#this piece started as a meta but ended up as a...drabble something

[kpchrs]

Coriolanus doesn't get poetry at all.

Poetry -- ballads -- is Lucy Gray's way of life. It's the way she observes the humans, the nature, and the world. Lucy Gray loves life and children and people and she shows her love in the form of poetry. To live is to love humankind, she thinks.

Coriolanus doesn't get it. Coriolanus doesn't get it at all. Coriolanus doesn't get poetry. Coriolanus doesn't get humans; the souls. He kills the last speck of soul he has that day and he lives the life of the dead ever since.

Until he sees the poetry in the form of Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss is a poetry. She is Coriolanus' body and Lucy Gray's soul. She is a threat -- and he loves it.

For the first time in decades, he feels alive again.

Again and again, he challenges her in the way he knows how to defeat himself, because she is him. But she is also her and so the Mockingjay wins in the end.

It fills him with joy. With delight. With love. With life. With poetry.

He tells her the truth that final day. He always tells her the truth. He always tells her the truth until the end. Because he didn't tell her the truth when it ended. So, Coriolanus observes gleefully. To see what he, she, they choose. And she chooses the right thing.

"Well done, Miss Everdeen!" He explodes in laughter. "Well done!"

He laughs and laughs and laughs more after, because...

"Well done, Lucy Gray, well done!"

Coriolanus loves.

"I love it, live it --

Your poetry."

[guardianbingo]

Guardian Bonus Bingo FAQ

Welcome to Guardian Bonus Bingo 2025!

This is a very low stakes, low pressure fest meant to be fun and inspire more Guardian fan creations. Whether you’re returning after having participated in the original Guardian Bingo or are joining for the first time, we’re happy to have you here!

How Does It Work?

We’ll issue three prompts per month over five months (three new prompts every month), starting on 1 June.

While we're posting three prompts per month, you only need to make a creation for one of them to earn a fill for that month. (You do NOT need to fill all three unless you just want to!)

You'll have the entire month to create and post your fill. When a new month beings, three new prompts will be issued. This cycle repeats until we make it through all five months.

We’ll also have a grace period at the end for prompts you might have missed earlier in the fest.

What Do I Earn By Completing Fills?

A sense of accomplishment, the adoration of your fellow fans, and the fun that comes with creation.

Completing all five earns you a bingo, a badge created by the amazingly talented @highlynerdy, and your name on a shoutout post at the end of the fest.

Can I Fill Multiple Prompts With A Single Work?

Maybe. The single work will need to be composed of multiple parts.

As one example, a multi-chapter fic where each individual chapter is inspired by a different prompt would work. A one-shot would not.

Similarly, multi-panel art with each panel inspired by a different prompt would work while a single piece of art would not.

If you have something in mind but aren’t sure, check with a mod.

Is There A Signup Period?

Nope. You are welcome to join at any time up until the end of the amnesty period.

What Works Are Accepted?

Pretty much any new creations, including, but not limited to:

Fanfic

Fanart

Edits/Gif Sets

Vids

Moodboards

Playlists

Rec Lists

FanARTifacts (tangible creations, crafts, etc.)

Podfics (with original author’s permission and a link back)

Translations (with original author’s permission and a link back)

Meta Analysis

If you have another idea, check in with the mods but it very likely works.

What Are The Length/Content Requirements?

None! This is meant to be fun, not stressful.

Want to write a 500k multi-chapter epic? That’s a tall order for five months, but we’re cheering you on! Want to only post drabbles? Also wonderful!

The same applies for non-fic creations.

The point is to make stuff, not worry over min/max requirements.

Is This Fest Novelverse Or Drama?

Either or both! It’s totally up to you. All prompts will work for both.

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All ratings and any ships (or no ships) are allowed, though works should be appropriately tagged.

Crossovers, Weilan Derivatives (Other Characters Played by Bai Yu Or Zhu Yilong), Other Priest Novels, And RPF?

While the fest is Guardian themed, all are allowed. Just tag appropriately.

How Do I Interpret The Prompts?

However you wish! They're meant to be a source of inspiration and a starting off point. You can adhere to them as strictly or as loosely as you'd like. Follow your muse and have fun!

Can I Use A Creation For This Fest And Another One?

So long as the other fest has no objections, you are good to go!

Ok, So What Isn’t Allowed?

Old works previously posted

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Sounds Great! Where Do I Post My Creations?

The AO3 Collection

Tumblr – Tag @guardianbingo in your post or DM us for a reblog (you can also tag it #guardianbingofest but Tumblr’s tags are very wonky so that might not work well)

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[greenleaf4stuff]

I saw you're up for asks!

I've just finished The Silmarillion and wondered what your favoruite part is?

How do you develop your story ideas?

What are you most looking forward to in RoP season 3?

Hi @ultrarebelheart and thank you so much for your questions! :D <3 Sorry that this took me a bit, I was busier than anticipated! Due to the (somewhat) lengthy answers, I will put two of them behind a cut to protect people's dashboards. ^_^'

What are you most looking forward to in RoP season 3?

Considering I am an Adar fan, I am both very interested in and apprehensive about whether or not they will give any more focus to the uruk under Sauron's leadership. And whether the "orcs" will end up being a faceless mass/simple "cannon fodder", or if the writers will let them retain some agency and personality at least.

I found s1 and s2's efforts to humanize the uruk incredibly compelling, and I see Adar especially as a welcome new addition to Tolkien's universe, so I hope that won't get completely left behind in s3.

(Additionally, I am still hoping we might get more insights into Adar and his life in whatever fashion. I don't care if it's a fool's hope, I would love to see him return, his character is so very interesting.)

I also cannot help but be curious about which humans Sauron will choose for the Nine, and whether or not we will get to see Númenor defeat him in battle/see him start his shenanigans in Númenor in S3 already. Another thing I'd love to see are Elrond and the beginnings of Rivendell.

How do you develop your story ideas?

Oh that is such a good question - there's two different ways that work for me. For the first one, I usually start with some kind of base idea. A prompt, a trope, a type of interaction, a scene, something that pops into my head or I find compelling. Inspiration can come from all manner of sources; the media I write for itself, prompt lists, tropes, stuff from other pieces of media.

I then write the idea down - a bit like a blurb, just a very basic outline so I won't accidentally forget it, and maybe I will also make some additional bullet points for specific scenes, interactions and the likes. (Sometimes that is already enough to get me writing.)

Strangely enough, I usually manage to include a somewhat-coherent plot into most of my bigger ideas even at that point.

