. Eventually. Maybe. We can only hope. (They will, but they’ll take a WHILE, and that’s why we need wholesome Yuno and Cyrus being wholesome in the meantime in comparison, right?!)

31 Are there any songs that remind you of [couple]? Are there any songs that remind them of each other?

I admittedly don’t listen to a lot of music (GASP! I KNOW!) because I’m the type of writer who gets 100% distracted if I try to listen to anything with lyrics while I write. That said, occasionally I’ll check out a song and the lyrics will give me the right vibes.

So I can’t think of any songs that remind a couple of each other, for the second half of the question. But! For the first half! When I was writing for The Magicians fandom, the song Bad Liar by Imagine Dragons reminded me of the storyline I had for Margo x Fen in my AU titled Come See About Me. 

Context from that fic: Margo had a really rough few years, romantically and otherwise, before she traveled to a different world and met Fen in a small village in the middle of the woods. At the start, Margo had a really low opinion of herself (due to her past) and believes she ruins the lives of anyone who is kind to her. But as her relationship develops with Fen, Margo finds the courage to try and be better (and not make the mistakes she once made with her ex-girlfriend Alice). And she also learns to forgive herself. So the lyrics from Bad Liar give me that vibe.

If you’re curious about the specifics, the last few paragraphs of chapter 23 exemplify this song the most for me! Just start with the line that says “I don’t know.” Fen sighs. “But I never want this to end.”

33 Are there any canon romantic couples, in any media, that you just can't stand?

I do see a lot of “forced” romantic couples in popular media, especially M/F ships! I can’t think of specific ships that I actively dislike (I’m sure I’ve had some in the past, but the names have slipped my mind). So I don’t have any big NoTPs for now, but a lot of ships I see aren’t convincing to me so they’re just “meh”, because it feels too obvious that the writers are *trying* to make them “a thing”. Maybe being a writer myself plays into that in some way, like “oh I see what they’re going for, but meh, I’d have set it up differently”. 

47 What's the most self-indulgent relationship you've written? Are there any particular moments/scenes that you wrote just for you?

I would say the most self-indulgent ship I have in the works is Icarus (Yuno/Cyrus) from Scarlet Cross. I can’t even “see” regular Yunosa in canon given how little screentime they’ve spent together (and Mimosa’s crush on Asta to boot!). But Yunosa fanart? Absolutely adorable. And I love a height difference and a “stoic one falls for the soft one” dynamic. 

They’re also a great contrast to the sheer chaos of Noelia (Noelle/Talia). So I could’ve shipped Yuno and Cyrus/Mimosa with anyone—they’re some of the most shippable characters in BC, imo (with xCanon and xOC!)—but nope, gonna put them together to complete that cute little aesthetic with two and two, an F/F and an M/M, perfectly balanced because I can :P. All for the vibes.

For moments/scenes that I wrote just for me, I once wrote another Magicians AU titled When the World’s Unkind (also with Margo x Fen as the main ship) where Fen gets turned into a bunny due to aa magical mishap, and Margo has to hold Fen in her hands while they travel. Eventually she gets indoors to a safe place and puts Fen on her lap, and after some awkward silence (and bunny snuggles), Margo blurts out her feelings. Animals have that therapeutic effect, huh! That scene was purely self-indulgent and I had a blast—especially because I wrote it from Fen’s perspective while she’s stuck as a bunny.

[thecoramaria]

Hello! I was wondering if you could give some tips on how to make fanfic chapters longer. I see a lot readers tend to like chapters around the 4k word mark or even more, but it's a feat if I write a chapter longer than 2k. The content I write is still good (imo) but I want to do more and am stuck on what to add that would benefit the fic and not be pointless filler. Thanks 🩷💛

Hey, Nonny!

First I'd just like to say that chapter length preferences among readers depend a lot on things like the type of fanfic and the platform you post on. For example, short chapters and frequent updates tend to be the standard on Wattpad. They're also pretty typical of episodic and/or slice-of-life stories. Because they rely on pre-established stories or worlds that the characters are familiar with, you just don't need to use as many words to move the plot forward every chapter (and in the case of an episodic story, you don't need to move an overarching plot forward at all, but from your ask, I don't get the vibe that you're trying to write that kind of thing).

Point is, sometimes short chapters work better for the story you're trying to tell, and they can also serve to make your story more binge-worthy (since it's easier to justify reading one more chapter), but they could lessen the experience for people following update-to-update, particularly if you don't update often. It's like the difference between being given a single piece of chocolate vs a full bar, you know?

