#oh boy a confrontation >:3 /lh

[mercars-musings]

20 questions for fanfiction writers

Hewwo!!! TYSM to the lovely @sunny374940 & @andthekitchensinkao3 for tagging me in this!!! ;0; I appreciate youse so much ! <3 Answers under the cut ! <3

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

Only 8 so far! My disabilities can stop me from writing as much as I'd like to sadly but I hope to get at least 1 out a month from here on out!

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

Apparently: 20,635 ! I didn't actually expect it to be that much lmfao

3) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Would You Fall In Love With Me Again? - Emrook Angst / Comfort: After trying to claw his way out of the fade for the past 7 years, Rook is pulled back into Thedas only to be confronted by the fact that time passes differently outside of the Fade. {Ft. Fade Prison Trauma Nightmares!}

2. Market Memories - Emrook Angst / Comfort: Rook takes Emmrich to a small market nearby where Rook grew up, however shit hits the fan when they run into someone from Rooks past. that he'd rather forget.

3. Trust & Fish Sticks - Fluffy Sad That heavily features Emrook: This is a short sad & fluffy piece I wrote on Rook Mercar taming & adopting the angry dog that keeps barking outside of the dog crates in Dock Town.

4. Gone Too Soon - A short sad hurt/comfort piece I wrote on Rook Grieving the loss of a friend {Post Cage for Gods - Davrin}. Funny how my fave pieces are all the most popular haha, I need to trust my gut more it seems!

4) What fandoms do you write for?

I only write for Dragon Age atm! I am heavily influenced by Epic the Musical so who knows maybe I'll do some Epic Fanfic in the future! Or something else, I DAV tore me out of a like several year writers block so I'm just taking what comes inspo wise atm!

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

Omg ofc! The comments always give me a huge inspirational boost and is honestly a large reason I've managed to write more after the first piece! Checking my comments & kudos is one of my favourite things to do honestly - it's the least I can do to respond once I see them!

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

Okay so, most of my endings are all fluffy lmfao. I START with angst and then let the boys comfort eachother by the end! Though I guess the one that would class is "Gone Too Soon" since it leaves both Emmrich and Rook still heavily grieving Davrin. This fic was so hard to write it made me so sad :<

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

"Trust & Fish Sticks" for sure!!! Manfred and Doggo are besties, Doggo gets to be part of a loving family, the events of Veilguard are over & Rook & Emmrich have a very fun night ahead of them! ;)

8) Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully no & I hope I never do! I still can't fathom that some people are that cruel honestly :<

9) Do you write smut?

I *used to* back when I was writing fic years ago, but that was a different fandom & my comfort with sex has evolved over the years as I've realised I'm like a sex neutral GrayAce lmfao. Shit doesn't cross my mind 90% of the time XD

10) Do you write crossovers?

I *used to* not since I returned to fanfic though!

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't *think* so? I certain hope not!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge!

13) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nah, maybe at some point in the future though! Guess it depends on how my latest fanfic journey goes in future! :3

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh shit why would you ask me thiiiiiis!!! ;0; /lh I think ATM it's definitely Emrook BUT I've had so many in the past honestly!

15) What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I WILL finish it I promise, I'm desperate too ;0; Anyway it's a fic that goes through My Rook Mercars 7 years stuck in the fade. There will be 7 chapters - 5 with each one being an exploration of 1 of the 5 Stages of Grief & how it relates to Az's time in The Prison. Then the last 2 chapters exploring some of the after effects that I haven't covered in prev fics yet! :3

16) What are your writing strengths?

I hear I'm great at making people suffer asdfgjkl; On a serious note I think I'm really good at editing? Honestly proof reading & editing is when I get most of my better work in fics done imo! My works usually AWFUL till then haha

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Actually getting shit STARTED!!! I struggle to actually put fingies to keyboard and start the process more often than not. Once I've started though I can lose myself in the flow and shit becomes a lot easier! Oh and punctuation for sure. I like weird sentence structure I'm sure I'd be stripped of my Degree if any of my old writing proffs saw me now lmfao

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I have never tried it, though I can barely manage writing in my own language in general SO I think I'll stick to that lmfao.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

Tim Burtons Alice & Wonderland! I'll actually go further: My next were Charlie McDonald x Matt Smith's Dr Who; BBC's Sherlock & then CW's Supernatural asdfghjkl. Yes I was a SuperWhoLockian & YouTuber Obsessed Child, try not to bully me too hard lmfao

20) Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

It's definitely "Would You Fall In Love With Me Again?" I went into some sort of wild trance and it suddenly existed. I barely had to edit it for once & it is 2 of my current special interests {DAV & Epic The Musical} so likeeeee lmfao

Here's some no pressure taggies! @hyperions-light ; @ofcrowsanddragons ; @taashyvashedan ; @thedissonantverses ; @caughtnyact ; @fangbangerghoul ; @redheadsramblings ; @basedonconjecture

[lotusarchon]

how do you think li jing would be if nezha had a mortal s/o? and what are your thoughts on him/gen (i remember you made a rant about him on your old acc but i'd like to hear your thoughts and analysis on him/lh)

Another opportunity for me to ramble? Don't mind if I do 🤭

Be mindful, this is all based on my opinion and observation of Li Jing's character in LMK. You aren't meant to take my word to heart, nor do I disapprove of anyone else's ideas or opinions. Relax.

Regarding a mortal s/o: since we don't know much about Li Jing pre-s5 events, I would think he'd find flaw in anything Nezha did, including his choice in partners. In the grand scheme of things, it really wouldn't matter if Nezha's s/o was a mortal. Immortal, demon, mortal, etc, if they were Nezha's partner, Li Jing would always have a complaint.

Now post s5, I would think he'd be more lenient. I think he'd probably be concerned, actually, because if Nezha's s/o is a mortal of all things, things might only end badly, because well. Nezha's an immortal who will never die, and his partner is mortal and prone to die at many moment. At best, he might advise Nezha not to get too attached for his own sake.

If you're asking about my thoughts on Li Jing, then oh boy buckle up because there's a lot.

Also, be mindful; I'm aware creative liberty exists. When you're taking inspiration from myths and legends, you are allowed to do as you wish. Furthermore, I'm aware that Lego Monkie Kid is catered to an audience that are children, despite the active adult audience, hence why it is the way it is. Don't come to argue with me bringing these up as facts, because I'm stating my opinion while being mindful of these reasons.

1) I think he would've worked better as a villain. When the trailer was first released, I really thought he'd be interesting as a villain. From what I've read of FSSY Li Jing, he gives me the idea of a greedy, ambitious man who would go to lengths for power, aka where he had no remorse when Nezha killed himself. Working with Xiangliu wouldn't seem to far off for him, and I could've seen in the end where he's double-crossed and realizes Xiangliu's true intentions.

2) I don't think he acted as an antagonist in the show. When he first showed up, yeah you'd think he was evil, but aside from placing the circlet on Wukong and attempting to imprison them until things had changed, he didn't seem like a bad guy to me. An asshole yeah, but not a bad guy. MK only sees Li Jing as a bad guy because of the circlet, and Mei saw him as a villain because of his attitude and persistence. Aside from that, I don't think he was a villain, which the fans seems keen on thinking for some reason.

Understand this; Wukong in LMK is most notorious through the celestial realm for causing problems. Unlike in JTTW, he does NOT accept the title of a Buddha, which means we have no idea what he could be up to with no rules to stop him. Yes, we the audience know he's mellowed out, but in world, not many do. Wukong also has a habit of acting impulsively and wrecking things, like we see with his confrontation with Nezha in s3. It's not his fault sometimes yeah, but he does act recklessly, and Li Jing does what he thinks is necessary for the world. That doesn't make him a bad guy, and his attitude is him just doing his job.

3) His (and Nezha's) lack of screentime was disappointing. Even though the show revolves around MK and others, I personally think a scene with Li Jing and Nezha alone, maybe in the celestial realm, would've helped give more insight to his character. He appears to stop the group and then fight later on, and that's it, so all we know about him is a guy doing his duty and was an ass to his son and then suddenly changed.

4) I don't like how he's written in regards to his relationship with Nezha. The sudden switch up in the ending was off-putting, and like I said, the lack of screentime made it harder to decipher their relationship. I know that the writers couldn't potray Li Jing to his FSSY counterpart, and I do understand that Li Jing had his own responsibilities, but Jesus I hated that switch up. It didn't have much impact at all, and it didn't really sell the part of a strict but loving father.