If the idea stays with me and gets to marinade in my head (so to speak), I will usually go back and add more and more onto it, and eventually expand the blurb into a proper step-by-step outline about what I would like to see in the story, whether it is a one-shot or a multi-chapter work.

The other way is that I get completely blindsided with an idea and just start writing, without a plan or any preparation, as has happened with my last few fanfics. For the long one ("Of Convenience"), I eventually had enough time to come up with a basic idea for future scenes (after chapter 4 or 5 I believe) and where I wanted things to lead to, but the start was just completely improvised. This works best for single scenes, drabbles and one-shots I find.

I hope that answers the question? :D

I've just finished The Silmarillion and wondered what your favourite part is?

That is awesome, congrats, I hope you enjoyed the book? Full disclosure, most of the Silm-related information that I make use of is from wikis, articles, meta pieces, videos/video essays or excerpts. I have the book at home and supposedly read in full when I was a child, but - I cannot remember any of it, for some reason. I usually read up the parts that (hopefully) help me understand TROP better or that I might need for stories, or watch videos about interesting topics.

That being said, due to TROP, I am getting more and more interested in Celebrimbor's story and am also trying to learn more about the geography of Arda, specifically the places where Morgoth and/or Sauron resided (and Adar would have).

(Sorry if that is a really disappointing answer! ^_^')

[otaku553]

How goes the fma x albedo fic? I hope that doesn't sound pushy, I'm genuinely curious. And in that vein, do you have any little drabbles you may have written or want to write? Especially with your recent kny ocs/yourself and your siblings. That'd be super fun to read about! Your art AND your writing is so freaking good, the moment I see you've posted something new on your blog I'm clicking it so fast. Same with your ao3 account ❤️

Thank you for the kind words!!! Currently not working on any fics, since I just came out of 10 weeks of summer research where my days began at 8 am and ended at 9 pm for probably less than minimum wage hahaha (doing research is a Bit Sad but I get a whole month to relax before classes start again so thank goodness for that)

I do however!!! Have a lot of plans!!! If you’re interested you can read more below!

Plans include but are not limited to:

Finally working on Homuncular Nature again!! I definitely do have a lot of plans and cool scenes playing out in my head for the next chapter, it’ll just come down to when I actually put pen to paper (or stylus to iPad) to actually organize and write them all. The road block I think is that I have seen neither Albedo nor fmab very recently and all my concrete ideas are for around the 30 episode mark for fmab, the turning point with the first actual confrontation against father and the subsequent Briggs arc.

Rewriting Ten Thousand Maple Leaves! A lot of people have been very kind but I think I missed the mark with my first chapter to be honest. My writing has gotten a lot wordier and less succinct, which feels like I’m filling a chapter more with fluff and unnecessary description than actual content. I think I also dislike how I characterized Sanemi and how quickly Kazuha was willing to agree with things. Writing both of them is kind of a difficult challenge tbh! I think in rewriting it I want to give back to Kazuha more of his vagrant role in the games, where he is avoiding the law for reasons somewhat out of his control.

Ebisu siblings content! I think it might be fun to try having them interact with more of the canon characters in kny but I also think there’s some value in a complete sort of outsider point of view when inserting characters into a piece of media. I feel like whenever I see self inserts I see a lot of ocs making themselves indispensable and making meaningful relationships with existing characters that way and that’s totally valid! That’s a lot of what I do for crossovers as well. I think when it comes to my own ocs though, I want them to feel grounded in some form and the reality of it is that none of the characters I make based on myself or real people are that impressive or remarkable. But I also think there’s a lot of value in showing smaller scale things outside of the main interactions and plot to show that even though we aren’t remarkable, we still have our own meaningful connections and ideologies and stories :) in the end the Ebisu siblings are a lot more visual though so I may just continue making doodles and art without writing anything haha

Kirby & Meta Knight ageswap AU: I was mostly doing this on my ask-gikabi sideblog in short form comics, but I lost sight of what I wanted to do after making the discord and starting to interact with some of the people who followed it. I think a lot of people are inspired and have their own very cool ideas that I wanted to take into account but then eventually it was no longer my story or the story I wanted to tell, which is why I’m thinking of restarting it as a fic. This one is still in very rough idea stage though, I have honestly no clue how I’m even going to begin organizing it

Yanfei ace attorney crossover: this one’s just pure crack lmao I would definitely write it as crack taken seriously but I think this is fun to explore just for small ideas that pop up every now and then, i.e. yanfei is semi-immortal because she’s half adeptus so it would be Really Funny to me if she showed up in dgs era, got her attorney’s license, went into hiding after it became obvious that she wasn’t aging, and then re-emerged after rebranding herself as her own daughter or granddaughter. That, and I have a lot of fun imagining someone as pragmatic as yanfei trying to get through the sheer chaos of aa despite being otherworldly

Continuing winter weather advisory: I got to a really good point in that fic and was rereading it today like,,, damn I wrote that? And it would be fun to see where I planned on going with it so I do want to also try working on that a bit if I can

Kazuha & Kunikuzushi role swap au: this is something I posted about a Long While ago but it’s an idea I continue to be fascinated with :) I especially enjoy how these two characters could have had completely different roles and personalities depending on how their pasts happened (with wanderer being so nice and turning so bitter and kazuha growing up so spoiled (for lack of a better word) and turning out so weary and yet kind

Link click and mha crossover: this one is honestly just a very recent idea but I think it would be fun to make a drabble on how lightime photo studio would be able to continue operating even in another world and the trouble they might get into for illegal quirk usage and what using cheng xiaoshi’s powers in a world where being able to tell the future is canonically possible would entail

I have!! So many ideas!! And not enough time or motivation to actually write any of them most of the time :’)

But I’m very glad to hear that you enjoy them and look forward to my posts!! :D I really hope I can work on some of these over the last month of summer vacation that I have :)

[dreadfutures]

🙤 Self-Recommendation Tag Game 🙧

Rules: Share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.). Then, tag five more people to share the things they've made.

