#you're absolutely allowed to not like the content of a fic - be it characterization or plot points or whatever

[piratefalls]

y'all, if you don't even like the premise of a fic, never mind its content, and you possess the ability to scroll past it, you should probably just...do that. instead of putting authors on blast for writing a thing you don't agree with.

[theinvisiblemuseum]

how about......people demanding wlw rep then never actually engaging with it because the only thing they care about is woke points☕

this really was the wrong day for me to rb this game because i'm seriously genuinely going to be a major cunt about it and i dgaf. that's your warning.

so. here's what i think. in very general terms.

if you don't want to read below the cut (valid) here's all i'll say: stop, actually. i don't want need or care about the megaviral wlw fanfictions of your dreams, because that's not how i choose to engage with fandoms. i already make and engage with the kind of content i want to see which (surprise!) includes a lot of wlw content, but i don't see the need to force moral superiority down people's throats over it. i don't give two shits if anyone other than me is making wlw content. this is fanfiction. fanart. etc. people are allowed to write or engage with whatever they want, HOWEVER if you're throwing a fit over not having enough wlw content and can't name a woman off the top of ur head, that seems like a you problem, idk. basically i choose to actively NOT engage with the type of people screaming crying and pissing themselves over content that already exists that they can't be bothered to look for because appearances and #feminism are all that matters.

if you're here, i'm going to get more cunty, not sorry, you were warned.

the demand for wlw rep is absolutely just dog whistling to seem holier than thou, and like, whatever, most of this shit originates on twitter and tiktok and i've never listened to a word a twitter or tiktok user has said and i won't start now so on the whole i can just put my metaphorical headphones on and tune it out and keep doing my thing, yk? but when it permeates my little den of horror and my brain starts scratching itself, well, i find that sometimes i need to be an asshole and sometimes is right now.

it's not actually a fandom sexism/misogyny issue it's an issue of wanting validation to enjoy certain things, because those things are only cool if the hivemind says so, right? i'm no political expert but i know enough to know that cultlike thought patterns don't lead anywhere good. i've seen zombie movies. i live in america. LOL.

i always joke about how i'd rather die than have my favorite ships become popular (i.e. pandalily, bartydora, lilycissa, etc) but the reason i say that is because a. it breeds discourse that i don't care about, and b. i don't want a bunch of people engaging with content they're not actually interested in just to seem woke or stay on top of trends. it just makes things worse for the people who actually enjoy it.

and while i have your attention, and while i'm being a bitch, wanna know one of the big reasons i think people are crying and whining about the 'lack of wlw rep'? they want other people to care so they don't have to. of course, they don't realize other people already dooooo care, because they're too terrified to sort by anything other than hits on ao3, but that's neither here nor there. no, what they want is for some big strong heavenly god to bite the bullet and characterize these women that, let's be frank, are names on a page and nothing more, so they don't have to. so they can keep on keeping on with the characters they DO care about and toss something around every once and a while about (insert megaviral wlw fic that doesn't exist) to avoid claims of sexism & lesbophobia. AND AS A DISCLAIMER! i don't think people should feel the need to care about a bunch of random characters if they don't want to. once again, this is fanfiction. do whatever the fuck you want. i promise it makes things so much more fun and chill. just because i wanna characterize the shit out of pandora fucking lovegood, i'd never demand anyone else does, and that's the crux of it, isn't it?

this is why it also bugs me when i see posts like 'omg i don't even care who the ship is, i just love sapphics!' or smth along those lines because like, yeah, i love women and i love when women fuck each other and love each other, but i'm not just gonna care about a ship because it's two women. if i did, i'd be more than happy with the pg spoonfed #girlcore sapphic representation in mass media, because half the time it's just two white girls named rachel and brookleighanna whose only defining character traits are that they're gay. nothing more. and sorry, but i'd rather have no wlw content than that. i can't enjoy a ship if i haven't rotated them to hell and back like a rotisserie chicken in my silly little head, often before i've even consumed any content about them. that's the fun of it! i sent like 12 voice messages about a ship i don't even care about that much one time just because i took a shower and had a lot of thoughts. does that mean i'm going to attempt to make them a cornerstone of the Fandom As A Whole and be treated like a celebrity over it? fuck no. i'm just here because i like to have fun and talk to people about characters we all enjoy and create so much lore in my head that only 2 people will ever know about simply because i'm passionate about it and that passion is really enjoyable to me. fandom is a community to me, not a hierarchy, like tiktok or twitter would have you believe, and i think that's what this whole conversation about wlw rep is missing right from the jump. (ta da! i circled back to the point at hand in the end. my tangent had a point!)

yeah so that's my two cents. lol.

[tiffanytoms]

Do you think one of the reasons why (the vast majority) of Jily fics consist of the same recycled tropes and characterizations is because the Jily fandom (or at least a vocal minority) is less receptive to anything different like fics where the characters are more morally ambiguous/not as perfectly brave+good as they’re usually portrayed?

Hello!

Okay, I am going to answer this question like it was asked in good faith and is not a trap - and really hope that one of the 50 trolls I've blocked doesn't come out of the woodwork bc their spidey-senses started tingling and they just can't wait to yell their Karen opinions at me (I've been traumatized... can you tell I've been traumatized? 🤪)

Yes, absolutely yes. And I would agree it is a vocal minority, bc my anon asks and reader stats have never been better than for my darkest fic. Even the ppl who ended up turning on it were some of the biggest fans/reviewers/ask-senders, etc, so, at the end of the day that's their problem with human psychology and not me.

Morally ambiguous content is DEFINITELY popular, but you got some really loud, obnoxious, morally-superior purity warriors who (can't read warnings and tags), I guess, are here to cleanse all our souls by chastising and bullying others (??) whenever they admit that they like anything different, and that (understandably) pushes ppl back into the shadows. You can one thousand percent enjoy something that you know is bad for you or that you shouldn't. (Hello, sugar? Alcohol? Anything fun? Hahaha) Guilty pleasures are not a crime and reading literal crimes is not a crime. Seriously. You can read about murder and no one has to go to jail! 😱

But let me explain myself further: do I think popular tropes are a bad thing? No! Obviously if so many ppl are writing them, ppl like them! I enjoy them too. I think that's great, write away, but I think there's a problem when ppl are actively trying to stop others from writing anything different bc it's not what they personally want to read. We don't cater to entitled narcissists around here. It's the internet. There's enough room for everyone and ppl gotta learn to share their toys, lol. It is really sad bc over the years I have seen other specific writers (weird that this seems to be a recurring theme...) bullying away several amazing, original writers and that's just all sorts of fucked up. You can't tout this perfect utopian community by ostracizing and lying about anyone who dares to think even slightly differently than the norm. It's dumb as hell, and really insecure on those writers' parts. And frankly, I'm pissed they keep getting away with it.