I dunno, I felt like it could've had more impact if Nezha and his dad got enough screentime together for the audience to understand what the relationship was. We don't know how they were before season 5, and we have no idea what LMK might've tried to change with Nezha's origin story, so aside from their interactions, we don't know what to think. Do we still apply FSSY to their story, implying that Li Jing was an abusive father to Nezha in his childhood? Or do we assume this version of Li Jing was simply a father who didn't know how to show affection and was always strict?

5) Li Jing should not have been added. I'm dead serious about this; his entire role feels pointless because aside from doing his duty, why the fuck was he here? I dunno about other fans, but reading JTTW and FSSY, Li Jing placing that circlet on Wukong was not very interesting to me. Also, why the hell was he chosen to handle the Jade Emperor's power, and not someone with close relations to that old geezer, like...you know...ERLANG SHEN!? WHY WAS LI JING HERE HE FELT SO USELESS.

There could've been so many other characters who could've fit into the role Li Jing played. I really don't think he had much of an impact because again, the lack of screentime makes it hard to really understand what his motives lied.

I like Li Jing as a character, but idk. I don't think I'm fond of how Li Jing was portrayed in the series.

Just my opinion though. You guys can think as you'd like of him.

[clockwork2081]

Lab Rats rant? in 2022? more likely than you think!

ok let's get started. also I apologize in advance I'll probably get carried away and start talking about Marcus a lot

why did the Lab Rats kids ever forgive Douglas

and before anyone comes at me I don't have an issue with Douglas but that man did some pretty fucked up things ESPECIALLY to his kids??

he experimented on them when they were literal babies and wanted to make them bionic soldiers and rent them to the highest bidder?? like i don't know about yall but if I ever heard my dad wanted to sell me as a kid i would get as far away as possible

he proceeds to fake his death and build an android to "befriend" and capture the lab rats so he could take control over them with the triton app and make them do whatever he wanted. also don't even get me started on Marcus oh my god.

he makes an android and then realizes "well shit he's not gonna last long with all these bionics in his body". he probably doesn't really care at first but then oops! turns out his android son has feelings! who would have seen that coming!!! and before anyone comes at me yes Marcus does have feelings like cmon. he could have easily fooled Leo if he wanted. in the ep "Concert In A Can" at the end he could have apologized to Leo and maybe he would have bought his lies after a while! but he didn't apologize! this guy went at Leo for NO REASON. he would have had an easier time fooling the others if he befriended Leo too but he didn't cause he's just a kid! he wanted some drama in his life and what's more dramatic than having an arch nemesis? also he's literally in drama club. come on now.

plus he mentions he has pizza nights with Douglas which would be kind of weird to have with an emotionless android just saying...

and you can say "oh he's programmed to fake emotions!" or whatever. no he isn't. or maybe he was but then learned to have real emotions from Douglas or whatever. the point is this boy has emotions!! just watch the episode in season 4 when he confronts Douglas and tell me he doesn't have emotions.

anyway back to Douglas he lies to Marcus about him DYING before 16 and even says he's gonna buy him a car at 16?? he didn't HAVE to lie if he was emotionless, why would a robot care? but Marcus does have emotions and the news would give him psychological torment and Douglas KNOWS that and that's why he lies. anddd I don't know about you but that's pretty fucked up!

he also just. allows Marcus to attempt to kill Leo. he doesn't say "hey maybe don't kill my brother's brand new kid" he just lets Marcus do his thing. and Marcus does his thing because Douglas is his only parental figure and Douglas is Fucked Up™

then he allows Marcus to kill Leo again!! and when his plan fails and the lab rats escape he leaves Marcus to die even if he knew to some degree he had emotions. so that's fun!!

anyway I have a love hate relationship with Douglas. I think he's a fun character and the episodes with him are great it's just that HOW IN THE HELL DID HE GET A REDEPMION ARC OH MY GOD. I'm not saying people can't learn from their mistakes and grow as a person but this guy tried to sell his own kids!! and kill Leo who's very much a kid!! I have no idea how or why the lab rats crew forgave him but it's probably cause it's just a Disney show for kids and I'm looking too much into it. but that's why it's fun!

at the end of the day as I said it's just a silly children's show from 2012 and I have way too many feelings about Marcus to not be biased lmao. this is all /lh and its totally fine if you disagree :) also it's like 3 am so if there are any mistakes no there aren't

[arcadsia]

I would give you a lot of Crime boys fic recommendations if also wasn't also desperate— (please, I'm literally searching fic by fic on ao3. I need good recs)

But oh well, have you ever read Even Shifting Sands Can't Wear Our Bond Away?