If you really are set on posting longer chapters and believe this will make your story better, then here are my tips:

Figure out why your chapters are short in the first place. Is it because you make each scene its own chapter? Is it because your pacing flies past? Is it because it's light on details, or doesn't get specific enough? (E.g. "He set a tasty breakfast before her. She dug in with gusto." vs "He set a plate of steaming sunny-side-up eggs and crackling bacon before her. One wiff of the smokey, savoury aromas, and she snatched up her fork, shovelling it in. The salty crunch. The burst of creamy yolk. It was heaven.")

Combine chapters. If two or three chapters tie together nicely because they're part of the same arc, or take place in the same location, picking up where the other left off, those are good candidates to combine. Also if a chapter has an ending that doesn't give the reader a good reason to keep reading, but the next scene adds a jolt of tension back into the plot, that's also a good candidate for combining scenes/chapters.

Ask yourself what you can add to enhance what you already have there. For example, if you have a plot twist planned, is there a way you can include more foreshadowing? Is there an opportunity to flesh out your characters more? (If we mostly see a character put on a strong front, it'll tug our hearts when we see them show some vulnerability.) Is there an aspect of your worldbuilding that could use some explanation or showing off? (For example, if your plot involves saving the world, it's definitely a good idea to get your readers attached to said world.) Are there more obstacles you could add to the story that might also serve the previous purposes? Do you have a lot of high-tension back-to-back scenes that could use some quiet breather scenes in-between?

When editing, I've adopted the philosophy of "Cut as much as possible without sacrificing anything that enhances the story" as well as "Concise and precise" which means "say The Most with as few words as possible. To me, this is the key to avoiding filler in my own work, and how I create long stories that don't drag. I think that as you make your chapters longer, these are the ideas you should keep in mind, as these will help you determine if you're lengthening your story will pointless filler or adding something with value.

If you still struggle to make that distinction though, maybe find a beta-reader or a buddy who doesn't mind being spoiled for your work. You can soundboard your ideas with them to get a second opinion, because sometimes that's what you really need when you feel like there's something "wrong" with your work but you can't quite put your finger on it.

[mehoymalloy]

When can fans of your Imotohan stuff expect Judicator AU drop? Additionally, how much will canon events info. Impact that story of at all?

You can expect the Judicator AU to start being posted before this year is over! I'm finding the initial drafting process is going by much faster now that I've gotten to the real meat (and the smut lol) of the story. I want to finish editing the majority of the fic before I start posting in order to really nail down the plot and tie everything together nicely. Then I'll create a posting schedule which will likely shake out to be two chapters a week!

In terms of the effect of canon events on the story: not much, at least not yet. The Judicator AU picks up about the time Bells Hells visited the Aydinlan Seminary in Yios in campaign 3, with Otohan being one of the judicators sent on the trail of that sacred text stolen by the Grim Verity. Bells Hells, of course, have little reason to visit without Imogen as a member of their party. But that's not to say the wider going-ons of the world won't catch up with our two protagonists; that's just getting into what @inomakani and I are affectionately referring to as Book 2 territory!

And because I think it's funny, have a story in 5 photos (brought on by me musing 'I wonder how much quantifiable work we'll have put into this story by the end of all this'. Turns out, Obsidian, my writing program, has a tool for that):

With 'MMMoK' being the catch-all file for ALL kink-related worldbuilding, outlines, snippets, and miscellaneous notes, which conveniently keeps any NSFW content safely tucked away while I'm working. We were not kidding when we said this AU would contain plot-relevent kink/smut. In fact, we may have been underselling it just a tad :3

[truthseekerthedragon]

Eyes of a Writer: "Duties"

After having written a ~10k oneshot, I've decided to write a post detailing my thoughts on the story, inspirations, extra lore, and the like. I'm hoping this post helps other writers with their own stories and offers insight into their personal creative processes. There's a good chance I'll make more of these in the future, so keep your eyes peeled.

The story in question is "Duties," a Wings of Fire fanfic set within my Bloodbright AU (a comprehensive AU that involves overhauls to the canon, expanded worldbuilding, and events that occur centuries after the Wings of Fire timeline). The fic itself is about Winter getting tangled up in a coup, then discovering thousand-year-old secrets deep within the IceWing palace.

The fic can be found here. I recommend reading the fic first, as this post will spoil the entire thing.

Both the fic and this "annotation" have a content warning for verbal abuse and minor body horror. This post also contains images of hostile architecture.

Let's start with inspirations.

The design and atmosphere of the depths of the Shimmerspire Palace are heavily inspired by NaissanceE, a French indie game released in 2014. The game is a puzzle/platformer that takes place within a labyrinthine superstructure that defies words, a setting that I find extremely difficult to describe.