That being said, let's veer into less nefarious waters and say that these ppl didn't lash out due to jealousy and marking their territory, but bc ppl in general are scared of anything new and what they don't understand. Ppl are creatures of habit, so if enough ppl write Jily in a specific way, that way almost becomes canon. For example, I will never forget my complete 'HUH 🤔' moment when someone was sharing my non-problematic, canon story WAYDTM (so they were clearly a fan) and tagged it as 'OOC'. Bc in my head I was like............. how are they out of character? We literally only know xyz about them and THAT'S IT. But it was completely bc so many ppl had written Lily and James in that specific way that that was almost what was expected. Me making James actually be an asshole at the beginning was marked as 'out of character' even if it made complete sense for the way I told the story.

And to that I say, fuck that.

No one here owns Jily, no one here knows Jily, bc Jily does not exist, they are not real, so write them however the fuck you want. It literally hurts no one, it is a story.

If ppl read the story, cool. If they don't, also cool. But at the end of the day, this is fanfiction over fictional characters, and if you're not allowed to play, then what's the fucking point.

I think it boils down to 2 camps: ppl who want to read/write aspirational Jily, and ppl who want to read/write messy, real (sometimes bad) Jily. Both are completely acceptable and wonderful and AWESOME, and we can have both. We just need both camps to mind their own business (but feel free to travel between them! That's cool!) and live and let live and not pretend like either is better than the other.

It just gets so fucking weird when you have ppl trying to tell you what you can or cannot do. Cut that shit out.

Thanks for the ask 😁 Sorry I got a little heated, this has just been a lot.

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

so, ive been brewing a little crossover between tf2 and the oc lore my moirail and i made up, which i do talk and write fic about outside of my interactions with him.

am i allowed to write fic for the crossover? i feel safest in general contributing to the fandom via this crossover because, at least in my mind - and im well aware i may be completely insane - if i make content for just plain tf2 and accidentally get one of the characters wrong, anyone can just waltz up into my comments section and scream at me about it. but this crossover is taking the characters into My Domain, which makes it Rude to yell at me if i make characterization mistake

I think you should stop worrying abt what other people think and just do whatever! I have gotten many an ask in which some anon angrily declares that my headcanon is wrong and theirs is right but it's like. That's not going to change my opinion lol! Some people aren't going to like your fic or agree with your interpretations and that's fine, maturity and civility is recognizing that Everyone Is Valid(tm) and just like. Living and letting live. I am very close friends with people who have VERY different opinions on tf2 men than me bc I am normal. Putting ur art out publicly means potentially opening doors to criticism, but also you're allowed to ignore it! Also I will note that whenever I've been very worried abt posting something I think people will hate people are always absolutely lovely to me about it. Basically, go for it man

[boundinparchment]

18 and/or 19 for the happiness asks?

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

In my case, and maybe it’s just because I haven’t delved into the far, far reaches of the tags in a while, so many people are sleeping on longer stories.

A lot of people want shorter content and I totally get why, but shorter fan content doesn’t allow for nuance, substance, characterization and development. I’m so biased on this in particular because I love chonky fics!

19. you're surprised you actually like...

Writing about the quiet parts of building relationships between characters and all of the nuances that go into it. Younger me would have found that tedious and pointless; now, I can’t imagine not considering certain elements between characters or setting up dominoes to knock them down in ten chapters.

[lonewolflink]

How do you decide when to end a chapter? Do you aim for an approx word count or is the division of chapters solely based on content? Really enjoying hockey AU!

hi anon! glad you're enjoying hockey au :)

i'd say it's sort of both approx word count and content? sort of a vibes based approach that incorporates both? it's mostly content/serving the story properly, but the content so far has tracked a pretty consistent pattern.

like most of my chapters have been around 5k words plus or minus 1k. i haven't been AIMING for 5k, but the content of the story has tended to divide pretty nicely into 5k chunks like that. i anticipate most chapters will be around that length, just because that seems to be where i like to end a chapter instinctively.

however!!! i already know that there will be some bigger chapters (i have them labeled "monster chapter" in my organization document). those are gonna be significantly longer, and i want them together in one chapter because it i don't want to disrupt the flow of the action by breaking it up into two chunks. i think it would do a disservice to the story. so in those cases, content very clearly trumps any consideration of length, and i even know that in advance.

i can say more about my thought process specifically for this last chapter, but i'll put that under the cut.

in the case of ch. 4 (just posted) and ch. 5 (upcoming chapter), i basically realized i wanted to add a bunch of scenes before training camp to flesh out the world, keep characterization consistent, and do a better job setting up some of the dynamics in training camp itself.

like it didn't make sense to me that jihyo, who i'm characterizing as a great leader, wouldn't reach out to ryujin even once before training camp even though she put in all this effort to give the freshmen mentors, welcome packets, etc. obviously she's not gonna baby ryujin in that same way, since she's a junior, but there's no way she doesn't put in some effort. so that's why i wrote the first part of ch. 4.

the middle/last part of ch. 4, lia's social guide to jypu hockey, was something i realized i needed to make for a couple of reasons. first, it makes sense for the characters; ryujin has gotten a lay of the land hockey-wise, at least on paper, but she's still kind of a social outsider.

at this point in the story, ryujin is very much in like...a data gathering phase, so that she can figure out what she needs to do to find success at jypu (both on and off the ice). we've seen that she's not too prideful to ask for help/info from chaer, so i think there's no way she wouldn't ask one of her two new friends about the personalities of her teammates at some point before training camp. and she had just started becoming friendly with lia, so i kind of tried to kill two birds with one stone there; get ryujin the information she wanted/needed (esp. re: lily, sana, and dahyun), but also solidify her friendship with lia like i did her friendship with chaer in ch. 3.

plus, the set up of the party scene allowed me to put in some easter eggs, a little bit of foreshadowing (some of which people have caught, some of which people absolutely missed), and even give a taste of lia's dynamic with chaeryeong (feeding my own need for this to be an OT5 fic lol). in general, i want the ensemble cast to be at least somewhat fleshed out before the season starts in earnest with yeji in ch. 6, so ch. 4 and 5 are both doing that in different ways.

initially, the content of ch. 4 was just gonna be kind of the introductory section of ch. 5, but then those scenes hit 5k and i was like "oh this is actually kind of an independent set up chapter, and the fact that i just hit the 5k mark is a clear indicator of that. i want the training camp chapter to really be its own thing, but if i leave these together as a monster chapter it's kinda too long and the flow is weird".

so, i ended up deciding to split them up, which i still think was the right call because ch. 5 as it currently stands is already past 7k and i still have another long-ish (...ryeji!) scene left to write.

anyway that's my long ramble, hope my thought process isn't too hard to follow lol

it makes sense in my head i swear!!