1. Something you absolutely adore: 2. Something that was challenging to create: 3. Something that makes you laugh or smile: 4. Something that surprised you (how it turned out, how other liked it, etc.): 5. Something you want other people to see:

Tagged by @demandthedoodles thank you!!!! I AM FINALLY FREE OF MY PHD AND CAN PARTICIPATE THINGS WITH BRAINPOWER AGAIN

I will tag, with no obligation, @anneapocalypse | @tobio-fish | @exalted-dawn | @v-arbellanaris | @shift-shaping (and anyone else who sees this and wants to tag me with their self recs, cuz I have so much catching up to do)

Show me your art, writing, meta, collages, whatever it is you've ever done that you like <3

1. Something you absolutely adore:

Starting off with a fic, one of the pieces I'm most proud of is CHRYSALID, a Dragon Age genfic about Cillian from multiplayer:

Chrysalid | Rated: G | Cillian | Chapters: 9/9 Herein the Dalish mage leaves his intended role as First behind and follows a butterfly migration to the Arbor Wilds. I had always wondered how Cillian, a Dragon Age Inquisition Multiplayer character, discovered the path of the Arcane Warrior. I really enjoyed putting myself in some of these settings and atmospheres, and I enjoy re-reading it too!

2. Something that was challenging to create:

These hands were both obsession and study for me. blood, subsurface scattering, and extreme light sources hello

3. Something that makes you laugh or smile:

I did a little series of doodles of some DA ocs wearing academic regalia and Talenna ended up spicy and Neria ended up doing the same pose I did when I graduated: enjoying an elote

4. Something that surprised you (how it turned out, how other liked it, etc.):

TIME TO GET SAPPY.

I started writing Dead Pasts and Dread Futures in 2020 because I needed to survive a huge depressive episode and the feelings of loss and loneliness and grieving over friendship and responsibility at the end of Trespasser really hit home. I was just writing drabbles, and then I was just writing a few chapters, and then I was writing a massive and ever-growing monster of a fic, all by the seat of my pants. In the middle of COVID, and in the middle of PREPARING FOR MY PHD ADVANCEMENT. I wrote over 500,000 words. It launched me head-first into a community that I am still so close with even now. That alone is so shocking to me, since it hasn't happened with any other fandom I've been in or written for, even for my popular Zelda stuff.

But now, years after that fic was COMPLETED, it's still growing and getting comments and I'm blown away by it. I'm not one to obsess over stats but it really boggles my mind.

5. Something you want other people to see:

I always want people to look at my version of Felassan thanks <3

[raitrolling]

Cursed Drabble meta post because i cant help myself sometimes

while i dont think i nailed the vibe for the tumblr reader x celebrity self-insert fan fiction (mainly because i just Could not get through a single fic without dying of cringe. im sorry i do not vibe with this genre in the slightest for reasons that are probably evident in how i wrote that fic) and its probably more wattpad / quotev fanfic tier, i think i did pull off the standard tropes for those sorts of fics

like how the self-insert is supposed to be a blank slate for anyone to, well. self-insert into, but they're always very obviously written to be (cis) women. and the author can't decide if they want their self-insert to be meek and easily smitten, or sassy and genre-aware, as well as simultaneously living the fantasy of having a glamorous lifestyle that people would be jealous of, but she's also totally just an ordinary girl you guys. see, she's got average looks!

and also the combination of fulfilling the fantasy of 'what if my dream man saved me from a scary situation like gross dudes hitting on me', and the fact that the love interest is... often not written that much better than the bad guys lmao. the 'i saw you from across the room and immediately fell in love and wanted to protect you because you are so beautiful' seems to be popular in self-insert fics from what i skimmed through, but a lot of the time the dudes always come across as creepy to me. but in this fic sharle is using french terms of endearment so clearly he is sexy and romantic and not also a weird sleaze, duh

i died the most writing every single piece of sharle's dialogue but also the descriptions talking about how hot he is, btw. the line about the reader imagining his hands choking someone and them smelling his intoxicating scent in his bedsheets both made me want to hurl LMFAO props to people who can write that shit, id rather swan dive off a cliff thanks (tho the hand focus is also due to me listening to that read-through of the foxhole court and the video essayist mentioning how often the characters in that story grabbed each other by the chin. i was just like 'ok yeah i need more hand stuff in this people eat that shit up')

the warnings at the start are there solely because when i was scrolling through the tumblr tags for reader self-inserts i saw quite a few that warned for swearing which i thought was funny since like. this is a 13+ website. you can say the fuck word here and not get in trouble. apart from the cringy dialogue i wouldnt say anything in the fic actually merits a warning, but i felt like i needed to add the other stuff to keep it true to the formatting style that is common for tumblr self-insert fic

the bit with ropikk at the end definitely breaks the illusion and probably turns the fic into some 'lol well that just happened' marvel '''humour''', but tbh i just wanted to include a 'he would not fucking say that' joke and needed to write a palate cleanse LMAO you can pretend that last paragraph doesn't exist if you dont like the immersion-breaking

anyways uh. this was a lot of words i wrote to explain my stupid drabble i wrote as a joke and because people voted for something cursed. you can't say i half-ass anything lmao

[zorilleerrant]

if you're anxious, see if you can find yourself a beta or a workshop group. posts go around about this every now and then. more importantly, post WIP snippets! your mutuals and followers might have interesting questions that help you flesh out the story a little bit, or tell you which parts they like and help you figure out what you want to concentrate on

reading is always the most important part of writing. original fiction, and also try reading fixits in other fandoms you like, so you can see how they blend with different genres

start short. write a dozen pieces of microfiction - the exactly 100 word drabble is popular, but so are ~250 or ~500 word pieces. they help you practice a specific technique, writing style, character voice, etc. after that, you can move on to a 1k short story or two, and from there to a 5-10k piece (what a lot of people think of as normal for a short fic). go slowly to warm up

when you write something long, make an outline. try to keep the outline as short as possible! these things expand on you! when you don't have practice writing longer works, there will be parts that trip you up, and you need to have a road map of where you're trying to go. but feel free to rewrite it later if you change your mind on some of the details!

a lot of people don't like first person fanfic, but you should definitely try it as an exercise. if you can figure out the dialogue and inner voice of a character, and especially the parts where they don't match up, this will help you writing them in third person and keeping their motivations consistent.

don't write things just because you think people would prefer them; your love for your story is what's driving your hobby, so only do it if it interests you specifically. this applies to what characters to include, ships, plot points, headcanons about characters, what style of story you're writing, everything. write the things that intrigue you or make you happy!

don't play around with OCs immediately; you'll end up getting sidetracked and moving into a different project than you started trying to work on. channel that impulse by projecting onto the canon characters: one of them has your favorite movie, one of them has your allergies, one of them has a hobby you were always interested in trying, etc.

writing exercises, of every kind. you can adapt anything to fic (it works mostly the same way), and you should look around for ones that inspire you. you should also practice editing! that's what tells you what you do and don't like in a story, and what you should put in yours. take a published short story, and edit it down to half the length, or adapt it into microfiction. if people are open to remixes, you can do this with fic, too!

playlists, moodboards, collections of items you think a character or groups of characters might like - you can even start a sideblog about it. or just look for people's headcanons and meta that vibe with yours!