Image Description: The interior of a superstructure. It looks like the interior of a skyscraper if hollowed out, or perhaps an enormous rectangular tunnel that extends deep underground. The walls are lined with large, industrial blocks and overhangs and struts that may be pipes or supports. The walls sink down into a greenish-gray fog, and the occasional light or archway can be seen. Every surface is a smooth gray color.

Image Description: A... monument, perhaps? There are several sculptures all lined up in a row, each consisting of four overlapping cubes that point upward. The sculptures are lined up in the middle of a walkway with short walls inlaid with small lights to the sides. To the right a large building and light from an offscreen source can be seen. The monument is surrounded by enormous cube-shaped structures rising from a blue-gray mist or light. Rows of tiny lights shine from the cubes, making them resemble buildings. Some of these structures stretch to the ceiling, from which catwalks can be seen.

Such is the game's setting. The game has no real plot, only puzzles and platforming as you try to escape this place. NaissanceE is deeply unsettling to play (when you're not frustrated by failing the same jump 30 times, that is). Many parts of the Shimmerspire Palace's interior are lifted straight from the game's visuals.

If you want to know more about NaissanceE, you can find a video about it here.

The idea for the fic itself was something I had been tossing around for some time. I've wanted to write something with Winter in it, partially due to my frustration at how fanfics often portray his character (i.e. as a generic bully with no depth). I wanted to include Icicle as well, since I don't often see her in fanfics--and when I do see her, it's usually so the fic can treat her badly. I had the writer itch, or drive, or whatever, and I wanted to explore these characters.

I also had the idea for the eldritch IceWing palace. The Shimmerspire Palace's nature was part of my AU's lore and I had always intended to explore it in a story, but it was hard for me to come up with something. In the end I decided to tie it with Winter and the Protector Coup, another event that occurs in my AU (more on that below).

I used some music while writing. I've found that music can be an excellent tone setter for writing scenes, although I tend to be very picky with my music--for instance, songs with lyrics are a hard no, since lyrics are very distracting for me personally.

Here are the music/tracks I used for the fic:

The score of Swan Lake and, to a lesser extent, The Nutcracker for the scenes that occur in the normal sections of the palace. I find the Swan Lake score in particular to be quite fitting for the IceWing aristocracy. The music is grandiose, perhaps wistful.

Prométhée Part 1a for the sequence when Winter first enters the strange parts of the palace up to him meeting Foeslayer. It's part of NaissanceE's soundtrack. This track is beautiful yet unsettling.

The Deep Listening album for subsequent scenes deep in the palace interior. These ambient tracks are unsettling and, at least to me, convey a sense of scale. These are also in NaissanceE's soundtrack.

I used part of the Scanner Sombre soundtrack for the scene where Winter and Foeslayer crawl into the tunnel beneath the memorial. Scanner Sombre is a 2017 game about exploring a cave using nothing but a scanner, and the track does an excellent job at conveying what claustrophobia feels like.

Now, let's go over the fic itself with my notes in hand.

First, Winter's characterization. I spent some time trying to figure out how I'd write him. In canon, we rarely see Winter on his home turf; most of the time he's out and about in Pyrrhia. The way I see it, Winter's jerk behavior is a mask of sorts that he projects to gain a sense of security. He blames himself for Hailstorm's capture, so he tries to hide how weak he sees himself as by putting on a big, mean, tough-guy persona. We don't really see any jerk moments from him while he's in the Ice Kingdom, which makes me think that he drops the persona whenever he's placed in a situation where such behavior would be considered deeply inappropriate.

In this AU, there is no feud between the IceWings and NightWings, because in canon it was essentially a poorly done race metaphor and I decided to nix it to avoid bad implications. In addition, Winter never went to Jade Mountain Academy--in this AU, it was a failed project that didn't account for the fact that no one would want to go to school with dragons who were their mortal enemies less than a year ago. The wounds were still too raw.

Anyways, in the fic Winter is also quite knowledgeable in various subjects, such as history and his High Speech studies. This is all stuff he learned to climb the rankings and to make up for his subpar fighting skills. Him reciting the list of queens was an opportunity to show how hard he's working to climb the rankings, and it also let me sneak in some worldbuilding.

While there are IceWing guards in canon, I decided to add an elite imperial guard that was in charge of protecting the palace and the royal family. Looks like they're not very good at doing the latter.

If you're wondering why Winter had to wait so long, it's because coups in general can get very chaotic. It took a while before Hoarfrost could get everything in place for his dramatic little skit.