[gloriousmonsters]

can you answer 38-48 for the ask? thanks :)

38. Did any of your fics get surprisingly popular (whatever that means to you)? Which ones? Why do you think they were so successful?

you say jump i say how high is my most popular fic going off kudos and bookmarks, and I did NOT expect that at all. It's a Yuletide request fic, Billy/Stu, and I remember distinctly writing it in a blind haze of stress sitting in the kitchen with the dishwasher running because that was the only white noise that worked to write to at the moment. I feel like it actually turned out pretty great for how teeth-pulling writing it was (I stopped doing exchanges a while ago bc i am really bad at writing anything i'm not super inspired for) but not for it to be on the *checks* front page of billy/stu fics kudos-sorted after. Four years. I can only assume I did something right and/or I wrote it at a time the pairing was having a resurgence of popularity, but it still mystifies me a bit.

Also tbh, despite the relatively low amount of kudos/hits, allow the ground to find its brutal way to me feels surprisingly popular because i posted it with the feeling of 'maybe two people will want a sequel to the indulgent mind control porn i posted like 3 days ago' and it's been getting so many great comments as the chapters progress. I guess the benefit to writing something that feels like it won't have wide appeal means that the people who are into it tend to be very enthusiastic about it, lol.

48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

...no, because I was doing the thing of 'go through the tag with increasingly lowered standards' with a pairing so the last page of my history is. eh, but I'm obviously not going to call by name a fic I didn't like - that feels unnecessarily mean. Instead, scrolling back, I'm gonna say the last one I really enjoyed was Chainbreaker - I don't often read A/B/O, but when I'm looking for Ganondorf/Link noncon and a GORGEOUSLY written bitching fic is dropped on my lap I absolutely will. If you're at all into messed-up noncon, A/B/O, etc, check it out, because I meant it when I said it's fantastically written - very hot, genuinely beautiful prose, fantastic characterization, and the author's great about putting quite detailed content warnings in the notes if you need them.

[familyagrestefanblog]

I think I know which post you're talking about, but in general, yeah, it feels...very dishonest to automatically categorize every fic that has even the most basic level of negative emotional consequence from - for example - Adrien towards Marinette immediately as saltfic. Even the ones that are literally just 'Adrien gets upset for 5 minutes for something anyone would get upset about, they talk and Adrien's feelings aren't swept under the rug. That's it."

I find it extremely concerning that people aren't even allowed anymore to write any kind of fanfictions to deal with their grievances with Canon ml through basic emotional catharsis (which is what fanfictions are for), especially when it's about Marinette, without being called a salter.

Absolutely everything besides fluff and sugar is automatically salt now. There is hardly anything in between anymore. And people wonder why the Ladynoir July for example wasn't as well-participated as it once was.

I'll tell you why: it's because people know exactly that any mentioning of especially Marinette's shortcomings is a mine field now, but for most that's what would be needed to at least some level to create even positive fan content. I know that's what happened to me again. I WANTED to participate in it again. I MISS participating in it and tried it over and over again to keep the content in a vague vacuum but I simply couldn't manage to not include at least some layer of emotional catharsis through Maribug wanting to make up for her undealt canon faults/ shortcomings

Because for me canon feels like salt now for having Marinette NOT do that. So of course any Ladynoir shipping fic I'll write will have Marinette characterized as the Marinette I loved for so long who genuinely loved her Chaton enough to bring up important stuff she wants to set right and listen, and not keep hiding behind her free passes on his expense, endangering his life for her personal needs to not feel uncomfortable in a conversation.

Sorry that my Marinette wouldn't do that and I can't bring myself to write her as her canon self or leave that unchallenged because it literally goes fundamentally against what the Marinette I still hold dearly in my heart stands for.

So, yeah, count me as upset that any fanfiction now counts as SALT where Marinette is asked to deal with the fact that she unintentionally hurt a person she supposedly loves dearly and it lead to him being justifiedly upset for once in a way that isn't priorizing her over his feelings and entire personhood. Because that shouldn't be salt and I really don't believe that the qualification for salt is THIS abysmally low when it comes to the other characters' honor.

Rarely any of the season 4 'saltfics against Ladybug' I read DIDN'T literally end in a happy ending. Because that's what we wanted too. We just wanted emotional catharsis and explore interesting ideas as well, sorry that your and Canon Marinette can't handle that anymore

Mine can.

I saw someone refer to the fics that came out where Chat finds out about Ladybug telling Alya her identity in Gang of Secrets and gets upset about it as "saltfics" and... I guess? You could consider any of the "Adrien finds out that Ladybug lied about how Gabriel died and/or that he's a sentimonster and she didn't tell him and gets upset about it" fics to be saltfics as well, if you're defining saltfics to mean "any fic that criticizes a character's actions." Which WAS what it was taken to mean when it first started being used.

Thing is, when I use it, that's not what I mean? Just to be clear, criticizing and analyzing a character's actions, and even being negative towards them as a result, is generally okay in my book. When I say that I hate saltfics, I'm more talking about Ron the Death Eater stuff.

Like for me, what I have a problem with is more fics that

A. Criticize characters for shit they never did. Like having Alya ostracize Marinette, outright try to bully her, fics that make Adrien tell Marinette not to make a scene even when Lila's clearly maliciously, intentionally hurting Marinette right in front of him (as opposed to that possibly being just collateral damage of a non-malicious lie), stuff that didn't canonically happen, you know?

B. Inflict disproportionate retribution for things the characters did, whether it's canonical or not. A fic may only be criticizing Alya for asking for evidence that Lila's a liar or is at fault for something before jumping to conclusions, but if Marinette's response to that reasonable request is to cut off her friendship and revoke her miraculous, then that's still very salty.

But yeah. The vast majority of "Adrien gets upset with Ladybug for hiding things from him" fics don't qualify as saltfics by my own personal metric, because most of them are only faulting Ladybug for things she actually canonically did, and usually have a pretty proportionate response - especially for season 5 aftermath fics. Lying about to your boyfriend about how his father died, what kind of person he was, and not telling him he's a sentimonster IS fair reason to be angry.

I generally like fics to still have them make up, but I don't like putting those fics on the same level as the "Alya leads the class in beating up Marinette and yelling insults at her while Adrien just ignores her cries for help even while she's being physically hurt" fics, they're on such WILDLY different levels that it's comical.