Hi!! I know I've already sent an ask before, but I've read a lot of fics like yours (I don't know if I should call them time travel fics, fix-it fics, both or neither soo-) and I've been inspired to WRITE MY OWN✨✨ problem is i have never written a fanfiction..... ever. So, that leads me to my question. Do you have any tips for a new writer??(if you don't mind me asking of course lol-)

First of all: CONGRATULATIONS🥳🎉✨️

Deciding you want to pursue it at all is the first big step! ✨️

There's never enough time travel fix-it rewrites imo, so the fact that you're thinking one up is excellent news 😈

General advice is:

• Just go for it. You won't know until you try! Write 100 words, and then another 100, and another, and the next thing you know you’re cooking with fire 🔥

• Speaking of fire, don’t burn yourself out!!!! I'm on the Goblet of Fire now, and the word count for that book takes a very dramatic jump up from the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Rewrites are taxing. Long fic can really take it out of you, so know when to pull back, step away, and take care of yourself.

My lovely beans are constantly reminding me to have a cup of hot chocolate or just take care of myself and I greatly appreciate the reminders 💖

And speaking of my lovely beans

You should really check out the comments on this post that I made back when I first started last year because:

THEY'RE SO DARN HELPFUL

This side of the fandom is so incredibly lovely and kind, I'm sure so many will help and support you too 💖

I believe in you, you got this! 💖✨️

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hello there! 💜💚 i hope you're well and have enough time for tea, baths and all the other lovely self-care stuff 💚💜

i would like to ask you a question... i feel a bit dumb asking this but... what are the different types of fanfics? like- i know what fluff, angst and smut is. and i know what's an AU, and more or less the concept of omegaverse (i think...)

but when is a ficlet a ficlet? or a oneshot a oneshot? what is a 221b? a drabble? idk if there are more but i guess i just don't really understand the differences between the lengths of them? does this make sense..?

i've been confused about this for a while and can't quite figure it out. if you'd help out i'd very much appreciate it!

ps: please don't be too judgy about me not knowing this *hides*

Hey Nonny!

AWW thanks!! I love tea, baths and lots of self-care, just very bad at giving any of it to myself, haha!

And NONNY, please know that there are NO judgements here at all! PLEASE don't feel bad!! Fandom isn't something you magically know overnight! <3 And it's always okay to ask! <3

Before I answer your question, I highly recommend you peruse the Fanlore Wiki; it's a good place for new people to learn about fandom terms and history, so check it out if you need further clarification, as my answers are based on my understanding of each of the things you're asking about from being in TOO many fandoms for TOO many years, LOL.

I'm not going to go into everything, since fandom is SO huge and there's so much about it that I can't cover it all, hence the link to Fanlore, so here are immediate answers to some of your questions:

Drabble: A fic that's exactly 100 words

A 221b Ficlet: A fanfiction exclusive to the multiple variants of Holmesian fandoms that's exactly 221 words long, and the VERY last word of the fic starts with "b".

Ficlet: A short story, usually under 1,000 words but can be a little more.

Oneshot / vignette: A short, single chapter "scene" fic, essentially a story covering a missing scene or an out-of-context situation. In a similar vein, there's Two-Shots, which is basically a oneshot but from two different perspectives (ie. First chapter is situation from character A's POV, and Chapter 2 is from Character B's situation).

Podfic: An audiobook of a fanfiction. If you prefer to listen to stories, rather than read them, there are a tonne of amazing podficcers recording stories in multiple fandoms.

Five and One (and variations of): A story that depicts "Five times that Character [verb] [insert situation here] and one time [insert contradicting situation here]". It's basically 6 one-shots in a single story that has the last "one time" situation be a feel-good FINALLY ending. Some authors split them up into single chapters per situation, and others write the whole story as a single chapter.

Meta / Metafic: An essay or story based on analysing a piece of media. The Fic version expands upon a theory within a given fandom so that the theory fits into the narrative of the show.

WIP: Acronym for "Work In Progress", which is an unfinished published story. Some authors "write as they post" while others finish multiple chapters prior to posting them, but only post chapters one at a time on a scheduled basis, which keeps people coming back to the story until the end. The latter USUALLY guarantees a full-story inevitably being posted, so it is the more preferred type of WIP.

Short Story: a story under about 10,000 words

Novella: a story between 20 and 50K words

Novel: Anything over 50K words. I think past a certain number (100K?) it becomes an Epic, but I'm not 100 on it. Google says it's a story that spans multiple "books" and time periods, so I'm not sure.

Hope that helps a little bit, Nonny, and PLEASE don't hesitate to ask if you come across some other terms you would like to know from a fandom-old's perspective! We love helping y'all out! <3 NEVER feel dumb, please. There's no shame in asking for help. And if someone made you feel dumb because of it, FUCK 'EM.

[the-final-sif]

i turned to your writing advice when i first started out in fanfic (chapter 40-something of your 'headcanons, drabbles...') and it centered the importance of writing first and foremost for yourself - awesome advice. now, though, i'm drafting a gift fic for a friend and am trying to properly write these unfamiliar tropes and dynamics. do you have any advice on motivation and 'how' to make something appealing when it's not your favorite? or any motivation tips beyond 'i care about them'? tysm!

It kinda comes back to the same place, at least for me.

First and foremost, take those unfamiliar tropes and dynamics, and go do some reading! Find fics that capture those ideas and read them, but while you're reading, take some mental (or physical) notes.

Did the story work? How did those tropes play out in the story? What elements of them did you enjoy? What did you not enjoy? What would you do differently, provided you had the same set up and needed to play into the same tropes / dynamics?

Ideally, here you find a few fics including those tropes and dynamics that you enjoy. Read up on some meta if you find it helpful, talk to your friend and learn what they enjoy in those tropes / dynamics, talk to other fans to find out what they like. Look for things that catch your interest and that you want to explore further within those tropes.

Above all else, for me, it comes down to finding something to love within the ideas you want to write. Something that tickles your brain and makes you excited and interested, that you want to explore and flesh out. Hunt through the ideas, through the tropes, through the dynamics and find what incites emotions in you. Even if you find something that you strongly dislike, that's good too! Why do you dislike that part of it? Could you fix it? Could you make it worse? Could you explore your distaste in a written narrative to feel out where that distaste comes from?