The Protector Coup itself is another AU event. I'm not a fan of The Dangerous Gift, especially not the scene where Snowfall destroys the rankings and most dragons respond to it by clapping. Why would most IceWing aristocrats respond like that to the destruction of the bedrock of their society? Absolutely ridiculous. It's more likely that we'd see a coup occur pretty much immediately.

Here's a little secret for you: Hoarfrost had actually been planning a coup for months, but seized the opportunity to depose Snowfall after she destroyed the rankings. Now he could definitively say he was doing it because of how utterly unfit Snowfall was to be queen. While Hoarfrost is doing it for the power, Taiga sees it more as a necessary evil. She's convinced that if Snowfall is queen for any longer, she'll destabilize the country.

Snowfall still destroys the rankings and the Great Ice Cliff in this AU, but there's no gift of vision (or, as I like to call it, the torture ring) that influences her here. So why did she destroy two animus gifts? That's something I might answer in another fic. Or not. I'll just say for now that it's related to Snowfall's PTSD.

You may have noticed that I changed the names of some countries in this fic, which I did because frankly, "Ice Kingdom" is just incredibly boring. "The Iceshard Hierarchy" is not only more distinct, but the name itself tells you something about the country's principles and how it sees itself.

In my AU, the High Speech works a bit like Latin: it's not spoken anymore, but it's still a prestige language that every dragonet in the Circles has to learn, ostensibly so they can read thousand-year-old archival documents. Translation is for suckers. Many aristocrats like Hoarfrost occasionally drop into High Speech for prestige/pretension points. I also wanted to add a sense of age, the sense that the IceWing aristocracy was very old, and I figured that introducing an extinct language was a good way to go about it.

Something else you may have noticed is Winter's comment that animus magic is "notoriously difficult to work with and [is] prone to error and misinterpretation." Animus magic works a bit differently in my AU, being more like a "soft" magic system that is difficult to shape to the caster's desires. You don't really see much of that in this fic except for, you know, the eldritch palace.

So. For those of you with the burning question, Is the palace alive like Winter thinks it is? Well, I have a definitive answer for you.

Yes.

Winter says the twins who made the palace died shortly after making their gift, but this isn't technically true. It would be more accurate to say that the animus twins (whose names are Quartz and Shimmer, by the way), disappeared after casting the spell and were presumed dead. However, my AU's animus magic operates by Fullmetal Alchemist rules in that you cannot create life from nothing; you have to use something that's already alive. I'll let you connect the dots from there. As a bonus, this also answers the "is the palace self-aware?" question posed by Foeslayer when she and Winter find the monument.

Speaking of Foeslayer, her introduction in my fic is very different from how she meets Winter in canon. For one, the nature of the enchantment that Diamond placed on her is much more horrifying! I decided to include Foeslayer in the fic because I didn't want Winter wandering through the eldritch palace by himself; that wouldn't be very interesting, and I knew I needed another dragon that Winter could talk to. I figured Foeslayer would be a good option.

The problem was, the nature of Foeslayer's enchantment in canon was extremely specific and didn't fit the rules of animus magic in my AU. I had to change it while keeping the spirit of the enchantment. So I thought to myself, "What is the most spiteful, petty thing Diamond can do to Foeslayer?" And I came up with "How about taking away her body autonomy while making sure she can't die?" And this is how I came up with mannequin Foeslayer.

This is how I imagine it went: After capturing Foeslayer, Diamond kept her around as a punching bag. Around this time Diamond also had lots of dragons who didn't like her style of leadership or that she had petty vendettas against, so she had these dragons locked up in the IceWing palace. Once these prisons were full, she realized she could feed these dragons to the bowels of the palace and never have to worry about them again. She got bored of Foeslayer and threw her into the deep interior as well, making sure to shred her wings so she couldn't leave by flying out the exit. And there Foeslayer remained for two thousand years.

When she meets Winter, Foeslayer says she had nearly forgotten how to think. Given how long she was down there by herself, no wonder. This also doubles as a JoJo reference.

Winter being able to understand her thousand-year-old language is both foreshadowed (when Hoarfrost spoke in High Speech) and serves as a worldbuilding element. Again, I use the High Speech to indicate age, but this time it's to show that Foeslayer speaks a long-dead language.

Foeslayer at one point says "longer than you think." This is a reference to Emesis Blue, a 2023 web horror film that is a dark reimagining of the lore of Team Fortress 2. The same phrase is repeated throughout the movie. In Emesis Blue proper the line references Stephen King's 1981 short story The Jaunt. References within references! Fun! Little does Winter know, Foeslayer has been alive for two thousand years, and she's been conscious the whole time, unlike in canon. She spent an eternity in there.