[hunxi-after-hours]

Hello! Firstly, thank you for everything that you do- your meta is always fascinating and your fic may have gotten me into ballet. Secondly- She Who Became The Sun: why is that book so good? I went in with such high expectations and yet somehow it completely met them!

words cannot contain how excited I am that folks are enjoying She Who Became the Sun!!!! look I just want the best things for Shelley Parker-Chan, all the time, okay

I feel like the reason SWBTS is so good is because it's so goshdarned competent on multiple levels of fiction writing, like:

plot: did you see that second-to-third act twist coming because I sure didn't

character: I feel like a lot of epic fantasy (or historical epic!) can struggle with humanizing their characters and allowing them to be flawed, hesitant people beyond their epic, prophesied purpose, but SPC manages to strike that careful balance between human and legend

themes: sometimes you read a book with excellent plot and characterization but then you get to the end of it and you're like "well, guess that was that" because when you actually look at it, the ideas and concepts in the book aren't all that complex. and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! I love rollicking good yarns! but SWBTS deals with some very morally gray characters and situations, especially with its main characters (love it when authors make their protagonists morally gray in a morally gray world, instead of morally pure in a morally gray world), and that's what gives it staying power in my mind

language: I lost my goddamn mind over SPC's use of translation and style in this book, the absolutely mind-boggling thing is that SWBTS reads like it's in translation and I'm just. yelling

content/concept: I mean, just like "founding of the Ming Dynasty but make it queer/historical fantasy/not at all what you'd expect" is just. SPC your MIND. and the fact that SPC sets their novel in identifiably Ming Dynasty China, from material details (can we talk about the scene where Ma is repairing armor with pages torn from books because holy shit) to place names to twists of language is so fucking cool. look, I respect authors who take their East Asian inspirations and set them in secondary world SF/F. in fact, I prefer those works (Ninefox Gambit my beloved), but for SPC to go "nah, I'm going to set it in what is identifiably China" is super fucking kickass, okay

novelty: Brandon Sanderson wrote a wild epilogue in Stormlight Archive where one of his characters (Hoid, I love you) muses on the nature of art, asking what is the most important thing in establishing the greatness of a work? And he comes to the conclusion that's not quality, nor is it ingenuity--it's novelty. It's doing something before anyone else does it. And I don't think anyone is doing it quite like SPC is--not Ken Liu, not R.F. Kuang, not Zen Cho (though don't get me wrong, those three authors are also creating incredible content). SPC really was like "I couldn't find any cdrama-like stories in English so I wrote my own" and then proceeded to do exactly that

tl;dr SWBTS is a tour de force on multiple levels

[yellowocaballero]

oh no you're right about all of it i'm not jewish either i'm on the other spectrum of the scale that is abrahamic religions (unnecessarily convoluted way to say i'm muslim idk why i phrased it like that lol anyway) so as someone who's pretty used to seeing characters with the same religion as me onscreen either having that aspect of their identity pretty heavily stereotyped or just trivialised i was hoping the show would handle it sensitively considering that (i haven't read the comics) marc's jewish identity does play a huge part in his characterization even if he wasn't conceived as jewish from the get go

and you're right we get like a handful of scenes that establish he's jewish (even less so for steven someone else pointed out the mezuzah in a fic but i'm not really good at finding stuff like that so yeah) and like yeah there's a lot going on in that scene but it's just subtext yk? it's written as something that's meant to be inferred and idk i do feel like there should've been more explicit text (tbf a lot of my problems with mk is that they rely way too much on like the audience piecing things together i mean i'm not asking for an exposition dump but it would've been nice to have like more flashbacks for characters and some more exposition and stuff)

the mcu is definitely heavily pro military there's this yt video by skipintro i watched a while ago which talked about the support the military funding of the mcu movies and how the avengers can be very easily equated to the united states' tendency to be the global police and how cap and tony represent american exceptionalism vs imperialism in their civil war conflict (great video btw you should check it out if you have time)

and yess i agree like yeah the story was very scaled up and didn't have as much time devoted to the characters that i feel an initial outing should've had especially considering that these are characters having their first appearance in this franchise + the way everyone keeps talking about it being a contained story like i have such mixed feelings about this show because there's a shit load of potential and i feel like they missed out on an important chunk of it but i do really like the characters so that explains why i'm always looking up for fics with them i guess

please don't apologise about the question i started the ramble and ngl i was kind of anxious for some reason after sending that ask lol so your very cohesive reply was great i had to reread it a couple times to be sure to formulate my response to everything (might've still missed one or two points wouldn't be surprised if i did)

anyway as an actual answer to your answer to the question i asked i really love that idea of jake being really philosophical and same idt i'd ever feel comfortable writing about marc's relationship with his religion because it's pretty different from my own (we both have a complicated relationship with though lol) and yeah thank you for answering my ask so eloquently hope you're having a good day/night

You are absolutely fine I love rambling and talking.

I love comic books and I hate the MCU as a whole so I am perpetually stuck in a sticky situation where I still glean joy from MS MARVEL on SCREEN doing her TEEN HIJINK but also it's all tepid and insipid. Which is...that is so fine, things are allowed to be tepid. But if you do nothing but read comics then you become a redditor and it's the same way with any sort of, for lack of a better word, 'trashy' stuff. I watch an insane amount of the trashiest genres one may imagine that I don't talk too much here about, and it's great, but if it was the only thing I watched my brain would leak out of my ears.

And yes, totally, MK brings up some insanely interesting stuff that you can just go way deep into, and I did enjoy how it did not assume the audience was stupid. With only 6 hours of content I am guessing that they just simply did not have time to stretch things and lay them out more explicitly. My brain is a rabid hyena and media analysis is crack cocaine to me, so I was really satisfied with the amount that it left me to figure out, but you are right - criticism should be laid out. You should be upfront. And while it's cool to leave some stuff (themes, imagery, metatextual relationship with the MCU, commentary on DID in media) implied, stuff like Marc's Jewishness has been implied enough. Again, like, look at how many Jewish characters we have. When writing, especially for TV, you have to make a lot of sacrifices to choose what to cut and what to keep, but I believe it's important to prioritize stuff like that. Wish things were different, wish it wasn't MCU, wish it had more than 6 episodes, wish it could have a harder bite. Verdict Of Would Be Better If More Episodes And Not Disney.

The MCU, and you could make a very strong argument that the entire concept of superheroes, is rabidly pro-military and it's disturbing. At the very least it's propaganda for the American hero narratives of the Exceptional Man and propagating exceptionalism, at the most it is just funded by the military. I could go REALLY fucking into comparing how the military is portrayed with Steve Rogers vs Carol Danvers vs [mostly implied but very much there] Marc Spector and it's fucking fascinating. The show has a subtle relationship with the rest of the MCU. But, like, military propaganda, so. It can't just not be that. So [mostly implied but very much there].

Unfortunately "really enjoyable, had a lot of potential, charming characters, didn't quite live up to the potential" is. The ripest, most fertile ground for fanfic.