Once you've found that point of interest, interrogate it! Wiggle it and spin it around and listen to music while thinking about it! Pull it apart like clay then push it back together until you're able to build up a story around that interest. Grab onto that interest and let it be the driving force behind your piece!

If you can't find anything interesting at all, then the hard truth it that it's probably best that you don't write it. Your lack of interest and motive will drain the piece. Don't try to force out a cookiecutter story just so you can say you did. Find a different trope / dynamic that your friend enjoys instead, and the both of you will be much happier for it. That's what it means to be writing for yourself first and foremost. Even if the story is for someone else, you always need to find that interest as your starting point, otherwise the story will end up a husk.

That being said, I've rarely encountered a topic that I couldn't find something interesting in so long as I was willing to dig. It can take a bit of reading, but more often than not, there will be a take or spin on something that grabs your attention. The trick is to hold onto that tightly once you find it. Stabbing it with a knife works if it's squirmy, but it's ill advised unless you're cool with cleaning up blood.

[fireandiceland]

-End of the year review-

Thank you for the tag @kitaychan! I was already thinking about making an end of the year/new year post but now this is the perfect opportunity :D

1. What fandoms did you create for?

I only created stuff for Hetalia this year :)

2. How many works did you make this year? Fics (posted on ao3 or tumblr or wherever), edits, gifsets, moodboards, playlists, fanart, vids, meta?

I recently collected all the drabbles from my nsfw account in a google doc and that alone is overwhelming.. I posted 8 fics on ao3, a total of 21 drabbles on tumblr (on this blog and @fireandspiceland), I made 2 playlists on spotify (but didn't make posts for them) and 2 moodboards! Oh and I cosplayed as Norway and Kugelmugel (but I only posted one edit of me as Nor).

3. What are you most proud of?

There's a lot of things I'm proud of! I'll try to name a few:

I actually kept up with writing for more than 6 months now :D I tend to start hobbies but not keep up with them on long term, so this is kinda big for me.

I went out of my comfort zone a LOT this year. Posting the things I write, joining discord servers and actually talking to the people there, and making friends both there and here on tumblr! You might think I'm an outgoing person, but I always put off posting my fics out of fear of critisism and it's not that easy for me to make the first step and ask someone for their discord or message them.

I started creating my own universe with it's own laws for my fic How'd I ever get so lost? It's my first 'big' project with multiple chapters that are telling one connected story and there's some world building involved that I invested a lot of thought into.

4. Any stats you wanna tell us about?

Here's some numbers I guess! I only had this blog for 8 month, I recently reached 200 followers, and my most popular work on ao3 is about to have 500 hits. ^-^

5. What inspired you this year? Any specific works or creators?

Almost everything I created last year was inspired by a song from one of the playlists I made or by other people's art or AUs.. I also had some very inspiring and interesting talks with mutuals and then there's the requests I get! The sheer amount of content that there is in this fandom and that people keep creating is firing my own imagination and without it I wouldn't be able to create the things I did and do. Tagging everone would go beyond the scope, but my biggest inspirations this year were..

@breitzbachbea who is always ready to support my with her historical knowledge and do some brainstorming on discord <3 from our talks I learned a lot about topics I never knew I would be interested in!

@plz-let-me-nap and her SuFin blog! Our talks inspired some great AU's (that I still haven't made posts about) and simping for the nordics is a lot more fun as a group activity <3

@kitaychan with her amazing writing style and stories that leave you begging for the next chapter. Her thoughtful comments had/have a big influence on How'd I ever get so lost? <3

@modernday-jay who introduced me to mint chocolate (my beloved) <3 and is always giving me food for thought with his posts and his characterisation of Allen.

@ironicorange with his stalker Alfred AU and @neon-spirals with his Arthur and his tentacle boyfriend AU. I just had to mention these two because I love these AU's and it's amazing to be able to contribute something to them <3

6. What’s a piece you didn’t expect to make? Why?

Every single drabble on @fireandspiceland! If half a year ago you told me I would be fullfilling requests for nsfw drabbles, I would have thought you were insane.

7. What are you excited to work on next year?

Well it's this year now, but I'm looking forward to continuing the demon Arthur AU! I have lots of ideas for it and can't wait to flesh them out more. What I also want to do is get more into the teenage dirtbag AU and the bible camp AU. I love both of them dearly and I think there's lots of dynamics between the characters to explore in the future.

Tag some people!

Many people are already tagged above, but I also would like to tag @amber-isnt-a-precious-stone @starflight-blog @j-ellyfish @koolkat9 @cocasoula who are very dear mutuals who I love seeing around and interacting with.

[meowdarame]

5, 10, and 25 :)

oh my b someone already said 5, so i’ll say 6 instead

HIHI KURISU! thank you for sending in the meta ask hehe :)

what character do i have most fun writing?

i’ve answered a question similar to this before but from hq— tendou, atsumu, and from tr- shion, kisaki. i love writing dialogue for them and their characterization is also super fun to play with!

how would i describe my writing process?

it really depends! for shorter stuff, like headcanons and drabbles, i type it out all on my phone. for oneshots, so anything above 1k in length, i write those on a google doc and like proofread it so many times before posting HAHA. and for full length fics and series, i map out the entire plot before i start writing, just so i can see where the story is headed and know how to set it up! for all of these tho, i always always ALWAYS have beta-readers! it’s not that i don’t trust my writing, i just know that as the person who wrote the piece, i may have blindspots or plotholes or inconsistencies that i may not catch!

the part of writing that i find most fun

there are a few things so here’s a non-exhaustive list!

dialogue! i really love writing fun and playful lines for my characters heh. when i was younger, i used to reallyyyyy want to be a director or something so i wrote a bunch of stupid little scripts for film and tv 😭 they were so bad but yes!

when my story is like… close to my reality LOL. a lot of the feelings (esp angst breh LMAO) that i talk about in fics (specifically fics with plot) echo how i feel about things. in “his bet,” when izana talks about wanting to go into social work, that’s a career path i’m highkey considering. in “ivory and orange hues,” when hinata is grappling with this liminal space between adulthood and adolescence, that’s exactly how i felt when i was 19. and LORD, in “the cosmos taste like raspberries,” that whole shpeel at the end about loving someone who’s larger than life, IT’S BASED ON A REAL LIFE STORY HAHA.

last one, but that awesome feeling when you become so engrossed in your story that you don’t even realize that you’ve been writing non-stop for hours!

[septiembrre]

Hi! Do you think there is a before and after in your life after watching Good Girls?