In case you're wondering why Foeslayer gave a fake name, it's because she was rather infamous in her own time, having eloped with a prince and all. She didn't want anyone to recognize her, because she'd rather just put all that behind her. The name "Discretion" comes from one of the NightWing diplomats in Runaway.

The part where Winter talks about his life was a tricky one. I kept going back and forth between writing out what Winter says as opposed to just telling the readers. I eventually settled on the latter since explaining Winter's character to people already familiar with him would be repetitive, but it wasn't an easy choice to make.

The panic attack scene was also tricky for me to write, but for a different reason--I've only experienced one panic attack in my whole life. Luckily there are lots of blog posts about what a panic attack feels like (thank you so much internet), and I think the scene turned out fairly well.

Given the mental and physical exhaustion that comes after a panic attack, I needed a scene where the characters could unwind. After some thought I settled on Foeslayer asking to hug Winter, sort of as a found-family thing. While Winter in this fic has an arc about learning to be himself and throw off the weight of the expectations placed on him, Foeslayer also has a mini-arc about learning to be a mother again. Having a mass murderer for a son and 2000 years with nothing but your thoughts for company tends to make you introspective. Winter needed a mother figure to support him, eventually allowing him to support himself, and Foeslayer needed a son figure after... you know. Foeslayer gets a do-over like in canon, but it's with Winter instead of her mind-wiped mass murderer son. The whole Peacemaker thing just never sat right with me, but then, I consider mind-wiping to be pretty heinous in general.

Hopefully you enjoyed the hugging scene as much as I enjoyed writing it. Warm fuzzy feelings for everyone!

Okay, now to the escape scene where Winter feels like he's being chased. This part is another shout-out to Emesis Blue, specifically the scene near the end where Soldier is running from an unseen creature that may or may not be a hallucination. If you're wondering what the Watsonian explanation for this scene is, I'll tell you that the palace feels bad about Winter and Foeslayer leaving. :(

Icicle in this AU really likes ruby earrings. They represent the blood of the Hierarchy's enemies.

Alrighty, now for the fun part: my breakdown/explanation of Icicle's character! In canon it's very clear that Icicle doesn't care for Winter, and the only dragon she seems to truly respect is Hailstorm. I extrapolated that Icicle has a personal honor code that she adheres to rigorously, one based around her view of strength. She sees herself as the ideal IceWing aristocrat: regal, intelligent, and deadly. Anyone who can meet her standards have earned her respect, perhaps even admiration and love; anyone who doesn't she views with nothing but contempt. I think Icicle's little monologue in the fic explains pretty much everything else about her character.

I think automatons warrant a quick mention. Automatons have been around for thousands of years, and during the early modern period were capable of complex tasks such as drawing pictures and playing chess (similar to what Winter knows automatons are capable of). Fans of The Magnus Archive will be familiar with the Mechanical Turk, which was actually operated by a human during chess matches.

Winter's metaphor of society fitting him into a mold is a nod to the manga short The Enigma of Amigara Fault. There's an excellent video that breaks down the cultural context behind the story, which can be found here.

And my final note for the story: The phrase "the cold does not forgive mistakes" originates from the Jacob Geller video essay "Fear of Cold," which can be found here. An excellent video about... pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

Thanks for reading my fanfic annotations. If you have a burning question about "Duties" that wasn't answered here, feel free to send me an ask.

[alfgifu]

Fic analysis 40. Welcome aboard

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51833812

Word count: 3,333

Chapters: 1

First posted: 25th November 2023

Summary: 

A traitor, somewhere in the Imperial Guard. An assignment – oh, those fools had taken it as a demotion, as an insult to his noble blood, but he knew what du Nuale had been hinting at – an assignment to investigate the Emperor’s own. To become (he was fairly certain) the closest placed agent to the person of the Sun-on-Earth.

It was a shame, really, that he knew so little about dragons.

How and why this came about

There was one prompt challenge that I missed the first time round, and that was the crossover with Temeraire. The challenge went on the list because the subject attracted enthusiasm when it came up in conversation on the HOTE Support Group discord server, but I knew as soon as I saw it that I wouldn’t find it easy. I’d only read one Temeraire book and didn’t feel at all equipped to capture it.

One of the last weekly prompt challenges of 2023 was designated for people to go back and finish something they’d started for a previous one, or to pick up a prompt they’d missed. Since this was the only prompt I’d missed and I do like to complete things, I decided to give it a go.