Very quickly re: writing identities that are not your own - I have a pretty basic formula, which is that as a basic foundation I look for similarities and shared experiences between myself and that identity, and how I can relate and halfway-understand. I normally get this through talking with friends and exchanging viewpoints and also keeping in mind that not all experiences of discrimination are equivalent. In the story, the stuff that I will just never understand I downplay and the parts that resound with me the most I spend more time on. I fill up the gaps and add detail through research, speaking to friends again and reading testimonials, and doing more straightforward Wikipedia stuff for terminology and etc.

[owlyflufff]

Hi!!! I was like 'woaaaahhhhhhh' after reading your fanfics damn you're too good. You know there aren't many who can put things so beautifully also not to forget the fact that the characterisation of Bokuto and Akaashi is nothing but perfect. What are you? God?

Although I love your fics, I would like you to write something where the relationship of Bokuto and Akaashi is kinda open for everyone to make their own opinions. You know how they can be just friends, s'owl'mates and not be bound to any particular relationship as such, but there is love. Because 'love' can be of many types.

Also, I know that you've written something of that sort (the 'sherlock holmes' one!) I really loved that! So I don't really expect you to reply but yeah I'd be thrilled if you did! UwU <3

Thank you, glad to be here. (●'◡'●)

Hallo!

I'm at a lost for words right now cause this ask makes me terribly happy, thank you so so so much for this! (also m sorry ahead of time if I ramble here TvT)

Aww, I'm glad that you love my characterization of Bokuto and Akaashi! It’s fun writing both of their characters even though it can be relatively tricky at times!

As for your request, I would love to try and write more Bokuaka pieces that allow for the reader to interpret it! I've tried,,,a lot actually but it just "nyooms!" back to Bokuaka being a couple because it's always been them and that constant trust, understanding and love they have for one another. You're absolutely right, love can be many different kinds, for me personally it just so happens that writing Bokuto and Akaashi as a couple feels easier, more natural and makes me really happy whenever I write them in that manner!

Once again, thank you just as much for being here! It makes me really happy to know that you love my content as much as I love making it!

To more Bokuaka posts!

[py-dreamer]

honestly mood and a part of me definitely agrees

They both have indeed messed up and both deserve dunce hats for what they both did

But there's also a deep dark part of me that's seen so much of the scale skewered to one side, the fandom bashing one of them and coddling the other to the point I find peeps who defend the other one are to be outliers and bashing them being the norm.

Meanwhile in my personal view, one normally being bashed is at least has been shown to be canonically remorseful, is at least trying to work on things despite their flaws and has aknowleged those consequences and has dearly paid for them himself.

Yet I still see so many peeps bashing them, characterizing them as a socially inept asshole who has no semblance of responsibility, everyone hates them and if there are apologies in a fic, they will go hands and knees sobbing at how guilty and listing everything that they were in the wrong about meanwhile the other guy will just say: "I did bad things too." and leave it at that. Or he will not the accept the apology and also refuses to apologies for the sh!t he's pulled.

The guy getting coddled is also literally a villain and though is currently an anti-hero at the moment and HAS NOT APOLOGIZED TO ANY OF THE CHARACTERS HE'S WRONGED WHO NEVER HARMED HIM IN THE PAST.

And I see so much content where they characterize him as an 'uwu babygirl damsel in distress' who needs to be protected and is uncharecteristically weak and I just have to plough through it to get to stuff I can enjoy.

Even in stuff (fics) everyone objectively enjoys sometimes I can still sniff the skewering of the scales or big elephants in the room not being aknowleged and his sins are brushed under the carpet or if you think about some thing sin retrospect are supper messed up yet you just have to suck it up in order to enjoy that fan-content that is absolutely great but wreaks of skewed opinions. AND IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME WAY OF BASHING AND CODDLING!!!!

To the point that other characters will be grouped with the one that's coddled by the fandom even though they have very little canon interaction and normally you'd be fine with it.

But when you see it skewed always to one side and everyone hating the other guy...you kinda get a wee bit sick off it.

And after wadding through all of that, you're left with like 4 blogs who actually speak out about this and post excellent content too but are left feeling a bit peeved about the skewering of everything until you yourself are protecting the character getting bashed and trying to call out the other guy just to even the scales and make something for once instead of 'complaining'.

I can respect anyone who does favor one character over another. And if you're avoiding this drama, that's great! Good for you!

I'm just a wee bit peeved and caught in this storm trying to 'even' out what can sometimes feels like the overwhelming majority.

(Again, if your opinions are skewed that's fine. Just don't send any hate pls we're all allowed our own opinions. Please don't stop making fan content, it's all great, it really is. Do whatever your heart feels.)

Okay, soooo… can we talk about the ‘I'm gonna call out the monkeys bullshit!’ thing going on in a lot of fics 😅 ? I've seen it a lot, usually it's ‘I'm gonna call out Macaque’ or ‘I'm gonna call out Wukong’ and, well, okay I'm in for some monkey angst or the monkeys getting the consequences of their actions but there is so much unnecessary hatred sometimes.

Like… please, they both messed up, 😔. Can we acknowledge that? I just feel like everyone (and I mean everyone down to Chang'e??? Who is literally on the moon and never interacts with anyone much??) is hating either Wukong or Macaque. And while okay the monkeys should feel the consequences of their actions… When the whole cast is against one monkey and hates him so viciously, it just makes me sympathize with the monkey getting all the hate.

Am I the only one who just wants to put those monkeys in blankets and pet them on the head and say it's gonna be okay?? Maybe it's just too much angst for me or my fluffy heart is coming out, idk.

I think I'm just gonna avoid those ‘I'm calling out’ fics now ‘cause I can’t handle that much angst, 😭.

Like please I love both monkeys equally.

Anyway, it was just a rant of mine, you can disagree, no hate.

[sunfoxfic]

Why do most ml fics have Plagg being all 'Hey kid, life sucks and I'm a grumpy and aloof god of destruction who secretly cares about you and will literally threaten to kill people who hurt you' when that characterization is soo far from his canon personality? And I have yet to read a fic in which he doesn't call Adrien 'kid', cause in every single one he does. And I also don't know where the extremely common fanon trope of Ladybug stroking Chat Noir's hair or ears resulting in him purring came from, when in canon he hilariously purred for like a second and was so embarrassed about it he immediately denied having done so😂 and I don't think Ladybug in canon would be that intimate with her partner, even if she cares about him deeply.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love that trope, and I so wish it was canon, but where did they come from? Like why are people so fond of them? How did they come to be?