I mean, I know it wasn't the best show ever haha, but what I'm trying to say is if this whole experience and everything we've talked about the plot of the show, do you feel it's taught you anything?

Hi Anon! I hadn't processed it that way yet but yeah, absolutely.

I consider myself to be a nerd and someone who gravitates towards fandom culture. I really used to like seeking out fandom creations and reading up on other folks takes of a piece of media. But, I had honestly hadn't actually done the above since I was 17 or 18 and a freshman in college. Participating as an adult really feels different, and it feels good to have an outlet for my nerdy self.

Over the past two years and half that I've participated, I've enjoyed reading the community's different takes on the show, and it's been lovely to take that kind of a deep dive on one piece of media. For example, I'm currently watching Never Have I Ever and Succession but do not feel at all compelled to seek out meta or fan creations (besides beautiful gif sets) even though I've been thinking about both all day and am excited to watch them both tonight.

Brio is still such an intense hook for me. While there's plenty of media that is better written, the raw chemistry between Christina and Manny is still totally mind-blowing to me. And y'all... despite all that resistance from the various creators, we willed that shit into a storyline. Was the storyline bullshit sometimes? Yeah, and imo too often. But, Brio was end game. Wild.

But, yes, I've learned a lot about storytelling, nuance, how things can land so differently, and generally how to better analyze a text.

Now on a personal note, I think watching Good Girls and being part of the fandom has been immensely positive for me. You know before two years ago, I had not written anything fictional/creative? Like almost ever... I wrote a BAD few hundred words of Grey's Anatomy fanfiction once when I was 14 (obsessed with Sandra Oh forever). And like, I'm not particularly great, but I write almost every day now! I've gotten started with a totally new hobby because of this show.

Anyway, I'm going to be awkward and not tag anyone, because I don't want to compel everyone to come over and like this long-winded thing I'm writing but, currently, I have a chapter out with bourbonontherocks who is graciously sharing with me her time and energy to read over 10k of my Brio rambling.

Pynkhues/flashindie also recently shared her time and craft expertise with me to critique something I sent her and graciously gave me such feedback that's felt very pivotal to me.

And honestly, where would I be without Megan's/foxmagpie's encouragement two years ago on my earliest drabbles, and all of her support and encouragement for my fic Get to Be Mine? I literally would have abandoned my multi-chapter, but I've gotten so much joy from writing that fic and it's been such an experience of growth.

And I was re-reading over some of the comments on my fics earlier this week to animarme, and folks across this fandom have been so kind and supportive. I appreciate it so much.

I also... drew fan art? I had never used Procreate before or thought I could ever do digital art. And I can barely do digital art, like I do it by sheer force of will and not because I have any expertise in the software, but I do it. Shout out to bethsuglywigs for her encouragement, too, and lmao literally teaching me how to copy and paste on procreate.

Anyway, to continue on my sappy tangent, I would never have attempted any of this if not for the show. And beyond that, I've loved having this community to hang out with during the pandemic, when I like many others was super stressed out and experienced the most intense mental health stuff in my life and y'all kept me laughing during bleak times. People check in on me and I am so grateful.

The folks in the Good Girls fandom really have impacted me so much and still impact me. I’m still processing how I feel about our source material, but I have enjoyed the ride these past two years and look forward to sticking around. ❤️

[pikapeppa]

Year-end Writer’s Round-Up: the 2020 edition

Tagged a million years ago by @mythicaitt​ and @lostinfantasies38​ - thanks friends! I have finally put aside a chunk of time for this, since I am a nerd who likes to get accurate calculations. 

I will preface this by saying it’s been an insane year, and I know many people’s creativity was sucked dry by, well, everything. I find my emotional escape/comfort in writing fic, so I just... I dunno, went nuts with writing this year. To that end, I’ll keep most of this post below a cut for those who don’t want to see my “stats”, but with an open invitation to participate for ANYONE who does want to share their writing achievements for the year, and a tag for those writers that I know for sure were active this year: @crackinglamb​ @barbex​ @solas-disapproves​ @elveny​ @alyssalenko​ @nug-juggler​ @musetta3​ @cartadwarfwithaheartofgold​ @iarollane​ @in-arlathan​ @charlatron​ @queen-kass-the-writer​ - NO PRESSURE TO PARTICIPATE OR TO READ THIS AT ALL, THOUGH.

Word count and smut count table (i.e. NERD ALERT):

(Here’s a masterlist of all my fic, if any of the fics in that list strike anyone’s fancy and they want to find and check ‘em out.)

There are a couple of things missing from this word count that I only posted on Tumblr, a couple of Solas/Nare drabbles and a piece of Orsino/Hawke smut, but I’m too lazy to track those down right now. And I have another unposted chapter of Inadvisable that’s about 10k words… ANYWAY, MOVING ON.

New things I tried this year:

I jumped headfirst into a few Dragon Age rarepairs this year! I’ve always loved rarepairs and have particularly enjoyed writing them for Horizon Zero Dawn in the past, so it was a pleasure to take on a few this year:

Felassan x Lavellan in The Love That Grows From Violence

Sten x Yara Mahariel in Fall Into The Tide

Samson x Roman Hawke for my soulmate @schoute​ - a ship that I never even saw coming and that hit me like a ton of bricks in the feels.

I also took the plunge into theorizing and sorting through Big Lore this year for Dragon Age — something I’ve avoided doing for years. I usually don’t like doing very deep dives because I’m a canon-compliant sort of girl, and the idea of getting attached to a theory that might end up being wrong makes me feel itchy. But when I started writing a Felassan-centered fic, I had no choice but to try and figure out the big lore since YA BARK-EATING BOYFRIEND KNOWS THINGS. I spent 10+ hours sorting through DA meta, both canon and fanon, to try and come up with something cohesive for that fic that feels as canon-compliant as possible, so that was definitely a cliff I didn’t mean to jump off of, LOL.

I also took a jump into writing a fic with three simultaneous and interconnected relationships in Inadvisable, my modern university AU with @elbenherzart​, which includes relationships for Solas, Abelas and Felassan. I was super excited but SCARED to do this: how to keep all three relationships interesting and exciting when the narrative keeps moving and flowing between the three relationships and the six characters who all know each other in different ways? Luckily, I had the wonderful Elbenherzart cheering me on and encouraging me with all the BEAUTIFUL ART she’s done for the fic, and I’ve been really enjoying it!