The only possible approach was to bring Temeraire-style dragons and worldbuilding into the Nine Worlds context that I’m much more familiar with, and hope that any discrepancies passed off as compromises between the two settings. The only military force we see on Zunidh is the Imperial Guard, so that pointed me towards a guard/dragon partnership. And of course that meant Ludvic Omo and Rhodin an Gaiange. Once I got that far, it was obvious that Ludvic was the dragon. It just fit.

What worked and what didn’t

Since this wasn’t a plot or a character that grabbed me I had to figure out how I was going to turn the concept into a workable short story. I went with Rhodin and Ludvic’s first meeting and leaned into the odd coupleness of it all.

The scenario unfolded a bit from the premise. There are hints in canon that Rhodin was a spy before he was a guard. I had invented the Marchioness du Nuale as his Radiancy’s previous spymaster for another fic, so it was natural for the assumption to be that she had assigned Rhodin to join. For that to be the case there had to be a reason, something worth investigating, and that made this casefic.

I was briefly distracted by the reflection that canon!Rhodin’s interest in dinosaurs intersects in fun ways with the existence of dragons but I think the short aside on the subject works to tie the fic into canon a bit more.

Ludvic as a grumpy, lonely, powerful dragon with a screwy sense of humour worked incredibly well and gave the fic a depth that it might otherwise have missed.

What I learned from writing it

There is no possible way I would feel comfortable writing any more of this without being much more familiar with Temeraire. 

I did start another Temeraire book to try to get my head round what I’d need to do for this fic, and didn’t manage to get very far at all. I’d like to read the rest of the series some day for its own sake too - it’s a fun read - but writing is using almost all of the time that I once would have spent reading. It feels strange to think about it this way, but it seems like I’ve crossed some kind of barrier mentally and now find writing more fun than reading. Or at least more compelling.

It was a helpful exercise to work on something that really didn’t come naturally to me, or that I didn’t feel fully equipped to write. I’m glad it came together.

This was the last of the weekly prompt challenges that I was officially involved in and I used it to complete the set of 2023 prompts. I learned a great deal from working on them, both as a writer and about my own compulsive behaviour.

I still love having prompts, targets and challenge songs but these days I try to stay a bit further removed and not to be so completist about them. Letting myself skip some days for Inktober 2024, for example.

[royalvelvette]

body of works

fancontent i've written [theories, headcanons, fic, etc.] Last Updated on April 4, 2024.

Meta Tags: #op content, #chat tag, #ask tag, #my writing, #my headcanons, #my theories

Most Recent Work(s):

and love will bring us freedom - A short story exploring Charlie's relationships with Fizzarolli, Ozzie, and Mammon through the lens of Helluva Boss S2E7 with appearances by pretty much all of the Hazbin crew + Bee, Loona, Vortex, and Blitzo. (Ao3 | Part 1 | Part 2 - New)

Currently Working On:

Days 5 & 6 of Chaggie Week of Firsts (extremely late)

Alastor, Zestial, and Hubris

Steadvast Hoteliers (Alternate Universe where the Vees take Alastor's place at the hotel, with a long fic planned to begin posting late March) (Blog Tag; includes asks)

what is it with lanky pricks and overworking themselves - a short story set in the Steadvast AU, set fairly early on. (Ao3 | Part 1 | Part 2)

dance with me, darling - a short story set in the Steadvast AU, with a focus on character dynamics. Also an excuse to write the characters having fun. (Ao3 | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

Various art done by @providencestrashcastle ( 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ), the beloved bestie <3

Chaggie Week of Firsts 2024 - an event run by hellaversehaven here on tumblr! (Event Post)

dumpster diving for a girlfriend - Charlie and Vaggie's first time meeting each other, in fic form! For Day 1 of Chaggie Week of Firsts. (Ao3 | Tumblr). Labelled Mature on Tumblr.

the aquarium is a black-tie event: Charlie and Vaggie's first date! Surely nothing goes wrong and they have a lovely time at the aquarium. For Day 2 of Chaggie Week of Firsts. (Ao3 | Tumblr)

devil to you, angel to me (what am i then) - Charlie and Vaggie's very first fight, three days into knowing each other. For Day 3 of Chaggie Week of Firsts. (Ao3 | Tumblr) Labelled Mature on tumblr.

bad dreams make me get up and walk - The first time Charlie and Vaggie cry in front of each other/with each other. For Day 4 of Chaggie Week of Firsts. (Ao3 | Tumblr)

One Shots - Various one-shots, drabbles, and short stories I've written.

ruined woman - an Eve character piece (Ao3 | Tumblr)

postmortem - a more experimental piece i wrote in fifteen minutes, while on cold meds; Sir Pentious between life and death + a shitty poem thing (kinda). (Ao3 | Tumblr)

reflect: a sera-centric piece, about five minutes after sir pentious manifested in Heaven. (Ao3 | Tumblr)

Theories & Analysis - my hazbin hotel / helluva boss theories & analysis.