First off, I think you're severely underestimating how much physical affection Ladybug shows Chat Noir. Let's not forget this iconic moment in Animan:

And I say "iconic," but there was nothing special about this. Ladybug just decided to scritch Chat Noir's chin. Based on this, I think they're a lot more casual about physical touch than most people. (Something something Marinette/Ladybug only assigns meaning to her actions according to intent because she isn't good at thinking through how her actions are perceived, something something.) Petting his hair might go a little far, but I don't think touching is taboo for either of them. And purring may also be an exaggeration of canon, but I like the idea that Chat Noir becomes comfortable enough around Ladybug to purr freely.

As for the characterization of Plagg... I mean, Plagg is one of my favorite characters, so it's hard to be unbiased, but I don't know if the characterization you presented is actually all that far from what we've been given? I mean, in Ephemeral, Plagg literally did try to kill Gabriel, and we see in Sandboy that Plagg does love Adrien and doesn't seem to know that he's allowed to be open and honest with him for whatever reason. As for him calling Adrien "kid"... well, if that's wrong, I don't want to be right. (And there's a significant portion of the fandom that has Plagg call Adrien "kit" instead, don't forget them.)

The ML fandom is huge and we have a comparatively small amount of content in proportion to the fanworks. On top of that, we have long periods of hiatus where the fandom is left to its own devices, and a whole lot of what we have today as canon was not out when certain fandom conventions were created. Between all of this, the fandom has a whole tradition that is entirely separate from canon, and it can be a lot.

I don't know if your examples are the best ones, but yes, the fandom does sometimes have things that seem to appear out of thin air. How many Marichat fics are based on Chat Noir coming to Marinette's balcony in the night and visiting her just for fun? That was based on Glaciator, but what we now know from Glaciator 2 is that they don't actually have all that much reason to hide their conversations. And patrols weren't really confirmed canon until Shanghai, or even Truth at the latest, so there's a whole history fandom of them being nighttime affairs done in secrecy, but now we know that they take place during the day and the heroes use them as a way to connect with the people of Paris.

Usually the answer to "why is this so popular in fanon, it's not even close to canon" can be found by looking at small canon moments that resemble what you're talking about and just seeing how fanfic writers would look at that and go. Okay, that's my favorite moment, I'm gonna write about that. Things get passed around, people get inspired, it becomes popular fanon, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

Though, admittedly, some things appear out of thin air. I'm still looking for that valiant soldier who came up with Nino calling Marinette "Nette." Absolutely LOVE it even though it's nowhere close to canon.

[historicfailure]

I'm tempted to ask almost all from that ask list, but I'll try to keep it short :D

1, 7, 8, 9, 33, 48, 49 :D

If it's too much, just pick some of these and don't worry ^^ Hope you're having a good day!

-♥️

Oh my, hey there! Welcome back and thank you for sending in this ask! ;D My, they are a lot, but I sure as hell will answer them all ^^

1. When did you start writing?

I think I always wrote somehow. I vividly remember already writing fanfiction about a horse PC-game I played when I was younger, then I stopped for some time during High School and started up again when I started university classes. I had to commute and that commute was like... 3h every day, and you can only do so much reading ^^'' I started to write again and haven't stopped ever since. I think that was now seven years ago :)

7. Favourite writing advice?

Take whatever you can in. Just literally everything. When you look out of the window, sit in class and drown out the voice of your teacher, when you are on a walk with friends and inspect your surroundings. Everything can give you an inspiration.

That and write at least ten minutes every day. The exercise makes writing overall easier.

8. Favourite fic from another author?

Ooof, there are so many. But I think one of my favorite ones which left a lasting impression on me was "A Stranger" and its companion pieces by @loekas . I can't stretch that enough, their writing and planning is incredible, their perspective on the characters and how everything seamlessly flows together is absolutely mind-boggling. Not even to talk about the hot, steamy smut ;D When I read that fic I have to say, I was jealous for a moment in the way of "damn, I wish I had that idea first and wrote it" but then I took a step back and realized that their unique experience allowed them to create this wonderful piece of art and that I wouldn't be able to replicate that. In a sense, they have given me a good new, healthier perspective on my writing and the writing of others :) (Not to talk about that they're a wonderful human being ;D)

9. Favourite fanfiction author?

Again, there are so many! I will list some here:

@loekas - yet again, as their other fics for some lesser known fandoms are a delight to read as well

@lemony-snickers - I don't have to say much here, even though they deserve a whole novel written about them. Wonderful ideas, the writing is impeccable and I'm in love with their characterization of Kakashi.

@kinksandkurlsss - Listen, if you haven't read all their Kinktober entries, drop everything and read them now. Incredibly hot and kinky, always unique and so well thought out that I find myself hanging onto every word.

@whatshernameis - when I need a fix of Obito content, absolutely my place to go. I still hate myself for not having left any comments (yet, I take this tag as a reminder to myself to get off my butt). Their grasp on Obito's character is immaculate, the plot is always interesting, and again, the smut... Holy hell, I'm getting hot and bothered just thinking about it >-<

Otherwise, I read more fics than I read authors (if that makes sense?), and currently I have fallen once more into a deep Kakashi/Iruka hole ^^''

33. Do you receive hate for what you write?

If someone sends some hate my way, tumblr at least has the mercy to delete the asks from my inbox. Seriously, I think I was extremely lucky up until now to not have received any hate thrown my way apart from the very, very rare unluckily worded comment on AO3. But I also haven't written something controversial yet? But then again, there are people who receive hate for the most normal things, which is again extremely weird af. Idk, I just don't get hate, sorry.

48. How do you deal with coming up with titles?

Hah, I don't deal, I make them up on the fly and hope they somehow fit. For example, for my fic "Build A Close Connection" I hust thought it was funny at first because of the phone connection pun. Or "End My Loneliness", was for me a play of words, as both the Reader and Kakashi are lonely in their own ways, even though it might be less visible for Kakashi in this fic. Mostly, I make up titles when I sit in front of AO3 and stare at the empty bar for a few moments, before I come up with something xD

49. How do you deal with coming up with summaries?

Same thing as titles, I don't think much about them until I'm faced with cruel reality of having to write them in AO3. In summaries, I try to capture some of the spirit of a fic and give an insight on what readers can expect. Sometimes that might be a small snippet of the fic, sometimes I write a little excerpt, like a blurb on the back of a book of some sort ^^

Oh man, thanks for all these asks! Thank you so much, this was a lovely experience ^^ And sorry in advance to all the people I tagged.

[silversweetpea]

(Resend of the missing ask:)

I'm mad at Tumblr because it didn't tell me you answered my ask. I had to find out on my own. The absolute betrayal coming from this hellsite. 😠 *MoonKightsoulmateficMoonKightsoulmateficMoonKightsoulmateficMoonKightsoulma-* Yay! I'm looking forward to it!