It's Crime boys centric and there's a lot of Egypt related stuff (Mummy Wilbur my beloved).

I really loved the culture part of it! It's very interesting.

In the beginning there's a bit of horror. Please read the tags if you're gonna read it.

What "big SBI Fics" have you read? I can recommend more of those. :)

oh bro i GOT YOU for crimebros fics!!!!! Ah, Fuck! (I Can't Believe You've Done This) by AN1MALCR4CKERS is a cute 4k length oneshot about villain Wilbur taking care of vigilante Tommy! like the sun that turns the sky (illuminating all in time) by Anonymous was nice! i wish OP had slowed the pacing down some on some of the scenes, but it was a really sweet read and features fae SBI! it's about 12k words :) Whatever Remains, However Improbable by 7CxRhye is criminally underead in my honest opinion. it's got detective crimebros in a sherlock holmes-esque story. Around 90k words. it's SOOO good, i couldnt put it down when i started reading it!! your heart is your ID by passworth is a really good read. it's only 6k words but it's really engaging, super fun and inspired by the animation "Diamond Jack" with a heist style story and detective wilbur :) amethyst and flowers on the table (is it real or a fable?) by bonesandbees is one of my favourite, if not my favourite fic i've read by far. it's roughly 10k words, and sweeter then honey! it probably doesn't help i have a massive spin in fae lore, and this fic is all about fae though LMAO Over and Over by MollyPollyKinz is an angsty read and not safe for c!dream apologists JTGNJGJT it's about 3k words and focuses on dream killing tommy over and over, and his visits to limbo ! on that note... There's a Baby Dragon in my Flowers by MollyPollyKinz is a less angsty read and is about 11k words :) the title says it all, featuring 3/4th dragon SBI + dragon mumza!! but i'll figure out a way to get us out of here by itstheadomania is about the c!dream escape and crimeboys confrontation in about 6k words!! as for big sbi fics,, i have NO idea cause IDK what constitutes as big ? i haven't read passerine or four of a kind if that's what u mean !! i've been meaning too for four of a kind but i dont think i have the guts for passerine. i am a frail old, easily broken /lh hope this helps any though :D

[nobody-knose--archive]

hiiii just sayin if you ever wanna talk about any of your ocs i would absolutely love to hear about them :>

well. Since You Asked /lh

talc was a stephen univouse oc because of course i had one. he was pretty masc even though all gems are generally fem/use she/her but because su is over & they’re an oc i say they use she/he/they <3 their deal was like, being one of a rather large (6 or so not including her? i never wrote any of this shit down & honestly wasn’t even that consistent at the time) group of defective (came out the ground real wrong (made in ground meant for peridots actually! during the war in heaven (that’s a reference y’all won’t get (oh god june your penchant for parenthasees has rubbed off on me)) or whatever it was called)) pearls who were super fragile (poofed incredibly easily) hence the name talc. pink diamond thought the lot of em were a novelty at least so they kinda hung around the human zoo because i came up with all this shit way before season 4 or 5 or whenever the lads actually went to homeworld for real. the gang of them were found family & because they’re all yknow identical they named each other after their respective weapons (or at least their defining abilities).

so from what i remember there was crossbow, katana, naginata (those two were friends <3), one with a mace maybe?, metal (no weapon but strong metalbending abilities. i didn’t intend for them to be That much like the cg’s peridot), possibly one with kunai or a halberd, and dagger (the main boi). after the war & a long damn while they all got split up, dagger sent off to be an unobtrusive servant to jasper/peridot, crashlanding on earth in the same ship as them at the end of season 1, only surviving thanks to this ability she got to teleport/make portals like lion via her gem. her gem cracks though but steven’s there to fix it and then she very very gradually warms up to the crystal gems while wandering earth & casually yining & pearning for her old buddies. i’d have probably gotten around to fleshing more shit out with the crew (i think naginata shattered katana at a diamond’s orders or some shit but who cares it’s never relevant just angsty), dagger ends up with vague weak metalbending skills of their own, but i sorta lost interest in them, especially after i came up with...