Alastor, Zestial, and Hubris - a theory exploring why Zestial is still around if Alastor was hunting down older overlords. (Ao3 | Part 1 | Part 2)

Headcanons & Other - my headcanons for hellaverse characters/worldbuilding and silly stuff like ask memes [if i ever do some].

5 RoyalVelvette Headcanons - headcanons about Charlie/Velvette (+ 1 for Charlie/Vaggie/Velvette) (Tumblr Post)

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

46, 54, 56, 58, 65, and 77 (for GoS and MoaH), for the fic questions thing :] feel free to skip any of these i just picked a handful i thought would be interesting

Ah! You spoil me! I'm gonna try to get them all. Thank you for the ask!

46) How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

Oh boy, this one is tough for me. Generally, I'd say action-drive considering how quickly I try to get to the plot, followed by character. I like having big casts (if GoS and MoaH haven't given that away).

54) What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

I feel like this is a bit of a cheat, but honestly, the posting process. It is a bit of a double-edged sword, but getting to see y'all's reactions makes my day. And it always feels good to be part of fandom and folks who also enjoy this thing I enjoy.

I guess less cheat, the sandbox/worldbuilding process. Getting to take the parts of the setting and play with them. For example, in MoaH, I'm having so much fun with reimagining the lineages/races and how they exist in this setting unique from other moments in canon. Marela's Zora design really started a deep dive there (pun absolutely intended!) on the fun things fic can do when it's not constricted by hardware limitations.

56) What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I just got a compliment on my worldbuilding today, so I'll say that for one. Personally though, I'm gonna say my originality. I definitely can't say I came up with the idea of "original legends," but I have also never seen anyone tell stories how I tell stories. Things like how I divide chapters and the "..." chapter continuations. It's definitely my own style!

58) What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) 

Writing! Look, I'll get lost in worldbuilding, but the writing it part is way more fun. Is there anyone who genuinely said editing tho, because I don't understand you.

65) Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Since GoS is complete, I'll answer this for MoaH. Currently, in book 2, there's a gala coming up with very good Zelink interactions I'm looking forward to.

And, as a future project, in book 3, oh, in book 3. Well, let's just say I'm correcting a mistake I made in GoS in introducing a very important character so late. He shows up much sooner.

77) Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter? 

Since I was asked for both Goddess of Secrecy & Mark of a Hero, I will give you one of both.

For GoS, and this is a very late scene not yet imported to AO3, a tie between the boss fight in the Soul Temple and the final phase of the Ganondorf fight. Getting to bring so much of the cast back was an absolute blast, but also the emotional impact of the Soul Temple fight. Ah! It was so good. And what a twist! Setting that one up so the title didn't spoil it was a challenge and worth it.

For MoaH, oh boy. Where to start. 90% of the scenes I'm thinking about are Zelink bull y'all don't have yet and won't be out until like, at least October. If not later. The earliest one, oh...there's a scene in Overworld Chapter 34 that absolutely is going to get me comments for the tease of it.

Closer, there's a really good scene coming up in Overworld Chapter 25 that brings back someone from GoS in a way, and I love this interaction of them.

Thank you again @doubtfulloser! I will absolutely always answer all of these if you send them.

[menlove]

heeey james, hope you're having fun camping 💛 8, 12, 25 and 55 for the writing asks!

post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip

oooh okay here's one I'm writing in my notes app while on this trip lmao

He's gotten in a rather bad habit of eating in the sitting room while the telly's on, but it's not like there's anyone around to give a damn. He bends to turn the telly on, turning the channel until he finds a Star Trek re-run going. That'll be an alright night, he reckons. Especially now that he's letting himself admit he fancies Captian Kirk, a bit. Something about that overconfident swagger paired with those thighs...

do you outline your fics? if yes, how detailed are your outlines? how far do you stray from them?

depends! when I'm writing by myself, not really. when I'm writing w someone, yes. and they're semi-detailed. enough to get the beats and anything vital. so far, I've never strayed at all from the outline bc if smth big changes we go back in and re-work the outline lol

what’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

MANNNNN solid tie between worldbuilding and writing tbh. you can ask @forthlin but I love love love to ramble abt headcanons and so it's definitely a favorite. but I also just love getting into the zone and writing.

have you noticed any patterns in your fics? words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

HM. longing, probably. for a person or place or emotion. lots of longing in my fics I think. I also wind up w lots of sky imagery 💀

fanfic writer asks!