I am completely in denial about the show being over. Absolutely not, it's still running. Episode 7 aired yesterday and it was the boys just practicing some self-care and getting along. That's it. That's the plot of it. And every episode coming forward. (Ok, if my definition of 'new episode' is just me scrolling through the Moon Knight x reader tag on Wednesdays at 3am, who's going to stop me??)

I am doing good, thanks! I guess I just mentioned it because sometimes I disappear when I don't know what to add to a conversation. But *ahhhh*, the Moon Knight finale had me dealing with conflicting emotions.

*Oh??* It's actually happening?? Well now this feels *real*. Take your time! Work at your own pace. And doing research before I get into anything is something I can relate to. And so is having a hyperfixation with Marc Spector. 😅 I love both my Moon Boys equally -and I *know* I'll love Jake just as much when (*when*, I refuse to accept an 'if') they show us more of him-, but I've found it so hard to find good Marc content that I'm focusing on him a bit more. I've read too many fics where they just make him seem so uncaring towards the reader and I feel like that doesn't fit his characterization at all 😭. And I'm not talking like 'pushing them away for their own good' uncaring. Like actually not caring about them or being downright cruel to them and I just feel like that doesn't fit his character. Anyways, yes, *very* much looking forward to the wedding fic. And hey! If tagging me makes you anxious, don't worry about it- you don't have to do it. That being said, if you feel better about it when you're done and the deciding factor is solely based on my interest, I do want it. Only if you're ok with it, though.

Oh *no*, I would have cried at that 😂. I remember when I first saw the movie in theaters, I actually said what he was going to say before he did. That doesn't make sense... Uh, basically, when he said 'My name is Peter Parker' I finished with 'and I'll have a cup of coffee' or something like that, and he said the same thing I said afterwards and I was just like *no, wait, I didn't want to be right!!* The same thing happened with the 'I am inevitable' 'And I am Iron Man exchange' in Endgame. Basically, I'm not allowed to guess what the characters are going to say next because it ends up being true 😅. I *did* watch Multiverse of Madness!!! If you wanna talk about it, I'm your girl!

Oooh, I used to know how to knit when I was younger, but I forgot how to do it over time... On simple and repetitive tasks, I 100% get it. I do the same with cross stitching! It requires just enough focus that more often than not, I just let my mind wander and daydream (or sometimes I play a series or movie in the background), and it's really fun! At least for me. I'm actually working on a series of flowers that *were* supposed to be mother's day presents, but I only managed to get the one for my mom (you have *no* idea how many times I rewatched Moon Knight while I worked on it) done on time because I overestimated how much time I had left. I'm still working on the other three, though! I guess they'll just be *late* mother's day presents. And they're on this really pretty aida (the kind of fabric most commonly used for cross stitching) with these sparkly bits woven into it! Sorry for rambling on about it! I just felt like mentioning it because busywork + flowers (with your whole theme being a *flower shop*), I don't know. 😅

Awwwww!!! You reread my asks?? I'm so touched! I'm glad they make you happy enough to go through them again. 🥰

I did!!! I loved them!!! Steven Grant is a gift to the world (and so is your writing) and I will never tire of reading about him (especially fluff). I just love him so much 😭.

I'm having a lovely day, made better by the fact that I see two *more* new fics I have to read from you 👀?? A Matt Murdock fic *and* a contiuation to what is to date my favorite of your fics?? Seriously, *how* are you getting all of my favorite characters and tropes?? Are you spying on me or something?? The wedding + flashbacks idea is understandable, I gave that one to you, but apart from the Moon Boys, you're writing for Peter Parker(s) *and* Matthew Murdock?? This is getting too far. I actually haven't had any water all day, I'm terrible with remembering to drink water, so thanks for the reminder! 😅

I really am happy about the tag and I have actually used that emoji as a signature before! 🦕🦕🦕

Before I go, allow me to be the little devil on your shoulder, or angel, depending on how you look at it, I suppose, and tell you to release everything you've finished in your drafts out into the world. *Flood the blog* 😈! Post as much or as little as you want, just know that I will eat it all up the moment I see it.

Aaaaand, last but not least, about the ask game! What about... 2H and something from the range of 9H to 12H? I'm curious about all of these, so you can pick from there, or answer them all if you want. Your call.

I'm off now, I think we both know what I'm going to do next- I have two fics to catch up on, after all... Oh! Also I saw your updated masterlist that Matt's flower is 'Devil's Crown'. Sounds fitting! Do you have a scientific name for it or a picture or something? I tried to look for it and I basically get a bunch of pictures of flower crowns with devil horns sticking out of them, and somehow I doubt that's what it is...

This got a bit long. Sorry about all the rambling. Have a lovely day and make sure to drink lots of water!

Tumblr is awful about notifications these days I absolutely get that jalfjdlskafjdlksa. Sorry you had to find out because of scrolling!

!!!!!! I'm looking forward to writing it! I have the first part ready to go and I'm going to post it just as soon as I clear up some of the asks in my inbox! The first part is more prologue-y than I'd like but I like the dynamic it sets up so I don't want to change it too much and I'll just have to focus on making up for it in the second part!

I am also still in denial about the show being over. Love that the newest episode showed us exactly what Steven's method of note taking is for studying, can't wait to implement it in my classes!

I'm glad you're doing good!! I also suck at conversations I don't know what to add to. I feel a litte silly sometimes because I'll talk with someone for hours and hours and then they'll say something that just flips a switch in my brain and suddenly I have no idea how to interact with them anymore.

Yes!!!! the wedding fic is coming I just have a few projects I'm working on ahead of it but I have become increasingly self indulgent in soft fics and the premise of that sort of wedding fic makes me feel so soft. I do agree that a lot of writes have been making Marc a bit too harsh and I feel like sometimes I overcompensate by making him too soft but I think it's all about style and tone and voice I guess too. If I don't vibe with a fic these days I just assume its me being sensitive or picky.

I was devestated when I saw NWH in theaters. I literally was on A03 on the way home to find fix it fics. Amnesia stories are such a sucker punch for me and the look on his face when he decided not to tell her???? I felt truely and utterly disembowled. ALSO MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS WAS SO GOOD AND I'M STILL ITCHING TO REWATCH IT AAHHHHHH

cross stitching sounds fun! I don't think that's one I've tried but it sounds like it's similar enough that i'll have to add it to the list of things to work towards! It'll have to wait until I'm done with my blanket though, if I don't focus on it It'll never get done. You don't have to apologize for rambling, I like hearing about other people's hobbies! I don't know much about it but the fabric does sound really pretty and I'm sure that the finished projects are going to look great and your mom will love them even if she doesn't get them until christmas!

of course I reread your asks! You have a really nice energy and it's nice to revist when I'm feeling down!

fdjklafjdsklfjdsklfjds kfhdsklajfdklsajf thank you???? I'm really touched that you like them! I've said it a couple times now but I really do tend to write for myself so everytime I post it's always kind of scary in case people really don't like it.