[kaguya] (definitely. definitely not his concrete name. however he is japanese so i wouldn’t be good at coming up for a name anyway. so kaguya will do) was a per.sona oc who i came up with in like 7th grade specifically since that was the year i became aware of/developed a genuine fear of death <3 per.sona 3′s whole schtick is getting past your fear of death & moving on with grief and all that complex stuff so it was basically the perfect universe for me to craft an oc for at the time. he was gay (but demisexual) for minato also. if you know per.sona 3 i’m sure you know how well that worked out. i later transported him into per.sonas 4 & 5 just because i wanted to flesh him out more, develop him over a long period of time, have him react as an adult to these new kids doing per.sona shenanigans, and also because per.sona 4 & 5 style shadow confrontations are cooler & have more room for symbolism. (if it’s worth anything i stuck him mostly into the arena zones of 4′s canon so as to not terribly interfere with the main plot, it being a mystery & all)

also he went through really really extensive development. unlike the other guys here i honestly intensely developed them for a long time straight (never wrote anything down of course, but i was honestly really into them even for a way into last year). for example at the very beginning they were fem, cheery, and spry, much like 90% of my self-inserts when they start out (talc was exceptional at first <3), and instead of using a scythe like i settled on, they used a sickle. which is. mainly because i forgot the grim reaper used a scythe & not a sickle. but also because they had slightly more of an egyptian vibe going on at the time so it was technically more of a netjeri blade w/ a handle or some shit. also their per.sonas (they had 3 of course one for each game <3) were saturn, hou yi, and yssgaroth, though i only decided on the final one kinda recently so it’s still up in the air. saturn was mostly a physical fighter w/ some minor mudo, hou yi was a strong wind user (w/ bonus gun in p5) and yssgaroth was mostly almighty and status effects. i did not care about being op i just cared about imagining my character & per.sonas Actually In The Games

boy. anyone else? of course there’s someone else. “[tsu ikae]” definitely does not have that name because they’re also japanese and i cared even less about getting them a name. kaguya i at least used as placeholder sometimes but no this one just has no name. they’re a dang.anro.npa oc by the way. maybe this post will get me cancelled someday who knose. i came up with them in probably 8th grade, and at first they were a super straightforward self-insert, for myself to react to events/talk to characters/generally exist within the dangan universes. the problem was i eventually realized i needed a reason for them to have a presence in thh, gd, kh, & udg (& maybe 3 but only the despair/hope arcs really. just. generally in those time zones i guess) when logically those are all extremely different points in time & space that shouldn’t be able to contain the exact same character each time. so i came up with a super convoluted backstory that ties greatly into v3′s extremely spoilery themes but who here cares about dang.anro.npa spoilers anyway. they were a Literal self-insert of themself into the dangan games, they Literally didn’t exist in the dangan universe(s) outside the framing of the games themselves. there was something going on with like, being inflicted with despair by going through (simulations of) killing games v-however many times, there was something of a climax happening where they remember every single killing game at the very end of v3, lots of shenanigans.

most of that’s not important, you know what is important? i projected all of my impostor syndrome onto them without even realizing it. i made them the penultimate fencer because i thought that’d be neat & then made some deliberately unclear additional plotline about them maybe-maybe not being the penultimate lucky student (&/or penultimate charismatic student, who only gets into hope’s peak for convincing the admins personally with charisma, i came up with that all by myself <3) because Surely Only Being The Penultimate Fencer Isn’t Good Enough And They Must Be Faking Their Ability To Get In yadda yadda It’s All Luck y’all probably have impostor syndrome you know the deal. the wild thing is how i did this before even realizing i had impostor syndrome i was just like “oh wow what if it wasn’t clear whether they were actually good enough to get in what if they were secretly insecure about the validity of their skills despite projecting an infallible exterior” without being self-aware in the slightest. good times!

“that one feh oc” i just brought up in the post because i couldn’t think of anything else. if i’m going to talk about it i might as well talk about my pok.emon or sonic ocs from when i was like 10, there might be years between them but there’s not much difference in content tbh. it’s practically my archetypal “cheery playful character who doesn’t take things seriously but is also immensely powerful &/or in intense danger + emotional/literal pain at all times”. it’s a weirdly specific archetype but it’s my weirdly specific archetype <3

dan, adrian, & david i’ve technically brought up before and this post’s long enough they can be for another day (dan’s like my main ld oc, based on a mask of my own face, while adrian & david are based on adrian by the fullerenes). meanwhile eszi & jele (+ o. i. by extension) like i said i barely invented them they’ve got quite a bit more development to go before i chat about them in public. as for juno.... he can come later <3