Fic I spent the most time on: 

Um, it’s probably a tie between two fics: The Love That Grows From Violence (Felassan x Lavellan) just because of that Big Lore deep dive, or Lovers In A Dangerous Time (Fenris the Inquisitor), which I finished earlier this year and took a long time just by virtue of the fic length and THE AMOUNT OF FEELINGS I HAVE FOR FENRIS AND RYNNE HAWKE.

Fic I spent the least time on: 

Wake Up, a quick oneshot featuring Varric and Solas, which I keysmashed in a couple of hours after the most recent DA4 trailer was released. 

Favourite thing I wrote:

Oh my god. Everything?? Writing is my escape and my pride and joy, so I love everything I write. All my rarepairs were absolute delights this year. Finishing Lovers In A Dangerous Time was bittersweet since I now kind of feel like I can’t write any further Fenris/Rynne until DA4 comes out. But Felassan has become my darling toward the end of this year and I’m thrilled to have brought a handful of wonderful readers down the Felassan rabbit hole with me. 

Favourite thing I read:

… I… have once again failed and read basically nothing this year. I started to read Pressure Point by 17734 on AO3 and really enjoyed it for a few chapters before I just… ran out of steam. Not because of the fic, because it genuinely was great —  the smut in the first chapter just about killed me, STG — but because I realized this year that, with very few exceptions, I don’t have enough emotional space to invest in fics with long intricate plots. I’m a fucking goblin who just likes to read smut, so I lose interest quickly if the fic isn’t strongly smut/romance-centered. 

TO THAT END, I do have a couple of smutfic recs:

Force of Nature, a Stenwarden oneshot by @minionripley: Maker save me, this was soOoOoO good and in-character for StennySten.

Provided It Tied You Down First by JadeLavellan on AO3: Solas and Trevelyan go to a Tevinter sex party for recon reasons. Oh my god, guys, IT’S SO GOOD.

Writing goals for next year:

Honestly? I’m not gonna make any. I’ll just go where the winds of inspiration take me, and where the winds of others’ whispered suggestions take me as well. 

To that end, I have to make a few shoutouts to people who have inspired me this year, either with their art or suggestions or encouragement (read: ENTHUSIASTIC SCREAMING): @schoute​ @elbenherzart​ @whatomen​, without whom a huge chunk of my fic this year would not exist; and @lethendralis-paints​​ @ashalle-art​ @slushrottweiler-blog​ who gifted me with beautiful fan art this year and made me want to weep. LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH. 

Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year filled with love, warmth, and most of all, with hope. If anyone else wants to join in and share their achivements, please do and tag me so I can see what you’ve been up to!

- Love from your friendly neighbourhood Pikapeppa xoxo

[woonietune]

A new collection of drabbles by my fandom wife thememoryofthatday :

A Great Swordsman

Some words from wifey:

This is the fourth part of an ongoing series. It can be read as a stand-alone story, but if you want the context for these scenes, please start with the previous three stories: Shadows of What Would Have Been, Past Time and Enough.

For fandom-blind readers, I also have a short guide to WBDS that may help (mostly pictures and character summaries).

Unlike the previous stories, which took place over a few days or weeks, these drabbles span the course of many months. Future stories will fall in between these scenes; obviously, they did stuff other than train sometimes.

Thank you to shalomdebbie for fixing all of my errors and for being such a wonderful, supportive person every single day. This piece was completely inspired by her drabble collection No Matter How Many Flowers, which is funnier, sexier, and more romantic than anything here.

TL;DR here's some feminist meta stuff that you can skip:

Something I hate about Warrior Baek Dong-soo is how the primary message of the show - we determine our own fate - is negated by the final episode. This is true not only for Woon, but also for Jin-joo and Mi-so. Part of the “happily ever after” portion of Episode 29 shows Jin-joo and Mi-so training one moment and in the next being paired off with men who tell them that women shouldn’t fight. We’re supposed to accept that Mi-so is thrilled about Cho-rip’s sexism because it means he loves her, and while Jin-joo is dismayed by Hong-do telling her to hold a paintbrush instead of a sword, she doesn’t challenge his suggestion, and seems pleased by his proposal moments later.

I call bullshit on all of it. Both of these girls resisted, time and again, calls for them to give up their desire to fight. Jin-joo gets a lot of grief about fighting and acting like a tomboy, but she’s also supported far more than Mi-so. In acknowledgement of her abilities, Sa-mo and Jin-gi bring Jin-joo along more than once to help protect Prince Yi San, and despite dragging her out of the fight club by her ear, Jin-gi doesn’t seem to mind when Jin-joo takes on all the challengers who show up at their home looking for Dong-soo.

Mi-so, by contrast, is told not to fight by Jang-mi (Episode 12: “Girls just need to live quietly and get married. Why should you learn to fight?”), Gwang-taek (Episode 23, his final words for her: “I’m afraid you might get hurt, so don’t practice martial arts.”) and finally by her future husband, Cho-rip (Episode 29: “Women shouldn’t hold swords.”). From the time her father dies, no one aside from Jin-joo supports what Mi-so wants for her life. Mi-so, who dreams of taking revenge for her father’s death, is left to beg Dong-soo to do it on her behalf (and ultimately, he doesn't).

That ending can fuck off. After a lot of discussion with shalomdebbie about Woon’s relationships with and attitudes towards women, and after looking again at how Dong-soo treats Jin-joo as a fighter, I’m of the opinion that not only would these two men not take issue with the girls fighting, but they might feel a duty to help them. Woon still feels guilt for the death of Mi-so’s father, the only man who ever taught her martial arts; he takes responsibility for Dae-pyo’s death in Episode 19 (the jail scene). Dong-soo learned from Jin-joo’s father, but Gwang-taek declined to teach his own daughter. If things had gone differently with their fathers, the girls might have had the same training the boys received from the start.

Mi-so also tells Cho-rip in the final episode that she never forgot what Heuksa Chorong did to her father, but she passionately defends Woon as different from Chun and says he’s still their friend. Their relationship, had Woon survived, would have been complex but not cold; I like to think that it would be something like what I’ve written here.

All of this is to say that if you find this portrayal unsuitable for the era, or think it would be out of character for Woon and Dong-soo to train women to fight, look at the source material. The pieces are all there, but the writers threw the potential of these girls away in the final episode.

[pichitinha]

Fic Writer Questions!