Pinky promise I'm not spying on you we just happen to have a lot of cross over in our favorite characters and tropes I guess. I love Matt he's just tricky to get the right tone for sometimes so I have to make sure I have the right playlist on. My first peter fic is coming soon too! I just have to manage to wrangle him into a one shot instead of outlining multipart fics for him right out of the gate. I like to make sure I can write a character okay before I commit to a big project!

This is also your reminder for today to go drink water!!

I'm sorry to disappoint ''the angel/devil on my shoulder'' energy that I'm not going to flood the blog tonight either. I just feel bad about it and then I keep the fics in my drafts long enough that I want to edit them and keep tweaking them and then before I know it I have entirely new premises than the ones I started with and the cycle starts all over again. I'm thinking I'm going to have to start setting a time limit for how long projects can sit in ther!

I think I'll just answer 2H, 9H, and 12H since I don't want this post to be too long but I do like the ask game! I adore astrology themed things and this one had a lot of really fun questions!

2H - do you have any object that you like a little too much? What is it and why?

hm, well, I don't know if there's anything I'm really obsessed with in a way that's a problem? I know that I can be a bit annoying to the people around me with stuffed animals because I have like 20 of the guys that sit on my bed. They're not any one animal or brand though, I just like animals.

9H - What languages would you like to learn?

All of them. I know most people say something like that but I legitimately considered being a translator professionally at one point in my life. I think languages are facinating and a really neat way to examine the extension of a culture. Right now I'm learning Italian and Spanish and dabbling a bit in basic ASL vocab to communicate a bit with some regulars I see at my day job but I'm not particularly good at any of them yet. I think the only language (other than english) I get annoyed at or don't want to learn at the moment is french because as much as I adore all that it represents and how beautiful it is I cannot for the life of me understand it or remember how to speak it. I tried for like 3 years in school and it was just aweful. One day I'll figure it out but that day is not today.

12H - which is/are your biggest fear(s)?

Oh yikes, a more serious one. Uhm, I mean not to get too existential on main (or in this case side) but I think the idea of being forgotten or dying unknown? I think that due to my particular experiences the idea of being known is intrinsically tied to the idea of being loved and so the idea of dying without ever truely being known and understood makes me and and fearful? Not in a 'I need to be famous' way but more so in a 'will someone remember the way that I drink my tea when I'm gone' way, right? In a less existential way though I'm terrified of being stranded at sea.

So I've actually already posted a fic explaining but this ask was written before then so I'm just gonna answer it anyhow. Devil's Crown is a bit of an uncommon name for a Red Spider Lily but it's one that I absolutely could not let go of when I was looking for Matt's flower, especially when I saw that its meanings were so perfect for him. (I mean, how many other flowers are both of the heavens and related to hell and represent cycles and rebirth???)

Again, you don't have to apologize for rambling I enjoy reading them! Thank you for sending such fun asks in! I hope you have a fantastic day!!

[genavere]

Hi there, Genavere speaking to you about Flame's Desire, a Fairy Tail fanfic set in an AU world with dark themes and a slower-than-lava-on-a-flat-surface slow burn.

What can help grab your attention to it? One, have you heard of @theguildawards? A blog that helps show case Fairy Tail content twice a year by holding nominations and voting for fanfictions and fanart. This story has won the Guild Awards 2022, Term One: Best Dark Fiction Award. Lucy knew she was going to die. - First sentence of the first paragraph of the first chapter. Why does she think that will happen? Guess you will need to read it to find out!

Here are some stats for you: Chapters: 28/Ongoing Upload rate: Currently scheduled to update twice a month! The latest chapter just dropped! Word Count: 150,229 - Nice, big, sexy number that will only get BIGGER! If you do the math, this fic is now over 600 pages in a novel! Rating: M for Mature - You have blood and violence, dark fantasy topics, epic battles, and a well developed story that builds on itself and the characters. Have I mentioned how slow of the slow burn it is? Those who love to read 200k+ fics where the love interests just touch hands will think this is too fast! As someone who adores established relationships in my stories, this is killing me Ships to Look for: Nalu, some Mira/Laxus, Jellal/Erza Troupes: Reincarnation, Sun/Moon, Nomadic Culture represented, Draconic people, Found Family, Protective Natsu, Protective Lucy

What others say about this story: Wow, this is really good. I can't wait for more. I love the world you've set up, it's rugged and beautiful. =D You write the characters very well, too. I'd love to see more from you! - GentleTouchGinger What a rip roaring start. I forgot how intense it was. Don't mind me while I reread this - alainehope EEP! I absolutely LOVE this story! I haven't come across a fairy tail story anything like it, and it's absolutely amazing! I cannot wait for the 5th chapter to come out! Everything about it is wonderful, minimal grammar/spelling mistakes, great story concept, and everyone's personalities match up with the fairy tail versions. anyway, keep up the good work and i will make sure to keep checking in on this story :) - Ellie Oh my gosh please continue this story, I love how you don’t portray Natsu as TOO dense and innocent as some other stories. - Kotorro I'm so glad they finally sorted things out! I'm foaming at the mouth waiting for the courting dances though - and wishing Lucy was wearing the garland Natsu made for her! Wonderful chapter! &lt;3 - SleeplessSagittarius Oh my gosh I'm SCREAMING this is just so full of suspense and you're descriptions of everyone's magic are beautiful! - smol_warrior_1258 What an exhilarating chapter! Loved it! - ottermadness

In the end, only YOU can allow yourself to read an amazing story that is full of heart, characterization, great story points, and depth. Only YOU can allow yourself a simple click and check out one of the best stories in the fandom (in my opinion). This story is Written, Edited by @kiliinstinct, then Beta'ed by @phoenix-before-the-flame, gone over again by Kili, and then posted for our enjoyment... ...and all for free. Don't be a smuck and ask, "wHy sHouLd i?" Just allow yourself the awesomeness and free entertainment.

And don't forget to leave a Kudo and a comment!

do i really wanna read it tho? U beta'd it but whats so good about it? I wanna know

I have good taste in things. Ask any of my online comrades, i scarcely reccomend bad things.

Good characterization all around for both major and minor characters. I'm particularly fond of how Natsu is written in the fic.

Ever expanding lore. The world in the storys constantly bein built and expounded on.

Good pacing. Lives up to the slow burn tag (though im evil and think it could be slower, but alas, Rougie thinks thatd be too evil to do.)

Great action. Might be graphic to some but its an M rated fic for a reason.

Theres romance there but it isnt slapped on, its actually something that progresses and slowly grows instead of bein like, speedran.

I did another post here before on this a while back

You won't know if you'll like it if you don't give it a shot for yourself :]