[loralee-frickfrackao3]

On the numbers in sorcerer society

There was a post going around about calculating the numbers of different factions in Naruto and this got me to thinking about numbers in Jujutsu Kaisen.

The numbers of overall active sorcerers, clan members and curse users is never confirmed, though we can see it's implied to be rather small. I've seen estimates between 5000 and 8000, but this number seems ridiculously small if we have to account for how big the main clans are, how many other clans there are, the Ainu society (which is mentioned but never adressed), the number of assistant managers, or the number of people with dormant abilities who can't use jujutsu but still see curses. I think think number can be reasonably extended without making it seem like there are too many sorcerers. So while my math is quite rough, I think it can be a good foundation for fic writing/worldbuilding.

If we consider the threshold for a 'sorcerer' as being able to use any form of cursed energy, including just being able to see cursed spirits, and we place that ratio as 0.2% of the Japanese population, this can still put us at a nice 240000. Even if we cut this down to 24000, with accounting for a majority of this number being assistant managers, very low grade sorcerers and curse users, and a decent numbers of civilians with no clan affiliation to speak of, that is still a sizable enough number.

As a point of reference, the Ainu population is currently, officially counted at 25000 which works as a nice parallel and will also tie into the Ainu sorcerer society. Unofficial sources increase the number of Ainu descended people to include those who may be unaware of their lineage or have too thin a connection with their Ainu ancestry, thus increasing the number all the way to 200000.

We can use this as a benchmark as well, but for now let’s round the number to about 30000 just to have some more freedom and  break down how things can look:

15000 people who are simply capable of seeing curses or having dormant abilities, minor capability to control jujutsu or come from no clan. We can put Geto, Todo, Yuki, and Nanami in this group as independently born sorcerers. Higuruma and Takaba as people who are born with the potential to use cursed energy but in all likelihood would have stayed with dormant abilities their whole lives without outside intervention. People like Shiu Kong, Kuroi and the assistant managers will also be placed in this group

2000 people in the Gojo clan, including branch families as a high estimate – even if only Gojo is ever shown or considered important, for him to come from a prestigious lineage it’s necessary to account for a large and structured clan that may be spread out all across the country and able to support him through different means

1000 people in the Zen’in clan.

800 people in the Kamo clan as they seem the least relevant or powerful.

As all these clans have existed for centuries, even with war and a lot of losses, it's fair to give them more than 200 people per clan at present. We can assume not everyone lives within their compounds and there's multiple branches for each family. These numbers will include all children and elders, and we can also assume a majority of the clans don't compare to the level of power to the main cast, but they would still have more training and aptitude for jujutsu that people from the majority, such as Maki, are outliers.

5 Higher ups who we can all assume come from a reputable family as well – let’s round this out to 2500 for 500 people per person’s clan, which can also make them outnumber the other clans, therefore this is the reason the other clans go along with them and agree to be allied as a form of establishing their own power.

As it’s never established just how many other sorcerer clans there are, like Inumaki’s, but we do know that there are at least two separate clans that use Cursed Speech (as the villain in one of the light novels explains to Nobara), what we’ll assume is that there’s numerous of them with less than 100 people in them, so many probably have a compound or main house with 50 people at a time at most, and most are at large integrated into modern society as nuclear families instead. Let’s put this number as a solid 6000. With regards to the Ainu sorcerer community, we can possibly include them in this number and cap them off at 500 active sorcerers who can exorcise curses – those that cannot or have too little capacity for cursed energy can be included in the primary category of 15000.

We’re left with 300 more from completing the 30000 number, so we can say those 300 could be active/known rogue curse users, whose abilities we’ll count to be Grade 2 and above. Any of their allies will also be counted from the main 15000 pool, if we imagine them to be handlers, informants or general errand runners who side with them but likely don’t exorcise curses or kill.

I think it's a huge shame that the overall world of what life is like for established sorcerers or low tier sorcerers is never built upon - it's very clear that it's a magic system for the sake of it that was never too fully developed, but we can't choose who we love. And I've chosen to love this really confounding shounen lol

The clan politics and history never being shared much makes me espcially disappointed because it's arguably one of the best places to create more drama and challenges for the main characters. People LOVE intergenerational family drama, there's so much that could have been done with this concept. Which is also what I can say about most of Jujutsu Kaisen - there was SO MUCH that could have been done!!! Instead of what we get!!!!!!