I was tagged by @peter-covinskys, thank you!! 🥰

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

eighty-five !!!!!!!!!!! if only i remembered how to write so i could reach one hundred rip

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

exactly 337,220. not much but it's honest work

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

in total 6-ish

harry potter, percy jackson, doctor who (kinda), young justice/dcu, rpdr, to all the boys

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

747: It's what friends do - Young Justice (Birdflash)

626: Possibly, Maybe - RPDR (Trixya)

434: Searching, Waiting, Looking - RPDR (Trixya)

428: It only takes a taste - RPDR (Trixya)

338: When no one else was looking - To All The Boys (Covinsky)

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

always!!! responding to comments is one of my favorite parts of the fic process!!!

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

i am a fluffy/happy ending person through and through so i was inclined to say "none" when i remembered i have this one sad (alternate)ten/rose fic that i just reread and while my english was atrocious back then and i truly intend on going back and fixing it, it's pretty poetic and angsty i think

So far we are... so close - Doctor Who

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

literally all of them except for the one above and "gone tonight" which is sort of open ended lmao. but i'm gonna go with SWL bc it's a multichapter and i wrote a whole epilogue of fluffy so

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

i don't and i don't think i ever will but i do think about my favorite characters interacting a LOT. my most constant scenario is a hospital au with all of my main ships, i have everyone's specialties in my mind and i revisit scenes often, it's wonderful

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

full on hate, never, but there were two instances that were kind of funny:

- i was partaking in a fic forum contest with the theme "meta" so i wrote a meta fic (fics that mention the existence of that universe fanfic within it) and i tagged it and all and someone left me a lengthy comment about how much they hate meta fics and i was like??? ok???

- i have this cute little piece called glasses where percy "steals" jason's glasses and goes to the canoe lake and annabeth tries to retrieve them and they get all cute and kiss once (1) and someone left me a comment asking how dare i post such explicit content in a fic rated K? ASDFHDJSHSH

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

sometimes! it's difficult for me and not something that i find fits most of my stories, but sometimes it does and it flows well. i've written some, but it's in the lowest percentage of my writing

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

oh boy, have i. a few times. last two times were separate occasions, months apart, but by the same fucking person. wattpad is fucking hell. they changed the names and just posted it to another fandom.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

once but it fits better into the previous question: one time i was searching the percabeth tag (that was like years and years and years ago) and there was this little drabble in portuguese (my mother tongue) and i started reading it and it was SO familiar and i was like wait a minute this is mine??? so like i wrote it in portuguese, then translated it into english myself, and someone without asking for permission or crediting me translated it back into portuguese and posted it as if it was theirs. it was a ride

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

no and i think im too controlling to ever do that

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

that would be mister perseus jackson and miss annabeth chase aka literally the best otp that has ever existed they love each other so much and they will live a full life of happiness and that's all i have to say

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

omg so many... im still in the hopeful stages for all the ones for my current fandom (tatb) so let's skip that and go to previous fandoms:

the trixya jealously one. i have like 8k of it and i liked it so much. it's so far from done. i wish i could finish it.

the hinny spy au. i loved when i had that idea. god that was such a long time ago rip

and the fake death yj au. god i wish.

16) What are your writing strengths?

right now i feel like it's nothing tbh, and i'm doing this to be dramatic or fishing for compliment, it's just been such a long period of writer's block that everything in writing seems weak to me right now. i am however much better at scenes with only two characters, the more people you throw in there the more likely i am to screw it up

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

as mentioned, any scenes with lots of people, but also may i say: ENDINGS. ending a fic is literally the hardest thing on the planet i don't understand how people do it smh

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

i like it if it fits the characters/story but i absolutely hate not knowing what they're saying or having to wait for the author's note, so i'm a fan of putting the translation immediately after if you're gonna do that

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

harry potter.......... we've been there folks

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

how can a person even choose this....... i'm proud of so many of mine. if i had to pick one right now i'd say "Just fall into place (you'll fall into me)" bc i wrote the type of fic that i love finding in my other fandoms and it felt like such an accomplishment. but im proud of many of them

i'm tagging @promiseofthepremise @scarletenvy @xgoldendays @byima and whoever else writes fic i totally lost sight of that in here sorry folks!!!

[ashintheairlikesnow]

☕ + your favorite thing you've written recently

The answer to this is actually a tie - Rise and Choice

I like Choice, a Chris piece, for dealing with the reality of something that I only ever touch on in very personal ways in other drabbles, but in this I was allowed to sort of touch on it in a world-building sense; these rescues have been tortured, traumatized, and they live in a world where they heal while knowing others are going through the same pain and there’s nothing they can really do. Except when they can, how do they respond?

Chris sees someone who looks like they might sign up to be a pet, and he could step up and talk to them and talk them out of it, but his ex-Handler is right there. He doesn’t recognize Chris, has forgotten him, but who can say if that will hold true if Chris gets closer? If he hears his voice? 

Chris, when faced with a trauma response, freezes - he doesn’t fight or flee. He freezes, prey in the predator’s stare, and it’s lucky, for him, that Luke Petrus doesn’t remember his trainees, and just sees some snot-nosed college kid asshole staring.

So I got to touch on Chris feeling helpless and guilty in ways he really doesn’t, for the most part, in other drabbles. I touched on him freezing up instead of trying to run, which he also freezes when Oliver finds him, it’s very clearly his baseline threat response. And it’s the way the majority of us actually physically respond first, to a threat like that.

But then he goes back to the dorm still thinking about how he could have talked to that kid, but didn’t, and he ends up waking Jake up to ask if it’s okay, if he’s culpable, if he can be forgiven because he didn’t save someone else when he had the chance. It touches on Chris dealing with the same survivor guilt that other OCs like Antoni also deal with.

--

Now, with Rise, I enjoyed that because I enjoyed writing the sensation of flight, the perspective of someone who is a collection of broken parts finding joy in this thing he can do only because of his torture and trauma. Playing in @wildfaewhump‘s world is a delight and a joy every time, but this was a special kind of joy, touching on aspects of fae meta of Vic’s that Killan has taken - his trills and chirps and connection to the mysteries are usually part and parcel of his trauma, but here Killan experiences every aspect of himself, from his talons to his wings to the sound of the stars, s pure, unadulterated joy.

He has his name back, he has his identity. 

He’s been helped, shown that he can have that sense of personhood again, and more importantly he’s been given flight back as something that belongs to him, now. The idea that these parts of him ARE his, now, even though they didn’t start that way.

i got to explore resilience, in Rise - someone who has gone through unimaginable pain, total dehumanization and subjugation, still crawling out from underneath the weight of his trauma thanks to someone having the patience to teach him from scratch all over again.

I also enjoyed a lot of the turns of phrase I was able to use, and i love the way reading Rise makes me feel.